What does a penguin say????

This post is so ridiculously long you will fall asleep in the middle of it, I am so sorry! I couldn't help myself!

Every Halloween Ryan and I would buy the obligatory ginormous bag of candy for the neighborhood kids, get a pumpkin that Ryan would so eloquently carve (he is a FAB pumpkin carver, seriously!) and then we would dress up Ritzy in an utterly ridiculous costume that he hates. You can put clothes on him - polos, sweatshirts, hats, coats, shoes - he is fine with all of it. For some reason, his Halloween costumes? Nope, he does not like those one bit and he lets you know.

So this year, we have taken some of our torment off of Ritzy and placed it upon Easton (I got Ritzy a new costume this year - a lobster - but I had to take it back because when I put it on him, he walked around with his tail between his legs and looking at us like we beat him *sigh*) so I think we may just have him wear one of his favorite sweatshirts with a whistle around his neck - he can be a.........football coach? Hehe. Anyway, so as I was saying, Ritzy is not getting all of our torment this year, oh no, poor Easton is too. Easton is a penguin, oh yes, a darling little penguin at that. So darling that I have decided I must show him off to every Halloween party in existence within our group of friends :-) Poor Toeytoe.

First off -

Tuesday night my mom's group friends all got together at Chuck-E-Cheese for a Halloween party. Just the name Chuck-E-Cheese sends chills up and down my spine. As you may well know, I am a germaphobe, to a fault. Our kid has not been sick yet - not even a cold! (KNOCK ON WOOD!) and although the doctor says Easton should be exposed to germs to help build up immunities and all of that jargen, I disagree and shelter him from all germs and germy people. But, come on, my mom friends, pizza, flashing lights, annoying songs being sung by a mouse - and, showing off Easton in his penguin costume, how could I not go!? So I did....with my sanitizer in hand....

Easton enjoying the only "germy" ride I would let him go on! He loved it! He squealed with such delight!

A video of E-Toe in the ride, he was having a blast!

He loved steering that bad boy....

Another video of E in the ride, this is hilarious because you can hear him getting all excited!

All of the moms and babes (a fertile bunch, don't ya think!?) Can you spy a penguin?

And then today, as if Tuesday night's festivities weren't enough, I took Easton to our Wednesday "Laptime" at the library. The kids were encouraged to dress up in their costumes. Of course we obliged.

Here's a picture of our little penguin with his friends Avery and Addie....

Addie and Easton. In this one Easton is watching the train go around the room. The library has a train track mounted about a foot down from the ceiling and a train goes around and around - as you can see E is a fan!

Smilin' Sam!

That is all for the costume photos. I am sure we'll be taking more on Halloween while E hands out candy to all of the kiddos.

This afternoon, after laptime, my mom and I went to the mall, like we always do, and we brought Easton to the carousel. Holy hannah, Easton loves everything we do and always has a good time, but I have never seen him enjoy anything more than he enjoyed the carousel! My goodness! The kid was SQUEALING and GIGGLING so loud the whole food court stopped and turned out to watch him during his WHOLE RIDE and they all smiled and pointed....it was quite cute, then it got awkward....But anyway, he loved it! I will have to take better video next time, I had my mom take it as we went by, but it didn't capture his true excitement. He has a blast - great idea mom! Thanks so much!

These were taken after the ride....

Days go by, I get feel 'em flying, like a hand out the window in the wind....

Our baby boy is 9 months old! Actually he is about 9 1/2 months old right now. Wowzers! The next big photo session we have will be his 1 year shoot! Ryan and I remark every day that we cannot believe how fast Easton is growing. So bittersweet. Time is flying by, so we make sure to savour every moment of every day with him.

I hate to brag, but seriously, our little E-toe is the best baby ever! He is always smiling - always. He loves to laugh and make others laugh. He is just a good time charlie.

Right now he has three teeth. He has his bottom left front tooth and his front top two teeth. He never fussed while teething, because - well, he is always smiling - always!

He eats everything too, what a champ. I have recently begun pureeing my own baby food for Easton and it has been great fun, I wish I would have started sooner! He is also starting to really take to "finger" foods and it has been fun for Ryan and I to watch him experience new tastes and textures. :-)

He is on the go and crawls everywhere and FAST! The kid is zippy! We love watching him zip down the hall towards his playroom. He loves it in there. He loves playing with all of his toys (and Ritzy's toys too! Ha!). He loves his Leap Frog music table and his trucks - but he especially loves the guitar. I have caught him eyeing mine and Grampy has actually let Easton strum a little bit on one of his own guitars!

