All Aboard!

Above all else, Will loves TRAINS right now. We got him this Thomas starter set last Christmas (although I don't think he got it until Valentine's Day) and he recently has been obsessed with it. He builds tracks all over and ideally is watching an episode of Thomas and Friends On Demand (both his demand and the cable company's system. . .). So we have had our eye out for a train table. Toys R Us ran a section in their past few circulars but I didn't love what they had. We were at Target yesterday for odd and ends and I made the mistake of going near the toy department. Will yelled "Thomas!" and pointed and almost jumped out of the cart. We stopped and he played with a train set on the end of an aisle while I spied an entire train section (hmmm, who knew?). They had this cool "activity table" for a great price, so Christmas arrived at our house yesterday! Will helped me put it together instead of taking an afternoon nap and has been enjoying it ever since.

Now he's hoping that Santa brings more trains and tracks. Mom sprung for one new train ($2.99 Circo brand not that crazy $20.99 for a Thomas one!) while shopping yesterday which bring his total to 4 cars.

Then to make the weekend extra awesome, we were already planning to RIDE the big train into the city! That was an event by itself as there were 20+ stops where we got to "pick up people" and he could practice saying, "all aboard!"

Be sure to notice the Thomas clutched in his hand. . . . .and the expression of pure joy on his face! :-) We rode the train to Union Station; met Uncle Ryan for a yummy brunch; and rode the train back home. A wonderful day!

Game Day

As with other K-Staters, we've been showing our pride and sporting lots of purple recently due to the great success of the football program this season. Saturday was a beautiful fall day, so we did a little yard work before catching the afternoon game. Everyone already knows the result of the game, so no need to discuss that. We actually were on our way to Target for odds and ends when while loading Will into the car he spied his bucket and toys in the garage, bolted from the car to grab them, and ran away into the front yard. I didn't see any reason not to enjoy the beautiful day, so I joined him in the sunshine and said Target could wait.

We didn't have any responsibility except to enjoy ourselves, so we moved around some small piles of leaves and soaked in the sunshine. Here Will is carrying a few from one pile to another. Doesn't he look like such a big boy?!

Bedtime Stories

After living it up on vacation by sleeping in a big bed (more precisely, Mommy's bed), Will decided he did not want to go back to sleeping in a crib by himself! His immediate solution was to climb out of his crib and head for the master bedroom to find mommy. So we felt like we needed to convert the crib. Originally we were going to go straight to the full size bed (the back of the crib as the headboard) but everytime we talked up the big bed Will cried that he didn't want a big bed. So, we just took the front off the crib and now it's a "day bed." It most certainly isn't a night bed. . . Will enjoys playing in his bed and he likes me to lay on it with him, but he's been really hit or miss on sleeping there this week. It takes an hour plus to get him to bed and then whether he stays there is another story. A few nights he slept with me (Jason was traveling) and one night he slept all the way through. So, I guess we'll see. But we're all tired. . .

This picture is him hiding from the camera. He's saying, "no more cheese!"

Our Big Roadtrip

This is a long post with lots of pictures, but we had such a fun-filled 8-plus days on our trip that I wanted to remember all of the great memories! We hadn't been to Kansas City since Will's 1st birthday and we hadn't been to McPherson in even longer, so we wanted to get there this fall. I have a lot of vacation left to use, so Will and I took out in the MDX for our roadtrip on a Sunday morning with Jason flying in the next Friday to join us!

Will was an exceptional traveler and wonderful companion. I'd also like to think my planning of no more than 3 hours in the car and lots of fun and tiring activities helped with that! First stop was Davenport, Iowa for the first of many chicken nuggets and apple juices. The original plan was to go to a children's museum in Iowa City, but we got a late start out from home and I had no idea how pokey Will was during a meal, so we skipped the museum due to time and stopped to play at a park in Davenport. That wore Will out the necessary amount to get us the next 3 hours to our evening stop in West Des Moines.

