Finn and Spencer are getting to the point where they are having so much fun with each other. Spencer is starting to "talk" more and more, and Finn encouraging him so much, and is constantly trying to teach him things. Like the alphabet, counting, and getting him to say all of the characters from In The Night Garden.

It's truly a joy to watch them interact and play together. I do hope their friendship lasts a lifetime.

Spencer came clomping down the hallway a few minutes ago, wearing his pajamas and my shoes. He was pretty pleased with himself, and it reminded me of a picture that I'd taken of Finn a couple of years ago.

Here is Spencer.
Here is Finn, wearing pajamas and Greg's shoes!

Spencer will be 2 in February. Last week, he decided that he wanted to go poop on the potty. He stood at my feet, pointed to his bum, and said "poo, poo" so I brought him upstairs, sat him on the potty, and voila...he did his business on there.

Then 2 days ago he asked again. And again, he did it. Last night he went on the potty before going to bed, and woke up dry this morning. He asked me to take his diaper off, I did, and he went pee.

After struggling with Finn for so long, it's quite a surprise the Spencer took the initiative himself.

It would be nice to have Spencer out of diapers by his second birthday. I'm not going to hold my breath, but here's to hoping!!

So yesterday was Halloween. I was a bad mom this year...no pumpkin carving or crazy decorations. However, both of the boys did have costumes and each got a bucketful of treats.

I wasn't sure that Spencer was going to participate since he screamed bloody murder the first time we put on his costume. Fortunately, he was a trooper last night and absolutely LOVED trick-or-treating. His limited vocabulary prevented him from actually saying "trick or treat" so he'd just yell out "MORE" when someone answered the door and then he enthusiastically dug his hands into the candy dish and tried to help himself. He eventually got the hang of it and let people put candy into his bucket.

Finn was into it from the get-go. I thought he'd shy out but as soon has he got his first candy hand-out he loudly proclaimed "I LOVE THIS" and marched on to the next house. After about 20 houses he said that he'd had enough of this and wanted to go home to eat some of his treats.

Today was the day for our annual trip up to get some fall photos taken. It was Finn's 4th time up there, and Spencer's 2nd. The weather was wonderful, and the boys cooperated (for the most part).

No matter how many times I go there, it always takes my breath away. Unfortunately, I'm not a good enough photographer to convey just how absolutely BEAUTIFUL this place is. The leaves were on fire. My timing was impeccable this year!
Here is Finn by the stump. If you'll take a look at this blog entry from a year ago, you can see the shots from previous years (please exuse the horrible formatting of that post...what was I thinking?) This not the greatest photo, but you get the idea!I just love this shot. It would be perfect if only Spencer's face wasn't so squished!And here they are romping in the leaves. The had a blast, and it was fun to see them running around. Spencer could barely keep up, but he certainly tried!This picture cracks me up when I look at it. I'm not sure what it is about his look, but it makes me laugh.
Finn and his leaf.

It's been a while since I did one of these. Yesterday I remembered a photo that I'd taken of Finn two years ago. I dressed Spencer up in the same clothes that he was wearing, and drove on over to the house that we used to live in (thank goodness it's still in the family or else it would be been very strange to knock on the door and ask the new owners if I could borrow their steps!)

Finn was actually a month younger then Spencer currently is, but I think Spencer has much more of a baby look than Finn did, and he's much smaller too.

And here is Finn today. He INSISTED that I take his picture too! (And no, I did NOT instruct him to pose like that!

Yesterday, the boys and I headed out to the fair. We had a grand time. It was a bit chilly, but fun. Spencer went on his first ride. He LOVED the merry-go-round, alth0ugh he was a little unsure if it until it actually started moving). I think we went on it 3 times. He had a huge smile on his face throughout the ride, and I actually had to break his grip from the rail after the last time around. The two carnies were laughing at the site of me trying to get my child to loosen his grip!Finn was old enough this year to go on a few rides by himself. He too loved the merry-go-round, but I think the car ride beat it out. He also won a stuffed Scooby-Doo at one of the games on the midway (I may have helped him out a bit).
And here is the photograph that inspired the title of this post. WTH??? In case you can't read the sign, it says "Our Goal Is To Have A Smoke Free Environment For Our Children's Well Being" And as you can see, she's pushing a stroller and taking a HUGE drag of a smoke. Sheesh!

My internal alarm clock once again woke me up at 6:54 am. Although it seems a bit early to me, once I saw the sun coming through the windows, I was awake pretty quickly! Finn woke up pretty quickly, but Spencer staying sleeping until about 7:30, which was great, because he obviously needed the sleep!

After we all woke up, we headed over to the grocery store to stock up. It's a little hard to feed 4 people with half a glass of chocolate milk at crackers. After spending way too much at store, we headed back to the house for breakfast. After that, it was BEACH time!
Although Finn had a lot of fun at the hotel pool a few nights ago, he wanted NOTHING to do with the ocean. He screamed and cried and ran away from the water. Bribery. Threats. Promises. Nothing worked. So, he stayed on the beach and played instead. He would not help Spencer and Greg build the sand castle though. They were too close to the water and he refused to go that close. I'm not sure who had more fun building the castle: Greg or Spencer. I'm pretty sure it was Greg, because he even said that he'd like to stop at a store to try to get a rectangular pail for building!
We couldn't forget Paddington. It kind of looks like he's trying to ski down a sand dune, but I didn't want to take too much time positioning him. There were some young Quebecers next to us on the beach, and they were giving me strange looks. What sort of 30-year old woman poses a stuffed bear on a beach and then takes a picture of him with a big SLR camera?Finn, my cute little water-fearing beach bum.Spencer loved chasing these "burs" around. He'd point and run after them. I think they're sandpipers, but I'm not sure.And here is Greg playing in the waves with Spencer. Unlike Finn, Spencer LOVES the water and would have run in if we'd let him. He laughed and played for a long time. Greg is currently uploading a video to YouTube, so I'll include a link to that in my evening update!

Becuase we arrived in Hershey so late the previous day, we had to postpone our trip to Chocolate World until this morning. It was fun, and Finn LOVED the Disney-esque ride through the "factory" at the museum.

Our uber-cheesy touristy photo in front of Chocolate World.



Paddington, along with Maggie (our Magellan GPS). He was very bored today, seeing as that I forgot to bring him into Chocolate World with us. After getting stuck in Harrisburg due to some really wacky detour signs, and then fighting traffic for a couple of hours, we decided to take a brake and stopped by a Target. We do not have Target stores in Canada, so it was a nice treat! Here is Finn pole dancing at the entrance, and Spencer attempting to roll the concrete ball.

Spencer was very excited that we found Chick Hicks from the Cars movie.
And thank goodness for headphones. player in the car. I'm not sure that I could stand to hear the Mighty Machines theme song more than once on the trip.
Virginia was also an extremely beautiful state. There was more traffic than we'd expected, which delayed our arrival in Williamsburg, however we didn't mind too much since we had some nice scenery to look at!That's about all for today. Spencer doesn't seem to like hotels, and is notgoing to sleep. I'm hoping that I can convince him that it's bed time!

I've entered Spencer in to a local photo contest. He's not doing very well in the vote department. If you want to go and help him out, please feel free. However, it's one of those annoying sites that requires you to register in order to vote. You can opt out of receiving emails from them, but if you don't want to sign-up, then I completely understand!

Here's the picture I've entered, so scroll down and down and down until you find him! Click here if you're game!

I just love this picture of Spencer. He's on the go so much these days (not walking yet though) and by giving him the football, I was actually able to get him to stay in one place long enough that I could take his picture!