We finally got around to carving our pumpkins to make some homemade pumpkin pie. Fearing the mess, we set up outside on a beautiful fall evening. It was absolutely gorgeous weather. Jay remarked that this was the first time we had ever carved pumpkins together…crazy.

Thane watched us from the bumpo with his turtle toy from Aunt Joann and Uncle Terry.

Let the carving begin! Is it really safe for me to be wielding that knife???

We made sure to keep Thane involved, letting him feel the different textures of the pumpkins-inside and out.

Pumpkin carving is pretty messy business. I got about 1/2 way done with cleaning the guts out when Thane got hungry and I had to get him a bottle (messy hands and all because we remembered the wine but forgot the paper towels!) and Jay finished the carving.

We baked the pumpkins for an hour to get the meat ready while I ran to the store to get the rest of the ingredients. By the time I got home and the pumpkins finished, I was pooped (I had worked from 10 pm to 7 am that morning) so I went to bed putting the baking off a day. Fast forward to today, Jay mushed the pumpkin while I was at a Junior League meeting and when I got home and we were putting some groceries away, a glass container shattered, scattering glass everywhere, including the mound of pumpkin! Guess we have to start all over again.

On other news, here are some HUGE milestones we got from Thane this weekend:

* We love Sweet Potatoes and he is actually “eating” them. Unlike the cereal, he appears to realize this is food and he is watching Jay and I more intently while we eat.
*He reached out for me while in daddy’s arms
*He flinched–sounds bad, but that is some realization of cause and effect
*He plays with his feet more (and wow they are strong)
*More rolling over and moving

Probably more exciting to me than fitting back in to my pre-pregnancy clothes is the prospect of fitting in to my pre-pregnancy shoes. It is one of those secrets of pregnancy…your feet grow and may never return to normal. The Carrie Bradshaw in me could not handle that. Welll…almost 5 months have passed and my feet are slowly shrinking to their normal size. I wore one of my favorite pairs to our photo shoot today (more on that later) and Scott’s daughter (under 10) oohed and aahed. She thought they were “Sooo Pretty.” She said they were Princess Mia shoes (The Princess Diaries, Anne Hathaway).

I am a princess!

Last week I was assigned to a new project which pretty much has me confined to a conference room (where the temperature varies from an Alaskan igloo to a Tahitian beach without the umbrella drink) with 10 other people for the next 8 weeks. It is also monopolizing every spare second, so blogging time is few and far between.

So here is a summary of our happenings…

Thursday was Jay’s 36th birthday! In honor of the festive occasion, we went to a Preds game and Thane bought him this very cool sweatshirt (Thane’s idea, of course). That goes very nicely with the mountain bike he got earlier in the week from me. Jay also took off on his birthday and the next day as Thane had 2 days off from school for Parent Teacher meetings.

Our Parent teacher meeting went very well. It is so comforting to be at a place where I know that he is not only well cared for, but honestly, loved. Apparently, his nickname is “Thane Handsome.” We went through a worksheet on how he is adapting to class (I might do another post on that). It was very comforting to talk to Erica and Deb (his teachers) for such a long time about him, the only complaint I have on that is that it was more geared to an older an infant than one Thane’s age. He is, by their account, doing great. Erica said she would help with the solid foods this week, which will be a huge help.

I also had two fun things at school this week…one was snack day where I brought Panera for all the teachers. Of course, I called it in a day before and ordered this fun “Coffee Cake” which was an array of mini danishes in a cake shape. When I arrived, they only had my bagels and cream cheese ready, so I got a set of danishes for free. Everyone seemed happy with the treats…and I think they lasted them 2 days (an I mean that in a good way).

Then, I put on my Room Mom hat and helped out with making ghosts at school. It was the cutest thing ever. We held the babies feet in a plate of white paint and then stamped them onto black construction paper. Of course, we got everyone in the room except for two…yep, Thane was one of the two–he was sound asleep the whole time I was in his room! Erica said she would get him one of the mornings when I dropped him off. The finished products will be used in the school’s Halloween carnival.

This weekend, mom and Mary Beth came in to town. They arrived in time for us to go to Germantown’s Oktoberfest. This was a stroll down memory lane for Jay and me as it was 2 days after Oktoberfest (and a large stein of beer!) that we found out that Thane was on the way. We were a little disappointed by Oktoberfest because it was not very German, with exception of the beer, in terms of what they had for sale or to eat.

Saturday night Thea Marie (Mary Beth) and Grandma watched Thane while mom and dad went to the second Preds game of the week with Leonidas. The Preds lost but we had fun although I missed having Thane there. Preds games are way more fun with him. Speaking of which, I forgot to mention that at Thursday’s game, Thane and I finally got on the Jumbo-tron! I have tried so hard to wave my cute little baby in Preds gear for the arena to see. So, when do they get us? When he is asleep in the Baby Bjorn and halfway tilted to the side. Wanna hear my mind’s thought process when I saw it…? Wow, that mom has really straight hair…wait a second that’s us…and Thane is leaning over…let me pick him up…damn, we’re not on the screen anymore. When I was in line later someone came up to me and asked how old Thane was because she wanted to bring her baby and said that we looked really cute on the jumbotron. What do ya know!

Sunday morning we went out for breakfast at Pancake Pantry. One long line later, we sat down to a Nashville tradition and a pretty phenomenal breakfast (even Jay was impressed and he generally thinks Pancake Pantry is just a bunch of hype).

This week has been a blur other than that. Work has been pretty chaotic and I had my first day of going to work before Thane woke up and coming home from a Junior League meeting after he was in bed. I don’t care to repeat that too many times. It will be hard when I go to DC next week and am away from him for three whole days.

Thane is now pretty consistently rolling over any chance he can. He also seems to be reaching out for us more as well as being pretty cuddly with us, which is a pretty amazing thing. He sits up very well when propped and loves his bumbo. He also does great in his jumper, although he has a severe case of baby ADD, only putting up with each thing for medium intervals.