A Cold Fall Weekend

We've been totally cheated out of fall here in Minnesota. I typically love fall as I love the changing colors but this year we have not gotten a beautiful fall. It's rainy, windy, and/or cold - often all 3. Bleh. Cold weather bothered me pre-Paul but now that I have a child I REALLY hate cold weather because being cooped up inside with a toddler is not very fun!

It could have been worse, of course. North Dakota and some parts of western Minnesota got snow on Friday/Saturday! This is what we woke up to on Saturday morning, but luckily it melted right away since our ground is still fairly warm.

We had a quiet start to the day - lots of reading time and play time plus a little FaceTime with my parents.

Then I took Paul to his haircut at a Kid's Hair place. He immediately started to cry when he got in the chair but the tears subsided fairly quickly. He did a fairly good job sitting still - the container of trucks helped plus I showed him videos of him on my phone. Videos of himself are definitely his favorite form of entertainment!

It's hard to get a good picture of a toddler who is always in motion, but his hair looked much better afterwards. He had a Larry David look going on with lots of longish hair in the back before the haircut.

When we got home, we had lunch and then Paul went down for a nap. After his nap, I got him bundled up and we walked to the library which is just over 2 blocks away. It's kind of a lot of work to get him into a fleece snow suit for the walk but it was so windy and cold, I wanted to make sure he stayed warm.

He played at the library for about an hour. Even though he LOVES books, he had no interest in reading any! Instead he wanted to play with the toy dinosaurs.

That night for dinner, I made Chicken and Dumplings in the Instant Pot. We needed a warm, stick-to-your-ribs kind of meal. Next time we make this we'll double everything except the dumplings and chicken - we wanted more of the carrot/pea/soup mixture.

Paul would only eat the dumplings, go figure. At least he ate something! He just does not seem to like meat - except meatballs.

Sunday was more of the same. It wasn't raining/snowing but it was still kind of cold and I just wasn't feeling a walk. Phil ended up going out to his mom's for part of the day to do some yard work for her, so I was on my own. So we read a lot of books and played with his puzzles, blocks and other toys. I feel like Paul is kind of bored with some of his toys so it might be time to pack some away. I figure I can bring them out again and they'll seem like new toys to him. I'm guessing he'll get some new toys for Christmas, too, which is just around the corner!

Playing with his favorite toy - his soft Melissa and Doug cars

We had stuffed peppers from Costco for dinner and Paul had meatballs and a torn up corn tortilla.

It looks like the weather is going to warm up a bit this week. I just really need some warmer, milder, sunny weather! Winters are so long and brutal here so I just need a bit more warm weather before that crud sets in!

Has it been a nice fall where you live?