Eric is 8 months old!

Eric turned 8 months old this past week!  Getting these frog chair pictures isn't as easy these days.  I was looking back on Evan's 8 month pictures and Eric was pretty good compared to Evan on this frog chair at the same age.  These days, Eric is ON THE MOVE.  He doesn't sit still for one second. He's pulling himself to standing on objects that are shorter than him (step-stools, etc).  It is quite challenging to change his diaper these days too.  We are just starting to get into this active phase and I know it's not going to slow down any time soon. He is eating his solids well but isn't a huge fan of puffs yet - spits them right out.  And we're slowly working on the sippy cup, but not as much as we should be because we don't have a lot of free time. He's still our skinny little peanut who is happy and easy-going. 

Close up:

In his picture-day outfit.  Too bad the pictures did not turn out well.  How cute is this tie?? 

The usual comparison picture of the two boys:

The next few months are going to be hectic and I'm afraid his first birthday is going to be here before we know it!

NYC for a night

This past weekend, my parents very kindly agreed to watch the boys overnight so that we could get away.  Last year on this same weekend, we spent the night in NYC.  We had such a great time that we decided to do it again.  This year we stayed at Central Park South and opted to take a guided bicycle tour through Central Park.  Here we are along the ride:

Posing in front of the fountain (cheesey tourist photos):

 Probably 2 weeks earlier and the foliage would have been spectacular:

Brian "jogging" through the park:

It's been quite awhile since I've taken one of these photos, which has prompted me to look up some of my old photos to put together a post on that (coming soon):

The reservoir:

Damage from Hurrican Sandy:

Posing at an overlook:

John Lennon memorial:

Our hotel - about halfway up the very tall building is a building with the words "Essex House" above it. The very tall building under construction was the one with the crane dangling from above during Hurricane Sandy:

A picture of our very nice room:

It was so nice to get away for a night.  Given this was our second trip, we have decided we should make it an annual thing.  Thank you to Deedee and Pops for watching the boys, even with a 4 hour power-outage!

Halloween Festivities

Halloween began for us on the weekend before.  With the hurricane coming, we didn't know what sort of Halloween celebrations would still be taking place.  So on Saturday night, we headed to the YMCA for their annual Halloween party.  We found out about it from our neighbors at 5:00 and we were there by 6:30, with our little cow in hand:

Mooing:

 Enjoying himself after warming up and our little pumpkin getting dunked:

Eric started off the day getting diagnosed with pink eye.  Since he was going to sit in his stroller, we weren't worried about him giving his pink eye to other kids.  But by the time we left, we noticed he was feeling warm.  Little did we know we were in store for a 6-day long fever virus:

 Daddy with his unhappy cow (whos headpiece kept covering up his eyes) and his little pumpkin:

Mommy and her pumpkin :)

On Sunday, with a little Advil in  Eric's system, we headed to the mall for some Halloween trick-or-treating.  We thought it might be a little empty there as the storm was fast approaching.  Boy were we wrong - I think every parent was trying to get out the last of their children's energy before being cooped inside for a few days.  Brian was his usual goofy self and dressed as a cowboy to go along with his little cow.  They got lots of cute smiles throughout the mall:

Not your everday occurrence - a cow and cowboy heading up the escalator:

At this point, even with a fever, Eric wasn't acting too sick (as evidenced by this photo):

Fast forward 3 days.  Hurrican Sandy hit hard.  We were lucky to get through it unscathed, keeping power throughout.  Many were not so lucky.  Eric was really sick the whole time.  The pediatrician's office was closed Monday and Tuesday.  Eric was 102+ fever for 5 days and we got him in there first thing on Wednesday morning.  They sent him to the ER for tests because the labs were without power still.  Turns out it was just a virus but it took 7 long days to run its course.  He had little appetite, little energy and just wanted to be held all of the time.  It was a long few days stuck in the house.  Thankfully Nana was able to come down to help out for the 2nd half of the week, which meant she was able to stay home with Eric while Brian and I took Evan out trick-or-treating.  Here he is just as we were able to go out:

 Making sure his bag is ready for all of his candy:

 The neighborhood kids ready for some trick-or-treating. 

Afterwards inside with Nana.  Eric didn't even get to dresss up for his first Halloween :( 

All in all, it was a rough few days.  But it could have been so much worse.  And we were able to enjoy Halloween, which is a lot more than many others can say. 

The calm before the storm . . .

Why not do a photo shoot on a unseasonably warm October day? It was eerily calm today, surprising for what is in store for the next few days.  Hurricane Sandy is on her way and, from what the weather channel is showing, it's a once-in-a-lifetime storm.  We'll see what happens in these next few days.  In the meantime, we got outside for a little photo shoot.  Evan was loving the leaves, which Brian was throwing on him:

 I love the colors in this photo:

Pure joy:

My happy model:

Blue eyes . . . and a little pink as we are in round 2 of pink eye for Eric.  So far, Brian has been the only one to avoid it while Eric has doubled up:

A baby in a basket:

My favorite photo of the shoot:

Wondering how he may get out of here:

This is the same basket we took his newborn photos in.  Look how much he's grown and how totally different his face is:

Exploring the leaves for the first time:

This may be the last time we get outside for a few days so we'll take it while we can.  Hope Sandy doesn't hit us too hard!

We've got ourselves a crawler

It appears that life will never be the same again because Eric is now on the move!  He is crawling about 2 months before Evan did . . . and so the differences begin.  His first few "crawling steps" were on Friday (10/19) and here is a video we got earlier this week.  He's also started clapping his hands when he sees us clap.  I have a feeling he is going to keep our hands full for the next few years!

Fall Festival

West Goshen Park has a fall festival every year, including hay ride, pumpkin patch and treats for the kids.  I took a million pictures and I am putting half of them here.  Here are the boys on the hayride - Evan only had eyes for the tractor that was pulling us:

Evan first excited to pick two pumpkins, but then they seemed to be a bit heavy:

Looking up at his daddy:

Now three to choose from:

And he's off:

Eric enjoyed himself too:

Trying to get both boys to pose for a photo at the same time - this was the best we could get:

Close up on Evan:

Eric making his way towards a pumpkin:

Playing with hay: 

Evan coloring his pumpkin afterwards:

Happy boy:

Me with my boys:

We headed to the playground afterwards.  Evan currently loves the swings.  He can't pump the swing himself but his dad is happy to push him high (too high, in my opinion):

Pretending to get punched when swinging up.  Love this: 

Eric just taking it all in:

All in all, it was one busy weekend.  Brian took Evan to the zoo on Saturday and then to another fall festival in the afternoon.  I was in NJ for the first part of the weekend at my cousin's baby shower.  Then today was this fall festival and then out to dinner.  It's a great time of the year to enjoy the outdoors so we'll take it before it's too cold to do much of anything outside.