The Great Pumpkin Returns

Remember a few years ago when we bought that huge pumpkin that Andi could actually fit in? We felt like we needed to do that again this year, so last week Thad took Thursday off work and after Andi got out of school we headed to the pumpkin patch in search of the great pumpkin. Murray Farms has a bunch of kid activities like the blob, or as they called it the jumping pillow.

And a corn maze.

And a tractor cow train.

And some fun photo ops. I love that Andi put her head all the way through the thing.

This is how Peter spent the afternoon.

The pumpkin is not as large as our first, but it was the biggest around.  The kids knew Daddy would be the one working on the giant, so they picked regular size pumpkins for themselves. Just wait till we get that bad boy carved and stick a light bulb in it.

Peter turned 3 months yesterday, and though there is no Dr.'s visit with official stats to go along with it, I still took pictures. This is as good as it gets, he's so squirmy now!

He's laughing now too, but does not really appreciate being tickled.

The Squish

This post is all about Peter, who is more commonly referred to as "The Squish",  "Little Squish-it", or "Squishy-boo". All names I'm sure he'll be proud of as a teenager. We tried to make up a good nickname, but none of them took, and these just kind of developed and stayed. Squishy is the happiest baby in the morning, or anytime you wake him up. I took these this morning, and yes he sleeps on his stomach, no one tell his Dr. But check out that grin! All you have to do is turn off his fan and call his name and he starts squirming and smiling.

But maybe being woken up at 8am after a solid 12 hours of sleep would leave me smiling too.

Smiling turns to giggling when he lands on the changing table. Naked butt = happy baby.

Peter loves the swing, nightly baths (which make him very chatty) and his fingers.  Chewing on fingers in the swing . . Best time ever.

He's getting pretty strong during tummy time and enjoys the change in point of view.

He also thinks he's pretty hot stuff when he stands.

We just love this happy little squish.

Check.

Last week Thad and I sat down to go over our projects list and prioritize. I suggested that there was a possibility that we might be asked to host Thanksgiving at our house this year, and if that were the case the downstairs bathroom could use some work. Thad was under the impression that since I painted both the walls and the cabinet that I was done. Basically I was, but my plan for the bathroom involved a bit of work for him as well. Mostly tearing off the old mirror that took up the entire wall, and taking out the medicine cabinet that was ugly and the terrible bar of light bulbs and replace them all.  This is not a great shot but you can see the oak cabinet at the bottom, the tan wall, and the mirror that took up the entire wall.

And here is what it looks like from the complete opposite view today.

So if anyone needs a giant mirror let me know.  The other project that I tackled this weekend was the kitchen island. I've been wanting to paint it white, but was a bit nervous about doing it myself and having it look like I did it myself. But I bit the bullet and went for it and I love it! Here's a before.

And the much better after! It makes me happy.

Check two more projects off the list. Besides projects we also had some fun this weekend. Thad took the kids to get a pet. So far this guy seems to love the pond, although he's really hard to find in the water, and super fast on land.  We have named him Squirt (from Nemo).

They love him.

Lately when you ask Sammy what he wants to do after dinner his answer is "We can have a fire in the barrel with fire-sticks (sparklers) and fire!" Last night we had some cardboard boxes to get rid of so Thad said yes to the fire. Here's our totally redneck fire pit. Don't worry, it's not permanent or anything.

And here are some photos of Peter because a post is not complete without them. Here he is at 2.5 months showing off how well his 6 month clothes fit, and his awesome bed hair.

The smirk. 

Amidst all the projects and fun we were able to enjoy all four sessions of conference this time. The kids entertained themselves outside for a lot of that time. One day I'll make them sit and watch, but for now I enjoyed listening to the speakers with minimal interruptions ;)

Wall of Shame

So you know how kids are programmed to fight in the car? Over nothing and everything and be completely absurd? "He touched me" "Don't look out MY window" "She pointed the air vent at me".  Well Andi and Sammy have been particularly ridiculous about car fighting lately and we have been threatening to put a wall between them so they can't even see each other in the car. And since we happened to have a large foam board sitting in the garage, the threats turned to reality this weekend. Behold, the wall of shame. Here's how they feel about it.

Andi was in tears Sunday morning when she got in the car and saw it. Sammy thought it was cool. I Don't know how long it will stay, but so far Andi seems to have learned her lesson and keeps promising not to complain about Sammy in the car anymore.

Speaking of Sammy, look what he can do!

That's right, no training wheels. We didn't even have to hold on to the bike, just helped him stabilize it while he got on and he took off. Of course his stopping technique needs some work. He basically just bails out. 

Sammy asks to hold Peter every morning, and yesterday Peter actually sat with him nicely for a little while. But even with just two I couldn't get them both to smile at the same time.