Trick or Treat

We went over to my Nanny and Grandad's house tonight so my family could see Hunter in his costume. We went a little crazy with the picture taking. I think I have about 20 pictures of him on my camera. Seriously. Here is a small sample for y'all. Get ready for some serious cuteness.

This is right after we got there, so all attention was on Hunter. He was super excited about it.

Already a candy lover

This is at the end of the night. He was so over his costume at this point. My niece, Vanesa, was a spider countess and my nephew, Zack, was a pirate.

The Great Pumpkin

I've never been a super big fan of Halloween. I don't have any dislike for the day or anything, I'm just kind of apathetic towards it. No feeling either way. Although, now that I have the cutest, most kissable baby ever (who cares what kiss fm thinks), I'm pretty excited about it.


I went to get Hunter's Halloween costume weeks ago. I was almost giddy looking at all of the possibilities of unbelievable cuteness sitting before me. I narrowed it down to 3 costumes and was pulling out my cell phone to call many of my friends and take a poll. Decision making is definitely not a strength of mine, which seems really strange if you consider my job. Maybe it's just that I'm making decisions all day long, so when it comes to all other aspects of my life, I need help. Anyway, I was ready to call when I decided to look at the price tags first, and boy was I SHOCKED when I did. Are y'all ready for this? They were each $50. Yes! Fifty Dollars. Are the costume makers of the world crazy?! Am I really suppose to consider spending fifty dollars on a costume that my baby will wear one time? I am not a cheap person, but that seems a little outrageous to me. So as you can imagine, my excitement for the upcoming holiday started to deflate a little. I started looking for the cheapest costume they had, and found a pumpkin that I'm actually very happy with. When you have a kid as cute as mine, it doesn't matter what the costume is, right? Right.


So yesterday Hunter had his check up at Cranial Technologies (for the DOC band), and they had told me at the last check up to bring him in his costume and they'd take pictures of him. I had this bad feeling that if I dressed him up, he'd be the only kid in the place dressed up and I'd feel like an idiot. And of course we get there and as I'd feared he was the only one with a costume on. I kept looking at the door hoping to see a ladybug or a monkey or an angel or something. But no luck. Just baby after baby after baby in regular old street clothes. Where's the Halloween spirit people! I started to feel a little embarrassed because I'm super self-conscious and the older I get the more I just want to blend in. But I immediately felt better when all of the staff started oohing and ahhing over Hunter. I mean how could they not. Just look at him.

The Coke - Dr. Pepper Saga

I am a Coke lover. I can't even remember a time in my life when I didn't love and have a serious addiction to the stuff. We have a definite love/hate relationship. I have fleeting thoughts of how it's definitely not a healthy option, and all of the little factoids that I've learned through the years start to pop into my head. You know, it's green before they add the coloring to it, it can burn or break down or melt or do something horrible to a battery when it's poured over one, it'll make pop rocks explode in your mouth and shoot through your brain. Harmless little tidbits like that.

I have gone through phases where I wean myself off and quit. I've even gone several months without one, but then one day I'll crave it, have one drink of the sweet goodness, and I'm instantly hooked again. I didn't even stop when I was pregnant with this sweet boy.
And we know how much I'm in love with him! In fact, I craved it more than ever when I was pregnant with him. Hopefully this isn't an indication of his future love for it. I discussed with James the idea of not letting Hunter try it until he was in high school. James didn't think that was too realistic since a good parent would probably need to model the desired behavior we want from the kid. And if anyone expects me to go the next 14 years without a Coke, you're crazy.

I've never ever thought of switching to another carbonated beverage. I have always been a loyal, dedicated patron to the Coke product. Now Dr. Pepper has always come in a distant second. I'll drink it if there's not a Coke option (heavy sigh), but not a first choice for me. . . until lately.

I can't tell y'all how distressed I am about this. I LOVE coke! It is my friend! It has gotten me through some rough times! It can comfort me in a way no other beverage can!

I feel like a traitor. A disgrace to all of the other Coke addicts out there. How can I choose Dr. Pepper so easily when sweet little Coke is sitting there trying it's hardest to tempt me? I tried to dismiss it as a phase, but it's been several weeks now and my taste buds are still rebelling against my heart and brain. What a sad, sad thing. Oh my beloved Coke! How I miss you!

Warning: Reading this post will expose you to severe whining, complaining, venting, etc, etc

Okay. I know I said that I really didn't want Hunter to be a baby model so I wasn't so sure about the whole contest anyway, but can we talk about the serious idiots that must work for KISS FM? I can't even begin to explain the madness that is their voting system for this thing. They have 17 galleries of photos, and Hunter's gallery (number 4 in case you wanted to vote on him so he can be a horrid baby model - oh wait, that's right, you can't vote on his gallery because the good person that organized the contest doesn't know what he is doing - see below) has 277 photos. For those of you who aren't math geniuses, that would be around 4700 photos. Yes. FOUR THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED. WHAT! It's not even that great of a prize. I mean don't get me wrong I'd love $5000 and a trip to Mexico, but like every parent in DFW must have entered their kid in this contest.

I digress. Here's where the frustration comes in. When you go to vote for the contest the photos are separated into 17 galleries, and then you have to scroll through the first 20 photos in that gallery before you can even click on the link to vote for that gallery. Well Hunter's gallery is stupid and when you click on the link, all of the pictures pop up but there is no where to click to vote and nowhere to put your email address. The others are working. How do I know? Because my sweet friend Erin sent an email to her friends with the link to vote on her son because she was on of the other 4700 moms that entered her kissable baby. I, on the other hand, will not be emailing my friends because I refuse to beat them down with the craziness of this voting system. Oh yeah and there was that whole thing about freaking out that I entered my son in a modeling contest. So over that now. Too frustrated to let parental guilt take over.

