Leaves and The Bing Band

On your mark, get set, GO!

I love all the seasons in Michigan, but fall is by far my favorite. There is a fresh newness in the air that I love --- and nature sure provides a lot of fun activities for kids (and adults!) during this time of year. I remember jumping and hiding in the leaf piles when I was a child, and now I get to witness my own son do the same thing!! Oh, and sometimes Kyle and I just HAVE to join in the fun with him :-)

I thought Brett had a lot of energy when he was 1 and 2 years old, but now that he is almost 3 the energy level has been brought to a whole new level --- and keeping him busy all day long can be exhausting! The past few evenings have been cold and rainy so we haven't been able to go outside, and in order to still wear this little boy out by bed time, some sort of activity was needed. SO, one evening we brought all the instruments out and went to town making all sorts of noise - I mean music- and we even came up with a name for ourselves - "The Bing Band". Brett had a BLAST and thought it was the coolest thing that we were all playing together :-)

Toddler Bed!!

A couple weeks ago Kyle and I bravely decided it was time for Brett to switch from his crib to a toddler bed. I had been prolonging this for as long as I could because (as most of you know) he was a terrible sleeper the first couple years of his life, and finally, FINALLY, he had begun to sleep through the night. And then, on top of that, he was only napping about half the time, but I always put him in his crib for atleast an hour for quiet time so we each could have some down time. I knew the crib was safe and I could relax a bit without a second thought. Still though, there was no denying my baby boy was growing up, and getting bigger - which meant lifting him in and out of the crib was starting to take a tole on my back. Plus, he will be 3 in less than 3 months, so we knew it was time. One evening Brett had taken a long nap in his crib and we knew he would be up LATE - so Kyle decided that night would be a great night to put the bed together - and we knew Brett would love helping - which he did :-) And let me just say, I have never seen Brett as excited as I did that night when his "big boy bed" was all put together --- he literally ran laps around the house (at 9:30pm!) in excitement before running into his room and JUMPING on his bed. When I saw that look on his face I knew we did the right thing :-)

Helping daddy take down the crib

"My big boy bed!!!"

Jumping up and down!

Yep, this bed is all mine :-)

The next day he spent lots of time playing in his new bed. Being able to get in and out himself is/was a huge hit!

Since Brett switched to his big boy bed naps have pretty much been non-existent. I've tried many different tactics but he just will not stay in his bed during that time. So instead, we have some quiet time in the middle of the day and bed time has moved way up to between 7:30 and 8pm. And, I have to admit, I really love having the whole evenings to just hang out with Kyle, watch tv, read, and do whatever I want! Plus, he goes to bed without any fight at all (loves being able to crawl in bed himself!) and usually sleeps around 12 hours a night. The only downfall is that since the switch (like I figured would happen), he's been waking up once or twice at night again. He usually just wants a drink of milk or to be tucked in again, but I'm really hoping he starts sleeping through the night again soon. I know my little boy, and it will take some time, but it will happen :-) My baby boy is growing up and I couldn't be more proud of him!!

Fall is in the air!!

We have had such a fun couple of weeks getting in the spirit of fall, our favorite season :-) Last weekend we went to the pumpkin patch where we ventured out into the fields and picked our own pumpkins! I can't believe this is our 3rd fall taking Brett there -- WOW --- our little boy has been with us for almost THREE years, and I can't imagine life without him :-) He makes every season SO MUCH more FUN and definitely brings the kid out in Kyle and I!

"A caterpillar!!"

LOVE that face :-)

We passed some raspberry bushes and couldn't resist the temptation to try a few :-) YUM!

I had to bribe Brett with candy corn to get him to sit still for these pictures!!

"Cheese!"

Brett and I picked a husk off the corn stalk we have on our front porch and then he went to town taking it apart and carefully removing each kernel for "the chickens and squirrels" :-)

Madelyn is always nearby :-)

U.P North!

Crossing the Macinaw Bridge has been on Kyle's bucket list for awhile now, so we finally decided it was time to cross that one off and do a little exploring in the U.P! We are fortunate that Brett is such a great traveler in the car, so our trip up was quite smooth and uneventful. We arrived late afternoon on Friday and our first stop was Macinaw City where there were great views of the bridge and a beach to explore!

"We're HERE!"

We gave Brett some freedom and let him just GO - he loved touching the grainy sand, watching the cars and trucks go over the bridge, and touching the cold water. It was so great to be free!

He thoroughly enjoyed running through these tall grasses and made this route quite a few times :-)

After having fun on the beach we decided it was time to actually DRIVE over the bridge and head to our hotel. We relaxed for a bit before dinner and Brett had the time of his life climbing on the big beds and running around the spacious hotel room. We had a little balcony to walk out on too, and this is what we looked out to. Beautiful!

After a fun dinner at a bar and grill we decided to hit the hay early so we would all be refreshed for a full day of fun on Saturday. And well, as we've learned since having Brett, things don't always go as planned. Brett was up all night with a bad cold, coughing and just not feeling good. And since he was up, so were we. When morning finally came, we pondered whether or not we should go home, but surprisingly Brett seemed to be in good spirits and feeling better, so we decided to go about our day and hope for the best. The day started out great...we drove about an hour and a half to Tahquamenon Falls and saw breathtaking views, ate a yummy lunch at the bar and grill, had a couple drinks, and through it all Brett was was such a champ. We could tell he was a little under the weather, but he was going with the flow and seemed to be having fun.

Here are some shots of the river and falls - nature at it's finest :-)

Brett fell asleep on the way back to our hotel, and when he woke up he clearly felt miserable. His cough had picked back up again and he needed a breathing treatment, but just our luck, we had left it at home. He was fussy and just not himself. We laid around in our hotel room for a bit hoping that he would perk back up but after an hour, when he still wasn't feeling good, we made the decision to head home that evening. We were bummed but had to take care of our baby boy. He was having a hard time at first on the way home because the DVD wasn't charged and he didn't feel good - so I pulled out a cherry stick for him to suck on, and THAT put a smile on his face :-)

We finally got home around 9:30, did a breathing treatment and put him to bed. He slept 13 hours straight and was a new boy the next day. It's amazing what a good night's sleep can do! From this trip we learned that you really just have to go with the flow when you have kids, and to ALWAYS bring his breathing machine with us!

Lots of pictures!

I used to have a journal for Brett that I wrote all of his milestones down in, but now that it is almost full I think I might continue in the blog instead. There is just something about a picture that really says it all :-)

My two boys gettin' the job done :-)

Play- doh has been a HUGE hit in our house lately. Almost every day Brett asks to play with play-doh and his creativeness never ceases to amaze me. Here he is making a "tow-truck train", and after that he made a lollipop and told me how good it was :-)

We had a bbq over labor day weekend and here are some pictures of the fun that was had!

"Mmmmm, Mmmm, GOOD!"

I swear the kids ate dinner first!

Kyle wanted to join in the fun with the kids :-)

One morning Brett and I had some fun sorting all different things in a muffin tin. Some of the things we sorted were coins, marbles, rocks, beads, seeds, and even some snacks like gold fish and cereal. As you can tell by the pictures, he had a blast!

Brett loves to paint!

One Saturday morning Kyle took Brett to ride a train in Clinton. Here he is sitting up in front, pushing buttons, with the conductor :-)

Last month we ventured to the Chelsea Fair. This year, instead of the animals, Brett was more into playing some games with daddy, eating ice cream, and watching the big kids go on the rides!