Visit to the Fire Station

After lapsit this morning at the library, Luke and I stopped at the fire station to look at real fire trucks and real firemen. There were 3 trucks at the station and Luke had to "drive" each and every one. He was pretty timid at first, but then got more comfortable and ran all around each truck pointing at everything and saying, "What's that?" I couldn't get him to smile at the camera.

This morning on the way to the library Luke said, "I miss Solomon. I miss Grandma."

A few days ago in the car. Luke sneezes and says, "Luke sneezed. Like Daddy."

Knock Knock Night and Trick-or-Treating

This past Wednesday evening we decided to visit Quail for their Knock Knock Night. Different people/groups decorate the doorway of the classrooms and hand out candy. Luke snagged a sucker as soon as he could and he was good to go. They had a chili dinner beforehand and we ran into the Osburns. They had a baby boy, Bodie, the day before I had Luke, in the room next door at the hospital. Here's a picture of the boys now:

Luke at 2: 24lbs 32" tall. Bodie at 2: 38lbs 36" tall. REMEMBER! He's an ENTIRE day older than Luke. So he has an advantage =) The Osburns just had a baby girl a few weeks ago, so their baby, Gentry, and our Leta will be close in age, but not as close as the boys.

Halloween morning Luke helped me make him a carmel apple for his afternoon snack.

Then while I was gone for CPR training, Kyle gave it to him for his snack.


I guess he kept saying, "I like it!" But would only eat one bite.

We went trick-or-treating with Alyssa and her husband Kris and two of their kids Samuel and Camdyn. We went in their neighborhood and they had a hayride to drive the kids to the next house. It started early, at 5:30, which is when Luke normally eats supper. I figured he'd get a sucker early on and then be fine until we actually ate. Well, he did NOT get a sucker early on, and DIDN'T understand why he couldn't eat every piece of candy when it was given to him. He was the youngest trick-or-treater and couldn't keep up with all those big kids so Kyle and I ended up carrying him to most of the houses. At one point he got ahold of a Hershey's Bliss, still in the foil and bit it in half. We only had one meltdown. "Want Mommy 'ope' that one." "Want to eat it!". He was pretty starving by the time we ate supper.

We ate with Alyssa and Kris at their house and had pizza and then watched most of the OU game. Samuel has a bunch of trains WITH TRAIN TRACKS! I think Luke had just as much fun playing at their house as he did Trick-or-Treating, which he did really enjoy despite the kind of dismal event I just described it as. We let Luke stay out past 8:00 *gasp* because of the time change hoping he might sleep in this morning and get on the new time schedule. But he didn't get the memo and did NOT sleep in this morning. We'll get there eventually. Tonight might not be the most fun =) He was pretty cranky this morning. We'll see.

Things should be slowing down for us for a while now. Not so many "fun" activities coming up for us in the near future.

Orr Family Farm and Storybook Forest

I think October is quickly becoming my favorite month. The weather is finally cooling off and it's generally pretty nice to be out and about. You might need a light jacket in the evenings, but that's it. Also, it's Luke's birthday, Halloween, and lots of other fun fall activities.

Last Friday we went to the Orr Family Farm in Moore. Traffic was horrible on the way down so we didn't get there until almost 6:30, instead of our planned 6:00. Luke and Kyle went on a train ride while I stood in line for the Hay ride. Luke had big fun. Kyle said as soon as they sat down he started saying, "Want train go". And as soon as they were off and came to find me all he could say was, "Want ride train 'gain.".

You can't actually see Kyle and Luke on the train, I wanted to get a picture of the front car and thought I'd have time to click one of the two of them on the train, but...not so much. After the train ride we went on the hayride to the pumpkin patch where we all three got to pick a pumpkin. Luke LOVES to pick a pumpkin. After the hay ride we went and saw the animals and then Luke and I went for a carousel ride. Luke enjoyed going up and down and was immediately curious about the gears. After that, it was already past Luke's bedtime, so we headed home.

