Happy Halloween!

Being the planner that I am, I started asking Griffin in early September what he thought he wanted to be for Halloween.  His newest interest/obsession is Star Wars, and he said he wanted to be R2D2 for Halloween.  I started looking for an R2D2 costume online and could only find one in toddler sizes (and it wasn't even a good one).  There were plenty of other Star Wars characters, but he really wanted R2D2...so then I decided that I was going to make him a costume and set out looking for ideas and materials.  I went everywhere I could think of trying to find the perfect "body" for R2D2.  I never did quite find the perfect thing, but I settled on a barrel that Griffin & I found at Lowe's (some sort of drainage thing?).

I'm not sure that the pictures do justice to the final product--I know I'm probably biased, but it did end up being really, really cute.  When we went trick-or-treating, we didn't get any questions about who Griffin was dressed as...but we did get lots of comments on what a cool R2D2 costume it was...and a lot of questions about what it was made of.  So before I show you how it turned out, here is how it started.  On the left is the barrel as it looked when I bought it (turned upside down).  On the right is after I cut the opening and drilled holes to put straps on it.  It still had a LONG way to go to become R2D2! 

 

After lots of spray paint, rolls of blue and silver duct tape, foil lasagna pans (shaped into his legs), plenty of hot glue, and more hours than I want to add up, it ended up looking like this.



 

 Griffin liked ducking down inside of it so that his face completely disappeared. In the picture above, I caught him half-in, half-out.  In the picture of the babies below, you can see Griffin (or, rather, R2D2) in the background.

Last year, the babies didn't even wear costumes--I just decorated their stroller because I knew they wouldn't be getting out of it.  This year, they were big enough to get into the Halloween spirit a little more.  They got to wear costumes at their school earlier in the day--Baylor was a tiger and Hudson was a frog.  Griffin had worn one of these pumpkin costumes for Halloween when he was about the same age as the babies now.  I had found the exact same costume at a consignment sale earlier in the fall so Baylor and Hudson got to be my "two little pumpkins."  They didn't do any actual trick-or-treating (once out of the stroller they would not want to go back in so they just stayed in), but they did get some special treats from Mimi, Weezy, and Pop & Chaz. 

18 Months!

I can't believe that "the babies" are 18 months old!  I do call them "the boys" a lot, but I also still refer to them as "the babies" a lot.  I guess I'm going to have to quit calling them that at some point soon since they are growing up so quickly!

Both boys are starting to talk more, but I definitely have to use the context clues to figure out what they are saying most of the time.  Other than Momma & DaDa, "ball" and "dog" are the only words that are really clear.  But I keep finding myself surprised at how much they understand what we are saying even though they can't say much themselves yet.  On the day they turned 18 months, I told Baylor to hold Griffin's hand and he went running over to Griffin and held his little hand out.  He did it again when I asked him to hold hands on the way into Holly & Jason's house, but that time I was able to get a picture of them.  Hollins' 2nd birthday party was the same day as the babies' half birthday which worked out really well because I got lots of pictures of them and they got cake. 

It's been so fun to see Baylor & Hudson's personalities develop and see how they interact with each other and how different they are from each other.  Baylor is such a sweet, loving little boy.  He will just stop in the middle of what he's doing to give me, Hudson, or Griffin a hug.  To say that he loves to play ball would be a huge understatement.  He almost always has a ball in his hands and very often has more than one.  He also loves music and loves to dance--as soon as any little tune comes on the TV, from a toy or wherever, he will start to do a little wiggle and sway.  Hudson is Mr. Personality.  He loves to make people laugh (and knows how to do it!), and he has the sheepish grin and the devilish smirk down pat.  He is already a little rule-breaker and telling him "no" only makes him want to do it more...but then he gets his little smirk and it's hard to get too upset with him.  But when he doesn't get his way, he lets you know that he doesn't like it by throwing himself on the ground and banging his head on the floor. In fact, they are both pretty good at that one.

