Plummer Post: October 2011 (Part One)

Well, I let it happen again it's the end of the year and I am running behind on my blog, so I am going to try to get October, November and December posted in the next couple of days so that they will be in the 2011 posts! October is my favorite month of the year, because of Halloween, of course. We had a huge party with our moms group on Halloween to celebrate and also as kind of a late birthday party for Noah because he could not have one because I was on bed rest in July. At the beginning of the month I said to Noah, "It would be cool if you were potty trained for your party," and he responded that it would be cool. Around that time we also started having the treat bag which was a Nana idea. It was a bag filled with little goodies and every time he used the potty he could get a treat from the treat bag. I think that the treat bag combined with the promise of the party was finally enough incentive for him to commit to potty training. Also, things with Baby Grant had calmed down and he had been with us for a while and Noah was getting adjusted to being a big brother. I have to say that I am relieved I was afraid that we would never get him potty trained, but we did it and I am so proud of my Noah.

A sad part of October was that Great Grandpa as Noah called him was getting sicker. We tried to visit him as much as we could and take the kids when John had days off and I would get a babysitter so I could go visit with him when John was working. He would have good days and then he would have bad days, but it was an honor to be able to be with him. He was an amazing man and I am so glad that Noah and Grant got to meet him.

Grant was doing much better in October eating well and he started to sleep three hours at a time which for John and I was amazing. He started smiling and giggling and has such a wonderful little personality, he is really a love and started to light up when he saw John and I and would give his brother smiles, sometimes.

October was also fun because Mary Ann (Aunt Mar Mar to Noah) was still on maternity leave so her and Mason came down and hung out with us for a couple of weeks, which was really cool. It was nice having a buddy to be a stay at home mom with and have another adult around is always nice. It was great to get to spend so much time with Mr. Mason too. While she was here we celebrated her 30 birthday by going out for drinks and dinner at Benihana.

I had mentioned the Halloween party earlier in the post, but I wanted to give all the fun details of the party. We had the party on Halloween day and I kind of went a bit nuts (Halloween does that to me). We first had pumpkin decorating with mini pumpkins. Then we had a ghost hunt. The ghosts were little Tootsie pops that I put a piece of Kleenex over and tied a bow around. After that we decorated haunted gingerbread houses and then had lunch. Lunch was pumpkin sloppy Joe's, creepy queso, haunted hummus, pumpkin muffins and Count Chocolate treats. After lunch we had a pumpkin pinata which was lots of fun. It was a great party and Noah had a great time. After the party we watched It's a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and got ready to trick or treat. Nana and Pa came to trick or treat with us and brought us a pumpkin shaped pizza. Noah was a garbage man and Grant was going to be a pumpkin, but his costume was too warm so he went as a Tree Hugger Trainee or as I joked an environmental science major. It was a great Halloween.