Last Sunday we took the boys to the Children’s Discovery Zoo near our house. They have their fall fun festival going on right now and since it’s only fifteen minutes from our house we decided to check it out. I am so glad that we did.

They had scarecrows manning two of these chairs just outside the entrance. We tried getting Adam to pose with Luke, but he was not at all interested. Poor Luke didn’t have a choice – doesn’t he look thrilled?

That penguin costume was originally going to be worn by Adam for his first Halloween, but then I found a dinosaur costume I loved and he wore that instead (spoiler alert – Luke’s going to be wearing the dino for his first Halloween too). The penguin is made of fleece and is really cozy, so it kept him nice and warm. Plus Luke is the most adorable penguin (even grumpy) ever.

They had a lot of different animals for the kids to interact with – some you could feed or pet. Adam was a little leery of the goats and tended to keep his distance from most of the bigger animals. They had ponies, sheep, chickens (Adam is waving to one of them in the picture above – that was as close as he would get), llamas, alpacas, peacocks, wolves, and a bunch of other animals.

He wasn’t at all shy around the bunnies though. I think he would have been content to sit and watch them all afternoon. They had two pens of rabbits – there were two in this one and they were the “big bunny rabbits” according to Adam.

These little ones were his favorite though. There were so many of them (you know what they say about rabbits) that there were always some hopping around. One of the workers picked one up for Adam to pet while we were there. I may have had to stop him from trying to climb in there with the bunnies after that.

That same nice young man went and got a hedgehog to bring to Adam to pet as well. He wasn’t too sure of the spikes.

They also had a hayride where you could go see more animals, but it was too close to nap time and so we figured it was best to try that next year. In addition to the animals there were all sorts of vehicles for the kids to ride around on – it was pretty muddy though, so he didn’t go too far.

We took a bunch of pictures of Adam in the ball pit and in every one he has such a serious look on his face. He loved it though and even played a game where he would fight his way through the ball to give me a kiss through the net and then go back a couple of steps, turn, and do it all again. At one point he was completely covered by the balls and I was terrified that he was going to flip out and I was going to have to rock-paper-scissors Dave to see who had to go in after him. He loved it though and thought it was hilarious to hide on me.

We spent quite a bit of time in this area as well. Those tables were filled with some sort of grain and were the perfect height for Adam. He had a blast filling the containers and transfering the contents from one to another.

Dave even got in on the fun; I was busy holding a sleeping Luke. Adam did bring me a couple of cups of grain though.

They only way we were able to get Adam away from the grain table was to tell him he could paint a pumpkin.

I think we’ll be painting one or two of his little pumpkins that he got on Saturday later this week. He really enjoyed it.

It really was a great way to spend the afternoon. I’m so glad that Dave suggested going.

Last night Dave, Luke and I were hanging out in the family room and Adam was watching Blues Clues in the guest room. While he was in there he decided to ditch his onesie and pants in favor of some new duds.

He was pretty pleased with his new look.

That kid cracks me up. I have never been so happy to have a camera sitting right next to me.

Yesterday we went pumpkin shopping. The young lady running the stand was in love with Adam and kept giving him “baby pumpkins”. We came home with seven pumpkins. I am not kidding. Seven pumpkins. Five of them are Adam’s little ones.

The largest of the pumpkins we got was purchased for a very specific reason.

I’m sorry Luke. If it makes you feel any better, we did the same thing to your brother.

One last picture from out trip to PA – especially since the last couple of posts have been all about Luke.

The second hotel we stayed at had an empty cupboard (I’m guessing it was once home to a mini-fridge). Adam thought it was the perfect place for him to sleep. It quickly became a game where he would have me shut him in there and then he’d wait a couple of seconds and kick the door back open – repeat indefinitely.

And by “indefinitely” I mean until this former mommy of the year candidate accidentally shut her sweet little boy’s toes in the door and there were tears.

Then the game wasn’t so fun anymore.

Luke had a check up today. He’s grown three inches and gained three pounds in the last two months.

Earlier this week, Luke found his feet and he’s been all over them. That picture was taken before he got his shots (two of them) and so he was still pretty happy about being at the doctor’s office and flirting with the nurses.

And just because I’m a bit of a math geek, I took some of Adam’s measurements from when he was around Luke’s age and estimated his size when he was four months and twelve days old (which is exactly how old Luke is today). Adam would have weighed about 14 lbs 12 ounces and was 24.75 inches long.

Seriously, this kid smiles all the time. I thought Adam was a happy baby (and he really was), but Luke is just in a league of his own.

I was a little afraid while pregnant with Luke that because Adam had been such an easy, cheerful baby we were “due” for a more difficult child. My worries were for nothing though, Luke is a dream baby. I would order a dozen more, just like him if I could (not all at once though, that’s just nuts – even happy babies are still a lot of work).

I know, I know, I posted this picture yesterday.

Here’s a similar one of Adam from two years ago. The pictures were taken at about the same time of year, but Luke is two months older now than Adam was then.

And yes, their outfits are very similar. Luke’s is actually an Adam hand-me-down (he has a lot of those). I was so sad when Adam outgrew the outfit he’s wearing in his picture (a gift from Uncle Steven & Aunt Amanda) that I went out and got another one in the next size up (the one Luke is wearing).

Tonight we had an appointment to get pictures taken of Luke. I had Adam dressed up, in case he felt like posing for a few too, which he didn’t.

So while Adam ran around the studio playing with all of the props (his favorite was the rocking horse, or “yee-haw” in Adam-speak), Luke took center stage.

We did one outfit change – which Luke wasn’t too thrilled with. He did let the photographer get a couple nice pictures before letting us know (loudly) that the photo shoot was over.

Those Sesame Street residents don’t have anything on Luke – he’s the cutest monster I’ve ever seen.