Playing at the park

Encinitas has a really nice, new park that I have started taking Erek to. He likes the swings and he sort of likes the sand. Everything else is kind of too big for him to enjoy right now. He is a little nervous when he gets in the swing, but when I get down on my knees and give him little pushes, he starts to crack up every time he gets close to my face. He seems to like the sand. He likes to sit NEXT to the sand and put his feet in it, but not stand in it. He just lifts his legs up and won’t let me put him down. I think the thing he enjoys the most is watching all of the other kids run around and play. You can tell when he gets really excited because he screeches at the top of his lungs and clasps his hands together real tight. He does that a lot at the park!

Mmmm Chipotle!

Brian and I were eating at Chipotle the other day (no, not on Sunday, hehe) and while I was away getting our drinks, Brian made a little hat for Erek out of my chip bag. I thought it was really cute, so I snapped a few pictures of him with my phone. The pictures aren't that good, but I thought he looked pretty cute. Mmmm... we like Chipotle! Although, sometimes it makes me miss the Bakers. Love you Karin!

Happy Halloween!

We celebrated Halloween a little early this year. 6 days to be exact. It actually worked out though because Brian will be out of town until 7pm on the 31st, so I didn't see us doing a whole lot that evening for Halloween. We bought some pumpkins to carve that night, so stay tuned for those fun pictures!

I dressed Erek up as a Monkey this year. I can't remember exactly when he earned his little nickname, but I do remember I started calling him that when he would just cling to me with his long arms and legs. He does it more now and likes to climb all over me whenever I carry him anywhere. I still can't believe how long he is. At his 9 month check up, he measured in at 29 1/2 inches long, which turns out to be in the 90th percentile. I bought him his Halloween costume about 3 weeks ago. I figured a 2T wouldn't be huge on him, but would probably be a little big, considering it was made for a normal size 2 year old and he wasn't even going to be 10 months old yet. Ha. Wrong. Turns out, it was too small. We got his legs into the costume, but then his arms barely fit into the holes. He couldn't stand him up in it because it just wasn't long enough. His legs were permanently bent. Brian was carrying him out to the car so that we could head over to the church building and the zipper that runs up the side split wide open. Ugh... we hadn't even made it to the party yet! Oh well. I ended up closing it up with a safety pin, which looked horrible because his long leg was still sticking out the side, but what can ya do! :) I made sure to take some pictures to share with all of you. I wanted to take a lot of pictures for his first Halloween and then when it came time to post them on here, I couldn't decided which ones, so I put almost all of them!

These ones were taken before we left the house to go to the party.

Aunt Abi and Uncle Jon dressed up as a witch and a wizard. Very cute!

Brian and I dressed up 50's style. My Mom actually made this poodle skirt for Abi for Halloween when we were younger. I think we were like... 12 maybe? I can't remember. I held on to the skirt to use for a future Halloween party, hehe.

Here are the pictures of Erek busting out of his costume.

And here are the rest!

Crap... I got tagged. Ok, 7 things about me...

1. I dyed my hair brown once, about 3 or 4 years ago. Dark, dark brown. It was almost black. I had never dyed my hair before that. I have been blonde all my life. Well, I really liked it brown, but my roots grew black blonde, so it was a lot of maintenance and I ended up putting highlights in it until it was back to the normal blonde. I liked it better brown and I am thinking about dying it again.

2. I used to go bike riding with my Dad a lot. We would ride our bikes everywhere. Up in the hills on Camp Pendleton, to the beach, or just around. I loved it. The last time I took a ride with him was before I got pregnant with Erek, and I really miss it. There is just something about feeling the air hit your face going downhill and the strain in your muscles when you are peddling uphill that I really miss and love. Hey Dad, you got an extra bike laying around that I can use? :)

3. I won second runner up at the Miss Oceanside Harbor Days pageant when I was 16.

4. I dumped a chocolate milkshake all over a girl wearing a white sundress at Del Taco once. The floor was wet because they had just mopped and I was walking to the trash can and slipped on the floor and my milkshake fell to the floor and exploded all over her. It was the most embarrassing moment of my life.

5. I had a friend named Tiffany back when I was in 8th grade and we used to stand on her bed and sing Ironic by Alanis Morsett at the top of our lungs. We thought we were so cool. I did something similar with another friend of mine when we were in 6th grade. We would stand in her garage and use the handle end of the shovels and rakes as microphones and sing along with Michael Bolton to When A Man Loves A Woman.

6. I still have all of my stuffed animals from when I was little. They are in a cedar chest that my Papa made for me. I am scared to look in it because there is a Cabbage Patch doll that I tried to feed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to at the bottom and the last time I looked at him, he had green spots appearing just under the surface of his bald head.

7. I like to eat Skittles and Peanut Butter M&M's together. Yum!

Oh, and I tag Karin. :)

Helping Mommy with the laundry

Monday's are laundry days in our house and I really think Erek looks forward to it! He loves to play with the laundry basket and he likes to play with all of the hangers too. He doesn't do too much to help, besides sit still so that I can put all of those clothes away. Here are a couple of pictures of him just enjoying himself! (P.S. The red upper lip isn't kool-aid... it's so dry around here with the Santa Ana winds that his poor lips are chapped!)

Our bonfire on Moonlight beach

I can't remember the exact date we went to the beach, but it was only a couple of weeks ago. The weather was beautiful! Cool enough to actually need a fire. We met up with Steve and Lani and their family and Aunt Kristi came with her kids too. We had a lot of fun just sitting around the fire, chatting and laughing. This was Erek's first official bonfire, of many, so I decided to snap a few pictures.

Here is Jared playing Smash Ball.

Aunt Lani and Erek

This one is a little blury, but I loved Erek's cute little smile.

After the sun went down.

Beautiful little Miss Summer.

Cory got the base of the fire ready, then Uncle Steve and Brian decided to step in and help out. :)