Happy Halloween!

Trick or Treat (mostly treats).
-He's a duck in case there is confusion.

Preparing for Halloween in 3 easy steps

1) Select your pumpkin.
Remember: If your pumpkin doesn't weigh more than you do - keep looking!












2) Supervise the carving of the pumpkin. Remember: good help is hard to find - sometimes you have to dig in there yourself!

3) Light a candle and enjoy.

Walking - like a pro

With a couple of months practice under our belt, walking is becoming second nature.

It no longer requires the singular focus it once did.

Multitasking - such as looking around or paying attention to the parents while waking (no gum chewing yet) - is commonly practiced.

Of course, sometimes you have to stop and smell the roses....

...or in our case check out the moving water.

Excercise

We ventured out of town for a weekend retreat on the shores of Lake Superior.

While there we trekked up to the High Falls of the Baptism River.

Ericka volunteered to carry M to the lookout point and back. I carried the camera.

High Falls happens to be the tallest waterfall entirely in the state of Minnesota.

At 60ft (18m) it won't be mistaken for Yosemite Falls. But with all the rain we've had lately it makes for a terrific sight.




Once at the top both M and Mom dared to look down!

And the first word is...

Place your bets. What will it be?!

In the midst of almost non-stop blabbering of nondescript sounds, M stopped while walking through the living room Sunday. He picked up a round object from the floor, looked at it, and said... 'Ball'.

Yes, the official first word wasn't 'mom', 'dad', 'Rudi', or even 'no'. I guess some things are just more fascinating than others!

Strawberry blonde

Summer is over. The cold weather is rolling in. None of your hats fit because your head grew over the summer...



Does this every happen to you!?

30% of your body's heat loss in cold weather goes through your head, you know.



Here is one toddler that won't have red frozen ears this fall. Thanks to Grandma Ingrid we're set for the arrival of old man winter.

Well... at least until it get really cold.
Thanks, Grandma!

Como Park

In the waning days of summer we went to Como Park. If you're not familiar it is a combined zoo, park, amusement park, and conservatory.



It was a very warm day and we spent most of it in the indoor displays.


Mathias insisted on walking on his own through the displays so we made very slow progress.




When it was all said and done we hadn't seen much . But a good time was had by all. The crowd favorites were the monkeys and the sea lions.

More than a few dreamy glances were cast at the beautiful Cafesjian's Carousel dating back to 1914. We'll be back for more (with comfortable shoes!).