On Friday night it was TRICK–OR-TREAT!  With some mild opposition at first I finally gave in to the bribe of “more candy than you can ever dream of” and put on my astronaut costume!  We took my space ship (wagon) all around the galaxy (neighborhood) to collect space specimens (candy).  I got an awesome loot.  When we were all done we went next door to hang out and run around the yard to use up some of the extra energy caused by a pretty major sugar rush. 

Here are some pictures!

Then on Sunday we went back to the farm as a family.  It was really chilly, but we had a good time.  We took a private hayride to the pumpkin patch to pick out a little pumpkin, and then we took a walk to the orchard. 

Here are our pictures from the farm:

Tonight, when I was supposed to be going to sleep, I looked down at my shirt and saw some lights!  This a little bit alarming to me.  Now, had I been under the blankets, falling asleep, I would never have noticed them (like the 5 or 6 other times I’ve successfully worn these pajamas to bed).  But tonight I saw them and yelled to Mommy “I need you to fix my lights!”  Mommy, thinking I meant my turtle night light, appeared in my door only to notice that they night light was totally fine.  So I explained to her that I had strange lights on my shirt, and that I didn’t like them.
She changed my shirt – And my bedtime stalling tactic was successful!

From Mommy:

I had my 20 week – halfway – ultrasound this morning.  John came along, too!  The baby looks great, measuring in at about 10 inches from head to toe.  The baby was face down for the whole ultrasound, which made for a very different experience than the one we had with Preston.  It was much more difficult for the tech to get pictures of everything she needed to, but she was a pro and figured it out.  We were hoping the baby would flip before the end, but it never did.  It means that we didn’t get any 3D pictures of its face, which is a little disappointing.
Like with Preston, we didn’t find out the gender of this baby.  But I do have it sealed in an envelope; it’s torture.  Somehow, I made it to the end without opening the envelope the first time.  I guess I’m going to have to do it again!

Here are a few pictures from the ultrasound (just 2D – not 3D)

And a silly conversation with Preston:

Me: Preston, can you help me set the table?
P: Sure, YOU move that chair over here, ok?
Me: Oh, so you just want to supervise?
P: (Looking confused) I want to watch Mickey Mouse CLUBhouse"
Me: What are you talking about? I thought we we setting the table.
P: I don't WANT to watch Super Why! I want to watch Mickey Mouse

John: You said Supervise...toddler translation - Super Why!

I have croup.  We had to go to the doctor this afternoon, so he could give me medicine to help me feel better.  We were supposed to go to the doctor this morning at 9:40, and get it over with, but we ran into a few problems.  First, mom’s car wouldn’t start, because it had a dead battery.  One of the doors was left open overnight, and we’re not mentioning names, but I may have been pretending to drive her car last night.  It’s happened at least once before (to Aunt Debbie and maybe Daddy) where I was playing in the car, something was left on or open, and viola: dead battery.
Daddy was gone by then, so no one was home to help Mommy, so she had to call the doctor and reschedule the appointment.  In the meantime, Mommy called roadside service and they came to jump the car.  But then it still wouldn’t turn on, because her starter has a bad spot.  It was a whole saga.  Eventually they got it to turn on, but they said to leave it on for a while and then take it for a drive.  Naturally, Mommy and I drove it to run some errands even though neither of us felt very good. 
Then, it wouldn’t start again when we were trying to leave Giant.  This time, all Mommy had to do was call Daddy.  The car must be scared of Daddy, because as soon as he answered the phone, the car turned on. 
That was enough of that, we came home and ate some lunch.  Then Mom wanted me to nap.  Nope.
Then it was time to go to the doctor.  The car turned on!! Yay!
Then we needed to go BACK to Giant to fill my prescription.  I fell asleep just as we were driving past the turn for our house.  So we came home so I could take a real nap in my bed.
We still don’t have my prescription.  Guess we’ll have to go back out after I wake up.  Or after Daddy gets home.
I thought sick days were supposed to be relaxing?

Preston finally told me what he wanted to be for Halloween... or, really, what he wanted to "dress-up" as.  He wants to be a.... PRINCESS...with a white dress, a little crown, carrying a baby.... and a golden harp.  And I get to be one, too.  But not Daddy; he's playing his game and fixing his cars.  

