Happy Halloween!

Mitch helped us answer the door tonight in his cute bear costume. He liked wearing it, actually, and even kept the hat on as long as we didn't fasten it.

Fascinated as ever by electronics, the bear stretched his stripy legs.


You want me to wear this? You've got to be kidding!

Mitch's buddy, Quinn, came over dressed as a cow. Quinn could say "trick or treat" (at least a close version) and was delighted to be collecting candy! Here Quinn had just taken off Mitch's hat in the process of inspecting the new duds.

After one group of ghouls left, our bear escaped out of doors in hot pursuit!

Fall Colors

Out for a walk with Dad, Mitch stopped at Yucky Park.

My childhood Yucky Park was full of goose poop. His is full of vulgar graffiti. Still, a very cute kid!

Snuggled up and still chilly!

Cousin Chaos

The LaVines and Johnsons came down this weekend for a nice visit. Mitch and his cousins, Jack and Haylee, had a good time romping around together. They are a very busy trio!

Here they try a jail break from the backyard.

Aunt Rachel helped them dig in the mud and devour grapes.

The little ones contemplate escape.

A very full bathtub! Mitch was SO tired!
He's going through withdrawals already - refusing to sleep and crying, crying, crying . . .

Sleeping Beauties

A Visit from the Greats

Mitchell's great grandparents Pobst came down for an afternoon visit. They read books together, went for a walk, danced, ate grapes, and generally enjoyed each other.

What a lucky little boy!

Here are some scampy baby blues.

Grape Crush

Mitch is a huge fan of the grapes in our backyard!

He has now discovered he can reach some clusters and has a feast each time he goes outside.

Homecoming Week

So, we survived Homecoming Week. Sadly, our team was not victorious. However, we still enjoyed the dressing up.

Monday was Nerd Day. Bryan came as a cougar!

Tuesday was College Day.

Wednesday we did pink for our breast cancer awareness. I went to walmart dressed like that. It's not everyday you get to wear underwear to work . . . at least on the outside of your clothes!

And here's a co-worker coming as a white Mr. T from the A Team.

14 Months

Eventually we'll stop measuring time in months, but not yet. My favorite part of Mitchie's current age is the fact that it takes Bryan 3 minutes to get him to bed at night. He has dinner, a bath, a couple books, and then he goes to bed with his tiger and a smooch. He doesn't have to be asleep before we lay him down any more. I realize I may have just jinxed our success, but really, this is HUGE for us. There were months when none of us slept more than a couple hours at a time. Now he's down from 7:15pm until 5:45am. It's bliss.

Naughty Corner

We are starting to work on consistent discipline with Mitch. That is involving a 'naughty corner'. When he directly ignores or disobeys, we remove him to the corner and have a straightforward chat.

In this blurry picture, Mitch has put himself in the naughty corner! He was repeatedly smacking my house plant. I told him to stop. He paused, looked dismayed, and walked himself over to the corner and sat down! It was all I could do to keep from laughing. Perhaps taking a picture wasn't the best idea, but I couldn't resist.

After his corner time, Mitch decided climbing into the oven was a good idea. He opened the drawer and crawled in. I would love to know what is going on in that head!