THAT TIME WE POTTY TRAINED 3 WEEKS BEFORE BABY SISTER WAS DUE

I have been dreading potty training basically since I found out I was pregnant with Charlie.

Soothing a crying baby, changing millions of diapers, waking up at all hours of the night - all of those things I felt like I knew what to expect. But potty training pretty much terrified me and sounded like the worst.

Was it? ...Okay, yeah, maybe for a day or two.

Not long after my son turned two, he was always asking to "go potty" and "use paper." I figured he probably wasn't really ready, but I didn't want to ignore his first interests in learning to go potty!  I was also pregnant with his baby sister at this point, so having a potty trained toddler by the time she arrived sounded soooo nice. What a dream that would be! Let's at least give it a shot before the next baby comes, I thought.

Commence preparations. I read about the "signs of readiness." I read all about the 3 day naked potty training method. I read the pros and cons of offering candy/stickers/toy rewards. I read all about the supplies I would need.

So we bought a potty seat, a stool, and big boy undies and decided to give it a shot at just two and a few months old (at the time). I figured it couldn't hurt to at least try before the baby came. If it stuck? Great! If not? We would just try again closer to age 3.

Our whole potty training experience went kind of like this:
first showing interest, ABORT mission phase/absolute hatred (his), unsuccessfully making a half-hearted first official attempt, more absolute hatred (this time, mine), and then a second official attempt (3 weeks before baby sister arrives) that finally worked.

Whew. It was a journey.

I am by no means an expert at potty training - at ALL. But I want to remember the details of our efforts here on this blog for my next season of potty training one day. And if you are entering this phase of motherhood too, I hope to offer some encouragement, tips, or laughs to your journey!

Urine luck for a great potty training post.....but seriously. ;)


First Step: PRE-POTTY TRAINING
Pre-potty training spans over a few months (maybe even before they show interest on their own). For us, this "pre-potty training" started out as him ALWAYS coming to the bathroom with me. I mean, every. dang. time. Part of this was just because he loves to follow me everywhere I go (am I right, mamas?), but eventually it turned into me choosing to bring him with me so that we could normalize the potty and start to spark some interest.

Modeling is a huge part of their learning to go potty. I would describe pretty much everything that was happening to him, saying things like,
"Mommy needs to go potty, why don't you come with me?"
"Do you hear that noise?"
"This is what we do with toilet paper."
"I did it! Now we get to flush and wash our hands. Yay!"

He would make his own hilarious observations too, let me tell ya haha. I'm sure your little one will have LOTS of questions and thoughts here too, so this is a great time to start the conversation and build their curiosity.

This routine led to him wanting to sit on the potty and put toilet paper in the potty, just like I had been modeling. His interest at this point came and went for a couple weeks before we finally decided to have our first official attempt. Don't be discouraged if at a young age they seem very interested and it suddenly goes away. That also happened to us. I would still always let him sit or go to the bathroom with me whenever he wanted, but I did not force him to try/offer rewards at this point so as not to make him scared or dread it when the time came. This first step is really just acquainting them with the whole process with no pressure!


Second Step: GIVE IT A GO
When you think pre-potty training could become more serious, dive in to preparations.
Read about the signs of readiness.
Read about the different methods out there.
Read about offering rewards - sticker charts, praise, treasure chests, celebration dances, candy, etc.
Read about/purchase all the supplies you'll need.

On our first attempt, my plan was this: I decided to try the 3 day naked method (there is a book you can purchase, but I just read articles about it like this one) with no candy/toy rewards (I was afraid it would become too much of an obsession and take away from the goal of going potty). My plan was to just offer lots of celebration dancing/clapping/praise only. We would set the timer for every 10-15 minutes to try and go.

This attempt was a complete disaster. Charlie liked it for about the first 1-2 tries on day one and that was it. He got super annoyed at the timer going off and having to stop playing to go. I made the mistake of asking if he was ready to go potty instead of telling him it was time to go potty. He also kind of hated being naked and kept asking for pants. I think I finally put some underwear on him to change things up, but he didn't care if they got wet because it just meant he got to pick out a new clean pair of Cars underwear and that made him happy. It wasn't sinking in that accidents should be sad.

After 3 days of this nonsense and his hating it all, we threw in the towel. (as a matter of fact, literally LOTS of towels because kid just peed everywhere BUT the toilet)

I felt discouraged/confused because he hated it so much (after having once been so interested), and because it was just a lot of mess and crying and telling me "no" when it was time to try again. I just had to listen to his cues about not wanting to try at that point. The last thing I wanted to do was create a dislike for potty training so we just let it go.

