Happy Halloween

For Halloween, Rocco was a scarecrow. His cousin, Drew, was Sherlock Holmes. At only 9 years old, he is the genius in the family; he comes up with his own costume ideas. For the last 3 years he's won the best "Book Character Costume" at his school. One of Rocco's other cousins, Colston, was the cutest firefighter you've ever seen. The three of the boys went trick-or-treating tonight together. Our small town is really neat in that all the kids come downtown and walk around the town's homes to get candy. The entire community is out, and there is a small town feel that you can't find anywhere else.

Little man hadn't a care in the world as his daddy pulled him in the wagon. Everyone agreed that this is definitely the way to go when trick-or-treating.

At school today most of the kids and even teachers dressed up. Carolyn, my mother-in-law, helped me with my costume. I was Crest toothpaste. The kids couldn't quite get the fact that the lamp shade was the lid to the toothpaste. Regardless, we had a great time trunk-or-treating before school let out. Jason brought Rocco to the event but had to leave early because little man was grumpy for getting a late start on his afternoon nap. Before he left the school though, Katie Grace gave him a special goody bag that she made just for him. (This is the girl that is in his music class. I also work with her mom. At our fall festival earlier this month Rocco laid a big kiss on her. Katie Grace's family laughs at the fact that she got her first kiss from a preacher's son.) I think Rocco has great taste. She is one cute little girl! He calls her Kiki.

31 Months Old

Rocco continues to be a very sweet boy; there's nothing terrible about him though he's in his 2's. He learns new things at a rapid pace, and he's amazed us all picking up his ABC's. Below is the latest in Rocco's world.

1) In addition to knowing A, B, C, D, E, M, O, R, S, and T, he has picked up F farm, H house, I ice, N nana, and P purple. It's really neat how he not only says the letter but the word that goes with it.

2) One of his newest words is dark. In Sunday School we learned about creation and how the earth was dark before God made it. And then BOOM! God made the light. So whenever it is nighttime, Rocco will say dark and then say Boom while opening his fist. He knows that God made the light. We often talk about how beautiful the sky is that God made.

3) He can also now say, "Mawmaw and papa." These are Jason's grandparents on his mom's side. Though Rocco never was able to meet them, he can recognize them in a picture. Another new word is car although he pronounces it as "aaar."

4) Rocco wants to talk so bad. Some days he just goes on and on with the words he does know. Then, these words are followed by pillow. Don't ask me why, but that word comes up a hundred times a day. "Mama pillow. Daddy pillow. Me a pillow." He really likes that word. He knows what a pillow is so I'm not sure why so many phrases are followed by it.

5) He asks for candy and gum a lot. If it's anywhere to be found, he will see it and beg for it. He really enjoys helping his mama and nana in their kitchens. He really feels a sense of accomplishment when he helps out making cookies, cupcakes, or other dessert.
6) Thus far he understands 3 Bible stories. They are Noah's ark, Creation, and Jonah and the Whale. He's learned all of them in our Sunday School class that I teach.

7) When we're out eating, he thinks we have to buy him a ball every time. This ball is actually a bubblegum ball, but we're not telling him or he'd put it in his mouth. We have to have quarters on hand whenever we go out. He's also loosened up some and feels more confident in walking away from us for short distances. This somewhat scares me. He likes to hide, too, especially when he goes off and does a dirty job in his diaper. We really have to keep an eye on him or he would wander off. He's just growing up too fast!

8) I believe he is beginning to see the world a little differently and not just from his perspective. He must care a little bit about what others are thinking of him because I've seen him act embarrassed a few times. He'll bury his head into my chest or cover up his eyes.

9) Music class is still one of the highlights of our week. He does everything Mrs. Kay does, and he loves story time. He's the only child that will sit right up under the teacher for the entire length of the book. He gets so close to her that he tries to turn the pages. Both my mom and Jason's mom have been to music class with us, and every time he ensures that they all get up and dance. Never will he just let them sit down. He sees to it that they also have any bells, shakers, scarves, or other materials that they need. He's definitely comfortable in that setting.

10) At night Rocco begs us to read to him. After each book is finished he'll say, "More read!" The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Thomas the Train's ABC, Thomas' Catch Me, and Froggy Gets Dressed are books that get read a lot at our house.

11) Each night before bedtime, he enjoys watching his Thomas the Train DVDs in the computer room. He'll stay in there by himself for about 20 minutes just watching the show. This is another sign of him growing up. He can go for longer periods of time without me. It's good that he is becoming more independent, but at the same time it's sad to see my baby become more of a little boy.

