As far as Chief is concerned, October was totally boss. It was a month full of new adventures, an introduction to Halloween candy, two new teeth, and more pumpkins than he could shake a stick at.
Chief is funny. So funny. He refers to himself in the 3rd person, he’s regularly stringing together 3, 4, or 5 words, and he’s negotiating like he just graduated OU Law. He regularly says things like “Chief drive pink car,” “Chief play old park,” “Chief help mama,” “Chief eat avocado toast.” The fact that he is practically forming sentences is so crazy to me! I can’t get over it.
He negotiates over books before bed. I’ll say “One more book before we go to sleep.” and he’ll reply with “two book!” We will go back and forth for a solid 3 minutes before I usually concede.
He’s obsessed with shaving cream and will regularly ask to go to the Dog Plane store (Target) to get more shave keam (cream). We buy multiple cans of the dollar shaving cream and Crayola bath paint every time we make a trip to the store. He’ll fill up a cup with shaving cream and top it with paint like he’s pouring chocolate sauce on an ice-cream sundae. Sometimes he’ll mix the two together until he’s got a cup of blue shaving cream and other times he’ll paint it all over himself until he looks like he just escaped from Smurf Village.
He’s a big fan of Charlie Brown. It all started with “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” I think he loves it because Snoopy dresses as a WWI pilot and flies his dog house in a battle with the Red Baron. He calls it “Dog Plane” like the Target “Dog Plane.” Since “It’s the Great Pumpkin” he has now seen “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” He has renamed them so I know what he’s referring to – The Pumpkin movie is now called “Big Moon Dog Plane,” the Thanksgiving movie is called “Dog Plane Eat Toast,” and the Christmas movie is “New Dog Plane.” Got it?
He saw a snake at the park. Chief was on a walk with Marnie, his nanny, when a snake slithered onto the sidewalk between them. Marnie freaked out, Chief thought it was great. Now every time he goes to the park he thinks he’s going to see a snake. Every evening when I get home from work I always ask him what he did at the park with Marnie, 97% of the time he’ll reply with “snake.” If Marnie corrects him and says they didn’t see a snake he’ll reply with “BIG snake” then start hissing like he’s ready to attack.
He knows he’s cool. Chief has had a pair of sunglasses since he was probably 6-8 months old. He’s never wanted to wear them until recently. Now he wears them every where we go. If there is an inkling of sun he insists on wearing his “shades.” We took him to the doctor one day this month and Chief was wearing his shades, naturally. He walks in with his baby aviators on and the ladies at the front desk start ooh-ing and ahh-ing over how cute he is. One of them calls him a “stud” and right on-cue Chief tips his head down and pulls his sunglasses just below his eyes. He never cracked a smile, he kept a straight face as he stared into that poor lady’s soul. All the ladies lost it! It was pretty hysterical.
He cut his 2 year old molars and it was a rough few days. He ran a fever, wouldn’t eat, and was just abnormally irritable. I’m glad he now has a mouth full of teeth and we are officially done with “teething.”
He took a trip to Pumpkinville at the Myriad Gardens in OKC. He rearranged all the pumpkins, climbed on every giant ball or hill in the children’s area, and ran around like it was the first time he had ever been out of the house. They had big pits filled with red balls that were supposed to be cranberry bogs. Once he found those, he wasn’t interested in anything else! He would jump in, Mom would pull him out x 473. He loved it all! Except the carousel, that still freaks him out…
He drove a school bus. Our boy is OBSESSED with school buses. Norman Public Library hosts an annual fundraiser every year called Touch-A-Truck. They bring in all kinds of emergency response vehicles, heavy equipment, cement mixers, tractors, helicopters, and Chief’s favorite – the school bus. He loved the firetruck, the big green tractor, and the trolley, but his day was made when he got to “drive” a real school bus. We stood in line 4 or 5 times for him to get on the bus. Funny thing though, there were no school-age kids in line to see the school bus…
He cheered on Mom at the Tulsa Run and visited the Gathering Place. We made a flying trip to Tulsa so I could run a 5K. Chief blew me kisses as I made my way to the starting line and he immediately stole my medal and post-race snacks when I crossed the finish line. He loves race day swag. We then took a trip to Tulsa’s new Gathering Place! What an incredible park. Chief kept saying “New park! New park!” He spent 2 hours playing and we barely scratched the surface. We’re looking forward to another trip soon.
Our wild boy was the most wild thing of all for Halloween – Max from “Where the Wild Things Are” He loves the book and immediately recognized the costume when I pulled it from the box. He kept saying “Max! Max! Chief Max!” Unfortunately he thinks he’s still in character. When he does something naughty, he’ll say “Chief Max?” and I have to tell him he shouldn’t be Max everyday.
We took him to the Pi Phi house for the annual alumni trick-or-treat, Nightmare on Elm Avenue. He quickly realized that if you don’t walk away after they put your candy in your bucket, and just look at them with those eyes, they will put another handful of candy in your bucket.
On actual Halloween we took him door to door trick-or-treating with some great friends of ours. They have twins right around the same age as Chief. He picked up on the whole “trick-or-treating” thing really quickly. After one house, he was off! He would walk right up to the door and stand there with his little bucket like a seasoned professional.
Chase took his annual hunting trip. He left for 8 days to elk hunt in NW Colorado. We’ve been through this before – he’s taken a few long trips since Chief has been born, but this was the first time we didn’t have any contact with him. He was camping in such a remote place we went 5 days without hearing from him. It was so strange. After 5 days I found out he was in fact still alive, and he was filling our freezer.
I began teaching yoga again. Every Friday morning at 9:30am I teach at SPACE Yoga Studio. It’s so great to be back in a studio and back to my mat again.
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