Happy Halloween!

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. We had company the first half of the week, went to Disney Thursday, and on top of that I've been sick with a cold since Wednesday.  We'll go to our church's Fall Festival tonight.  I hope it's cool enough for Hunter to last a while in his costume!

A Parenting Backfire

Recently, Hunter has learned the word 'mine'.  As times he uses it appropriately, but most times not.  He's not one to take toys away from other kids, but if a toy is taken from him he will yank it back and yell "MINE" which I don't think is appropriate although he's not able to verbally ask for it back yet.  In trying to figure out how to make that stop I started telling Hunter that 'mine' isn't a nice word and that he can say that the toy is Hunter's.  Now, he doesn't exactly say his name yet so when I tell him I use my hand to pat his chest.  Now when he says mine I will ask him what we say instead of that and he'll pat his chest, but he's still using the word to begin with.  Ugh.

So, this week we have friends from Jax staying with us.  There is another girl just a few months older than Hunter here so they've spent 48 hours together already.  They've been playing really well together, but I've heard 'mine' a lot and I just keep telling him that 'it's Hunter's'.  So, now when I ask him 'what is your name?' he says 'mine'.  He gets that Hunter = mine so now his name is Mine.  Lovely.

I need another tactic.  Another way to get him to quit saying mine.  Clearly, this way is not working.  Any suggestions?

Update:  Just since posting this we've been working on when I say "What is your name?"  He says "Hun-ah" and pats his chest.  Progress!

Cuttin' loose at Mr. Richard

We went to see Mr. Richard today and I took a little video with my pocket camera.  Hunter had a great time and did quite a bit of dancing.  As you'll see, he started tapping his foot like Mr. Richard and the female guitarist, so cute.  The last clip is Hunter's version of an airplane in case you weren't sure.

The evolution of our kitchen

We having been doing some home improvement projects lately.  We had taken a break for a while and enjoyed the summer.  The most recent project started with the purchase of granite countertops.  We found a deal we couldn't pass up and went for it.  That led to doing a tile backsplash, changing out the outlets and plates from white to black, and adding some lighting around the cabinets.  Thankfully, Heath is very handy and did everything with the exception of installing the granite.

Here is our kitchen in 2002 before we even moved in

This wasn't too much later when we started painting walls and added some new light fixtures

Here is Heath installing the tile. The tile is slate and a little fragile so it wasn't the easiest of jobs. He's glad it's over!

Here is the finished product. I love all the colors in the tile. The sealer really made the color come out. You can see the granite here, too. It looks a lot more black in the picture. It has quite a bit of brown in it though.  You can't exactly see it here, but we made the island bigger so that we can now put a couple of chairs up to it.

This is my poor attempt to show the lighting in the kitchen. Heath put lights on top and underneath all the cabinets. It gives the kitchen a great ambiance and really shows off the tile at night. 

Two Year Portraits

While I was in Jax last week I took Hunter to Picture People to get some 2-year pictures made. Having my mom's help made it possible to accomplish with all the waiting and choosing you have to do after you have the pictures taken.

The last time we had professional pictures taken Hunter was 18 months old and it was a TOTAL disaster.  He had to be touching me at all times and wanting no part of the guy with the camera. He's not real fond of strangers... still.  He literally sat on me while I leaned by body out of the way of the picture.  I walked out of there with my ONE free picture and that was it.

So, I was hoping this wouldn't go so terribly.  It didn't go that terribly, but I had to work hard to get those 3 pictures below.  Hunter, again, wanted no part of the girl with the camera.  After 10 minutes of him walking off the backdrop and not cooperating I was ready to throw in the towel.  The girl got a baseball out and that got him excited.  He threw the ball to me and that put him in a better mood.  I got a couple of cars out of my bag and he played with those, rolling them off the stool between pictures.  I'm just glad the cars matched his outfit.  It's fitting because of his current obsession with everything cars right now.

After that he was finally excited to put on his Halloween costume.  Isn't that the cutest lion you've ever seen?!

More favorites from the farm

Hunter has to be one of the most documented children.  I hope I can keep it up with the next one.  Hopefully my interest in photography will keep me going. 

Most months I keep about 100 pictures of Hunter.  I take a lot more than that!  With the trip to the farm this month was more than double at 215 keepers!

On the train

So many to choose from!

This one is for Uncle Ronnie

A kiss for Daddy

Green Meadows Farm

We went to Green Meadows Farm today.  It's a petting farm with lots of animals.  We took Hunter back in March for the first time.  It was fun then, but it was a lot more fun today.  He is at such a fun age.  We're having a great time experiencing things with him.  We packed a lot into a couple hours today.  Hunter got to get into the pens and pet turkeys, chickens,  and goats, hold a baby chick, sit on tons of old tractors, ride on a train, go on a hayride, and pick out a pumpkin!

