cousin central!

We had another great Thanksgiving in Capitola this year. We stayed a few days at the cabin, which we don't usually do. It was crazy jam packed with little kid cousins: Owen (age 1), Mirabella (age 2), Eloise (age 3), Elias (age 4), Madeline (age 5), Arabella (age 5), Miles (age 7). Then skip ahead to the big kid cousins: Isabella (age 12, I think), Rosie and Lizzie (age 15), Willie (age 17), Charlie (age 19). Throw in a handful of grownups and dogs and there you have it!

Firsts

Yay! Owen is walking!
We could tell he was getting ready to walk, but every time we held him up and encouraged him to take a few steps, he would sink to his needs and crawl away while shaking his head "no, no, no". THEN, just when you weren't expecting it, he would come walking by for a few steps. It took me few days to finally catch it on video.

Eloise had her own "first" this week, too. First roller coaster ride! Wooooo hoooooo!!!!

so crazy!

So many things have been so crazy around here lately.
1) It was super hot today! We went to the park after naps and stayed until it got dark. Feels like summer! Except it gets dark at 5:30.
2) Owen is now a unstoppable chair climber. It was pretty cute last week when he was just climbing on his little chair. Now he will climb any chair he can get his hands on. And then he will climb onto anything he can reach while he's standing on a chair (think tables, counters, shelves). He also loves to throw anything he can reach onto the floor. And to top it all off, he can also push any chair where ever he wants to go. Yikes!
3) Eloise is refining her crazy outfits. Here you see her wearing a "regular" outfit, with a tank top over her shirt so that she can carry her "baby" around with her all day.

sit on it, or not

Owen just got this awesome chair as a present from Mana and Pata. Eloise is sitting on her chair next to him. For whatever reason, Owen has yet to sit on his chair. He's been too busy climbing up, then down, then up, then down, over and over again. Then he stands on it a while. Then he tries to rock it like a rocking chair. Then he dose some tricky balancing with the chair tipped up on two legs. Very fancy stuff for a guy who's not quite walking yet!

trick or treat

Or should I say "trick arrr treat". We all had a really fun Halloween with lots of parties and trick or treating. And now we have lots of candy!

Finally - I have time to post a little update about the details of our Halloween....
Owen was originally going to be a witch, but he refused to wear his witch hat. He wore his witch dress to the party at Eloise's school (on Friday). Convenience and comfort prompted Owen to switch his costume to a cozy skeleton for another party (with the families from my mom's group) on Halloween morning and for trick or treating in the evening.
There is still a surprising amount of candy left in Eloise's candy bag one week later. Eloise earnestly expresses how much she likes each kind of candy she tries. Tonight it was pixie sticks... "I like it! It tastes like sugar!"