3 Months In

I can't believe Cole is 3 months old.  The last 3 months have gone by so quickly and so much has changed with our family.  We are adjusting to life as a family of four, a family of five if you count Dixie.  Cole has changed so much since we brought him home.  He is a happy baby, unless he is hungry or tired and then he lets you know he is unhappy.  We all agree he gets his attitude from me.

He is interacting with us on a daily basis and has discovered his hands and feet.  He loves to be tickled and its not hard to coax a smile and laugh out of him.  Cole lights up when Daulton comes out of his room in the morning and is so happy to see his big brother.  Daulton is such a good helper and is so quick to jump up and lend a hand or pick up his baby brother.

People ask us who he looks like and I think he is a blend of both of us.  He has my forehead and eyes and has Matt's nose.  His hair was light like mine was as a baby, but is starting to darken.  His eyes are still bright blue.

For those who are interested, nursing is going well and I'm happy to nurse as long as its working for both of us.  I have my own thoughts and feelings about breastfeeding but will save those for another time.

Blogging with a baby, 9 year old, and full time job is tough.  I enjoy writing but struggle to find a time to blog (and exercise, but again, that's another blog post).  I would like to blog on a regular schedule if nothing more than to document our family as we grow together.

Here are some recent pictures as I know that's what most of you really want.

Cole would like to say thanks to his Aunt Laura and Uncle Mike for the shirt and for Sam and Cathy Bridegroom for the awesome Halloween socks.  He has no pants on because I got lazy and sometimes I don't feel like wrestling him into his pants.

I feel very blessed to be surrounded by such handsome men.  I also don't stand a chance as two of them know, and will teach the other one, how to turn on the charm in order to get out of trouble.

For Halloween, Cole went as a turtle and Daulton was a skeleton zombie.  His costume looks is as scary in real life as it looks in the picture.

Halloween Candy Distribution Rules

Halloween night has come and gone and so have the trick or treaters and most of the candy.  This time last year I was recovering from saying goodbye to an old friend and accepting that I now owned a minivan.  We got home too late and didn't have any trick or treaters.  But this year I picked up some candy on the way home from work and we were ready for the kids.

I wanted to make sure I had enough candy to last and if I'm being honest, I wanted to make sure I had candy leftover for us too.  So I came up with some rules for how I was going to pass out candy.

1 piece - Under the age of 3

2 pieces - You look like you could have access to eggs or could smash my pumpkins or mailbox 

1 piece - If I can see your parent's tail lights at the end of my driveway regardless of how old you look.  And if I was sneaky enough I would take candy from you as a reverse parent candy tax, but I'm not sneaky enough so my only recourse is to be stingy with my candy.  (I think I'm going to buy raisins for next year and if I see tail lights, your kids are getting raisins!)

2 pieces - If I know you or you live on my street 

2 pieces - When you're about 3 and I let you pick a piece and you take two anyway, but you are so cute in your police uniform that I don't say no. 

-1 piece - If you complain about the candy I give you.  Not really, I will still give you a piece but I'm not happy about it. 

1 piece - For taking your little sister who is dressed up as a princess trick or treating and you aren't doing it for the candy.

And I'm happy to report there was the perfect amount of candy left over, not too much but enough to try one of everything.

Dixie even dressed up for Halloween.  Yes, she was as irritated with the costume as she looks in the picture.  

Last night we had a spooky dinner with Daulton since he is with his mom tonight.  We had mummy dogs, fingers dipped in blood, brains, and dirt pudding.  Also known as hot dogs wrapped in breadsticks, french fries and ketchup, mac and cheese, and dirt pudding.  I lit some candles, slapped a sign on the ketchup bottle that said blood, turned off the lights, and it was spooky dinner time!

Spooky dinner was a huge success!  The boys loved it and I think it will be a new Halloween tradition. It was funny to hear them to "pass the blood" when they wanted more ketchup.  Daulton wanted to know if we were going to have a spooky breakfast this morning.  I told him it was a great idea but I do not get up early enough to make a spooky breakfast.  Me trying to cook in the morning would be really scary.

So Happy Halloween from our family to yours!!  (I look like a zombie nerd in this picture.)

Do you have rules for distributing candy to the trick or treaters?  When did it become acceptable to just stand at someone's door with a pillow case and not say "trick or treat"?  Do you have any Halloween traditions you follow?

  

Happy Halloween

Batman says Happy Halloween everyone!