Pumpkin Carving

On Saturday morning (10/27), we decided to carve pumpkins. We thought it was great idea, and that Holden would love it! Um, wrong! Holden actually wanted nothing to do with the pumpkin carving process, but he sure had fun while his dad carved. Here are probably way too many pictures to capture his pumpkin carving "process", but I thought the whole series captured him well. It really shows just how busy our boy can be! These photos are in accurate sequential order.

My Gym

My friend Wendy called on Friday morning with the best news ever. My Gym was having free open play all day long. We arrived at about 10:00; the place was packed, completely chaotic, and just what we needed. It took Holden about 5 minutes to warm up, and then he went crazy.

Pumpkin Patch

We had to get out of the house. We couldn't stand being inside another minute, so we took Holden to the pumpkin patch on Thursday night. The air quality wasn't the greatest, we felt a little guilty for going out, but were pleasantly surprised that we weren't the only ones needing time out of the house. The pumpkin patch wasn't busy by any means, but we also weren't the only ones there. Holden was thrilled to be running free. He enjoyed the pumpkins; they all became "Holden's punkins".

The Petting ZooOK, after looking at this picture, I realize the patch pretty much was a ghost town.

On the way to the petting zoo in the cool red wagon, loving it.

Not too shy of the animals.

Losing It

What you're not seeing is that he threw this pumpkin seconds later.

Running wild and free.

Jumping off hay bails was the highlight.

Such a boy.

Loving It

Houston may be the only San Diegan loving Firestorm 2007. He's been inside cuddling up all week.

Packed and Ready

We may be evacuated due to the horrible fires that are raging through San Diego right now. A lot of our neighbors have left, and we're packed and ready to go. I'm praying that we're safe.

UPDATE:
We were under suggested evacuation all day Monday, but stayed home. Trey went outside to check the wind, watch the smoke, and evaluate our safety. We packed up the car just in case we had to leave. I was a nervous wreck. We glued ourselves to the news all day, and by about 5:00 I told Trey I wanted to go. We loaded up the cat, dog, their food and supplies, and went to our friends' Scott and Michelle's house. Some of their other friends were over too because their power was out in Del Mar. Michelle made a great dinner, and I kind of forgot about the fires for bit. Holden was so happy to be out of our house as well, and loved playing with all of Gavin's toys. After dinner and putting Holden to bed, we watched the news. I learned our house was under MANDATORY evacuation, and one of the news reporters reported that the fire was headed for Del Mar Heights Road, the cross street to our development. I freaked. Just about that time, Michelle received a reverse 911 call for the Solana Beach area urging residents to evacuate. I was anxious to say the least. Trey continued to be calm and unalarmed, and I got mad at him because I wanted him to be concerned. We all went to sleep, knowing we would hear if we had to evacuate. When we woke up, we heard Del Mar was under mandatory evacuations. However, the winds had died down, and a ton more resources came into to fight the fires; this gave us a positive outlook. We went back home around 11:00, and have been here ever since. Holden has been couped up all week, and is literally bouncing off the walls. We are so fortunate that we are safe, so many families have lost their homes. On my two outings this week, I've seen people buying clothes for friends who've lost everything. It's heartbreaking.

Thomas the Train

Holden has found the joy of Thomas the Train. It could get to be quite an expensive hobby, but all the stuff looks like so fun it's hard not to buy.

Dumb Dog

Yesterday evening, we heard the neighbor kids outside so Holden wanted to go play. I left Houston inside and he started barking like crazy (a typical occurence). I decided to bring Houston out on the leash. No problem. He was happy. The next part is like a scene from a movie for me. Holden started riding his scooter down the driveway - I was holding on the handlebar with my right hand so he wouldn't fall, and Houston's leash with my other hand. Houston spotted the neighbor who usually has her dog with her (but didn't last night), and charged toward her. I went flying forward, downhill on the driveway and landed chin first in the street on the asphalt. Afterward, my neighbor told me I was literally flying like Superman with my legs straight out behind me.

Luckily, I have the best neighbors in the world. The two that were there with me were Steve, an outdoorsy hunter type guy, and Mariah, an O.R. nurse. Steve immediately grabbed my chin and told me I needed stitches. Mariah, as calm as ever, went to get ice. We sat outside while the kids played to wait for Trey to get home. We put Houston in the backyard, he again was barking like crazy. Mariah went back to feed him. When she was coming back through the garage door, Houston pushed past her, and for some crazy reason, charged toward Holden. I couldn't see from where I was standing, but I saw Steve put his glass down, yell "Oh God!", and start chasing Holden. Houston was going right for him. He knocked Holden down. I heard Holden scream and I was terrified that he was going to need stitches now too. He ended up just getting a big goose egg bump on his forehead. Kids are so resilient, he was back to playing within a minute or two. Let me tell you, I was ready to KILL our dog. I had never seen him act like that. He went back into the backyard and barked like crazy, and we let him.

When my husband got home, Mariah took Holden home with her to bathe and feed him. We ended up going to a plastic surgeon to stitch up my face. I had to get about 10 stitches on my chin. I also had a road rash on my right boob. It stung like any scrape would, so I wasn't too worried about it. After my stitches they said they would clean that wound for me as well, otherwise the dirt and gravel might "tattoo" me. I wasn't worried at all. They started to clean it, and it hurt like HELL! I was not prepared for how bad it actually hurt. They put me on some strong antibiotics, and I have to go back today to have the dressing replaced, Saturday to have a few stitches removed, and Monday to have the rest of the stitches removed. Let me tell you, I feel like hell. My jaw hurts, and my whole body feels like I've been through the wringer. Houston, on the other hand, is happily snoring at my feet.

Scooter Time

Our new neighborhood is the absolute best! We have moved onto a street with twelve kids (and counting - construction is complete on only half of the street) between the ages of one week and five years old. Holden has six boys his same age. Every night we go out to play from about 4:30 to 6:00. Us parents hang out (and sometimes indulge in cocktails) while the boys play. Some of the older boys have scooters, and Holden quickly became interested in them. He started ditching his airplane toy for their scooters, and soon we were in tug-o-wars over the scooters. A trip to Toys R Us was a top priority for us to end the battle of the scooters. Holden needed his own. He's now a scootering fool, and it's so fun to watch all these little guys scoot, scoot around. I took some pictures and took some video. I am attemping to upload the video here but am not sure if it's going to work. All the other neighborhood boys were inside while we were taking the video, so you'll have to see Holden's video debut without his scootering buddies.


The scooter came with a helmet and knee and elbow pads. Holden refused to wear them. Houston, on the other hand, loved entertaining us with them.

We Love the Birch Aquarium

Holden and I spent last Saturday morning at the Birch Aquarium. We love it for so many reasons. It's easy to get to. It's never crowded. It's entertaining. It's (almost) effortless for Mommy. And to top it all off, it's educational. We hadn't been since last spring, so I thought it might be a fun way to kill a couple of hours before nap time. Holden loved it so much more than he did just a couple of months ago. It may be because his vocabulary has developed, and he can now scream "FISH!" throughout the aquarium. He ran from tank to tank screaming the word fish. He was delighted at each and every tank. It was the easiest the thing in the whole world to keep him entertained. I think our total trip took one hour, and we were home just in time for lunch and a nap.