Winter Wonderland

 Christmas in the new house goes pretty wonderfully. We have our own real tree and I've decorated like a crazy person. Edwin is, as always, spoiled mercilessly by his doting family.

 

New suspenders from PaPa George for his holiday photos

 

 

 Christmas morning madness, he gets more toys than should be reasonable for his age.

 Brand new train table from Grandpa Wayne

 

  Quality winter snow play time. Life's too short to not play in the snow.

This Is Halloween, This is Halloween...and Thanksgiving

The leaves begin to fall pretty quickly and early in Ohio, and Aunt Erin's new house has the most perfect grass for sweeping them into piles and great, almost pillowy leaves that hardly stab or poke when you dive in. Edwin and the new puppy "Dom" (Dominic) are great helpers....sort of.

We take a few trips to the Pumpkin Patch. Edwin likes it more this year because he can interact and walk around. There are so many new displays and evena giant field machine (unsure of what it is called) they can climb onto and take photos of. He never wants to get down, we have to have a taller man take him off of it. Crunch time for picking out/making a costume near the end of the month.

 It's tough picking among a dinosaur, construction worker, a shark, and many other very "boy" themed costumes. I decide on making him a Dr.Horrible from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog. Not totally accurate, but we make due based on his small size and available materials. He doesn't seem to mind.

 (pay no attention to exorcist mommy eyes)

He makes out like a thief in candy, and even learns to say "Mwahaha!" and evilly rub his gloved hands together dramatically, increasing candy takings. He still does so anytime he has gloves on.

Thanksgiving is fun, we have dinner at the cousins houses two different days. We make all sorts of crafts, including his lovely turkey hat. As relaxing as it is, we still have to begin the holiday season decorating.

Fruit Flies Like A Banana....

It has been some time since I've updated all of Edwin's progress, though not for lack of trying. We spent so much time swimming, Edwin looked like a tiny Bruce Willis:

 Bryan got back from special training in Georgia, so we flew back home to Kansas after several weeks with Grandma Kim.A few more fun weeks were spent with Daddy going to the park, walking around up town, and renting movies before we had to pack up and leave the apartment to go back to Ohio. Bryan deployed September 20th, 2012 for his first 9-month deployment to Afghanistan.

We lived with 'Mum' & Papa (Edwin's names for Grandma Kim and Grandpa Mike) for a little while before getting our own house, but it was really fun going on all sorts of outings. Every day was a random adventure:

                                   

 Listening to Pink Floyd with Papa

 Gaming with MoMo (JM)

 

Discovering MoMo's old toys

 Becoming a mad genius, sorting ducks by size, color, and pattern...

....while still remaining essentially Edwin.

 And the start of all lovely Autumn fun!

The Aquarium Adventure: Newport & Cinncinati

The trip to Newport on the Levy and Newport Aquarium is awesome! We walk around exploring the shops, and even walk across the bridge to visit Reds Stadium, but nothing compares to the Aquarium itself. It's hard to describe the whole day, so the photos will do most of the talking.

 

BEHOLD!

 Aunt Erin took some great photos

 

Hello,little fishies!

 The glass floor scared him a little until he saw fish swim under.

 

 Mighty Mike could eat Edwin in two bites!

 

See? Not much bigger than a hatchling.

 

We could "pet" the sharks, Edwin touched 2-3 of them.

 

 Tide pool exploration station, touching a horseshoe crab.

 Shark Theater, literally.A fake movie screen tank filled with them.

 These tunnels are the coolest part.

 

Tag! You're it!

At the Penguin Encounter, Edwin and another group of small kids got the penguins to swim as they ran along the glass. It was very noisy, and wonderful to see them all having such a great time, laughing and leaping.

 

 "I love you penguin"

 Thanks for an amazing time Aunt Erin!

To Grandmother's House We Go

Bryan has some training to do mid-July so we fly home to stay with Grandma & Grandpa O'Brien.The trip back is a note how how much can go wrong when traveling with children and in the heat. The first plane ride to Chicago goes off without a hitch, minus the usual short crying. When we're finally ready to board our next flight  we get word that it's been delayed 45 minutes. After our extended wait, we board the plane, only to get word to deplane after sitting in the heat for half an hour. We are then rushed to another gate, wait another 45 minutes and finally end up on another flight, only this one has no bathroom service available and no air conditioning. Awesome. Edwin behaves well enough, thank to some very funny and understanding fellow passengers. We have a Dragons baseball game the very next day.

Go,go,go!

"See, Papa?See?"

"Cheeese!"

I'm so awesome

"What sort of call was that?!"

"Help...me..."

New Dragons hat!

He's really starting to pay attention to what the people on the field are doing at the games and he was even on the jumbo-tron screen for a few seconds! He slept very well after so much excitement. 

It's been a very busy time running around to different events and visiting people. We made doughnuts with the cousins and we've gone swimming a million times, taken long walks in the evening and eaten so much summer time food we should all weigh a million pounds. The swimming has been Edwin's new favorite activity.

 Aunt Erin suggests  a trip to: NEWPORT AQUARIUM! We decide to take it a little later that week. (Next post, it was a loooong day.)

Auntie Em', Auntie Em'

Kansas

We moved out to join Bryan at his base in Kansas May 26th. Papa George and Uncle Joe so graciously hauled our things across country while we took a short flight out (3-4 hours tops). Edwin freaked out the first 10-15 minutes because of the cramped space, but he slept well. He was very bashful once we saw Daddy at the airport waiting for us, but they soon hit it off like old pals again. We live very near everything so it was a relaxingly short drive. Our new home is perfect for just the three of us. Edwin's room is the best part of the house.

He 'meows' at his lion

A well stocked kitchen

Sneaky picture taking...

I love nap time <3

His favorite hat

Our House in the Middle of...

A sea of dogs and excrement. Honestly, our building is nothing but other Army spouses and college kids (aka, lots of dogs and lots of poop.) The dogs down the hall are yappy little dachshunds, and they run out and lick Edwin whenever we're all in the hallway at the same time. He loves it! Most of the dogs are tiny little yappers, though there are a few bigger dogs that live downstairs. They're never out at the same time as us thank goodness. We must be the only people in our whole building without animals.

It has been an oppressively hot summer, so we unfortunately spend a lot of time inside watching his favorite shows and movies (Yo Gabba Gabba!, Pocoyo, Gnomeo & Juliet, etc) There is a nice little park up the hill from our apartment we play in each morning for an hour or two depending on the heat. Edwin picks up sticks and rocks of all shapes and sizes and hauls his goodies home to place on his windowsill. We're almost always the only ones at the park for some odd reason, though there is the occasional small herd of children or random jogger. One of our favorite indoor activities is to go to Hastings after dinner. We rent so many movies and Edwin enjoys running rampant around the books section. He likes to pick up the movie/television replica swords and 'Hi-yah!' Daddy and I.  He has a pretty consistent schedule, he's usually in bed by 9:30-10:00pm latest and it certainly helps that Bryan gets home at roughly the same time each evening.