Pumpkin Patch Visit 2009

Sunday we took off to the pumpkin patch and met up with Meghan, Bill and Nick. It was so good to see them this year and be able to actually go to the pumpkin patch. Last year we got rained out and ended up visiting at the Children's Discovery Museum. This year we thought the same would happen but we switched weekends and were able to pick out the perfect pumpkins!

The pumpkin patch had a great "corn box". It was just like a sandbox but with corn and the boys loved it!! We weren't sure we going to get them out there at lunch time!

Let's see - they also rode ponies, pet the animals at the petting zoo, played on the combine turned slides, rode the hayride, picked out pumpkins and gourds, jumped on hale bales and off of them, and then finished the day off with a nice lunch out.

The adults had a nice time too!!

Say As We Say

Well, not always - like the other day when Daniel called me a "slapstick" when I put him in time out for something. "Slapstick" is a funny name Troy calls Daniel when he's being silly, but Daniel managed to turn it into a name calling name.

We also hear things like my two personal favorites - "Mommy Monster" and "Papa Monster" (when he's in trouble) - Things I am sure he picked up on in daycare.

Oh and I also love this one when he gets in trouble - imagine him all sad looking hands up by his head "I'm so upset."

Some days I wonder where my little angel went and then just when I least expect it...

This morning Daniel woke up at 6:25 a.m. Yikes! He's usually never up before 7:30 and most of the time it's closer to 8:00 and I'm waking him up to get ready to go. I put him in bed with me since Troy was out of town working the night before. And don't tell Troy, but all 3 dogs were sleeping at the bottom of the bed keeping my feet warm. (They are only allowed to do this when Troy isn't home and they know the moment he's gone!)

About 10 minutes later I hear rustling and then I see Daniel patting Jerry and hear him whispering "It's okay Jerry. No one will ever hurt you."

I almost cried. I always pet Jerry and say that because if you've been following my blog since the beginning them you might remember Jerry's story. Well he's come such a long way. While still leary of Troy and any large male figure, he's really just a big lover boy now. He greets people at the door, lets us reach out and pet him while standing around and when Troy's not home, he can be quite obnoxious with Daniel and I, wanting to play, jumping around us in the kitchen, racing through the house.

Anyway - I just hugged Daniel and told him how proud I was of him being so gentle and loving with our pets.

Mermaids, Dolphins and Sharks, Oh My!

Daniel learned abut mermaids at school one day this past summer and when he got home I asked him if he might be interested in watching The Little Mermaid. It's a girlie movie but I thought it might be fun to follow up with his mermaid lesson and Troy and I both watched it with him. He was glued to the screen.

Since then, however he has talked non-stop about sharks. You know the shark who chased Ariel and Flounder out of the sunken ship where she found the dinglehopper and the snarfblatt.

That one.

Sometimes sharks are his friends and other times they are most definantly not. We have not watched the movie again, but Daniel is pretty stuck on the shark scene.

Two nights ago he woke in the middle of the night crying out for me - something he hasn't done in a very long time. By the second cry I was already out of the bed, across the living room and in the hallway. His bedroom door flung open and he had his favorite stuffed dog "Harry Dodey" (don't know where that name came from, but it stuck) and he flung himself into me. He kept saying "Sharks were going to get me."

I told him sharks swam in water and there was no water in his room. This to which he informed me his fish tank had water in it. Of course. After a conversation at 4 am about sharks not eating people he fell back asleep. Oh and we put Harry Dodey on shark lookout. Harry Dodey was commanded to bark if sharks got in Daniel's room.

The last two days he has again been concerned when we put him to bed. Last night he mentioned dolphins getting him and since Troy and I were lucky enough to swim with dolphins a few years ago, I showed him the pictures of how nice dolphins are and he was appeased. I then told him that sharks don't eat people, but they can bite, only if we are mean to them. This was what actually settled him down and he has propmised not to be mean to any sharks.

I'm hoping this shark stage will pass. Who knew a lesson on mermaids would start all this!

By the way - has anyone seen my son lately??

Breakdancing??

Troy and I have never laughed so hard in our lives - we started out on the driveway - too slanted, sent him into the grass for a walking on skates expedition - you can see that went well. Next we tried our little sidewalk - that went well also. Lastly we took him inside - no pics posted of that but let's just say he decided skating was no fun and decided he wanted to jump in the skates - and he even landed one jump! Of course he's a boy so why should I have thought that he might actually like to skate instead of doing tricks already!!