BUT.
This failed attempt really was a necessary part of the process for us. I learned some things that did NOT work for him and made quite a few adjustments next time around.

Third Step: TRY, TRY, TRY AGAIN
A couple months after our first try, I felt like I had one more window to try before baby sister came. On top of that, we were about to get hit with the  P O L A R   V O R T E X   of 2019. Several days in a row we were expected to get temperatures of -20 degrees (with -50 degree windchill at night!). AKA - We are NOT going outside this week fam, so we would have plenty of time to work on potty training!! This was actually the burst of motivation I personally needed to really commit and give it all my effort since we had a whole week stuck indoors.

THE NEW PLAN
This time we made some changes to our previous method:
Stay inside for 3-4 days. No, really. HARD but worth it. (I failed to commit to this on our first attempt.)
I would use underwear at all times instead of leaving him without pants. No pull ups either (except while sleeping).
I would offer marshmallows as a reward for every success. (I just picked something I knew we had on hand that he loved :)
I created a sticker chart to hang right by the potty.
I let him pick out special new stickers of his choice from the store.
I let him operate the timer so he could play a role in that part.
I would always tell him it was time to try going, instead of phrasing it as a question or asking if he wanted to.

The first thing we did was create the sticker chart together after picking out special new stickers!
Here's what it ended up looking like:
(The yellow one got full on the bottom row quickly, so we had to make a second one.)

I created the chart WITH him right beside me one day, telling him what I was writing so that he could know what everything said. He loved seeing it and "reading" it again with me every time we went potty. This picture was taken after about a week of training, but the bottom row was the first to fill up and I was also glad to keep track of accidents for myself on the side (it all starts to blend together after a few days, so I found that helpful). He got to put 1 sticker for sitting and trying and 2 stickers for either of the top two rows.  This chart was very simple, easy for him to understand, and he LOVED getting to basically have an ongoing art project in the bathroom!

Day one & two we had 0 successes and   l o t s   of accidents. I laugh now, but it was very disappointing at the time. It was looking like it was going to be a repeat of the first attempt. He would sit on the potty for 5-10 minutes and the second we got up he would just pee while he was playing. It was hard to find a desire to keep going.

However, I did notice
1) he was really more eager this time because he wanted to earn marshmallows/ put stickers on his chart
2) after 2-3 days of accidents, he started to dislike feeling wet and alert me when he was peeing
3) he started to own and accept the timer going off at 15/30 minute intervals because he was operating the timer (something that helped this was always letting him bring whatever book/toy he was busy with at the time when it went off)
4) asking, "Are you keeping your underwear dry?" was a really helpful mental question for him.

So we kept going!!

Finally on day three we had one or two successful attempts. It BLEW his little mind!! He got those marshmallows. He finally got to put stickers on the "peed" row. Mommy lost her mind/praised him like crazy and he thought it was hilarious. He was so proud of himself. That FINALLY convinced him it was worth trying. For the next week we still had 1-2 accidents a day, but overall he was happy to at least try going and was definitely giving it so much more effort!


WHAT ABOUT THE FIRST TRIP OUT OF THE HOUSE? 
The first few times we went out, we put a pull-up under his undies, but I still made a point of asking if he was keeping his underwear dry. It was still the same concept, so I didn't make a big deal about him having a pull up on. I wanted him to think he was keeping his underwear dry.

After 3 or 4 days staying indoors, plan a short trip where you can keep practicing. These are some helpful tips:
Tip 1: ALWAYS go potty before leaving the house, and upon arrival at the destination. Yes, it sucks. But you will be glad you did because it'll keep you from panicking in the back of the store when they suddenly have to go potty.

Tip 2: Pack extra clothes AND socks. Yes, the socks get wet. (And a grocery bag for wet clothes just incase.)

Tip 3: Make your first trips out simple ones. Basically, don't make the first trip out someone's birthday party or church just incase it doesn't go so well.

Tip 4: Give lots and lots of grace if there's an accident. Always remind them that it's okay to have accidents sometimes, that you aren't mad, and that you will get them all cleaned up. It's hard not to show anger or frustration on your face, but try not to make them feel bad for having an accident.

