Halloween

 Jared was Super Mario for Halloween this year.  Easiest costume ever! 

• Red shirt
• Overalls (add yellow felt buttons)
• Red hat (add white circle and red letter "M")
• Felt mustache (glued to binky)

We only went to 5 houses.  Jared doesn't eat candy yet but we wanted him to enjoy a little of the Halloween experience.  Plus it made for a fun photo op :-) He seemed to enjoy seeing all the kids come to the door though.  We didn't get so many trick-or-treaters this year.  It started raining around 8pm and very few kids came after that.  We had quite a bit of left over candy.  I made Jonathan hide it from me.  Alas, willpower is not my strong suit. . .

Jack o Lantern

 One of the coolest things about being a parent is getting to experience "everything new".  All the exciting and magical traditions I enjoyed when I was young are exciting and magical again through the eyes of a child.  I loved getting out the Halloween decorations and showing them to Jared.   And I thoroughly enjoyed carving Jared's first pumpkin.  He seemed pretty interested in it and kept trying to eat the cut out pieces.  In fact, after I finished carving the face, I got up to wash my hands and turned back around to find him gnawing on it.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch this year in honor of Jared's first Halloween.  Actually, it was more of a mini carnival than an actual patch.  There were bouncy houses, and bouncy slides, a petting zoo and pony rides.  And, of course, plenty of pumpkins.  Grandma and Grandpa Clare came with us and took turns lugging that BIG little boy around.

Grandpa Clare with Jared

So many choices

The chosen pumpkin

Just outside the petting zoo -- goats feel funny!

Inside the petting zoo -- and a little unsure

At the pony rides

"Look Ma, no hands!"

"Wait, what is this thing?"

Starting to slide off  . . .

Read This One Mommy!

Future Tolkien fan. . .

All Jumped Out

This is Jared in his Jumperoo . . . fast asleep. 



Tired little boy!


Jared loves his Jumperoo.  He can jump and play with the toys and entertain himself for quite a while.  On Saturday, Jonathan was watching Jared while I was out for a couple hours.  He left Jared happily bouncing away and went downstairs.  When Jonathan came back a few minutes later he saw Jared resting his head against his arm fast asleep. 

Apparently though, Jared was not too pleased when he was pulled out and put in his crib.  Kudos to Jonathan for having the presence of mind to get a picture before waking him up.  I love it!

A Boy and His Dog

The relationship between a boy and his dog is something special . . .

Jared loves Otis.  He always wants to see what Otis is doing and where he is.  He smiles when Otis comes into the room, laughs at all his antics, and seems disappointed when Otis is separated behind a gate or glass.  For his part, Otis is very sweet with Jared.  He licks Jared's face, lets him pull his tail and ears (we make sure he doesn't hurt Otis and are trying to teach him to be gentle -- Otis is very patient) and cleans up any food that falls from Jared's high chair.  Here are a few videos:

Jared Goes Swimming

Last week was so warm that we decided to hit the pool.  We have a neighborhood pool but alas no babies in diapers are allowed. (I was so disappointed when I learned that . . . my visions of Jared and I spending long afternoons floating in the pool were dashed) Fortunately, our friends, the Gilberts, rescued us this summer and have invited us to go swimming with them anytime we want.

Jared with his sun protection gear.

The Gilbert's daughter, Payton (9 months) and
Jared (8 months) sporting their sunglasses.

Jared Takes a Bath

Here is a collection of bath photos.  Jared loves the water.  He likes to splash and play with his bath toys.  For a while I was storing his bath toys behind his blue baby tub.  I would take out one at a time for him to play with.  However, he caught on to where they were and kept twisting around to look for them like "what about those other toys back there".  I'd pull out another one and he would twist around again like "Mom, you forgot one".  He would never relax until all his toys were out and in the water.

Today, Jared took a bath in the "grown up" tub for the first time.  I've been nervous about making the switch because I'm paranoid about him slipping and hitting his head.  He did great . . . although he kept trying to get to his knees and touch the facet.  "Ooo shiny . . ."

Jared Goes to the Park

 This is a collage of park pictures from the past few months. 

Swinging

Sitting on a bench

Sitting on a blanket.  (Nice Hat!)

Silly Jared

Grass feels funny

Sitting with Daddy

Sitting with Mommy

Taking a nap - soooo sleepy

Jared Goes to the Zoo

Back in May we took Jared to the Zoo for the first time.  I was thinking he would love seeing all the animals but he was totally unimpressed.  He was looking around but didn't seem to register the animals even when they were right in front of him.  Oh well, maybe in a year or so we'll try it again.

Feet are wonderful inventions!

 . . .  and Jared has discovered his.

Tummy Time

These first two pictures show Jared at 1 month old during tummy time. (He wasn't a big fan of tummy time at first.  He'd start to fuss and cry after just a few minutes.)

 As he's gotten older though he's been able to tolerate longer stretches of time and now seems to enjoy it.  Below are a couple pictures of his trademark move, "the skydiver".  He pulls up his arms and legs and just hovers on his stomach.  He's of course panting the whole time from the effort. It totally cracks me up!

 Jared can also now roll himself from his back to his stomach.  He is very proud of this new skill and performs it at every opportunity.  Unfortunately, he doesn't always want to be on his tummy.  So he'll roll himself over and then start crying because he can't roll back.  Sometimes he'll wake up at night crying and we'll come in to find him face down in the corner of his crib.  We just flip him over and put in his binky.  Silly boy!