This Kid is Going Places

This Thanksgiving, I am extra thankful that I have a door blocking the access to our FROG (Finished Room Over Garage). MVP has learned how to crawl up our stairs and he's not only pleased with his accomplishment, he really enjoys doing it. I'm so glad I have the option to close the door when I'm not able to keep a close eye on his adventures.

Happy Halloween!

This was MVP's first Halloween and we had a lot of fun at a party on Friday night where we dressed up as a family. MVP was a bowler, I was a bowling pin and Andy was a bowling ball.

Then on Saturday, we went to our church's Trunk-or-Treat activity. Andy and I didn't dress up, but MVP was Trogdor (a dragon)!! Trogdor....Burnanating the people!!

On Sunday, MVP's babysitter stopped by to see if she could take him for a walk. When they came back, he was wearing a Halloween headband. Too cute!! Later on, she came back with some of her friends and wanted to see MVP in his costume.

A Halloween Treat

A couple months ago, my sister in law told me about GIANT marshmallows. She told me that you can take the giant marshmallows, stick a popscicle stick in them, dip them in chocolate and then roll them in nuts or crushed graham crackers. YUM!

This last week as I was trying to come up with a spooky treat to bring to a Halloween party, I conjured up a variation on the jumbo Smores idea. I decided to cover the marshmallows in Vanilla Flavored Coating (it's a lot cheaper than white chocolate) dyed with green or orange food coloring.







Then I decorated them--not without a lot of "help" from this guy. -->











Yesterday, I was pretty busy, so I only had a couple hours to complete them. So this is what I ended up with. Little Frankensteins and pumpkins. The pumpkins could be a lot cuter, I know, but I ran out of time. It was a mad dash to get out the door.

Oral Hygiene

We have been trying to teach MVP the virtues of oral hygiene. This is turning out to be a little more challenging than I had anticipated. At first, he was really good about allowing us to brush his teeth--mostly because he was baffled by why we were inserting a little brush into his mouth. However, he quickly discovered that the toothpaste (fruit flavored) is quite delicious and now all he wants to do is suck the toothpaste off the brush. To see the video, click here.

The Punkin Patch

We went to a pumpkin patch yesterday with Emma. We had a lot of fun. She was in charge of taking pictures and she did an absolutely fabulous job!! I was very impressed. She set up several different vignettes and had MVP sit there while she arranged the pumpkins and hay. These are two of my favorite pictures that she took. MVP was a little tired because it was time for him to take a nap, but he was a real trooper.

We then decorated some Halloween cookies so we are officially ready for Halloween.

9 Months Old!

Our little MVP turned 9 months old this week. He is really starting to take interest in everything around him. He scoots around on his belly like a pro now. Every now and then, he will get up on his knees and look like he is going to take off crawling, but as soon as he decides which direction he wants to go in, he drops to his belly and scoots.

He started pulling himself up to a standing position this week too. He can now stand in his crib and will pull himself up on chairs or the couch. He seems to think that this is pretty awesome because he can now reach

for objects at a higher level.

MVP spent most of this week a little sick. He's been congested and it mostly affects him at night. He snores (which is pretty funny) and whenever he can't breathe through his nose, he cries and doesn't like it at all. There was one night where he woke up at least once an hour! I didn't get much sleep that night. The funny thing is that he has been pretty happy during the day. He still is not good at taking naps, but I'll take what I can get.

Aunt Phyllis made MVP the most adorable blanket. It's a "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" blanket. Love it!!

A New Trick

MVP's babysitter brought over some small bath toys for him. They're little whales and he just loves them. They're the perfect size for him to carry around everywhere. He was a little distraught because there are three whales and he only has two hands and can't hold them all at the same time. Well, boy wonder has figured out how to hold all three at the same time. Behold....