Tip 5: Always take a potty trip on the one hour mark (or less if they don't go) while you are out for extended periods of time at first. Even if they haven't said they need to go, when you are out of the house you should take them to the potty often.


It took Charlie close to 2 weeks to be able to tell me when he felt like he needed to go. Every kid might be different there, but I would definitely recommend YOU still being in control of telling them when it's time to try until you know they can fully tell you every time.

Potty training is no joke. We have been 95% potty trained (except sleeping/going number 2) for over two months and sometimes there are still accidents. It's a process for sure! The biggest piece of advice I have is to read your child's cues of desire and jump in 100% when you feel like they are ready to tackle it! And give them lots of grace and praise along the way! Nothing happens overnight with potty training but it's so important to keep going even if you had a disaster of a day.

I'll leave you with a list of our favorite potty training items, and lots of well wishes!

OUR FAVORITE POTTY TRIANING ITEMS
1. Potty Seat - This worked great at home, but I found that it didn't fit many public toilets.
2. Bathroom stool - Used for getting to the potty and the sink. This isn't out exact one, but ours also had 2 steps.
3. Disney CARS Undies
4. Free & Clear Detergent (Be sure to wash their underwear in this because it's the first time their bottom is being exposed to detergent/cotton for long periods. We had some irritation with original Tide at first.)
5. Toy Story Stickers
6. Lots of marshmallows!


Let me know in the comments things you found helpful when you potty trained or things that you did differently!  Next time I'll be potty training a girl so I'm sure things will be different. ;)

Emily

WHAT A WEEK: BABY'S GENDER & CONCERT IN CHICAGO

Last Saturday night, I looked at Samuel and said, "It's been a really big week."

And it was. We found out the gender of baby #2 and went to a long-awaited concert in Chicago!

20 WEEK ANATOMY SCAN
I'll start with the baby gender because, oh my!!!!!!





Ready for it....

IT'S  A  GIRL!

Surprise!! surprise!! surprise!!! We were so shocked and thrilled to find out that baby number two is a little girl!

We were both kind of thinking it was another boy, to be honest, just because this pregnancy hasn't been drastically different from my first pregnancy. But this is the second time I have been completely wrong on predicting the gender. I was so confident that Charlie was a girl. I'm 0 and 2 on that!

The ultrasound technician started out checking the heartbeat and trying to wake the baby up. :) I told her I had been feeling a lot of movement, but mostly at night. Just a few minutes later, the baby woke up and stayed moving around the entire time (very unlike big brother's anatomy scan. he stayed rolled into a ball the whole time and didn't even let us finish the whole checklist at that appointment!). Then the nurse said, "It's looking like a girl!" and I said, "What! Are you serious?"And sure enough, she could see very clearly that it was a GIRL. Samuel and I were thrilled by this happy news!

All of her measurements and photos during the scan looked great. We are so thankful for her health thus far. Her heart rate is now around 144 bpm.

Crazy enough, I did have a dream that it was girl a few months ago! My dream was that we had arrived home from the hospital with a baby girl and I could remember NOTHING about the delivery or even being at the hospital. So I guess you could say, I had a gender prediction dream! But let's hope that last part doesn't happen in real life.

Over the course of the day we found out, we called and texted family and shared our gender reveal photos above with them. Our family was just as surprised (and happy) as we were! I had several close friends who guessed girl, but most of our immediate family was also thinking it would be a boy. But it goes without saying that everyone, especially Samuel and I, was over the moon thrilled to hear that we are having a little girl. We are so thankful for her precious life and cannot wait to meet our new baby girl sometime near the end of February.

BEN RECTOR CONCERT
Samuel and I also went to a really special concert in Chicago last week!

For my birthday back in August, my wonderful + amazing + sweet + thoughtful + husband got me surprise tickets to see Ben Rector in Chicago!! The concert was at the Chicago Theatre and we were pumped. It was our first time going to Chicago alone, too, soo we were really up for an adventure!

We only live 25 miles from Chicago according to the map, buuuuttttt it definitely takes over an hour to get there. Always. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the concert venue, but thankfully we left about 2 hours prior to the concert start time.

The show was so good, y'all. He sang all my favorite songs from the new album and there were a lot of really special surprises in it too. And we loved being inside the Chicago Theatre! It's so beautiful.

October is off to a really fun start. We have family coming in next weekend and Halloween right around the corner (one of my personal favorites, as you may or may not know).

In the mean time, I'll just be sitting here letting it sink in that we are having a baby G I R L.
I can't believe it.

