Baby Greenie's First Halloween

...would not have been complete without the requisite "Baby's First Halloween" bib (thanks Grandma C!) and a little asparagus to go with it:
(You'd be a little suspicious, too, if you had to eat pureed asparagus...) (But really, it doesn't taste all that bad...so here's a smile for the camera...)After a tasty dinner, the whole fam chilled out for a relaxing evening (and some candy...and more candy...). Carter got to wear these ridiculous PJs (guilty, I bought 'em...they're just SOOOO cute!):
(Ok, maybe he doesn't look TOO ridiculous, except those big, floppy footies...here's a goofy grin for the camera...)
Hope everyone is off their Halloween candy sugar high and ready for November!
~kerrie

Baby Smurf Ears

Well, Carter's school was having "Costume Day" today in celebration of Halloween, so we decked out the dude in his "Baby Smurf" costume. At first, he was a little wary of the hat:
(Apologies for the grainy photo - lighting not so great sometimes in our bedroom...)

But he quickly got used to the idea and gave us a smug little grin:
Makes a cute Baby Smurf if you ask me!

In other holiday related news, the Greenies are having to put the Thanksgiving travel plans on hold, as Carter was diagnosed with a DOUBLE ear infection this week (and got a super-duper antibiotic to fix him up). Next step is a consultation with the pediatric ear-nose-and-throat doc to see about putting tubes in before the year is up. Therefore, we have to travel to Santa Fe to meet with the doc in November and if he has to have the tubes, we have to keep him healthy.

So all travel has been put on hold for the rest of the year. Double-bummer, as T-day eating is one of my favorite days of the year! :(

Oh well, it's not his last Thanksgiving....we'll just have to organize something for the summer time when everyone in the family is healthy, eh? Nothing like roasted turkey on a warm, summer day! Oh wait...

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween!
~kerrie

The Best Baby Sitters

Felt that an entire post (my last of the night) should dedicated to the wonderful, wonderful friends that we have, Gundar and Myja, and put it in writing how thankful we are for taking care of Carter (overnight, too!) while we partied away on Saturday!

Gundar, Myja (and Noah too!), thank you, thank you, thank you! We couldn't ask for better friends!

Unfortunately, Carter was less than his usual sunny self for his overnight stay, as we're battling a THIRD ear infection... Yep, another trip to Urgent Care today and another round of antibiotics started. Bummer. Little guy's been feverish, snotty, and just generally under the weather. Shucks.

So far his new antibiotic (stronger than the last round) is making him feel even worse, with some vomiting and general crankiness. Let's hope it goes better tomorrow... We'll get a follow up visit to the pediatrician this week and start discussing putting tubes in his ears and get this ear infection business behind us!

For fun and to add a little light to this post, I'm putting in an oldie, but a goodie, photo from day 3 of life:
Boy our son has gotten so big!!

Hope everyone has a great week!
~kerrie

2009 Greenie Halloween Costume Party

On Saturday night, fun was had by all at the 2009 Greenie Halloween Costume Party! Turn out was less than usual, as it seems the cold and flu bug is hitting Albuquerque a little earlier than usual. But, we had a fun crowd of about 30 and the costumes were AMAZING this year! (However, a little too much spandex for my taste, but it was truly all in good fun!)

Let's start with the Greenies...otherwise known as Papa Smurf and Smurfette (and yes, there is a Baby Smurf costume to go with it):
Next up, our "Award Winning" costumes - The Robots (glow in the dark, too! - click to make it bigger, and actually see them...):

Sonny and Cher:

And finally, Chris Farley:

GREAT costumes, huh?! DEFINITELY deserving of the coveted prizes at the Greenie house!

As mentioned, a tad too much spandex, as we had an array of rockers, see:
Our 80's Rockers:
Bret Michaels and Lita Ford:

We had a few fellow cartoon pals - Charlie Brown and Lucy:
Raggedy Ann and Andy:

We had a Cow and the Gay Farmer (ha!):
The Cowgirl and the Construction Worker:
Some TV stars - Lara Croft from Tomb Raider:
Dorothy and the Tornado:
Mel Gibson from Road Warrior:
And our Pulp Fiction fanatics:
And finally, a few non-catagorized costumes - the Vampiress and Jailbird:
The Ghosts:
The Evil Jester:
The Fisherman:
The Lobo Fan (and Chris Farley again):
And finally, last but not least, The Streaker:

I think this was one of the BEST rounds of costumes yet! We're already looking forward to next year's party to see if these can be topped!