Last night Luke and I went with some friends, Alyssa, Camdyn and Samuel (Wolverine) to Lake Arcadia's Storybook Forest. It was great and definitely exceeded my expectations. Luke got to wear his Halloween costume, which he enjoyed. We started on the trail. They had many different stations, more than a dozen, with a scene from a classic story or nursery rhyme along with a paragraph length story to read to your child. They also got a piece of candy at each station. Luke soon got a sucker and ate that the rest of the time and is still, this morning, asking for another sucker. The scenes were REALLY well done and not cheesy or cheap looking at all. They had a Rapunzel (real person) up in a tower and the Peter Pumpkin Eater's wife in a pumpkin shell. If I would have had more hands I would have taken a picture of Luke at each station. As it was, I only got one of him at the entrance to the forest.

Then after the trail they had an area where you could use tickets they had given you to play games. Luke's favorite was definitely fishing. He caught this little toy thing ( I have NO idea what it really is), but he thinks it's a fish. Which is logical because he caught it while "fishing", but then again, Samuel caught a bracelet, so...who knows?!?! He is still talking about fishing and helping mom "pull the fish". I think Kyle and Luke will have to go fishing in our pond here soon. Luke will need a fishing pole, first though. Then after the games we went on another hayride. I had to sign a disclaimer...and I can see why! It was just a flatbed, no sides and they went FAST! After the hayride we got to meet Curious George, whom Luke liked a lot better from a distance, but I did get a picture of the two of them together. He wouldn't touch George though. Then we came home to have show and tell with Daddy. And listen to Luke ask for another sucker.

All this fun, and Halloween isn't even until Saturday!!!

Big Boy Bed

This past Monday Luke had his well baby check up. We actually didn't see Dr. Stephens this time, but his PA, Kathy Gissel. We talked to her about needing the crib for Leta and when she recommended we start trying to switch Luke to his big boy bed. She suggested right away and to talk it up to Luke to help get him excited for it. So, that evening we all went off to Mathis Brothers to buy Luke's Big Boy Bed. With his help, of course. As soon as we got into Mathis Brothers some spastic child took over Luke's body and he went crazy running everywhere, climbing on everything. He really seems to enjoy the top bunk of a bunk bed, but that's not what we got him =).

Way too much money later, we bought a dark stain twin size bed that I'm really pleased with. It has a rolling drawer that fits underneath of it. You can insert 4 slats to make 4 sections in the drawer, or you can remove all slats and put a mattress in there instead for a trundle effect. We didn't buy the second mattress yet, we felt we'd spent enough money and that it would be a while before we thought Luke would be ready for a sleep over.

The bed was to be delivered Wednesday around noon. Luke's naptime is 12:30 so by the time we got the bed assembled, the side rails put on, and the bed made and ready for him to be in it, it was 1:30. He went down perfectly. He didn't get up once and fell right to sleep and took a pretty decent nap. However, when he woke up, he was TERRIFIED. You could just hear it in his cry. He got out of his bed and opened his door and came out of his room crying for me. I think he didn't know where he was or maybe was just scared to wake up in unfamiliar territory. Anyway, besides being afraid when he woke up, I thought it was a smashing success and, frankly, too good to be true.

Boy was I right about that. Wednesday night we put him to bed and he stayed in his bed all of 30 seconds before he got up crying for me and came out of his room. I put him back to bed. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Who knows how many times. I finally left his door open and sat by his bed for a while with my back to him until I felt like I could sneak out without him realizing I was gone. It worked! Luke was asleep by 9:45. However, I was not too happy with how he'd gone down AT ALL. I did't want to be doing THAT every night. He did get up 45 minutes early Thursday morning, came straight down to our room and yelled, "Daddy wake up!"

