Boo!

Thomas enjoys his first taste of a lollipop from his Halloween loot

Dragon costume ~ he doesn't look happy in any of these photos,

but he honestly didn't mind the costume at all!

T & his pumpkins

Pictured left to right: Tigger, the skull, Thomas and Scooby Doo

Annual Squishing of the Squash

This photo is off the zoo's website because our photos didn't turn out quite as nicely. It's a little hard to hold Thomas and snap photos over the heads of a few adults at the same time. We joined Thomas' playgroup to watch this annual Halloween event this morning at the Oregon Zoo. Three elephants walked out single file, each holding the tail of the elephant in front of them. They made a big circle and then lined up side by side and lifted their front feet in unison as pictured above. After a brief minute for photos, the trainers released the elephants and the three marched up to the huge pumpkin waiting for them and proceeded to stomp and eat it. It was actually quite fun to watch! It was also nice to be at the zoo so early on a cool Fall morning because the animals were all being fed and were surprisingly active.

color

Thomas loves to color. I use the term color loosely because it isn't necessarily coloring, but a bunch of random scribbles instead. He colors in the bathtub with bath crayons and in his sketch book with real crayons. Pens, pencils, crayons... he calls them all color. It's become our new favorite word of his. Apparently Bela also loves to color because she'd never voluntarily lay this close to Thomas. Maybe they smell like treats?

in search of the great pumpkin

The weather was beautiful this afternoon for our trip out to a pumpkin patch. Thomas helped us pick out three perfect pumpkins to grace our front porch. There were all sorts of fun activities and farm animals to enjoy in addition to the yummy treats sold in the little store. Best part for us was the mid-week "crowd" (huh? what crowd??) and the fudge. Best part for Thomas was this friendly Labrador who greeted us when we arrived. She was the perfect host ~ happily accepting all the love Thomas had to give and walking with us out to the pumpkins!

17 months

Since Thomas was born on a Friday the 13th, it'll always be a very good day for us...

our growing family

Two adults, one toddler and two dogs just wasn't enough. Today we've added three guppies to our family. I had intended to get two goldfish, but when I told the saleslady that I wanted to put two of those in a 2 gallon bowl she quickly steered me to the smaller fish. I guess they would need a little more space than our little bowl (who knew?). We picked out our three new guppies, a new plant for the fish bowl and the woman directed us to some water conditioner and salt something or another that we would also need. We had the fish bowl and some pretty blue rocks at home so I figured we were all set. Nope. I forgot fish food.

musical chairs, anyone?

Today marked an entirely new car riding experience for Thomas -- we turned him around so he now faces forward. As with anything child-related, I had read several different recommendations as to when to make this change. Everyone seems to have an opinion. We had decided to put it off until he weighed closer to 30 pounds. Not sure if that's where he's at right now, but he feels pretty close and we're comfortable with spinning the seat around. He didn't mind facing backward, but seems maybe just a little happier to be facing forward.

Of course, having him face forward and now seated behind the passenger seat is totally throwing me off. For the past 16+ months I've been watching him via the rear view mirror (and another mounted on the backseat). Now I only get a partial view of him in the rear view mirror and instead need to peek over my shoulder to see him. While out driving this afternoon, I found myself constantly checking the rear view mirror and, on more than one occasion, wondering where Thomas was...

new photos!

Our home computer has been back up and running for almost a week now. Last night M was able to get the digital camera to download photos again to the computer. Not sure what happened there, but the two weren't finding each other. I thought I'd have a whole bunch of photos during this interim, but I really didn't. I'll post a few here that were taken these last few weeks...

a splishin' and a splashin'

A previous post included a photo of Thomas in the casting pond as it was being filled. He enjoyed splashing around in the water and getting his jeans totally soaked.

Greta plants herself

I tell her she's beautiful and smells pretty all the time. She must think she's a flower. I caught her one afternoon sunning herself in the planter. Silly dog.

Thomas' playroom

Toys here, toys there, toys everywhere. One of my pet peeves is coming home to a front room cluttered with toys. Books over here, plastic cars over there. A stuffed animal in the planter. A ball on top of the dining room table. It really bugs me. And now that Thomas is getting older and accumulating even more toys, the problem was growing. Our solution? A playroom. All the toys reside in there and at the end of the day when he's long asleep, I can close the door. I love the playroom!

still smiling

Over the last two weeks, all three of us have had this cold. Thomas was the only one smiling while down with it though.

chipmunk Thomas

A new exhibit in the Science Playground at OMSI invites children to see the world from our furry little friends' perspective. They can wear these little costumes, climb into a bird's nest, and enjoy all sorts of other fun activities.

Halloween shopping

Kind of cute as an Elvis impersonator, eh? We didn't go with this costume idea.

riding in the front seat

When I need to move the Mercedes into the street, I often take Thomas with me and plop him down on the front seat. He loves it.

Hollywood comes to the 'hood

Thomas and I rode our bikes over to watch filming of Sean Penn's new movie "Into the Wild". They have been in production on the Oregon coast since June, but have now moved inland and landed right in our 'hood. We weren't able to get too close as they were in the middle of filming, but I did snap a few photos of what we were able to see. Right behind the blue newspaper stand above are actors William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden. The guy to the left in a gray t-shirt and jeans is director Sean Penn. Also starring in this film are actors Vince Vaughn and Catherine Keener, but we didn't see either today.

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After they finished shooting one scene, I figured we had seen enough and Thomas and I started walking our bike down the block away from the shoot. Marcia Gay Harden was coming up behind us and stopped when she reached us to gush over Thomas. She and her assistant oohed and aahed over him, commenting on how adorable he is. Marcia asked if he was almost two, made a few comments about the monkeys on his bicycle helmet and said our setup with the bicycle and bicycle trailer looked like a lot of fun. Her face was familiar but I could not remember her name or think of anything intelligent to say. I resorted to the normal small talk I'd do with any stranger. Of course, once we got home I had to look her up online to find out her name. Marcia Gay Harden! Duh.

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local celebrity?

This photo of Thomas appeared in the local newspaper today. By 8am this morning, we had already received a phone call and an e-mail from people who had seen the photo. Last Friday Thomas and I joined his playgroup at the nearby park as the casting pond began to be filled for the first time in 5 years. Quite the excitement for our little neighborhood!