First Field Trip

Kicking back some cider.
Trenton's school had a field trip today to Battleview Orchards in Freehold. I've driven past it but never been there before, although we have enjoyed fall food-picking before. Most of the kids in the class went, along with their parents. The woman in charge of the tour was great-- totally geared towards pre-schoolers, which I really appreciated.

Below, Mr. Know-it-all raises his hand with a comment. Interestingly enough, she never called on him. Had to move along? Waste of time? He was the ONLY one with his hand up.
Poor T.
But I gotta hand it to him, I was impressed with his patience and his ability not to lose it when she didn't call on him.
After a tour of the cider-making facility (including a trip inside the giant refrigerated room where they store the apples-- so cool! so cold!) and some time discussing how apples are grown, we actually got to go to the orchards.


Harrison and Trenton bared the rain to fetch some apples off of the tree.
Ollie couldn't stay away from 'em.

Then it was over to the pumpkin patch.
Can you tell which kid is too excited to stay with the group and listen?

After an hour or so, we were done. Ollie really still wants that morning nap around 9, and crashes at 11 if he doesn't get it (which is what he is about to do in the picture above).

Trenton plans to decorate his pumpkin and have Daddy cut a Jack-o-Lantern from the other one. I think I'll try to bake with the six apples we got. Wait-- seven. I found one in the bottom of the wagon when we got home!

Tastes Like Chicken

This is a post solely devoted to all the things Ollie has attempted to put in his mouth in the last three days.

I made the mistake of leaving T's crayon desk out where Ollie could reach it. Should have known something was up when he was so quiet in the living room. Had to use a washcloth to get the green (non-toxic-stop-freaking-out) crayon out from in between his teeth... And yes, I did get the camera out and take this pic before removing the crayons, thus making it even worse.

Below, eating dinner that Daddy made. Jim's been faring well with the evening routine for both boys while I'm at class on Thursdays. Even remembered to get the camera for this scene:

"Now this looks like it has potential..."

Chowing down at Battleview Orchards.

I had the awesome idea of taking the last ice cream cone and putting a layer of baby yogurt inside it. So easy for him to chew and he luuuuvvvved it.

Sharing? Aww... ain't that nice?

Random Thursday Night Pics

Pictures of my adorable men, taken by Jim, on a random Thursday evening when I was not home.
Glad to see they were totally having a blast.

***
Big "duh" article of the day here. My kids could never avoid a situation like that... with my mouth and all... ;)

Welcome Baby Nora

This post is long overdue... no excuses, just apologies!
On September 9th, 2009 (yes, that's 9/9/09), baby Nora Catherine entered the world!
Looking absolutely lovely, here she is about a week old, when we went to visit her in MD.

Can you just see the way Shairna and I are gushing over her? I mean, come on! It is a GIRL!!!

Cathy and Zak wanted her to be a surprise-- didn't even share names! Of course, we think Nora is a beautiful name (in this case, after her late paternal grandmother) and it was on our 'short list' for our own kids. Glad someone got to use it!

Welcome to parenthood, my friends! And thanks to Kathleen Curtis for sharing these pics ;)

Trenton's Summer Pictures

Finally had a chance to take the pics off of his camera and post them here. A few of my faves, followed by a slideshow of others.

***

Have you been following this? Entitled "When a Parent's

'I Love You' Means 'Do as I Say'".

I came across it the other day and like to read things

that make me reflect on my own job as a parent.

Follow up with this discussion here (which was sorely

necessary), and then especially this comment here,

which Jim and I both agree is closest to our opinions.

Virginia? Check.

Sixteen states down, a few more to go...

We spent last weekend in Virginia while Jim prepared for, ran, and recovered from The North Face Endurance Challenge 50K run at Algonkian Park. Even though he had a terrible cold and had forgotten his shoes at work (rough week), he still was able to finish the race. The weather was beautiful. We were able to come to the park with a picnic lunch and wait for him to cross the finish line.

See below.

Free massages were offered. Jim says that this method was so effective-- a combination of him pointing his toes and flexing his feet while the man pushed on his calves-- he felt incredible afterwards.

And this is how you nap if you are at an event during your regularly scheduled naptime. Not bad for a $20 sling. So compact, so many holds for the baby, so easy to clean... It is still my fave and I'm glad I got it.
Below, the kids try out a Gore-Tec interactive event. They supplied the raincoats and waterproof socks. Then the kids got into a 'rain simulator bus'. Didn't get wet at all! Unless you were Marcus and took your hood off... ;)

Two babes with their pacis... Wait a minute... the one on the left is going to be THREE in two weeks...
All added to the vegging-out-on-the-couch climate.
Many thanks to Shairna and Chris for being generous hosts. Lots of recovery food available and a fab new HEPA air filter for an air purifier. Last time we visited, my allergies were so bad, I couldn't talk for a week. This time, I think it was a combination of Claritin, cleaning, and the purifier that kept me itchy-free. Good deal.