Kyle and I didn't really know what to do. So I emailed Dr. Stephens, Luke's pediatrician, and got this reply back:

put him back in his crib. if he won't let you do that, then a shut door with a lock if needed for 2 nights will get him to sleep in his bed. it beats sleeping on the floor. seriously. but look on the webpage at the 15-18 month sheet where i tell you not to do what you just did. i guess i could use my own advice on you: you want to take him out of his crib? good luck. he won't stay in his bed or in his room and your life is now h***? i'm sorry. : )

Kelly Stephens, MD

I have never laughed so hard in my life. I love our pediatrician. So Kyle bought new hardware for Luke's door, put the lock on the outside of his room and we got a night light and locked that kid in his room. Thursday for his nap (lock not installed yet, so I tied the door shut with a bungee cord to the balcony rails) he cried and cried at the door. Very pitifully. For about 45 minutes. Then he slept for an hour and a half and then cried again all the way until nap time was over. (He has to stay in his room for at least 3 hours whether he sleeps or not.) Thursday night he cried for less than 10 minutes. We went and checked on him before we went to bed and he was asleep in his bed with his new "cuddly" on top of the covers, so we covered him up, and locked the door again and went to bed. No tears or getting out of bed since.

The end.

New Meal Plan and Recipes

Time for a new meal plan! It seems like the last one didn't last very long. Probably about 2 weeks since I planned 10 meals =). I did make french toast and we had leftovers one night, but other than that, there wasn't anything going on that really threw me off our meal plan or caused me to not have to cook. And I just realized I never posted it. Oh well. You'll get over it, although I don't know how both of you, readers, survived without knowing what we were eating *wink*.

New Meal Plan

Hobo Chicken

Macaroni and Cheese

Michael and Audra's BBQ Ribs

Cin Chili

White Chicken Chili Enchiladas

Baked Ziti

Mini Cheesy Salsa Meatloaves

Chicken Tortilla Crockpot Stuff

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

7-Layer Dinner

Extras: Pumpkin pie (using puree that I'm going to make from the pumpkin I get tonight at the Orr Family Farm), turkey breast, dried beans. Brown beef.

I like to make a turkey breast in the Crockpot occasionally. I get about 6 cups + of all white meat turkey. I then bag it in 2 cup baggies and freeze it. It makes soup, flautas, manicotti etc much less time consuming to make. The manicotti and flautas would be recipes that I would reserve for company only if I didn't have the cooked meat frozen on hand.

I also am going to try my hand at making my own beans from the dried beans, not from cans. Probably better for us, and definitely cheaper. I think I can find a Crockpot recipe that should make it easier. Then I'll freeze the beans in baggies with 1 cans worth each. I'll let you know how it goes for me =). I'm going to try black beans, which we use all the time, and Great Northern Beans, which I don't use as often, but still pretty frequently.

I'm also low on hamburger meat so I'll try to get some on sale at Sams this week, usually about 6lbs or so and I brown it all up with a couple pounds of deer meat from the deer Kyle got last season and stretch a buck that way.

The "Cin Chili" is a chili seasoning mix I saw of the Food Network. I like the show Throw Down with Bobby Flay, where he challenges someone at their specialty and then a couple judges do a blind taste test to determine the winner. It the Chili throwdown, Bobby and his competitor Cindy something tied. It mentioned on the show she sells her seasoning packets so I went online and found them and ordered one. It has directions on the back as to how to then prepare the chili, so we're trying that chili this plan. It'd better be good. She's won tons of chili cookoffs.

We had Grandpa Wilbur and Georgeanne over for supper and made Fierro Chicken. So good, but not so good for you. Perfect for having company though. I linked to the recipe for it above.

I also made Chili Cheese Fries Casserole again last night. It was the first time Traver had had it. It got a 9.8 something something AND a, "This is pretty boo-yeah". So there's the link to that recipe as well.

Seen and heard.

Kyle: Rachel, do we have an ice pick?

Me: No, you'd probably kill me in my sleep with it.

Kyle: I'd just use a knife.

Doctor Visit

Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment with Dr. Shanbour. I was apparently supposed to take my glucose test, but I was completely unaware and you're not supposed to eat beforehand and I did, so I got to skip it. Until next month that is. Leta and I are both doing fine. I am supposed to get the flu shot AND the H1N1 vaccine. Stink. I guess we'll be getting that taken care of here in the next couple of days.

I am almost 27 weeks pregnant now so we're clicking right along. Luke's "big boy bed" is supposed to come today so we'll be moving the crib out of his room and into Leta's. I guess it's time to get started getting her nursery set up.