Soggy Halloween

Carter's first Halloween was a wet one. It rained most of the day but it was predicted to end by late afternoon. Well, that didn't happen. We did get a little break but it's been raining since around 5 pm and is still raining.

We took some pictures of Carter in his costume before Sarah, Brent, and Mary Grace got here ...


This one is my favorite ...






We tried to get a few pictures of the chicken and bee before heading out, but we didn't get any good ones, just this blurry picture ...


We took Carter and Mary Grace to about a dozen houses before the rain started getting heavy. They were a very cute bee and chicken and got lots of compliments. Mary Grace was excellent at saying "trick or treat" and "thank you" - hopefully she will teach Carter what to do next year!


Our neighborhood was an awesome place to trick or treat, even in the rain. There were tons of people out. It looked like a scene from a movie with all the kids running around. Neither of us remember it being like that when we were growing up. Hopefully next year won't be so wet!

UT Basketball Game

We took Carter to his first UT basketball game tonight. UT played North Alabama in an exhibition game. They had a promotion which got us free tickets for donating children's books. The tickets were for the 300 level, but we moved down to the 100 level during the middle of the first half to sit with Sarah and her family and friend.


Carter did really well.


He was really chill at first taking it all in but then was a bit of a squirm bug switching who he was sitting with ever few minutes. He was quiet though and seemed to like watching everything going on around him. The game didn't start until 7:30 pm (which is his normal bedtime) but Carter's been staying up to 8:30 pm the last few nights as we were getting ready for the end of Daylight Savings Time.


Around 9:20 pm, Carter couldn't keep his eyes open any longer and passed out on Brian.


We easily got him home without really waking him up. Once here, we got him ready for bed and I nursed him. He seems to be asleep now. Hopefully he sleeps well tonight and even sleeps in a little tomorrow!

Dancing

Carter has figured out how to turn on the music on one of his toys. Once it's playing, he likes to "dance". I caught this video tonight right before bath time - it's not the best, but it generally shows what he's been up to.

Ripley's Aquarium

Sarah and I took the kids to Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg today. Sarah has an annual pass and I got one too today so that we can go there a few times this winter when we won't be spending as much time outdoors.

Carter was a little less interested in the aquarium than he usually is, but I think that's because he's tired. He still hasn't adjusted to me trying to slowly prepare him for Daylight Savings Time ending. Even though he's going to bed almost an hour later, he's still getting up at his normal time of 6am or earlier. I think he still had fun though today!

It's always hard to get good pictures in an aquarium where it's dark so using the flash means you can't see the fish but not using the flash usually means either blurry kids or kids that are just shadows. We still managed a few cute pictures ...


Doesn't Carter look like such a big kid in that picture? He wasn't actually sitting there nicely and posing for me. I just happened to catch him when he was changing directions as he crawled on the little ledge at the base of the tank and this is the picture I got.

Matching

Somehow I always seem to dress Carter and myself alike lately. I don't do it on purpose, but I'll realize it after I have us both dressed for the day. Maybe I do it subconsciously?

For example, I'll have on a green sweater and brown shorts and end up putting Carter in a green shirt and brown pants. Here is what we wore today ...

Walking

Here are a few short videos of Carter walking. Charlotte wanted in on the fun and blocked the camera part of the time. Luckily she never took Carter!

Carter's balance is getting better and better. He's still only taking 5 or 6 steps at a time, but it's a start!

Illness

Carter may FINALLY be getting over his cold. He didn't cough today and his nose was less runny. Carter did manage to give me some of his cold though and I haven't had much of a voice this weekend.

We didn't do too much this weekend. The Parade of Homes is going on right now in Knoxville so we went to a few houses yesterday. We're trying to get some ideas on how to finish our third floor. I think we want to make that floor one big room that serves as a playroom / craft room / workout room. We'd love to do built-ins to increase the storage in that space. We didn't figure much out but it was fun to look at some houses!

Since daylight savings time ends next weekend, I've been slowly pushing back Carter's bedtime. Unfortunately he hasn't been getting up any later! I'm not looking forward to getting up by 5 am starting next week if he doesn't get used to sleeping later!

Today's Pictures

A couple of cute pictures from today ...



Carter has figured out "no". When he doesn't want something or doesn't want to give you something, he shakes his head "no". I haven't noticed him shaking his head "yes" yet.

Pumpkin Family

Here is our pumpkin family.


I wasn't really into doing messy pumpkin carving this year. Maybe we'll try it next year when Carter will be more interested in it.

Carter has finally mastered turning his walker around on his own. His new favorite game is to turn it around, aim for me, and go as fast as he can until he runs into me.

Oakes Farm

Sarah and I took the kids to Oakes Farm today. This is the other local farm that has a corn maze, hayrides, and a pumpkin patch. The farm isn't officially open during the week, but Sarah called ahead of time and found out that we could come anyway since they host school groups during the week.

We had gorgeous weather here today. Sunny and warm (in the upper 60s). So much better than last week!

The farm had several little areas set up for picture taking. We worked hard to get the kids to look at us and smile so we could get some good fall photos. I think we both got a few we are happy with!

There are some areas set up at this farm for kids to play. The school groups seemed to have taken over most of them, but Mary Grace tried out the giant slide!

After that we took the hayride out to the pumpkin patch. The pumpkin patch was actually a field filled with pumpkins that had already been picked. Even though we didn't get to pick the pumpkins off the vine, it was still a really good set up and we had fun looking for a pumpkin.