Emily

FALL GARLAND CRAFT

I loved planning our first fall painting project for Charlie recently. He is super into painting right now, which makes momma so happy! After looking around online for a template to print out like I was wanting, I just decided to make my own.

YOU'LL NEED

- Printer paper (2)
- White cardstock/construction paper (2)
- Sharpie
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Fall paint colors (we did orange, green, and yellow for the pumpkins, and red, brown, and yellow for the leaves)
- Paint brush
- Baby wipes (so necessary with a toddler!!)
- Twine/String
- Hole Punch (not pictured)





CREATE YOUR OWN COLORING PAGE
First step is to get started on what you want to be painted! This was so simple and completely however I wanted it to be. I wanted him to paint pumpkins and leaves, so I started by drawing some examples of each in various shapes and sizes on regular printer paper. Then I picked 3 of the best ones to keep. Some other ideas that we may do later this fall are: Candy corn, acorns, piece of pumpkin pie, a cute little turkey, or a football. You could even do Halloween items like: a bat, friendly ghost, black cat, or a jack-o-lantern -- seriously, anything your heart desires here.

Next I cut the templates out and I traced multiple of each onto one full sheet of thick white cardstock with a sharpie to create my own coloring page for my little guy to paint.

I thought it would be a lot easier to let him paint the entire paper before the shapes were cut out. He is starting to really understand filling the shape in with color, but coloring in the lines is not his ability yet. So this was perfect for a 2-year-old to be able to fill in each shape with paint and me to cut them out after they dried.

 

Once the pages dry, cut out each image. I like the look of leaving the black sharpie edges as an outline. Look at some of these pumpkins and leaves that are totally filled in with paint!!!! I was super impressed that he did that. 

The last thing you have to do is decide how to order them on your garland, hole punch each shape, and string them up. Yay for this beautiful fall craft done by your little one!

If you do this with your kids, be sure to send me pictures. :)
Emily

OUR FAMILY IS GROWING! + PREGNANCY UPDATE

I haven't officially announced our exciting news on my blog: We are adding another James baby to the family sometime at the end of February 2019!

We are so thrilled and thankful to the Lord for this sweet gift of life. Every time I think about it I am completely overwhelmed by the reality that this is a gracious gift from the Lord. I am so excited to snuggle another little baby and to watch Charlie become to be a big brother. 

I thought it would be fun to share some details about this pregnancy and compare it to my first pregnancy some, how it has been different or the same and if that is any hint at the gender. And speaking about the gender...our anatomy ultrasound is at the beginning of October! Ahhh, I can't wait to find out. 

So let's get into this pregnancy update!

How did you tell your husband?
I told Samuel totally different this time around. For one, our first baby was a happy surprise. :) Also, Samuel was basically waiting outside the bathroom door with me to find out. And, he was the one who recommended I even take a pregnancy test to begin with because I didn't believe I was pregnant. Ha! We found out together, and I was already 8 weeks along at that point.

This time around, we had just started trying to get pregnant again. I had a very strong feeling that I was pregnant for over a week before I took a test. I didn't really keep him in the loop at all, which is so unlike me, but it was all because I wanted to really be able to surprise him with the pregnancy test since I didn't get the chance to do that the first time! I kept my suspicions and buying a pregnancy test a little secret until I knew for sure. I took it early one morning while he was at the gym before work, and when he walked back in the door, there I was with a positive pregnancy test! 

Were you surprised? 
I wasn't! But Samuel was! Opposite of last time. 

How many weeks along are you?
18 weeks.

Baby's heart rate? 
It's been 154-155 bpm.

Cravings? 
For most of the first trimester, NOTHING sounded good. It was a  s t r u g g l e. I would get so so hungry, but felt like there wasn't a thing that was actually appealing. 

Eventually I started to crave egg salad sandwiches - for like two weeks straight. Then I craved this little made up combo with tortilla, cream cheese, pepperoni, and cucumbers and ate that every day for like two weeks as well. Bagel with cream cheese was also a staple early on. I might have also needed a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit from McDonalds a couple of late nights. My husband is the best. ;) 

Gender? 
We are going to find out in early October! We are both suspicious it's another boy. I would guess boy based on not being terribly sick, acne improved, and similar pregnancy "feel."

