A Visit with Grandma & Grandpa

This photo is so amazing, it looks like I enhanced it with some editing tools...but I didn't. What a great drive down to Tyler!

Jason traveled with work last week, so Wyatt and I decided to jump on the highway and pay a visit to Grandma and Grandpa - a long overdue visit. The colors of the leaves were amazing and the weather could not have been better.

Reading a book with Grandpa - Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear?

Blowing bubbles with Grandma. He's almost as big as Grandma now! :)

Grandma served us sandwiches on croissants and Red Rose tea. It was a delicious lunch. After which, Wyatt rounded us all up and scooted us outside for some play time.
He had such a blast running free. I didn't have to worry about cars or other folks or anything really (except Wyatt falling down - which he does quite a bit).

Climbing all over things - including this tree stump.

...and this wall.

He "helped" Grandpa pick up leaves.

He ran wild on the beach and played games with Aunt Donna (who was nice enough to spend the whole day with us).

Finding treasures!


He found a fish skeleton, picked up shells, chunked shells into the water.

Gross!!

Throwing the shells in the water - something Aunt Donna showed him how to do!


The piece de resistance, however, was the golf cart. That goofy boy had the biggest smile on his face - I'm sure he felt like he was breaking the law. He was able to ride in the front seat of a moving vehicle - unencumbered. :) Boy, that was fun!

Should I be doing this? Feels illegal!

We left in the early evening, and he slept most of the way home. What a great visit. We have a lot to be thankful for in this family!

The Lion

We had the most wonderful Halloween. First, we visited Aunt Katie at work. You never realize how loud a kid is until you have him in quiet office setting. He's pretty rowdy! He was pretty thrilled because Katie showed him the giant popcorn machine and even gave him his very own bag!


Then Gabby, Gramps, and Aunt Katie all came over for dinner & trick or treating! We had homemade chili and tons of homemade treats. It was a fun new tradition. We took Wyatt out for a walk, but no trick or treating this year. We have enough sugar in this house! Instead, he had an excellent time looking at all of the kids that came to our door.

Hey, Gramps - what does this button do???

Gabby & Wyatt - besties!

Roar!!

Trying to talk Kitties into giving him the BMW for his first car.

Walking with Gramps & Da-da!


I took the lion to the doctor today for his year and a half check up. I can't believe he's already 18 months! Pretty soon I'm going to have to quit counting him in months and go on into years. :(
Turns out he has a giant head - 19.5 inches - 90%.
He is 33.5 inches tall - 81%.
He is 26.2 lbs - 52%.
Clean bill of health! Dr. S. even recommended a few parenting books to help "govern the strong willed child". Cross your fingers they work! Maybe a devil would have been a better costume choice???

Pumpkin Patch

Which one do I want?

I like these big stems. They're easy for me to pick up.

Let me just stand on this one to get a better look at things.

He ran around the sheep/goat pen yelling "BAA-BAA" at the top of his lungs!

Peek! He loved this wooden train.

Climbing up on the chicken coop to yell BAK-BAK at the chickens.

Working on the "B" of BAK!

Our little cowboy on his first pony ride.

Today was our 2nd annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch. This year we picked one in Mansfield and we went with our friends, The Peterson's. The weather could not have been more perfect. The drive out was so neat - lots of farm land and open fields. Reminded me of growing up in Rowlett when it was just cotton fields.

Wyatt had a wonderful time. There was a playground with a wooden train - he went all through that. Then we toured the "petting zoo". Goats, sheep, a cow, horses, chickens - there were several pens, so we made sure to see them all. He loves animals & making all of their noises. A quick trip through the corn maze, a visit to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins, a hayride, a bounce house, and then running around with the girls. By the time we made it back to the car, W was exhausted. He slept on the way home!

I'm so glad Jason and I are both around to take W on such fun adventures. He spent the whole day smiling and very pleased with himself. Jas and I are exhausted and ready for bed, but it was a great day. Tomorrow is Halloween, and there are lots of fun things on tap!

