Here's our little Hokie Bird in the costume I've been busy making the whole month of October. I've only made a few blankets before, so this required some extra help from my mother-in-law. I learned a lot, but I think I'll stick to blankets. Clothing is tough to sew! Not to mention I was modifying a dinosaur pattern to be the Hokie Bird. We had a lot of rain before trick-or-treating, so the ground was wet, nasty, and even had some mud puddles, which was not good for his big orange feet, but I soaked and scrubbed those today since the felt on the costume (for the feathers and tail) makes it dry clean only. I was amazed that people actually knew who he was, which might have helped because of Mykenzi's costume, but every house we went to and people we saw on the street knew who he was and thought his costume was cool! Only one older lady had trouble, and she asked if he was a scuba diver, but she also mentioned she didn't have her glasses on!
Had to show you the tail!
Is she seriously this big now? I just can't believe how beautiful Mykenzi is, and how awesome she looked in her VT cheerleader outfit. She really loved it! She chanted out of the house, into my studio for pictures, then back out to van, the whole time we heard, "let's go....hokies, let's go....hokies!" Too sweet!
We also further confirmed our suspicions that Mykenzi has a latex or adhesive allergy. We do have the lab order to get her blood work done to check for the latex allergy, which we really need to do this week. At the end of the night, I was taking the Hokie Bird off her face, and everything seemed to be fine, then a few minutes later she came and told me her face was burning. I looked, and there was basically a red imprint of the Hokie Bird on her cheek. We immediately thought about her last reactions to regular band-aids (skin turned red, puffed up, bumpy/blistery), and jumped on the internet to see if the temporary tattoo contained latex. Sure enough, there it is on their website, if you have a latex or adhesive allergy, then you should not use Gameface tattoos. That is not written any where on the package of tattoos, but it is on the VT sticker (surprised that that was just a sticker and not a tattoo) package that it is made of hypoallergenic material. We definitely need to be more careful about these things, but when I researched all things made with latex, temporary tattoos never came up, and we do our best to keep all latex containing items from her (which means no more latex balloons). The big concern for us is that latex allergies are typically developed by people who have had repeated contact with latex containing products (for example, people who have had multiple surgeries and health care workers), so if she's showing signs of having mild reactions to latex now, then if we ignore the possibility of an allergy and continue to expose her to latex, the allergy could become more serious.
Check out our pumpkins. Jonmark, Mykenzi, and Camden all picked out the faces.
Cohen looks so serious sitting in his exersaucer, just waiting to be picked up.
Such a sweet smile!
Cohen looking cute in his VT outfit.
Later this night, Camden was in his room calling for Mykenzi to come play cars with him, but he didn't realize Mykenzi had fallen asleep on the couch. I told him she was asleep, so he came out of his room, and just stood there looking at her. He didn't say anything to us, just stared at her for a few minutes with a sad look on his face. Then he dropped down on the floor and put his face in his hands. He was really bummed that his buddy had fallen asleep on him when he big plans to play with cars, so I scooped him up and took him in his room to play with him. This was quite funny to me because Camden was excited to have me play with him, and I guess I don't play cars enough with him because he felt the need to tell me what to do. He gave me a big truck to play with, and told me, "get cars, c'mon, drive, Mommy." So I followed him, loaded up my truck with a couple of cars, and then he told me what to do next. At one point he pushed a button on his truck that plays music, and every time he did that, we both danced. The 3rd time though he told me, "dat nuff, dat nuff" (that's enough). One time we were driving around on his rug that looks like a road, and he crashed into me, which shocked me, and he said, "I make it better (rubbed my car), dare go." After a while, Jonmark joined us, so I decided to just take a few pictures while all my boys were in the floor together!
Camden was laughing because Jonmark was driving a truck on him.
Early on this morning, we decided to make the switch from crib to toddler bed. I bought the toddler bedding several months ago, and Camden was pretty excited about the trucks, trains, and planes. I just didn't want too much to change at the same time, with Cohen arriving, so we put it off for a while. The toddler bed is Mykenzi's old bed, so it's white, which doesn't go well in a boys room (doesn't match his dark dresser), but there's no reason to spend money on a new one.
