Stories of Now: My Little Monkey

So, let me start by apologizing for not writing a post for your 20th month. It's been a whirlwind week and I didn't think of it until after the fact. Today is Halloween and we took a road trip to Great Wolf Lodge (GWL) in Traverse City. I'm really excited because you are older this Halloween and it is our first trip as a family where we weren't going with family or going to visit family. We left home late this morning and stopped in Grand Rapids for lunch at Hop Cat which is a restaurant your daddy wanted to try because they have an extensive (actually ridiculous) beer menu. Lunch was good and you were pretty well behaved at a restaurant that really does not cater to kids - when you check out their website they pretty much tell you not to bring kids ("we don't have a kiddie menu and crayons, this is a bar" to paraphrase) Knowing that I came prepared to keep you entertained and was pleasantly surprised when the guy who seated us addressed you warmly and suggested good places to sit. You didn't eat much but I didn't expect that since you had snacked in the car and right before we left home. From Grand Rapids we drove into Traverse City and arrived at GWL right before trick or treating was going to start. We checked in and changed you into your monkey costume to hit the halls of the hotel for some trick or treating. It is a 4 story hotel and they have a couple of posts on each floor that are decorated and have candy available as well as some activities going on in the main lobby. I was really apprehensive about taking you trick or treating considering how shy you've been lately but I really wanted to try. Also, since you'd been in the car for 3 hours I figured it would be good to give you a chance to run around. A lot of people commented on how cute you were and you seemed to enjoy yourself. You spent a lot of time just checking it out, looking around at the other kids and trying to figure out what was going on. After a couple of the trick or treat posts you quickly picked up on the fact that they were going to give you something and while you didn't say "trick or treat" or "thank you" you did take the candy and drop it into your bag which you had a death grip on. At one point I looked down and you were checking out all of your loot as if you couldn't believe your luck!

After trick or treating we headed into the water park and you had a blast! They have a few slides that are just for smaller kids and we spent most of our time on those - one of us waits at the bottom and caught you as you came down. The smile on your face and the giggles made every moment worth it. It is so amazing watching you experience something like a water slide for the first time!