Pumpkin Hollow

Last weekend, we took the boys to Pumpkin Hollow for a morning of fun! Daddy was actually out of town in Texas, for the ASU football game, but Grandma and Grandpa stopped in for a quick visit and we all piled into the car. The boys had a great time grinding corn and feeding it to the chickens, petting the animals, going on a hayride, riding barrel cars, riding in tractor races (with the help of Grandpa to pedal the tractor bike), walking through the corn maze, and checking out the pumpkins!

11 months old!

At 11 months of age, David is developing more and more of his personality. He is becoming more adventurous and definitely knows how to assert himself! He loves to swat your hands away when you come at him with a bottle or sippy cup (if he isn't thirsty, which is often, unfortunately) and loves to cry a high pitch scream when his daddy comes home if he doesn't pick him up immediately, if you don't feed him fast enough, or if Noah steals a toy from him :)





He has two full teeth on the bottom and his top two front teeth are finally through the surface. He likes to dance to music by bouncing, enjoys clapping, and absolutely loves to ride in Noah's car outside on the driveway. He has discovered the cabinets open in the kitchen, the drawers open in bathrooms, doors to bedrooms open and close, dresser drawers open and close (and unfortunately squish his fingers almost daily), and how fun it is to drop pacis and toys out of his bed for Noah to pick them back up for him instantaneously, giggling all the while!



He loves his brother like no other and loves to be near him. David loves to chase Noah on the floor, poke at his face and hair, and play with all of Noah's favorite toys (Noah has taken to placing his prized items in his room and shutting the door to prevent from having to share). Noah loves to tell me when David is doing something that he shouldn't be doing and quick to tell me when David is performing a milestone we have been excited about witnessing time and time again.





David is crawling, pulling up on furniture, occasionally taking steps along the coffee table, and trying to climb up on things -- yes, you heard me. Our little guy who was in physical therapy managed to climb on top of a lego box in Noah's closet to reach something higher on a shelf! I turned for 2 seconds and he was standing on the box! Who knew!



As far as language development goes, David loves to babble all kinds of things and now has a few words/sounds under his belt. His favorite word to say is "night night." We also hear him say mama, dada, quack quack, uh-oh, eieieio (from Old Macdonald had a Farm), no no, and I swear he says "good girl" in reference to Sadie (our dog).



What a joy David is! I can't believe he will be one year old on October 27!

The Paci Fairy

Daniel and I have talked off and on about eventually weaning Noah off of using his paci's to sleep (during nap and bedtime only), but never actually came up with the plan or a timeline for when that would happen. On a whim, crazy me decided that this past weekend was the time --- nevermind the fact that Daniel was out of town for 3 nights ---- I just couldn't believe how disgusting they looked and knew it was time!

These pictures do not really capture how awful they truly look and how many holes have been chewed into the silicone.



Not really having a plan, I remembered that my friend, Brandi, had the Paci Fairy visit her daughter, Zetta Grace, just a few weeks ago and brought her surprises in exchange for her pacis. I looked at Noah's pacis and told him we needed to pack them up for the Paci Fairy and she would bring him a surprise like the tooth fairy (we have a book from the Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist which talks about the tooth fairy, so I knew he was familiar with the concept). Surprisingly, he agreed --- so there was no turning back. We were really doing this. We wrote the Paci Fairy a request with special treats in exchange for the pacis (and I only hoped and prayed I actually had one of those requests in our house because this was happening and there was no time to go shopping!). He asked for a fire truck, a bus, a garbage truck, and lollipops. Thankfully, I had a super cool fire truck that makes siren sounds, a matchbox car bus, and I retreated to my neighbor's house for lollipops during naptime. So, the paci fairy was able to deliver on the most of the requests!

It has been a rough couple of days, but each day is getting easier and easier for the little man to find a new way to fall asleep. Many tears were shed (by both Noah and myself), cries of hysteria were heard even outside the house by my neighbor, and statements of "My pacis are gone forever" were made over and over again. I almost caved and returned the pacis, but am glad we pushed forward.



4 days into the loss of the pacis, the fire truck is still the coolest toy we own and Noah has been proud to show it off to anyone who wants to look at it. We no longer scream in hysterics at naptime and we remain quiet at night, even if we roll over and wake up intermittently. We still ask for it at nap and bedtime, but no more tears shed. I think we have all survived!



Just remind me never to try that again when I don't have Daniel home with me to support us all through the process of losing our pacis forever......

