When Characters Come to Life

For his birthday, Joseph's Uncle Ty and Aunt Emily bought him an awesome book called Hello, Pistol Pete. 

At first, he was semi-interested in it.  We would read it occasionally, but it wasn't in our regular daily rotation.  About a month ago, that all changed.  I don't know if it's because we've been watching a lot of OSU sporting events or what, but Joseph suddenly fell in love with this book or, more accurately, the main character of this book.  Suddenly, he was pointing Pete (as Joseph called him) out every time he spotted him be it on TV, a sign, a shirt, or merchandise in a store (and trust me, living in Stillwater Pete is everywhere!).  A couple of weeks ago, while picking up some hair bows for Sarah at The Downtown Market, we learned that Pistol Pete would be there that coming Sunday.  Considering that Joseph was walking around the entire store waving and saying, "Hewo, Pete" I knew we had to come back for a visit. 

Fast forward to Sunday.  I dressed Joseph in a cute orange and black shirt for church knowing we had some errands to run afterwards then we were going to go see the big headed man himself.  As we walked up to the store, Joseph began pointing out every Pete he saw as predicted.  I then opened the door and Joseph froze mid-sentence.  He didn't know what to think about a living, moving Pistol Pete (even though he sees him on TV during football games).

Luckily, we were the only customers there at the time, so we had a little time to shop and let Joseph get used to Pistol Pete.  He kept his distance for a few minutes, but never took his eyes off of Pete.  After I picked out a cute top (I bet you can't guess what colors it is), Sam and Joseph attempted to approach Pete again.  He still wasn't too sure about the moving Pete.  Pistol Pete even sat on the floor and gave Joseph a bullet (spent blank) as a peace offering.

Once Joseph was OK with being that close to Pete, Sarah got in on the picture action (she was asleep and I didn't want to wake her, so she stayed in her car seat).

After taking a few pictures, we ventured to the back of the store to look at the wall of hair bows and other little girl goodies.  While we were checking out, Joseph got brave and decided to approach Pistol Pete on his own. 

It helped that the owner (I think) of the store was close by. Although once he got within touching distance, Joseph froze in his tracks.

 He did let me pick him up and carry him over to Pistol Pete for another quick picture before some other customers arrived and we left (although he didn't want to smile).

I am happy to say that we have since had another "Pitol Pete" (as Joseph now calls him) encounter and it went significantly smoother.  In fact, Joseph spotted Pistol Pete by the foot of the escalators after the basketball game the other night and acted like he wanted to go over.  As Sam approached Pete carrying Joseph, Joseph held his hand out wanting a high five then looked right at me so I could take a picture of the three of them (too bad I only had my phone with me and it turned out blurry).

I have to say, if my son is going to be obsessed with a character, I think Pistol Pete is a good choice. 

Sarah is 2 Month Old

I might be a little late writing this post, but I'm proud to say that I actually took Sarah's 2 month picture on her 2 month birthday which was November 25th.  Sarah is still a super easy going baby which is really, really nice.  At night, she sleeps a solid six hour stretch from 10-4, but likes to eat a little more frequently during the day.  Unfortunately, the kids still haven't synced up their nap schedules, so I almost always find myself with at least on kid awake during the day (although Sarah has started overlapping her afternoon nap with Joseph's a little bit).  When she turned two months old, Sarah had just started smiling and occasionally making noises (although I wouldn't call them cooing).  She also has great core and neck strength and likes to be held upright so she can look around.  As stressful as her pregnancy, delivery, and first week of life were, I'm happy to be at the point we are now where we can sit back and actually enjoy our life as a family of four. 

Sarah - Month 2

One beautiful afternoon, while brother was taking a long nap, I decided to take a few pictures of Miss Sarah.  Someday I will find time to start editing the pictures I take of the kids.  Today is not that day.

Sarah has huge eyes that we lovingly refer to as scared eyes.

She also has old man hair right now (no hair on top, but hair on the lower sides and back). 

We love you, little girl.  Please stay this sweet forever!