Hope everyone has a safe holiday!

Cool October 10k!

Well, they weren't lying about the name! When we got up to the start line of the Four Seasons Cool October 5k/10k Saturday morning, the temps were in the mid 40s. It seemed freezing at the time, but it wasn't long before we were sweating and shedding clothes! I had two great running buddies - Katie (the bullet) - and Jen (the pace setter). It was a good run for my first 10k. The results showed that I ran the 5k portion in 31:57. That was a personal record for me - 35 seconds faster than my last 5k on October 6th . I finished 172 in the 10k out of 246 - was 9th in my age group. My time was 1:05 - making an average of 10.32 per mile.

This was a super hilly course and I think it was kind of a jerk move to put the biggest hill at the end, but...I made it. I feel a huge sense of accomplishment this morning (and I also feel a huge amount of soreness from those hills)! A big thanks to my support group! Your encouragement helped me cross that finish line, for sure!

Jen, Katie, and I toasted our success with mimosas at the Cafe on the Green.
It was a spectacular morning!


10k --- check!

October Re-Cap

A few things went on this month that I want to jot down for the sake of remembrance:

Wyatt got an ear infection. His second ever. He was so good at the Dr.'s office that we went out for pumpkin frozen yogurt after the visit. It was pretty tasty. Neither of us really wanted to share. As a side note, W can now say "yogurt". You can, mostly, understand what he's asking for. Mostly.


Jas and I threw a baby shower for our BFFs and were so glad to be able to ask Aunt Sue and Uncle Jim to watch Wyatt. I think it is safe to say that he didn't want to come home on Sunday after all of the lake adventures he had!

Let My People Go!


We set up our plastic table and then Wyatt and I worked with crayons. The last time we worked with crayons, he mainly tried to eat them. I'm happy to report that this time, he actually put pen to paper and made some "art"...before trying to eat them. I'm also happy to report that Baby OCD had more fun trying to put the crayons back in their box...just like mama!



I also think that W is out growing his high chair. He fusses if he has to sit in it while we're having dinner, so Jason and I set up the booster seat. He'll eat a little better at the table with us - like a big boy!

I don't have a picture of him actually doing it, but a few mornings ago, Dub walked right in our room at 8:00. He actually crawled out of the crib somehow, opened his door, walked down the hall, opened our door, and busted in with a huge smile on his face. You could just tell that he was proud of himself. He hasn't done it since, but, boy was that a surprise!

In his crib - practicing his Mick Jagger moves...
Dada and Dub discussing the skeleton and bats that are in his box. Jason was teaching him to sound like Count Dracula. One bat. Ha. Ha. Ha. It sounded pretty funny when W did it later.

His favorite post-nap snack: Pop-Pop from our air pop popcorn machine.
This boy loves popcorn and he wants his own bowl. Measuring cups make a nice sized bowl that isn't too crazy when it is (inevitably) spilled. W likes to stand on the counter and watch the popcorn pop up. Very fun!

Gabby and Gramps watch W every Thursday so that I can teach an English class. He has a blast over there and always comes home exhausted and ready for 4 hour naps! Everybody wins. Here we are at Gabby's place.

The swing is still popular at the park at the end of our street. With all of the stuff people have in their yards, the walk down to the park is awesome. W loves to stop and look at all of the pumpkins and blow up yard art. He picks up acorns. There is a huge fake spider that is in one of the trees - that is fun to walk under. We couldn't be happier with our neighborhood.
Climbing the rock wall at the park.

And, luckily, W is amazing about reading. He will sit in your lap and ask you to read a million books to him. I love that. He gets BabyBug in the mail - one of his favorites. He'll now bring it to you and say "bug". Very cute.
But when he's not reading, he's rearranging his library. Sigh. AND ripping pages out of books. That graduate class in book repair is coming in handy these days. :)


Just a few things....