Fall 2013

 Eric and Riley are so cute together, he always calls her Riley Sue and wants to hold her all the time.

Eric still eats almost nothing and is so so picky. He has never eaten meat still and is almost three. He doesn't like bread, pasta/noodles, or anything we eat for dinner. He is to the point we can usually get him to try one bite and he gags it down and asks for a bowl of oatmeal. It is ridiculous. I don't know how he weighs more than 10 pounds! His typical lunch is an apple slice, a few crackers, and a yogurt. Oh well, he obviously is doing fine.

He is so smart and says things that surprise us all the time. I was so mad because he was up in his room playing an hour after I had put him to bed and I came in and told him to get back in bed. As I'm angrily throwing all his toys in the toy box, he happily says, "you put my toys away! Fanks Mommy!" I just started laughing.

Riley is so cute and now giggles and loves to play. She has been rolling for over a month now and won't stay on her tummy for more than a minute usually. The mohawk is finally starting to wilt down, it makes me sad, but she still looks adorable. She is starting to look so much like Eric did at her age, but they have a lot of differences too. Here are some things we've been up to this fall:

Eric found Mommy's mascara...

Busted out the jumparoo for Riley, she LOVES it, but just like Eric did, she doesn't bounce in it, just sways side to side

Sheboygan was Eric's favorite toy at this age and apparently the love for Sheboygan has continued on

 Tanner's birthday was at the beginning of October. We made him a birthday cake and Eric was so excited to show it to Daddy. The next day, I had the cake on the counter. I was feeding Riley and Eric went in the kitchen and told me he was getting a bite of cake. I wasn't happy about it, but said it wasn't that big a deal. When I went in not even five minutes later, he was at the counter on a chair, grabbing handfuls of cake and throwing them across the entire kitchen. I was not very happy about that. But we can laugh about it now.

Beautiful fall colors just outside our window

The mohawk is slowly starting to droop down

 Since we bought Eric his Halloween costume of a pirate, he has wanted to wear it all the time. He even wore it to Costco a couple weeks ago. He found these drums and was in heaven.

 Riley trying on the adorable Snow White costume Grandma Fullmer sent her. She would not stop trying to eat that little pillow.

 At a pumpkin patch in Cedarburg.

 The world's worst corn maze, it had two turns and they were both a straight line.

 In Milwaukee, most people don't trick or treat on Halloween. You do it on the day your city or neighborhood decides. So ours was the Friday before Halloween. That night Eric said he didn't want to be a pirate (think of Jerry Seinfeld yelling "but I don't wanna be a pirate!") and wanted to wear his Iron Man dress up. We figured there would be other times to wear it and let him do his thing and he had a blast.

 First time trick or treating outside, going to the first door

 Eric, Max, Luke, and Jack

Chomping on that bow, nom nom nom

 Caught this random gem of Eric taking his turn "pumfing." He told me we need to share our stuff and asked for a turn. How could I argue with that??

 We went to the Elegant Farmer with the Denneys and had an amazing time. We did the corn maze, apple picking (Tanner has all the pictures of that), ate apple cider donuts, and rode the hayride. It was so much fun, the boys loved it, despite it being freezing cold.
 And Eric loved eating all the apples in the orchard and on the way home.

 Riley enjoyed the trip too! Just love her!

 Eric and Creight, cute little buddies. Before we left, we also got an apple pie in a paper bag, those things are so good, and I don't even like apple pie! That night we had our ward trick or treat and Eric actually wore his pirate costume, which is the one we had bought for him this year! We found a baby parrot costume for $5 at Old Navy, so we just had to give Eric his own pirate parrot.

On guard!

Could these two be any sweeter together?

pumpkin carving for fhe

Eric trying to blow out the pumpkin birthday candles

Eric and Jack in the fall leaves

He hasn't stopped changing costumes since the first day of trick or treating. That day, he was a tiger, wearing my boots of course, then went to Target as Batman, and went to bed as a cowboy.

 If you're wondering why I included a picture of Eric's potty seat, I will tell you. This orange seat goes to a little potty I bought for Eric about 6 months ago on clearance. He has never thought of that as a potty and it can be seen two pictures below-he refers to it as his "blue step." So if I talk about going potty in there, he is totally thinking, "why are you asking me to pee in a step???" and politely refuses, with a "no fanks." So we've tried the orange step on the big potty a few times, but it's a no go and has sat on the floor next to our potty for the past few weeks. So at Target yesterday, we had a gift card and found this beauty:

 A lightning mcqueen potty seat!! He was so psyched about it. When we got home he sat on it and peed a little bit for his first time in the potty! He started a little early and peed all over the potty on his way getting on, but we assured him, "it's ok, good job!" We couldn't believe it. We are in no rush to get him potty trained, he's just been acting more interested because most of his friends are. So we figured we'd humor him and let him try when he wants.

The Blue Step, which is now mainly used to stand on and yell "wake up Riley Sue!" every morning

 So this morning, Eric said he wanted to pee on the potty. I took off his diaper and sat him on the potty. A little trickle came out and he hopped off proudly. He flushed and washed his hands, and I went to get a new diaper. At my leisurely pace, I come back just as he yells out, "it's ok Mommy, it's ok." I walk in, and he has taken aim at the orange potty seat that was sitting on the floor and there is a spray/puddle all over the bathroom floor. I was shocked he had more pee in there, where was he hiding it?? He looked so proud, I just laughed and told him yes, it was ok and got a towel and lysol and cleaned it up. On my way to throw the towel down the laundry chute, I hear him again yelling "I did it! It's ok Mommy, I clean it." I come back to figure out what he means and he has peed AGAIN, on the FLOOR of course and is wiping it up with the entire roll of toilet paper (not unrolled, just all together in the roll). Needless to say, before I cleaned it up, I ran as fast as I could and got a diaper on that little fire hose and cleaned up the bathroom again. Nope, I'm not ready potty train yet.

Aren't I adorable??

 

At the MCW trick or treat today, on Halloween. This was Eric's third time trick or treating in one week and he was DONE. I had to beg him to put on a costume and come. He kept saying, "I not going. I no want more candy." Finally I got him out the door and to the school and he had a lot of fun. And he chose a cowboy this time and looked adorable. And Jack's costume was hilarious, as you can see.

Happy Halloween everyone!!