Fall Fun

Over the weekend while Ben was consumed with getting our rental house finished up, the boys and I hit up a few fun fall activities.
On Friday afternoon, we went to Freaky Friday, an annual fall carnival fundraiser for a local elementary school. While the name alludes to a scary theme, the afternoon festivities were not scary, and included rides, bounce houses, midway games and lots of food. We met up with some friends and the boys had a blast with all the activities.









On Saturday, I took the boys to the local pumpkin patch. They had so much fun running through the pumpkins, seeing chickens and chicks and climbing on the "horses" made of saddled up hay bales.










The hayride...not so much. In theory, it sounded like a great idea, but one Mommy wrangling two squirmy kiddos on a hot, bumpy, 30-minute hayride was not the best decision I've ever made. About 10 minutes into it, Weston wanted down. And of course I didn't have any snacks or drinks to pacify him with, and we are clear across the farm so we really can't jump ship unless I want to carry the kids on through cornfields and barnyards to get back. So needless to say, we were all very thankful when that overloaded wagon pulled back into the barn.

Progress

We have been trying to transition Weston into preschool and it hasn't been an easy task.

Initially, he was moved from the 1K class down to the baby room since he has a mid-August birthday and was not walking, not weaned and cried the entire day. I was not a happy mama about being "demoted" but I agreed that it was a better fit for him at the time. The 1K was was primarily older 1s (18+ months) and he seemed like such a baby compared to the others. But I certainly didn't want him to get pigeon-holed into being held back just because he was a late walker in his first year of life.

However, whenever I dropped him off 9am, they'd swoop out and get him in the hallway so that his crying would not wake the sleeping babies. And when I'd pick him up at 2, he'd be in the stroller, where he'd been strolled the majority of the day in order to keep him from disturbing the babies in his "classroom". Read: He spent very little time in his actual room.

Well after 4 weeks of "rough days", I decided that either a) he needed to be put in the correct class so he could adapt & adjust without being bored, b) we needed to find another program that had a younger 1's class, or c) pull him out until after Christmas when he would be more ready.

I checked into another program and after seeing their atmosphere, level of teacher/child interaction and quality of activities, I was confirmed in my opinion that our preschool is beyond compare, and I was not going to find another program that I would be happy with (at least, not at this age). Not to mention the hassle of dropping kids off at two separate preschools.

And as an answer to prayer, the same day as our visit at the other preschool, as I was returning Weston to his class for the day, our preschool director was waiting on us to explain that she decided to go ahead and move Weston up to the 1K class, but have an additional teacher in the room to be specifically with Weston. (We like to call her his "coach".) So when he gets fussy, or when they walk to the gym, or outside, or he gets tired during storytime, she cares for him one-on-one to make sure he is being accommodated. This arrangement will be for a month or so until he is adjusted well enough to interact independently with his class.

I am so thankful for our preschool's willingness to accommodate. Gradually, Weston is crying less each day and becoming happier while he's away from me. And he even got his first GOOD note home:



That ones going in the baby book!!!

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Location:Valley Fall Ct,Greer,United States

The List

Earlier this week, we were running late leaving for preschool (as usual). I had made an extensive to-do list, complete with my shopping needs at each of my two dozen stops, but apparently left it on the counter as I was rushing out the door. I typically make the list on my phone but had just jotted it down in a hurry that morning.

Then of course, it was trash day, and I had forgotten that I needed to pull my neighbor's trash can to the street for them. As I was backing out of their driveway, later than usual, I realized that my list was still at home and mentally made a note to swing back by to grab it after the kids were at school. At that exact same moment, Jackson tells me from the backseat that, "Mommy, you forgot your list." I ask him how he knew that and he just shrugged. But he insisted that I go get my list so I "know what to buy". I told him I'd get it later and started pulling out of the neighborhood. But he started urgently urging me to "turn around at go get your list." Something told me to listen to him, so we did a 180 and ran home to get that list.

After I dropped the boys off, I could not help but wonder if Jackson's urging to fetch my list was divine intervention. That one little deviation in the timing of my morning may have changed the path of my life. Did I avoid a fatal car accident by being 5 minutes later? Did I dodge something else since my route was different by not going back by my house? Or was God just using my son to make me slow down my pace, practice flexibility and learn to be okay with changing my path at the last minute?


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September Update

I feel like I haven't blogged in ages so here's a little peak into what we have been up to over the past few weeks.



Jackson likes to try on my glasses. What a cute little bookworm!




Westie going for a ride in an empty diaper box.



Jackson decided to ditch his paper and make art on my walls. Thank God for magic erasers!



Riding George the train at the Pavilion.



Weston got to try painting with chocolate pudding. I am still scrubbing little splatters off of my wall, trim, trashcan, chairs, you name it.



My little farm boy playing outside.



My little superstar.







Oversize painting outside. Huge success. Jackson's solo piece turned our awesome!



