First dentist visit

Cason's pediatrician recommended that kids first visit the dentist around age 2. We haven't noticed any issues with him but we didn't really have anything to lose by taking him so I made an appointment. I had Bible study today so Kelly took him to his appointment and took a few pictures for me. He said it was pretty uneventful. Cason liked sitting in the big chair but did not like having his teeth looked at. When the dentist came in, he sat in Kelly's lap and then leaned back into the dentist's lap. The dentist just looked around, gave his teeth a quick brush, and then sent him on his way with the typical new toothbrush and couple of stickers.

Fall Festival

Last night, we took the kids to the annual Fall Festival that my friend, Bailey's, church puts on. It was a huge event with probably thousands of people there. There were tons of games for the kids, bounce houses, and rides. The lines for the bounce houses and rides were too long and we didn't think Cason would like them anyway so we stuck to just the games. It was a very well run event and very organized. Cason had a lot of fun playing the games and filling his pumpkin with candy. We let him have one lolipop on the way home but since then, he hasn't even mentioned the candy. I'm hoping he has forgotten all about it! I'm glad we were able to go last night because there's no telling what the crazy weather will do here later this week.

Cason really has a thing for this tail. He held onto it for the first 20 minutes of the night. He refused to wear his alligator hat, which I expected.















I didn't really look around but I'm quite certain that Bryce was the cutest baby there. Not that I'm biased or anything.

Airshow

The annual airshow was in town this weekend. We tried to take Cason when he was 3 months old but we didn't realize that it would be so loud. He was a pretty laid back baby but the loud planes were too much for him so we ended up leaving about 20 minutes after we got there. Last year, Kelly worked the whole weekend. So this year, I thought Cason would really enjoy it and asked Kelly to take one of the days off work. We were smart enough to leave Bryce at home, so it was one of Cason's first big outing with just Daddy.

All ready to go.



Kelly and Cason arrived right when the gates opened and were among the first inside the gates. They went straight for the Boeing 777 because Kelly thought it would be the most popular thing and he wanted to show Cason before the lines got long. They walked up to the huge flight deck and Cason got to sit in the jumpseat and they talked to the captain. Then they toured the first class and talked to a flight attendant who gave Cason a set of wings.

Next they went to the Marine Corps V-22 Osprey. There was no line so Cason got to look at the flight deck again but the cockpit was roped off. Kelly talked to the pilots but Cason was being all shy and wouldn't talk.

Here is Cason next to a Navy carrier trainer called a Goshawk.



Next they went to the UH-60 Blackhawk and Cason sat in the right seat.





In the back of another helicopter.



They watched a Pitts do an aerobatic display with lots of smoke. Cason kept saying "I see another one!" over and over again, even though it was the same plane. In fact, that was pretty much all he said the whole morning, "I see another one!"

Then a big semi with a giant jet engine on the back was tearing up and down the runway, leaving behind it a big plume of smoke and flames. Next the Golden Knights did a demo skydive. They went up and down the lineup of aircraft and touched each one (F-18, F-15, F-16) because Cason wanted to touch them all. There was also a Piper Seminole, which Kelly flew at FlightSafety Academy so he showed it to Cason. All in all, they were there for about 3 hours and saw all of the displays. The really cool demos, like the Blue Angels were later in the day, but we could see them from our house. Cason had a really great time and Kelly plans to take him again next year if he's not working.

Painting pumpkins

It's pretty rare that Bryce is sleeping and Cason isn't. Usually the mornings are crazy and we have to be somewhere at a certain time and Bryce just ends up napping for 30 minutes while I finish getting ready or else just napping in the car. Then they both nap at the same time in the afternoon (which equals heaven for me!) But today, we didn't have to be anywhere at a certain time so I took advantage of Bryce's nap to paint pumpkins with Cason. He's too little to carve the pumpkins we got at the pumpkin patch so I got out the paint and paintbrushes and he loved that.









This is the pumpkin I painted. I started out with a face but it looked pretty bad. Then I added hair for some unknown reason and it looked REALLY bad so I painted over it and went with an abstract thing.



Cason's finished masterpieces.

Making cupcakes

I have wanted to bake with my kids since long before I even had kids. I have never let Cason help me bake before, I was thinking of waiting until he's closer to three. I don't know if it's because I'm a control freak and like things done a certain way or what. But my friend, Lacy, convinced me to give it a shot. I had to make some Halloween cupcakes on Tuesday to take to MOPS on Wednesday morning so I decided to let Cason help. It was nothing fancy, just the funfetti box mix. He had a blast so I know I need to let him help bake more in the future.

He added everything except the oil and eggs and stirred it all up. He didn't want to help me hold the mixer though.



Stirring in the sprinkles.



Putting the cupcake liners in the muffin tin. A rare picture of me.



His first ever time licking "the spoon". He loved this and when the spoon was licked clean said "more ice cream pease".



After his nap, I had left one cupcake unfrosted for him on a plate with a chunk of frosting and some sprinkles. I let him go to town with it but he didn't put much frosting on, he ate that straight off the plate. He LOVED the sprinkles, I don't think he's ever seen sprinkles before.



He kept saying "Yum-ME" with an emphasis on both syllables. He only really ate a few bites of the cupcake though.