Joseph is 18 Months Old

Where has the time gone?!  It seems like just the other day we were celebrating Joseph's first birthday, now he's half way to two years old!  Just thinking about him being one and a half makes me tear up a little.  To say Joseph's world has changed in the last couple of months is an understatement.  He is an amazing big brother (much better than I was afraid he would be)!  We have to keep a close eye on him around Sarah since he is still a little wobbly sometimes and thinks he can do things (like lift her) that he can't, but I truly think he would never intentionally harm her.  When Sarah cries, Joseph says, "noooo" (in an I want her to feel better and not cry way) and runs around the room trying to find a paci for her or starts rocking her.  He will also get blankets, diapers, and bottles for her when asked. 

Joseph has been great about sharing all of his baby things with Sarah, but we recently found the one thing he doesn't want to share, his taggie blanket.  I got it out for Sarah the other day and he was fine with her having it for a while.  He even played oh no (his version of peek-a-boo) with her using it.  When it was time for Joseph to go to bed, Sarah was still awake and the taggie was on her lap.  I asked him if he wanted to give her a kiss goodnight (as he often does), and he just stood there looking at her.  He watched her for a minute or two, took a deep breath, grabbed his taggie, and took off running.  I followed him to see where he was going and found him in his bedroom trying to open the dresser drawer.  I opened the drawer for him and he put the taggie in, shut the drawer, and walked off.  I guess I need to break out the sewing stuff and make Sarah a taggie of her own.

Joseph is also in love with lotion and Germ-X right now.  Anytime he spies some, he thinks he needs a squirt on his hands.  He promptly rubs them together until the substance is no longer visible. 

Oh, he also loves to dance right now which is hilarious because he basically bounces up and down with his arms sticking out while spinning in a circle.  I'm afraid he is developing my dance skills.  And he talks all. the. time (what can I say, he is our child).  He can tell you some animals and sounds and tons of basic words like more, eat, go, outside, and all done as well as body parts, clothing pieces, and baby items, but prefers to say sentences (although you can't understand most of what he's saying) and will say the same thing over and over until you finally guess correctly or he gives up.  Just last night, when we were keeping him up for a little bit because he bumped his head really hard right before bath time, he came up to me and said "me wanna go sweep."

Since we just did family maternity pictures and family newborn pictures (I promise, I will post them someday), Joseph didn't get an 18 month photo shoot, so I made sure I took a few myself.  He might not be dressed to impress, and the backgrounds might leave a lot to be desired, but this is our little guy being who he is at our house.

His cheese face makes me laugh every time he does it!

Isn't he handsome!

He was telling me something in this one.

He still loves his car (and I couldn't decide which picture I liked best).

Flashback to Joseph playing with that car when he was 9 months old.

Concentrating

"What, mom?"

Watching the dogs play.

 Happy 18 months, baby boy!  I can't wait to see what the future holds for you!

A Day at the Zoo With Aunt Moo

On Monday, my sister and I took advantage of the amazing weather and took our kids to the Oklahoma City Zoo.  We've been planning this trip for a few weeks, so we were excited when we realized that great weather was predicted for the day.  We met mid-morning and began our journey with a visit to the giraffes.  A baby giraffe was born the day after Sarah and I've been itching to go see it every since.  Unfortunately, she wasn't outside when we got over there.  We waited around for a little bit, then decided to move on since we had two antsy little boys.  We walked the rest of the loop around the giraffe pen, then decided to head back towards the rest of the zoo.  As we were walking past the giraffe loop entrance, I happened to glance up and notice that the baby was out!  I might have squealed like a little girl.  We walked back over to the giraffe pen and watched the sweet giraffe family for a little bit. 

After the giraffes and horses (zebras), we began the journey to the elephants.  We stopped along the way to watch a few animals, but most of them were being super lazy enjoying the weather.  After the elephants, we found some shaded picnic tables and had lunch.  Of course, the boys were much more excited about the Cheetos and blueberries than the sandwiches.

Joseph loves feeding people.  Bryar didn't mind being fed.

Mr. Cheeto face.

Aunt Moo is so funny (at least Joseph thinks so, Bryar isn't so sure).

After lunch, we let the boys play in the leaves for a little bit.

They had a blast running up and down the hill!

And just exploring.

While the boys were playing, Sarah enjoyed a nap in Aunt Moo's arms.

After lunch, we loaded the boys back in the stroller (we let them both ride in the double stroller while I wore Sarah in the moby wrap or we carried her so we wouldn't have to mess with two strollers all day) and headed towards the aquatic center.  The boys loved the sea lions.  This is Joseph saying "wow" as it swam by.  We watched them swim longer than we watched any other animal. 

