We took Nathan bowling recently. The first time was at a friend’s birthday party and Nathan had a lot of fun, so this time we went with some friends and their daughter.

Here’s Nathan and Gary making Challah together. Nathan really likes helping in the kitchen, which mostly means helping Gary in the kitchen. His jobs usually consist of salting the food or mixing things up.

We moved Nathan to a “big boy bed” (i.e. toddler bed) at the end of October. He wasn’t trying to climb out of the crib and he was happy enough in there, but we were given a toddler bed from some friends and Nathan was excited about the idea of it, so we switched. So far so good. He’s waking up at night now and then, which he wasn’t doing before, but otherwise has been sleeping great. There have only been a couple times where he’s come out of his room when he should be sleeping, and if I take him back in and rub his back a bit, he’s fine.

And he loves the bed. He plays in his room more now and loves jumping on the bed or piling all his stuffed animals on it.
This is right after we made the switch.

This is generally what his room looks like by the end of the day. I like that he’s enjoying his room more though. The latest game is piling every single stuff animal (not the puppets though!) on a blanket and pretending its a boat or that it’s “safe” from the Tickle Monster (i.e. Daddy.)

October was a fun month. We went to Zoo Boo at the Maryland Zoo, something we’ve done the last three years and hope to continue to do each year. All the kids dress up in their Halloween costumes and can go trick-or-treating at various booths. It’s been a fun time to get together with friends and have a fun family day.

Nathan looks like he’s plotting some serious trouble.

Feeding a giraffe.

Buds. These two had such a fun time together.

Getting a ride.

Carousel Ride.

Halloween was fun too. Nathan, thankfully, was always excited to put on his dinosaur costume. I think it helped that he got to pick out what he wanted to be and gave the final approval on what we ordered. After the first house Nathan wanted to eat his candy immediately. And after about 7 houses Nathan said he had enough candy and was ready to go home. Silly boy doesn’t know what he’s missing!

Practicing in the costume before Halloween.

Roar!!

Checking the loot.

Checking out our Jack-o-Latern

Chocolate!

We made our third trip to Dallas in October. Nathan did a great job on the plane rides…he played and watched videos on the way there, and slept most of the trip home. I think it helped that he had his own seat without a carseat this time.

It was great to see my grandma (”GiGi” to Nathan) and so special that she got to spend time with Nathan. My Uncle Allen took us out to the Arboretum in Dallas, where we had a really neat opportunity to get professional pictures of Nathan taken. The weather was perfect, and there were gorgeous flowers blooming and pumpkins everywhere. It was a really great day.

Frontier Village. Nathan loved running through here.

Pumpkins

Running through the frog fountain

We also made our 3rd trip to the Dallas Aquarium, which we love. Nathan still talks about some of the animals we saw. Uncle Allen bought him “Curious George at the Aquarium” and he loves pointing out the octopus and penguins to tell me “I saw that at aquarium!” He also thought it was pretty neat to see a jaguar there.

Uncle Allen feeding birds

One morning my Uncle brought over his guitar and played Itsy Bitsy Spider for Nathan. Nathan was interested in checking out his guitar, but the neatest part was when he hopped up to the piano and they played some music together.

My Grandma invited some family and friends over one afternoon, which she often does when we come. We were surprised and happy to have so many people come. I know it meant a lot to my grandma and I love seeing as much family as I can while we’re there

Can’t wait to go back next fall!