I highly recommend the Hilton Garden Inn in West Des Moines where they have a delicious breakfast (Will ate 3 plates of eggs. . . I need to look for that photo) and an indoor baby pool. We swam before bed on Sunday and after breakfast on Monday before heading to Olathe to visit my friend Nikki and her family. Will LOVED Lindsay's toys -- especially her kitchen where he "cooked" for hours!

Tuesday morning was a trip to the popular Deanna Rose Farmstead in Overland Park which is FREE and has tractors! I must say that road construction was a huge hit with Will who pointed out diggers, tractors, cement mixers, etc, to me along our drives.We met my friend Mandi and her boys Mitchell and Maverick who were old pros at the farm and showed Will all the ropes -- like how to scale the fence at the baby goat exhibit!

This picture is dark but shows how Will sleeps. The little sliver of bed to the right of Will's head was my space to sleep! We confirmed that he had outgrown his pack 'n play since he could climb out and he slept with me all 8 nights. He also slept with me our first night back home since he showed us (several times) that he could climb out of his crib. We were shocked to hear his bedroom door open!

On Wednesday, Nikki and I took the kids to the Louisburg Cider Mill where they had their small pumpkin patch set up. The corn kernal silo was a big hit, as always. There were also two pigs out on the loose which you can see to the right of the picture below.

And no trip (or so I had heard, so I had to indulge!) is complete without the apple cider donuts. Will and I each had two and then had no interest in lunch before starting the next stage of our roadtrip: to Grandma's house in McPherson!

My parents were thrilled to have Will visiting and bought him this ATV to use at their house. The "dump trunk" on back was a big hit, as it was filled over and over with rocks, paver stones, sticks, balls, dog toys, you name it, as it was driven inside and outside.

I talked a lot before our trip about their "two puppies" to get Will excited, and he thought "Maggie puppy" was tons of fun! She seemed to like having him around, too, and showed him how to use the doggy door to/from the back yard. . . .

Finally at 2 years, 4 months old, Will got a real haircut. We took him to my mom's hair dresser on Thursday night. He sat quietly and patiently on my lap and watched in the big mirror over my shoulder.

Look at that great looking kid! I liked this smile and his haircut, but it's one more shot of him filling up the ATV trunk.

Finally it was time to pick up daddy, so we drove to KCI on Friday morning to get Jason. We were excited to spend the weekend with our great friends, Keith and Desiree, and their son, Aiden. The boys played together like the little buddies we always hoped they would be. Aiden did an amazing job of sharing his toys with Will and being patient with the younger kid.

Will was in heaven with all the truck and construction toys that Aiden had! Wow, oh, wow!

On Saturday we enjoyed a beautiful day at the Kansas City Zoo. The polar bear was diving and putting on quite a display, and the Sky Tram was very cool! Aiden got a huge, bright blue, stuffed snake and Will got a super soft zebra for being such good boys all day!

Sunday brought an early alarm and more miles in the car as Will and I drove to Manhattan for the 15th annual Kappa Alpha Theta WildKAT Chase philanthropy 5K. We were so happy to catch up with some more good friends!

Since Will sat in the car and then sat in the stroller, he was ready to run and play after the race. We walked from Aggieville to City Park and played on their awesome new playground before driving home and collecting Jason (who spent the day at NASCAR) before doing a late night drive to West Des Moines to get a start on our long drive home.

We had a wonderful week, and I'm so happy to have shared the time with our family and friends! I also really loved getting to spend so much quality time with my little boy!

Morton Arboretum

On Sunday we made our first (but likely not last) visit to the Morton Arboretum using (free to us) Groupon tickets that our neighbors gave us. We only went to the Children's Garden area, so we left much of the park unexplored, but we had hours of fun!

First up: Will he or won't he? No, he just wanted to look in, but he didn't crawl in.Next up: the first of many water features for the kiddos to experiment with. You were supposed to be able to step in certain spots to get the frogs to spit, but it seemed like they just all went all of the time.

The first of at least three water pumps to check out!

And who can resist the giant slide!

Or climbing back up to ride again! I was shocked how easily he mastered this climb.