They really love to play together.  One of my favorite things is to hear them giggling when they are playing peek-a-boo with each other from their cribs.  But as much fun as they have playing together, we also have lots of squabbles over toys, food, my attention or space on my lap, and more...and I'm sure this is only the beginning!  They also ADORE their big brother.  They want to be in the middle of whatever he is doing...and, luckily, he's usually pretty understanding about it and enjoys playing with them, too.  The picture above is of Baylor pushing Hudson on the princess riding toy.  This is a favorite activity to do on their train at home, too.  They even push Griffin on the train sometimes!

Hollins' birthday party was a Minnie Mouse themed party and I got Baylor, Griffin, and Harper with their mouse ears on.  I've always thought Baylor looked "pretty" enough to be a girl with his blonde hair and blue eyes...and having a pink bow in his hair just confirmed those thoughts.  Hudson wouldn't keep the ears on long enough for me to get a picture, but he let me get plenty of pictures of him once he had a cupcake in front of him! 

We don't go to the doctor for their 18-month checkup for 2 more weeks, but we've been to the doctor plenty of times lately for sick visits.  Both boys have had ear infections for the past month--every time they finish an antibiotic, by a day or two later they have a fever again and back to the pediatrician we go.  So we have had plenty of weigh-ins lately: Baylor is coming in at 24 lbs 15 oz and Hudson is 24 lbs 5 oz.  I measured them both on their growth chart and both are right around 31 inches, but Baylor seems to be a tad bit taller.

Summer Wrap-Up

So we've been back at school for nearly 3 months and I haven't posted anything about what we did with the rest of our summer...so here it is:

For the 4th of July, we spent the afternoon at the pool with Holly, Jason, Harper, and Hollins.  That evening, we grilled out at their house with some of their neighbors. 

A few days later we visited the Knoxville  Zoo.  As many times as we've been to the zoo, this is by far the best trip we've ever had.  The animals were all out of their hiding spots and very close to their fences. The gibbons monkeys were really active and Baylor & Hudson were very entertained by them.

  We even saw one of the gorillas having a fight with one on the other side of the cage. Don't worry--this isn't a real snake Griffin is holding.  It's a stuffed replica of one the zoo had on exhibit last year.  

And after all of that excitement, we checked out the new splash pad at the zoo.  We all agreed that this is a GREAT new addition!

On July 14th, the babies turned 15 months old. They were just starting to be able to climb up on the sofa or ottoman by themselves and it was absolutely their favorite thing to do.  Another big favorite was sitting on the bottom step, usually side-by-side.  It's so fun to watch how they interact with each other...and how they already want to be able to do everything their big brother does.  

On July 25th, Griffin had surgery to move the lateral muscles of his eyes to help with his tracking.  It was a rough couple of days, but he had lots of visitors and all came bearing gifts so that definitely helped.  But he wasn't allowed to go swimming for two weeks after his surgery which meant the rest of our summer break.

We had to take Hudson back to Cincinnati Children's Hospital on July 31 for a follow-up on the lymphedema in his arm (which has been much, much better in the time since our first visit to CCH).  We decided to take everyone with us and make an end-of-summer getaway out of it. Matt and Griffin caught a Reds game, Griffin's first major league game. 

 



The next day, we went across the river to Newport, KY to visit the aquarium. 

Baylor wasn't quite sure what to think of these penguins that were as big as he was.

 

Griffin's favorite part of the aquarium was by far this PlayMotion screen.  He is very artistic and loved that he could create all of these colors and images just by moving and waving his arms. 

 

Griffin had been very excited about the Olympics ever since he saw some of the swimmers in the Olympic trials.  I decided that we should have an Olympics party since he was still going to be limited in his post-surgery activities and needed something to get excited about...not to mention that you only get the opportunity to have an Olympics party once every four years!  A couple of days before the party, he and I tie-dyed some red, white & blue shirts (although they were a little more pink & purple after washing).  We had food from around the world, and Griffin and Harper got to decorate rice krispy treat flags with M&Ms.  It was a fun little party and a good finish to the summer.