Indoor time

With the time change recently, it's left us little to no outside play time in the afternoon/ early evenings. Our routine as of late was this: Colin naps till anywhere between 4-4:30 and then slowly likes to wake up by watching some cartoons after nap. We then would head out for a good hour of bike riding to the playground. Since it's now darker a whole hour earlier it is almost dark by the time Colin is ready to play outside...so we've been trying to find more indoor activities. Today it was painting with water colors. Colin seems to really enjoy these projects and is very enthusiastic when I suggest them. He's also very proud of his artwork that he brings home from school and likes to see them hanging on our fridge.

Gymnastics class

A few shots of Colin at his gymnastics class. He goes every Wednesday and has a a lot of fun!

No fear

Colin has demonstrated time and time again that he is one fearless kid. At the fair, he's pointing to all the adult fast rides wanting to go on them. A scary surprise dinosaur leaps out at us during a haunted hay ride that has his mom shrieking and he doesn't even bat an eye. He'll try anything that might look remotely daunting to a 2 year old and then ask to go again and again.
But, he is a sensitive little guy, if he thinks anything is hurting he gets upset...a train falling off a cliff in his cartoon or a stuffed animal getting his arm ripped off in his book tonight will bring tears,until I reassure him it's ok. It's the sweetest thing.
Another sweet thing he does that I want to remember is when he accidentally hurts mommy ( which with his rough housing can happen at least once a day) the second I say "ouch you hurt mommy" he immediately will stop and say " I sorry mommy I sorry don't cry" and rub his hand wherever my boo boo is. Sometimes he will even go get his dr kit and help my "boo boo" feel all better.
This kid, he's really the best.

Halloween 2013

Colin had a fun, busy Halloween. He spent the morning at his school, where he got to dress up, eat cupcakes and watch Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin. For the school morning, he dressed up as Buzz Lightyear, which is a costume Id saved from last year.
Then for Halloween night he'd told me the last few weeks he wanted to be a "piwate!" . He never changed his mind and a pirate he was. He practiced his "arrs" and "happy Halloween"and "trick or treats"and was ready to go. We'd been reading about Halloween night for a few weeks so he definitely knew the fun that was about to be had.
We headed over to a party at a friends house where we ate, played and answered the door for other trick or treaters. We then headed out around our friends neighborhood, hitting up about 10 houses before heading home. When we got home, I extended the fun a little bit and we went for one more trip around our block, I didn't want the fun to end for him! It was so cute! A big success!!

In the middle of it

I read a quote tonight that went something like this..remember,when you're in the middle of it, there's good on the horizon.
I see babies on tv or in person and get sooo excited at the thought of another little one.
But I'll admit I'm also scared....scared for the hard work I now know a newborn takes, scared of how I will feel if breastfeeding doesn't work out again, scared of the sleep deprivation, scared of having a "hard baby", scared that the postpartum depression will come again, scared ill constantly compare the baby to Colin.
But all those fears? I know this time...there's good on the horizon.
 When you have your first baby, you think they'll be in their current stage forever and if it's a stage you are struggling with, it sucks.
But now I know, if I'm having a bad day, week or month as we adjust to being a family of four, there's good on the horizon. Because those first few months of adjusting to a new baby( or who knows maybe a shorter time since I wont be adjusting to the whole shock of motherhood, I already know what it's all about), well that baby does grow, and if he turns out to bring me as much joy as Colin, there's definitely good on the horizon. I just have to remember when I'm in the thick of it!

6 month bump

24 weeks pregnant today. Feeling lots of kicking from this little guy, who is still nameless.
pS that's my vein on my side in the last pic, still no stretch marks ( fingers crossed)

Morning at the Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday we headed out to Motley's Farm in southwest Little Rock for a morning at the pumpkin patch. Colin had a blast feeding the animals, going down the slide over and over, going on the hay ride and cow train, and picking out pumpkins. It was a nice couple of hours and it was a treat to wear our jackets in the crisp fall weather and to have Evan with us. If you want to see last year's trip, click here.

watching the pig races

feeding the sheep

there's a pumpkin in my belly

at the top of the hay stack waiting to go down the slide

riding the cow train