October 27, 2010

pumpkin farm pumpkin farm

This fall Miss E. got her wish and was able to visit the Pumpkin Farm. Lucky gal she is, she got to visit 2 in one weekend! The weather was lovely this year. Last year, not so much (40 degrees I remember!)!

The first Pumpkin Farm trip was with a bunch of our friends from church and all Miss E's little friends were there. We went to Swan's Pumpkin Farm in Racine County and it was really nice. They have tons of activities and I was really impressed. We just went on the hayride and fed the animals, but our friends went in the corn mazes and little train and had a ton of fun.
After the farm we went over to our friends' house and had some yummy taco soup and chillli while the kids played on the tire swing, painted and some carved pumpkins. We ended the night starting our One Month to Live series...incredible!





Pumpkin farm #2 was our "tradition" farm...where we go every year: Jerry Smith's Pumpkin Farm in Kenosha. AK and I have gone there since we started dating:) The best part about Jerry Smith's is the pumpkin displays. Our favorite this year was probably the Toy Story display! This year, just Grammy, Nana, Miss E. and I went. We had lots of fun, despite a few meltdowns from the little one:) We drank apple cider, ate some cotton candy, fed the animals, played on the playground and picked out some little pumpkins and gourds to take home. Our fall is just not complete unless we visit Jerry Smith's.









October 15, 2010

the farm

Most Thursdays I try to make time to take Miss E. to story time. We went yesterday and she was very excited on the way to the Library. She told me that I should sit in the chairs and she was going to sit on the floor with "the girls". Most of the kids at story time sit with their parents. She likes to keep me at a distance. She's very independent that way.


I should point out that even though the children are reminded to sit criss-cross-apple-sauce on their bottoms, Miss E. always lays on her stomach during the stories. I have tried to correct her but I mostly just let her because it's so stinking cute and not really disruptive to anyone.


Miss E. at story time this summer:
Yesterday's theme for story time was farm/pumpkin farm. Miss E. stood up right in the middle of a book, came to find me and said, "But I wanna go to the farm!". I told her maybe we'll go on Saturday.


Last night before bed we were watching a Max and Ruby episode about pumpkins. Miss E. screamed joyously, "I'm going to the pumpkin farm too!". I don't even know if she really knows what a pumpkin farm is, but either way I guess we better take her...


Miss E. at the pumpkin farm 2008 @ 7 months old:

Miss E. at the pumpkin farm 2009 @ 1 yr, 7 months old: This year should be her most exciting year for choosing a pumpkin:)
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I got this idea from one of my favorite bloggers (nienie) and I'm going to try to do it on my blog too!

Lovely: letting Miss E. have a dinner picnic on a bright red towel in the family room.

Not So Lovely: slipping on spilled bubbles in the garage and ALMOST falling...sometimes almost falling feels worse than falling, don't you think?

October 14, 2010

tuesday on my mind

Oh Tuesday, why do you taunt me so?

Monday night I had contractions all night. They weren't terrible and not consistent enough to time but they were bad enough to keep me up and keep me worried.

Tuesday morning comes and I am still not feeling quite right. AK left for the day and I tried my very best to clean like a mad woman in case I was really going into labor (I do not want to come home to a house that his disorganized closets and laundry on the floor...God forbid!). Some doozies of contractions hit me and hit me hard and I was certain the baby was coming.

In the dramatic way that I try to conduct myself in, I screamed for Miss E. to bring me my phone. She came running, saying into the phone, "hello, hello?".

I called AK and he came home (luckily he was still in Kenosha). My Dad came to watch Miss E. and then GG came to take over so he could go back to work. We packed up the car, suitcases and all and headed for the hospital. I called the Dr. and they said to go straight to the Birthing Unit. This was it!!!

We walked into the unit and everything looked familiar...like we had never left. They checked us into a room and hooked me up to a fetal monitor. Of course, not before making us feel like idiots to even THINK that our baby would come this early (36 weeks and some days)...even though Miss E. came at the same time.

Well...as you have probably guessed, the baby did not come. It turns out that I was dehydrated and needed an IV for fluids. The dr. finally came up (at my insistence) and checked me. No open sesame=no baby.

Boo.

P.S. I'm looking into having the baby somewhere exotic like Lake Geneva...I'm SURE they don't treat their patients like morons there.

October 8, 2010

just thinking

This morning Miss E. climbed into bed with us. She said "pillow" and I handed her a pillow. She said "juice" and AK handed her her juice cup. She went back to sleep and we did too. Most moments I feel like we still don't have the hang of this parenting thing. Miss E. gets her way too much. We are tired a lot. We give in. We get frustrated. But we have moments-like this morning-when we are so in sync and know exactly what to do. Then I start thinking, hey, we're pretty good at this.
A short time later Miss E. woke up and said, "hey, where's Daddy?".
Then the conversation went something like this:
Miss E.: What are you doing Daddy?
AK: I'm getting ready for work.
Miss E.: Why you have to go to work again?
AK: So we can have money and live in this house.
Miss. E.: But why we need money to live in this house?
AK: Don't you like this house?
Miss E.: Yeah....I want you stay home with me and play with me. Because I want to play with you because I like you.
AK: You like me?
Miss E.: Yeah, I like you.
AK: (out by the bed now) Do you love me?
Miss E.: Yeah, I love you.
It was super duper gushy sweet and it made me start thinking again. Does she even know how much her world is going to change in such a short time? Will she adjust well to having a sibling? And most importantly, how in the world is she going to SHARE her Daddy (she hardly shares him with me!)?
And right when we are starting to get the hang of one, we'll have two. Are we ready for two children? Will we have to establish a more strict schedule? Is this our last baby? Are we going to get ANY sleep? How will all four of us fit in one bed? Are we headed for a mini-van? Is there enough attention and love to go around?
Will he look like she did?

October 6, 2010

so long farewell

Today as I was rushing through the front door (when you read rushing, read RUSHING...there are a bizillion little black and red bugs on the front of our house during the day and I have to go as fast as I can to get inside without letting the bugs in) I noticed my 3 plants sitting sadly in the corner of our front porch. They are sad plants because I forgot to water them...for the past 4 weeks or so. I said to myself, "It's time to say goodbye to summer." This is a confusing statement to myself, (you know, who I was talking to) because it is technically Autumn but every time I decide to officially make it Autumn in our house and in my mind, it's hot that day. It was like 80 out today. Oh well. The point is saying goodbye to Summer. We'll worry about Fall later.

If you know me well...or even a little bit...or even if you've heard about me, you probably know that I am not a huge "summer person". I don't prefer heat. I don't prefer freezing either but again, we'll worry about that later. There are however, a great number of things I WILL miss about Summer and must say goodbye to.


goodbye boat rides
goodbye outside bike rides (and helmet hair)
goodbye summer birthdays, cute summer dresses and waiting outside
goodbye parades
goodbye fireworks

goodbye long walks
goodbye rides with the top down
goodbye day trips to museums
goodbye zoos
goodbye warm-weather pjs and silly sunglasses
goodbye beach
goodbye lazy lunches at Sam's Club
goodbye sweltering hot soccer games
goodbye CRAZY devil weeds
goodbye ice cream cones

So long summer...you'll be missed!

God, where are you?

Photo by  Ganapathy Kumar  on  Unsplash My Quest to Find the Moon Last summer, I took a course called Curriculum and Methods of S...