Peyton's Song

Peyton wanted me to sit in his fort with him yesterday morning and play music with him. His music set consists of a set of drumsticks, a tambourine, some bells, and a shaker. As I obliged and played both the tambourine and bells simultaneously (I know, I'm multi-talented, right?), he came up with the words to a song all on his own.

"Mommy, Mommy went to town; On an airplane on vacation; Hooooo, hooooo, hooooo, hooooo....."

By "airplane", he meant a G6, and "vacation" clearly means a trip to New Orleans because that's the only place we ever go on vacation.

I didn't have a video camera to capture the actual moment that the song was composed, but we did encourage him to recreate it later. Not quite the same, but you get the idea:

Halloween

We had a fantastic Halloween weekend! Friday night, we went to a nearby community that has a big pumpkin festival - all of the workers carve pumpkins and then put them on display. It was really very cool.



It put me in the mood to carve a pumpkin, but there really wasn't any time....maybe next year.
Peyton had a great time listening to the live music and running around to touch all of the pumpkins. I even caught him blowing out the candles inside of one. I think another kid showed him how to do that.

Then Saturday night Patrick and I got dressed up and went to party! He was an artist and I was his painting. Peyton helped him paint my shirt.



Trick-or-treating in our subdivision is usually pretty quiet, so some friends invited us over to their house in a neighborhood full of kids. It was worth the 45 minute drive! There were tons of kids running around in costumes. Lots of Buzz Light Years, Princesses, Harry Potters, etc.




Peyton was the only pilot, and he had a blast. He got the hang of the trick-or-treating thing pretty quickly. He would run up to the door and yell "Trick-or-Treat!", but more in the tone of "Gimme some candy!" At one point, he turned to me and said, "No, Mom, you stay here (at the end of the driveway). I go by myself." Alrighty then. He's 2 and he's already embarrassed by me. I was hoping I had another few years before that would happen!


After he was completely exhausted from trick-or-treating, we let him pick out a piece of candy to sit down and eat. He chose the M&Ms. And then thankfully he had no idea that the rest of the candy completely disappeared right to Daddy's office. (I had to sneak a few pieces for myself too, of course!)

I think by next year, he'll be a little wiser, and we won't be able to get away with that.

Fall Happenings

Fall in North Carolina means lots of fun - beautiful weather and the NC State Fair!
The hit of the fair: the Pig Races (literally) and the corn.



He doesn't need help.








Don't touch his corn.




Why do I bother shucking it for him at dinner time?

We also spent the morning recently at a pumpkin farm. You can shuck corn to feed the goats and pigs, but they were way too full to eat. Instead, we played in a corn filled play area.

There was a big pile of hay to play on, a hayride, and Peyton got to pick out his own pumpkin from the patch. He had a great time!




We have also started celebrating Halloween. A local Mom's group sponsored a "Trunk or Treat" where kids can go trick or treating from car to car, all decorated for the season. Peyton's current obsession is airplanes. He loves to go to the observation deck at the airport and watch the airplanes take off. So, I bought him a pilot costume for Halloween. Here we are leaving for trunk or treat. And of course he has his monkey bag with him. Because pilots need luggage!

Sign of the Cross

We've been working on Peyton's prayers, keeping it mostly simple: the Angel of God prayer, and the Glory Be prayer.
Then we started working on the sign of the cross. Here's how that is going:
Us: In the name of the Father
Peyton: And of the Mother (although it sounds like "and of the mudder")
Us: Ok, and of the Son
Peyton: And of the Moon
Us: No, there's no moon in this
Peyton: Yes, and of the moon
Us: Fine, and of the Holy Spirit
Peyton: AAAAAAAAA-Men!

Uncle Matt and Aunt Abby Got Married!!

Peyton was in charge of the rings again, this time for Uncle Matt and Aunt Abby.


It was a beautiful wedding at Michabelle's Inn in Hammond, and Peyton certainly left his mark.
I'll let you see the video for yourself.






At least he walked up the aisle.



Always thinking about how to keep him entertained, we bought a couple of disposable cameras to keep him occupied. It took him all of about 10 minutes to shoot an entire roll of film. Most of them came out like this:
I think there is an abstract artist in there screaming to get out.

But a couple of them came out pretty good. Here's a picture of the paparazzi:

Adventures in Nola

Last week, we traveled to New Orleans for Uncle Matt and Aunt Abby's beautiful wedding. This would be Patrick's brother Uncle Matt, not to be confused with my sister's husband, also Uncle Matt.
As the days were getting closer to the wedding and the suitcases were pulled out and packed, our little man woke up with fever and an ear infection. Lovely. We worried about how he would feel on the airplane and whether we'd have a screaming kid on our hands when the pressure changed. Luckily, he did really well. We gave him some good doses of antibiotics, a little ibuprofen, benadryl for good measure, and some tasty apple juice to drink during take-off and landing. Besides yanking on his ears a little bit, Peyton didn't seem to care about them at all, so our potion of meds seemed to do the trick.
We landed in Tampa for a small layover, but didn't have to change planes. Patrick asked if he could get off and get something to eat for Peyton, which they allowed, but this left Peyton and me up to our own vices. While we were just sitting around, I asked the flight attendant if Peyton could meet the pilot. Next thing I know, I hear a voice beaming, "Hi! I'm First Officer Joe!" and there was one of the pilots standing there to greet us. He invited us to sit in the cockpit and take a look around. I admit, all of those buttons scared me a bit. And it scared me to let my two year old within 10 feet of them. All we needed was for him to open up the luggage bin with one small touch of a button and have everything fall out of the belly of the airplane. When Patrick got back from getting food, Peyton was sitting quietly in his seat with his new airplane wings pin and coloring a picture of a Southwest airplane. I guiltily had to admit that we sat in the cockpit without him.

While hanging out at Lollie and Pops's house while we were home, Peyton took to playing my mom's guitar and singing his own song. I have no idea what he is singing, but it has something to do with New Orleans. That's really the only two words I can make out.





Wedding details and pictures to come....

Red Light, Green Light

Patrick and Peyton were playing a game. Patrick would say, "Red means....?" and Peyton would yell out, "Stop!" "Green means....?" "Go!" This went back and forth a few times. Then Patrick thought he'd mix things up a bit and try to stump Peyton. He said, "Yellow means....?" And to his surprise, Peyton answered in a very drawn out way, "Go reeaaaaallll ssssllllllloooooowwww....."