Thanks bloggy friends, for listening to my tirade. I feel much calmer.

What have I done?

All day yesterday I was kind of feeling like I was somehow using Hunter for his cuteness by entering him into this contest. I know he is for sure the most kissable baby in DFW (heck, he's the most kissable baby ever!), but I still felt like it was kind of wrong to put him in a contest for it. In the end, though, I decided that I'd go ahead and do it because it would be great for Hunter to have an extra $5000 (oh yeah, that trip to Mexico for James and I was a bit of a persuasion too). I picked picture number 6 because it got the most votes (and I always listen to the opinions of my sweet little blog-reading friends).

So I go to the kiss fm website, fill out the little entry form and hit submit. A little message pops up - thank you . . . your application's been submitted . . . yada yada yada. Then I see it. Thanks for entering the baby model contest.

WHAT!?! I don't remember reading anything about modeling. Panic overcame me. Again, WHAT!?! I just kept thinking about all of those pageant moms or backstage moms or cheerleader moms or baby model moms, and I felt totally sick because my initial instincts were right! Dang. Totally should've listened to the inner voice.

So now I'm kind of torn about the whole contest. I'm really not an advocate of forcing your sweet baby (no matter how kissable and beautiful he is) into modeling. The contest is set up so that you can vote once a day with every email address you have, and then there are multiple rounds where they cut the numbers down. I know all of those pageant moms-in-training will be voting with every email address they can possibly create (along with begging all of their friends to vote with every email address as well), so it is not likely that Hunter will win (I mean I'm only gonna vote on him with 1 email address . . . probably every day. Don't judge me! I don't want him to be the loser baby with no votes!).

So dear friends, comfort me. Send me encouraging, happy, "you're mom of the year"thoughts! That way I'll know I'm not the worst parent ever for putting her child in a modeling contest. Ugh. I feel sick. Stupid parental guilt.

Most Kissable Baby

My morning radio station is having a contest for the most kissable baby, so since Hunter is TOTALLY cute and kissable I'm definitely entering him. I need your help picking a photo of him because of course as his mom I think he looks adorable in all of his pics. I need to submit the photo soon, so only my loyal blog-checking friends will get to vote before I have to decide. So, make sure you vote the first time you check this post - since I know so many of you read my posts over and over. I promise I will totally use the input y'all give this time. I really don't have a favorite! Here are the options. The number is above the picture it corresponds with.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

The Helmet is Here - Part 2

Okay before I start I just have to say, ISN'T THAT THE CUTEST BABY YOU'VE EVER SEEN!!!!! For real y'all, he couldn't get cuter. My heart is so full.:)

So last Wednesday we got the second DOC band. I sort of feel like Hunter is having a harder time adjusting to this one. He's still doing really well, but last time it did not phase him one bit and we saw a smidge of fussiness this go round. He's acclimated pretty well to it now though.

On another note, to those of you who I bragged to about what an amazing sleeper my son was . . . now I'm eating my words. Did you wish sleeplessness on me or what? Actually it's really not that bad, but he's been waking up way early (like in the late 5 o'clock hour) and Saturday night he woke up like every 2 hours. To top that off James and I were both sick. So it could've been the two of us coughing all night, the relatively new DOC band, or maybe he's just learning so much new stuff that it keeps him up at night. I have read that when babies learn new things, they tend to wake up in the middle of the night more (grimace).

It's crazy to me how much his sleeping habits can affect me. It's like I'm sitting on pins and needles after I put him to bed because I don't want to wake him. No way. That would be the worst thing ever. Better just sit in silence all night. No talking aloud. And especially no yelling aloud. Sadly, the Cowboys aren't playing at their best right now and as you can guess my fanatical husband is in there jumping around the living room like a fool because I have banned all yelling (or even talking in a level louder than a whisper) over here after Hunter is put to bed. I totally wish I could video James and post it on the blog for all of y'all to see. That would be a good laugh. And you probably need one since I know this post is for sure not making the funny list. Sorry. I'm too worried about waking my baby to get my funny juices flowing. I'll work on my covert video recording mission. Any tips for how to hide the camera so James won't see it?

New Pictures

My friend Emily took pictures of Hunter, Zack (my nephew), and Vanesa (my niece) last Friday. Hunter was pretty upset during a good part of our picture taking extravaganza (as you can clearly see in some of the pics)! It didn't seem to matter how loud I sang or how high I could get my voice to go making crazy noises, he was not budging.



(It is quite a humbling experience being a mother. Yes, I surrendered my fear of embarrassment and squealed and yapped like a fool just so my kid could look super cute in his pictures. Who cares what all of the other Turtle Creek goers think, right? James admitted to being a little embarassed. Not me though! I will act like a fool if it means getting that kid to stop the crying and give us that precious melt-your-heart smile.)



Since all of the crazy noise making wasn't too successful, I decided that I would attempt to feed him. Hunter LOVES to eat (just like his mommy and daddy - our favorite pasttime). His short little snack worked like magic. Poor baby. I can hear his thoughts now - Stop acting like a crazy woman, and just give me some food dangit! NOW!!!!!



So after much hard work on my part (oh yeah, I guess Emily worked a little too), we got some very cute pictures. You can go to Emily's website (under Giggles and Grins in my links section over there on the left) to see them. Click on family portraits and then Vanesa, Zack and Hunter. You can also see some awesome pics of my sister under senior portaits and then Courtney Campbell.

(Thanks for the precious outfit, Marcy!)

(Sorry about the parenthetical craziness of this post.)