Cherry Picking Is So Much Fun

Among his other ventures, my boss owns quite a bit of farmland and he has a few cherry orchards.  Since he is a super nice guy, he sets a date each year there is a cherry crop and allows us to come pick cherries with our families.

There weren't any cherries last year, so we were pretty excited to get to pick cherries this year.

Carder was quite excited to get to pick cherries, too.  He was a very good cherry picker.  He loved climbing the ladder to get the ones that were very high up and he really didn't want to stop picking even when we had more than enough!

The farm manager even drove his tractor up so that Carder could ride on it.  I think he prefers the John Deere tractors with the cabs (like his Grandpa's) because he refused to ride on the tractor.  He did sit on our laps and pretend to drive, though.

Eatin' Watermelon

It's Watermelon Season!!!  OK, so it is too early for local watermelons, but the grocery store melons are starting to look pretty good.

We bought one today and I sliced it up while Carder napped.  We went outside after naptime and I let him have his very first slice of melon.

He wasn't quite sure what he thought of it at first, but it didn't take him too long to get the hang of it and to be burying his face up to his ears in sweet, sticky, juicy goodness.

A Trip to The Zoo

After battling the crowds of the festival for days, we had finally had enough.  On Saturday morning, we decided that we were going to head out of town and go to the zoo in Grand Rapids.  It was a very last minute decision, but in retrospect it was the best decision we could have made.

We called Derek's parents to see if they minded if we crashed at their house that night and invited them to go to the zoo with us.  And then we invited Derek' sister (who currently has a foster child) to drive up from Indiana to join us.  Amazingly, it worked out great.

We swung by to pick up Derek's parents and drop off the dogs.  Although we thought Carder would nap in the car, he slept all of 20 minutes.  Oh well.

We got to the zoo late in the afternoon but it was well worth the trip.  Carder was much more animated watching the animals this year.  I am not sure what his favorite animal was - but the penguins, monkeys, birds, and bears were all very interesting. 

The heat did make some of the animals lethargic and sleepy.  There were several times that Carder would call out to one of the animals to request that they wake up.

After the zoo we all went out to dinner together and the boys enjoyed jumping around in the backseat of my van while they waited for the adults to finish dinner.

Watching the Bears swimming in the pool and wishing we had a place to swim, too!




Family Photo on the Bear Statue

"Monkey. Come Down Monkey!"



 

4th of July

As I mentioned before, we live in a town where there is a huge festival around the 4th of July.  This makes getting around our town challenging to say the least.

We spent the morning of the 4th checking out a new beach close to our house and just hanging around.  After lunch and nap, we drove out to a local lighthouse.  Our intention was to hike through the woods, but we ended up playing on the shore in the rocks and the muck.  Carder even took off his shoes and waded in with us.

 

 

We had thought we would head downtown to have a beer at a local open air restaurant and then to watch a parade.  We fought the crowds on our bicycles to get to the restaurant and when we got there Carder wanted NOTHING to do with any of our plans.  He refused to eat dinner and didn't want to sit still for us to have dinner or our (much deserved after battling the crowds to get there) beer.  With about 30 minutes to go before the parade was scheduled to start, we decided that perhaps and event which required Carder sitting still was not going to happen.  We asked if he wanted to stay and see fire trucks and police cars and floats or if he wanted to go home and he decided he wanted to go home.

 

So, back through the parade crowd we went.

 

Once home, Carder played with the our next door neighbor's friends child (A) for a long time.  And then he ate his dinner, took a bath, and went to bed.

 

We listened to the booms of firecrackers being set off by our neighbors and patted Carder back to sleep a couple of times when he woke up from the noise.  Once it was dark, Derek and I settled in at the front window to watch the real fireworks that are shot off over the bay downtown (which we can see most of from our house).  As we listened to the child next door ooh and aah over the first few explosions, I looked at Derek and said "Does hearing A next door make you want to wake Carder up?"

 

So, we went in and gently woke Carder up.  We brought him out and he sat in my lap at the front window covered in a blanket and watched his first fireworks show.  We did try to walk next door to watch the show with our neighbors, but A had fallen and hit his head and was crying and I think it upset Carder a little bit.  A was fine, though, and kept coming over during the show to say Hi to Carder through our window.