1st trimester symptoms?  
Sickness- I only threw up one time (around 6 weeks) because I waited too long to eat breakfast which made me sick. There were two other instances were I thought I was going to get sick, but I hurriedly shoved a bagel in my mouth and it went away. It's a weird sensation to feel nauseous and be eating at the same time, but that is the secret in the first trimester. 

Tiredness- No joke, I could not go one day without taking a nap while Charlie was napping. It was unbelievable how tired I was. Sometimes on the weekends when Samuel was home, I would take a nap basically as soon as I finished eating breakfast and then again when Charlie was taking his nap. I have never been more unproductive or let chores go more, but it was so unavoidable.

Hunger- SO so so hungry all the time.

Can't Stand- Super sweet food and my sugary gummy vitamins.  I had to switch to a non-sugary vitamin because the others tasted SO sweet!

Round Ligament Pain - This was waayyy worse this time around. Basically any time I would stand up after sitting down for a while, that muscle would spasm and shoot pain! I had to be sure to stand up super slowly so that it wouldn't hurt. It's finally happening less often.

Other- I had major bloating and discomfort in my first trimester as well. So miserable. A homemade peppermint oil scrub right on my stomach worked wonders. 

Movement?
I started to feel light flutters around 15 weeks pregnant. By 18 weeks they feel like tiny kicks! I remember starting to first feel flutters during my first pregnancy around 17 weeks, so for me it's true that you feel movement earlier the second time around.

Maternity clothes?
I have started to wear maternity clothes here and there for comfort, but I can still wear most of my normal clothes right now. Same as first pregnancy at this point. 

Baby name? 
It's sooo much harder this time!! I feel so picky. We have mentioned a boy and girl name that we like, but we don't know if we will use them yet. Send me some suggestions y'all cause the ones I keep reading online are....terrible haha.

2nd trimester symptoms (so far)?
Energy- Hallelujah, my energy is ten times more than it was last trimester! Around week 14 I really felt a jump. I don't have to have a nap to function and that is a relief!

Sleep- Still getting up once a night to go to the bathroom, but sleeping fine. Crazy dreams, but that's normal for me. I had some back pain at night lately and started sleeping with a pillow between my knees which has helped.

Bump- Oh yes. It's here for the party.

Left: August 15 (13 weeks along),  Right: September 18 (Almost 18 weeks)

Thanks for reading this little update, friends! I don't know how often I will be able to do these, but we will definitely share the gender sometime after we find out. What do you think - boy or girl? ;)

Emily

Christmas Cookies + BEST Icing for Decorating

I love love love to bake. When I was living at home with my parents, the idea of baking always sounded fun but since no one in my family was an avid baker, we didn't usually keep a ton of baking ingredients on hand. So I would always talk myself out of trying to bake something new. 

When I got married, though, I quickly grew to love and look forward to baking. Mostly because I was baking for my husband, now! It was also pretty resourceful too, because those brown bananas needed to be put to good use, right? In the last few years baking has become something I do regularly and love to do. And when you have two boys under your roof, they will never EVER resent having a Mom who loves to bake! 

Finding a fun set of cookie cutters at Dollar Tree the other day was really what made me want to decorate Christmas cookies, so that's what we did this past Thursday. This was the first time Charlie got to "help" use cookie cutters and he was ALL about it. Not so much the cookie cutting, but definitely the squishing of dough and sneaking handfulls into his mouth faster than we could catch. Seriously, try baking with a one year old soon...you will be amazed at how fast they are at making a mess and sneak-eating.

The gingerbread mix we used was wonderfully prepared by the one and only Betty Crocker. They turned out more like a soft baked cookie than a crunchy gingersnap.While I usually love to make my other favorite cookies homemade, I definitely appreciated the ease of a pre-made mix since we were going all out for our cookie decorating shebang with a toddler included.

BUTTERCREAM JUST LIKE ROYAL ICING 

Royal icing is all the hype right now, but I'm still a little weirded out about using a raw egg like that, and feeding it to my little one. So we made a batch of buttercream and it ended up being the most royal-icing like buttercream I have EVER seen. You'll notice on my cookies (especially the Grandma Snowman) how the frosting smoothed out similar to royal icing. So if you are looking for the royal icing effect with a classic buttercream taste, I would definitely recommend this recipe.

Ingredients:

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1-2 tablespoons milk


Directions:

1. Start by mixing 2 cups of the powdered sugar and softened butter with a mixer. (You will add in the third cup of powdered sugar later.)

