Random Things

I blogged every day this week and there is still so much more to say. Some weeks are like that and other weeks I can't think of a single thing to say.

I made shepard's pie one night. Giving the kids the beaters full of mashed potatoes earned me the title of "Best Mom Ever" according to Ben. Emily concurred. Who knew it was so simple?



Ben's preschool this week was a Halloween dress up party. Here are him and his friends.


Getting wrapped up to be a mummy.


Painting a pumpkin.


I've had these canvasses for about 6 months and I wanted to let the kids go to town on them. I never seemed to find the time. But, with early release for 3 days this week (due to parent teacher conferences), we took about 2 hours one afternoon and painted.


Here's Emily's masterpiece.


And Ben's.


Here they are hanging on 2 nails in my living room that were left there from last years Christmas wreaths!


Here's Noah napping this afternoon. There is just something so sweet about a baby all wrapped up in a white blanket sleeping.



Then he wakes up....

Flurries

We got some snow flurries yesterday. This is very early for us and I'm hoping it's the beginning of a nice snowy winter.

Here's Buzz Lightyear and Rocco.


Here's Noah with some flurries in his hair. His first snow and he didn't mind the cold at all.




It wasn't much and didn't last long, but it sure was pretty to look at.

Our Cool Coyote

On Monday, we went to an assembly at Emily's school. She was being honored with the award of "Cool Coyote"(their school mascot) for the month of August (it's a quarterly assembly). A cool coyote is typically someone who shows improvement in academics, leadership or citizenship. I thought the first month of kindergarten would be difficult to show much improvement. At our first parent teacher conference today, her teacher said she got the award for leadership in the classroom and taking initiative. We are so proud of our girl. To get recognized for doing so well the very first month of school is certainly impressive. David went to the meeting today and said the teacher had nothing but great things to say about Emily. She listens well and is a role model in class. The teachers only concern was that she doesn't talk. My girl? Doesn't talk? I guess she saves it all up for when she gets home. It may just be an age thing since she is the youngest kid in her class, making the cutoff by a day. But, she was much the same way in preschool. If that's the worst thing that she does while in school, I'm a pretty lucky parent. (Holy crap, I'm a parent! It still takes me by surprise sometimes.)

We had to kill a little time after the assembly because our carpool friend didn't get out for a few minutes. We went to the playground and had some fun. Noah, of course, was strapped to me in his sling.



I love the scenery from their playground. My elementary school playground was next to a water canal where they once found a dead body. The views of Mingus Mountain are much nicer.


The teacher sent home a packet of some of Emily's work with numbers and lots of drawings. Emily loves to draw. She was telling me about all the pictures. I asked her why Mommy was in so many of them. She said, "because I'm thinking about you". How sweet is that?

Congrats to our little Em Rose. We are so proud of you.

Passagefire

Some days Noah wants to be held all day. The second I lay him down, he wakes up and screams. I can listen to the screams (which will slowly drive me over the edge) or I can hold him. I choose to love on him. That being said, Mama still needs to shower. So, I laid him down while he was sleeping and sneaked off to the shower. I knew he would be screaming in 8.3 seconds. I was right of course. So, my shower lasted about 3 1/2 minutes. When I got out, Ben came running in so proud of himself. He said, "I put in Noah's passagefire", meaning pacifier.

I went to check on Noah. This is what I found...


Ben was so proud of himself. He put the pacifier in backwards and Noah had the little handle in his mouth.


Instead of putting my baby out of his misery, I ran to grab the camera. That's just the kind of Mom I am.

My Reply

Due to an overwhelming response (2 people) who wanted to know where Noah was, I felt I must dedicate a post to my little man. He was attached to me with our new sling. Now, these contraptions never worked for Emily or Ben. But, a fellow parent at gymnastics suggested I get one that has flat material for his back instead of just one piece of material. It helps him not curl up so much. I found this beauty at a second hand children's store. I did not want to post this photo as my hair looks severly wind blown, which it was, but it's just not a great picture.



I didn't want take a stroller to the patch because it is extremely dusty and I didn't want Noah breathing in all that dust. But, as you can tell from the photo he was tucked away and protected from the elements.

He loves this sling. For a baby who likes to be held, it has turned out to be a lifesaver. I did dishes, straightened my hair and ate lunch with him attached to me today. It was that or listen to him scream. My sanity is thinking it's the best $14.99 that I have ever spent.

As for our pumpkins, we know from our garden that they grow extremely well here. This place is a nursery, but not a farm. They don't grow the pumpkins there. So, they are shipped in from somewhere else locally and the pumpkin fairy places them all 18 inches apart on a bed of hay. Perfect!

Pumpkin Patch

We went to a pumpkin patch on Sunday. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time.

First up was the bounce house.



Then, this cool teeter totter, but the other end was broken. So, it didn't move which was probably a good thing. Where else can you find a teeter totter with a saddle on each end?


The petting zoo. My kids always seem to love the IDEA of the petting zoo. Then, they get in there and won't touch any of the animals. Probably another good thing. The only thing Ben wanted to touch was his penis.


The hit of the patch...the barrel train ride.

Telling Ben to smile is obviously not a good idea.



The hay ride or as Emily referred to it "the dusty ride".


The pumpkin patch.


Again, not a good idea to try to force a 3 year old to smile.


The place where they have the pumpkin patch is usually a plant nursery and restaurant. Friday night all you can eat fish fry (never been)! The grounds are really pretty and they host weddings too.













Lots of photos, but I couldn't pick just one or two.

Top Heavy

He's learning how to hold up his head.



I love newborns until about 4 months. Well, I love them after 4 months too, but I love how funny looking they are in the beginning. He's so stinkin' cute and seriously, he looks like he is 87.