I wanted to get a few pictures of Camden playing in the crib before taking it down.
He was excited!
As he was taking the crib down, Jonmark took this off and put it on the floor, and Camden told him, "no, dat mine, Daddy, dat mine."
Playing on his new bed!
First nap in the toddler bed.
Camden sleeps through the night now! If he wakes up, he either moves into his floor or goes into the family room, but he doesn't scream or come into our room.
Camden had been asking me for a few days if he could wash dishes. He just really likes to play in water, and usually he does that in the bathroom, but I guess he needed a change of scenery. That and he did want to use their plastic cups and bowls to spill water every where! By the end of it, Camden was standing there in just a diaper because everything he got something wet he'd take it off (shirt, pants, socks), but they both had a great time!
We were eating crabs one day, and Cohen started fussing, so I decided it was time to try out the exersaucer. He's still very small for it, and we have to roll up blankets to put around him. He's just so darn tiny compared to Camden at this age. He's probably even smaller than Mykenzi was at this age.
He really seems to enjoy it for a few minutes now. It's another place to put him when we need to get something done and he'll look at the toys for a while. He's not playing with them yet, but I do occasionally hear some of the toys, like the one that spins with beads inside it. I don't think he's hitting it intentionally, but he'll learn.
Kenzi and Cam love showing him the toys too. 
The kids were so excited for the parade, and this is the first parade where they actually ran out to pick up the candy thrown at them. They were absolutely crazy over all that candy and the excitement.
The marching band is coming, and Camden LOVES marching bands. See him marching there? He also moved his hands like he's drumming. Apparently Daddy's high school marching band days of drumming was passed through the genes to Camden because he's always talking about drums and marching. His excitement was so cute!
Mr. Man needed a haircut, BAD! We took him that weekend, and ended up getting a different girl at his barber shop (our favorite guy for Camden wasn't there). She totally butchered his hair, it looks awful, so we definitely won't let anyone else touch him.
Taking a break.
There they go again, melting Mommy's heart. I love that stuff!
Cohen slept through it all. There will be so much in the world for him to see one day when he finally stays awake for a while!
I don't remember what was coming, but they sure were happy about it.
Candy everywhere!
Isn't this ridiculous? The stroller seat is full of candy. We took some to share with my parents that night because I don't let the kids have most kinds of candy (hard candy pieces, now&laters, bubble gum), and we still brought home a bag full and still have plenty left with Halloween only a week away.
Camden was running around the trees eating a tootsie roll. I made the mistake of letting them eat a few pieces of candy during the parade, and by the end of it Camden had taken off running every where in the grass behind us. They had a great time at the parade!
Look at how Camden is holding Cohen's hand. That just melts my heart! We were so worried about Camden being jealous and resentful of Cohen, but he's been awesome. I have always tried not to push Cohen on Camden, since they first came to see us in the hospital, but I don't know if that helped Camden adjust to him or not. Camden stops playing a couple of times a day just to run over and kiss Cohen, no matter where Cohen is (my lap, the bumbo, the exersaucer, the swing, or laying in the floor), and it's just the sweetest thing.
Mykenzi was not happy about the rope swings in the barn, but she did try it. Jonmark says she's just like me because when he was little they couldn't get him out of the barn.
Camden tried it out and loved it!
Camden wasn't sure about this slide. He stood up at the top talking about "the bear" getting him. He's afraid of the dark still and when it's dark some where he'll say, "bear get me." He'll shut doors to dark rooms because he thinks there's a bear in there. We don't have any idea where he got that from.
Learning about planting, growing, and harvesting.
I had to take this picture of Camden because he has his tongue between his lips, which is what my dad always does when he's doing a difficult task. Camden does this a lot.
She doesn't look like she's having fun, but she really wanted to do this. It does look like fun. She was exhausted by this point I think.
