Say Da-da, please!

My son likes to crawl and roll... he is very mobile and can move from one side of the room to another in under 60 seconds. Hey, he is six months old and to someone who has never had a child before - this is pretty darn impressive.

However impressed I am I have to admit I am slightly saddened that my child doesn't or hasn't said "dada" or "ma ma" yet.

"Mauldin, saaaaay da-da!"

"pbbsssthhhhht"

Yes, if you can pronounce that, that is what our offspring can "say." My wife, Laura, and I think he knows how to say it because he produces a coy smile after we ask him to say our names. I guess he will say it when we are having a bad day and it will make "Mama and Dada" feel all better!

Halloween is upon us and so we took last weekend, after coming home from Disney World, to get the house in order for this epic and spooky holiday. Skeletons have been put up, door mats have been placed and soon pumpkins of all shapes and sizes will litter the Skates household.

We have a couple of choices for Mauldin for his first official Halloween: Winne-the-Pooh and a not-so-scaley dragon. I'm sure we will put him in one and the other will serve as a back up for when he spits up, wets or excuse the pun, POO's...

So, maybe between now and Halloween we can get him to say some sort of verse that will match "Trick or Treat!" Although, I would be equally as happy to hear - "Da da!"

For now, "Pbbsssthhhhht" it is! Maybe it's his form of Aloha...

Gutting pumpkins...

Yesterday, my wife, Laura, called me to let me know we had been invited over to her sister’s house to carve pumpkins. Now, I, myself, used to carve a pumpkin every year, that is, until I moved from home. Then I soon discovered why my mom and dad always wanted me to carve my pumpkin… outside. It is really messy!

Anyway, fast forward, Laura and I have been together four years, this past October 29^th, and have never, ever carved a pumpkin together! How sad… I know…

Anyway, we went over to Jenn and Paul’s last night to carve pumpkins with our adorable niece, Annagrace. That being said, here are some pictures of last night’s pumpkin carving festivities.

So, we now have started a tradition... we will not miss another year of carving a pumpkin! Espsically with Baby Skates!

Enjoy and have a fun and safe Halloween!

Halloween is upon us...

Halloween is almost here… the night of All Hallows Eve...this weekend, infact, and I am so excited!

And, this year it lands on a FRIDAY!

Laura’s cousin, Jeremy, and brother-in-law, Paul, are taking off Friday to get ready for our Halloween Fright Fest that evening.

I wish I could!!!! But, alas, I will be at work all day... I am meeting Laura over at Jeremy and Tori's where I will change and we will all have dinner before we scare the witts outta the lil' kiddies. However, this year we will try and be more dilligent about running children into the street! LOL! Okay, I know that isn't funny, but to see their faces when they run away in fright... warms my heart! HAHAHA Okay, that sounded a little off balance didn't it...?

This will be the 4th year we have gotten together, ever since I have been dating Laura, in 2005, to scare the neighborhood kids before they could get to the door to receive their Halloween treat from one of the girls: Laura, my wife; Tori (Jeremy’s wife); Britton (Jeremy’s sister) or Jenn (my sister-in-law and Paul’s wife). This year Amy, Laura’s, eldest sister, has been pulled into the mix! She has agreed to walk around the premises wearing her scary zombie garb. I, am as always, a werewolf; Jeremy, Michael Myers, Paul the Zombie Vampire; Laura is the good witch instead of lil' Red b/c this year she doesn't fit into her lil' Red costume... Baby Skates has caused her to make a switch to a Witch! Britton, Jeremy's sister, and her fiance’, Chris, are scheduled to come and take part in the festivities as well but that is all dependent on their flight in from NJ.

Every year the group grows... however, last year Paul couldn't make it b/c he was sick so I'm sure he will make up for it this year!

Lets hope they can make it!

I will be sure to post a detailed blog of the evening!!!

Muwhahahahahaha! -

"A muck, A muck, Amuck"- "Hocus Pocus"

A Friendly Boo...

This past Saturday my wife, Laura, and I were sitting on the couch watching a movie, I will not mention the movie because it would seriously impair my masculinity, but, it was for nostalgic and educational purposes, if you ever do find out what film it was. We received a phone call, on Laura’s cell phone; it was her cousin, Tori.

I reached over lazily and picked up Laura’s silver razor phone and flipped it open, nonchalantly, and said…

“House of insanity!”

“HAHAHA,” Tori roared with laughter, “what are you doin?” she said.

“Oh nothing,” I said, making sure to hide the fact that we were watching a movie of questionable nature. “what are you up to?”

“Well, I was wondering if you two would be willing to be my partners in crime?” she said “I wanna go knock on some doors and run away before they answer!”

“HAHAHAHA,” I, in turn, roared with laughter, “hold on a sec.” I passed the phone to Laura; I wasn’t sure how serious Tori was. Tori it such a sweet person, she is not the kind of person who follows the stereotype of redneck cultural acts as running up to someone’s door, knocking, and running away. When I was younger there was quite a derogatory term for this, but I will let you Google for it because my wife, mother and mother-in-law would probably skin my hide as well as possibly tar and feather me if I said what this is normally called.

Jeremy, Tori's husband, was watching a Georgia football game, so he did not want to go and participate, however, Laura happily obliged,

"it seems like a lot of fun!" she said. "Comon' over, we will see you in a little bit!"

"Wait, I said," Laura, hand me the phone... "Tori, are you for real?" I had no idea the extent of what Laura had heard her say about what we were about to do.

"Yes, but this isn't just knock-and-run," Tori said. "You have to leave a Halloween treat at the door!"

"Ooooooh," I said with a sigh of relief! Although, if we were going to just knock on the door and run, it would be quite out of both Tori and Laura's character. However, you didn't really have to sell me on it, I was just shocked Tori wanted to do it! LOL!

It all made sense and was coming together. Tori was the kind of person who would 'knock-n-run' if you were actually leaving something 'nice' behind. It wasn't like we were pulling a "Can't buy me love," (movie reference)where you knock on the door and throw a bag of poop at the door. I mean, first of all, that is kind of gross, secondly, this was in broad daylight and we were going to be doing this to her "friends!" Obviously, she would be anonymously leaving "cookies and candy" in the treat bags. How very Tori of her! LOL!

We only went by two houses, but honestly it was a lot of fun because the thrill of being caught we still there! And, trying to do all this safely with Tori's 15-month old son, Grant, in the back seat was a little unnerving, but we made it through. Grant loved it, he got a chance to see all the Halloween decor throughout the neighborhood. "Weeech!" he would say.

"Yeah, Grant, that's a witch!" I said.

"Weeeech"

So, lesson learned! Knocking and running at someone's house isn't always a bad thing!!!

Happy Halloween!

-Side note: Laura requested she not have her photo taken!-