Lions and Tigers and Monkeys Oh My!

Halloween started with us selecting a pumpkin and carving it.  We enjoyed an afternoon with Liza and Elliot finding the perfect one!  James of course wanted to help out and he found the perfect pumpkin, but really had no interest in gutting the pumpkin as much as we had him feel things out.

James had several opportunities to don a Halloween costume this year.  We were fortunate to have several costumes gifted to us for their use this year so he took his turn in two of them to celebrate Halloween.

Daycare had a small celebration in which James donned his tiger costume and his buddy Madden his football player costume.  Madden and James met in Mom's Mommy and Me class shortly after they were born and they have enjoyed each other's company at daycare since they started over a year ago.  They both soon will be "graduating" to the toddler room and learning all sorts of new things together!

That same evening we had dinner with some friends and James was already in costume, so Clara joined in on the fun as a lion!  They were the perfect jungle pair!  As noted, the head on James' costume was a little small so we put this costume to rest after this outing.

On Halloween itself James donned a monkey costume.  With his love of bananas this was a perfect outfit for him.  He didn't seem to mind the costume once we got him into it.  We took him trick or treating to several neighbors homes but he was most helpful at handing out candy to all the kids coming to our door.

Luck have it the day after Halloween Mom was out shopping and found James' costume for next year!  Those of you who know James' love for trains can already guess what it is.

San Francisco

The Clark family traveled to San Francisco in mid-October for our first family "trip."  All expectations of this being a relaxing vacation were stunted from the get go knowing we were traveling to a bustling city.  And although we don't regret for a minute our decision to get James on an airplane and let him explore another city - we will say traveling via plane and living out of a diaper bag for a week is a bit of a challenge that all parents should experience.  The memories we have from this trip and the pictures we captured speak to the fun we had.  So without further ado - a short synopsis of James' adventures in San Francisco!

My first plane ride!  James was excited to say the least - but didn't fare so well, nor did Mommy with the flight attendant.  You can ask Daddy about that one.  We'll just say the flight home was much better because James slept for two hours of the four hour flight.

My first ride on BART, MUNI and a cable car.  We took public transportation for the duration of our trip.  No need to rent a car in a city that has a great transit system.

A visit with Auntie Aimee in San Francisco?  Aimee happened to be San Fran for work at the same time of our trip so we got to meet up for dinner one night and give her a break from work. 

Picking out a pumpkin?!?  Don't think we can take that on the airplane in our carry-on Mom!  Daddy had fun with James as Mom picked out diapers at Safeway.

I love flags!  Our big discovery on this trip was James' love for flags.  He can spot them on buildings, by the piers, in front of hotels, etc.  It was hilarious to all of a sudden hear him shout "ohs" or "ahs" over a flag blowing in the breeze.  We are now challenged to find him an appropriate flag themed Christmas gift.  Thoughts anyone?

My first experience with Thai food.  And boy did he like it!  I think he ate more than Mom and Dad both this night and he chowed on everything we put in front of him ... when his plate ran empty he helped himself from Daddy's plate.

James loved the aquarium at the California Academy of Sciences.  He loved seeing all the fishes and tried to touch them through the glass. 

 

Muir Woods wasn't the highlight of the trip for James (he fell asleep) as seen here.  The rest of us enjoyed the forest of "HUGE" trees and escaping the city.  The remainder of this afternoon was spent in Sausalito and some sun (which didn't show it's face very often on our trip!).

James never did adjust to "California time" when we were on our trip.  He managed to wake up each morning around 5.  After the first two nights we learned our lesson and went to bed when he went to bed in order to get some sleep.

Overall the trip was great!  We would have hoped for some warmer weather but it wasn't MN cold so we can't complain.  We enjoyed our time away but we were also happy to come home and sleep in our own beds and adjust to MN time! :)



Fall Firsts!

Since his 1st birthday James has experience many "1sts" and we thought we'd share them with you!

His first time playing in the leaves - and helping us with yard work.  He was mostly the foreman watching us work, but none the less he kept himself busy.

His first "walk" with one of his push toys.  He scooted his Thomas train clear across the dining and living room and was quite proud of himself as you can see from that smile on his face!

His first "real" hair cut at a salon.  As you can see he was not a happy camper - even Sesame Street videos couldn't cheer him up.  But the stylist was great and gave him a cute cut in record time.

There are several other firsts this past month but we'll devote some other posts to them - stay tuned!!

Light Up the Night!

A month or so ago we participated in the "Light the Night" event at Target Field to raise funds and awareness for leukemia and lymphoma.  As many of you know, Matt's friend Mark from grad school has been battling Lymphoma this past year, but we are so thankful to report that he is now cancer free!!

Heather's work was a sponser of the event as well so a lot of her coworkers participated in the event.

James enjoyed seeing all the balloons lit up and we enjoyed seeing the support system of families and friends all out to raise awareness to these diseases in which research is key to survival and finding cures.