 

Carder loved the fireworks and has talked about how loud they were and the shape of them for days.  There are more fireworks on the closing day of the festival, so we may have to wake him up for those, as well!

Air Show

We live in a town that has a large festival around the 4th of July.  We live downtown, so we have the blessing (or curse?) of being involved in festival activities whether we want to be or not.  And, things that are part of our normal routine are wildly upset by the location of the festival and the large influx of people.

One of the normal activities is an Air Show.  The planes normally practice the Friday before the festival begins.  Lucky us - the planes fly RIGHT OVER OUR HOUSE during their practice and during the show.  We can see quite a bit of the activity from our yard.  And, loud planes buzzing around overhead tend to wake up sleeping children.  (As do the not one but TWO fireworks shows in the festival, but that is a post for another day...)

I wasn't a bit surprised when the practice flights woke Carder up this year.  The difference was that this year, he knew what an airplane was and he was very excited to see the planes.  As the planes would fly near us, he would just giggle in excitement.

Watching the Planes Practice on Friday Afternoon

For the real deal Air Show on Saturday, we planned on waking him up from his nap in time to walk towards Lake Michigan to see the actual Air Show.  Although there was a grandstand set up for this type of activity, we skipped that and opted to throw out a blanket on the grass a few blocks from our house.  There was a road separating us from the action (FAA rules and all) but it was still a wonderful place to watch the show and we didn't have to arrive hours early to get a seat!

Carder was super excited to watch the planes flying even closer and in formation.  There were a couple of different types of planes that flew in the Air Show.  I believe his favorites were the smaller planes as they weren't quite as loud and there were more of them to watch.  The planes performed loops and dives and even had colored smoke that was turned on and off at specific times during the performance.

The larger planes were a bit louder than the smaller ones and the sound reverberated over the water making it seem even louder.  When they started performing, he began to get a little apprehensive, but still seemed to enjoy the show.

Carder and I as we watch planes flying towards us over Lake Michigan

One of the Formations by the Smaller Planes

Even though he was a bit timid about the larger planes, he still loved them.



Our Air Show Viewing Area on the Lawn

Kids Say The Funniest Things

Tonight, we were reading our bedtime story.  Carder wanted to look at his favorite picture book instead of actually reading a story.  I was letting him tell me about the pictures and pretend to feed me items from the pages.

We had been to the beach earlier in the week and he wanted to look at the beach page.  He tried to feed me sand and I told him "Ewww, sand is yucky and dirty.  I don't want to eat sand..."

He looked at me and said, "Mommy, wash it!"

Counting

Carder has this game he likes to play - he likes to count to 3 and then we are supposed to fake cry.  For a long time, he skipped the "one" and would just say "2 3, Mommy".  I am sure we perpetuated this dropping of the one because we would pretend to cry and then say "2 3, Carder".

We began making an effort to always say "1 2 3, Carder".  And we began making him say his one if he wanted us to cry and this has resulted in consistent use of the number one.

The week befor last, when my parents were here, we were stacking blocks and counting them.  When it came time for "6 7 8", he said the numbers in the right order with us (not after us).

This Monday, during his bath time, he decided to stick all of his bath toys down my shirt.  We took them out one at a time and counted them.  He counted to 3 and then stopped.  I said 4 and prompted for the next number.  We ran out of toys from my shirt at 7, but I still asked what came next.  And from there, he counted all the way to 10.

His pediatrician said that by age 3 children can typically count to 3.  I understand he skipped 4 so this doesn't count as all the way to 10.  And he wasn't "counting objects" for every single number  - he was just reciting the numbers.  But still, I am one proud Mommy and I think I have one smart little boy!

Edited on 7/7/13 to add:
Tonight Carder was having Quesadillas for dinner.  At one point, he began actually counting individual pieces of quesadilla (using a correct one to one ratio).  He counted all the way up to 8 before he decided that he needed to take another bite.  And he included 4.  We are super proud!