Happy Halloween!

My little x-ray!

Fun Fall Days of Festivals and Farms

Yesterday we took Nicklas to our church's fall festival, where we had jump-around blow-up things (not sure of their technical names), a chili-tasting event, car/tractor show and hayrides. N absolutely loved the bouncy things...and since we got there pretty early he got to play around safely before all the other (bigger) kids showed up. Robert climbed in and slid down the slide with N several times. There's one thing about having kids...you get to act like one again and nobody judges you.

Wheeeeeeeee! Do it again Daddy!

Now I want to go by myself!

Can you see me?

Trying to figure out the "jumping" thing....which was mostly a "falling down" thing.

Hey mom, watch this!

Getting ready for our first hayride of the day.

Going around the church grounds and around the lake.

N's first tractor experience...note Nana's arm in the background. The seat was very high up!

Don't worry, I'll drive.

My buddy the pumpkin.

After naptime we headed out to Washington Farms to see the farm animals, walk the cornmaze and pick out our pumpkins. (I know, busy day). Nicklas had so much fun with the animals, we had to literally tear him away from every enclosure so we could make it through everything in time to make it to dinner.

That donkey won't come over here...

.....there he is!!

Goats!

N loved to pet the rabbits, I think they were his favorite. He didn't want to leave when we moved to the next animals.

He actually tried to climb into this enclosure so he could touch the bunnies.

They had a giant box of dried corn, kind of like a sand box. N had a great time throwing corn all over and getting it stuck in his clothes, shoes, etc. I found more in his onesie when we got home.

Throwing corn. At least he didn't try to eat it!

Our second hayride of the day. This one took us out to the corn maze.

Which way to go?
They had clues along the way to help us out.

Corn is a lot taller up close than I thought it would be. They actually have this maze open after dark. I don't think you'd ever catch me in there after sundown. I was nervous enough as it was.

Watch out for the mud! We were all three covered by the time we got out of there (with some help from the farm staff. I got a little panicky).

Riding back to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins and head home.

We stopped at a local pizzaria to have dinner on the way home. All in all, it was a very long but very fun day!

Bedtimes

Before we had children, I vowed that I would not be a parent who kept her kids out at all hours and complained later that I couldn't get them to sleep consistently. Therefore, we established a good sleep routine with N early on. Now don't get me wrong, not every night works this well, and it took a loooooooooong time to get him on this routine, including many many nights of holding him, rocking him, and listening to him scream every time we laid him down for the night.

We take a bath most every night, since I find it helps in the wind-down procedure. After dinner we play for awhile and then by 6:45 or so, we hit the tub. He's generally rubbing his eyes by this point, since most days he's taking only one nap, so by 6:30 it's cranky city. We stay in the tub for awhile, playing and generally having a good time.

After bath it's PJ time! I just found these new footie pajamas (my favorite) and I bought them thinking, "their 18 months, he'll grow into them". I barely got them zipped up! I can't believe he's already wearing 18 month clothes! We play for 5-10 minutes in PJ's, then it's clean-up time. I make N "help" me pick up all his toys...I figure it's good practice for later when he'll help clean up all by himself. Then we read a book (or point at the pictures, mostly) and brush our teeth. We've been brushing teeth since he broke the second one on the bottom. Now we have seven total...gotta protect them while we can!

The downside...the kid is used to being in bed by 7:30. Which means, staying out late is a rare occasion for mom and dad. If we need to go somewhere, it's usually just one of us or we hire a sitter. But here's a bonus...no, absolutely no fussing at night. N goes right to sleep or entertains himself quietly until he poops out. Even when we're away from home the "routine" generally works very well and we have few arguments at night. I find that it's a welcome sacrifice that we're stuck at home so early to have a kiddo who's ready and willing for bed every night. Consistency is the key!

Pictures Made of Luke and Nicklas

My big boy!

Too cute!

Nicklas and Luke, October 2009