Family Day at the Farm

A while ago John, Jack, and I packed up at headed 40 minutes north to Underwood Farms which is one of Jack's favorite places. It's got a ton of animals, hay stacks, a mini-train, tractor rides, and pick-your-own vegetables and fruit. The summer is a great time to go if you want to pick-your-own because there are so many great crops to choose from. We picked tomatoes (so so many kinds!), zucchini, squash, peppers, cilantro, and, of course, STRAWBERRIES. Jack's favorite. He and his daddy worked away picking all the best strawberries. Jack loved to make sure to remind us "not the green ones!"

   

 Of course, Jack enjoyed far too many samples while picking. But I guess they'll never know.

   

 After picking it was back to the main part of the farm. Jack refused to ride in the wagon...he just wanted to push it.

 

Then it was time for playing on hay towers, in tractors, and on swings.

 

 

 So much fun! Of course, no trip to the farm is complete without some bouncy house time. Still Jack's favorite.

 

 

 I love family outings like this. Can't wait to go back in October for the Harvest Festival and their giant pumpkin patch! (I'll be enormously pregnant but I'll still have fun with my little guy...as long as someone else carries him.)

 

2 1/2 Years Old!

Look at that big boy!  Can't believe he's 2 1/2 years old.  Lately John and I are just constantly amazed at how old he looks and sounds.  His sentences are getting more complex and he's using the correct form of "I" and "you", etc.  

His strong suit continues to be letters and numbers.  He counts constantly up to 200 and plays with his number puzzles all day long.  His ability to read sight words is growing every day.  I would guess he's up to 50 plus words.  

Of course, the thing we need to work on most is his social skills.  He still doesn't love saying hello to people that come over or even playing with his friends.  He'd rather escape the chaos and read a book in his room.  But, at the same time, he is a joy around me and John and even a group of one or two other people that he feels comfortable with.  I mean, look at that face.

And here are a few more pics with a bonus video!

East Coast Trip Part 2

Man, finding time to blog seems to be getting harder and harder. I'm sorry this "Part 2" took so long. Of course, there's the fact that part two of our trip wasn't as fun as I had hoped it would be. I was so looking forward to seeing my relatives and staying at the family house in Long Island. Of course, I couldn't have predicted that Jack would get a terrible virus and be sick for 6 days. A 103 degree fever for three days followed by a rash all over his body. Of course, I SHOULD have predicted that he dislikes crowds, gets grumpy in the heat, and prefers to be at home. So, really, it was a perfect storm. Poor Jack really was just miserable. I felt bad that I couldn't really do anything to make him feel better. And I felt really bad that no one got to see his usual happy, fun demeanor. He was such a damn grumpy and wouldn't say two words to anyone. Nonetheless, of course I did capture a couple of cute pictures.

 

Pre-sickness...enjoying the park in Stamford

Checking out a crab at the little nature center at the Stamford beach.  

Great-Grandpa is explaining it all to him.

Fun noodle at Long Island

Enjoying playing ball in Long Island

Throwing rocks at the beach

Golf anyone?

The only person he would come close to being nice to...cousin Maddie

Checking out the waves

An attempt at boogie boarding

After finding an empty Bud Light can

Playing with his stroller

Happy 4th of July!

Of course, all of those pics were brief brief moments of smiles between long stretches of crying, whining, and grumpiness.  As you would expect, I didn't take those pictures.  But I did take pics of all his sleeping.  The poor kid tried to sleep off his fever during the day.  (No sleeping at night but that's a different story).  He did look peaceful while sleeping.

I did enjoy visiting with my relatives, I just wish it had been under a little better circumstances.  It did make me vow to not travel without my husband.  It was just too hard.  Luckily, my sister was kind enough to fly back to LA with me so I had help on the flight.  I was trying to make Jack happy in the airport so I got him a fruit smoothie.

It sure made him happy.  It also gave him a sugar high that made him crazy on the airplane (in a fun way) and gave him some major diaper blowouts (not in a fun way).  Sadly, Aunt Leslie had to deal with it all because I was busy puking my guts out due to severe turbulence and my awesome air sickness.  All in all, a memorable flight.  And a memorable trip.  Can't wait to not travel for a while!  :-)

Back East Trip Part 1

We were so excited to head back east for our big trip. The trip started off a little bumpy so I should have known we were in for a rough ride. My sister was nice enough to drive us to LAX which took about 50 minutes. At the curb as we unloaded the car, we pulled everything out and I suddenly panicked when I realized that we were missing our backpack carry-on. The one with everything to keep Jack happy on the plane and on the trip. The iPad, his books, his toys, his crayons, his snacks, etc. I was so mad at myself and upset. I'd never done anything like that in all my times traveling. Luckily, my sister was nice enough to drive almost the hour back to Burbank and then almost an hour back to LAX. I grabbed the backpack out of her hand at the curb and rushed through security just in time to board the plane. Woo! The plane ride itself was great. Jack was fantastic and survived the plane ride with flying colors. No crying, no temper tantrums. Just reading the Sky Mall magazine and looking out the window. Of course, traveling always sucks so something had to go wrong.

We arrived in Baltimore around 10pm eager to get our rental car in order to drive the next hour and a half to Harrisburg. For some reason there was a giant backup and wait at the rental car shuttle curb so we took a taxi to the rental car facility. The cab pulled up and all we saw were tons of cop cars blocking the entrance and hundreds of people milling around. The cab driver ditched us so we were stuck there with a toddler and a pile of luggage. The helpful cops let us know that there was a bomb scare and the whole place was shut down. Truthfully, as much as John and I were upset, Jack seemed thrilled to not have to go back into a seat right away. There was a giant grass field and he just ran around like a crazy man. We had a "picnic" with our leftover food and he made friends with an older kid who was very jealous of Jack's snacks. We finally got on the road around 12:30 and made it to Harrisburg at 2am. Woohoo!

The next morning Jack was off and running with his cousin Sophia. First up? Bubbles!

 

 

Jack loved Grammy and Pop Pop's house. Their giant giant grass yard, the long long hill to their house, all their toys and plants, and Pop Pop's basement with all the "animals".

 

 He definitely had fun with his grandparents.

 

 One day we visited Hershey Park's Chocolate World to see just how chocolate was made. And of course to sample the chocolates. Jack really liked the chocolate tour.

 

 Of course, the only place to go after a chocolate tour was the ice cream shop! Jack's favorite.

 

 There were a lot of quick thunderstorms while we were there and Jack LOVED them. Of course.

 

 This kid loves getting wet.

 

 He also loved the giant driveway outside the front door. Plenty of room to ride bikes. And play number games!

 

Running up and down hills can be exhausting so sometimes naps just happened instantaneously.

 

 Of course, sometimes some quiet time with his cousin was needed.

 

 One day Grammy took everyone to JC Penney to attempt a photo shoot. It definitely could have gone worse...at least there were no tears and no tantrums. But I don't think we ever did get both toddlers smiling in the same frame. It was a little bit of anarchy.

 

 But maybe we got a good shot?

 

 The cutest pic we got of the cousins was in the middle of an evening walk after a big rain. Sophia and Jack happened across a pretty big turtle in the driveway and they were fascinated.

 

 We had a great time in Pennsylvania. John and I were especially grateful that his parents were able to watch Jack overnight while we went to Philly to see friends and celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. Yay!