Never too many pumpkins

The kids and I went to another local pumpkin farm last weekend.  Alex and Helen met us at Larriland Farm, and the cousins got to pick out pumpkins and play in a hay maze together.  The babies literally got their first "tastes" of pumpkins as they slobbered and teethed all over mini pumpkins.  It was a perfect afternoon, topped off with tasty kettle corn and apple cider.  I could do this every weekend! 

Here a pumpkin there a pumpkin

Before I share pictures of our trip to the pumpkin farm, I must share some very good news:  Brian has finished yet another home project.  The deck and gazebo are stained!  It has been many months of hard work and tedious waiting (for blocks of good weather), but the end product is beautiful.  With that said, I hope the next time around he will agree to pay someone to do the job.  It is very very time consuming!  Unfortunately Brian missed out on a fun trip to Sharp's Farm over the weekend.  Aunt Jane joined Tyler, Claire, and I in our little adventure which included a hay ride, pumpkin-picking, animal-feeding, and a picnic.  The good news is that we will most likely visit another pumpkin farm this coming weekend, and this time Daddy won't miss out!

An exception for donuts

Brian and I are bagel people.  We've made our daughter a bagel girl.  On weekends, Claire wakes up and sees that Brian is not running off to work, and she says "Daddy I want bagel!"  They hop in the car and make a bagel run.  Claire easily polishes off a blueberry bagel on the ride home. 

Maybe it was a family thing, or a tradition thing, but I grew up eating donuts by the dozen in Oklahoma.  It was the indulgent breakfast item of choice.  (I don't think I even knew bagels existed!)  I made the switch to bagels sometime during college.   The major swaying factor being the cream cheese, but whatever, nowadays I don't even HAVE to have the shmear.  Although it is preferred.  Of course.

Aaaanyway, today we made an exception and had donuts.  Not just any donuts....apple cider donuts!  We stopped at a pumpkin farm and apple orchard on our drive back from Sesame Place.  After admiring all the farm animals, doing the corn maze, and gawking at all things pumpkin, we just had to see what the long line at concessions was for.  I have to say, those donuts were spectacular!  Claire gobbled hers down lickety-split and declared "I like it Mommy!"  She washed it down with cider, saying that she liked it also.  I'm awfully glad it's only the first weekend of October.  We have many more opportunities to hit up other cider mills and farms in the area.  : )

Tyler lounged in the stroller, hidden in warm layers.

The goats have a huge jungle gym that they can climb up and walk on. 

                                              


Our favorites were the itty bitty goats!

Here is a crazy conveyer belt feeding system for the goats at the top of the jungle gym.

Couldn't resist a snap shot of these piggy bottoms...

Claire's attempt at acting like a chicken:

I was so relieved when they made it out of the corn maze.  It was alot bigger than I had expected!

Mmm donuts!

Finally, a fall weekend!

First, a word about the local weather forecasting:  Terrible!  (I want to use a different word but let's keep this blog family-friendly.)  We never know if and when it's going to rain here.  We'd been planning to go to Sesame Place for the past two weekends, but had to postpone each time we woke on Saturday morning to find that the weather forecast had been wrong again.  We got lucky this weekend though!  Perhaps the rain is finally going to go away too. 

This time, the water rides were closed.  There was still plenty to keep our little toddler busy though:  live shows, trick-or-treat stations, kiddie rides, parade, mazes, and of course the photo ops with the Sesame Street characters.  (Claire is going to kill us; our photo of her with Elmo turned out really blurry.  What kind of parents are we?)

All of the characters were dressed in halloween costumes.  Ernie was my favorite -- he was a rubber ducky.

We forgot to wear costumes, but the trick-or-treating was a free-for-all anyway! 

Daddy got suckered into going on the rides with Claire.  Here they are on the Big Bird hot air balloon ride:

Claire LOVES this giant bouncy mat:

Her first time on the spinning tea cups:

Claire is alone for this photo, but we don't let her ride by herself yet!

The not-so-spooky count-down to halloween show was a hit.

The parade going down main street:

And now a reprieve from the place until next summer.  Ahhhh.

Moving right along

Tyler had his 6 month check-up last week.  He weighed in at 18 lbs and practically crawled right off the examination table.  The kid is unstoppable.  He is now starting to crawl/climb up onto things, and he is pulling himself up onto his knees easily.  If I help him into the standing position, he can stay there so long as he has something to hold onto. 

He has become extremely aware of situations too.  Bedtime has turned into a fiasco.  We lay him down in his crib and he proceeds to sit or kneel at the railing screaming his head off!  He can keep it up for an hour easily.  He's not hungry.  He's definitely tired.  But he refuses to go to bed unless he is practically numb with exhaustion.  I think he is asserting his alpha male status. (Oh, sorry Brian you've been demoted.)

New house rules

I have tried not to overwhelm my toddler with a barrage of rules at home.  We have the basic "no jumping on the furniture" and "please use your inside voice" rules.  As of late though, we have had to add some more specific ones:

1.  Do not choke the baby.
2.  Do not poke the baby.
3.  Do not ride on the baby.
4.  Do not use the baby as a hand-rail.
5.  Do not put anything in the baby's mouth.

As you can tell all of these rules are for Tyler's benefit, since we like the kid and wish to see him live well into adulthood.  Poor Claire feels heavily constrained by our new rules however, as they apparently severely dampen the fun in playing with her baby brother.  Also, I am now forced to be ever so vigilant during the day as Claire seems intent on testing the limits of physical play with Tyler.  It's one thing to make rules, but a completely different thing to actually enforce them!

For his part, Tyler is not completely defenseless against his sister's rough-housing.  He is quite the accomplished hair-puller, and more than once I have had to go pry Claire's hair out of his steel-like grip.  I'm not picking sides!  But I do get a good chuckle when that happens...

The little things

"Hi Mom!  Is naptime done yet?"

It doesn't matter what else happens during my day.  A moment like this one automatically makes it a great day.

Strider Bike Update

Claire's had her bike since the last post about the bike.  She has gotten better since then.  This video is proof:

Story time

Here's Claire "reading" Green Eggs & Ham to her brother.  Tyler is oblivious that he is being read to, but that doesn't stop his sister.

She's even started integrating the Green Eggs and Ham sayings in her vernacular. The other day while Sarah was making Chicken Enchildas, Sarah asked Claire if she would try them.  Her response: 
"Not in a box, Not with a fox"

Happy birthday to me

I got the best combo on my birthday:  I got quality family time AND wine.  We hiked with the kids around Sugarloaf Mountain, enjoying views of the Potomac river and fields, then relaxed at the Sugarloaf Winery at the base of the mountain afterwards.  We're talking a smooth cabernet, live music, delicious tapenade, and well-behaved kids.  It was perfect!  The only hitch about the day was that Claire took a nasty spill while we were out hiking.  She managed to chip one of her front teeth and bust up her lips.  She was quite painful last night, but after seeing her dentist today she has been telling everyone that the "dentist make it all better".  What that means is that the dentist prescribed yummy bubble-gum flavored amoxicillin.  Claire did eat well today and she was in good spirits.  Let's hope that the tooth stays in there.  I've just booked our family portraits for the end of October!

Yeah, that's our boy!  He's getting huger.

 
And of course, there was birthday cake in the evening.  There's something about a child's excitement over birthday cake that just makes the whole aging thing 100% better.