This is the House that Grandma Built

A couple days after we returned from Florida, Grandma Pearson came out for a visit. It was so wonderful to have her here. She was more than willing to watch MVP while I worked from home during the day. I was able to get a lot done and get all caught up on work that had piled up while I was on vacation. Lately, MVP has not been very good at taking naps. He seems to think that two, 20- to 40-minute naps per day are all that he needs. On the one hand, as long as he continues sleeping through the night, I don't care what he does during the day. But on the other hand, it makes it really hard for me to get work done while having to keep an eye on him at the same time. This is especially hard now that he is getting mobile. He's been scooting around like a little combat soldier since we returned from Florida.

Several months ago, I came across an adorable felt playhouse designed to slip on over a kitchen table. I showed some pictures to Carol and she got excited about it too. So while she was here, we started working on a playhouse but decided to make it out of fabric since it will last a lot longer. There are still a few things we're working on, but this is what we have so far...

We will be attaching a huge button to the door as a doorknob. The flower stems have pipe cleaners in them and are detachable (thanks to Velcro). The mail box can also be opened and you can insert mail too. Now we know where to send all our bills.

The swing is certainly not able to support a kid, but hopefully stuffed animals will be the only ones to try it out--wishful thinking, I know. I might add a bird and nest to the tree as well.

The garden will soon have some carrots and a watermelon. There will also be more leaves with a second set of autumn-colored leaves. The lettuce and tree leaves are detachable.

This last side has a fire pit, but I'm thinking about changing it to a Weber grill. That way, he can grill up some of his veggies when the weather is nice.

One of the best features of this house is that it is expandable. There's a seam hidden by the roof shingles that is concealing another 5 inches of fabric so that if we ever get rid of this table, we can build a frame out of PVC pipe or something.

Maybe some day I will work on the inside of the house and make picture frames or have a deer's head mounted above a fireplace. I can't wait for MVP to get big enough to really play with it and let his imagination run wild.

Where Did September Go???

Maybe it's lost in the couch cushions....that seems to be where most things get lost. I can't believe we're already gearing up for Halloween. The last few weeks have absolutely FLOWN by! We were able to go to Florida to hang out with some of my siblings and their families. It was a lot of fun. When we first moved to North Carolina in 2008, Andy looked at the BYU Football schedule and determined that the next closest football game would be in Florida (vs. FSU) in September 2010, so this trip was in the works for a little more than two years. I love having a husband who has his priorities straight!

We rented a beach house in Siesta Key which has an excellent beach. The sand is very white and fine and the the waves were flat enough that we could walk out to a sand bar with MVP. He loved it! The only drawback was that it smelled a little funky--more like a stagnant lake than a beach. We did, however, see dolphins off the coast a couple of times and we found lots of interesting shells and sand dollars. We had a wonderful time hanging out with family, playing bocce ball (the beach was PERFECT for bocce ball) and relaxing. I think it was the most relaxing vacation we have been on since our honeymoon. Here are a few shots of us hanging out in the pool at the beach house and at the beach. Some day MVP might have to go through therapy to overcome all the nakey baby shots (especially those with his cousin), but you have to admit, he's pretty cute no matter what he's wearing!

This is MVP with his cousin Grace who is about 6 weeks older. They had so much fun!!

Aside for a couple days where MVP got sick and had to go see a doctor (he was running a fever and was pretty miserable) he had a wonderful time soaking up all the attention from adoring Aunties, Uncles and cousins.

The only thing that could have made the vacation better would have been a better result from the football game...oh and better weather during the football game! The game was AWFUL and it was soooo hot!!! I think it was 93 degrees, humid and there was NO wind or shade!! I was soooo grateful that Auntie M was there to watch the babies at the air conditioned hotel room because it was way too hot for them at the game.

Who does he look like??

Ever since he was born, people have been trying to determine who MVP looks like--mommy or daddy. Here are a few pictures of us. I'll let you decide. Sorry these photos are such poor quality, I have been meaning to do this for quite some time and realized that if I didn't just take a picture of the photos (while still in their respective photo albums) this post would never happen.

Daddy...

Mommy...

