We wanted to find a fun place to buy some pumpkins and have a fall experience, so after some online searching, I found a local garden nursery with a "Pumpkin Land" in the back. There was a maze, little houses to play in, animals to feed and pet, pumpkins to buy, tunnels to explore, blow up bounce toys for small children, and even neighboring train tracks that were much more interesting to the boy than anything else.
Honestly, in theory it was a fun place, but really they need to clean it up. It was filthy. There was trash all over the ground and in the animal stalls. There were also mice EVERYWHERE, crawling in animal cages, swimming in their drinking water, and scurrying over every possible surface. It was disgusting. I'm not trying to be negative, I'm just saying, if you're going to charge someone to look at your farm animals and walk through your corn, you should pay some high school student minimum wage to pick the place up and set some traps or adopt a few cats so the place doesn't feel like such a health hazard.
Overall, we had fun, but didn't stay too long. Calvin loved the passing trains much more than any of the festivities inside the fence. We got our pumpkins, and Calvin, as always, managed to find a lollipop for us to buy him. We then grabbed dinner at Noodles and Company. We had bought Calvin a new little train, and he was amazing. He ate a whole bowl of mac and cheese, and then played quietly with his train the rest of the time. Andy said it was unfair that he only used to get a toy if he was good and behaved while eating out, yet Calvin gets a toy before he's even good. For some reason, Andy never likes my stories about how with 8 kids in the family, I never got new toys and never ate out at all. I feel no sadness for him or for Calvin.
A fun day with my boys. I love how cute they are together, especially in their matching orange shirts.
This month has been another incredible month of language development. You’re like a little parrot that copies everything we say. There’s no way to remember everything you’ve learned to say in the past few weeks, but here are a few of them:
Mommy and Daddy – you’ve never really called us by our names until recently. Now you are very specific about who we are and you say it often. When Daddy is out of town, you’ll roam around the house yelling, “Daddy? Daddy? Daddy?” It breaks my heart, but when I tell your daddy about it, it makes him come home early so it’s all good. I love when you hold my hand or run to me in excitement, calling "mommy!"
Even more adorable? You say your own name. You point to your chest and say “Cowven”.
“I did it!” with your hands over your head in a self-congratulating cheer.
When you drop things or otherwise feel like you’ve messed up, “sorry!”
When we hand you toys or give you a treat or help you eat dinner, you say “thank you” (dank do). Melts my heart every time. You’ve become very polite.
You jabber constantly, and you especially love singing. For the songs you know, you’ll sing most of it in jibberish and then finish out the final word in each sentence as loud as you can. If you don’t know the words, it’s a lot of melodious nonsense words.
You count anything and everything, and you even recognize most numbers from 1-10 and will point them out in stores, on your toys, and anywhere else you see them. You also know some of your letters – E, R, Y, M, O, and S is a 5.
You love when your daddy takes you across the street to the park. You constantly find abandoned balls and bring them home – we have several baseballs and soccer balls that you refuse to leave the park without. Next to the park is a horse corral, so every time we’re leaving, you go over to the horses and give a huge hug to whichever one comes up to the fence. Super cute, except for the horse snot I’m constantly washing out of your shirts.
Your eating has improved immensely. You’re eating far more than you have in the past – since you’ve been on solids we’ve thought you were going to starve to death since you’re just not interested – and you’ve also become a pro with a spoon or fork. I love that so much less food ends up on the floor, and you love that you can be independent in eating your own meals. If you like something, you always say, "MMM. Yummy!"
You’re still not sleeping great and if possible you’ve become even more annoying about it. You require sleeping with both of your blankets – the blue one on first, and then the brown. They must both be perfectly straight. Your stuffed puppy must be in the corner with his pillow bone. Mobile cranked up, musical jungle crib attachment on just the right volume. You go to bed late, and get up early. You often wake up several times during the night. You are currently a pain in the rear.
