First Halloween!

Today was Spencer's first Halloween! He was all dressed up as an adorable baby elephant.

For the beginning of festivities, he went with the rest of his daycare friends trick-or-treating at a few of the businesses in Harrisburg. After daycare, his friends Grayson, Izzy, Judah, Jeremiah, Judah, and Krystian all went around the neighborhood together, dressed as various zoo animals. Of course, parents went with.

One of the highlights of the night, though, was that uncle Jesse and BFF Samantha came with! They are "home" from Alaska for a few days, so they can celebrate Spencer's first birthday (tomorrow)! Uncle Jesse did most of the trick-or-treating with Spencer.

I hope to have pictures to share in the next fewdays, but our computer is currently broken, so I am writing this on my phone. However, if you visit http://www.YouTube.com/ninjasj there are a few videos of Spencer in his costume from the photo shoot we did on Saturday!

Cake Smash!

This morning, Spencer had his One-year photographs taken, with Staci of Something Clicked Photography. She did our family photos this summer, as well as Spencer's 4th of July Patriotic session. I love her work, so naturally, when it came time to schedule photos for his birthday, she was my first choice photographer.

The photo session was at 10:30. Spencer woke around 9am, and had breakfast, then played until we got ready to go. I figured he wasn't super tired since he slept in, but he started to get groggy and doze off in the backseat on the way to the session. I drove slow, thinking maybe he'd take a quick power nap then, before we got there, and be happy and refreshed.

I was wrong. He didn't sleep, and when we got there, he was in a "questionable" mood. He wanted to hang on me, which isn't totally abnormal since he's going through that "I need my mommy" phase. But, he wasn't very smiley, that's for sure. More often than not, he gave us both serious and silly expressions, as opposed to smiles.

It didn't help either that he's started taking steps (he took his first steps on Thursday! And now he keeps trying it over and over. You can watch a video by clicking here.), and crawling, and doesn't stay still for anything. And then, he kept tipping over chairs, crates, and such, that were used as props, and banging his head and face on the floor and the wall. He's hit that super clumsy stage, it seems, as well. He also kept pushing the crate, chairs, and bucket across the floor and room, right off the photo set. It was sure a busy hour!

But, Staci did a great job! She uploaded five preview shots on her Facebook page tonight, and I LOVE them all. My gosh, I think I have one of the cutest kids in the world.

I don't think you'd be able to tell his not-so-smiley-clumsy-cranky mood was going on by the shots she's shared already. Now that's a great photographer, right?

He did enjoy parts of the session, though, don't get me wrong. He LOVED the balloons. He kept crawling around holding onto them, and bringing them all over the room. And he loved banging on the metal pail. And, of course, he had a good time with the CAKE SMASH! Yeah! He was actually pretty focused and a little serious about it, but it was fun to watch! He got frosting EVERYWHERE. All over himself, all over the floor, all over me... all over... well, pretty much anything within reach.

It was awesome.

Spencer will be one in like... 10 days! WOAH!

Pumpkin Guts!

For the first time today, Spencer (and his daddy, actually, also!) experienced "pumpkin guts" for the first time. For me, carving, de-gutting, and harvesting seeds from a pumpkin has been a long-time "love affair" stemming from my childhood. Jake... not so much. I guess they didn't have those traditions in their family?

And of course, it's Spencer's first fall, so he hadn't experienced this all before.

Needless to say, I took it upon myself to make this a family affair.

Spencer didn't have much of an "outward" reaction to the slimy, gooey, seedy insides of our pumpkins, at least vocally, I guess. But, he did make quite a few funny faces for the camera. We took video, but who knows if/when we will get it actually put online.

I can't actually gauge if Spencer liked or disliked the experience, to be quite honest. He wasn't too fond of the idea of sticking his arm into the middle of the pumpkin, but he didn't seem to mind the stuff hanging from the "lid."

He was a big fan of the seeds. Really. He discovered them almost right away and was having a hard time picking them up and holding onto them, because they're slick little buggers. When I was de-gutting my pumpkin, he was glad to be of assistance, though, and was all up in my way and stealing seeds from my bowl.

Love that kid.

And, Jake had fun too! He laughed his way through feeling the pumpkin's guts and proceeded to de-gut and seed his entire pumpkin all by himself. I was so proud!

I carved mine already, but haven't taken pictures because I don't have a candle. Jake hasn't carved his. Spencer has yet to paint his miniature one. Oh! And I made a second pumpkin of mine into a chalkboard pumpkin.

It was fun. The end. :)

A short update with a few pictures.

I just feel like I should write a short update about Spencer's life and activities lately, although, I guess, there aren't any "developments" or anything of that nature to report.

Let's see.

Last weekend, Jake, Spencer, Wendell, and I packed up our things and headed to Jake's mom's house, or as Spencer will refer to it, Nana Mindy's. He had a good time, as far as we can tell! He enjoyed playing with Wendell and Jeb, getting kisses, and trying to pull to standing using them. He had supper, breakfast, and lunch with everyone, and did a really good job eating what we did! Mostly, anyway. We discovered he likes grapes and bacon!

He witnessed his first bonfire there as well, and was very entranced by it.

He also met a new friend, Morgan, daughter of my life-long friend, Miranda, and her husband, Brandon.

The other night in the bathtub, he was squatting in the water, and proceeded to stand all by himself in the middle of the tub, without using any assistance.

It freaked me out! It has only happened the one time, though.

He has also taken his bath-time splashing to a new level, as seen here.

He loves this video, by the way.

Today, he went to a funeral with me, and didn't even yell "uh-oh Nicole!" during the mass, like I was terrified he would.

