Halloween: Part 2

Our ward Halloween party was Friday night.
Which means all day Saturday, Sunday, and Monday Riker continued to ask for “candy! trick or treat!”
Halloween night could not come soon enough!

As soon as he was in his Muno costume, he was ready to head out the door.
Getting a decent picture of him was next to impossible, because he was so excited he could not stand still!

 

Of course, the sight of our Halloween bucket by the front door only fueled his desire to go get some candy of his own!

 

Once we were outside, this boy could not be stopped.
He marched up the the neighbor’s door, knocked repeatedly, and loudly said “trick or treat” as soon as they answered the door.

The concept of taking just one piece of candy was difficult.
He kept repeating “trick or treat” over and over again, expecting to get more and more candy.
Of course, once I pointed to the next door he would take off again.
”One more door! Trick or treat!”

 

We walked around our little neighborhood with a group of other kiddos.
He was so excited to go up to each door and would giggle/squeal/laugh hysterically between each door.
But all good things must come to an end…and since our neighborhood isn’t very big, Riker was very sad when I told him we were all done trick or treating.

 

But chocolate is the one thing that can cure any sadness.
So with the promise of a candy bar, Riker was suddenly okay with going back inside the house.
(little does he know that he will only be getting one candy bar…the rest will be stashed away for mom and baby sister!)

happy halloween!

Halloween: Part 1

I wasn’t sure how into Halloween Riker would be this year.
But when he saw what costume I was creating for him, he was very excited to dress up!

Riker, of course, was Muno from Yo Gabba Gabba.
If you don’t know who that is, don’t worry…unless you have a toddler or take LSD, you have no reason to ever actually watch that show.

He was able to debut his costume at our ward’s Halloween Party.
The kiddos were able to go trick or treating to different doors in the building and Riker quickly grasped the concept.

Knock knock knock…trick or treat…CANDY!
After each door he would march to the next while saying “one more door!”
He was quite sad when there were no more doors to knock on.

Sadly, our little family did not coordinate our costumes at all this year.
I had grand plans to create Yo Gabba Gabba costumes for TJ and I as well…
but clearly that did not happen.
TJ decided he wanted to be an Obama Zombie
(Obama zombies must eat your brains because they don’t have brains of their own…)
and at the last minute I decided to be a Magic 8 ball.

    

There were various activities for the kiddos to do at the party,
but Riker was completely content to play with the balloons.
He literally chased after balloons all night long.

Of course, after the party was over Riker kept asking for more trick or treating…
which leads me to my next post!

I almost started crying at the mall today

I went to the mall in search of shoes…
I’m in desperate need of “cold weather shoes”, but have no idea what style of shoe I want to buy.
Do I want sneakers? Boots?
Different outfits call for different shoes, but I don’t want to buy multiple pairs of shoes.
Its a conundrum.

Anyway,  I didn’t “almost cry” during my shoe quest.
I almost cried while watching my baby boy play in the play area.

Riker has mastered the slide.
He has figured out how to climb up the stairs, sit on his bottom, and push himself down the slide.
He can do this over and over again…without my help.

I almost cried because I realized that my baby boy is no longer a baby.
He’s a big boy now.

I’m not sure when exactly this happened.
Yes, I knew he was getting physically bigger.
But this newfound independence just kind of snuck up on me.

Watching him play at the mall today also reminded me that soon it won’t be just me and him.
for the past 22 months, Riker has been able to have my undivided attention.
He wants to play, I play with him.
He wants to be held, I hold him.

But in just 5 short weeks, I’m having another baby.
Which means my full attention will no longer belong to Riker.
He will have to share his mom with baby sister.
I have no idea how Riker will react to this…
and right now, he has absolutely no idea how much his world is going to change.

I left the mall without buying any shoes…
I took Riker home, made lunch (pb&j…fancy, I know), and spent the rest of the day enjoying my little buddy.
We colored pictures, we sang songs, we built lego towers, we played football.
I have 5 weeks left with just Riker…
and I’m determined to enjoy these weeks as much as possible.

In totally related news:
I’m 34 weeks pregnant.

Pint-Sized Picasso

A couple weeks ago, I convinced TJ to make a trip to Ikea. The closest Ikea is in Cincinnati (2 hours away), so he wasn’t super thrilled…but he loves me so he did it anyway.

The main purpose of the trip was to purchase a couple dressers for the kid’s room.
Those dressers are still sitting in their boxes in Riker’s room, waiting for TJ to assemble them.

Of course, it is very difficult to go to Ikea and not make an unplanned purchase.
We ended up coming home with a Riker-sized table and chairs.
He pretty much loves it.

  

Riker has finally decided that he likes to color and is getting pretty good at squiggling all over the paper.
Of course, his absolute favorite thing to do is drag the chairs around, push the table back and forth, and climb on and off the chair a million times.
After one day of listening to those wooden legs drag across the hardwood floor, I finally got smart and glued felt squares to the bottom of each leg.

Riker is more likely to focus on coloring for a longer period of time if someone will color with him.
He will make a tiny mark on the paper, hand the crayon off to you and announce “your turn!”
Watching mom and dad color is much more fun than coloring himself, apparently.

