11 Months

Jack is 11 months now. That is quite surprising for all of us. Time seems to be flying by.

11 month update:

Jack's favorite toy is his sock. He rips one or both off his feet as soon as he can. He then totes around one sock for the rest of the day, chewing on it. He regularly crawls with one toy in his hand, making a loud smack sound everywhere he goes. He can stand on his own and cruises around furniture, but doesn't seem to have much interest in walking. Which is fine by me, hope he takes his time with that.

He likes to eat bananas, yogurt, cheerios, waffles, broccoli, and bread. We are trying to get him to branch out, but he's not interested.

He is a very happy baby and is getting to that stage where he likes me best, that's my favorite stage. If I carry him around on my hip he is as happy as can be.

His first birthday is just around the corner and I am at a loss. I am not a party planning person at all. I kind of hate it. A lot.

We'll see what I decide to do for my birthday baby. Since his birthday is right around Halloween, it makes it that much more enticing for me to have a celebration. I really love Halloween and all things pumpkin.

Happy 11 months Jack. Here is some floor smacking footage.

Wallpaper

I recently removed some unfortunate wallpaper and I thought I would share some helpful tips I discovered along the way.

1. Do not use wallpaper in the first place. Ever.

The End

No joke

My children are preparing for fall. Lilly is already trying to rake leaves while Jack tries to save them to eat.

We are pretty serious about fall around here. I also don't mess around when it comes to knitting and thumb sucking (see below).

Solution?

I just happened upon this pattern on ravelry.com, I may just have found the solution to all our thumb sucking problems!

End of Summer....again.

We have been working on a home project for sometime now. It is serious work, manual labor, and endless toiling. With the help of friends I have finished drywall, installed corner beads, and spackled and sanded until I couldn't see straight anymore. It feels like a never ending project, so we took time out to hit up Knoebeles for one more end of the summer extravaganza. I think this was my 6th "last time" to Knoebeles for the year.

Knoebels is a free amusement park. Entrance and parking are free and you just pay per ride. It is the best place, and it is pretty close to our house.

(Random cute picture of Lilly)
We went with another family and so someone was there to actually take pictures of all of us together.
You can't tell but I am wearing stripes too.

Fall is here so that might have been our last time to Knoebels for the season, we'll see. The pumpkin we grew is already proudly sitting on our front porch (not my idea, pumpkins shouldn't come out until October). Pennsylvania is so funny about their holiday decorating. People put their Christmas decorations up November 1 and leave them up through February. I guess it's their way of bringing cheer to the dreary winter. Halloween decorations are already up with pumpkins and scarecrows. I grew up with strict holiday decorating policies. Christmas happens AFTER thanksgiving and is over before Oliver's birthday (Jan. 7). We'll see as the years go on which standards I adhere too. I wonder if Pennsylvania will eventually wear off on me and I will display my Christmas flag come November 1st.

p.s. I don't actually have holiday flags, or golden retriever flags, or any other flags that my co- Pennsylvanians have.

Morning

Location: My house
Time: Before preschool

Lilly: "While I am at school today can you clean Jack's room for me? Can you also clean your room and my room? Can you clean the whole house so it's really nice for me when I get home from school?

Me: "I will try, but sometimes it is hard to clean with Jack."

L: "But it is only one kid, it's not hard with one kid."

Me: "Ok, I will try my best."

L: "Ok try your best, I know you can do it

Me: "What if I don't, is that ok?"

L: "Just try your best and I will help you when I get home from school."

The end.

Visit

Jessamyn and Johnny came to visit a few weeks ago (that is the explanation for my lack of blogging). I did not make her work this time, we just kept busy with the children and a few excursions.

Lilly and Johnny played outside a lot. It was hard for them because they are the same size but Lilly is 4 and Johnny is 2. There is a big difference between a 4 year old and a 2 year old.

We rode bikes, played on the swings, and had wheel barrow rides. It was a lot of fun. There were some fighting and tears, but mostly laughter and fun.

Johnny was so sweet and anytime Lilly or Jack would cry he would run and say "Oh no, what hap?"

At dinner one night Lilly was upset that I gave Johnny the pink plate for dinner so she threw her plate across the kitchen in a fit. Well, I let her eat her entire dinner off of the table with no plate. This caused screaming for the entire meal while the grown ups tried really hard not to laugh. Lilly and Johnny did not find it funny at all. Lilly was screaming about needing a plate and Johnny was yelling at Lilly to stop screaming. And that's why we don't throw plates across the kitchen. *Lesson learned*

We took the children to chocolate world and Knoebels. Lots of fun all around.

Pumpkins

I love fall. It is my favorite season. Pumpkins, cider, cooler weather, college football (GO PENN STATE!), sweaters, and did I mention pumpkins?

I used angora wool to make the softest pumpkin hat that any baby would love to wear.

Except my baby. He is not a fan of hats.

I have plans to make a matching hat for Lilly, I just have to figure out how to make it bigger. Maybe that will encourage Jack to wear the hat that I lovingly crafted for his tiny, cold head. I wont be the mother that is knitting a clown sweater for her 7th grader, but it is my knitting right to make my baby wear hand knitted hats.

Birthday Roundup

Lilly and I made a cake for Jim's birthday. We used the recipe on the Hershey's cocoa box. The recipe was pretty good. I frosted the cake and in the process of frosting, tipped it onto the counter causing some minor damage to the cake's exterior.

Never fear, Lilly covered up my mistakes with sprinkles. Lots of sprinkles. She worked very hard to make the cake "creative" (her words).

The cake was extra delicious and no one was in need of sprinkles. Afterwards Jim and I went out to eat and then we checked out the new bookstore. A great time had by all.