Here are Fletcher and Mia enjoying some play time at the zoo last week. See Fletcher there, with 2 good arms? Swinging and acting all carefree? Cute, huh?
try to climb out of his crib. Drat!
Excuse me for posting a thousand pictures of Fletcher in his halloween costume, but I have to show off the fruits of my labor. It's just 1 day of wearing this costume. That's it.
Tomorrow is Halloween. I feel like the past 2 weeks has been nothing but getting ready for tomorrow. Ok, not really. I thought about his costume about 2 months ago, then stopped thinking about it. About a month ago, my friend Brianne, came up with an idea and then it was decided.
You can't buy a DJ Lance Rock costume, so I had to make one. I bought a children's outfit pattern from Ebay (7 bucks) and Claire made the orange part of the costume. She finished it about a week ago, but in typical Mary fashion, I waited until today to (1) see if it fit him, (2) cut out and apply the stripes + stars (3) figure out how I was going to make a boom box for him to carry around and (3) take some cute pics. :)
ok, so it's like 5 days away. Do you know how hard it is to think up a costume for your kid? And me, being the type A personality that I am, has to have her kid in a non-store bought costume. A costume that (a) either no one else will be wearing or (b) at least no other kid in his class of 12 will be wearing. Thanks to Claire, he now has a homemade costume. I bought a pattern off E-Bay and I also bought glasses to go with it, but the glasses were way to big for my kid's 10th percentile head. I ended up finding ones at the dollar store - for, you guessed it, $1.00. So what if they are +3.50 strength reading glasses. That just means my kid will be walking around cross-eyed all night. It's alright, I'll be there to hold his little hand and guide him from door to door. This actually works out in my favor as he won't be able to see the candy I am taking + eating from his stash. Come on, give me credit, I am not THAT bad. We took the lenses out. I can't wait until Halloween to post pics of him in his costume. I still have a few finishing touches to add before it's ready and I also have to make him a prop that goes along with his costume. Big shout out to my friend, Brianne, for coming up with the idea.
ok, so he was 2 on September 27. i'm a bad blogger and we've been really busy. in fact, we've been so busy that we haven't even had fletcher's b-day party, yet. i haven't even sent out the invites. i just decided, today, that we will have a halloween party for his b-day. should be a good time.
I was going to write an actual entry this evening, but I am just too tired. I had some good material, too. Like this weekend, in a parking lot, the car next to mine had stuffed animals on the dash and all along the rear. What's up with that? Do people really like stuffed animals that much that they feel the need to put them in their car? I'm afraid to know what her house looks like.
so fletcher is 22 months old and we FINALLY took him out on the boat. so sad because he really, really loved it. he loved going fast. and pointing out all the buoys. and seeing all the planes fly over the lake. we will definitely be taking the boat out more often.
fletcher has been in summer camp since school let out in may. yes, he is only 21 months old and yes, he is in a real school already. this past year, he was in the 1 year old program and he really loved it there and we did, too. the school is so nurturing and the classes are small - there were only 8 kids in his class with 3-4 teachers on any given day. can't beat that. this coming year, he will be in the 2 year old class - i think 15 kids total. summer camp is now in session. or was in session. this week is an off week and he'll be back at camp next week - all day long. this will be the first time he will be away 5 days/week. he has so much more fun being in camp than being home with me. we run errands, go to the pool, have play dates, etc. but it's hard to do things all day long like they do in camp. we've been to the zoo, the children's museum, we go to the park, i even created a craft box for fletcher and it's filled with finger paints, crayons, those little felt twisty things that bend into shapes. we've done it all. today is only tuesday! tomorrow we are planning to spend the morning at the pool and then possibly hang out with lilah + aiden and go back to the children's museum since we are members. we really need to get our visits in. :)
when andy came home from work this evening, he cut the grass. fletcher loves to watch. he likes andy to carry him while he (andy) is mowing. fletcher imitates the sound of the mower. however, he is terrified of the weed wacker and runs for cover.
here is he sitting on the front porch while andy was cutting the grass:
Before:
After:
fletcher is obsessed with the vacuum. apparently, vacuum obsession is going around (right, sandra?). all he wants to do is drag this thing around the house. or bring it to one of us to drag around the house while we chase him and make a noise like we are actually vacuuming.
click to enlarge:
well aidan gill...you can take your 500 toddler's heirloom haircut and shove it um, you know where.
i took fletcher to aveda and paid a whopping 22 bucks to get his haircut AND they gave me a lock from the first snip AND they graciously let me take pics.
aidan gill...geesh, you would think it was Vidal Sassoon himself cutting hair with a price like that!
fletcher was a good boy over the weekend. for the most part, he was pretty tolerant with the mask. now as day 4 is here, he is not tolerant and wants to get away from the mask. he's a pic from saturday while still in the tolerant phase:
and he actually was holding it up himself!
i made an appointment with Aidan Gill for Men. i can't wait to see how it turns out. i am definitely going to be bringing my camera to snap a few pics of this momentous occasion.
EDIT: so the guy called me back after I left a message to make an appt and he told me 2 things: (1) they only do haircuts on 18 months and older and (2) an heirloom haircut is all they do on toddlers and it's $500!
