Happy Thanksgiving!!

The Things Kids Say...

 After a light dinner last night, I woke up pretty hungry.  Ryder and I were eating breakfast together and I decided to pour myself another bowl of cereal.  As I was doing so, Ryder looks at me with shock and says:
"Mommy?!  Mooooree???" As if he was to say 'you're seriously gonig to have another bowl??'
I just said "Yep, I'm hungry" and started to eat.
Then he starts shouting in a deep grunting voice "MOOOORE!  MOOOORE!" Followed by lots of giggles...from him!

Where did he learn this?!!  We'll see if I have a second round of cereal again...maybe just not in his presence!

Great Outdoors

With the awesome fall we're having, we enjoyed spending another weekend outside.  On Sunday, we hiked at Taylor's Falls, went the the Hwy 8 sculpture garden and then went out to lunch in Forest Lake - fun to spend some time in my old neighborhood :)

Hiking along the St. Croix River

A little hiking at a slower pace

My favorite sculpture at Franconia was one we could climb on!

Friday at the Pool

I know I've said this already, but I am loooving my Fridays home with Ryder.  One day makes such a difference!  This past Friday, we spent 2 hours at the Maple Grove pool...which led to a 4 hour nap!!

He's such a big boy now, he can go down the toddler slide all by himself - over and over...

P.S.  As I'm writing this, I can hear Ryder talking to himself in bed...he saying "Hola!" "Bye!" "Hola!" "Bye!"  So silly :)

Sleeping in the Car

For the last couple weeks, we've had some sleep issues.  I think I know when and why they started, but it seemed like as soon as we took him out of the crib, he was instantly better. 

He'd sleep on the floor (above), on the couch, or in our bed.

But as soon as we picked him up to put him back in his crib, his half-asleep voice would softly repeat "no, no, no, no..." - eyes closed and all. So this week, we decided we'd try for a fresh start and switch to his toddler bed.

I am probably going to jinx this, but so far, it is awesome! Last night, he stayed in his bed after story time and fell asleep on his own. Then at nap time today, I read a book, then started to rub his back. He stopped me from the back rub by saying "no, mommy." So I listened and asked him to "Take a nice nap for mommy." With an "Okay" from him, I walked out of the room and he fell asleep on his own - without getting out of bed! Yay!

Here are some fun shots of our transition: 

Trying for one last photo in the crib...and from a kid who loves having his picture taken, I took this scream as a strong confirmation that the timing is right for this change!

Helping daddy move the bed into his room.

Snuggled up for story time and his first night in his new car bed!

He slept perfectly last night.  Then this morning, he climbed back into bed to snuggle with his blankies and wanted me to take a million pictures of him in the car.  Confirmation again: he loves the new bed!

Cross your fingers that this new sleep pattern will continue!

Trick-or-Treat!

Autumn and Ryder had so much fun trick or treating this year.  They walked all on their own, carried their own treat bags and climbed the big steps up to each door to say "trick or treat".  I think the cutest part was after each house, they'd say "More puppies?" Not more candy, more puppies...they wanted to go to another house to see if they had a dog also (lots of the neighbors did).  Even when we said it was time to go in, Ryder was like "Nooo....more puppies!"  Lol!

Autumn and Ryder hit the streets as a bumble bee and a lion

They were actually able to say "trick or treat" this year! So cute!

Daddy working on some negotiations....

Enjoying their hard work :)