October Bliss

Okay, so I know that I keep saying that this has been my favorite, but October seriously was one of my favorite months yet!

With fall there has been so many fun things that Brian, Oak and I got to experience together! The weather has been beautiful and there are so many fun outdoorsy things that are offered.

One of the first things that we did this fall was the North Carolina State Fair. I was so excited to go to the fair, it had been years since Brian and I have gone and I couldn't wait to see how Oak would do. It was SO fun! Oak absolutely loved it and the smile on his face made it worth how expensive it was.

He LOVED it and wanted to do everything! He rode so many rides! He is such a thrill-seeker (like his daddy). He rode roller coasters, trains, berry twisty ride, a firetruck ride and jungle cars. I think his favorite though was the Ice Slide. It was just this really tall slide that went super fast. The smile on his face was so priceless!

Since I was pregnant, I couldn't do any of the "crazy" rides with Oak, which was a unique experience for me. It was really fun to be able just to watch his reactions on the rides and see the smiles. It was also really fun for Brian to be the one to share in those experiences with him. I was nervous how I would feel not being able to do things with him, but it was really good! Seriously, one of my favorite days.

The following weekend we went to this amazing Pumpkin Patch. Oak went on his first hayride. We still play hayride around our playroom with his little people. Oaks' face on the hayride was just the sweetest, just like he was taking it all in, not really smiling or reacting, but just soaking it up! Seeing things through his eyes is just a fun way to experience things.

He also got to ride on his first pony. Her name was Buttercup and walked around in a circle. He loved it and wanted to do it again.

There was also a corn maze, which I didn't love, but I loved watching Oak. He just led the way like an explorer. The kid really has no fear of anything.

He also loved "driving" all of the tractors and playing in their jumping houses and their carnival games.

October is not over yet! Another favorite pastime of Oak's has become dinosaurs. He has a recent obsession for them so we decided one Saturday to take him to the Natural Museum of Science in Raleigh. They have tons of dinosaur bones that Oak LOVED! He even got a Tryannasaurus Rex stuffed animal from the gift shop and we named him Rexi who now sleeps in Oak's bed with him. We had a blast walking around the museum with Oak. It is so fun to be able to communicate with him about things that he sees and the things he remembers.

That same Saturday night we also had our fall fest at church. This was such a fun event and we are so thankful for our church for hosting this event. The parking lot was transformed into an amazing carnival with a ton of bouncy houses, train rides and pony rides. Oak loved the train ride, seriously we rode it like 5 times and he still talks about the pirate jumping house (he was also dressed up like a pirate), this huge slide and just a bouncy house with different obstacles inside. We spent hours there in each of these bouncy houses.

When we drove into church the next day, Oak asked "where did the bouncy houses go?"

Okay, almost done, we are to Halloween!

I forgot how much Halloween was! Oak was so excited about trick-or-treating! We went to our friends neighborhood to trick-or-treat with them and Oak's friends Joelle and CJ. It was SO fun! Oak was dressed up like the sweetest little pirate ever! He had his little pumpkin to put his candy. He was a little unsure of what to do, but followed CJ to a house and got a lollipop. He had a hard time understanding that the candy was for later and not for right now!

He definitely go the hand of it and did so great! We went around the whole neighborhood with the help on one candy stop. He was so brave and had no fear going up to the "crazy houses." His pumpkin got so heavy that I had to carry it for him.

He loved trick-or-treating and had so much fun! He now takes his little people and pretends that they are dressed up. They walk up to different pillows (the same pillows that we use for the big waves) and ring the doorbell. He opens the door and gives them treats.

One of my favorite things that I hear now is "I get a treat out of my pumpkin." I love it!!

They're Here!

Okay, so I thought that we were going to make it out of the 2's without ever having the terrible part! WOW! I was wrong!

Right at the end of August it was seriously like someone had taken my sweet little boy and replaced him with this a clingy, defiant boy.

It all started one night, the boy who never had a problem going into his room to sleep would NOT go into his bed. Screaming and crying he would say "I don't like my bed" "mommy, don't leave me." It was almost like a switched was flipped.

This happened at night and at naps, so I had a non-sleeping two year old who was so cranky during the day. Poor thing was just so overtired that everything was dramatized. Everything was a big deal and the tantrums would last for what felt like hours.

He would only let me hold him and nobody else. He wouldn't let Brian put on his shoes or really even come in the same room without throwing a fit.

I really didn't know what to do. I was hysterical and so tired from being pregnant and just the sudden change in Oak was just so crazy to me. I just couldn't fix it and that bothered me.

One night I had to leave him in his room screaming, I had to sit in my closet with worship music and just praying because I couldn't handle listening to him cry! It was so sad! He began jumping out of his crib, not so much jumping as just flopping out onto the ground and he spent a few nights just sleeping on the floor.