Needless to say, even if Fletcher were 18 months old, I would not do this for $500 bucks.
and on his feet...
fletcher last year, taken november 21, 2006:
fletcher this year, taken november 28, 2007:
fletcher last january 8, 2007:
fletcher on december 20, 2007:
we are off to spend the day with brian, alesia + mia. they are cooking the turkey, fish, mashed potatoes and stuffing and we are cooking the green bean casserole, pumpkin bread, making the salad and brining the beer. yummy. i can't wait to pig out. oink, oink. i think i am going to eat twice today. i'll start a diet tomorrow. yeah, right.
fletcher did some finger painting at school. the teachers in his classroom (miss laura, miss barkley and miss paula) put together the turkeys after the kids finger painted their masterpieces. fletcher has talent, huh? :)
on tuesday, the teachers each brought in a dish for the kids and they had a thanksgiving feast. they (the teacher) made these hats and they wore the while they ate!
alas, the last project of the week...finger painting candy canes for the grandparents day invitations. i love how everything is plastic coated so we can save it.
fletcher finally started at his new school that offers a new 1 year old program. we love it! he loves it! there are 8 one year olds and 3 teachers. here are pics from his first day.
fletcher wants to wish everyone a happy halloween!
recent pics of fletcher:
so much to post!
we had fletcher's b-day party and it was fun. here's a pic of the invite i designed and will post pics of his party later.
today was fletcher's first birthday. the year has flown by so quickly. i did a bad thing and scheduled his 12 month shots on his birthday. poor baby. he also got a flu shot. grandma + grandpa came over and brought a homemade cake with chocolate almond icing. we kept it pretty laid back because i am sick (again) and fletcher is still getting over his ear infection and a nasty cold. his birthday party is scheduled for october.
last night, i ended up taking taylor (our maltese) to the emergency vet at 9:45 p.m. she had been throwing up all day and as the night progressed, she only seemed to get worse and then she threw up and it had some blood in it. 2 hours later, x-rays and a blood work up revealed nothing. no blockage, no diseases. the vet said she probably got into something and it made her sick. they gave her some hydrating injection just under her skin and i brought her home. she is doing much better today.
what else is going on? oh, for fletcher's 1st birthday, andy took me shopping for a sapphire ring (fletcher's birthstone). he told me what a good mom i've been over the past year and wanted to get me a ring. so sweet.
here are some pics from fletcher's day. grandma + grandpa gave him a new toy.
for 2 straight weeks. poor fella. andy was sick about 3 weeks ago and he had pink eye. then fletcher got sick right after labor day weekend, i got sick last week and totally lost my voice. it's been rough. and exhausting. fletcher has been waking up almost every night in the middle of the night. he normally sleeps a straight 12 hours and the poor guy can't breathe with his stuffed up nose. add to that...he has 7 teeth coming in! he's gone from zero teeth to now 7 teeth. i can't even begin to imagine what his head must feel like. i hate seeing him sickly. i think he's on his way to feeling better, though.
here are a few pics from this weekend. taken right after he awoke from his nap.
he hears daddy walking toward his room...
in the bath...
we bought fletcher a bike seat and helmet. the seat is so cool; it has shock absorbers so the bumpy streets in new orleans aren't too bad on him. we took him for his first bike ride the other day and here are some pics. he wasn't crazy about the helmet on his head but once we started going, he kind of forget about it. kind of.
click to enlarge:
these were taken this past weekend. fletcher has been in a grumpy mood because he is teething. it's been hard to get him to sit still, too.
here are a few...click to enlarge.
i like this pic. it's not the best composition, but i like it. saturday morning...i was sitting on the floor, trying to get some pics of fletcher when andy came home from running (if you look carefully, you can see a towel draped over andy's shoulder from his work out). i had my 35mm lens (fixed focal) on the camera and i didn't have time to scoot backwards and re-position myself for a good shot. i would have liked to get more of fletcher.
this picture was actually taken before the above picture. fletcher was crawling and he went over to the back door and his new favorite thing to do is to stand there and watch the dogs in the backyard. he finds it amusing.
in this next picture, i thought about cropping out andy's hand but decided against it. his hand holding the stool steady for fletcher really captures the stage where we are with the little man. he grabs onto everything and of course, it's not always the most steady thing to grab onto. we're always running up behind him to make sure he's not going to pull something on top of himself. we don't stop him from what he's doing, but we give that extra little support to the furniture!
Fletcher practicing his yoga pose - Downward facing baby...
And later in the day...
it's been a while since i've posted some new pics of little fletcher man. took these today while i was waiting for alesia to call me to meet her at the park.
i'm no expert, but i think little fletcher is teething. he has been drooling and sucking on his hands and my finger like crazy. everytime taylor (our little dog) comes near him, he tries to suck on her, too. you can see his right cheek is a little red and that's from his saliva and hands being all over his face. poor guy. he didn't sleep too well last night. poor us. you can see from these pics that he's not too happy.
a friend of mine, amie, lent us an exersaucer for fletcher. these pics are from the very first time i sat him in it - yesterday. he loves it! thanks, amie!!
the other day, fletcher really started noticing his hands and feet. today he decided to really go to town on his fingers. i had him sitting in his bumbo and took these pics while he was chowing down. it's a good thing finger eating is outgrown because we would look really funny trying to stick our fists in our mouth.
