Kiddie Acres is the place to be

In the northern reaches of Austin is an old, slightly creepy, miniature amusement park: Kiddie Acres.  It includes 7 attractions and JJ gave them all a try.  Some of the rides he tackled all by himself while we nervously watched.  He did great!  Turns out he loves going around in circles in various types of vehicles.

We started off with a carousel ride.

Next up was the ferris wheel.  He enjoyed this for a minute or two ("up high!"), then started getting freaked out ("all done, all done").

 Then we took a ride on the train.  JJ is pretty much a veteran train passenger at this point.

 Then came the part where he went around in circles on a boat, a car, and an airplane.  The airplane looked to be the most thrilling ride.  JJ did great flying solo.

And finally, a pony ride!  JJ's first time on a horse.  He kept saying it was a cow, though.

Mexican food for dinner after our afternoon of play.  JJ loved eating chips and guacamole.  Where did this guac gene come from?!

Chuck E. Cheese

Last weekend JJ had his first trip to the place where a kid can be a kid.  Yes, Chuck E. Cheese.  Daddo talked it up all Saturday morning so that by the time we were ready to go, JJ was excitedly saying "ChuckECheese!" even though he had no idea what kind of place it would be.

We ate some mediocre pizza, armed ourselves with tokens, and sought out all the games and rides that were suitable for JJ.  And one that wasn't, apparently, because this rising airplane scared the cheese out of him.

His favorite thing, which he literally rode on about 6 times, was this yellow truck.  When you feed it a token, it vibrates and shakes a little.  JJ had a look on his face like he wasn't particularly enjoying it but he kept asking to ride it again!

The other highlight of the experience was collecting the tickets from the machines.  At the end, we had 70 tickets and redeemed them for some sweet merch: a crazy straw and 3 temporary tattoos.  (JJ would later proudly sport a Chuck E. Cheese tat on his bicep.)

We have some leftover tokens so we'll need to return for more fun sometime soon!

Trick or Treat!

After weeks of having JJ practice saying "Trick or Treat", Halloween was finally here!  JJ decided to start the day off with a "trick" - he puked up his big breakfast of Cheerios and milk before he had even left the high chair.  We thought the evening's activities might be in jeopardy but JJ seemed fine the rest of the day, so around 6:30 we got ready to hit the neighbors up for candy!  Daddo and I both wanted to be in on JJ's first trick-or-treating experience so we set a bowl of candy on our front porch and the 3 of us took to the sidewalks.
Oh yeah - Nana made a gnome costume for Daddo, too!  I don't think any of us thought he'd actually wear it, but he wore it to work and for trick-or-treating!

We weren't sure if JJ would be into this whole trick-or-treating thing, but he loved it!  I guess that's not surprising given his passion for "picking" things; we had to hurry him along a few times when he seemed to be agonizing over which piece of candy to select from a neighbor's bowl.  In all, we went to about a dozen houses. Everyone liked his costume (though one person thought he was Santa. C'mon!).

Back home, checking out his haul.  JJ's favorites by far are the lollipops.  He tries to eat them with the wrappers still on :)

Halloween!!

Halloween isn't until tomorrow, but we found an excuse to get JJ in his gnome costume a few days early.  Friday we checked out a fall festival at a nearby drop-in child care center.  People seemed to like his costume - especially the beard and the boots!  Great handiwork, Nana!!

Tonight we (i.e. Daddo) finally carved JJ's pumpkin.  JJ helped by stirring the pumpkin seeds.

He wanted absolutely nothing to do with the pumpkin guts!

But he liked the finished product and was pretty intrigued by the candle.

 Spoooooky!  Happy Halloween!!

Duck Pond

A few weeks ago we discovered a duck pond about 15 minutes from our house.  The ducks here are crazy! They are always ravenous and not at all shy about begging for bread.  JJ is very brave and lets the ducks eat right out of his hand.  

Today when we visited the duck pond, all the ducks were out on the sidewalk waiting for visitors.  

They quickly followed us down to the pond for some delicious stale bread.

Daddo wanted to see if the ducks would eat bread off his body.  Sho' 'nuff.

Pumpkin Farm!

Daddo took JJ and I on a surprise trip today.  All we were told was be ready by 9:15am and wear sneakers.  Around 10am we arrived at Evergreen Farms in Elgin, TX, October headquarters for pumpkin-themed fun! They offer a Pumpkin Hunt, Pumpkin Launcher, Pumpkin Maze, Pumpkin Golf, Pumpkin Pond, Pumpkin Train, Pumpkin Pump, and Pumpkin Spinner.  We did the age-appropriate stuff and JJ loved it there.  His favorites were being pulled by the tractor (he kept saying "chugga choo-choo"), hunting for mini-pumpkins, and riding the "train" (3 carts pulled by a tractor around the farm).  And, of course, he was excited to pick out a pumpkin to take home, in addition to the two mini-pumpkins he acquired on the pumpkin hunt.  Lots of pictures below!  We capped off the excursion with a bbq lunch at Meyer's Elgin Smokehouse, allegedly the best bbq in Elgin (a town with probably 2 bbq restaurants).  Yum!

Video Montage

JJ's grandma put together this really cool video with clips from JJ's 1st birthday through 18 months of age.  I tend to get a lump in my throat by the 1-minute mark (sappy mommy).  I've always loved a good video montage.