Esping Happenings

The First Trick or Treat

2008-11-01T11:26:00.000-07:00

Last year, Alexander had a great time handing out candy but this year he was excited to go trick or treating himself. The Olsons came up so that he (dressed as a vampire) and Akira (Tinkerbell) could go out in our neighborhood together.

Greeting the first trick or treaters of the evening....

While eating this lollipop (from our candy bowl) Alexander hands me a candy bar and asks me to open it...(that didn't happen!)

Alyssa as a puppy...

Everyone posing before we head out...(too busy eating lollipops to stop and smile)...

Somehow we convince them...

Then I get lucky and get another big smile (in the nanosecond he removes the lollipop):

Showing off his candy bag from Grandma...

And off we go...(note: Alexander is still eating candy)...

The first house (Alexander's first trick or treat...he was pretty happy as he walked away with more candy in his bag)!

Chanting "next house, next house" they ran down the sidewalk...

Now he is getting the hang of it...ran right up by himself (note: he holds out his hand to get the candy rather than the bag) :-)

Akira was the "experienced" one so she lead Alexander by the hand from house to house...

Discussing who will ring the bell and then waiting anxiously...

The people in this house took Halloween to a whole new level...Alexander was fascinated with the "graveyard"...

All the walking had taken its toll...had to sit down for a break...(oh and check into what candy he has in his bag)...he was quickly joined by Akira...

Alexander finally got the idea that people wanted to put candy into his bag rather than hand it too him so after he would say "trick or treat" (which sound liked "k-treat") he would set his bag on the ground in front of the person and point to it (so people had to lean down and put the candy in the bag for him). This time, as soon as the door closed, he had to have a seat and see what had been added.

A few more houses and then he found another place to have little rest.

We are within two houses from home...although we have been only up and down our street (so about 2 blocks total), it has been over an hour and Alexander has reached his breaking point. I finally stand firm about no more candy (he had been eating it non-stop the entire hour) so Alexander decides to lay down and have a pretty serious tantrum...

First face down...

Now rolled over and screaming...

In a grand gesture, he rips off his cape...

And mom picks him up and carries him home (where he made a quick recovery and took over handing out candy with daddy).

Halloween Festival

2008-10-25T12:43:00.000-07:00

Sam's 1st Birthday Party

2008-01-15T19:48:00.000-08:00

We were actually in Nebraska just in time to go to Sam's first birthday party! We were so excited to be there and we had such a great time with the Kassmeier and Beck families!

One of the only pictures I could get of Alexander and Sam standing together...

Sammy's firetruck cake...

First Haircut

2007-12-08T19:05:00.000-08:00

After much anticipation, Alexander got his first haircut today. I had planned to take him to a special salon for kids but Fred thought that seemed a little girly so we ended up going to Fred's barber. We had to wait for a few minutes and I was concerned Alexander was going to have too much time to decide he had no interest in being there. We took a couple "before" pictures so we could remember how long his hair had gotten.

Then it was time for Alexander to climb into the barber chair. He got to turn the razor on and off a couple times and then on went the smock. And, out came the emergency pacifier, which was needed to calm some nerves.

Alexander immediately tried to climb down so we decided that it would be better if he sat on daddy's lap. He did well for the first snips with the scissors, but we had some tears when it was time for the razor.

Thankfully, Bob (the barber) was a seasoned pro. I would have stopped at the first tear. Alexander got a certificate with a lock of his hair for his baby book and Fred and I decided that while we took a baby in to the barbershop, we left with a little boy.

Halloween

2007-10-31T21:46:00.000-07:00

For a couple of weeks before Halloween, I had been buying candy and adding it to a very large black bucket in our living room. It is not a room we are in very often and thus, the bucket had largely had gone unnoticed. A couple days before Halloween, however, I come upon Alexander with a huge smile, pulling the very large pail of candy across the room. It was just a few minutes before he had dumped it out on the floor and was laughing and throwing candy and having a great time.

