October 2012

October came with

Beautiful, blustery days

And lots of laughter

We found ourselves making the trek down to Louisiana again the first weekend of October.  Charlie had a cousin getting married and we decided to celebrate with them and the rest of the Gutekunst family.  We all had a great time at the wedding catching up with family, eating great food (especially the bread pudding in rum sauce), and dancing with the Big Band.  Bruce additionally had a great time fiddling with the grandmother-of-the-bride's wheelchair - I'm glad she didn't mind too much!  He can't resist anything with wheels, especially big wheels, but I wasn't expecting him to figure out how to unlatch the break and start pushing grandma away! 

 

The day after the wedding, all the "brothers" and their families were able to get together and take Charlie's mom out for lunch to celebrate her 60th birthday.  With naps for the littles awaiting, we didn't get to have a long gathering, but it was still great to spend some time with everyone. 

While we were in Louisiana, Bruce decided he was ready to turn those few steps here and there into actual walking! I'll try to post the video of the morning he decided to take off.  Every few days he seems to get more and more confident, and will walk farther and farther distances.  Of couse he still crawls from time to time, but his preferred mode of travel these days is definitely on two feet!  It still surprises me if I'm in another room, to see him walking around the corner to come find me... 

walking along the Bayou Teche

Bruce was in Heaven - giant pinecones!

 

Other than walking, there haven't been too many changes for Bruce this month.

 

 

He got a hair cut a couple of weeks ago and ditched the Bieber bangs.  Our good friend Loretta had the honors, but unfortunately Bruce did not like that one bit.

 

He's had four molars come in this month.  Lots of ibuprofen, but we survived.

Bruce has always had a wonderful, gut bellied laugh - but we've been hearing it a lot more lately as he's become so much more ticklish!  Best bets - squishing his thighs, "biting" his back, poking his ribs, brushing his underarms...

Still no words really yet - not even a "mama" beckoning me to come get him out of the crib in the morning - but he can point out his nose, eyes, mouth, ears and hair on command (most of the time) thanks to the coaxing from Grandma Pat and Papa Rick when they came to visit this month.  I'm sure he'll be talking soon though because Bruce's favorite books this month have been the vocabulary building type and non-fiction books.  He loves to look at the books, and point to something on the page, saying, "dat!"  After he hears it's name, he moves on to the next thing that grabs his interest - "dat!"  And the game goes on and on.  I know he's trying to process it all and retain some of it. 

how Bruce "talks" on the phone

He's down to taking only one nap now and there's been pros and cons with that shift.  Mostly I think it's been a good thing though.  He's now sleeping for about two hours, which is wonderful - but that means that we have two long periods of time in the morning and afternoon that sometime get overwhelming.  To help pass the time, Bruce and I have started going to the library's story time which has been a fun change of pace, and to the nursing home down the road from our house.  The old ladies love Bruce, and he gets to play with wheel chairs.  Win-win.  We've decided to take a bit of a break from trying to volunteer at Madison Elementary because it's hard for me to help out and still keep Bruce out of "trouble."





Yes, I let Bruce play in the loose gravel in the middle of the road...

 





And on railroad tracks...

 

And in the dryer...

But it's all in the name of growing his brain.

playing in a pillow fort

Visiting the "Norman Aquarium"
AKA - Petsmart

giant tree stump at the park

The week after we got back from Louisiana, Charlie had to leave for a week in Colorado.  My mom and Rick came up for a few days to help keep Bruce and me company while he was gone, which was a welcomed relief!  We of course had breakfast at Ozzie's one day, and spent an afternoon at the duck pond among other things.  Great fun!

 

When Charlie got home, we had a great weekend together!  We took a nature walk (on our way to the Donut Palace) and collected a whole bag of beautiful Fall leaves.  When we got home (after eating some yummy donuts) we made our first family art piece together - an Autumn window collage!  We also went to play at the park and Bruce got to see a moving train up close and personal!

 

 

 

 

 

The following weekend we had our international students and neighbors over for our ninth annual Pumpkin Carving Party!  Bruce even helped with scooping out the muck!

I still haven't outgrown Halloween, and probably never will - and I'm thankful that Charlie enjoys the holiday as much as I do!  This year Charlie's cousin gave us a chicken costume for Bruce, which matched perfectly with the big chicken costume we already had!  So we ended up having a family "theme" this year too.  I imagine next year Bruce will be old enough to tell us what he wants to dress up as for Halloween, so we should enjoy getting to choose ourselves while we can.

 

 

Trick or Treat!