Spoooooky!

I'm not quite sure why I LOVE Halloween so much. I hate scary things, I will never step foot in a haunted house or watch a scary movie, but I still love Halloween. I've loved the fact that Cole gets so excited over the pumpkins, ghosts, and skeletons everywhere, he loves to watch special Halloween shows and read Halloween stories, and he looks so sweet in his special jammies and shirts. I'm pretty sad it'll all have to be put away after tomorrow and Thanksgiving isn't too terribly exciting, so be prepared, we might be moving to Christmas a little early :)
Anyway, we've done a lot to prepare for Halloween this week so here are the pictures, and there are a lot of pictures.

Cole making his Mr. Potato Head Pumpkin

Doesn't quite get the face concept yet...

Daddy's helping him fix it

That looks a little better!

Daddy and Cole's skeleton pumpkin

Making cinnamon raisin bread with Tutu

Cole ate a LOT of raisins out of the bread dough

Mmmm, our bread is tasty!

Thursday, Halloween Hoopla at Aloha Tower

What is this clown doing to me?

No, Cole, that's not what a real tattoo feels like,
just remember that.

Cole's 1st Tattoo

Cute lil conductor

Knocking down the soda bottles


On Friday, we took treats to Daddy's work

These treats we made are pretty tasty!


Friday Night Pumpkin Carving

Hmmm, what's in here?

Yuck! Guts!

This is a better way to do it, daddy

Lola bear is managing this operation

All cleaned out

He really wanted that pumpkin top on

Finished Product

The Jabara Krewe is Growing!

Cole is very excited to announce that he's going to be a BIG BROTHER! We went to the doctor yesterday and the baby is measuring 12 weeks exactly, so that means he/she is due to arrive around May 7th. For some reason I feel like he/she is going to come on May 10th, so I'm calling that date early :)

We do have to admit that this was a bit of a shock. Yes, we know where babies come from, but we had such problems conceiving Cole and I didn't really think my body was changing for the better, so we just figured we'd need to do the fertility route again. Then at the end of August, Ben had a dream that I was pregnant! I told him he was crazy and that was no way possible. A few days went by and I took an expired test and there it was, clear as day! I took another one just to make sure and within seconds it was positive. A small shock but a huge blessing to say the least. Now that we've seen the baby and it's strong little heart it makes it even more real.

Cole of course doesn't quite understand what's going on, but we talk a lot about babies and how nice and sweet babies are. I just ordered him a book called "What's in Mommy's Belly" that another friend suggested and we've been rocking our baby doll and putting diapers on her. He's been very sweet. The other night he lifted my shirt and kissed the baby and then he went over and lifted daddy's shirt to kiss "daddy's baby" (I thought this was hilarious, Ben, not so much)! He'll figure it out one day...hopefully before the baby is born.

Mommy's Big Helper

I usually don't get too serious or talk about parenting on my blog, but I came to a very big revelation this week. I try to do a lot of different activities throughout the day with Cole to keep him busy, to teach him new things, and let him explore the world, but I've always been somewhat concerned about things (mainly him and my house) getting messy or him hurting himself or breaking something that I've kind of been holding back. This week I decided just to let go. As long as he's having fun and his attention is on one task and he's leaning and exploring, and not hurting himself of course, then it really doesn't matter what else happens and I can deal with it later. Now, you're probably thinking, THAT was your "big revelation" shouldn't you have already realized that by now? And, I guess I did to a certain extent, but not to the degree that I know now.

So, with this parenting post come a series of pictures and a video of Cole being Mommy's Big Helper and LOVING every minute of it! It all started with spaghetti sauce. I needed to make some and Cole needed attention. In comes my brilliant idea...get out the step stool, a small cutting board, and his baby knives and get him in the kitchen helping. Cole's first job was taking the stems off of the mushrooms and then he put in the tomatoes, the sauce, the wine and stirred it all up. He was intrigued the entire time and even though it probably took double the time, it was so worth the learning experience and the fun in the end.

Cole's sauce was SO DELICIOUS!

The next night I went in to make dinner and Cole ran and got the step stool and drug it over to the counter to "help". There wasn't much he could do for this dinner, so I put him on dish duty. Once again, water ALL OVER the kitchen, but oh so worth it. He even had to do the dishes again this morning because it was so much fun.

Tonight, it was pizza though it ended up being less about helping and more about Cole eating all of the ingredients once he realized they were tasty. Still, he stood next to me and was so proud of the pizza we made together.

I'm actually really enjoying the age Cole is right now, though there are still moments of pure frustration, it's so much fun now that he's a little older and he can start helping me. It's just amazing how much he learns everyday and his vocabulary is just exploding. We definitely have a big boy on our hands and not a baby anymore!

He thinks it's so funny to go "nigh night" in our bed after his bath.

Fall Family Fun Fest

Last Friday, we attended the YMCA's Fall Fun Fest. There were little games for the kids, hot dogs, and the favorite...a Bounce House! Cole really didn't care much about the games, and at first he didn't like the bounce house either because he didn't want to take his shoes off, but once he forgot about his shoes, we couldn't get him out of the castle. Cole's been anti-picture this past week so they aren't the best, but still cute.

Choo! Choo!

Daddy and his train engineer at Fall Fun Fest

Bouncing Around

Pumpkin Jammies!

Reading his new Halloween book, Big Pumpkin,
we've read it about 583 times since then.

Pumpkin Patch

We've been going to the Armed Services YMCA play group for a couple of weeks now and today we had a field trip to the pumpkin patch! Yes, you can grow pumpkins in Hawaii :) It is very odd though slathering on sunscreen before your visit to the pumpkin patch. It was also a little crazy because they told us to wear long pants and shoes and socks so we were all baking in the hot sun, but it was fun. As soon as we got out of the car, Cole just kept saying "pumpkin, more pumpkin" over and over again, but I also think Cole's favorite part was the tractor hay ride!

PUMPKINS!
(or Po'oki'i in Hawaiian)

Tractor hayride

So many to choose from...

He was very unsure about sitting on the pumpkin

Thorough examination of the large pumpkin
(with my buddy Luca in the background)

Ugh, these things are HEAVY!

Kaneohe Air Show

A couple of weeks ago we went over to the Marine Base and watched an air show. Cole had a great time watching the airplanes and helicopters. We even got to tour some of them!

Daddy and Cole in a Helicopter "chop, chop, chop"

Watching the planes

Cole signing for "more airplanes"

Cole's first shave ice

Airplanes!

Oooh, Mommy, this is delicious!