Happy Birthday!

Welcome to the world, Z!

Can't wait to meet you in person at Thanksgiving!!  Congrats to my big sis and brother-in-law, and Z's big brother, J.

Trip to STL (Movie Monday included)

We recently went to St. Louis and stayed at a hotel near Union Station, which is an old train depot.  The hotel we stayed at has a bunch of large model trains (behind glass, thank goodness, and away from little fingers!) and we knew Boo would love to see them.  I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of him when he was studying them running back and forth between all of them like some demented train-obsessed child.  I probably could have taken my book and read for the evening while he kept pointing out all seven or eight trains that were on display!

There is a large man-made pond full of fish right next to the hotel and Union Station.  While we were waiting to meet friends for dinner, we let Boo feed the fish.  They were huge!  And have obviously been fed well and by many people; they definitely knew what they wanted to happen when they saw us peering over the edge at them.

We met our friends for dinner at a seafood restaurant that had some great food!  But the best, by far, was the dessert that the three of us shared:

I figure it was good for us since it had bananas on it!!

That night, Boo could not get to sleep (hmmm, I wonder why? but I promise he didn't have that much dessert!).  He was soooo restless, rolling back and forth, from one end of the bed he was in to the other.  I got him water twice (which he gulped down), covered him up multiple times, and finally told him that if he needed something, he had to carefully get out of bed and come over to me and ask; this last was because he almost pushed himself out of bed trying to get my attention, even though we had him surrounded by pillows and blankets!  I then tried going to sleep, but my Mama mode wouldn't let me.  I was dozing on and off when I opened my eyes and there stood Boo, right by the side of the bed, whispering "HEY, MA-ma, I want water!"  After that, he dropped off to sleep quickly.  Unfortunately, I wasn't so lucky.

The next day we went to the St. Louis Zoo before driving home.  We probably got to see 1/4 of it, which is about the same amount we saw last time, so we're up to having seen about half of the zoo.  :)  We saw leopards and zebras and orangutans, oh my!

Snow leopards taking a nap in the sun.

These orangutans were also trying to take naps; there is one rolled up under the  sheet on the right.

Boo had a close-up encounter with one of them:

fist bump, i.e. the rock

Playing peek-a-boo.

At the end of our time at the zoo, he took a gorilla ride with Dada's help:

We had a great time and wish we lived closer so we could take advantage of the free admission to the zoo and the many other fun things a larger city is known for.  But we're smaller city folks at heart, so I guess we'll just have to continue taking numerous mini-vacations.  I like that plan.  :)

Our Little Engineer

The structure I found being built on our couch last week after a long stretch of silence from our engineer:

Notice the "driveway" areas for his matchbox cars.

Pretty amazing.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the cutest little M&M in the world!!!  (in a costume I was told by one lady I should patent! ha!)

ready to go!

getting the hang of this holiday.

He wasn't too sure at first, but after a few houses he completely understood they were all going to give him candy.  Wish I would have gotten some video of him running up a few of the driveways when we told him we were stopping at that house.  We tried coaching him to say the standard "Trick or Treat!" but the only thing he ever ended up saying was "Treat!"  

Can't blame the kid.

He's smart.

Very smart.

checking out his loot at a friend's house.

He lined up that candy and started naming who it was for...what a sweetheart!!

Boo is very good at sharing as long as he gets to pick what is shared.  I adore this boy.

Chris and I both couldn't wait to go trick-or-treating with Boo this year; last year, for various reasons, we didn't end up getting to actually go out; we made it to one neighbor's house and that was it.  So for all intents and purposes, this was our first Halloween actually celebrating the intended way.  We were only planning on going out for a little while, jump in the car and go to our old neighborhood as well, and then come back and spend the last hour or so handing out our own candy to kids that came later.  Weeelllll, that didn't happen.  He was We were having such a great time and spent more time than we thought in our neighborhood, so by the time we got back from our friend's house, there was no one left walking through our area!!  Which means that we have five, yes five, bags of candy at our house, along with all the candy Boo brought home...how many friends want to come over and help us eat them??  Any takers?

Movie Monday - Full speed ahead!

I couldn't resist:

...and I bet y'all were waiting for him to run into it again!!

Pumpkins

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit a couple weekends ago and we went to the local pumpkin patch while they were here.

Boo got to pick out a few small pumpkins as well as a big one to carve for Halloween.  He had a great time testing out looking at all the larger pumpkins!

"Look at this punkin!"

He also helped Grandma and Grandpa pick out and place their pumpkins in our wagon.  He LOVES to help do just about anything, sweet boy!!

Carving the pumpkin was a matter of Mama doing the dirty work and Boo beating on the pumpkin with a spoon to see if that would help get those slippery little seeds out!!

I just can't get over the difference a year makes!  We were pretty much in this same position one year ago and he has grown soooo much.

NLCS Game 3

We were lucky enough to get tickets from a friend for the St. Louis Cardinals National League Championship Series Game 3!  We both enjoy baseball and were so excited to take Boo to his first Major League baseball game.  (Although we took him to a spring training game in March, Chris says that doesn't really count...o-kay.)  Anyway, Boo did great; we drove down that afternoon and parked on the IL side of the river in order to take the train across.  We thought he would really enjoy it and we. were. right.  He liked it so much that, when we got off and it started pulling away, he reached back across my shoulder, saying "Thomas, come back!" over and over.  And wouldn't stop saying it until we assured him that "Thomas" would come back for us after the game was over.  Can you say obsessed??

We stayed until the middle of the 8th inning and then left so that we could beat the crowds once the game finished.  And guess what time it was?...10pm.  Yep, no whining, no meltdown at all.  The peanuts we bought around the 5th inning probably helped a ton in that department, I kid you not.  We rode "Thomas" back across the river and got to our car in time to hear the fireworks telling us that our team had won!  And because we wanted to reward Boo for being such a good little guy, we decided to get small milkshakes to celebrate.  We took them back to the hotel and the three of us cuddled in bed, sipping our shakes, while watching the postgame on TV.  Chris and Boo had ordered the same flavor, so when our little sweet-tooth mooch finished his own kiddie-size shake, he turned slightly to his daddy, glanced up from under his lashes, and whispered, (whispered mind you, probably hoping that Mama wouldn't hear!) "I want some!"  We couldn't stop laughing, the kid was so stinkin' cute.  And because we were laughing, that started him giggling.  But after getting ready for bed, he konked out like a light in the other bed, no fuss, no stalling.  It was such a fun, short getaway and things like that still amaze me as far as how lucky we are to be our family of three.

We only took a few pictures at the ballfield:

I really like this one that I took of the loves of my life!

Cardinals Family Photo

If you can't tell, I was the one taking this picture; it's that awkward, head-leaned-back-so-I-can-get-in-the-picture-but-now-I've-got-a-weird-looking-neck pose.  Great picture of Chris finally, and Boo looks absolutely adorable!!

GO CARDS!!