Little Phrases

For a kid who talks to us in full paragraphs, I cherish the little things that Tripp still says wrong. So since I am almost guaranteed to forget them all by tomorrow, I need to write a few down.

When referring to something that happened in the past:
"Did we do that last days?"

When wanting a piece of candy:
"Can I have a lolli-olli-olli-pop?"

When referring to things that fly in the sky with rotors:
"Did you see that alfifocter?"

When wanting to know how something works/how to do something:
"How it goes Mom?"

When wanting a certain oat based dish for breakfast:
"Can we have some oat-me-meal?"

When singing certain kid songs:
"I will make you fishers of mip"
"I've got keys like a river"
"There's a farmer up above, looking down in love"

That's all I can think of for now, I am sure I will come up with a lot more over the next couple of days!

Beauty in the eye of the beholder

Tripp and my mom went to the pumpkin patch yesterday and apparently, after much deliberation, Tripp picked out these two pumpkins. I am pretty sure one of them is one of the ugliest pumpkins I've seen (the one on the left, in case you were confused).

But he thinks the bumps are so cool and it was a simple yet obvious reminder that everyone and everything is special the way that God created it. And of course, a reminder that beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder!

Football Players

We have a quasi-tradition of getting donuts on Sunday morning. We used to go to the "Donut Shop" (aka Ray's Donuts) but after going to Schnucks one morning when Ray's was closed, we all had to admit that we liked the Schnucks' donuts better. So ever since, we have been going there and have bonded quite a lot with the Sunday morning donut crowd (apparently other people have figured out where the tastier donuts are as well). Well, this morning, Tripp was so excited to see a "great big football player" (blow up figure) inside Schnucks! So excited in fact, that the "pay lady" (cashier) sensed his excitement and thought it would be great if he got his picture taken in front of it. So at 7 o'clock on a Sunday morning, we were the strange people in our pajamas taking pictures inside a grocery store in front of the blow up football player.

The "Festibal"

We had a "festibal" (or festival for those of us that can pronounce both "v" and "b") this weekend in our neighborhood and it was a lot of fun. Free rides, delicious funnel cakes, and the highlight- a fire truck and ambulance parked there at all times for all to see, climb on, talk about, etc. We even entered the raffle for dinner at the fire station, prepared by the fire fighters. I can only hope we would be so lucky as to win. We talked with our favorite fire fighter to see what he could do as far as pulling some strings and helping us win. So we will see.

Tripp loved the parade (and I loved the fact that it came down the street right behind our house so we didn't have to go far at all to see it). He was extra excited to see the bands and the "bandleaders" since we had just recently got Curious George and the Parade from the library. The bandleader is very important in that book.

He also really loved the car ride at the festival. So he rode it quite a few times with some different friends on different occasions.

(please notice the fire gear showing up in this picture- Tripp was very excited to show it off to the firemen during one of our visits to the fire trucks)

And as always, it is always so fun to see your kid enjoy fun things in life. There are not many other feelings that compare to that!

Halloween Comes Early

A certain someone's Halloween costume came already and he is super excited about it.


I have a feeling we will have a lot of "emergencies" around our house soon so that that certain little boy will have a lot of excuses
to put on his gear, use his megaphone and go fight some fires!

My favorite place on earth

I got an email from my mom recently that said they were going to Door County and that I would have to find another babysitter for Tripp that week. My reaction was not to find another babysitter but to call my dad and make sure we got invited. and of course that tactic worked. In fact, I am pretty sure my dad even thanked me after we got home for being willing to take time off of work and come with them. Yep, I had him tricked :). Anyway, because Nelson needed to save his vacation days for when the baby comes, he stayed at home and held down the fort while Tripp and I headed up north. Flying by yourself with all the gear that comes along with a toddler and being eight months pregnant is not the easiest thing, but I was willing to take the chance. We had such great time. I think there nothing like the joy that comes with seeing your kid ridiculously happy and enjoying the same things that you enjoyed as a kid yourself. Tripp absolutely loved the beach. He loved the sand, the water and most especially loved playing with his Papa. My dad introduced him to "surfing" which when done on a lake is the perfect thing for a two year old to do. In fact, Tripp commented "I really love this water" as he was riding the raft through the waves.

We spent a morning at The Farm where we got to see all kinds of animals. Even though there were lots of cows, chickens, goats, sheep, etc, Tripp's favorite part was the tractor. He probably could have spent the whole morning climbing and playing on it but we made him go check out some animals.

This year we made it to a restaurant that Tripp loved- PC Junction. Your food gets delivered to you on a miniature train! He was mesmerized by it and was pretty quiet the whole dinner cause he was just taking everything all in. We got to play outside on their wooden trains and then also took a "roller coaster ride" as Tripp called it- I am sure it felt that way to him. It was really just this tractor type thing where two people pedal in the back and two people can sit up front and ride. Tripp rode up front and thankfully he held on tight, cause with me and the wheel and my dad in charge of the speed, it was more like a roller coaster ride than a tractor ride.

We had a great time and are so glad it worked out to go. This is definitely the best place ever!