2. Add the vanilla extract and 1-2 tablespoons of milk to the mixture and incorporate with the mixer again.

3. Add in the last cup of powdered sugar, little by little, mixing after each addition. If the mixture is becoming super thick, do not add anymore of the powdered sugar. It's okay if you don't use all of the last cup of powdered sugar. In order to achieve a "royal icing-like" consistency, you will want the frosting to be slightly thinner than normal buttercream would be. I found that using the mixer for a minute or two also allowed for a smoother texture on the icing.

4. Once the consistency is right, add in food color of your choice for decorating!

My plate

Husband's plate

I hope you all get a chance to do some cookie decorating this year! We cut and baked the cookies together as a family, but once Charlie was in bed for the night we had a cookie decorating "date" at the kitchen table and it's one of my favorite holiday memories so far this year. It doesn't have to be fancy (I used Dollar Tree items and pre-made mix! ;), it only has to be fun!


Merry Christmas, friends!

A VERY TODDLER HALLOWEEN

I love Halloween.

There, I said it. 

My husband thinks its hilarious and weird how much I love Halloween, but I don't care. I don't love the scary/spooky kind of Halloween, but rather the carved pumpkins, babies in fuzzy costumes, bowls of candy corn, and glittery decorations kind of Halloween. That's what I'm all about. So today I thought let's do some fun Halloween activities....as best we can. 

Painting Pumpkins

We bought some pumpkins from our friend's adoption fundraiser a few Sundays ago that I have been decorating with and I decided to let Charlie finger paint them today. He was very serious about it, you guys. He actually preferred using a paint brush over his fingers. Note taken for next time around. And he only tried to stick the paint brush in his mouth once, so I'd call that a success! 

Let's talk about toddlers and painting. I was sure to strip him down to his diaper, cover his high chair with plastic, and use non-toxic washable acrylic paint. What are your best tips for toddler + painting? I would love to do more of this in the future, and I'm sure there are better tips or hacks out there for some great painting, so be sure to send them my way.

Pausing to look at the doggie outside

I also decided to paint and carve one myself while Charlie played with the pumpkin lid and guts. I thought that would be a fun sensory activity for him. He touched the guts once and that was enough for him. For whatever reason he thought the lid was more interesting. I just carved a simple "C" for Charlie.

Halloween & Trick-Or-Treating

Months back, I had not even started to think about Charlie's costume for this year when my mom said, "You know, I think I have one of your costumes down in the basement." And sure enough it was perfect for Charlie! It was so fun for him to wear something that was his Mommy's.

It was super cold and I couldn't get him to say trick or treat like we had successfully practiced aalllllll week. Of course. We were out for maybe 20 minutes and visited a total of 6 houses but that's okay! He had fun, got to wear his costume, and all the sweet people we met on our walk just wanted to eat him up. He was genuinely more excited about wearing his mittens than he was getting candy or wearing a costume. Oh, toddlers are the best!

On a mission for some treats

"Wait, I'm pretty sure I heard another doggie."

As a final thank you if you made it to the end of this very long post, here is yours truly Halloween '95 reppin the OG pumpkin outfit. 

I hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

THE PUMPKIN PATCH

Last Saturday the forecast called for rain, but we had a sunny enough morning to decide last minute to go to the zoo for their pumpkin festival!

Cosley Zoo is a small zoo nearby with all kinds of farm animals, bobcats, foxes, owls, hawks, rabbits, and a duck pond. Charlie loves it, and it's free for Wheaton residents - so it's one of our favorite outings. This was Daddy's first time going to the zoo with us!

There were piles of pumpkins big and small, a mound of hay bales, and a few kiddie rides. Charlie was only interested in the pumpkins for about a half a second and then he spotted it. THE RIDES. If this kid ever gets a wiff of something fun happening nearby, he will sniff it out. He is all about F-U-N.

After a few minutes of watching him stare longingly at the trade ride, Samuel and I looked at each other knowing we had to get him a ticket. It was his first ride!!! I can't believe he's already old enough to go on a kiddie ride. Time, slow down! I was pretty confident he would love riding the train. But I will admit I got a little worried when the train pulled away and he looked backed with wide eyes and said, "Dada!?" But by the end of one time around the loop, he realized he loved it! What a big boy.

Here are some pictures from our day. Enjoy Charlie's very wind-blown hair.  😆 

This is when it happened. 

Me: Charlie, look at these fun pumpkins!

Charlie: OMG RIDES, MOM

Happy October, y'all!