Christmas in October- picking the tree

 We spent the last two weeks of October up at the farm and Sharon and Tim's sister, Tonya, were there with us for the first week (Tonya works in Botswana so it is always a treat to have her around as it happens so rarely).  We decided that since it was unlikely that we'd all be together again at Christmas that we'd celebrate it early.  So we made plans for a special dinner and then headed up into the Christmas trees to pick our very first one to cut down.  Tim was momentarily distracted by the blackberry brambles and did a bit of pruning with us girls and James looked around for the best looking trees. 

 While Tim was distracted by plants termed weeds, James was thrilled by the very same plants and their wonderful flowers interspersed within the 4,500 small trees.

 Timber finds it a bit challenging to navigate the tall weeds and hills amongst the trees so she waited patiently down at the bottom for us.

 Which one, which one....?

 Tim standing by our final pick.

 One...

 Two...

 Three!

(this was actually a reenacted scene as you can probably tell from the huge smiles- I was too slow with the camera the first time)

 Bagged it.

 Tonya taking charge of the sappy mess and volunteering to huff it down the hill.

 James approves of the choice.

 Taking the tree home.

 James was fascinated with the tree stand and really wanted to help get is set up.

 Though not so fascinated that he'd let go of his flower (James currently LOVES all flowers he comes across- he certainly one to stop and smell the roses).

A very leggy Halloween

 Last year we didn't really do anything for Halloween- James was not even a year-old yet and we were up in NC about to close on the farm.  This year I though James would get a kick out of seeing his friends all dressed up in different costumes and perhaps even wear one himself.  Since he is currently in love with Octopi I searched online and came across a Martha Stewart pattern that didn't seem too difficult or time consuming.  James and I picked up the fabrics before we left for two weeks at the farm thinking I'd have time to sew it while there.  (James picked out the "sucker" fabric himself, choosing a starfish print.)  And while time got away from me at the farm putting up deer fencing and planting many, many apple trees (that will be a separate post) I came home with all the costume supplies still in the shopping bag.    Monday- Halloween- I set up the machine while James was napping and went to work.  Not sure how Martha thought the average person would do it but you were supposed to photocopy the pattern pieces at 400% which certainly would not fit on a standard home printer so I kind of winged the pattern pieces (and somehow ended up cutting double the number of one portion which left me short on another- oh well!).  I sewed as fast as I could as James and I were leaving to drop Grandma (Sharon) off at the airport at 4:30- the clock was faster than my sewing skills and ended up with Sharon doing the last step of ironing on the eyes while I woke James up from his nap to jump into the car.  So the first time James saw Octopus was when I pulled him out at Shelly's house (where a bunch of us were meeting for dinner and group trick-or-treating) and James immediately fell in love- grasped that Octopus by the head and proceeded not to loosen his grip for the next 30 minutes.  I made the mistake of touching Octopus at one point and James fell into a tantrum right there on Shelly's kitchen floor.  Apparently NO ONE was supposed to tough his beloved Octopus and there was also no way I was going to get that costume on James- he hasn't been liking to wear hats or coats these days and putting on Octopus was going to mean he'd have to let go his death grip.

 Atticus and Alison brought cool glow-in-the-dark bands for the kids and James loved these as well.

 Trying to get a picture of 5 kids- not so easy. Piglet, the baseball player, an astronaut, the ocean holding and Octopus (James was all in blue so we decided he was the water Octopus was swimming in since he wouldn't actually put the costume on), and a friendly lion.

 Dragging O down the steps at Shelly's.

 Fascinated by their Jack-o-lantern (our pumpkin which we hauled up to the farm still hasn't been carved, but we did haul it back again so might get to it at some point this weekend)

 Finally James was distracted by the glowing rings, dropped his costume and Tim sneak attacked it on him.  I don't think James even realized he had it on for quite a while.

 For the most part James trailed behind the other bigger kids- not really understanding what the whole deal was with going up to the doors.  He was content to examine decorations for the first few houses.

