October 2012

The month of October came and went before I even realized it was here!  I figure since we just celebrated Thanksgiving, I better get in some October pics before I post Thanksgiving pics!
The month started off with a last minute spontaneous visit from my good friend Maria Rafalco and her sweet daughter Eliana.  Maria and I used to work together and I miss her dearly, so I was pumped when she had a few free Delta tickets that she had to use before they expired.  I quickly convinced her to come visit and we had a fun few days together catching up and letting the kids play.  We hit up a playground, hung around the house and went to our old favorite restaurant, The Fickle Pickle.  Davis and Eliana had fun playing, she could definitely hold her own with the big boys...

We had such a fun visit, but it went way too fast and of course, I didn't take near enough pics!  Thanks Maria for coming to visit!  I SWEAR I WILL make it to your house sometime soon!!

The weekend after Maria left, I had high hopes of making it to a pumpkin patch.  Lance had promised a friend that he would help him move, so instead we just planned on going to a local biscuit restaurant and then I was going to drive Lance down to help his friend.  We ran into our friends, The Nesmiths', and they were heading to a pumpkin patch and so generously invited my boys and I to join them.  We took their offer and hijacked their family day. :)  Unfortunately I was completely unprepared and my kids looked a little mismatched, but we had a great time anyway!  Harrison wanted the biggest pumpkin that he could find...

 but since I didn't have Lance to help, we settled with a more manageable sized pumpkin.  Thankfully Davis was content with this pumpkin...

 

Davis and James had fun on the swings and Mary was such a big helper, pushing Davis for me!

Since Lance had been gone a lot recently, we made sure to take a family day down to Stone Mountain's halloween festival.  

The boys had a blast and I think the ropes course was the highlight of the day for Harrison!

 

I couldn't believe how well Harrison did with these obstacles, especially this one...

He also love swinging across the zipline!  I think he did this one 6-7 times!

Davis had fun here for a few minutes...

 The kids also did a scavenger hunt, played in a big sandbox, and played in the Great Barn.

Harrison's tennis lessons started back up and he has been doing great at learning to play this sport!  He can whop that ball across the net!  This video isn't all that great, but you can see him hit it...

We also made a trip to Tuscaloosa for the Homecoming game.  We had a bunch of family in town for the game so it was such a fun weekend!

We got to Tuscaloosa just in time for the bonfire on Friday night.  Trey had come down with pnemonia, so he had to sit it out, but Jack, Harrison and Davis had fun playing football on the quad, chasing each other, and watching the big fire.  Both of mine were a little frightened by the enormous flame, but had fun nonetheless!

Sweet cousins!

The next afternoon, we went out to watch the parade.  Jack and Harrison loved it!

Davis had fun too, but had more fun with his balloon gun! The boys were dancing to the music from the parade so it was hard to catch a good picture!

Davis had fun playing with  baby Isabela...

And since I stayed home during the game, I got some fun snuggle time with the princess!

Jack and Trey made sure to setup some comfy seats to watch the game and made sure to set one up for Harrison too.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of my Aunt Nancy, Uncle Kim, cousin Emily, mom & dad or Elizabeth!  

Next up was Halloweeen!

I didn't get very many great pictures of this either, but we did have a great time!  Our neighborhood always has a pizza party before trick or treating, so we went up for pizza, which the boys loved!  They had fun playing on the neighborhood playground while we ate, and it took a lot of convincing them to leave!  You would think getting candy would have had them running!  Grandma and Granddaddy Randolph came to help out as well!  Harrison spent most of the night running to the next house, while Davis insisted on riding in the wagon in between houses.  I did get them to walk together for a few houses...

 Come on, hold my hand big brother!!

It was a fun month, but just went by way too fast!  We are getting a new camera for Christmas so hopefully next year will be better documented with non-blurry pictures!

Davis' Big Boy Bed

This past Saturday, was a big day in the Randolph household...well, it was the day when we realized a big change was about to happen.  Davis was napping, I was cooking and Harrison was playing trains, when I heard Davis wake up.  Harrison said he was going to run upstairs to keep Davis company until I could come get him.  I finished what I was doing in the kitchen and as I turned the corner to go upstairs, I saw our little buddy standing on the steps with a big smile on his face.  Harrison said, "Mom!  Davis climbed out of his crib all by himself and I saw him do it!! Can you believe it!?!  He is getting so big!"....a little too big if you ask me!  I knew this time was coming, but I had convinced myself that Davis, being my little wild man, would have a difficult time with this transition, so I have avoided it as long as I could!    The Alabama vs. LSU game was that night, so we went to Lance's parents house that evening.  Since we were out late, we waited until the next morning to turn his bed into a toddler bed.  For some reason, Harrison was really upset that we were changing it.  He kept saying, "But Davis has to stay in his crib when he is 2 and when he turns 4, like me, he can sleep in my bed with me".  I thought it was so sweet, but I told him it had to be done so he didn't get hurt.
They both thought it was fun and silly, watching me take the front of the crib off and put the toddler railing on.  Davis didn't know what to think at first, and wouldn't climb in because he thought we were trying to make him go to bed.  Once he saw Harrison climbing in though, he was okay with it.  Of course, my little monkey, was able to climb in and out of the front, but this is what he insisted on doing...

For his nap that afternoon, he did much better than I had anticipated.  He laid right down and fussed for maybe 5 seconds, and then fell asleep and stayed in his bed until I came upstairs and told him he could get up.

Unfortunately, that night, right after his bath, he got sick and he threw up all night.  He did great with his bed and I just put a towel down and would change it when he got sick.  I ended up sleeping next to him that night, but overall he did great. 
I hate to jinx myself, but the process is going much smoother than anticipated.  I think this picture from this afternoon, sums up how relaxed and comfortable he is in his big boy bed!

I kept the towels down in case he got sick again, but he has been his normal, wild and crazy self today, so I think it was just a short-lived bug.  Such a big boy, growing up too fast!

Busss! Bussss!

Davis has been slightly behind in learning to talk, but he has an amazing preschool teacher who has really been helping him in this area.  In the last few weeks, I have noticed a huge improvement in the number of words that he says, or tries to say.  He has even been singing some of the words to his favorite songs.  There are few things that compare to the pure joy a parent feels when their children pick up a new skill or learn something new.  My favorite new word that he says is "bus".  For the longest time,he has referred to buses, trains, and trucks as a "buh".  He just figured how to put the 's' sound at the end of words, so now all of these things are referred to as "bus". He says it with a slight lisp, which hopefully will go away eventually, but I think it is the sweetest sound right now.  He gets a big smile on his face when I praise him for picking up a new word and I can just see in his face how proud of himself he is.  I took a quick video of him saying it so I wouldn't forget this sweet sound...