Happy Halloween Y'all!

We've been busy with various Halloween activities this week; between storytime at the library, multiple playgroups, and of course trick-or-treating tonight Boo had a lot of opportunities to wear his costumes.

At toddler storytime at the library, he was an Arkansas football player. Last year he was a Clemson football player for a Halloween birthday party, so we spread the love this year.

Toddler playgroup with his buddies.
He looks so sad because he's waiting on FOOD!

Did someone call for a doctor?
He's dressed as McCutie, MD this year.

Holding Daddy's hand and dragging his candy bag.

See, I told you...McCutie!!

Riding in the wagon while we passed out candy.
He absolutely loves going for a riiiiide!

Before we had Boo, we used to showcase our jack-o-latterns at Halloween. We usually carve two. One for B-man and one for myself. Well, this year we just didn't get to it to all of that. We carved a Lil Boo for our lone pumpkin...this afternoon, just in the nick of time. Not too shabby!

Here are a couple of videos from the evening.


Practicing




A candy transaction.

Our Lil Boo has grown so much since last year when he was a Lil spider.
Click here to see our blog post from a year ago.

Okay, one more picture. I couldn't resist!

Landa Park and Pumpkin Patch

We had a great visit with Granny and Grandpa this week. Here are some highlights.

Holding Grandpa's hand at Landa Park in New Braunfels

Sittin' on a bench with Granny


We went to the Ford Family Farm pumpkin patch in Cibolo on Sunday afternoon. They had all kinds of activities for the little ones. In my desperate attempt to make it fall outside, I dressed us in jeans. My attempt failed. It was hot! :)
Lost in the hay bale maze.

" Okay, Dad. These are the pumpkins I want."

Gourd bowling with Dad.

Riding the wagon ride with Mom.

Lots of fun!

Trying to get the family photo. Can you tell we're hot?

Hayride!

We also went to Ft Sam Houston to see where Daddy works. I'll post pics of that trip later this week. It's really cool!

B-man also took Granny and Grandpa to the Riverwalk and the Alamo.

Thanks for coming to visit!

Visitors of the best variety!

Granny and Grandpa (B's parents) are here this week!
It's been so nice to have an extra pair of hands in the kitchen and eyes on Boo!

They even watched Boo last night so that B-man and I could go on a date. We've lived here for 6 months now and this is our first date night. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Pictures to come soon!

Firemen, the zoo, and a train ride!

Lil Boo has had a pretty good week if I do say so myself. It started on Wednesday during story time at the library. This week, the letter was "F". We walked in and there was the fire chief reading the stories this week. He did a great job with the little ones. Boo was much better behaved this time too! Thanks to my friend C and the librarian for taking some photos for us. I left my camera at home and was not too good with the camera on my phone.

Getting a frisbee from the chief.

Boo even said "koo" (his word for thank you) when I asked him too. That's a big step for us b/c he's usually too shy to use his words with strangers. This other little guy is our friend M. He's super cute too and I just love his hair!

We got to look at the firetruck after story time.


Mama and Boo!

He wanted to try on the hat, but became a little unsure when the fireman actually held it over his head.


Today, we met our friends C, M, and B at the zoo! It was THE PERFECT DAY for the zoo. Yesterday was H-O-T and miserable, but today was great. Cool and breezy! The animals thought it was pretty nice too. The kangaroos were jumping everywhere and the jaguars were wrestling each other. We even heard the lions roaring!! They were talking to each other.

Boo was a little hard to handle at first as he wanted to run everywhere! He also wanted to climb into each exhibit after I pointed the animals out to him. C let us borrow her kinder kords and they worked great!!! I might have to invest in a pair of those. After walking around for a while, he was content to ride in the stroller and eat a snack.

Chillin' with the lions at the zoo entrance.

Brushing the goats.

He was mostly interested in bringing me ALL of the brushes from the brush bucket. The goats didn't really interest him that much. But, a bucket full of brushes...who can resist that?? :)

Outside of the zoo, there's a train you can ride that goes through awesome Brackenridge Park. Boo was excited enough to get on the train and ride, but I think the train whistle and bells at the crossing guards were just a little too loud for him. He was looking increasingly concerned as we made our way down the track. Then, there was a tunnel! After we made it through the tunnel, where everyone screamed, he rested his head on my shoulder and wouldn't move the rest of the way. Poor buddy.

B, M, and Boo boarding the train!

Choo! Choo!