After visiting all of the animals, we headed to the playground by the entrance to get out any energy the boys might still have.

Sarah enjoyed a little stretching time while the boys played. 

We left the zoo around 2:30.  Both boys passed out within five minutes of leaving and slept the entire way home.  I know I've said it before, but I absolutely love that my sister has a child so close I age to my own.  I see many trips like this one in our future as the boys grow and become friends.

Halloween 2013

Halloween morning, I invaded the neighbor's porch for a little photo shoot like I did last year.  Too bad our neighbors moved so instead of dragging everything three houses down in a wagon I actually had to load the kids and stuff up in the car and drive 2 miles. Oh well, it was worth it to get some decent pictures since, once again, I didn't decorate our porch.  I thought it would be cute to first take some pictures in their Halloween shirts.  Joseph wasn't fond of this idea and I had to bribe him with a sucker to get him to even consider sitting next to his sister.  It's not that he doesn't like her, it was just that he LOVES the Castros and didn't understand why we were hanging out on their porch instead of going inside to play.

No, he wasn't trying to bite her.  He loves giving his little sister kisses!

After I finally got a "that'll do" shot or two, I decided to put the kids costumes on them and see if I could get any pictures.  Since Sarah was barely a month old at Halloween, I decided to just use store bought costumes (I know, I shocked myself).  To make it even better, Joseph's costume was a hand-me-down from a friend (judge away, I still have my sanity ;).  Of course, I wanted their costumes to coordinate, so I was thrilled when we pulled the monkey costume out of a box of clothes and realized that Sarah could be a banana.

I brought a banana for Joseph to hold as a prop, but he decided he needed to eat it too. 

When the monkey decided he was finished sitting by sister banana, I took a few individual pictures of them.

Isn't this banana costume the cutest thing ever!

A monkey costume was perfect for Joseph because he is always climbing on stuff and he loves bananas.

He didn't understand why I kept making him pause his banana eating to take pictures.

That night, I took the kids to visit the neighbors on either side of us then we passed out candy at our house.  Joseph loved it!  Every time the doorbell would ring, he would stop playing, jump up, and run to the door where he would wave and tell the kids hi.  It was so cute to see his little monkey bottom swinging as he ran to the door!  He would stand there while we passed out candy, then wave and tell the kids bye.  It was truly adorable, I wish I would have thought to video it.

As we were getting ready for bed that night, I asked the hubs if he would be willing to dress the whole family in themed costumes next year.  He said yes as long as he agrees to the theme first.  Guess I better start thinking about what we could be. 

Family Fun Day - Frontier City

Yes, you read that right.  One cool, October morning we loaded up the kids and went to Frontier City (an amusement park in Oklahoma City).  We weren't sure if they would have much for Joseph to do, but since Sam's work offered all of their employees two free tickets and children two and under get in free, we didn't have much to lose (our back up plan was to leave Frontier City and head to the zoo if we needed to).  We hadn't been to Frontier City since Sam and I went with our friend Aaron a couple of years ago (I wrote about it here), so we thought it would be fun to go back. 

It turns out, they have a great kid zone with lots of stuff for children Joseph's age to do.  He loved climbing in the buildings and looking at the people below.

Riding the little train with Daddy.

And playing in the multi-level maze/playground thing.

After they played in the jungle gym thing for a long time, Sam and I traded places and he stayed with Sarah while I rode the big train with Joseph.

I promise, he really enjoyed the day even though he is going through a period where he doesn't want to smile for pictures. 

After the big train, Sam rode some adult rides while Sarah napped in the stroller and Joseph and I walked around people watching.  We ran into a few people that Sam works with as well as some other friends from Stillwater.  One couple even offered to watch the kids for a bit so I could ride a couple of rides with Sam, but I politely told them that I prefer not to lose my lunch.  After Sam rode a few rides and Joseph took a power nap, we made our way to the carousel. Like we predicted it was a hit with our horse loving little boy.

After the carousel, we watched the zombie parade (the chainsaw was the only thing that got any kind of reaction from Joseph), ate a funnel cake, and headed home where we all slept soundly. 

Oh, and can you believe that this is the only picture we took of Sarah all day and I took it with my phone, not the good camera.  Mom of the year, right here.