12) He finally says the word no. It comes out more like, "Naw." The southern draw he has is so funny. Another word that he tries to say now is stop. When I'm tickling him he'll beg, "Bop, mama!"

We could never have a sweeter child. He's so loving and well behaved. God has blessed us with a beautiful, healthy boy and we're so thankful for the blessing that he is in our lives. He really brings us so much joy. It's amazing how God put us together from opposites sides of the world and made us a family.

Our Boy and His Trains

I've never seen a boy so enamored with trains as Rocco. And now that we've been working on potty training for a while I thought I'd make a small investment in another incentive. . . big boy underwear. Not just any underwear, but Thomas underwear! I bought the 3 pack at K Mart on the 17th of this month and couldn't wait to show them to little man.

As soon as I got home, I told him that I had a surprise for him. I encouraged him to use the potty. We did our "Tee tee/poo poo" talk and then I showed him the train underwear. He didn't need to use the potty, so I put the underwear on his little bootie. Then, I rushed to get the camera.

The few pictures I took lasted no more than 5 minutes.

Before I could even put the lens cap on I found a big wet spot on his blue chair. "Oh man!" Guess he's not quite ready for big boy underwear yet. He is getting better though. Candy seems to be getting the job done; stickers weren't proving to be that great of a motivation. Poor guy begs for candy. He knows he doesn't get any unless he uses the potty. He'll muster up a drop or two with all his might just so he can get a sucker.

When I change his diaper he looks at the big boy underwear just waiting on him in his drawer. Of course he points to them and wants to wear them. That's when we have a talk about being a big boy and using the potty and not your diaper. Not so sure he's listening. . . slowly but surely we will get there!

Pumpkin Painting

After tonight's pumpkin painting at my school (and Papa's pumpkin day) we definitely have enough pumpkins to decorate our house with for fall. This evening Rocco and I met nana and granddaddy at my school for the annual pumpkin painting and had a great time. Rocco did not spend a lot of time painting though. He barely brushed a few strokes on his two pumpkins . . .before deciding that he would much rather be playing on the school playground. We spent most of our time swinging, climbing, and sliding. I love this sweet, content smile of his.

There were several fundraisers going on tonight. Basically teachers were selling junk to raise money for their classrooms. I bought Rocco a light up pumpkin necklace. "Spoooky!" I told Rocco. To which he replied, "Pooopy!"

Pumpkin Day at Papa's

Every other Sunday we always eat dinner at Papa's house with Jason's extended family. Uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews, in-laws, and out-laws all get together for lunch after church at Papa and Mawmaw's house. Though they are no longer with us, their legacy lives on through the lives of us. In fact, Rocco's latest words are "Mawmaw and Papa." He has a very southern accent and really draws out the word Mawmaw. Jason has taught him how to recognize both of them in pictures.

Any holiday at Papa's house is a big one. At Easter we hide eggs, at Christmas we exchange names and open presents, at Valentine's all the kids make heart crafts, and at Halloween the kids make their own goody bag. . . and they find pumpkins.

The adults carve the big pumpkins, and the kids paint theirs. Below is Jason's sister, Tonya, helping little man. Rocco really got into the pumpkin painting this year. I think he painted about 4 or 5. And what would Halloween be without some candy? I tell you, Rocco has turned into a candyman. He can spot it anywhere and then begins to beg, "Blue-green." (Recently we've been using candy for incentives to get him to use the potty; the stickers just weren't working that well. Poor fella will have cavities by the time he's potty trained. Thankfully, they make sugar free these days.)
Here are the finished products of Rocco's, daddy's, and mama's hard work. And yes, we're from the country. . . we proudly display our pumpkins on the back of cousin Terry's truck next to the field the bull is kept in. We like it that way!

Little Scarecrow

Downtown was decorated so pretty with mums, hay bales, scarecrows, and pumpkins. I thought we'd do a fall photo shoot and also go to the pumpkin patch to pick out a couple pumpkins for our carving at Papa's this coming Sunday. We took Nana Carolyn along with us and had a great time. (Enjoy the sneak preview of Rocco's Halloween costume!)

He was taking things a little too serious, but a sucker brought on the smiles.

The hat didn't stay on for long.

For some reason he thought throwing his hat off was hilarious!

His new thing is covering his eyes when things get funny or embarrassing.

Have you ever seen a cuter scarecrow?