 Eventually he picked up on that the other kids were consistently going up to the front doors and he joined in.  Usually he arrived after the other kids had come back down and then once at the door he didn't know that he was actually supposed to say anything, let alone receive anything.  So he'd just stand there until I convinced him to come back down.  He did receive about 5 pieces of candy, which is plenty in my mind for a not even 2-year old yet. 

 Eventually he had an inevitable meltdown- and had he been a real octopus there would have been ink covering the neighborhood.  The costume was thrown off, the street rolled in and Tim had to pick up the pieces and give a grumpy Octopus a ride back to the car.

 Octopus has now been sleeping in James' bed at his request and is very much loved.  He will be making a second appearance at James' birthday party in a couple weeks for the Octopus theme.

Boxcars and one tired little bean

 This past Saturday the 1st Annual Madison Avenue Boxcar Derby race was held.  The starting line was one house down from us, so we got to see all the cars parked in front of ours while they waited for their turn.  I didn't take many pictures as it was much nicer to just relax, but did get a few.  We invited all our friends with children who we thought would enjoy seeing the cars and races.  Everyone brought some food and we had a picnic on the front lawn. 

 Even though James thought the shark car was great he was still more interested in his beloved rocks from the neighbors driveway.

 We set up Jarrett and Christi's sunshade for the moms with small children as our yard doesn't have a lick of shade.  The weather was perfect- a just warm enough mid-60s. (New baby Aveline is hiding there with Christi.)

 And because we were able to drop Timber at Christi's and Jarrett's house to play with Merckx we were able to leave the front door open for both kids and adults to wander in and out to grab food and drinks and play with toys in James' room.

 James was also thrilled that Tim opened the den window and ALLOWED him to climb up onto the table underneath the window for a better view out (still trying to convince James that was a one day thing and not to continue).  Normally I don't open the windows too often as we seem to be a fly magnet but as the door was open so were the windows - and boy did the flies find us!

 James' high chair was enjoyed al fresco by Sofia.

 And I made the decision to not put James down for a nap as the races were starting around 1pm.  So by the time they ended and he had his bath before dinner he was extremely tired.  I put him in front of Wallace & Gromit so that I could pull his dinner together and he would be otherwise occupied as opposed to fussing at my feet.  He rarely falls asleep other than in his crib, stroller or car seat.  I think this is the first time he has fallen asleep on the couch.  The video below shows that even when his brain is fried- he is still craving fried...you'll see, just watch to the end.

First stubbed toe

 Today while running outside on the sidewalk with bare feet James' foot fell behind his ability and resulted in his first stubbed toe.  It was one of those falls where as a parent you wince wondering what your child has injured and how they will react.  Amazingly despite the sound of his hands and elbows whacking the cement (I thought at first it was his chin) he popped right back up without a peep and kept on running.  I thought 'wow, I guess nothing was hurt!' and then a few minutes later I noticed the trail of red behind his footsteps. He didn't even notice until I pointed out to him that his toe had something unusual going on.  I don't think he's ever bled enough to know what blood is and he has yet to get a bandaid for any scrapes (I really don't want to start that trend as I know some kids will then demand a bandaid for even bumps).  He looked down and touched it, it got on his fingers and then from there onto the rock he was holding (he is ALWAYS holding a rock while outside) and then he dropped the rock when he realized it felt weird...slimy.  He examined the rock and was more interested in it being wet than he was the bloody toe.  Finally I managed to coerce him inside to clean it up a bit as it was coagulating already.  I wet a paper towel and at first he resisted until I told him we'd 'hide his toe in a blanket' (his favorite idea these days to contemplate and practice is hiding) to he let me wrap the toe up a bit and then he did it himself.  Enough blood came off that it wasn't going to trail around the house but his nail bed has a nice crust of it still. 
On a slightly different note- I asked him what color was on his toe and he said "green"...I am 90% sure that he is red/green colorblind from color practice over the past few weeks and this was just one more time where he is certain that red is green.