Friday, October 30, 2009

That place where everyone takes their kids in October







It's been almost two weeks ago now since the boys and I went to the pumpkin patch. We had a nice cool Monday morning and decided to go. Last year Drew was so little, so pumpkin patches weren't tops on my priority list. I remember driving past the (very picked over) field a few days before Halloween last year and being mad at myself for not going sooner. So this year we went with plenty of time to spare.....and I think this particular church must have just gotten a new shipment of them.....there was hardly any room to walk or sit!

The boys had fun....Grant was being his outdoor self and running and jumping all over the place. He had fun collecting all of the small pumpkins in the wheelbarrow, and of course he wanted to play chase (meaning we chase him). He'd notice an especially large one and say, "look at this big pumpkin!" And he had fun jumping off the hay bales.

Drew was my photogenic one this year.....he's always loved being outside, but I think even more so now that he can walk. He was giddy just walking around exploring the place. Especially at the beginning, he was interested in the pumpkins, trying to move them and even trying to taste them. And I was able to make funny noises to get him to smile for the camera. It's actually very difficult taking a good smiling picture of Grant right now. In the first picture, I had asked him to stand next to Drew. He knows what this means.....he walks over, looks at the camera and says "cheese!" about three times before running off. But his "cheese" face never ends up being a very good smile!

I don't know what it is, but pumpkin pictures are just so darn cute. It probably has a lot to do with all the colors.....the green of the trees and grass and the bright orange of the pumpkins.....it just makes for a great background. For me, I have to take some pictures and then step back and just enjoy watching the boys for a while. My tendency is to take pictures every second because the place just lends itself to great photos!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

A first

Both boys went to sleep around 12:15. Grant woke up about ten minutes ago (it's 3:20 now) and Drew is still asleep! I'm pretty sure that Drew has never taken a longer nap than Grant. But he's had croup for a couple of days and isn't feeling very well, so he definitely needs the sleep.

My post from last Friday seems too old to even post.....so I'll just have to start something else. The past couple of days I've been trying to order pictures from Kodak (I had a credit that had to be used by yesterday). And today I've been working on making a BookSmart book from some of our early blog posts. I got so much done during the past few hours! So I've been neglecting the blog....hopefully I'll get back on track next week.....

Monday, October 26, 2009

ah, man!!!

I was just about to finish a post I'd started on Friday.....Grant and Drew both took 3-hour naps on Saturday and Sunday (somewhat normal for Grant but not Drew), so I was hoping they'd do the same today. But Drew is crying right now....after sleeping for an hour. Boooo.....

Why is it that they both sleep so well for me when Dean is home to help out? Then when I'm here by myself, it's back to the one-hour naps?

Oh well.....maybe tomorrow......

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Interesting.....

Recently I became curious and went on a search to find out more about blood types. You always hear about universal donors and universal recipients, but I can never remember the details. So I found these charts that I thought were interesting. Here's the breakdown of the U.S. population:

I always assumed that every blood type was just about as common as every other, but apparently the majority of people in the U.S. (over 70%) are either O positive or A positive. So then you can look at this next chart and see what types of blood you can receive for your blood type. I'm A negative.....so it's a little scary to think that if I ever need blood, I'd have to get it from a person who's either A negative or O negative (only 13% of the population, combined). It makes me want to go donate!!

If your blood type is: You can receive:
O- O+ B- B+ A- A+ AB- AB+
AB+ yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
AB- yes
yes
yes
yes
A+ yes yes

yes yes

A- yes


yes


B+ yes yes yes yes



B- yes
yes




O+ yes yes





O- yes






Thirteen months

Drew is 13 months old today! He's got quite a little personality and tries very hard to be a big boy!

Some things about Drew at 13 months:


He pulls books off his bookshelf and likes to flip through them. His favorites are the books that have kitties in them. He screams/shreiks "TEEE!" when he sees a picture of a kitty. He doesn't really care about any other animals except the cats!

He's not a big fan of shoes right now.....he learned how to walk without them, so now he tries pulling them off as soon as I put them on.

He loves going outside, and he always makes a beeline for the pot full of dirt on our patio. The other night he started digging and make quite a mess before Dean noticed!


He also loves climbing up the ladder on the playground. There are some pieces of rotting wood at the top, and it grosses me out when he digs around in it. So I try keeping him off the playground at all, but he gets so angry when I don't let him go up there.

We play on the swings all the time.....probably every day. Lately, Grant will grab Drew's swing and they swing together. Drew gets such a kick out of this.

He'll make car noises with his mouth while he's playing with cars and trucks (something he definitely learned from big brother).

Drew eats a waffle every morning for breakfast. When he hears the toaster pop, he starts squealing and gets so excited!

Some other favorite foods: hot dogs/sausage, cereal bars, grapes, tortillas, goldfish, pineapples, pancakes, Pringles! And of course any bites of cookies/sweets we give him. Unfortunately, he refuses any veggies......of course I must admit that at this point I hardly even try. It's hard enough to just get something on the table, so most of the time even Dean and I don't eat vegetables!

He loves playing on top of beds....he always gets so excited when I'm holding him and I walk remotely close to our bed. He and Grant have a fun time wrestling up there, and on our guest bed. It's also an easy way for him to get into things on my bedside table!

When he sees a soccer ball (or any ball), he'll walk up to it and kick it along with him as he walks. He laughs and thinks this is so funny!

He loves waving to people.....I'll tell Grant to say hi to someone, and Drew starts waving at them too!

A few other pictures.......