Halloween 2008: No costume - No problem!

Yep, you read correctly...Grant did not have a costume for Halloween this year. We tried to get him one and took him to around 4 different places to try them on, but he was having absolutely none of that! Not only did he not want to wear a costume, he didn't even want to try on a costume or even let us approach him slowly with a costume - he would just run away! So rather than fight that fight we saved our $30 and bought a cute Halloween Snoopy t-shirt for him to wear instead. And just for a little more Halloween flare we all put temporary tattoos on our arms!

Grant really enjoyed the spider tattoo on his arm, he kept pointing to it.

Instead of trick-or-treating we went to a Fall Festival hosted by a local Baptist church. They had all kinds of activities for the kiddos to do and Grant loved it! He started off the night by riding the pedal tractor around the track. He had to have some help steering from Dad though.

Then we moved onto the hay ride! It was a short little ride but enjoyable all the same.

After a few more rides and a jump in the Bounce-House Grant was wearing down but perked back up for a new experience...his first lollipop! He loved it and had about 2 more that night!

What a fun night! We all went home a crashed! I'm sure that Grant had dreams of lolli-pops all night long!

Our Lil' Pumkin' with his Pumpkin!

Every boy needs his very own pumpkin and pair of Halloween pajamas!

"Definitions": 17.5 Months Old

Just within the past few weeks Grant's speaking and learning new words have really taken off! Now with some words it just takes a few times of Grant hearing it before he will say it himself. Such a smart little boy! Here are a few of the newest words...

AAoo: noun

1. Grant's word for "apple". So cute!

AAdee: noun

1. Our yorkie, Abbe's name. He says it constantly and really loves to be around "Aadee"!

Turtle: noun
1. Grant's word for turtle. It sounds very much like the real word.

Steeky: noun

1. Grant's word for sticky. He likes to say he is "steeky" after eating.

2. He also uses this word for "stinky".

Rarara!: adverb

1. Grant's lion sound. (So cute!)

Keys: noun

1. Grant's word for car keys. Again it sounds very much like the real word.

Deese: noun

1. Cheese - Definitely Grant's favorite food

Kitty: noun

1. Grant's word for kitty-cat. He says it over and over when he sees a cat.

(When it was Halloween at Sonic Drive-In they had black cats painted on the windows, Grant loved to see the "kitties" and said it over and over whenever we got into the car...whether we went to Sonic or not.)

Mo: adverb

1. Grant's word for more. We are still working on getting the word 'please' in front of it.

Momo: noun

1. The funniest little red muppet ever - Elmo! (Grant loves to watch "Momo" every morning on Sesame Street)

This is such a fun age with Grant and we are treasuring being able to understand him more and more each day. Pretty soon he will be talking in full sentences and using words that we don't even know the definition for!

Impromptu Backyard Photo Session

A cute son is a very easy subject to shoot!

A Little "Aggie Adventure"

We decided that it was time to show Grant what being an Aggie was all about, so a couple weekends ago we took a trip up to College Station to do just that. We started off by picking up Uncle Andrew and having lunch at our favorite restaurant, Rosa's Cafe. Next we took a trip to the Campus Bookstore to pick up an Aggie shirt for Grant....we figured since he was going to be on campus that he needed to look the part. Then we set off to explore the A&M University campus. Since Grant loves water we started off with the fountain at the student center.

He loved to walk around the outside of the fountain holding daddy's hand. He even tried to get in a few times! Next, we moved onto the grassier part of campus, walking by all the dorms and classrooms. Since it was a Sunday afternoon, there were not a lot of students on the campus...but there were a lot of squirrels. Grant is completely fascinated by squirrels and loves to chase after them.

Once we pulled Grant away from squirrel watching we decided to introduce him to an Aggie tradition....putting a penny on the foot on the Sul Ross statue for good luck on exams. There were many times that Matthew and I placed pennies on this foot believing it would bring good luck on exams. Sometimes when I really didn't study I would place a quarter! :)

Since everyone was getting hot and tired we finished up our A&M tour with some dorm step climbing and playing in the grass on the Simpson Drill Field.

Grant sure loved walking around the campus! One day he might be walking there as a student!

Family Pictures

This past weekend we traveled to New Braunfels to have a photo session with the Oekerman side of the family. The last time we did this there were only four Oekerman family members and it was 10 years ago. Now there are 8 and a half including spouses, children and a kiddo on the way due in December. The photo session set was the beautiful backyard of my parents house. They have a huge, gorgeous huge tree and wonderful grass so it was the perfect backdrop. After we took the professional pictures we were able to get our own camera and take some pictures....hopefully one of these can be used for our Christmas cards this year.

Washable Markers?

Washable markers...let's hope so!! :)