October so far...

I do LOVE October, but this one has gotten off to a sloooow start.  Almost entirely due to a yucky hand, foot, and mouth virus that the boys both had.  Anderson came down with it the weekend we had planned to go to the fair.  He woke up feeling great, super excited for the fair.  We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel, arrived, quick family photo:

(We tried.)

And in no time, he looked like this...

And then this...

Poor baby!

Brady even fell asleep in his stroller right as we got to the animals, which I knew he would love to see.  Luckily a 20-minute nap was good enough for the time being, and when he woke up, he really seemed to enjoy the animals...

I love his tippy toes!

We even managed to squeeze in a pony ride for this little guy before heading home...

(That's his brave face.)

So not exactly the fun-filled day I'd looked forward to, but it was a nice little trip.  Hopefully next year we can make the most of it.

Anderson was burning up by that night, but his fever was down to 100 Monday morning.  I planned for him to miss school Tuesday, although by Monday afternoon and definitely Tuesday he was feeling so much better.  Then Wednesday morning, a few spots appeared on his chin, hands, and feet.  Womp, womp...  I was worried he'd end up feeling bad again, but he never did.  Except for Sunday, the virus barely slowed him down.  He ended up missing school Tuesday and Thursday (so all week), but luckily had a very mild case.

Then Friday night (after a fun date night with the late movie), Brady woke up crying throughout the night.  Finally at 5:30, there was no getting him back to sleep.  This was the beginning of a much worse case of HFM for my little guy.  Saturday night his fever was 103.7 with no spots yet, and he was up allll Saturday night, so I took him to the doctor Sunday morning.  Literally, between the time I got him in his car seat Sunday morning and the time I got him out (20 mins.), the spots started to appear.  I almost didn't take him in, since now I was sure it was that darn virus.  But I did, and I'm glad I did.  We saw one of the best doctors at the practice, and she confirmed it was just a bad case of HFM.  She showed me the blisters that were already in his throat, and gave me a recipe for some "Magic Mouthwash" that would coat his throat and ease some of the pain.  

It took Brady several days to start feeling better, and the sores on his legs are still working on healing.  But as of Friday, I'd say he's finally feeling 100%.  Yay!  So we finally got a fun weekend with everyone feeling good.  Ryan worked Saturday til 2, so we didn't do a whole lot.  But Sunday, we got to try out the new local Pumpkin Patch, Lloyd Family Farms.

We had beautiful, chilly fall weather and (most importantly!) two healthy, happy boys.  Who are both napping right now thanks to a busy, fun morning.  

Here come a lot of pictures..........

This looked like way too much fun!

Brady loved running back and forth, looking at all of the animals!

Love my three guys!!

 The beautiful setting...

Food truck lunch with some hay to play on...

 And finally, the pumpkin patch.  Anderson found the very perfect pumpkin!

On the hayride over

Anderson requested this shot. :)

Thankful for beautiful weather, beautiful Virginia, and my beautiful family!  Always, but especially this weekend.

Brady hugs

Brady really doesn't seem like a baby anymore.  He shows more personality all the time, and he is talking a ton!  Some of my favorite new Brady phrases: "Phew- dat close!" and "Watch dis!".  Last night after watching a little Mickey episode about exercising, he kept doing squats saying "Bend, bend, bend." Ha :)

Anderson gets a kick out of it.  The  other night, Brady walked up to Anderson and said, "Hello Anderson," and Anderson said, "He's talking to me!"  And at breakfast the other morning, Anderson would ask Brady questions that he could actually answer (like, "What's your favorite color?" ) which was fun for all.  For that morning, at least, Brady's favorite color was "lellow."

He can be rough when he wants something from his brother or is frustrated, but overall I think they're playing better together now than ever.  Brady will get on a roll with hugging his brother, and Anderson is usually happy enough to stop what he's doing to hug back.

The hugs usually come in bunches.