My handsome goof ball.







We tried out gymnastics last week and J was in heaven. He had the best time flipping, jumping and swinging around for 45 minutes. He starts soccer next week so maybe when thats over, we'll do gymnastics.



Enjoying lollipops in the mail from our sweet Bebe. We love Bebe mail!!




Every week, we go to Dillards for "one last trip of the year." Turns out they are open until mid-October so I guess we have plenty more trips before they close for the season!


A fun park date with Jackson P. These two little buddies have so much fun together!



This little baby loves his nightly baths.



Prior to our anniversary trip, we celebrated Bebe's 62nd birthday with jello "cake". She's doing Weight Watchers so her dessert allowance is limited. I tried to make jello cubes to at least stack up in a fancy way, but those were a fail, so we opted for jello in a bowl with whipped toppin & 2 crooked candles.




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Hilton Head

The first weekend in September, we headed down to Hilton Head to celebrate our 7th Anniversary. It was my year to plan it so Ben was the surprise-e.
We left Greenville & arrived in Hilton Head in time for a fabulous sushi lunch. It reminded us of the pre-baby days of weekly sushi dates...or dates at all for that matter. We gorged for sure.




I had tentatively planned a zip-lining tour that I knew Ben would be all about, so we went to check that out after lunch. While in theory it would be really cool, the location and layout of the course was kinda blah so we decided to pass on the one & only activity I had planned.

We checked in to our hotel & spent the afternoon laying out by the pool and reading our books. And relishing in freedom from diapers and sippy cups!

Friday night, we hit up a local Hilton Head sports bar to watch NC State's football season's opener. And yes, that is a picture of Ben watching the game on TV while listening to the commentators on his iPhone. At a bar. Just like my dad :)




Saturday morning, we had room service bring us breakfast in bed and we lounged around until late morning. We spent the afternoon stretched out on plush loungers around the pool, periodically dipping in to cool off.




Saturday night, we went to a local seafood restaurant and binged on oysters, shrimp, crabdip and hushpuppies.






And Sunday morning, I finally got my traditional vacation breakfast staple of a bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese.
Our trip was all about relaxing, eating good food and spending time with just each other without the distractions of everyday life. Just what we needed. We had so much time to laugh together, and just be silly and have no responsibility for the first time in a LONG time.

We sure missed our little rascals and I know Bebe & PopPaw were ready for us to be back, too!
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Motor Mouth

Over the past month or so, Jackson's verbal skills & vocab have exploded. He's talking pretty much 24/7 and most of it can be understood (finally!)
Here are some of my favorite conversations.

While going to the bathroom, Jackson said, "Mommy, I'm potty choo-choo."
Me: "Huh?" He looked at me like I was crazy and explained, "I'm potty trained." {Yes, my 3 year old recognized a homonym}

After being disciplined, J told me that he felt sad in his heart. I asked him if Jesus was still in his heart and he told me, "No, Jesus is dead, he died on the cross so he's not in my heart anymore." So after I explained that Jesus was in Heaven but also still in his heart, he smiled and said, "Ok, I'm happy now."

Our dog Bella is 9 years old and Jackson overheard us talking about how old she was getting. Later, Jackson told me that "Bella is getting old, let's just get a new one." I told him that we still love people and pets & things once they get old, and now he tells Bella "You are an old girl but we still love you."

At Costco last week, we were washing our hands in the bathroom and an extremely short lady (borderline midget) walked out of the stall and started washing her hands beside us. Jackson immediately noticed her height and said, "Look Mommy! A baby lady!" I tried to play it off, saying, "yes, sweetie, she is washing her hands just like us." However, he was very persistent, with, "No Mommy, I said a BABY LADY."


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Location:Valley Fall Ct,Greer,United States

Going private...

So I've recently noticed that you can see who views your blog and what type of searches result in people stumbling across your blog...and from what sketchy websites people are using get to your blog.  This kinda freaked me out and some of the searches that lead people to this little family-friendly blog were unnerving.

For example, the most read post was "Kissy Marks" which was an innocent Valentines Day post with pictures of us giving Jackson kisses on his cheeks with lipstick.  However, this apparently is an internet keywork that is quite popular because it has lead way to way too many random views of my blog.  While the majority of my views come from the US, I have hundreds of readers in Russia, Asia and other countries in which I do not have friends or family.

This being said, I've decided to make my blog private starting next week.   I do not want to exclude family & friends who keep up with me & my family through our blog, so I am asking that anyone who wants to be included on the list of viewers to please send me an email or leave a comment so I can add you to the list.  This will hopefully weed out the random/sketchy readers who kinda give me the creeps.

FYI, if you want to see who is viewing your blog and you are on Blogger, go to settings>stats and you can look at the traffic by key word search, referring website, geographical location, etc.  Its very interesting and a little unsettling.