Happy Halloween!

We had a fun day! The city of Edmond moved Halloween to today so we celebrated a day early. After Luke's nap this afternoon, he and Dad carved a pumpkin. Actually, more like Dad carved the pumpkin and Luke sort of watched. Luke seemed to enjoy the step stool more and was thoroughly grossed out by the inside of the pumpkin. He repeatedly said, "Yuck, it's yucky!" After pumpkin carving the McBride's came over for dinner and then we got the boys ready to go trick-or-treating. We had a few neighbors join us and with 4 toddlers it was a bit chaotic but we had fun. Luke didn't like wearing the hood part of his costume so people weren't always sure who/what he was supposed to be because half the time the hood wasn't on his head. We walked up and down our street and then called it quits. Of course Luke and Benjamin had to check out their loot and enjoy a piece!

A different part of the story is the number of trick-or-treaters we had at our house. I have never run out of candy before but we did tonight (I ran out with waiting kids at the door--felt bad about that). The amazing part of that is the McBride's also brought their candy here to hand out too. I would say we had over 200 pieces of candy and it was gone by 8 pm. My rough guess is that we had over 125 kids come to our door. It was ridiculous!

MDO Halloween Party

Today at MDO there was a Halloween party. I signed up to be a helper which didn't require a whole lot on my part but I definitely enjoyed being there. The kids all got Halloween tatoos, got to squish some real pumpkin seeds from a pumpkin they watched get carved, made their own pumpkins with seeds, enjoyed some Halloween music and ate a yummy snack. It was SO much fun to watch Luke interact with his friends and teachers. Unfortunately he didn't want to keep the hat part of his costume on very much but I managed to get one picture with it on his head.

Our Lake Weekend

This past weekend Luke and I went to visit some of my family on Tablerock Lake; Troy wasn't able to come because he was so busy with work. Luke and I had a great time. It was a pretty relaxing weekend although we did several things. The highlights: Luke playing with Grandma and Grandpa on the porch swing (until one side fell out of the ceiling and scared us all--Luke went boom with Grandpa on that one); all of the girls plus Luke going shopping (Luke gets a big gold star for how well behaved he was all day with no nap); Luke playing Legos and dinosaurs with Wesley and just generally enjoying time together as a family. I didn't take very many pictures but here are a couple of Luke with Grandpa (the bottom one is just before the swing fell).

Stealth Mode

Last night when I went to check on Luke before going to bed, Troy decided to come with me. He usually doesn't do this but I'm so glad he did last night. When we get to Luke's room he was not in bed (no surprise there now) but the rest of it is sooo funny. He's laying on the floor next to his bed on a K-State blanket (I decided I didn't want him to be cold) with his animals and cloth diapers like usual but he had his head half way under his bed and in among the animals and diapers were all of his socks he had pulled out of the drawer and seperated. The poor boy bumped his head on his bed because he sort of woke up when we came in--thankfully it must not have hurt much because I picked him up and put him in bed and he went right back to sleep. Troy and I had to try really hard not to laugh at all the socks. After coming back downstairs, we decided two things last night: one, Luke is very quiet and stealth about his night-time activities (because we heard nothing last night) and two, he is becoming ever so much more adventurous in those activities. Neither of those is good. Troy suggested that one night we might walk in to find the light on with Luke surrounded by books--definitely not out of the realm of possibility.

A side note: I'm pretty sure I figured out why Luke decided it would be fun to sleep on the floor. Last Wednesday as I was packing his backpack for MDO, I realized they take their naps on mats on the floor. I'm sure Luke thinks that's cool and thus he sleeps on the floor.

Pumpkin Patch

My mom and step-dad, a.k.a. Grammy and PawPaw, were here for the weekend and yesterday after lunch we went to the pumpkin patch. It turned out not to be a true pumpkin patch which was disappointing but we did have fun. There were several activities: a petting zoo, tractors to play on, a hayride (we skipped this though), a tire swing and "rope" swing, a corn field maze and a haybale maze, plus roasting marshmallows and choosing a pumpkin. Since all of this was during Luke's naptime, we were prepared for meltdown which did happen after about an hour and fifteen minutes. That worked out great though because the temperatures were warmer than we were hoping they would be and it was time for some air conditioning.

A family shot before the fun began.

We got some food for the petting zoo and we happened to be the first people into the zoo with food. Let's just say that the animals were a bit hungry and the goats knocked Luke over at least twice.

Running through the haybale maze.

Definitely the highlight for me! Luke LOVED this swing and I enjoyed his happy giggles.

A group shot.