I have A LOT more pictures on Flickr if you want to see them all.  I'll share some more of my favorites throughout the week.

Picking out a pumpkin

Petting the chickens

Chugga-chuggin' on the choo-choo

Holding a baby chick

Driving a tractor

Hugging a goat

Cars, cars, cars!

Hunter's current obsession is with cars.  First of all, he got Cars the movie for his birthday and has practically been watching it on repeat in the car ever since.  Every time he watches it you'd think he'd never seen it before.  He gets so excited!  He points to cars in parking lots and on the road as we're driving along.  And he loves to play with his bucket of never ending cars and trucks, driving them all over the furniture and through the house.  I now keep several little cars in my bag and he will play with them while I shop.  Some of his favorite cars are the Batman and Superman ones that his cousins, Evan and Jacob, gave him for his birthday.  They're the kind that you shake and then put them down and they go.  The more you shake them the farther they go.  Hunter had fun racing them with Aunt Margie earlier this week, as you can see below.

Some pictures to keep you coming back!

Sorry for the lack of postings.  We took a quick trip to visit the grandparents this week.  Sorry to those we weren't able to visit!  We'll catch you next time.

I took these pictures in my mom's front yard in the evening as the sun was going down.  I was really able to show off Hunter's blue eyes!

Mr. Richard

Mr. Richard is this hippy converse wearing guy who is pretty much a rockstar to the kids around central Florida.  He plays the guitar and sings kid songs that he writes.  He plays at various locations around town each week.  We have gone to see him at our local Barnes & Noble twice a month since before Hunter could crawl.  He encourages the kids to get up and dance on stage if they want.  Hunter gets more brave every time we go.  We typically get there early enough to get a good spot up front.  Hunter will get out of my lap and dance/jump around.  The past 2 times we've gone he's ran up on stage between songs to interact with Mr. Richard.  Once he starts playing again Hunter is back near me.  Not sure what that's all about, but it's cute.

Here is Hunter at the end of the "woo woo" song and then he runs up on stage and gives five to the drummer and Mr. Richard.

The Battle with Food

My constant and only battle (right now) with Hunter is over food. He's never been a big eater. Most recently, my problem is that I prepare two meals for dinner, one for Heath and I and one for Hunter.  I decided that had to stop.  Hunter's problem isn't that he doesn't like certain foods, it's that he won't try them to even find out.  He decides what he will and will not eat based on what it looks like.  

The mentor in a class I'm taking at church suggested that maybe I let Hunter be involved in the cooking process.  I started trying this just last Thursday and it has made a HUGE difference so far. Letting him see what goes into his dinner must be just what he needed. We've cooked noodles, homemade chicken nuggets, pizza, and a quesadilla with chicken and cheese and he's eaten it all!  All of those meals minus the pizza are things he's refused in the past when I put them in front of him for dinner.  I haven't tested the limits too far.   We're starting small.  Baby steps. I'm so proud of him though.  It takes a little more time and effort and some extra clean up to let him help, but it's totally worth it!

Helping me cut green peppers (with a dull spreader)

Putting them into the bowl

Putting cheese on his pizza

The little things...

We had a successful garage sale on Saturday.  Hunter had spent the night with Grandma to allow us to get all of our stuff set up in the morning without a toddler running underfoot. Hunter arrived back home about 9am.  For four hours he ran and played, and ran and played some more while we manned our garage sale.  He was so well behaved.  At one point he and Daddy laid down in the grass and were naming all the things they could see - trees, birds, clouds, sky.  I had to run inside and get my camera because they just looked so cute!

Tonight

Heath was mowing the grass after dinner tonight so Hunter and I went outside to enjoy a really nice evening.  Soon it was a neighborhood gathering with 4 moms and their boys.  I took my camera out hoping to practice a little and I got a few really good shots.  I'm happy with them anyway.

Hunter really wanted to get in the car with Jace.  Jace didn't seem to mind Hunter crawling all over him.  He eventually got situated on top of his lap and they were happy as clams.  We were dying laughing.  They look like they think we're crazy.  Love the color in this one.

This is Caleb and he's 6 months.  His eyes are gorgeous!  And those lips!

Again, love the color!

A Visit to Callahan

While in Jacksonville we made a visit to Callahan to see Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Pat.  Hunter loves to run around their 8 acres picking up sticks, seeing the goats next door, touching the real stuffed animals on the wall in his shop, and walking out on the dock.  A bit of a change from our neighborhood where the houses are on top of each other.

Hunter is letting the corn out of the feeder so the geese and other critters can eat

Playing Airplane

Buds