Oh, and we all knew this was bound to happen.
I believe it took Riker less than 5 minutes to figure out that the crayons could color on the wood too. 
Someday, I’d really like to paint the table and chairs…
and perhaps do chalkboard paint on the table top.
But maybe not until my pint-sized Picasso learns to not color on the table.

yay me!

My friend Katie nominated me for the “Versatile Blogger” award…yay me!
This award doesn’t come with a trophy or cool prizes.
Basically, I tell 7 random facts about myself and then I tag 7 friends so they can tell 7 random things about themselves too!
Super fun, right?
Okay: random fact time.

1. I have the appetite of a 5 year old. Seriously, I could eat junk all day long and be perfectly happy (sick, but happy). and I don’t do fruits and veggies, unless they are covered in chocolate or ranch respectively.

2. I never make my bed, despite my mother’s best efforts to train me otherwise. I love the look and feel of a freshly made bed…I’m just too lazy to actually do it.

3. I always have been, and probably always will be, a nail biter. I keep my fingernails painted in an attempt to keep myself from biting my nails…but I find myself having to repaint my nails every couple of days.

4. i get motion sickness like nobody’s business. this is why i drive everywhere. even sitting in the front passenger sit is enough to make me feel ill for the rest of the day.

5. I took 9 years of piano lessons, yet i do not play the piano. basically, i sat at the piano for 30 minutes every day and told my mom how much i hated playing the piano. i wish i could play the piano…but i don’t.

6. when i was in 7th grade, i secretly watched my crush open his locker, memorized his locker combination, and wrote it on the bottom of my shoe. kind of creepy, right? no worries, i never actually did anything with that information…but just knowing that i could open his locker at any time was thrilling to my 12 year old self.

7. my desert island food is french fries. regardless of the time of day, i can always eat french fries. my absolute favorite fries are wendy’s (especially when dunked in a chocolate frosty!).

so there you have it, folks. seven completely random, pointless facts about lisa. and now, i shall tag the following seven people:

summer
natalie
jen
ginny
nikki
becca
emilee

the rules state that I only “nominate” 7 friends for this “award”…but really, every one should take a moment to write 7 random facts about themselves. It’s harder than it looks.

Amish Country

Ever since we moved to Ohio, I’ve been bugging TJ about visiting Amish Country.
He finally agreed to go…and since this week is his fall break (meaning: no school) we finally went!

Our first stop was Heini’s Cheese Chalet.
With over 40 different types of cheeses to sample, TJ was in heaven.

 

Unfortunately for TJ, this is the only picture I took at the cheese shop.
We came home with a couple different blocks of our favorite cheeses.

After leaving Heini’s, it was time for lunch.
We headed out to Der Dutchman Restaurant and absolutely loved the view.

Fall in Ohio is definitely the best.
Crisp, cool weather…bright colored leaves…perfection.
As for the food at Der Dutchman: delish.
TJ had a sirloin burger (but since he had filled up on cheese at Heini’s, he only finished half).
Lisa had a gravy smothered pot roast sandwich with mashed potatoes (so yummy I wanted to lick the plate!).

Our next stop was Yoder’s Amish Farm.

Riker was tired of being cooped up, so he was excited to run around while we waited for our tour to begin.

Anytime Riker sees a tree, he says he wants to climb it.
I’m not sure why he does this, since he’s never actually climbed a tree.

Riker’s favorite part of the tour was definitely the barn.

 

Except for this donkey:

this guy was all up in Riker’s grill and would not leave the poor kid alone…
he finally left him alone once Riker started crying!

 

After a tour of a couple Amish homes (which was much longer than we anticipated…and much too boring to entertain Riker) we went on a horse and buggy ride.

 

It was a long, fun, busy day.
There were a couple other shops we had originally planned to visit, but this is what I saw two minutes after we left Yoder’s Farm:

Looks like someone had too much fun.
Overall, our trip to Amish Country was a success and we can cross it off our Ohio Bucket List!

Independence

With the impending arrival of little miss in just nine more weeks,
I’ve been trying to teach Riker to be more independent.

He’s learning to spend more time playing by himself
and can even clean up his own toys
(with constant reminders to “pick another one up!” from me).

This newfound independence has led Riker to believe that he can, and should, do everything by himself.
A million times a day I hear “Giker do it!” (because he calls himself Giker…why can he say the end “r” but not the beginning?).
Some things, I will let him do on his own…
but other things, like making lunch and changing his diaper, still need to be done by mom!

Riker isn’t the only one who is becoming self-sufficient…
today, TJ made himself lunch!
I absolutely detest spaghetti (and anything else involving red sauce),
so whenever TJ has a hankering for some noodles he is on his own.

Of course, when he sat down on my cream colored rugs to enjoy his “spaghetti sandwiches” (which looked just as gross as they sound), I did have to remind him not to spill sauce on the rugs.
His solution: move the rugs.

     

Things might not get done the way I’d like them done, but at least they get done.
I think these boys will be just fine when baby sister shows up.