I am glad that I am writing this with a little distance between me and these events, otherwise you would have seen a crazy side of me and for anyone who I talked to in those times, I apologize because I was crazy!

It actually ended up being a great thing. I think that Oak was just becoming more independent and was almost fighting growing up. He didn't like it when we called him a big boy, but insisted on being a baby.

It was during this time, however, we switched him to a big boy bed because he couldn't stay in his crib jumping out. Also, he decided to be potty trained. Seriously, he just decided that he wanted to start using the potty. It is funny to me because I had this goal that by January that he would be out of his crib, no paci and begin potty train. The kid however, fast tracked me and decided that all of these things needed to happen on his time and not mine.

The nighttime sleep fixed itself after the beach. Naps took a little longer to get back on track and are still a little iffy, but it is a joy to be around our son. It is the sweetest thing to put him to sleep at night! We do our book or story (he loves made up stories about Baby Philipe or jessie from Toy Story) and our songs. He then gives "best hug" and "best kiss" and says goodnight and rolls over.

We have our sweet, playful, little boy back who is a joy to be around, with the occasional tantrum that are much more manageable now! I really love this age!! I will write more about Oak as a two year old later!

Beach Baby

Some of my favorite times with Oak over the summer were spent at the beach! We got to go to the beach twice this summer and both were just AMAZING!

Our first trip to the beach was just after my birthday in July. Oak had been talking about it for so long and each day he would think that it was the day to go. Whenever we asked him what he was excited about he would say, "big waves," "kites" and "sand castles." He really couldn't wait!

I LOVE the beach! I love spending the day laying out on the sand reading a book, getting in the water when I get hot. I was a little nervous about how adding a child would "cramp" my beach style. Sounds a little selfish, I know, but it is true. And when we went when Oak was just one, it was so hard because he just wanted to run into the water and wouldn't sit still for a second.

I never knew the beach could be so much more fun when you do other things besides just lay out! Brian, Oak and I spent one whole day on the beach and it really might be run of my favorite days EVER! Oak loved being in the water and thought it was so fun when the big waves knocked him down. We couldn't keep him out of the water.

Our second beach trip was with Brian's brother Kevin and his wife BethAnne. We went the week of Labor Day to Nags Head, which was amazing! Oak loves BA and Kevin. They are both doctor and he refers to them as the "little doctor" and "big doctor."

I was a little nervous how this week was going to go because Oak had turned into a "terrible two" a few days before that, which I will write about later. It was so great though!

We stayed right across the street from the beach so it was so nice to be able to spend the mornings at the beach, come back for lunch and naps and then head back out to the beach for the evening. It made it easy for me to take him by myself while Brian worked.

Again, he just loved being in the "big waves." It was amazing to me how he didn't mind getting knocked down, he would just stand up and say "that was funny." He really is such a fun kid.

He met some knew friends at the beach too! There was a little girl named Aubrey and a little boy that Oak would look forward to seeing each morning out on the beach. He played with them in the sand and the water. He loved chasing the sandpipers back and forth on the beach.

Nags Head also had so many other things to offer besides the beach. We spent one morning going Jockey's Ridge, which are these huge sand dunes. Oak climbed all around them! It was awesome! He called them sand mountains! I couldn't believe how well he climbed all around!

He spent one morning fishing with daddy, uncle Kevin, Dan and Grandmom. He even kissed a fish and we still act out fishing and a fish always bites our finger like it did Dan.

Another favorite thing we did was the aquarium. Wow! That was awesome! Oak's favorite thing at the aquarium had to be the sea urchins. He loved those!

I can't wait to go back to the beach next year and neither can Oak. If you come to our house now, you will find all of the cushions from our couch in the playroom on the floor because Oak pretends it is the big waves. Each day he goes swimming in the big waves and gets very upset if we put them back on the couch.

The cousins are coming!

The last week in August was one of our favorite weeks of the summer! Brian's oldest brother, Jim, and his wife Kristy and their two kids Aidan and Kieran came here spent the week. Aidan is 4 and Kieran is just a few months older than Oak. We had been talking about them coming for so long and Oak just couldn't wait to see them! All he really knew was that Aidan was the "big one" and Kieran was the "little one."

We were so excited to see them because the boys haven't gotten to "play" together since Oak was six months old. We always loving seeing Jim and Kristy too!

I was very anxious to see how the boys would play together! It was amazing to me how well they played. I think that God created us so uniquely and ingrained in us something that allows us to really understand family. It was like they knew each other even though we don't get to see them too often.

We did so many fun things with them, but my favorite was just being here at the house with them and watching them interact with one another. Oak spent the next few weeks pretending he was Aidan and that I was Kieran. It was super cute.

It wasn't just a great visit for Oak and the boys, but we had such a great visit with Jim and Kristy and love hanging out with them. We really can't wait till the next time they get to come here or we can make it there! (hopefully Christmas)