In my mind Abe was dressed in his full Halloween costume for these pictures. We have overalls, a red bandanna and the hat that you see. Abe, of course, had other plans. I decided a happy child was more important - and I was ecstatic when he decided to wear the hat!! For awhile there I didn't think even that would make an appearance.

The "farmer" wasn't there when we arrived (sadly), so we had to go back today to get the actual pumpkin. But go back we did and Abe joyfully picked one out. We're planning on carving it tomorrow and are looking forward to enjoying the perfect fall weather that has finally hit Texas while doing it! (Hopefully, carving pics will follow soon...)

Yesterday, Mike and I surprised Abe by taking him on a train ride - and not just any train - a ride on Thomas the Tank!! We were both happy that we hadn't told Abe until that morning; from the moment we told him until we got there, all we heard was, "Ride on Thomas the Tank?! Ride on Thomas!? Let's go ride on Thomas!"

Needless to say, Abe had a blast. It was chillier than expected, but it didn't rain and for that we were grateful. The ride itself was pretty disappointing, at least from an adult perspective. Abe loved it, but even he was ready to be done half way through. He kept saying, "Faster!? Go faster!"

Even though the train tickets were the only expensive part of the day, I'm still glad we got them. If we hadn't, all we would have heard was "Ride Thomas? I want to ride Thomas!" and that just wouldn't have been fair to a poor 2 year old. I consider it shear will power that we made it through the day spending less than $20 (not counting train tickets). The only thing Abe really wanted a balloon, so he got a big blue one in the shape of Thomas and then we got him a Thomas card game that hopefully he'll be ready for by Christmas or shortly after.

After the ride we got some pictures with Thomas, got a tattoo, hit the petting zoo and just plain ran around. There was a lot more we could have done (story time, videos, etc), but we were cold and hungry; I figured when even Abe didn't object to leaving it was time to go. Mike was done with the day first and for about a half hour I had a grumpy husband and a happy two year old. And yes, a grumpy husband is much easier to deal with than a grumpy two year old. I can tell the husband to get over it, and he pretty much does.

After, much cleaning, sorting, painting, building and shopping, the big boy room is finally complete!! The bed, RR crossing sign and wall shelves were all made by Mike. We bought the dresser unfinished and finished it in the same stain and added the pulls. It's a little tough to see what is on his shelves, but the name train was a birthday gift from Grandpa Neal and Grandma Glenda. The hat rack with the train painted on the bottom (again, tough to see) was a birthday gift from Grandma Mim. The trains on the shelves, the posters and the bedding are all results of lots of shopping on my end. We're taking Abe to ride on a life-size Thomas the Tank next weekend and I'm hoping we can get some pictures there to go in the frames. All in all we're very pleased with how it turned out... and very glad to have it done. Abe likes it too, which is most important.

And, the big boy himself even took his nap in his big boy room today!! I was very proud of him for how well he did. We likely won't be fully transitioned for another couple weeks, but it's a big start!!