Children

You never know what the day will bring with children.

Jack is obsessed with the toilet. I think he secretly waits by the bathroom to crawl in there as fast as he can before we close the door. I can usually stop him before he gets to the toilet. Although today I found him splashing in the toilet like we run some kind of water park out of our bathroom. Water was everywhere and toys were floating inside. It was just so gross on so many levels. He thought it was great fun.

Today Lilly said to me "You shouldn't boss Daddy around." I said "What do you mean?" She said "Bossing is when you tell someone what to do. Daddy is a grown up and he should just do what he has to do and what he wants to do. You don't need to tell him what to do. You are both grown ups."

Schooled by a 4 year old.

Happenings

We hiked some local trails last Sunday and the kids loved it. Lilly had recently seen Jimmy Fallon on Sesame Street talking about Nature, so she was really excited about nature.

We've been busy at home with pre-school, my music classes, and plenty of chores around the house. Rather mundane couple of weeks. It's kind of nice.

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.