Thanksgiving 2007

We had a great Thanksgiving at the Meister's this year. Kerry's nephew TJ spent the holiday with us on break from his Freshman year at Penn State. We probably overwhelmed him with the joys of parenthood.

Hunter was able to spend the afternoon jumping in a huge pile of leaves my dad raked for that occasion and had a blast.

As usual my mom outdid herself with the food and everyone had a great time. Hunter had his own table set but by dessert our little social butterfly had to be part of the action.

For dessert he had ice cream, his favorite and decided to use the centerpiece gourds as utensils.

New Developments!!

Ever since Hunter turned 2, daycare has been putting him on the potty every 3 hours. He started using the potty there almost immediately and off and on at home. I started thinking that we should seize the moment and start potty training ourselves, but the summer was pretty busy with vacations and road trips, I didn't think the timing would be right. Then a few months into it, he just stopped using the potty at school and home. My mom asked if he used the potty and he replied, "not anymore!" Still I didn't really think too much about it.

So about 2 weeks ago he started going at school again and they started making a bigger deal about it, giving him a star when he went and he was pretty excited about it again. I asked his teachers how I should encourage him and they said to bring underwear and they would give it a try. I was a bit skeptical. I mean he wasn't even using the potty consistently. But I wasn't going to be the one to clean him up so I decided to try it.

In the beginning we had 1-2 school accidents a day, and 1 at home. But by the end of the first week we were down to only 1 accident a day. He still wasn't asking to use the potty but we were making progress. By Thanksgiving Day he was asking to use the potty (although the window was very small and it was a race against time to make it there!)

Now he is asking to go all the time, haven't had an accident in days, and is staying dry all night! I am shocked. Just 2 weeks ago he was peeing so much at night he was waking up wet and now he can hold it until he gets up. Amazing!!

Finger Painting

Everyday Hunter is sent home with an activity report listing how long he napped, what he ate and things he did. Yesterday it said that the kids really enjoyed finger painting and were surprised that the teachers let them paint with their hands and get so messy. Hunter has never been a fan of getting his hands dirty. When he falls on the ground his arms and legs immediately go up in the air so he can't touch the dirty ground. He waits like that for someone to come get him.

I was very curious to see what he created since the last time we tried finger paints we ended up getting a paint brush because he wouldn't touch the paint. Well here it is:


No surprise here. I can only imagine what the other kids produced, probably filled the page with color!

Halloween 2007

Hunter seemed to have a great time at his school Halloween party and parade. One of the mothers sent me this picture of Hunter with his friend Haskew and yes he is wearing his entire costume!
When he got home he was just wearing the fireman pants, so we tried to coax him back into the full outfit. Once his friend Eli came out, he agreed to put his jacket back on, but no hat. He has grown very fond of the Red Sox hat and wasn't about to take that off. Funny since the fireman hat was the only thing he wanted to wear around the house for the first part of the month.
The boys went trick or treating on our street and had a great time. After about the third house of getting candy, Eli said "wow, this works!" They would have done even more but it was getting dark and we still had to do dinner, baths etc. Next year maybe he will wear the entire costume!