Luke's first time roasting marshmallows--they were much enjoyed!

Our ticket price included a small pumpkin and Luke had fun picking his out.

Making Muffins

Luke helped me make blackberry muffins this morning. We really had a lot of fun. He loved standing on the stool and holding the mixer. He kept telling me that he was helping and I could tell he was really proud to be helping me. I think his favorite part was putting the muffin cups in the tin pan and of course eating one at lunch.

Inevitable has Arrived

Last night when I checked on Luke before going to bed and also this morning when Troy went to get Luke, he wasn't in bed. Last night he was asleep on the floor with his pile of cloth diapers and stuffed animals and this morning Troy said Luke's bed was cold and it looked like he was sleeping on the floor again. Luke was quiet about getting out of bed and I don't think he played much so that part is not a big deal but I'm worried about him getting cold. He doesn't like his covers much anyway but his bed has to be warmer than the floor. Troy suggested putting a blanket on the floor for him but I don't want to encourage him to get out of bed. I suppose as long as he's getting the sleep he needs I shouldn't worry about it but I'm a mom so that isn't always possible :)

Randomness Again

So here are just some random thoughts of late:

*Luke is absolutely still in love with "Dinosaur Train." It's a PBS show about dinosaurs who ride a train to different time periods and meet all kinds of dinosaurs and learn interesting facts about them. As far as kid shows go, I give this one a big thumbs up because Troy and I can watch it and be "interested" and the songs are not annoying plus how can two geologists not appreciate our child learning about dinosaurs. The best part about this is that a new line of toys has just come out to go along with the series and I know a certain little boy who will enjoy said toys come Christmas time.

*I am still constantly amazed at how well Luke talks, what words he uses and his sentence structure. Almost everything that comes out of his mouth is in sentence form and the sentences continue to get more complex every day. I LOVE that we can have full conversations now. A couple of the newest things: saying wow and that's great; following every question with okay; calling Maggie Magger Moo (so cute); using more pronouns correctly; being able to say more letters correctly including "G" and "S".

*Luke is also becoming more and more imaginative which is so fun to watch. If I'm lucky in the mornings he won't hear me come upstairs and I can watch him from the doorway to his room as he plays with his stuffed animals. It also seems that Elmo feels how Luke is feeling so it's a great form of communication.

MDO Art

Here is a pic of Luke's latest creation at MDO--a very cute candy corn made with sand, rice and felt.

The previous two weeks I haven't seen his artwork because they are saving it for Open House Night in November. I am lovin' my fridge covered in cute artwork!!!

Hooray!!!

Luke has had 3 successful trips to the potty in the last 2 days!!! The best part about this is that he has been asking to go without any prompting from us. We get very excited for him and it's very obvious that he is proud of himself too. This morning we went to Babies R Us to buy a couple more potty seats so that all the bathrooms are covered now. I also let Luke pick out some big boy underwear--he found some Thomas ones that he liked.

I haven't completely decided when we are going to go at this full force but I don't think it's too far off. My one concern is that at MDO Luke is required to wear pull-ups until he is completely potty trained and I don't think I like that too much. I have heard from numerous parents that pull-ups don't always help and sometimes they delay the learning for the child. Any advice from those of you with experience on this? Anyway, for now we are all excited in our house that Luke is taking some big steps in the right direction towards being diaper free. Hooray Luke!!!

Better Late than Never

So I just developed the water camera that we had for our vacation to Tybee in May which also had pictures of Luke at the swimming pool during the summer. They are not the best quality because water cameras aren't known for that but the pics from the pool are the only ones I have from our many afternoons there this summer. We did enjoy the pool and Luke still let's me know when we drive by it that he would like to stop and splash around for a while.

Thomas

This morning we took Luke to see Thomas the Train. As you know, Luke LOVES to play with his train set and he also watches the TV show. Luke was quite excited when he first saw Thomas although we didn't get the reaction we thought we would. We opted not to go on a train ride with Thomas as it was quite expensive and you can't really see Thomas when you're riding behind him. What we did do: had our picture taken with Thomas and Luke also had his picture taken with Sir Topham Hatt, the controller of the railway; played with the numerous play train sets; jumped around in the moon walk; walked along some real railroad tracks; and checked out the goodies at the gift shop. Overall, I would say that it was a fun morning and it definitely wore Luke out because he took a 3 1/2 hour nap this afternoon.

New Pics

Just a few recent pics!

Playing around last night.


Playing around last night.


We had neighbors over last Saturday morning to play--this is Sawyer.

Saying hello to the turtle at the State Fair petting zoo.

Watching football with Dad--go Chiefs!