Easton is also "cruising" right now. He pulls himself up next to everything and then he walks around. He is getting quite daring too lately and will catapult himself from the couch to the coffee table and so on. He also walks really well behind some of his push toys. I have a feeling we will have an "independent walker" on our hands very soon!

Easton is a social butterfly and a total flirt. He loves to talk like his daddy and loves attention like his mama. Uh oh! When shopping, I love to have him try on hats (he looks so cute in them, right?!) and he eats it up because he loves the attention from everyone. He will put his hand on the brim of the hat, or the top of his head, cock his head and smile! Can you say ham!? Seriously!
We have been keeping busy lately and go to at least one, if not two, playdates a week and we go to "Laptime" at the library and have swim class as well and he loves it! Then we always have a fun "trip" that we do on the weekend with daddy which we always look forward to!

I don't have any stats to share yet. We go in to see the doctor in early November. We can't wait to see how much he weighs and how long he is, officially. The boy is packing some serious groceries!

I think that is all I have to share right now! On to the pictures!

My dad took Easton's 9 month shoot last Tuesday night.

"VROOM!" ....went the cow ride....

This past Saturday Ryan and I took Easton and met up with our friends Kristen, Adam and their babe Ethan at The Country Basket out on 9 Mile and Alpine - now THIS was a DARLING farm! Way better than Post Family Farms (sorry Post!). We spent 2 fun filled hours there and Easton loved it (so did we!). We fed the goats, petted the goats and watched a mama goat with her babies. They had duckies and chicks and rabbits, kitties, puppies and and hay rides, the cow ride (a BIG hit!) and all sorts of goodies! And I am sure they had other stuff that we were unable to partake in (like picking your own apples and such, not easy with a baby!). The farm is beautiful too and the family that owns and runs the farm, they are so sweet! It was a great time and such a gorgeous day, I am glad we were able to spend some time outside enjoying the gorgeous weather we had this weekend!

Easton on the wooden horse and me, getting my mug in front of the camera every chance I can. It's a sickness, I know.

Easton (L) and Ethan (R). Poor buddy, we forgot a hat for him, the sun was bothering his poor little eyes!

Easton, Ethan and a VERY forward goat. We seem to have met many forward goats lately. Maybe we need to quit hanging out at farms. ;-)

There is not reason for this picture other than me, wanting to show you all the precious little "cupey curl" on top of our little E-toe's head. I couldn't for the life of me get that little curl to behave!

Daddy and E inspecting the pumpkins! Come on, we had to get a picture of him near the pumpkins, we dressed him to coordinate with the pumpkin patch! (And I also think we dressed him for 50 degree weather. Poor kid, it was 78 degrees and we had him in a onesie, polo and jean jacket and then I brought with us a winter hat which Ryan made me take off as soon as we saw him sweating. Yes, I think I am becoming one of "those" moms. My kid will be the only one on the baseball diamond in snowpants and mittens. I'm sorry Easton!)

The two "E"s in the pumpkin patch! Of course we had to sit OUR two punkins down together for the obligatory pumpkin picture! But alas, with an 8 and 9 month old, you don't normally get a lot of cooperation when it comes to pictures! This was as good as it got....

Easton offering Ethan a piece of pumpkin stem. Well....at least he shares!

Ryan, E, Kristen and her E looking at the ducklings! SO PRECIOUS!

Mommy and Easton in the goat barn. This particular barn had a mama goat and her darling little babes! I like little goats. Little goats are MUCH less forward than big, grown up goats. I wanted to take one particular little baby goat home, until it pooped right in front of me. Classy little goat, real classy.

E and me, so cheesy, I told you it's a sickness....

Easton feeding the goats - every "germaphobic" mom's nightmare. Thank goodness for "Wet Ones". One of the best inventions EVER!

Easton and Ryan waiting for the "Cow Train" ride to begin! I think Ryan was more excited about this than little dude! ;-) They had a blast!

"Come on Margie, do something you silly cow!" Easton was ready to roll!!!!

Some videos of E and Ry on the cow ride!

And they're off!

Coming back home!

Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-OH!

....and on that farm they had some KILLER fresh, warm, soft, gooey donuts. E-I-E-I-YUM!

Tuesday night Mommy, Daddy, Grammy and Grampy took Easton to Post Family Farms. Mommy had it in her head that Easton needed to go to the pumpkin patch- not soon, it had to be TODAY, so off we went even though it was dreary and chilly (I am persistent and strong willed if you haven't noticed! Ha!) Luckily they had KILLER donuts because it wasn't all it was cracked up to be, but we made the best of it! Easton had fun looking at the pumpkins and petting the goats.

