A Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

This year, Michigan had some spectacular fall colors.  I had purchased an awesome plaid shirt with the idea that we would take Carder to a pumkin patch and get some incredible pictures...

But the weather didn't cooperate.  The first 2 weekends of October were cold and very rainy.  The third weekend we were in Georgia and the weather in Michigan was perfect for Pumpkin Patch-ing.  That left us with the weekend before Halloween...

The weather left something to be desired - it was quite cold and windy.  So, the plaid shirt that I had purchased remained in the closet and was replaced with a warmer sweater.  It wouldn't have been seen under his winter coat, anyway.

Our first stop was at a corn maze/pumpkin patch and there were about 10-15 pumkins left.  There was a horse drawn carraige ride, but since Carder had missed a nap and wasn't in the best of moods, we decided to skip it.  This stop was a total bust - with the exception of the fresh donuts we bought...

Then we drove to another location - it wasn't quite the "patch" I had envisioned as the pumkins were spread out on their front lawn and the actual patch was no where in sight.  But, the owners had built this neat Pumkin Castle out of hay bales and pumpkins.  It was actually a perfect location for a 16 month old.  The castle had a single entrance, the walls blocked some of the wind, and we had the place to ourselves. 

Carder ran all over the castle looking excitedly at pumpkins (or "Balls!" as he called them) and attempting to pick them up.  It was quite amusing to watch him wrestle with the heavier pumkins in his attempt to throw them.

We did FaceTime with both sets of Grandparents, snapped a few pictures, and purchased a couple of beautiful orange pumpkins.

Other moments not to be forgotten from this adventure?
At the first stop, Carder ran excitedly towards the corn maze and face planted getting a mouth full of dirt...
At the second stop, Carder managed to step in some sort of poop and get it all over my pants leg while we were there, too.

Trip to Georgia

To any friends or family in Georgia that are reading this that did not see us during our visit or were not even aware that we were going to Georgia, I apologize.  I hope that as you read this post  you will understand why we didn't make time to visit everyone we know...

All of my family still lives in Georgia.  Since we moved to Michigan, I haven't had the opportunity to visit as often as I would like.  In fact, since we moved I have only been able to return to Georgia 2 times - once for the baby showers and once last Thanksgiving (2011). 

I only work part time (3 days per week) and I don't have any paid vacation.  My boss has been wonderful about letting me shift my days off to accommodate visiting my family when they have come to Michigan.  But, it is a GREAT job and I hate to take advantage of them by asking for too much shifting or days off (or else I may not have a job at all...)  So, travel for me has been quite rare.

Plus, driving to Georgia takes 15 or so hours each way and the thought of driving with our son (who protests at riding for an hour in the car) was not something that delighted me.  Plane tickets are expensive (and did I mention that I only work part time???) and the thought of flying with all of the necessary garb was giving me nightmares.

In recent months, the health of my Grandma has been deteriorating.  I got a call not too long ago that she was admitted to the hospital in renal failure and with a blood pressure of 70/40 (or something equally as low and scary).  She has been recovering and has full kidney function back, but is having to go through physical therapy to be able to gain enough strength to walk again.  And then she broke another vertebrae in her back.  I knew it was time to make the trip.

So, we were able to shift our schedules around a bit so that we could drive to Georgia and split the trip over 2 days each way.  But, this meant that even though we were able to be away from work for 7 days, we still only got a little over 3 days of visiting time and we had to make the most of it.

On our last trip to GA, I tried to cram in seeing everyone we used to work with and be friends with (after all, we had to show off this bundle of joy we worked so hard to have!!) - and it resulted in having very little time to spend with my family.  It is hard enough on them as it is to only see Carder a few times a year.

So, with all of that in mind, we headed to Georgia.  Travelling with our 16 month old? Not nearly as difficult as I had expected. All things considered, he was an ANGEL.  We packed plenty of snacks, plenty of his favorite toys, a cookie sheet for coloring and play doh (which - BONUS - doubled as an eating surface while driving), our iPad (armed with an aquarium app and 2 Yo Gabba Gabba videos that he may or may not have watched for hour after  hour...), and a couple of new/wrapped toys for any possible meltdowns.

We drove directly to Carrollton to visit with Grandma.  We left around 2:30 pm on Wednesday and arrived at my Grandma's at around 5:00 pm on Thursday.  There was no food in her house (and since fast food had not been too much a hit with Carder in transit), we stopped by the grocery store and picked up the ingredients for spaghetti.  Dinner and a quick bath later, we headed to the facility where Grandma is staying while she recuperates.  We stayed the night at her house and then headed back to see her the next morning - but only after dealing with the termite inspection at Grandma's house.*  We got to spend a few quality hours with Grandma and took her to lunch at Chick-Fil-A.  All things considered, Grandma was doing much better than I had hoped she would be - she was walking with a walker and no longer in the wheelchair.  She has lost a ton of weight and is still very weak, so I am very glad that we made the trip and got to spend some time with just her.

We left my Grandma's and headed to my parents late in the afternoon on Friday (and this allowed for a nap in the car while driving).  We got to my parents house in time for dinner and some play and relaxing there.

My dad is a farmer of sorts - he has cows and tractors and such and he has been DYING to get Carder into the family business. 

Saturday morning, Carder got to feed some adult cows.  And then we went to visit some calves (which Carder hugged) and a HUGE bull licked his hand.  Carder LOVED it.  Carder also got to pet some little pigs.  We went to a BBQ hosted by some friends of ours. 

On Sunday, I got to spend a little time with my BFF and her family at the highest point in Georgia for a hike.  When we got back, Carder got to ride on the lawn mower with my dad.

Monday morning we went to my Dad's office.  They have built a new office building and he wanted to show us around.  While we were in the new warehouse, Carder and I got to drive a forklift. 

After the tour, we let Carder see some more cows. And then he got to ride a tractor with my dad.  He was so excited when he saw the tractor - I wish I had gotten that reaction on video...

Tuesday morning we stopped by my mom's office to let her show off her grandson.  Then we fed Carder lunch and hit the road to go back home.  The return trip home was just as smooth as the trip down.  We got home on Wednesday late in the afternoon.  We took a short walk to stretch our legs and let Carder play at the park a little bit to stretch his legs.  After our normal nightly routine, we headed back to work on Thursday.

*  This was not part of the plan and was a huge source of contention while on our trip.  Not only did they inspect, but they also sprayed inside and out and the man said that once it "dried" it should be safe.  This was NOT good as this was supposed to be our safe haven for Carder while I visited with Grandma.

16 Months Old

Dear Carder,

I can't believe how quickly time has flown!  You are 16 months old now and I can hardly believe it!

Over these last couple of months, you have morphed before our very eyes.  Every single day, you look more and more like a little boy and less and less like a baby.  Although we still get plenty of moments where you cuddle up and give us love, you are growing so much in your independence daily and you are turning into such a fun little guy.  I love spending time with you - from our cuddle time in the morning to playing ball or cars to watching you giggle at something...this is by far my favorite time in your life.

Growth Stats - I have no idea how tall you are right now - at least half of my height for sure.  You are TALL - much taller than many of the other boys your age in your day care class - and we hear comments all the time how tall you are...  I weighed you on our scales at home the other day and you weighed in at 22.8 pounds.

Teeth - You have 9 teeth now (all of the front incisors and one top molar).  This last month, sleep has still been less than stellar, but with 5+ teeth coming in at once, I can't say we expected anything different.  We will be glad once all of these baby teeth make their arrival, though.  We hate to see you wriggle around in pain all night long.  But, if what I read about teeth coming in pairs is true, you should have 3 more molars soon.  That will put your total teeth count at 12 with only 8 more to go.

Eating - All of the sudden, most of your food intake comes from table food.  Some of your favorites include spaghetti, hot dogs, Sloppy Joe's, macaroni & cheese, sweet potato fries, teriyaki veggies, tomatoes, and fresh fruits.  In these last few weeks, you have been a little more picky with your eating habits - I think the teeth erupting are causing some of that, though.  We still struggle with getting you to eat most of the veggies in their true form - we are fairly certain it is the texture.

Drinking - After your transition to the toddler room, your drinking has picked up drastically.  We went from having every day be "Code Red" on your fluid intake with you drinking 6-8 ounces per day to you being a champ at drinking.  Whether it is walking around drinking from a straw or throwing your head back drinking from your other cup, you now readily drink up to 40 ounces per day of water, juice, and (GASP) whole milk.  It is such a nice change to not spend every night trying to force you to drink and worrying that we may end up at the ER with a dehydrated little boy.

Sleeping - If there was ANYTHING I could change about you, it would be your sleeping habits.  You still don't sleep through the night and I am beginning to wonder if you ever will.  After I rock you to sleep each night at around 7:30 and lie you down, you typically wake up around midnight.  Sometimes you will go back to sleep in your crib for a little while.  By now, I am pretty good at determining when that is going to be a bust.  You end up in our bed every night - typically somewhere between 12 and 2.  And just when I begin to think that this is ALL a behavioral issue, the teething lets up and you will sleep for 2-3 glorious nights ALL NIGHT LONG.  Poor little guy...

Walking/Running - After taking your first few tentative steps by yourself back in July, it took you a while to get brave enough to trust that you could walk more than 3 or 4 steps at a time.  Gradually, you got braver, though.  On August 24, you walked around all day holding onto my hands.  And on August 25, you decided you were a big boy and didn't need me anymore.  When your feet hit the ground that morning, you took off walking and didn't look back.  Although your steadiness has greatly increased, so has your speed - and with that has come more instability.  You have taken more tumbles in the last month than I care to have seen - most of them narrowly missing some sharp edge and some of them right into a piece of furniture.  My heart races each time I see you falling towards the ground...But I am such a proud mommy to see you running all over the place!

Getting Into Trouble - Due to your height, you can reach so many things that surprise me (like objects several inches from the edge of the dining room table...).  In addition, you can open doors.  YES, I SAID OPEN DOORS.  Even the ones that you have to pull towards you to open.  We have been locking the back door to prevent you from just walking right out into the back yard, but you have been fingering the lock suspiciously and I have a feeling that it will just be a matter of time until you figure that one out.  Luckily for us, you haven't started testing your limits on closed doors and you just walk by most of them.  The only doors you try to open are the ones you close yourself and the ones that lead to the outdoors.  You are also climbing up onto objects and into chairs.  Most of the time you exit safely, but this is also cause for heart palpitations lately...

Stairs - You have now mastered both going up the stairs and down the stairs safely.  It is so cute to watch you shimmy down the stairwell to the basement to play with your toys down there.  You have even started throwing objects down the stairwell in the hopes that we will open the gate to let you go after them.  You still have a little trouble with depth perception of drop-offs (i.e. single steps down that you aren't expecting...)

Verbalization - The last couple of months have brought with them a language explosion.  You talk ALL THE TIME.  A good bit of it is still just babble, but you also have many words that you use.  Mama, Dada (which has morphed into just plain DA), Ball, Boat, Dog, Row, Uh-Oh, Ow, Moo, Duck, Car, Truck, Rock.  I also have to admit that at this point in time, you call your pacifier "Mamamama" - I don't know if I am happy that you relate my name to comfort and security or upset that I can so easily be replaced by a piece of silicone, but it is what it is...

Hand Gestures/Mimicking - The only sign you have been making is "HAT".  But just a couple of days ago, you began signing "MILK"* and "DOG" out of the blue.  You readily give "5", you make the signal for touchdown, and when asked where objects are, you put your hands up to your sides mimicking what I have always done when I asked you where something was...In the last couple of months, you have also begun "talking" on the phone - and any object with buttons can be considered a phone.
*This was really surprising as you don't drink milk very much and we haven't made the "MILK" sign in months...

Body Parts - You have begun identifying your/our body parts.  You know Hair, Eyes, Nose and Belly Button.  I think you also know hands, feet, and mouth - but sometimes your response on those is non-existent.

Favorite Things - Right now, your favorite things include doing anything OUTSIDE, Reading Books, Balls, Cars, and Animals.

I love you, little boy!

Mommy

Warm Fall Days

Lately we have had some wonderful weather here in Northern Michigan.  After spending the summer with an unsteady pre-walker, it has been a nice change to spend time playing together outside.

We have spent many hours playing outside - either at the park on the playscapes or in our back yard.

Carder has absolutely loved getting to spend time outdoors running around and playing.  Next summer is sure to be a fun one as I am sure his independence will have grown and so will his steadiness.

Monday we spent about 1 1/2 hours outside.  Carder spent his time pushing the Cozy Coupe all over the yard, climbing in and out of it (both using the door and a modified "Dukes of Hazzard" style), chasing the dogs around the yard, talking to the neighbor's cat, playing with rocks, and climbing in and out of the Adirondack chairs...

Such great fun, indeed.*

Just Climbing Up Onto this Chair for a second.  Got to get a Drink...

Do I want to run over here?  OR do I want to get in my car???  Choices, choices...

Let me shut this door.  (Just so I can open it again 2 seconds later and climb back out.)

Hey Mom!  When can I get my license?  I am pretty good at this driving stuff!

*Now, if I could only make the dog poop instantly disappear so that I don't have to pooper scoop before play time or spend my time watching for land mines...Maybe I can find a can of Va-POO-rize somewhere...although that didn't go so well in the movie in the end...

Uppers and Lowers and Molars, OH MY!

For the past couple of months, Carder has been working on some teeth.  As I have said on this blog many times, he sleep has been absolutely shitty less than stellar.  He has drooled like a mad man off and on for weeks now.  When you looked into his mouth, lighter colored swelling in his gums that gradually descended as the days went by were a sure sign that his upper lateral incisors were coming in.  As he is 15+ months, it was high time for them to show up.  I thought that his lower lateral incisors were also trying to come in, but the swelling in his gums wasn't as evident, so I wasn't sure. 

 

And as the days have passed, the list of foods Carder will eat was dwindling rapidly.  Foods he used to eat with no issues are now on the banned foods list - he has taken a bite, chewed a bit, and then spit them out.  I was beginning to think that I now had a picky eater on my hands.

In the past two weeks, both of the upper and lower incisors have broken through his gums on his left hand side.  The upper incisor on the right looks like it will break through any day.

Last night, after an extremely difficult meal where he turned down his latest favorites, I felt around his mouth.  I discovered that his lower incisor on the right is just beginning to break through the gums.  And, as if having 4 teeth breaking out at the same time wasn't bad enough, I can feel the tips of a molar breaking through on his upper right as well.  A MOLAR people.*

So the refusal to eat foods he had to gum now makes sense. ** And his latest attempts to swallow baby goldfish crackers whole and then gagging them back up.

Tooth count 8 (with #9 sure to arrive any day). 

*I have always heard that molars were the worst and was dreading them, it turns out our pediatrician was possibly right - when you have a tough teether, molars are often not any worse than the other teeth. The only real difference I have seen is the drop in foods he would eat.

**Thank goodness we still have a stash of purees.  He ate inhaled 2 pouches for dinner last night...

Trip to the Zoo

We took our first trip to the zoo!

Carder loves animals.  He gets so excited any time we see any of them - whether it is a squirrel or a dog or an alpaca.  We had ventured to a local winery with a small petting zoo a few weeks back and he loved seeing the animals and reached out to pet the goat with no hesitation at all.

So, we decided it was time to head to the zoo.  The closest zoo is in Grand Rapids, MI.  It is about a 2 1/2 hour car ride.  We ended up heading down to stay with my in-laws the night before so that we wouldn't have as much of a ride to reach the zoo and to break the car ride into 2 parts.  (We found out on our family trip to the UP that Carder no longer does well on long car rides).

We left for the zoo around the time of his morning nap and arrived right around lunchtime.  We had a quick lunch at the zoo (with surprising little choices of food, but what do you do???  Thank God for hotdogs...)

The zoo was a big hit. From the minute we walked into the gates, he was pointing and attempting to make animal sounds.

Oh My Gosh, there are REAL LIVE ANIMALS AT THE ZOO???

Look!  Ducks!  Quack-Quack-Quack

The zoo was the perfect size for our little guy - we were able walk around and see all of the animals/exhibits and make it back out in time for naptime in the car.  We went at the end of the season as some of the exhibits were already closed, so we missed out on a few cool animals.  However, there was still plenty to see.  In addition to the normal exhibits you would expect to find, there is a small aquarium and a petting zoo.  There are even camel rides and a zip line.

More Fish, Daddy!  I love the fish!

Bears!  Bears!!  Roar!

OK, so first zoo trip, Carder's favorite things were the fish, the bears, and the petting zoo.  He had absolutely no fear of the pigs or the goats.  He went right up and petted them and even gave them hugs.   His only tears in the petting zoo area were when the pig was walking away from him.  It was really quite cute.

Hugging a Goat

This trip to the zoo was so much fun.  I can't wait to go again next year!

Walking

On Friday, Carder spent the day walking around holding onto my fingers.

Saturday morning he got up and decided he was a big boy.  He walked around all day by himself and rarely requested a finger to hold.

I believe it is official that he is now a walker.

(He looks so cute and grown up walking around all by himself...)