I lost the month of September. I really try to post each month, and somehow last month just escaped me. Last month Jason and I celebrated William’s 18-month milestone by getting a babysitter (Grandma) and attending a concert (Ben Folds). It was fantastic! In September Will transitioned from fast walking to all-out running and started to express and interest in climbing.
This month the running has continued and the climbing has reached daredevil status. A week or two ago the words really turned up a notch. He has lots of phrases (“follow me”, “open it, stuck!”, “run, kick, throw”, “sit on it”) and is even starting to tell us short stories. Yesterday morning at breakfast there was an expression of his dislike of Kiki coming near the table as he was pretty sure she would eat his breakfast. He will try to say just about anything. He is also getting pretty good at identifying colors (he showed my mom a pink crayon on Skype last week), and likes to point to, and name (sometimes correctly) various letters. He can say portions of the ABC’s, but usually only if he thinks you’re not paying attention. Reading books is becoming quite the adventure, as he likes to name everything he sees. He’s even points out the “mommy” in some of his books which I think is cute.
The yard is wrapping up for fall. We killed off a section of overgrown weeds/raspberries in the hopes of having a decent better garden next spring. There are still plenty of weeds to dig out, but winter might have to take care of some of them at this point. The apple tree is finishing up and we were happy to discover it produces much better apples than the trees at our old house. Our neighbor has a pear tree and we have enjoyed those too. William has been in heaven eating apples, pears, and grapes in the yard. Next year it is my goal to better figure out what to do with all of these things.
I wanted to get into canning this fall and then (as mentioned earlier) I lost the month of September. With the weather pushing us to do more inside projects we cleaned and assembled the used dresser/nightstand we bought a couple months ago. I still haven’t gotten a start on painting the trim, but all the materials have been moved upstairs. We will be in our house 1 year around Halloween and although the trim might not get painted as quickly as I would have liked, we have really come a long way since we moved in.
We’ve had some nice cool and rainy fall days.
This week we took William to pick out some pumpkins. I had tried to go the patch with him a couple weeks ago, but Jason was out of town and a tantrum ended our visit. When he is in a fighting mood I just don’t have enough hands to do everything. Our second trip was more successful. Jason could chase William among the pumpkins while I picked out a few for our porch. William seemed to like our visit to the pumpkin patch. He was more willing to give hugs and kisses to our new pumpkins than his own mother…I’m not sure what to make of that.
On the 12th we celebrated Jason’s 33rd birthday. Pancakes for breakfast, a very happy toddler, and a babysitter/dinner-date at one of our favorite restaurants. Because we are adults, there was also a good deal of laundry, some weeding, and a quick stop by the grocery store after dinner. The weather was BEAUTIFUL–60’s and sunny. I told Jason I am requesting the same beautiful weather for my birthday in January, but I’d be just as happy with some fresh snow and average temperatures. It has been a rather rough month for family health. Jason’s grandma fell down the stairs and landed herself in the hospital for awhile, and a back brace for a few months while 4 broken vertebrae heal. My grandma went to urgent care with a kidney infection and my dad got his leg stepped on by a cow and later managed to take his own trip to urgent care after lodging something in his eye. I advised maybe they all lay low for awhile. Yikes! Please keep their safety and healing in your thoughts.
Take Care Everyone! Check back soon…I won’t miss next month. Promise!