Trunk or Treat!

Last year, my church started doing something called Trunk or Treat.  Members of the church decorate their cars, load up on candy, park in the parking lot and hand the candy out to any kid that shows up!  Last year I had to work, but this year, I got Michael dressed in his "costume" and headed over for some fun!  No candy for Momma or Michael, but it was fun to see some people that I hadn't seen in a while. 

My Mom and Dad decorated the back of my Dad's pick-up complete with lights.  They passed out juice boxes and got to cuddle with their grandkids.  They also happened to win the "Best Decoration" award!  Congrats, Mom and Dad!!!

He fell asleep before the fun started!

Mom and Dad and their winning display!

Papa, Nana and their little pumpkin (after he woke up)!

Michael with cousins Daniel and Claire

The best picture we could get of all the grandkids with Papa and Nana!
Ava the Witch, Wyatt the Monkey, Jayde the Cow, Brooklyn the Monkey and Michael the Pumpkin!

Ava's 4th Birthday!

Today we celebrated my niece, Ava's, 4th birthday.  It was my weekend to work, but I was lucky enough to find someone willing to work for me for most of my shift and they didn't need me for the other part of it!  Rob got up with Michael and I got to sleep in!  It was absolutely heavenly!  I realize how much I miss my sleep, but I've gotten used to getting a lot less than what I used to!

Ava has turned into such a sweetheart!  She loves her cousins and is such a little helper!  She still has moments of attitude, but that's Ava!  She's full of life and spunk!

Happy 4th Birthday, Miss Ava!!!

I just can't do a post without putting in some pictures of the little man!

Papa and Michael

Nana and Michael!

8 months!

Michael is officially 8 months old as of October 15th! 

October has been a pretty busy month so far!  We have had some gorgeous weather and we took advantage of it!  We did a few trips to the zoo (surprise!) and we went to the Scarecrow festival!  Jo and I decided to take the kiddos on a random Monday.  Not all of the activites were open, but it was also not very busy, which is great when you have 2 active little girls that like to run around!

Jo and Ava riding the train

My little Blue Eyes!

Jo and Ava climbing the "mountain"

Some snuggle time with Auntie Jo

Hangin with Mommy

"This isn't fun anymore!"

We tried taking some pictures of Michael with my nieces and nephew one Sunday afternoon. Let me tell you...getting 5 kids ages 3 and under to sit still with no crying to take a reasonably decent picture is darn near impossible! Michael was a little crabby from a nap that got cut short and cried every time I set him down. It might have been the crunchy leaves. It might have been the amount of activity going on around him, but this is what we got...

Sweet Ava trying to calm Michael by singing "Twinkle Twinkle"

Note the arms in the air, waiting for someone to pick him up!

We tried a different spot in the windbreak behind my parent's house and we finally ended up getting a somewhat decent picture of Michael by himself, but nothing with all the kiddos.  He also happens to be sitting on my leg in this picture.  We'll take what we can get!

Michael is moving like crazy!  Diaper changes are becoming extremely challenging and he has found a love of electic cords.  He sees one and he does anything possible to get to it!  He does really well with moving around, but he hasn't mastered crawling yet.  He's almost there, but he can't quite figure out the hands and knees thing.

He loves playing on the floor with all of his toys.  He now has 4 teeth (2 top and 2 bottom) with 2 more coming in on top.  He's showing some fussiness with it.  Tylenol and a warm mist humidifer are my new best friends.  He likes to chew on stuff...mostly his finger or a burp cloth.  Turns out teethers were an unnecessary purchase :)

Here are some of his 8-month pictures.  He did pretty well again until he saw the lens cap on the floor and tried sliding off the rocker!  I thought I got some good ones, but when I go back to look at them, I realize that most of them are blurry due to how fast he's moving (and my own fault for not quite learning how to use my camera!)!

I love his expression here...too bad it's blurry.   He found his sticker and took it off!

On the move!

 

AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
(see my teeth???)

See ya next time!!!

Hi, my name is Jen...

Just in case you forgot who I was. 

It has been awhile since I've blogged, and I know you were all wondering where my latest "month" post was or what in the world we've been up to! (Just kidding, but I do know of a couple people...mom and Dee...who have been religiously checking for updates.)

There has been a lot of new stuff happening around the Polingo home.

Michael is now 7...almost 8...months old!  Once again, he cooperated for his 7 month pictures!



7 months old!

We did a lot of end-of-the-summer stuff, including many trips to the zoo with our friends. 

Best Buds!

What a cutie!

We also managed to sneak in a family trip to the zoo. On Labor Day, I told Rob it was either the zoo or the fair. He opted for the zoo!

Our attempt at a self-portrait family picture.

Daddy and Michael

Holding hands with Dad

Michael started sitting in his highchair for meals.  He loves being able to play with toys and watch Mom and Dad get supper ready and do dishes.  This also helps with the whole seperation anxiety thing that started this month.

Surprise, surprise, we did another trip to the zoo, but this time with cousins Ava and Brooklyn and Auntie Katherine.  Kate asked me if I ever get bored at the zoo.  I told her no, cause every time I go to the zoo, I see or learn something new!  For example,  this time I saw a bear laying on a rock and the tigers actually walking around!  A Great Day!

Ava and Brooklyn checking out the tigers

The 3 cousins!

Ava walking on the retaining wall and Michael taking a nap in the Moby...he still loves it!

We had a supper date with Nana and Papa...

Michael is becoming extremely comfortable with sitting all by himself.

He really likes to move, but isn't doing much crawling yet.

Right now he's doing more of a roll and scoot with a half-army crawl looking thing.

He is talking more and more every day, but no real words yet.  We get a lot of "ga ga ga".

He loves his food and is very vocal about when he thinks he should be eating.

During September, we also started laying him down while he was still awake aka "crying it out".  Up until now, I had held him for almost every nap since he was born.  It took a couple days, but he is doing pretty well with it.  We still have days where he cries for a while, but overall it's a much better nap experience for him.  He sleeps better and longer than when we were holding him.  He also is going to bed around 7pm and usually stays sleeping until 5:30 or so.

Yay!

We all know I could go on and on.

I already feel like I put too much in one blog post, but this has gotten us through September.

But don't you worry!

The 8-month mark is just around the corner and I'm sure I'll have much more to post then!

Until then, thanks for checking in!