So that's how my bedtime conversation went with Preston.  I emphasized the "dress-up" part, because at school they have a pretty dress that all the boys fight over when they are playing dress-up, and I'm pretty sure I mentioned dress-up when I was asking him about his Halloween Costume.  But still, it's a pretty classic answer.   I may ask him again tomorrow, just to be absolutely sure before moving forward.

By the way, I'm also pretty sure that the Golden Harp accessory is an a-typical add-on to his usual Princess dress-up costume, because THIS  is what he considers to be a "Golden Harp"  that makes "beautiful music."  We play this harp a lot when we are cooking dinner together.

Grandpa picked me up at lunchtime and we drove in his car to a really good  train ride today.  It’s the Wannamaker Kempton and Southern Railroad, also known as the Hawk Mountain Line, and we got to ride in the cupola of the caboose!

Today’s train was the called the Pumpkin Patch Flyer.  The train took us up the tracks to a pumpkin patch next to the railroad station in the little village of Wanamaker, PA.  There we climbed down off the caboose and all the kids on the train got to pick out a pumpkin to take back with them.  Most of the kids got a pumpkin then got right back aboard the train with their parents, but Grandpa and I waited beside the first passenger car so we could watch the big red locomotive couple back onto the train after running around on the passing siding.

The locomotive had a LOUD whistle, and I covered my ears every time the engineer blew it for a grade crossing.  Grandpa always warned me when the engineer was about to blow for a crossing.  That’s because we don’t want to bonk any cars that are crossing the tracks instead of waiting for the train to pass by first. 

After our train ride we got off the caboose in Kempton and we got some stickers to put on my pumpkin to give it a happy face.  We walked around the station area admiring the derelict train equipment, and Grandpa let me climb up onto some of the other cabooses and locomotives that were in the yard.  Grandpa also showed me how to put a penny onto the top of the rail,  then we watched as the big red locomotive rolled over it, and made it flatter and shinier!

The choo-choo ride was such fun that we rode it a second time – also in the cupola of the caboose, and we got asecond pumpkin to take home too!

From Daddy:

This morning (the day after his adventure with  Grandpa), Preston and I were playing trains in the basement.  When he made it down the mainline of the train layout he said "Ok!  Here we are at the pumpkin patch!"  

On Tuesday morning, Mom and I took a field trip with daycare to Byler’s Farm!  We followed the School Bus the whole way there, and met all my friends as they got off the bus.  Mom and I talked about what we would see once we got to the farm: donkeys and pumpkins and cows and chickens and apples!  We saw all of those things, AND I got to feed all of the animals.  The goats licked the grain out of my hand, and their tongues were sticky!
They broke us up into two smaller groups, so while the bigger kids took the wagon ride to pick apples, we stayed behind to feed the animals and play with the corn!  That was my favorite and Mommy promised that we would go back with Daddy to play with the corn because “Daddy will LIKE to play with the corns with me!”  We also got to milk the cow, and Mommy got the milk to squirt out!  That was silly, but I didn’t want to try it.  And there was a baby cow who drank milk out of a GIANT bottle. 
Then it was our turn to take the wagon ride to the apple orchard.  We saw more animals and lots of pumpkins along the way!  In the orchard we picked the apples right off the tree and put them in a basket to take back to the farm.  I ate an apple with one hand and picked more apples to put in the basket with the other! 
When we got back to the farm we each got to put some apples in a special machine that first broke the apples into little pieces.  Then “The man crushed the apples and juice came out!”  We go to drink the juice and it was delicious!  We were there for almost 2 hours, but the time FLEW by.  I loved having Mommy along on the field trip.  She helped some of my friends to do all of the activities, too!

From Mommy:
I took the morning off to go with Preston to the farm, and we had a lot of fun!  I’m so glad that I have a relatively flexible schedule, and can go do activities with him. 
I had a doctor’s appointment for Baby 2 this morning.  The appointments are always really quick, just a weight check, blood pressure, and Doppler for the baby.  It was silly, though, because it took the nurse forever to “trap” the baby into letting us hear it’s heartbeat.  We kept hearing it fly by past the Doppler, but we couldn’t get a clear sound!  She finally got a good spot after a few minutes of trying, and the baby’s heart rate was up to 168 from all the “exercise.”  It never happened that way with Preston.  He was always calm an cooperative for the Doppler and his ultrasound.  This one was doing gymnastics! 
I can feel it moving around sometimes, but I couldn’t feel any of it this morning at the appointment, so I couldn’t help her in finding it.