Shane has been loving fall. Our neighbor Hannah continues to come over several times a week to play with Shane and he loves her! She has started bringing her friend Melissa with her on occasion and Shane does not complain! He loves both girls! Hannah often wants to take Shane places, but since she is only 8 we obviously do not let her. We did agree to let her pull Shane around her yard in her wagon and we took some pictures!
Shane has been spending the Fall in a park district class that he loves! The class begins with songs and dancing and then the children can choose to play in the gross motor skills (basketball, a jumpee, tunnels) or the fine motor skills (art projects, puzzles, small blocks) room. I finally remembered to bring my camera and snapped a few pictures. Shane moves so fast that it is hard to follow him and take pictures.
We kicked off the Halloween season with a trip to the pumpkin patch! I guess I can now say our annual trip since we have done it two years in a row now! In many ways it was way more fun this year since Shane really had a great time. However, posing him for pictures is a much greater challenge now that he can get up and move. Oh well, you can't win them all! The pumpkin patch we go to is adorable! They have a really nice play area when you walk in with little houses for the kids to play in, a wooden truck they can 'drive', and a pirate ship play area and slide. It was 80 degrees out the day we went so we were expecting huge crowds - that was really not the case at all!
After the play area, it was time to try to get some pictures of Shane. We tried to get one that would measure Shane's height so that every year we can go back and note how much taller he is. We did not see that area at all last year, but thought we would start the tradition this year. Shane thought otherwise. Next we tried to get his picture as he sat in a huge pile of hay. You will see what Shane thought of that idea when you see the picture I took. Finally, we settled on a picture of Shane walking/running away from the hay!
Next, it was time for the petting zoo! As you can probably guess, that is the part of the day Shane liked the most! Shane went crazy when we let him in with the goats! He was hugging them and yelling "BAHHHHH!" We were thrilled that he now had them confused with sheep, an improvement from this summer when he thought they were all dogs! In the last picture you can see him yelling "BAHHH!" Everyone was laughing at him! Check out the video of him after all of the pictures! The first one was supposed to be a picture, but I had it on video. It is a sweet picture anyway so I included it. The second captures Shane's enthusiasm for his goat pals!
After the goats we decided to try and get some more pictures of Shane doing some of the things he did last year. It did not work quite as well this year! Last year we plopped him down in front of the mums and he stayed there.
Not this year!
Next, we went to visit the rest of the farm animals. Look at Shane trying to kiss the pig! He truly is his mommy's little boy - I was exactly the same way! I love how much he loves animals! After the pig, Shane moved on to the sheep. The pictures are in order and you can see just how comfortable Shane got with the sheep. Yes, he is kissing it on the lips in the last shot!
After the farm animals, it was time for yet another photo opportunity! Here is Shane at the Dollinger sign last year - he was a sheep!
This year he liked being the horse - his buddy Alex was the sheep this year!
The pumpkin patch has a large Teepee and Shane went inside it and did not want to come out! It was so funny - it was like he knew what it was because he started chanting and dancing when he got inside. It was crazy! In fact, Shane became the star of the place. His chanting echoed and everyone was laughing and talking about him. Dan had run to the car to grab something so he did not know where we were, but he said he could hear Shane as he headed back toward us. He said he heard everyone talking about this little boy and he instantly knew it was our little ham! Check out the video and you will see what I mean!
After the TeePee adventure, we headed into the barn to check out the tractors!
Next, it was off to take a train ride around the pumpkin patch. Here Dan and Shane are waiting to board and then there is a shot of the 3 of us on the train.
Next it was time for lunch (no pictures) and some pictures of Shane by the corn stalks! Again, he did not cooperate like he did last year!
Here he was last year.
And this year - we tried to get some cute shots of him and ALex, but it was not happening. We finally got a decent one of Shane by himself, but it took a lot of work.
Finally it was time to head to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin and get some great shots of our little pumpkin! I had insisted that we try and get some pictures of Shane in his pumpkin hat. This would have been a great hat had the weather been close to what it was last year, but the temperatures were climbing into the 80's and it was hot. Shane turns bright red when he gets warm so he truly looked like a pumpkin in some of these shots!
Shane was a monkey for Halloween this year and he was the cutest ever monkey! We took him for some professional pictures in his costume and they came out great! Here are a few of my favorites!
Since we are on the topic of Halloween, here are the decorations that we (ha, ha - Dan) made for the front lawn. Didn't they come out great?
We celebrated Dan's mom's birthday the weekend before her actual birthday. Shane had a blast playing with his cousin Liam & I had a blast holding Shane's new cousin Julia! Look how adorable she is! She is also pictured with her Grandma Geri!
When it was time to open the presents, Shane was there to help his grandma!
Look at what a great job Grandma Carolyn did blowing out the candles!
Here is Shane snuggling with his grandma before we left for the night!
Shane has continued to lavish Thunder with lots of hugs and kisses as he recuperates from his ear surgery! All of Thunder's stitches are out and he has lost 4 pounds on the "No Shane Food Diet" that I have put him on! YAY!!!!
Shane loves to play on his Winnie The Pooh airplane (Thanks Andrea) and rides it really nicely on his own.
And then there is the way he rides it with his Daddy.
Oh, one of Shane's newest things to do is to dance - crazy dance! He loves his "Shane" cds (CDs where his name is in the songs - he has 2) and demands they all on all of the time! He tells us he wants them by going to the cd player and dancing until we turn them on. Here is some video!
We tried getting a picture of Shane in a pile of leaves for the fall, but he did not want to sit in them. We are noticing a pattern - no sand, hay, or leaves - he does not like to feel dirty. So this picture of him running in the leaves is the best we could do!
These are just some cute pictures of my little man, Shane!
Last Friday we headed to the Oak Lawn children's Museum with Dan's mom! Shane had a blast! He especially loved the slide, the veterinary clinic with the stuffed dogs he thought were real, and the door on the play house that he opened and closed for about an hour - no joke!
On Saturday night we carved Shane's pumpkin! Here are the pictures!
Sunday was Halloween and we were so excited to try trick or treating with Shane! We got him up from his afternoon nap and put his costume on. He was less than thrilled with wearing it. We took him outside and he wanted to have NOTHING to do with trick or treating - he was begging to go back home. We were having none of that and we gently encouraged Shane to give it a try. We have some video on our camcorder, not the camera, that shows just how miserable our little monkey was in his costume. We really wanted him to give it a try & we noticed that he seemed excited - finally - and then we realized he thought we were going to the park and that was why he willingly headed to our neighbors house. Oh well. He did eventually stop fighting it and we took him to 5 neighbors and called it a day. he did LOVE having the kids coming over to our house and even kept his monkey suit on to hand out candy! Oh, and candy - he does not like it! We made sure we had Shane safe candy - 3 musketeers and plain hershey bars - and could not wait to let him try a piece. We tried a 3 musketeers on Halloween and he spit it out. Last night we tried a Hershey bar and we would not even taste it. I am sure this will not last long and that I will soon be wishing for the days when he did not want any candy!
Here is Shane wondering why we won't let him go in the house.
Here he is trick or treating with Daddy!
And here is some video!
Here Shane is ready to trick or treat with mommy!
And some video!
Here is Shane resting on the swing with his loot and his pumpkin - he sure is cute!
Here is his Jack-O-Lantern all lit up to greet trick or treaters!
OK, we are done here! Shane just wants to remind everyone that today is election day - please vote democratic! Our family will be heading out to vote together when Dan gets home!
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