Crowley Ridge Nature Center Fall Fair

We headed out to the Nature Center today for their annual Fall Fair --- it sure feels like summer still though. They had inflatables, archery, children's crafts, and face painting. Noah liked checking out the inflatables, but wasn't quite ready to actually play on them. However, he liked the craft where he got to paint a duck. We handed him the plate of paint, paint brush, and the duck and he had so much fun! He did all the painting by himself too!



Maybe we have a budding artist on our hands?

Paint the Town Red

Before the first home football game of the season, Jonesboro has a block party downtown, called "Paint the Town Red." All of the local businesses in the downtown participate and paint their store fronts with Red Wolves and catchy motivating slogans for the game. Unfortunately, we were too late to hear the Marching Band play, but we managed to eat ribs and ice cream, listen to some other local music, check out the store front windows, and stroll through the streets.





David was content just to chill out in the stroller and take it all in (and practice using his sippy cup in the heat)! It is so fun to see how different our boys' personalities really are --- Noah would have never let us just park him on a curb in the stroller and sit without complaint.



Noah enjoyed his stroll with his girlfriend, Catelyn. Do you think he is willingly holding her hand or is he already being ordered around by his older girl? Notice the grip on his wrist :)

End of a season

We've had a great summer, playing in the backyard, riding bicycles, hiking, going on picnics, playing in the park, breathing in the fresh air, and simply loving life. It doesn't get any better! Here are a few snapshots for our memories.......

David's Graduation!

So....drumroll.....David has officially graduated from twice weekly Physical Therapy sessions to once a month! He is now where he should be compared to other ten month olds, so we have been set free to see what David can learn to do all by himself! We celebrated by swinging in the park....although I doubt that will help him continue to develop his gross motor skills....but it sure is lots of fun, right???







Big brother, Noah, wanted in on the swinging fun!



At an ASU soccer game, with Daddy!

Noah's First Day of "School"

Today was Noah's first day of "school." He is attending a church run day school that meets two days a week from 8:15-2:15. I was so proud of him for how he handled himself when dropping him off this morning! The school insists that you do not bring your child into the classroom, but rather they come to your car and unload your child for you (this works great for having David with me too!). I was extremely nervous as to how Noah would handle a complete stranger taking him out of the car and whisking him away, but he did it with such confidence! In the past, Noah has been relatively shy and hesitant to warm up to new people (once he is comfortable with you though....that is another story). But this strange woman pulled him out of the car and Noah didn't even look at me with fear....in fact, he didn't look at me at all. Instead, he pointed to the inside of the building and asked this stranger, "what's in there?" He could have cared less that I wasn't coming inside with him. I waited for him to turn his head towards me so I could at least wave at my boy who is all grown up, but he never even looked back. I, on the other hand, wiped away the tears as I pulled away and came to the realization that my son was growing up in so many ways (and in more ways than I even knew).



You will have to excuse my pictures.....in the first, the sun was in his eyes. In the second one, he was smiling so hard that he couldn't keep his eyes open :) And then, of course, the camera battery died. Oops!

My Big Boys

My big boys are growing up everyday! Noah is now 2 years 5 months and David will be 10 months on Friday! I can't believe how time has flown!



For those of you have been following the blog (when I manage to update it), you know that David has been in physical therapy, twice a week, since the end of June due to his developmental delay in gross motor development. For those of you who are new to the blog, David was evaluated when he was 7 1/2 months old and we were told that he was at the level of a 3 1/2 month old with respect to gross motor development. Through hard work and determination, I am happy to report that David is now caught up to other children his age!!! In 2 months time, David learned to roll over, sit up, push up to sitting from his stomach, crawl (military style with his tummy on the floor), and pull up to standing! He is such a happy little bug and I think he is really enjoying moving around all over the place! Although it has made my life more challenging around the house with a mobile baby, I couldn't be happier for him.



And I think that Noah is just tickled that David can get around and actually "play" with him. They just love each other sooo much!





This tough guy, whom you probably don't even recognize :), starts school tomorrow. Noah is enrolled in a day school that meets 2 days a week at a local episcopal church in town. He seems excited about school, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that he doesn't cry too much when I drop him off! As tough as he looks in this picture, Noah is a sensitive little boy who is so sweet. I hope he has fun with his new friends :)





Not only is David moving all over the place these days, but he also eats like a little pig (I can't believe he is only in the 3rd percentile for weight)! Baby food is now only for the birds at our house and David pretty much eats from the table with the rest of the family. You can't really tell in this picture, but he now has 2 teeth on the bottom. He also has given up alot of the "baby" toys and prefers to play with all of Noah's big boy toys like cars, trains, and Noah's beloved vacuum cleaner :)



My how my boys are growing up!