Sneak peak

We got some Halloween pictures taken at Target today so here is a sneak peak at the boys' costumes. I'm very excited about all of the upcoming holidays this year. I think Cason will have a lot of fun, especially Halloween and Christmas. I found this adorable onesie at Baby Gap for Bryce and had to get it. If you can't read it, it says "Teething Bites". Appropriate for his age.



They had a toddler bat shirt too -- different but it coordinated well so I got it for Cason.



Here's the best we could get of the boys together. Bryce took a great nap this morning so I thought he would be happy but he wasn't into it at all.



And now -- the costumes. I had every intention of reusing the monkey costume that Cason wore for his first Halloween. Then I saw this frog one and it was perfect since Bryce's room is decorated entirely in frogs.



He wanted to eat his feet.



Cason's not really "into" anything so we weren't sure what to buy for his costume. We had several ideas and Kelly finally convinced him to be a bat. We gave him a choice between a bat and a pterodactyl because those were the cutest costumes I could find that we agreed on. I found a really cute bat costume but hadn't ordered it yet and we kept talking to Cason about how he would dress up like a bat and get candy. Then one day, he woke up and said, "No. No bat. Alligator." We had never even discussed alligators. So we waited a few more days to see if he would change his mind again but he stuck to the alligator idea. He doesn't like the hat part of it and I don't blame him. But we bribed him to get him to wear it for a few quick pictures. I don't think he'll be wearing it much next week.





Again, this is the best we could get of the two of them together.



We ordered wallets of all of these pictures so those of you who want some -- let me know which ones you want. And these are really small resolution so don't steal them off the blog, wait until you get them in the mail (Aunt Lou Ann!)

Preschool Open House

Last week we got an e-mail about an open house at Cason's preschool. My first thought was "what's to see? They're two!" But Kelly was off that day (yesterday) so I told him about it and he said "of course we'll go". So after dinner, we headed back to his preschool to check it out.

We walked in and Cason showed us the card with his picture on it that he finds in the mornings and puts in a special place over by their circle time mat. Then we just kind of stood around for a bit and asked Cason questions like "where do you read stories?" and "where do you eat lunch?" Then Ms. Carolyn rang a bell and sang the clean up song and told all the kids to find a place to sit on their circle time mat. Their circle time mat is a big mat with clouds on it and the border has squares. Each square has a letter of the alphabet. Ms. Carolyn explained to the parents that they do not have assigned places to sit but the kids all tend to sit in the same places every day. Cason sat on the H.

Then they went through their circle time, recognizing the kids' names on index cards and each kid would put their name next to their picture. They did the days of the week, sang songs about the days, talked about the month, and what day of the month it was. Then they sang the weather song and talked about what the weather was like that day. Then they dressed their Diego figure in the appropriate clothing. Then they sang a couple songs, all while incorporating numbers, colors, shapes, etc.

We were just impressed to see Cason follow instructions, sit quietly, pay attention, actively participate, and be social. Those are exactly the things we wanted him to develop by sending him to preschool. We also wanted him to play more independently, which I'm happy to say, he is so much better at. He still wants me in the room with him a lot but he's not glued to my side anymore and I feel like I can breathe again. Cason looked like such a big boy sitting on the mat and paying attention. We are so happy with our decision to send him to preschool, even if it's only for 3 hours a week.

What's wrong Rycie?

Just a quick story I don't want to forget. Tonight I was washing my face and taking my contacts out. Bryce was sitting on the floor of our bedroom right next to the bathroom playing with a toy. He was fussing at the toy because he was getting tired and I was about to put him to bed for the night. All of the sudden, Cason came running in the room saying "I know, Rycie. I know, Rycie. I know, Rycie Roo." Then he got down on the floor right next to Bryce and put his face right next to Bryce's and said "What's wrong Rycie?" It was so sweet. Every now and then, when Cason stops stealing toys from Bryce, I get a glimpse at the great big brother I know he will be.

Landscaping

Well this is long overdue, seeing as how we finished the landscaping a week and a half ago. I had promised the after pictures but wasn't too quick getting them up because they aren't all that impressive. But I was reminded by Alissa's Plant a tree post so here they are.

Our flower bed had been taken over by weeds. We actually hired a guy to plant a bunch of stuff in it a year ago but he mostly just planted a bunch of puny pansies. You couldn't even see them from the street because of our retaining wall. So Kelly ripped them out, along with all the weeds. Then we purchased some new bushes and shrubs and did some rearranging. We are far from botanists -- anything related to plants I really hated in my biology classes. So it was hard to pick stuff that would thrive with little maintenance and also not grow out of control. We talked to about 3 different plant people and we think we picked some stuff that will make our flower bed look full in a couple of years. I wanted some color contrast so there are some white, red, and purple leaves and the day lillies will bloom yellow I think most of the spring/summer.

Kelly hard at work.



Cason thought it was pretty cool to be able to use a real "shubul". No, I have no idea why he insisted on wearing his swim trunks.





Then he ended up just mixing a bunch of dirt, sticks, and rocks into his bucket of water. He later made a lovely mud concoction in his water table out back.



Done planting and ready for mulch.



The next day Cason decided to carry our security sign all around in lieu of digging.





Spreading out the mulch.



The finished product. We are told that in 2-3 years, all of the bushes will have gotten much larger and fill up the area. Let's hope so.



These look kind of sad right now but they are day lillies and we were told they would look great most of the year.



If we picked the wrong plants, please break it to us gently!