Like his mom!

My boy might just be a little bit too much like me- we both really, really love chocolate, in any form.
While we were at the Stucki's house one night eating ice cream, Van got a hold of the chocolate syrup bottle and immediately put it in his mouth, turned it upside-down and chugged! In my defense, he has NEVER seen me do this before- I pour some into a spoon or just drench my ice cream in it, but I NEVER drink it out of the bottle! Honest! And since our child is pretty underweight, we just let him have at it. You've never seen a happier kid! It kind of made think of the Willy Wonka movie.

Tradition

Tyler's mom makes a traditional dinner around Halloween every year, but not on Halloween, because she makes home-made pizza then. But at some point in the month, she makes "dinner in a pumpkin". The whole dinner (ground beef, rice and some other stuff) is cooked in the pumpkin and then you eat it with slices of the squash on the side. I love it- not because it is a fabulous meal, it is rather simple, but more because it is a tradition- and I love traditions! This year, in my attempt to really bring our various traditions together into our home, I decided I was going to make a dinner in a pumpkin too. I let Van help me clean out the pumpkin guts, which was pretty fun, then I beked the seeds which turned out really yummy and then I made the dinner. I ended up using the wrong recipe and it wasn't nearly as good as Julie's, but even if I had used the right one, it still wouldn't have been as good! But it was yummy enough and we all had a good time creating our own family traditions that we can carry on in our home together! And that's what really matters!

Halloween

A skunk. That's what Van was for Halloween. It took us a while to figure it out, but a skunk was perfect! First I bought him an elephant costume at Costco and he really loved it! When we tried it on, it was too small, which is wierd because nothing is too small on him. (He is a very little kid, still under 20 Lbs.) So we took it back and got a tiger that I didn't really love and Van was a bit afraid of it. So I took that one back too. Then I called my freind who has a little boy who is exactly 1 year older than Van to see if I could use his costume from last year. When she brought it to me, it was pretty obvious that it would be too big, but I tried it on Van anyways- and it was too big! So she suggested I borrow a costume from her sister, who was kind enough to let a stranger borrow what turned out to be the cutest Halloween costume I have even seen! Van looked adorable in the little skunk outfit and he loved to see himself all dressed up in the mirror. Plus, I have to admit it fits his personality pretty well too! Thanks Ashley & sis!