Since the Snakes...

Wade has a tendency to start and stop habits very abruptly. One day he was fine sitting in a highchair with a bib, and the next he won't even consider it. One day he was obsessed with bottles, the next he gave them up for a train and never looked back. So when he decided he wanted to start potty training, I thought it was a done deal with no looking back. I got my extra potty seats scattered through the house, more pull-ups, reward M&M's ready, and brought out his Thomas underwear. But then Wade decided maybe he wasn't as ready as we thought....

Since the successful poop and pee in the potty last week, he's only gone a few more times. INSTEAD, he does like to run around naked, "pretend" like he's gonna go, unroll every roll of toilet paper, and flush the toilet lots of times.

So it may be a long while before we can call Mr. Snake Charmer...."potty trained"....but I'm in no hurry.

Makin' Snakes

You will be happy I don't have a picture to accompany today's little window into Wade's world....

Nap time.
Everyone should be sleeping.
I hear in the monitor, "Moooommmmmyy, POOOO POOOO"
(which usually mean "I've pooped in my diaper, come change me")
I go upstairs to find a clean diaper.
Wade says, "I want to go poo poo in the potty".
I take off his clothes and diaper and set him on his potty.
After a lot of squirming and stinkiness...
He jumps up with unbelievabe excitement and proclaims,
"I DID IT! LOOK MOMMY! I got all the snakes out of my tummy and into the potty!!!"

Spoons and Bibs and Cereal...OH MY!

We went ahead and gave Bree her first taste of rice cereal. Beau was definitely the instigator and implementer on this, but I allowed it to happen. I honestly think he misses being able to "do" more with Bree, like he did feeding Wade bottles, so he was eager to give it a try. I barely had time to grab the camera. This was attempt #1, so we'll see where it goes from here...

"Huh? What's this thing they're calling a spoon and why is dad shoving it in my face? What if I taste it with my tongue first?"
"sdfheworqewfhfasdfasfjsdffdjaskf!!!!""That tasted like FEET!""Dad we need to talk...you can't be serious?"

The Halloween Finale!

October has been EXHAUSTING!!! With 31 days of beautiful sunshine, festival after festival, pumpkin patches, and countless hayrides....mommy is tired! Don't get me wrong, I've wanted to do each and every event or activity (and was usually the one dragging my family along with me), but now I'm tired. With Halloween now over, I want to stay at home and hibernate....but oh no, we have Thanksgiving and Christmas before January hiberbation :)

Wade and I tackled a Halloween house craft project. This was our first attempt at something like this, and it went just as I expected....MESSY! And Wade wanted to eat everything before we even got it on the house.
This is his S~P~O~O~K~Y face!
Not too shabby, huh?

By the time Halloween trick-or-treating came around I couldn't even bear to bring a camera. I did smile and laugh watching Wade run and play in his triceratops costume. It was stuffed in the middle so he looked like a chubby dinosaur waddling around. Bree wore her black cat hoodie with the orange tutu. She was too too cute.

Our neighborhood is a bust when it comes to trick-or-treating, so we met up with the Crawfords to take their neighbors' candy. Wade ate way too much candy along the way and finished the night with this special lollipop from Dede...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Trunk-OR-Treat

After we got ROBBED at the Trunk-or-Treat costume contest last year, we've been planning our comeback. Just kidding, not really. But remember our Finding Nemo costumes?

I truly didn't think we'd have a family theme to do this year, partly because I didn't want to put that much effort into it, partly because I wasn't sure Wade would wear any costume I tried to put on him. That was until Dede came back from her European adventures with these authentic outfits for Wade and Bree. I mean what 2 year old (in America) gets to wear real suede lederhosen? WADE DOES!
And look at Bree's beautiful silk Bavarian dress. I almost felt bad wearing them as "costumes".Add some chessy Hansel and Gretel costumes for mom and dad.....and you get....
the BENICH'S BAVARIAN BOO-ERY!

Get it? A BOO-ery, not a brewery? It was a church event after all.

I did get plenty of weird looks in my shorter than short beer wench outfit. I didn't quite feel comfortable if I wasn't with my children or in front of our tailgate...then my outfit made a little more sense. And out of context Beau looked like one of Santa's elves. BUT together...we were cool :) And we got FIRST PLACE!

Our biggest competition was the Gray's Pooh Corner theme. Honestly, they should've won for their much more appropriate family friendly theme. I mean, who doesn't love Pooh?

And Millie Kate was the cutest little piglet

Wade was much more into the whole trick-or-treating think this year. Here he is doing some kind of dance... This mad hatter guy was a little scary, but Wade didn't mind. He went straight in for the candy!

Seam and Jennifer came out to see the kids in all their bavarian glory...

Maggie was a farmer. How cute!!!

Special thanks to Dede for the kids' outfits and to the Williamsons for letting us borrow their Oktoberfest party costumes! I'll have to start thinking about next year soon, since we'll be defending champs and all... :)

Halloween Hikes @ the Chatthoochee Nature Center

It's safe to say we've started a family Halloween tradition of going to the Chattahoochee Nature Center's Halloween Hikes. It's a fun NON-scary way to celebrate. I didn't do a very good job of taking pictures along the way. With Bree sleeping in her wrap, I put my monster of a camera away after I knocked poor Wyatt in the head. But I did get a few later...

The "Hike" is a short walk through the woods where you encounter all kinds of woodland character creatures and learn just a little bit about them. I know I told you all last year, but my mom and I used to be characters back when Greg was the Director. I wish I could remember which one I was, but they all seem familiar. I wish I had a blog back in 1996 so I could look back and see ;)

We bought out an entire tour of 25 tickets this year (and even snuck in a few extra)! That didn't even count most of the smaller kids who were free...

(The Everetts with Caleb the doctor)

(Cae the bat)

(Enzo & Bree, that's a lot of orange for one picture....)

(The Grays)

(Alicia holding Bree with the Green family. Even though this was the first time I met Julia's son Nate, he and Wade have so much in common it's weird. For starters, they were born on the same day! Nate is a miracle child and has battled through so much in his short little life. He is thriving here in Atlanta and is an inspiration to all that meet him!)

(Colt and Scary Old Man, actually that's Shawn under there)

(Cae, Mason, & Wade meeting a real opossum)

Want to join us in 2011? Maybe we can sellout 2 full tours!!!

Halloween @ School

Now that Wade's in the 2 year old class, parents can join in the fun for holiday parties. Beau randomly had the day off, so we were able to all go together. Bree was taking notes for her future preschool days. I wasn't sure Wade would actually wear his costume, but he loved being Tank the Triceratops. He showed everyone his horns and tail.

Art project....glitter pumpkins

How cute is Avery as Jessie from Toy Story?!

Right after Wade jumped up on Beau's lap for this picture...

...Josie thought Beau was like Santa Claus, and jumped right up for her turn

Hunter and Bree got to tag along as the younger siblings. Bree was happy to hold hands with her boyfriend...

Avery and Natalie

Reading Halloween stories

The whole class together (I won't even begin to try and name them all)

ACC Halloween Party

Atlanta Country Club has a wonderful Halloween party every year and now Wade's actually old enough to enjoy it! He didn't want to wear a costume (it was really hot!) but was excited to run around in his monster shirt, take a hayride, boogie down to the dj, eat yummy kid food, avoid the very scary haunted house, AND "carve" a pumpkin. I put "carve" in quotations because it's not fair to really call it carving when the pumpkin's already cleaned out, you draw a face, and then someone else does the cutting. As pathetic as that sounds....it was very nice to not have to do all the dirty work :)