This weekend it is supposed to be sunny and a bit warmer, we're going to venture out to The Country Basket to see what they have to offer. I smell another blog post, or wait, maybe it just a donut?....Oh well ;-)

Mommy, Daddy and the Little Toe. E-toes first time on the farm! ;-)
A Toe amongst pumpkins
Easton's first time at the pumpkin patch. I attempted to take some cute pictures, but the farm's dog kept coming over and trying to lick Easton and kept bringing us a stick to play fetch. Kinda cute for the first 5 minutes. Easton is watching the dog in this picture....

Pettin' the goats! (Mama had Purel in hand, no worries!)

"Is it pooping papa?"

I think it's safe to say, Easton liked the farm!

ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNND HE'S OFF!!!!

Our baby has been crawling for 2 weeks now....goodness gracious how life has changed! He's so zoomy! I have added a video of his new "trick", but he wasn't interested in showing everyone his teeth, that is where he drew the line! Mama is already showing off enough to the whole entire world with a public blog and all, a boy has to be entitled to SOME privacy, right? ;-)

Our first family vacation! A weekend away....

Ryan and I took Easton on his very first weekend get away! We went up to the Portage Point Inn in Onekama, Michigan. We have gone there for the past 5 years with some friends from Farm Bureau Insurance, Ryan's work.

.

We left Friday afternoon and arrived in Onekama after a very quick 2 hour drive! We had time to socialize with everyone and then had dinner at the Inn. Ryan and I called it a night early to go watch the debate, we're old geezers! :-)

.

Saturday we got up and had breakfast at the Inn and then brought Easton for a walk in downtown Manistee. There are a few stores in downtown Manistee that are true gems that Ryan and I look forward to visiting every year. The lady at the wine store (Moving Spirit) always seems to remember us....so either we leave a lasting impression on people, or we're raging winos and she can't believe the amount of loot we take home with us from her store....either way, it was nice to show off Easton to her. She remembered us coming in pregnant last year for a fabulous bottle of Prosecco to celebrate our baby's arrival with, a bottle we have yet to open because I ended up nursing Easton, so our celebration booze had to be put on hold (booze while nursing = biiiiiiiiig no-no!) We're going to crack it open on his birthday instead, hehe! We're still using it for its intended purpose, celebrating our babe's arrival into the world, right?! ;-)

.

After hitting up our favorite stores, we took our small fortune of wine, stored it underneath Easton's stroller and strolled the river walk along the Manistee River. Easton loved the walk. We spent a lot of time pointing out the small fishing boats, carefully hand crafted sailboats and large cargo ships to Easton as they drifted on by us. We had worked up an appetite by that point and headed to a lovely lunch.

.

E-man and mommy on the river walk

.

Watching the boats come in....

.

Daddy and E-toe taking a break from all of the walkin'....

.

Another one of Ry and his "mini-me"

.

Tomfoolery at the fishing stand. I spy some delectable little pigs. I think someone is missing a sock!

(Note: The sock was eventually located after the taking of this pic)

.

Just having some fun in Manistee!

.

After a nice long nap for all of us, we ran to the pool where I helped Easton show his daddy all of the cool moves he has been learning in swim class! Daddy was impressed!

.

"Dad, seriously, can you tell her to turn down the cheese-factor? This one is way off the charts. I will not smile if she is going to act like this, it is embarrassing."

.

"I told you I could float papa!"

.

Then we suited up for another walk, this time to Lake Michigan! Easton got his first glimpse of the big lake and got to sink his feet in the sand, he was quite fascinated with the feeling of his toes in the sand.

.

Laying his head down on daddy's back, still sleepy from his nap....

.

Welcome to Lake Michigan Easton!

.

Looking out over the water, watching the waves roll in....

.

Getting our feet wet, he didn't know what to think about the sand, the texture had to feel so weird to him!

.

More "air" shots, he thought it was so much fun, I wish you could see his face, he was grinning ear to ear and giggling up a storm!

.

We spotted some jet skiers!

.

All packed up and ready to hike back to the Inn....

.

After that we got dressed up and went to Acadia Bluffs Country Club for dinner (Acadia Bluffs is one of the top 10 golf courses in the country. Personally, I think their raspberry apple pork tenderloin is better than their golf course, hehe! I kid, sort of....You should have seen this golf course - breathtaking with the most sensational view of Lake MI!) And then we called it a night. We headed home Sunday morning after a quick breakfast and a brief farewell to our friends.

.

A wonderful time away with my boys. The perfect little getaway.....