October 8 - November 4, 2008

October was a month that absolutely flew by for us, as November is doing now. It was a month full of family visits.....nine family members total throughout the month!

Opa started off our month of family visits and he was followed by my oldest brother, Kyle's Uncle John.

"Mommy, can we read this book?"

Our next family members were my brother, Kyle's Uncle Jacob, and his family, Aunt Sara and cousins Keely and Jordan, and my grandma. Keely and Kyle became very good friends!

We participate in Wee Walkers, a weekly walked geared towards toddlers, once a week at a local park. It was our first cold day of the walk. Wonder if he is warm enough...

Fun day at the fair with friends Savannah and Taylor!

A week before Halloween we went on a Halloween Trail at DurantPark. Kyle got to make a bat, get a tattoo, play a game, and enjoy skits along a jack o' lantern lit path through the woods. Kyle's favorite book lately is This Is Not a Pumpkin (because in the end it is a jack o'lantern) so he was very interested in the jack o'lanterns.

Moms Group Halloween Party

Kyle wore a combination of his own German lederhosen from his relatives in Germany and Karl's shirt and socks from when he was a boy for Halloween.

Halloween play group

Halloween Night - We went trick or treating with several friends. Kyle had been practicing with his small toys beginning a few weeks before Halloween and after the third house or so he was a trick or treating pro!

Baby free weekend away in Georgia....enjoying Six Flags.

Love the fall....

Florida State and Georgia Tech game in Atlanta....sigh.....

September 7 - October 7, 2008

The summer was a great time for the Bayer family. We traveled a lot, spending time with both family and friends, and enjoyed this summer in many different ways than the last since Kyle was such a little baby then. Now, with fall well on its way we are enjoying all of the things that the cooler weather brings. Here are just a few pictures from the past month.

Opa came to visit for a week the end of September/beginning of October. Both Karls took care of Kyle for several days while I went down to Jacksonville for a fantastic long weekend away with friends.

For the past two years we have participated in the local lupus walk and enjoyed ourselves at a post-walk cookout held by our friend, Kathy. These pictures are from the cookout and the walk. What a great day, Kathy!!

Another fun place to play at, Screamin' Mimi's is a drop off place at the mall. One of the moms in our group, Michelle, organized a play group at this place. The kids had a lot of fun since there are so many things to play with. Kyle, once again, loved the kitchen area.

Kyle also had a blast playing peekaboo with the windows and older kids inside this house.

Jackson got exhausted while jumping in this inflatable jump thing.
Kaleigh and Kyle snuck off for some alone time in Kaleigh's house while Amy watched Kyle for me one day. We have to keep our eye on these two!!

Down below you will see Kyle's first adventures with paint. After seeing it go well with him I decided to invite some friends over for painting. It ended up being a cold, windy day so we painted inside the garage instead of outside. For the record, no children painted on any other child, only one decided to taste the paint, and only one little glass jar was broken before I switched all of the paint over to plastic. All in all a success when talking about a group of toddlers and paint!

A Saturday morning at the park....As I have said before, Wake County, which Raleigh and several small towns are located in, has a fantastic park system. This particular one is Holding Park in Wake Forest. We live on the border of Raleigh, Wake Forest, and another small town called Rolesville so we are able to enjoy all of the areas often.

First adventures with paint....we stripped Kyle down to his diaper, threw one of Karl's t-shirts on him, and let Kyle paint for the first time. He started off using the sponge brush but then quickly found out how much fun it was to stick his whole hand in the jar, squish the paint between his fingers, and then put the paint on the paper. The joys of toddlerhood! :)

Do I really need to say anything about this one?

First attempts at self-feeding with a spoon...after watching our friend Savannah feed herself rather successfully with a spoon while at the beach we decided to let Kyle venture into the world of flatware on his own. It had been a while since he had even let me feed him anything with a spoon, other than yogurt. He began self-feeding, with his hands, around 10 months and hadn't any interest in things on a spoon since then. However, he took to it pretty well. He still prefers to use his hands but will at least attempt a few spoon or fork fed bites at most meals.