Trick or Treating, Zoo, and more

We went to the zoo last weekend. Matt ended his 30-hour shift on Sunday, so Kaden and I picked him up from the hospital and headed to the zoo together. The weather was great and it was so nice to do something like that as a family! The weather was cool enough that almost all the animals were out doing things, so that was also a nice change!







Touching elephant poop





Kaden LOVES LOVES the goats! He loves brushing them, talking to them, crawling around like them, sitting next to them, etc. They just might be his favorite animal!



















(notice the growing belly here)



Matt & Kaden in the back of the train. Kaden even got to say "All Aboard!" into the intercom...it was really cute!





Map reader



Go away, paparazzi!!



2 weekends ago Kaden and I went to hang out at Uncle Bri & Aunt Amber's house while Matt was at work. The weather was so perfectly wonderful. I had dressed Kaden in a long-sleeved shirt and it got too hot. Luckily they had an extra (bit large) tie-dyed shirt he wore. They filled a pumpkin with leaves and made marshmallows. Kaden was determined to do it himself, so Uncle Bri gave him all control and just let him fully burn the first two!







Ice cream lover! Kaden eats a bit slow, so when his ice cream was totally melted, I gave him a straw. He thought it was quite fun.





I can't remember if I've posted this one -- this is how I found Kaden one day when I went downstairs after making lunch for the kids!



Fun game



Because St. Louis apparently gets 97.2 inches of rain in the month of October, we quickly ran out of things to do inside. The kids and I both rely on that outside time, so it was a l.o.n.g month! We started making a tent in the living room for fun.



The Magic House -- the children's museum in town -- had a Halloween night a couple weekends ago. Kaden got to wear his costume and play. It was lots of fun, but his costume got a bit warm (I had assumed it would) so he played in the tiger pants and white onsie most of the time!







Excited to have just gotten candy from Emily Elizabeth (from Clifford)



18 week belly. I've been feeling pretty good. Luckily the morning (well, in my case night) sickness has gone away. I started getting some Braxton Hicks contrations toward the end of last week and through this weekend, so I've tried sitting/laying down and resting when that happens. Daycare gets a bit harder everyday. My doctor is letting me work until 26/28 weeks, and I thought he was crazy when he told me I'd have to stop so early. Now I understand why! Our appointment is this Tuesday and we're excited to see the babies and to see how they've grown. In the 2nd picture you can see how my belly is a bit tilted, the babies must be hanging out on the same side!





This last weekend we spent Saturday afternoon raking leaves. And more leaves. And a few more leaves. We filled 15 large paper leaf bags from just our front yard! I'm pretty sure our house gets hit harder than any other house on the block! We tried many methods -- raking and picking up, using the mower/bagger, using the leaf sucker/mulcher, etc. Kaden had fun outside helping us!



















Trick or Treating -- Kaden had tons of fun. Luckily Halloween night was on the night finishing Matt's 30-hr shift, so he was around to go with us. We went through our neighborhood and then went to Bri & Amber's house for dinner and to hang out. We initially thought we'd trick-or-treat in their neighborhood, but it was late and I think Kaden was having too much fun playing and didn't want to leave! He isn't too sure about scary things (Uncle Bri & Aunt Amber had Halloweeny noises playing on their porch and Kaden couldn't get in the door fast enough to get away!) but liked getting the candy! He would exclaim "Mommy, I got MORE candy". He ate a few pieces as we walked. When we'd leave a house, he get back in his stroller and say "more candy, please". He is learning that please word helps him get his way! Two funny stories from the night:

House 1 : a woman handed Kaden a piece of candy from her candy tray and he said "no, not that one, THAT one" and pointed to a Twizzler! I guess the kid knows what he wants!

House 2: a man gave Kaden a fun-size candy bar in each hand. I said to Kaden "what do you say?" (ie: thank you) and he put both candies in one hand, reached up to the guy, and said "one more, please"!! HAHA!

The odd part--every single person thought Kaden was a girl? We're really not sure why... it must be his eye lashes?!

Here's our adorable (yet manly) tiger: