Where did my baby go?

In the past 2 weeks, Pete has grown up SO much... He has started school at Winona State 4 days a week. He goes bewtween 3-5 hours a day, he still cried when I drop him off, but stop real fast and loves his teacher Jill, who reminds me SO much of Kimberly's mom, and gives her a kiss or hug or high five bye every day and especially the college girls who work there. He is learning all sorts of things from the other kids and is getting so much more vocal. He hears trains, motorcycles and trucks and tells us all about them. He loves to make all of the animal sounds that he knows and can tell us what he sees and all sorts of different things.

In order to get ready for the baby coming we have kicked Petey out of his crib. He now sleeps on a matress on the floor and LOVES it. You can ask him where he sleeps and he runs upstairs into his room and jumps on his bed. He still gets his lovies when he sleeps which helps a lot, but has learned to give them a kiss goodbye in the morning until the next sleeping time. We do find him hanging halfway out of his bed sometimes so we arne't ready at all to go to a higher bed.

He also got a trike that he loves to get pushed around- the neighbor kids love to give him rides and he knows how to hold on to the yellow and climb on and off. Pedaling is the next feat.

We got to sit in a (points up) BanE- as Peter would say. WSU did a Blue SKy themed day at the farmer's market and there were a bunch of booths upwards related.

We are getting to the end of the canning season- thank goodness!- and picked apples today. Pete came and helped and filled up his truck with the apples on the ground while Garrick and I climbed the tree and a ladder- I was only on the ladder- to get these from Wenonah Canoe- we thank them for our free applesauce. This is going to be accomplished in the next week when we have a rainy day.

Garrick has been going full speed ahead on the deck. He has been working like crazy to get the holes filled and the base of the decking on this weekend. We are getting excited to see how it is coming together and progress being made on something new on the house.

The baby is growing, but slowly. I am measuring a little small this time again- so just to be sure that everything is going okay with the little one we are going to have an ultrasound on Monday to see what's going on and to be sure that Captain Hook is growing and there is enough fluid to swim in in there! I have been trying to take it a little easier this weekend and drink LOTS of water and juice so that I am not stuck on restricted activity or bed rest. Cross your fingers that everything goes well and we'll show pictures of the little pirate this week!

Starting Projects

We started to build our deck this weekend! The first project of the summer, the shed, is just waiting for me to put a second coat of paint on the trim and then it will be done, done done! Lots of the garden stuff has been moved in and garage is getting a *little* less cluttered...

Garrick and Mike (our next door neighbor) drilled the holed, dug them out a little more and set the concrete pads into them for the posts to go on.

Pete and I supervised.

And checked to see how deep the holes were- pretty deep!!
We got some of the posts set last night and the rest will be in this week!

And since it's been a while, here I am with my belly at 33 weeks- just a few more to go- we can't wait to meet this little baby.

 

We are officially getting between 1-3 eggs a day! That means that we are eating lots of eggs and more importantly for Garrick... COOKIES!

 

 

Garrick was trying to leave to go biking the other day ...

 

Our sunflowers have finally grown- my dad as usual won the contest- BUT I at least had the tallest sunflower- it was almost 10 feet tall

 

Peter and my dad also planted these little ones together this summer- These had the highest rate of germination and growth-

 

We also took Pete canoeing for the first time! The park and rec department lets you rent canoes for free and take them out on the big lake for an hour or so. It isn't quite as exciting as going out on the river considering that I run around that lake with Pete everyday anyhow BUT it is still REALLY easy to go and to let Pete give it a try.

 

He liked being our lookout.

 

Watching for Pirates.

 

But he really liked leaning over the edge of the canoe to drag his hand in the water. At some points he was trying to climb into the water. I would feel a lot better and could help paddle more if I had a rope tied to Pete's top loop on his life jacket.

 

And I think that the BEST part was getting ice cream at the end of the trip. Lakeview closes this week for the summer so we went and had ice cream and played on the toys for one last time.

Last weekend of summer

We went to the Goodview Day's Parade- Pete wasn't a huge fan of the Winona parade earlier this summer, but he loved everything about the parade over the weekend! He liked the trucks, hohomo (motorcycles- complete with the hand gesture), horses (NEEigh), clowns (gave high fives) and of course the candy that was given out (mo,mo,mo).

For our anniversary we went back to Smith Farms for some animal fun, pizza and relaxing.

AND a bonus for everyone!  A belly picture- about 30 weeks (maybe just 29?)

Then we also went for one last trip to Buckhorn to visit Captain Dan and Mooze. We went to Madison for part of the day to see Jackson and Thomas and went to the children's museum which is brand new and so fun and beautiful! Pete especially liked the water.

Making lots of noise.

And going up to the rooftop garden where there were ponds, chickens and grass to run and play in. Also, we saw some awesome views of Madison!

We had the great idea of kidnapping Jackson to come and play- they ate together, played "big-choo-choo train" (as Jack would say) and went to the beach.

Where they wrestled

and splashed a lot. What a fun weekend!!!

When we got back we went to Petey's 18 month appt. He is 21 pounds and 33 inches long- that puts him at the 3% for weight and the 50% for height!

Pete spent a good 25 minutes doing this while I was making dinner last night- He was watching our neighbor mow his grass.

Pete's Career Outlook

Peter has been practicing some jobs to keep in mind for the future- mail man... he loves to go for walks, play with paper and has even been learning to deliver mail. Most of the mailboxes on our street are too high for him to reach though! Ours is just the right height though.

Hippo trainer. He is aware that this is a specialized field and is willing to work with ladybugs, horses and cows.

Caveman. We had ribs for dinner tonight and he thought that they were SOOOOO good. Doesn't he look like Bam Bam?

Oh Pickles!!

I had a friend in high school who used to say that all of the time! But that is exactly what we've been doing at our house and lucky for me this year, I have the best helper that I could ask for!

We sat on the floor and packed jars together- well I started to and then he just parked himself right next to me and started to help with his own jar.

Garrick found an old library shelf when he was out biking the other day and he added doors to the front of it- so now we have a place in the basement to keep all of the canning stuff and the food that is in the jars! There is an entire shelf of pickles and about hlaf of one of dilly beans so far. This week we are doing relish- cuc and corn- and then it will be onto salsa, spaghetti sauce and then finally applesauce! We'll see what else comes up or let me know if you have any suggestions!

Gotta roll! Talk to you more soon!