Disney World

What an amazing day we had at Magic Kingdom, and getting to the park was half the fun. Rocco thought the monorail and Disney parking lot tram were rides within themselves. Since he is so into trains, we had to get on the Choo Choo train for our first official Disney ride. It took us to Toon Town where Rocco experienced his first real roller coaster. Absolutely didn't like it. . . in fact when we got off he waved quickly at it and kept saying, "Bye Bye!" He did enjoy Pooh's Honey Pot ride, Dumbo the Elephant, and the Carousel ("wis" is how he kept saying "horse.") He absolutely loved and took in It's a Small World.

So much to see, riding in a inside a boat, and listening to the music. . . right up his alley!

Snow White's Scary Adventure and Pirates of the Caribbean were both a little too dark and scary for him. He was sure to tell them, "Bye Bye", too.

Besides seeing the characters and going on rides, the three of us took time to go inside a theater production. I wasn't so sure if Rocco would wear the 3D glasses or not, but we were looking for a perfect spot to rest and cool off and the theater seemed perfect. Rocco surprised us and kept his glasses on the entire show.

Every now and then he'd reach out and try to grab the items that seemed to be floating right in front of us. At times it was a little loud and overwhelming to him, so he would quickly turn his back to the movie and hold on to me tightly. Then, he'd turn back around to watch it some more.

Rocco lasted from about 10am - 3pm before pure exhaustion. We headed back to our room for a nap and returned refreshed at 7pm for two more hours of fun.

It did rain on us some that night. Of course that was half the fun. . . trying to stay dry and still get it all in before the park closed at 9. (I was so excited the entire day that Jason had to keep telling me to slow down. . . I couldn't help but run to each ride though.) Rocco willingly wore the poncho to stay dry; he was the cutest!

Although Rocco chose the carousel over the Parade of Lights, we did enjoy the fireworks. And I guess it was okay that we skipped the parade because it allowed us to ride "It's A Small World" several times in a row with no wait in line. We also rode on Peter Pan's Magical Flight. For some reason that ride wasn't as fun as it was when I was a small child. The entire theme park seemed much smaller too than it did back then. Funny how your perception of things changes as you get older. I hope Rocco will enjoy seeing life through the eyes of a child for many many years. There's something more cool and magical about seeing it that way.

Animal Kingdom

If you'd like to see a video montage of our trip to Disney's Animal Kingdom, click HERE. I'm very bummed that the quality is so poor considering all the time I put into it. I'm also bummed that I can't figure out how to directly put the video on my blog and that you have to click a link to view it. If you know how to use One True Media, leave me a comment/help.

The day we spent at Disney's Animal Kingdom was spectacular. Rocco was able to experience a "zoo" with all the extra jazz like meeting many Disney characters. He met Donald Duck, Jimmeny Cricket, Poccohontas, Eeyore, Pooh, Tigger, and more. Thankfully he wasn't scared of them. As far as the animals go, he just wasn't into them. He was more interested in getting to ride the big jeep on our Safari. Of course he loved the train ride. I believe the Lion King show was a little too loud and over the top for him, but we all really enjoyed the Finding Nemo production. As we left the theater, a big rain storm was upon us. Rocco had more fun running with me inside my poncho than he did doing anything else. For some reason he just got tickled; I guess he felt like he was inside a big yellow tent. The cool thing about the rain was that it cleared out the lines. We rode the dinosaur ride four or five times in a row. It was a lot like the elephants that rise up in the air and go in a circle.

Being there all day wore him out, but looking back I'm really glad we stayed until 6 (closing time). Sure we missed his regular nap, but the 4 o'clock parade was worth it. We had great seats right up front, and many of the characters came up to Rocco to give him five or a hug.

By the end of the day we were so worn out, we were all ready for a nap. I can hardly wait to see how Disney's Magic Kingdom compares to today. I'm so glad we chose this park; there were a lot of cool things for Rocco to see and do. But by far the coolest thing we saw was a lady dressed up as a vine. She was on stilts and moved like a slow moving plant. She was incredible and people could not believe their eyes. It was really cool to see her freeze her movement and stand there like a tree.

I don't know how much he'll remember about this trip, but we made memories I'll never forget.

Orlando, Florida

Some of the funnest times we're having on this vacation are the silly times we spend just playing around in our room. We're so glad to finally be here!

We arrived late last night around ten, so today we just took it easy at our nice resort. The pool area was really nice. It had a hot tub, large pool, lazy river with floats, and kiddie water squirt area. Two hours in the sun was all we could take before Rocco's nap time. Later in the afternoon we explored Downtown Disney. Dinner was at this really cool Rainforest Cafe where the animals seem to come to life and it even rains and storms while you're eating. It was a little much for Rocco though. After eating, we let him ride the carousel and the train. . . the highlight of his night.