October catch-up

I guess you could say it's reasonable for me to be posting an blog entitled October when it's officially the first day of November....The entire month was full of activity and I'll just highlight some of them (hint, most of them were related to Nana and Papa being here!)

I found this experience to be particularly cute: Papa and Adler doing some experiments at the children's museum! :) I mean how cute is that?!

The experiments continued in the kitchen as they made Halloween themed cupcakes.

After the official celebration for Tom's birthday in September, we got to celebrate it late at the Astros game! Both Adler and Riggs got some commemorative paperwork to go with it as well :).

We enjoyed typical ball park snacks, and some not-so-typical for this part of the country thanks to Grantie Ann for the Mariners peanuts!!

Riggs was a fan of the atmosphere, except the cannon boom after home runs (of which there were MANY on the game day we were at). Little did we know, we'd be watching a world series team!

After the game, Adler took on a couple more years in my opinion - doesn't she look like an actual "big kid?"!?!?!

While Nana and Papa were here, we got a chance to sneak away to the theater for the first time in far too long. Tom bought me a ticket to this show, a Friends parody, as an anniversary gift this year. However, it was a grand disappointment...so much so that we actually walked out before intermission! I kind of can't believe it, but we salvaged the evening by going to an amazing dinner.

We had to go to dinner after the miserable flop of a show because our plan to go to the theater and have dinner before the show turned into a major fail (the restaurant was closed). Not even these freebie cookies from the show sponsors...

While Tom and I continued at work, Nana and Papa got into all kinds of adventures. Many of them related to some thrift shopping and/or costume shopping. I tasked them with finding a hat that actually fits this kids giant head and this was the only one that even came close!

Of course the zoo was frequented and they even got to see the scuba diver!


They found a hat at the zoo too! He makes a pretty darn cute zookeeper if you ask me.

We stepped away from work one day for a new dentist visit for Adler. While she looks cool as a cucumber here...but what you don't see is the total melt down when they tried to clean her teeth. Better luck next time!

October weather in Houston allows for some amazing outdoor experiences!

The outdoor park, Levy park, is definitely a perk of this city and I can see both Riggs and Adler getting a lot of memories formed here.

Story time is always fun with visitors, and Nana and Papa are no exception.



On a particularly warm day (nearly 93 degrees) we ventured to the pumpkin patch. Adler missed her pumpkin patch buddy, Lawson, like she got to have last year. But, that doesn't mean she didn't have fun!



Trying to get her to help support Riggs torso without squishing him was particularly difficult ;)

the carnival games/rides were fun, but I have to say her driving these little cars was her favorite and she did it over and over again.

Meanwhile, Riggs and I tried to soak in the shade!

The cow train was a (short) highlight.

She got to experience jumping pads, duck races, and so much more

We were amazed to see the actual pumpkin vines growing (we just can't imagine them surviving, let alone thriving, in this insane heat!).

Tom and Adler had a great hunt for the best carving pumpkins in the patch.

We are bad at taking full family photos, but someone was nice enough to convince us we needed one in the oversized porch swing chair!

We have on our hands an amazingly fast growth rate of both kids. I present exhibit A! She was so excited for Halloween this year and wore around parts of her bunny costume all month long. But somehow this picture of her at the keyboard makes me feel like I'm looking into the future and seeing a 9 year old (or more!)

But, suffice it to say, we got to tackle the pumpkins in a lot more hands-on way than last year because she was much more agile with the sharp instruments!

Thanks to papa for the diagram to use as our stencil for Adler's preferred pumpkin -- mickey mouse!

Riggs got to take it all in from his "ocean saucer" but didn't quite get in on the messy part of the process and put his hand in a pumpkin.

One of Adler's favorite school activities is "pin pricking" where she takes an oversized push pin and punches out the outline of different shapes. So, she was more than prepared to do the same on pumpkins!

I was proud of her for overcoming her fear of putting her hands in the pumpkin!

The final product was pretty spectacular!



Because of my job (despite only caring for predominantly mice at this point) I was eligible for the COVID booster shot! I elected to get a double whammy with covid in one arm and flu in the other. I was amazed at the lack of side effects for either and I feel so much more comfortable and confident to face the winter months with these now in my system!

I've been doing a LOT with the mice lately, and it's getting more advanced. Earlier this month I actually was part of a much more sophisticated imaging technique than I've ever seen. It's a super fancy MRI for mice that allows us to see specific particles as they get metabolized and move through the body.

No matter how cute a little mouse stretcher is for the MRI machine, nothing can top Riggs' smile in my point of view.

Or Adler's grin when she gets to wear a birthday hat! This was her and her bestie, Annie, at her fourth birthday party in the park. It was a beautiful fall morning (with a temp under 80!) with pumpking doughnut holes and lots of smiles

What I love about these girls is that, they love their dresses, especially when they get to wear them and play in the dirt. Annie's parents actually had a pinata in the car in case the entertainment factor of the park was not good enough--and they didn't even have to get it out because these girls had such a good time making "swimming pools" and dirt piles.

Riggs was cool as a cucumber during the party too.

We are so grateful for the cooler temps in October, that's an understatement. The novelty of wearing long pants and/or a sweatshirt is not lost on us!

But it's pretty awesome to have sunny days and temps in the 70's.

Early in the month though, Riggs gave us a little scare (at least me). He had a cough and runny nose but then started wheezing like crazy and had me very worried. I ended up sneaking in a nebulizer treatment from Adler's old neb machine to see if it helped. It worked wonders. We got him into the pediatrician and thankfully he was COVID negative, but likely positive for RSV - a common respiratory virus that's impacting a lot of kiddos more strongly during this pandemic. So, every 3 hours we got out this froggy mask and got him a breathing treatment. He slept nearly upright on my chest for the first night, but bounced back in 24 hours or so and I'm so grateful!

Once recovered, we were back to the day-to-day activities including munching on oatmeal and watching Adler paint her "pink-o-lantern."

As we approached Halloween, Adler was progressively more and more excited. he had multiple opportunities to wear costumes - at the zoo, at her school for their trick-or-treat trail, and at the museum. Despite having worn her astronaut suit last year, there was no stopping this girl from doing it again this year.

No matter the heat, she defiantly wore this throughout the entire zoo!

Meanwhile, this little pumpkin ditched his costume pretty quickly due to the high temps.

Hard to believe it's been a year since we took a picture with this sign with our little astronaut. This picture shows you how she's officially growing up- she looks like a big kid!

And if you need more proof - check out this picture of her decorating (and very quickly devouring) this stegosaurus cookie at the science museum!

But not matter how big this girl gets, we can't seem to get her to lose her fear in the water. She refuses to jump into the water without help from her swim instructor, but perhaps if we let her wear a full on snorkel mask next time she will? :)

School pictures occured and we all, once again, were reminded of how grateful we are for this healthy, happy, vibrant girl in our lives!

And Riggs got to taste his first majorly sour food - LEMONS at daycare this month. He was surprisingly tolerant.

Suffice it to say, it's been an amazing month.

I'll post again with photos from Halloween, but I wanted to catch up a bit. I'm doing this while I wait for Riggs to sleep off his Versed from his outpatient surgery that just finished today. More on that next time!