In other news, I had him moved up at his daycare to the big boy 3's class. He was in a 2 Pre-K class, which held the younger 3's and older 2's as a transition room. However, one little boy was targeting Daniel and biting him constantly. Daniel's only there 3 days a week and after being bit twice last week (among previous weeks) I went in with guns blazing and told them either he gets moved, or we're outta there - no notice and no payment. Needless to say they moved him immediately and the 3's teacher said he was the best behaved child there yesterday (his first day) out of the regular class! Of course his 2's teachers hugged him a ton yesterday and this morning when I dropped him off too!

Lastly and this is a little bragging on my part - I got 28 pages of scrapbooking done on my girls night home by myself!! Daniel had a blast doing men's stuff and I had a blast having a quiet weekend at home! Thanks to my honey and Daniel's Granny and Grandpa for that!!!

Ahhhhh...the Sound of.....

Silence!!

That's what I'm listening to today.

Yup - Troy and Daniel headed off to Granny and Grandpa's for the night to put up tree stands for hunting season today and then Troy to hunt tomorrow while Granny and Grandpa spoil Daniel all day!!

As a matter of fact Daniel told me this morning that he would be "doing guy stuff today" and that I "was a girl and could not go".

Gees, I got the point already!!

At any rate - I'm doing just fine. I already watched a movie I bought LAST summer and hadn't had time to watch and am getting ready to spread out all my scrapbooking supplies and try to start on the year 2008! I keep telling myself I'm not that far behind!!

In other news - there isn't any. We have tried to enjoy every last moment of warm weather and are looking forward to fall and all the holidays coming up.

Daniel's growing by leaps and bounds and I'm proud to say that it appears he is officially wearing 3T pants!!! His 2T's are just too short (as you'll see in the photos) and the 3T's while big in the waist still are actually hanging on without falling off.

Nothing else exciting going on!!

Our First Video Blog - Helicopter Madness

I have so much to post about, but this just couldn't wait! Daniel has been enamored with helicopters for some time. He loves Harold, from the Thomas toys and he loves Herky from the Jet Plane series, so when we found out a local campground was having a Volunteer Appreciation Day and that they were landing a helicopter that we could get up close and personal with we made sure we were there in plenty of time!!

Daniel was so excited! It landed about 50-60 feet away from us and we got dusted with alot of debris. At one point I covered Daniel's eyes and he like to claw my hands off of him so he could see. Check out the video and wait for the big finally. When Daniel first saw the helicopter come over the tree line, he put both fists on the side of his head and just started shaking with excitement. I thought we would die laughing...but it got even better...Without further ado...

After they landed Daniel was able to go in the helicopter and look around. Talk about a thrill!! Check out our newest pilot!!

And of course he checked out the fire truck too. Whew...we all slept after this day!!

Tied Up!

Wow - where have the last couple of weeks gone? We've been so busy. We have currently been gearing up for some home improvement projects and so far I'm loving it. We've just finished a landscaping project which I'm going to post about in the next week or so on my other blog where we were able to do it all for $25.00 (cost of mulch), just by reusing and replanting what we already had. This was lots of fun for everyone, especially Daniel who was so filthy by the time we went in, that a shower was in order before I could let him sit in the bath tub! Currently we are getting underway with finishing a family room in our basement and also updating our master bathroom. Big projects and we are doing little bits at a time, but I can't wait for completion!

Daniel in the midst of all this has discovered the joys of a bungee cord! He sees Troy use them all the time with the projects he works on and has since come up with his own "projects" which include using the bungee cord as a belt, tying up his toys, tying up his mama's foot to the coffee table and trying to tie up Papa's feet together. It's been quite amusing and hours of entertainment.

We've also been reading a books called The Biggest Bear. Our cover is alot older than the one on the link I provided and it's falling apart at the spine (I need to see about repair), but this book was my father's and it was one of the only books he kept from his childhood, which my mother gave to Daniel and I a few weeks ago. We will treasure this book always and it has quickly become Daniel's favorite. Daniel knows it was his "Grand-daddy's" book and that his Grand-daddy is with the angels. Anyhow (before I tear up) there is a part in the book where the bear sleeps in a cornfield and every day we drive by a great big cornfield to which Daniel yells "There's a bear in there, get the bungee cord!" Little does he know I'm not going to confront a bear with just a bungee cord!! Of course Troy often plays the bear in our house and lets Daniel "tie" him up with a bungee cord to keep us safe from being tickled!

Here are some photos of his new favorite past time. The other items in use are dog leashes and links!