Unfortunately, though, he's been a little bit crabby and restless lately. I am pretty sure he is getting a few more teeth.

oh, the things he will eat...

Wow. I can't believe it has been nearly a month since we last updated Spencer's blog! My apologies.

It has been kind of stressful around here.

Spencer is now almost eleven months old! It seems insane to think it has been nearly a year since he was born. We are in progress planning his birthday celebration.

On the 1st of September he officially started crawling, and since then, he has been into all sorts of "mischief." He got a container of salt out of a box I had forgotten was stashed under the table and dumped it on the floor and then later got into the dog food bowl and threw that all over the kitchen. That was all the first few hours of his crawling beginning!

He has also been found throwing things in the garbage and bath tub, playing with the dig kennel, unplugging cords (yikes!), and tormenting the dog.

Lately, he has developed an interesting palate for non-food items as well. His favorite things to stick in his mouth seem to be dog food and rocks, though I have also found him attempting to eat (or eating) such peculiar items as chapstick, paper, shoe laces, socks, keys, coasters, and my personal "favorite," his dad's wedding ring (which he then lost...).

He loves pulling up to anything and everything he can reach, especially his excersaucer as it is eight next to the keyboard. Today, he let go of the fire pit in Jillian and Robert's backyard tonight, twice, and stood, all by himself in the middle of the patio, for over 20 seconds each time before sitting slowly down! He also let go of the side of the bath tub tonight and just stood in the middle of the tub. He seems too little in my mind to be doing that, but I am clearly mistaken.

He also learned to crawl up the stairs all by himself, on his first try!

He has started "talking" a bit, too. He says "dad/dadda," "go," "uh-oh," "cracker" and "Nicole," though the last two aren't quite as clear. He doesn't usually call me "mom/mama" but occasionally I hear it, mostly if he's stuck in his crib and wants out. Haha. I think he started saying "Nicole" because we have been asking Grayson to say it at daycare, and the other kids, and Jillian, call me Nicole, so that's what he hears me referred to most often. Hopefully, he will call me "mom/mama/mommy" consistently, eventually, but for now, it's kind of funny to hear him call me by first name. It sounds more like "Kih-cole" but we're pretty certain he's saying my first name.

We went to the apple orchard with Jake's brother, Josh, and his girlfriend, Jessica, a few weekends ago. It was cold and windy, but Spencer loved seeing the animals in the petting zoo. That's about all we did before we were too cold to continue. This past weekend, we went to my high school friend Jason's wedding reception, and Spencer had fun "chasing" another friends' three daughters. It was cute! He also met some of my friends from high school for the first time. That same day, we visited Grandma Mindy's house for a little while, and he got all kinds of kisses from her big fuzzy dog, Jeb. We're going back there this weekend, possibly to spend the night, so I'm sure he'll get a ton more. Yesterday, my dad and sisters came to town, and we went out for lunch, then to Falls Park for a few hours, and then out for frozen yogurt. Spencer had a great time and was pretty smiley most of the day!

He also had his first "sleepover" at a couple of his/our friends' house a week and a half ago, without his parents or any family. He did a pretty good job, from what I hear, and came back saying "uh oh" more clearly, and seemingly on a broken-record fashion of repeat. His baby brother or sister was born into Heaven (as a miscarriage) that week, and I was unable to care for him, so he got a little vacation from home to play with Judah and Izzy.

I have uploaded quite a few videos onto his youtube channel over the last month, mostly poor-quality cell-phone videos because he and his dad forgot our video camera in Iowa, but you can check them out here: http://www.youtube.com/ninjasj

Big Brother is almost crawling!

Spencer is getting so close to crawling... but lately, it seems he wants to avoid being on his knees as much as possible. He seems to like to crawl on his shin and his foot, which is pretty normal so far as I have ever witnessed. Though, he also likes to stretch his legs straight out and try to "crawl" flat footed. He's not so great at it, and falls on his face a lot!

He loves to walk along furniture. He loves to push toys across the floor, walking. At daycare, there's a walking/push toy in the basement, and the other day, he walked the entire length of the basement and back at least 10 times! What a goofball. He LOVES it though. He also likes to push dad's milk crates around the living room.

I really need to get planning his first birthday party, scheduled for November 5. I can hardly believe he's going to be 1 so soon!

Spencer is going to be a big brother!

It sounds so crazy to think of our baby, who turns 10 months tomorrow, as being the older sibling already, but really, that's what we wanted!

This morning, he got to see Sprout via ultrasound, with mommy and daddy, of course! Baby is scheduled to arrive around April 18, 2011.

Fun at the Fair

On Wednesday this week, Spencer, Daddy, Mommy, Uncle Jesse, and "Auntie" (Best Friend) Sam went to the Turner County Fair!

It was a lot of fun!

The week before, he went to the Sioux Empire Fair with Daddy, Auntie Sam, Auntie Allie, Mommy, and some of mommy's friends. In Sioux Falls, we watched a band, walked around and looked at animals, pet a miniature horse, napped, and enjoyed watching carnival rides.

This week, Spencer participated in a few more activities. He got to see more animals, and try to pet them (including pastel chickens (he didn't try to pet those) and a camel).

Daddy and Uncle Jesse played a fast-pitch game, and won SJ and Sam matching twin elephants! Yay!

Spencer also played the duck game and won himself a toy monkey!

He enjoyed some homemade ice cream, "played" Bingo, watched the rides, and laughed a bunch at daddy and Uncle Jesse.

Sam took a bunch of pictures! Here's a few to share!