If you ask me, I think there are times when MVP looks like me and there are times when he looks like his dad.

Surf City

It must be a federal requirement that every state with a coast must have a "Surf City". On Saturday, we ventured to nearby Surf City, NC to check out the beach. MVP loves going to the beach where he can play in the sand, sit where the waves wash up around him and take an occasional nap.

California

Last week, MVP went on his first airplane ride to California to visit family. He was really good on the flights (considering that we had two layovers both coming and going AND that we flew coast to coast both times) except for the one returning home from Phoenix to Charlotte. I'm not sure what the deal was, but he was Fussy-Pants McGee and I felt like making an announcement to the cabin that the passengers on row 14 apologize profusely for their fussy, teething baby who is normally quite cute. Oh well. Here's a shot of the MVP looking like he is about to bravely go where no baby has ever gone before...sort of.

While in California, we spent time with lots of cousins and MVP quickly learned that his parents have been depriving him of toys. We only have a small box of toys (this is intentional) and baby books and it was apparent that MVP was overwhelmed by all the toys at Grandma and Grandpa's house!!

When we first arrived, MVP's cousins had set up a whole bunch of toys for him and he really didn't know what to play with first. Here's MVP with all of his Pearson cousins. This may not have been the shot we were looking for, but how great is it that Seth apparently thinks he's The Godfather?!?
This is MVP with his twin "cousins" who are a week older than he is! I really like how MVP is slowly sinking into the couch cushions and is making a desperate attempt for a rescue from a baby who is clearly more focused on being cute for the cameras. While MVP is still unable to scoot or crawl (much to my relief!) these babies have been scooting around since they were about 4 months old!!! They're now starting to pull themselves up into a standing position and I'm sure they'll be walking soon. I simply can't imagine having twins. It seemed like they were both heading in opposite directions the entire time. Mothers of multiples have my utmost respect.

Grandma Carol made an adorable monkey blanket for MVP. It's got minky monkey fabric on one side and animal print on the other side. MVP loves it--and apparently he also thinks it tastes pretty good too. We had a wonderful time and wish we lived closer to family so we could do this more often.

Bedtime Stories

We try to read stories to MVP and we were hoping that tonight's selection would put him right to sleep. Oddly, it had the opposite effect. He was strangely intrigued by learning how to adjust the cost basis on devalued stocks.

A Little Less Terrible

I figure that if I post pictures of seven-month-old MVP, I will consider myself to be a little less terrible. The photos are timely....but let the record show that I still think it's funny when he grunts.

You can see his little teeth coming in on the bottom in this one.

In other, non-MVP news, I was released today as the CTR 6 teacher and I'm now the Mia Maids Advisor. I'm pretty happy about that because I had this calling a few years ago when we were in California so I'm familiar with the lessons and the age group. It's also nice because I like the challenge of teaching youth. I think there were times when I took basic skills like reading and knowing the difference between a letter and a number for granted.

6 Months Old - I'm Terrible

I'm terrible! MVP will be seven months old on Saturday and I have yet to post pictures of him 'celebrating' his first half birthday. It seems like lately EVERYTHING MVP sees needs to go right into his mouth. It's as if he sees the world as one giant buffet line. Little did I know that he would be getting his first tooth on August first. He now has two lower front teeth. The whole teething process hasn't been too bad. There were a couple nights where he would randomly wake up screaming, but I found that holding him and a little pain killer would do the trick and he would go right back to sleep. He hasn't been overly cranky otherwise.
Again with being obsessed with putting things in his mouth...

This is just a cute picture of him looking as if he's been posing for pictures for years.

So here's the real reason why I'm terrible. On the day of his half birthday, I had the camera out and would take a few pictures here and there. While he was eating, I happened to film the following video.

Then one day while I was working, MVP was sitting next to me and he suddenly had the urge to, uh, fill up his diaper. I decided to whip out my camera phone so I could capture this moment.

This is now my camera's background picture. I'm terrible.