Storybook Land

This Friday was the final day of the Christmas Storybook land, and since our attempts to go last weekend were foiled by a little ice, we had to go then. We met Grandma & Grandpa at the fairgrounds at about 6:15 (not knowing that it didn't actually open until 6:30) which was a good thing, because there was already a line!

There are Christmas trees with lights making a path through the building, and scenes from various story books set up to look at, they also have a big section with teddy bears doing all kinds of things, and some huge model train sets, and a victorian doll house version of town. My personal favorite part is the smell of all the Christmas trees!

At the entrance to the path there were 2 life sized toy soldiers, and I thought that that would be the end of our trip. Dean saw them and started to freak out, but I whisked him past, and we skillfully avoided any other life sized characters.

It took him a few minutes to relax after the scary statues, but once we got to the Frosty the Snowman station, he started to point and laugh and "What's That?" to everything again. He loved watching the trains and the teddy bears and pointed at everything.

We decided not to risk a trip to Santa, plus it was getting late and the line was long, and we were still going to go eat (Dean also had his first public meltdown, Grandma & Grandpa were shocked!).

Wordless Wednesday

Shopping

Thanksgiving fun

We went to Grammy and Grampy's Thanksgiving weekend and had lots of fun.One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to a cider mill & farm. The hot apple cider & apple fritters were super delicious (as you can see).
And there were lots of farm animals for us to see. Dean kept going back to see the pig.

And he liked making noises like the goats.

The goats, in turn, liked his hat!

Gates

DH and I have fairly different ideas about what D is and isn't allowed to do. When he is home with me I let him run around the house, but I go along with him to make sure he stays out of things he shouldn't be into. DH tries to blockade him into the living room so we can keep an eye on him. Dean at this point can climb over anything we use to blockade the living room with ease. This causes lots of "angst" between DH and I, particularly when I'm trying to cook dinner.
To solve one of the main problems of D going into our bathroom where all the cat stuff is DH brought home a gate, hoping that the cats could fit through but the kid could not. To help our old blind cat get in and out he set the gate about 5 inches above the ground.
Once it was all set up D and I went to check it out. At first he was MAD that he couldn't get into our room, but it took just a moment for him to lay flat on the floor, turn his head, and wiggle under the gate. Then he sat (on the far side of the gate) grinning at us. I haven't laughed so hard in a very long time!

Sharing

After school D and I often have snack. He enjoys goldfish (plain, no cheese allowed) and even more than the goldfish themselves he likes to share with (feed them to) mommy. Cute, neh?

Oh NO!

Now he can really climb!