Happy Halloween!!!!
~kerrie

Commando Carter

Well, life as we know it is about to get REALLY interesting... You see, Carter has ventured into the beginning stages of CRAWLING!

Right now he's in the "commando" phase (where he sort of just inches across the ground with his arm strength, without actually using his legs). It's only a matter of days before he realizes that all he needs to do is get his back end moving in sequence and well, we're screwed...

Tried to capture a few photos and videos of this new development and he was lovin' the camera attention. See for yourself (and check out how big his choppers are getting!):

Now here's a video of him "commando crawling" across the floor to me (sorta puts a smile on your face, eh?):


Guess we gotta start baby-proofing the house, as here soon he'll be crawling and getting into everything! Oh boy...
~kerrie

While Mommy's Away...

...the boys will play! Been doing a bit more traveling this month (including a whole 5 days in Long Beach, CA, for a conference) and the boys got a little rowdy while I was gone...

Matt did REALLY well being a single parent (except the one time when Carter, ahem, pooped all over the place...have a feeling I'll be making up for that ten fold....). Our little family wouldn't work as well as it does without Matt's unwavering support, so I hope he knows how thankful I am that he supports my career and the traveling it requires!

Anyway, while I was in California, it looks like the dragon came out for a little wranglin' time:

But alas, the dragon went back into the toy box, Mommy came home (and boy was Carter happy to see me!), and we took a quick snapshot to document the reunion (and that's a sock Carter stole out of the laundry basket...he wouldn't put it down for the photo...):
Five days was the longest stretch we've been apart and I won't lie, it wasn't fun being away for so long. Luckily, I don't have any trips scheduled until Thanksgiving and for that trip, the whole fam will be traveling together!

Now I'm catching up on a few posts since I have a little free time. Hope everyone is enjoying their final days of October...gee this year is flying by, eh?!
~kerrie

The Best Rest Stop in Oklahoma

On the way back from Kansas, the Greenies took a detour in Oklahoma to visit our friends, Chris, Renae, and their daughter, Hannah. Renae was so sweet to fix us a non-greasy, non-paper-bagged lunch (ugh, fast food is disgusting, eh?) and we got to catch up on life.

Chris even took a long lunch break to hang out with us (we weren't expecting to see him, so yay!) and got to hang out with Carter. And check out his eyeballs - glasses free (lasik, I'm SO jealous!):
Hannah (now 2 years old) was just a little ham and showed off in her new tent. I think she's ready for her baby brother to start playing with her!
And Renae, expecting her baby boy in February, got to cuddle and love our boy for pretty much the whole time we were there. Here's a cute shot of them together:
We miss having Chris and Renae next door to us in Albuquerque, but love that we can stop in any time we're on the road and get a free lunch (I kid, I kid! We're so thankful for it!). Hopefully we'll be back to see them in November and Carter can crawl all around in the tent with Hannah and have a grand old time!

And now, back to the grind...
~kerrie

A Meeting of the Cousins

While back in the Land of Oz, Carter met up with his cousin, Daniel, for the first time ever. Daniel's parents (my brother, Jason, and his wife, Katrina), were also able to meet our son and shower him with attention. Daniel was beside himself with glee at finally meeting "his cousin, Carter," see:

I don't get to see my family as often as I want to, so I got a little teary seeing my brother being so sweet with my kiddo (or maybe I had one too many beers...):
We spent the afternoon lazing around in the sun (albeit, cold Kansas sun...) and Daniel (almost 4 years old) was practicing his bike riding skills up and down the street. Daniel would "race" anyone who was willing to play and it was fun to wind up and [pretend to] go as fast as we could. A few shots from the fun - just Daniel:

A little push from Grandpa:
Just before another push from my brother, Jason (this one was before Daniel tipped over - no boo-boos, no worries):

And finally, racing Aunt Kerrie:

While Matt raced Daniel, I got to enjoy some time with my little guy:
We ended the afternoon trying to take a few photos of the whole family together. As you can guess, we took about 30 shots and while I could piece together a shot of everyone looking at the camera and smiling, these shots are much closer to documenting the fun:
Unfortunately, we had to return to our home in Albuquerque (and our jobs...) sooner than we wanted. Hopefully we'll have many, many more trips to see family and capture all of the great memories in our hearts and on our cameras!
~kerrie