I love that once in a while you’ll walk into your playroom, turn on the t.v., close the door, and sit on your blue chair. I guess sometimes you just need a break from your parents. Also adorable is when you are finished. You turn off the t.v., stand on your blue chair to turn off the lights, and leave the room as quietly as you found it.
You do two things that I think are the cutest things I’ve ever seen, and I have no idea where you got either of them:
When we ask you a question, you’ll tap your index fingers to your lips and say “hmmmmm” while you think about a response.
You do this whole McCauley Caulkin Home Alone thing where you put your hands on the side of your face, open your mouth and eyes wide, and say “oh no!”
You’re incredibly coordinated. You love to jump, throw, run, kick, and walk backwards.
You are funny, smart, and delightful. You have your own distinct little personality, and besides naptime and bedtime, you’re the most enjoyable and happy child. I love every new thing you learn to do, and I love that your curiosity and enthusiasm never cease. We adore every little thing about you.
Last night we went to Pack Meeting and it was a safari theme. I worked the plinko table, giving away jungle coloring books and Halloween slinkies. The booth next to us was a face painting station, thus we went with a little boy, and came back with a tiger. It was late by the time we got him home, and he was not a happy camper.
Yesterday I was feeling burned out on school, work, and life in general so I took a couple of hours and finished up two projects that have been sitting around collecting dust. I'm a crappy photographer (which is why I always take a million pictures hoping that one will turn out), but you get the idea.
Project #1:
First, as you can see by my handy carpenter, there existed in our home a somewhat large, very blank wall. We firmly believe that the former owners of our home were cross-eyed and didn't own a level. There are holes in every wall, in every imaginable spot. It's like they never measured anything, just stuck a nail in, and then when it didn't work out, they started the whole process over again. So this wall has been hard to work with because it's in a weird spot (between the kitchen door and sink), it's fairly large for just a picture or something, and it's got holes in it everywhere (which I could patch, but I'm having issues matching the paint and don't want to repaint the whole kitchen, but that's an entirely different story).
So Calvin located the existing boards with a stud finder.
Then assessed the sturdiness of the shelving.
And then hammered at the screws as I drilled them into the wall.
I had originally purchased more traditional looking shelves, but then in a magazine I saw this more modern/industrial look and I loved the straight simple lines and the metal with the wood, so I took everything back and started over. These shelves were so simple and the longest part was just staining the wood. Here is the end result:
Overall, I think I like how it turned out.
Project #2:
I bought an ugly brass candelabra at a thrift store, some candles, and some cheesecloth, and here is the end result:
Spray painted the candle holder, burned holes in the cheesecloth, and melted red crayon for the blood.
Calvin was a huge help. He loved blowing out the candles over and over, and every time I would try to drip red wax, he would move everything around. Two of the candles turned out perfectly, the rest look pretty bad up close. Oh well, if I've learned anything from CSI it's that blood spatter isn't always a perfect science.
On Friday my sister Mariah delivered a beautiful baby girl after only 4 hours of labor. Don't hate her ladies, I'm sure she has other challenges in life. McKenna is tiny and darling. She was 7lbs 14oz and 19 inches long and has adorable red curly hair (can't really tell from the pictures). Apparently she eats and sleeps like a dream and is a very pleasant baby.
The day she was born, I got really sad and jealous that I still have so long left. The next day when I actually held her I had a panic attack and told Andy there was no way I was going to be ready for a baby in 9 weeks. I have issues. When I held her, Calvin whimpered the whole time, and about 5 minutes into our visit with them at the hospital, he started waving, and saying "bye, bye!" as he rushed for the door. He was done. He's just not so much into this whole baby thing.
Congratulations Mariah and Curtis! We can't wait to see how you cope, and we'll miss your calls at 9pm inviting us to go out to eat where we say, ummm, we ate dinner at 4pm and our kid is already in bed. Welcome to the wonderful world of parenting!