***

So I'm posting tonight rather than finishing my paper for class because I've been reminded by a handful of you out there in cyber-land, the people who actually read this blog and crave for more, that I haven't posted in a week.

Not to make excuses, but dude, things are getting crazy around here.

T's in preschool, which means coordinating the pick-up drop-offs (actually, we've been walking to school on most days, which is soooo nice to exercise... and Ollie gets to snag a nap on the return trip). We instituted a "no TV in the morning when it is a schoolday" rule. Helps him get moving with breakfast and clothing. He CAN do it all. It is just a question of if he WANTS to do it. We're picking our battles with him, but man, there have been a lot of battles lately...

Then we've got my class that eats up an enormous amount of time-- all of Thursday evening, as well as naptimes where I'm reading and writing up a weekly reflection. Don't even ask how the heck I'm going to add on a lesson plan for a clinic I'll be tutoring at each week ON TOP OF trips to a semi-local school where I'll be assessing two students and then instructing them for two weeks.

Arugh. I miss summer already.

Ollie is now in swim class on Thursday mornings. However, the Y neglected to tell me that he was the ONLY ONE signed up in his class. We flew solo last week. But I can switch to the class that meets a half hour earlier, only it is for kids who are a year and a half to three years old... I'd rather have him with the babies, but this will have to do for now.
He freakin' LOVES IT. Doesn't want me to hold him; would rather splash his entire body and face into the pool and kick me away (dude, you know you can't float on your own, right? this is totally a kid who is unfamilar with a pool and more at home at the beach).

I've decided that it is high time we remodel our bathrooms. Sorta. The sinks are rusting out and the oh-so-lovely almond-and-fake-wood vanities have seen better days. Plan is to go with these from IKEA because I LUUUUV IKEA and I'm psyched to be able to do something IKEA with our house without breaking the bank. We've even got a great guy to do the handywork... more on that later.

We're itching for a weekend for which we have no plans, as it has been nonstop all freaking summer. Which I usually like. But the list of things to do around the house keeps growing...

I bought some whole milk to try to give to Ollie. Figuring that I'll be gone a lot doing this tutoring thing and realizing that I only have about six bags of milk in storage, I wanted to see if he'd take it willingly. T did.
Put two ounces in a sippy cup and gave it to him. Good thing I had a bib around his neck, as he suck-suck-sucked and then spit it all out. Dribbled it down his chin and looked at me with the WTF?! face. I tried again a few mintues later. Same thing, only this time he physically pushed it away from me... Hm.... Perhaps because it was cold and not warm? Or because it was from a cow?
He is only 11 months old so no big dea.. And lord knows I've lost SO MUCH WEIGHT breastfeeding. Why stop? I'd like to gradually ease him out of his quickie nursing sessions, though... like the ones at 11AM and 4PM. I think I'll try again in a few days...

T came home with a picture from school today. They had glued a tree trunk onto a blue piece of paper and then pasted some crepe paper squares (leaves). Written across the top was "Trenton's Fall Tree". (I wonder if she knows he can write his own name...) Wild thing is, all the leaves were at the bottom. When asked to explain, he told me, "Mom, they all fell down. On the ground. It's FALL, Mom." Ahh... Smartypants... Didn't see any other kids with the leaves pasted on the ground ;)

***

Woah, my pictures are starting to begin with the 000_ prefix. Does this mean that I've taken over a thousand pictures? I mean, you can only do DSCN for that many, right? Dude, that is a lot of pics. None of which are backed up anywhere (unless you count this blog) because it is ALSO on my list of things (that never got done) to do this summer...

And, finally, here is a neat site for you to do mindless alphabetical stuff on. Thanks, Bridget! I'm going to show it to T tomorrow. And for those of you with babies, you might wanna check out this free e-chapter of the best selling books for children ages 1-2 (although you could still be readin' to them from birth and on...). Big hint drop: we always love books as gifts :)

Family Weekend

Peek- a- boo!

Sorry for the delay in posting! We've been busy wrapping up summer and starting up the fall.

Here are pictures from our camping trip to Allaire State Park. We took a short hike and saw many mushrooms. Trenton was as good as the adults in spotting them and pointing them out. And how freakin' cute is Ollie in that back-carrier? Got it for ten bucks at a yard sale when T was little-- good deal!

He's going back and forth between needing a morning nap and skipping one in lieu of a longer afternoon nap. When he's up before 6:30, he seems to need the morning one.

Hibachi for dinner, as it was something we all could agree upon. Ollie cried at the fire and wanted to be held. Can't blame him, as you could feel the heat!

T with his go-to dinner choice: edamame.

Jim took these, so I felt the need to include them.

Jim also took these, which are some of my favorites.

We wrapped up the weekend by spending time in Avon with both sets of grandparents and uncles. Could this be the last time the suits are taken out? Cool weather now...

And this is the little boy who was in the process of developing a 102.9 degree fever, which he had all day and night Sunday, then passed along to his brother, then got it back. Not sure what is up with the two of them... No other symptoms, really... We'll see...