Happy Halloween!

James Hardin was so excited for his first Halloween, he could hardly contain himself!

We've really been looking forward to celebrating the holidays with James this year, and even though he won't remember it, I wanted to get him involved in the festivities as much as possible.  So we bought some pumpkins.
 

I read about an pumpkin painting here, and thought it would be perfect for our little guy to try.

 

We put some duct tape on the face of the pumpkin, and Matthew drew a black cat on one, and a witch on the other.  Using an exacto knife, I cut away the tape outside of his drawing to leave a stencil.  We poured some (non-toxic, washable) paint on a paper plate, and let James at it!

 

He seemed to have more fun playing with the paint than actually painting the pumpkin, so I had to help out a little bit.  I might be a little biased, but I think they turned out fantastic!

 

 And so did we :)  We had to take a look at our handiwork in the mirror.

 Dada also carved a traditional pumpkin for us.

 The idea for James's costume started with a beret that our dear friend Kendra bought for James when she went to Paris.  We had originally thought of dressing him up as a Frenchman and giving him a  baguette to carry around, but after consulting with Halloween Queen Lindsey Boone, we decided to make him a French painter instead.

 

James and I attended the "Babies First Halloween Party" at the Children's Museum here in Madison.  There were probably between 50-75 babies there, and James made it into the top 8 for the costume contest.  The 8 finalists were voted upon by the public on the Museum's facbook page, and James ended up in 5th place.  Not too shabby!

We had planned on taking him Trick or Treating in downtown Madison and/or at a nearby mall, but James ended up taking naps during both events so we missed them.  That's okay, because he wouldn't have been able to eat much candy with his one tooth!

 

Notice any similarities bewteen James and the Jack O'Lantern??  

His tooth finally popped through on Friday.  Don't be fooled by it's small stature; that is one sharp tooth.

In other news, James has gone from doing a lot of this:

To doing this:

Today, he actually pulled himself up at the couch to a complete standing position (the first time was to grab my phone and stick it in his mouth; the second time was to play with the laptop).  He was a bit wobbly, so I didn't want to risk pulling away to take a picture or video (although I'm sure I will soon!).

Hope everyone had a fun, safe, and spooky Halloween!

 

Watch out, Colts

James wanted me to send this to the Indianapolis Colts' head coach, Jim Caldwell, and tell him that he is currently a free agent.  James thinks the Colts need all the help they can get.

The Leaves They Are A-Changin'

After living in Seattle for 5 years, I had forgotten how much I enjoy the changing of the seasons.  Seattle pretty much only has two: Summer and not-Summer.  Although some people say Wisconsin only has two seasons as well (Winter and Construction), we have really been enjoying the change from summer to fall. 

Uncle Jason's pumpkins

A nice Fall day at the park

Longing to go outside and play in the leaves

Supporting IU football (but really just killing time until basketball season starts)

Modeling his new Gryffindor scarf (and finally getting to play in the leaves)

On a walk with Dada

Rocking our blue hats.  This is what we do on bad hair days.

Fall foliage in Madison

James thought he spotted an early appearance of a snow leopard.  It was just Boo.

Another thing that we love about fall is that it brings the birthdays of some of our favorite people!  Happy birthday to Dada (9/22), Pa (10/11), Gigi (10/14), Grandma (10/17), and Aunt Jill (11/29).   Aren't you all glad I didn't add years?  ;)

7 Months

This photo shoot was exceptionally difficult because someone wouldn't sit still.

 Lately, we've been seeing a lot of this

 Followed by a lot of this

 (glimpses of his backside as he scoots away). 
He's still not crawling much, but has really perfected his army crawl.

 

Regardless, James was excited to take some pictures, as seen below

 

The tumultuous relationship with Teddy continues... 

 James was a little rough on his birthday sign this month. 
Here's the "after" shot:

 As far as milestones go, James has started to feed himself (when he's in the mood), which is fun for him, but messy for me.

 He prefers the 2 spoon method for quicker food shoveling.

Also, he's very, very close to moving from hands and knees to a sitting position all by himself.  He kind of sits on his hip with one hand on the ground.

PS - I've created a new page to show the little guy's monthly pictures side-by-side.  Click here to take a look.

October 10 on 10

Today I took part in the 10 on 10 project.  Once a month on the tenth, participants take a photo an hour for ten consecutive hours to document the life and beauty among the ordinary things of our day.  Click HERE or on the button to the right for more information about the project.  Enjoy!