First Corn on the Cob and First Dessert Terrarium

Lately Ernie has been very interested in my socks.

Big Ern cemented his midwestern heritage today and dined on his first corn on the cob.

Zoe accompanied us on today's gift card pickup.

We met up with Shubra and Sumit at Ascend Prime Steak & Sushi in Bellevue. It's kind of an expensive place so we did not order steak or sushi, but we did have a couple apps and cocktails and admire the view.

The centerpiece of the night was sharing this full on dessert terrarium.

"Magic Mushroom

white chocolate cherry mousse, mocha crumb, matcha shortbread, chocolate pot de creme, honey meringue mushroom"

There were no survivors.

Dinner and a Scrub

It's been getting very pumpkiny at the Big Ern household.

We got some reading material from the library to really get in the mood.

Ernie had been eating with more adult spoons but he couldn't ever get the food that was in the bowl of the spoon, if that makes sense. So Lydia got him these flat head spoons that are easier for him to eat off of. Tonight he dined on homemade squash soup and smooshed up bananas.

Eating can get pretty messy so after dinner it was tubby time.

Ern had a fantastic mullet developing. I'm very proud.

We made an appearance at Redmond Town Center for our daily $20 in giftcards walk. Money for nothin', gifts for free. 

After his highness was in bed I played a bit of Starfield. There's a mechanic where you can take other people's ships by force and then add them to your fleet. An amusing bug was that whenever I spent any time in that ship there would still be dead bodies from its former owners strewn about.

Pumpkins with my Pumpkins

Ernie was expecting guests later so he wanted to make sure we had time to make the place presentable.

Did our daily gift card pickup in Redmond Town Center.

Big Ern likes this toy that's kind of like a box of tissues but they're cloth. He loves pulling them out but strangely has zero interest in putting them back in.

He had an important conference call with his grandparents.

Lydia made a Halloweeny charcuterie board.

Derek and Gabby came over and we did a pumpkin beer tasting. Voodoo Ranger Atomic Pumpkin from New Belgium was a stand out. What kind of mad scientist genius would come up with a spicy pumpkin beer?

I am contractually obligated to buy anything containing paw paw.

Ham Baby Food and a New Scam

I brought a few jars of this hilarious meaty baby food in Lamezia Terme and I've been patiently waiting for Ernie to become a food eating boy and have a taste.

I think the meat is mixed with potatoes or something. I tried it and the taste was like nothing in particular. Like eating paste perhaps.

I think Ernie liked it fine. He pretty much makes the same face every time he eats anything.

I am resting easy knowing Ernie is getting all of his prosciutto vitamins.

He got a new little PortaPlay Wonderland Adventures play table thing where he stands in the center and can spin around and play with various toys. This is nice to get him to practice standing and it's also useful if you need to keep him entertained while cooking or something. This took the place of his little swing chair that he got too big for.

We were having a nice stroll around Redmond Town Center and I spotted with my little eye an intriguing offer. If I took a picture in front of this festive Halloween backdrop and posted it to social media, the mall would give me a $10 gift card. Cool, that sounds easy enough. I started reading the fine print and I noticed a very fun line: "One gift card per individual per DAY." We agreed that we would be taking our strolls here every day for the next week.

Gift card accomplished.