Something seems fishy

Adorable, right? My impression was that the photographer at Wal-mart seemed to think this costume constituted cruelty towards children, but then again, she was probably a Halloween hater.

I've seen more uncomfortable costumes. Like the little kids' costume where their legs go in the horse's legs and it looks like they are a cowboy riding a bucking bronco - cute, but not sustainable for 3 miles of trick-or-treating. Even better - have you seen the Anne Geddes' (or some other photographer's) baby bat costume photo. The poor kid is all dressed up, then they hang him upside down for the photo like he's hanging from a tree.

Gage, just be glad I didn't pose you in an enormous glass fish bowl...it wasn't for lack of trying. They just don't make round bowls for 19 lb baby fish these days.

Alex's fave holiday

So, Alex is officially a Halloween lover. He is still talking about bats, skeletons, ghosts-ezz, and everything spooky and scary. I've created a monster. Here he is sporting his red dragon costume that Ma-ga (grandma) Brown found for him.

Alex HAD to get his picture taken with the "happy pumpkin".

Just the two of us went to the Orr Family Farm in Oklahoma City on Halloween night. We let Dad and Gage have a quiet evening at home while we went to a party with a friend of mine from work and some of her friends. We had a great time and had some much-needed one-on-one time! Alex was having so much fun riding this (fake) horse, that a stranger stopped and said she had to take a picture for us.

Pumpkin patch!

Mommy's Costume

Because of the many requests, I will post pics of my Halloween Costume - that's right, Sarah Palin. Now, don't go thinking this choice has anything to do with my political party.

Now, grandmas, don't worry. The kids' pictures will be up in just a matter of minutes!

Here I am hard at work with my running mate--he's such a maverick!.

halloween@thehardins.household

Our house is busy at Halloween time. If you know me, you know I'm CRAZY about Halloween. This whole week everything stopped for a week of costume planning, party-going, decorating, and candy-eating. Trust me, more pictures will follow. This picture of Alex is from last weekend's pre-Halloween festivities including shopping for and carving a pumpkin.

Alex and I had some time together shopping last Friday night. It seems like those times when it's "just the two of us" are becoming more rare and more special all the time. You should have seen him in Target picking up this heavy pumpkin, carrying it around the store saying "You're coming home with me!" It was so big he was kind of waddling. You wouldn't believe how strong that kid can be. He is now infatuated with skeletons and "ghosts-ezz" [def: (noun) ghost. (plural: ghosts-ezz)]. He is still SO excited about Halloween and won't let it be quite over at our house yet.

Gage has handled Halloween with grace and ease. Thus is my second child. So far, nothing is too exciting or shocking for him, but nothing seems to make him too unhappy either.

Well, these pics are the tip of the iceberg. More to follow...

Columbus Day

OK...this is my family on Columbus Day.

"When was Columbus Day?", you ask. No one cares about Columbus anymore unless you work for the Feds and get that day off work. Therefore, this makes me "no one". This is perhaps one of my favorite days of the year because it is a Monday right before the weather tends to take a nasty turn and I get to enjoy it with my family and no one else is out on the town.

In honor of our dearly departed Columbus, we went to Lake Arcadia and had the beach all to ourselves. It was the best day. Alex (or Gage for that matter) had actually never been to the lake, so he was in awe of:

1. Those white birds, "like on The Little Mermaid" that we call sea gulls, but are totally not.

2. Sticks.

3. That water that keeps moving.

4. Campfires--but not burnt marshmallows. Apparrently burning a marshmallow is a sin.

5. LOTS of sand.

6. That weird guy hiding in the bushes and looking at us. Oh, wait, he was just a park official cleaning up cans. Whew!

We made sandcastles and Alex used his "staff" all afternoon. It was the PERFECT day!

Feed Me!

This is Gage's first bite of solid food. Yummy, rice cereal!
This blessed event ocurred about 3 weeks ago...as you will notice, Alex would not be left out of the excitement. He was very proud of himself (Alex, not Gage).

I will say that Gage is not as ravenous an eater as Alex was as a baby. My poor arm couldn't shovel food fast enough for Alex. Sometimes he would grab the bowl and try to pour it into his mouth if I wasn't going fast enough.

Gage is a different animal altogether. He thinks food is okay, but is not altogether interested even in the bottle...or any other food source.

He does, however, think the spoon is exciting. No, the spoon interests him - not the airplane noises I make or the way I unconsciously and compulsively open my mouth every time I give him a bite and couldn't stop myself if I tried. He has a sweet little silver baby spoon engraved with his name from a friend of ours, Renee, from Church.

He grabbed that little spoon away from me, looked at it, and actually was able to shove it into his mouth with some food still on the spoon! All of this on his very first time to be spoon-fed. Then it was Gage's turn to be proud of himself, my little utensil-using prodigy.

Perspectives in Art

Yesterday David let Alex play with my camera, you know, to see what things would interest a 3-year-old enough to take a picture. He's not a bad little photographer. I won't post the pictures of my knees or rear end.