The next day, he found the smaller bucket of candy, but alas must have determined that was not as much fun as once again, he found and dumped the entire large pail of candy. Despite the large pile of candy on the floor, he even had to practically climb into the pail to make sure he had every last one of the pieces out and in the pile. He had a great time once again and I was just relieved he didn't realize how much he would enjoy what was inside the wrappers!

Finally, the big day came. Alexander got dressed up in his monkey costume and headed outside to greet the trick-or-treaters. He really got into the spirit and insisted on handing out all the candy himself. (He did very well and only once did he try to take candy out of a child's bag rather than put candy in!)

Petting Zoo

2007-10-28T22:33:00.000-07:00

So, at the pumpkin patch (see that story below from earlier today), they also have a small "petting zoo". It basically consists of a few calfs, sheep, pigs and goats but boy was it a thrill for Alexander. He was fascinated with all the animals and was very willing to run up to them and even tried to reach in to touch them...all in all, I thought he was quite brave (almost too brave), until....crisis. One of the calfs mooed. I have to admit, it was loud moo, but I didn't expect the reaction from the little guy. He was so startled and so afraid that he instantly started crying huge tears and ran to me. It took a bit to calm him down, but then he saw all the other kids looking at the animals and he wanted down again. So, he wiggled free and ran back towards the calfs. Wouldn't you know it? Just as he got there....one of the calfs sneezed! I have to admit, we couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Alexander turning on his heel and running right back to me crying his head off. Poor thing. I am a bit concerned that he will now have a life-long fear of cows. Aren't they often called the most docile creature on earth?

Pumpkin Patch

2007-10-28T19:40:00.000-07:00

Fred's parents are here visiting from Sweden so I decided it would be fun to take Alexander on his first visit to a pumkin patch (it was actually the first visit for all of us!). To add to the spirit, I dressed Alexander up in his halloween costume (a monkey -very fitting!). He was intrigued by the pumpkins but was not very happy as he tried to walk through the field (he kept tripping on the vines or falling in the ruts). We searched for a while and managed to find ourselves three very good pumpkins.

Then, it was on to the farm's "petting zoo"...

The Birthday Bash

2007-08-04T22:05:00.000-07:00

Alexander had his first birthday party today. We had about 30 people (including 9 children under the age of 5) at the party. Grandma and Grandpa Done' and Uncle Bradley and Aunt Jen even came all the way from Nebraska to help him celebrate!

First Birthday

2007-08-01T20:54:00.000-07:00

For Alexander's first birthday, we took him out for dinner to Gunther Toody's (a fifties diner). We ordered him a cheeseburger with a side of fruit. He hated the cheeseburger (is he our kid?) but loved the fruit. For dessert, our waitress brought him a special birthday treat...a strawberry sundae. Now that he loved! The wait staff also made him a birthday hat and gave him a balloon. He loved it (but we were very nervous he was going to pop it and develop a lifelong fear of balloons!)

Trip to the Denver Zoo

2007-07-28T19:14:00.000-07:00

Alexander finally took his first trip to the zoo today. Although it was a fairly nice day for July (overcast and low 80s), towards the end of the trip, our little half-Swede looked like he may melt (I noticed none of the other hundreds of children seemed to be so affected). At one point, he grabbed a water bottle from my hand and dumped it over his head.

We pointed out lots of animals (zebras, lions, giraffes, elephants, etc.) but he was most intriqued by those that he could see up close (the ground squirrels and the peacocks that roam throughout the zoo). He seemed to have the most fun grabbing the leaves on low-hanging trees and shrubs as we passed them. But overwhelmingly, his favorite thing of the day (and of course the one we neglected to take a photo of) was eating an ice cream cone! (apparently we could have saved ourselves about $50 and just taken him for a $2 cone and he would have been just as happy!)

Alexander's First Swim

2007-05-28T16:02:00.000-07:00

Alexander took his first "swim" today in his new pool on our deck. Given his love for taking a bath, we assumed he would enjoy it and he definitely did. The hardest part is getting him to get out but once he does, he loves being wrapped up in a towel nearly as much as being in the water.