After the tunnel!

So, we've been busy with fun this week and it doesn't end here. We are planning to go to the Fall Festival at church tomorrow when Daddy comes home from his conference.

The Answer is...

Okay, here's the answer. I couldn't wait any longer! I'm silly that way.

Sorry if I confused you with the clue deletion, etc.

Getting ready for Halloween!

Time for Another Pop Quiz

Okay, it's pop quiz time again.
Can you guess what Lil Boo is saying here?

I'm afraid if I give you a clue, you'll guess it right away. So, I'm just going to put a link to his pronunciaton of banana. Remember that one? So, I guess your clue is that it's a 3 syllable phrase. And really, banana has nothing to do with it. It's not a fruit. It's just that he kind of says
banana and this phrase the same way.

If we don't have any correct guesses, then I'll post another clue in the comments section.
Happy guessing.

That Mom

Today our sweet boy turned into a little monster right before my eyes!

It all started at toddler story time at the library. Boo, is usually pretty shy and stays away from the crowd. Well, today...notsomuch. He was running circles around the librarian as she read the stories. He would run a circle around her and come plop in my lap, get up, run a circle around her, and then plop in my lap. He did this over and over again and was quite pleased with himself at the new game he had invented. If he wasn't running circles, he was trying to escape out of the story time room altogether. He had me on the go for sure.

After story time, we always play in the area of the library where they have puzzles and big Lego blocks. Boo was everywhere!! Throwing Legos and flicking them off the Lego table sending them flying across the table into the faces of other toddlers. I even saw him pulling on a little boy's shirt saying, "no, no, no" because Boo wanted to play with the puzzle he had! On the one hand I couldn't believe how bold he was being. On the other, I was thinking (while he was in timeout for throwing Legos) what happened to my sweet, shy guy? I've been wanting him to mature socially and get more involved, but this morning I kept telling myself, "be careful what you wish for..."

And then there was this afternoon. Boo and I were at the bookstore and it was not good. I brought the stroller with us so that he would be confined while I looked for my book. As soon as I let him out of the stroller in the children's section, he went nuts! He wanted to push the stroller everywhere, which was just not good in the bookstore. He had a FIT when I took it away from him. I finally was able to pull it away from him and I snuck off to hide it while he rolled on the floor. When I returned, there he was about to push on the emergency exit door. You know, the door that says, "alarm will sound if door is opened". I felt like things were moving in slow motion as I ran towards him shouting, "NO, DON'T TOUCH!!!!" in that slow motion-y kind of voice. Luckily,I made it just in time. As I was putting my heart back in my chest, he proceeded down the aisles, pulling books off the shelf at random. I was huffing and puffing trying to repair his path of destruction. And THEN, he was climbing up the shelves!!!! I would pull him down, only to have him start climbing again. I kept thinking, who is this little terror?

By that time, I had had enough!!! I literally wrestled him into the stroller with him screaming at the top of his lungs and me trying not to laugh at the whole scene. We checked out and left ASAP.

So, you know when you see that child running through a store like he has no upbringing whatsoever...and you see the haggard mom trailing behind and you think to yourself..."what kind of mother is she? That one year old is running all over her". I know you've seen her. She's the one we all swore we would never become before we had children.

Well, today my son was that child and I was that mom.

Thank goodness tomorrow is another day.

Arkansas

Grady and I went to Arkansas last weekend to visit our old buddies. It's a l-o-n-g drive. It took about 10 1/2 hours to get there. Boo did GREAT in the car. I couldn't believe it. I owe it all to his papeyer and snacks, though. Here are some photos of our trip.


We had a playgroup with our old friends on Friday afternoon.

They've all grown so much!

Playing in the backyard

On Saturday morning after playing with some friends, we went to the Farmer's market to meet Miss AM. They had a great time running around. Almost too much fun...it was difficult to keep Boo close to me.

Miss AM and Boo at the Farmer's Market


Sharing a snack


The next two photos are of Miss C (our hostess) and Boo playing at the park. It was so nice outside and they had the whole park to themselves.

Boo and I left Sunday morning and drove until we got just South of Dallas. We got a hotel room and luckily, they had portable cribs. I had to rig the curtains and blankets over the crib so that G couldn't see me. He kept popping up and saying, "hi". It took him 2 hours to fall asleep! Oh boy!

After stopping at IKEA to shop on Monday morning, we arrived home safely! We were so happy to see B-man when he got home from work.