Then it was off to practice walking across the pond on stepping stones.

And stopping to get a peek at the tadpole in the water

And then peacefully walking hand-in-hand with Daddy on our way to the tree house craziness!

I didn't get any pictures in the tree house area since it was a tag team effort to watch Will, but he had so much fun tearing across the bridge and through the whole structure! No fear for this kid! A lovely fall day with the family!

Trike Time

This weekend was our neighborhood's semi-annual children's clothing and toy sale. As a seller, I got to "pre-shop" and snagged this Radio Flyer tricycle before the sale for only $10! Will loves the ones at daycare, so we were hoping there would be one at the sale. It's amazing how fast he can go just using foot power. He can also pedal a little, but it's not as fast. He's also wearing new wind pants that I scored (50 cents) and leather Stride Rites (overpriced at $8, but I bought them anyway). I put the shoes on for fit but should not have let him outside to ride the trike in them; there goes the toes!

I actually bought almost all of my stuff (including the trike) from one woman whose youngest son is 3 1/2. I told her next year to just have me over in advance and save us both the trouble at the sale! I told her to call me when she's ready to sell her train table! :-)

I sold the last of the baby gear that didn't sell at the last sale and sold (or donated) all of his 18 months and younger clothes, so I went out today with my earnings and stocked up on 2T jeans to go with all of the 2T and 3T shirts that I bought at the sale. He's ready for fall/winter!

It's Pajama Time

I should have titled my last post "It's Cold!" We had a great night last night at the Shields house because another tax season is done! I worked until 6:30 (incredibly late for "the 15th") and then my train line shut down due to an earlier accident where a train (the one I had hoped to be on) hit a pedestrian. So, I carpooled in a cab with some other commuters from my town and got back home only about 30 minutes later than had the train been running. Will waited up for me and we played and then took pictures to document the first cold night of the season.
Oh my goodness we had so much fun using that paper towel rod as a noise maker! These are his new 2T jammies; they looked huge on the hanger but fit very well!

Jason was telling him to frown for the picture and this is what we got. He was being so silly!

He loved his jammies so much that he refused to part with them this morning. So, I sent him to school in them! We had to take the tags off of his new rain boots, too, since those were the only shoes big enough to stuff those footies in! I sent another outfit in his bag but he was still wearing the jammies when we picked him up this evening. His teacher said he seemed to be enjoying both the jammies and the boots today!

It's Fall!

Fall is just around the corner according to the calendar, but it has mostly arrived here. Football is on TV, the first batch of chili has been made, and another tax season is almost behind us. I worked all day Saturday, but on Sunday took a sick day with a nasty cold. Finally around 6 p.m. I had enough energy to walk down the block to the park with the guys so Will could burn off some energy on the swings and slide. He's either watching kids play soccer or a new puppy in the picture below; there were both, so lots of fun distractions!He's getting very skilled at scaling the playground equipment and doesn't want help. And he's got a lot of self-confidence and pride: whenever he accomplishes something he smiles, raises his arms in the air and says, "I did it!" Whatever he just "did" we are always proud. :-)

Stay tuned for more and better pictures next week. We have a family field trip tentatively planned to the Morton Arboretum one day this weekend.

Staycation

No Labor Day travels for us - unless you count this Cozy Coupe cruisin' through the neighborhood! The boys played at home on Saturday while I worked. On Sunday, Will and I enjoyed the beautiful weather by playing outside for 3 hours - and we never left our block! Most of the time we played in our neighbor's back yard. Will's favorite was standing on her bridge to throw the frisbee for the dogs (her two plus Rachel). She even made Will lunch so he could have a picnic. We finally went inside for a mostly failed attempt at a nap.

Monday brought a visit from one of Will's favorite people. We took Uncle Ryan swimming with us at the indoor pool and then ate lunch and played before another very short nap. We finished out the evening with some indoor golf and basketball and then called it a day after eight rounds of "one more hug." Because who could deny that little voice requesting a hug even though you know he's stalling for bed?!