I'm a soldier.

Pumpkin attended a schoolmate's Army-themed birthday party today. I couldn't go so his friend's mom offered to come get him so that he wouldn't have to miss the party. At first, Pumpkin didn't want to go (no surprise there), but he seemed to be having a great time when I showed up 2 hours later to pick him up. He had on camouflage face paint and was wearing a personalized dog tag (so cool!). At home later that evening, I asked him to smile for the camera. His reply? "I'm a soldier." No smile. So unbelievably cute!!!

In other news:

Here are some pictures from a week or two ago of Giggles enjoying her birthday cake and the resulting bath she needed afterward. I thought I'd posted them, but after scrolling down a bit, I realized I hadn't.



Here are some other random pictures from the past couple of weeks. 1-2. Pumpkin and a friend at the park behind our house. 3. Giggles enjoying a ride at Chuck E. Cheese. 4. Pumpkin, Giggles, and a friend taking a stroll at the local outdoor mall. 5. Giggles and a male admirer. (Actually, I think he was really just admiring her stroller toys. ;)

Fisher Price X-Ray Machine

Just kidding. These are real. Since Labor Day, Pumpkin has been having problems with allergies. He's been coughing for the past few weeks and has lately begun having chest pain too. Between him and Giggles, I have already been to their pediatricians' office 4 times this month (twice in this week alone), and the month isn't even over yet. On Wednesday, we finally got to see Pumpkin's primary doctor, and he decided to get a chest X-ray and also do some blood tests to find out exactly what Pumpkin is allergic to that's causing all these problems.

Naturally, Pumpkin balked at getting anything done, but when it was all over, he thought having X-rays of his body was the ULTIMATE coolest thing ever. He called his dad, who was in Wyoming, to tell him about his X-ray pictures. He also called his Grandpa and Grandma in Texas and even had me send them a picture of his X-rays via text messaging, haha. The nurses let us have the extra copies of his X-rays to bring home, and Pumpkin couldn't wait to show them to his dad when he returned from Wyoming.

Fortunately, his X-rays showed no problems with his lungs; however, they did show a sinus infection, for which Pumpkin is now taking antibiotics. I don't know if this will ultimately clear up the cough or not. He just started the meds so we'll have to wait and see how it goes. He went back to school on Thursday, and then went out to lunch with some friends afterward. He's having fun at his new school, and I'm very glad (and relieved).

In fact, he talks about school all the time now, which is something he rarely ever did when he was at Ricks. The cutest thing, I find, is when he starts laughing while telling me about a funny book they read in class. I'm very glad that he feels so comfortable at his new school already. I don't know if I'd mentioned it before, but there are 12 boys in his class (and just 2 girls). While this situation can't be pleasant for his teachers, I'm glad, for his sake, that he'll have so many boys his own age with whom to play this year. :)

Day at the Zoo

Unbelievably, QT had never been to the Zoo with us before, but we finally rectified that yesterday. Pumpkin was soooo excited that his daddy was going with us to the Zoo. He kept asking QT if he was going to stay there with us or if he was leaving. Yesterday also marked the first time that Giggles has really noticed the animals at the Zoo so it was especially nice having QT there for that. We arrived late in the afternoon, and most of the crowds had gone by then, which was nice. Unfortunately, the ticket booth had closed by the time we made it around to the rides, but the nice clerk let us on the train for free (without tickets). All in all, it was a pleasant enough 1st Zoo outing for QT.

QT was trying out a new camera he got for work. Here are some of his pictures:

Here's Giggles clapping at the giraffes.

Giggles' Big Day

We celebrated Giggles' 1st birthday at Red Robin with a good friend of ours and her kids. We took a small cake with us, and the nice folks at RR came out to serenade our little girl. Naturally, she wasn't afraid of the loud singing and clapping in the least. Our server was also nice enough to present Giggles with an ice cream sundae. She enjoyed the whipped cream but balked at the coldness of the ice cream, haha. Afterward, we came home, napped, and goofed off with Sunshine. All in all, a very nice way to celebrate. Enjoy the slideshow!

Click here to view these pictures larger

Giggles Goes Shopping. Pumpkin Goes to School.

On Monday (Labor Day), Pumpkin went to a friend's house to play, and we headed to Babies R Us to pick up some supplies for Giggles. While I ran around gathering the items we needed, QT & Giggles ran around doing some shopping of their own. (Yes, we forgot her shoes at home, but at least she was wearing socks this time.)
Here she is checking out the merchandise and making her selection.











QT was also able to record this cute video of Giggles "shopping." Hint: Watch it to the end to get to the "surprise."



The following day was Pumpkin's 1st day of school. Unfortunately, he woke up coughing and feeling a bit of pain in his chest so in addition to making sure he had a nice, hearty breakfast and re-checking that his school supplies were in order and feeding Giggles and taking the dog outside and...well, you get the picture...anyway, in addition to all that, we also had to put a nebulizer treatment together for him. Consequently, we didn't have much time left over for taking pictures. We did get a few at school and at least one of him in front of the house ignoring Dad. ;)





















And just for fun, here's a pic of the kids playing together. (wink, wink)

Labor Day Picnic

We spent Saturday afternoon at the park having a picnic with our friends. It was great! The weather was warm but nice, and we had the park almost all to ourselves. The kids had a blast running around and jumping on the Bounce House that we rented. The moms enjoyed hanging out and chatting, and the dads enjoyed tossing the football around and just plain goofing off. All in all, fun was had by all. :)

Below are pictures of Pumpkin and his friends Amira, Blake, Cole, Olivia, Sarah, Meredith, and Victoria on the playground, in the bounce house, or patiently waiting in line for their turns on the bounce house.


In the block below, Giggles is in the bounce house (bouncing, climbing, crawling, & sitting) and also chilling out on the picnic blanket and with the I boys.


Below are scenes from our picnic. Guys grilling, playing football, and swinging?? Friends chatting, eating, and hanging out. Kids on the playground. Etc. Etc.

Hog Heaven

Aside from me, Lys, his beautiful Grandma, and possibly his baby sister, Pumpkin has had 2 big, or should I say little, L-O-V-E-S of his life. Both girls are older than Pumpkin, intelligent, tall, and exotically beautiful with dark hair, dark eyes, the works!

When he returned from Texas a few weeks ago, we invited some friends over and had ourselves a little Texas party complete with Texas movie, Texas music, Texas-shaped waffles, and Texas-style grub. His two favorite girls were both here as well as another island beauty that's slowly but surely moving up the ranks. (She likes trains. 'Nuff said.)

I forgot about my camera and didn't take many (read: any) pictures until the last of our guests were leaving. Here's Pumpkin, apparently in hog heaven, saying goodbye to his 2 favorite girls in the whole world...aside from me, Lys, his beautiful Grandma, and possibly Giggles. You know how it is.