Going to a farm with friends

I am always looking for activities that get us all out of the house, and that are fun for all of us.

My friend Cat provided a great suggestion and an invitation to join her family! They were all getting up early to head to a farm... it has lots of great stuff for families to do, including a corn maze!!!

We met them around 10, and I was so excited to see that they had a lot of tractors and machinery out for the kids to climb on. However, B-Boy did not share my enthusiasm with that! Oh well. We then proceeded to the cow milking station, which was really adorable.

Cat's daughter eBaby immediately sat down to milk the cow. And by that I mean, pull on rubber udders on the bottom of a bucket filled with white liquid, hidden behind a wood cutout of a cow. B-Boy wasn't as impressed, and so we moved on to the next activity.

There were several bouncy houses for kids of different ages. The first one was shorter without a top, and was for kids age four and under. Cat's son Jambuca had a blast playing inside it, especially on the inflatable horse. B-Boy didn't want to go in (he was still getting used to the newness of the place), and so I rested him on top of one of the walls so he could watch the other kids.

B-Boy started to come out of his shell at that point, mostly because he saw the giant pile of sand, with tons of Tonka trucks and shovels. He and Jambuca played on the giant pile of sand for a good long time. It was fun watching them play... Cat and I are hoping they will start to play together soon, as they both prefer to play by themselves. B-Boy will be moving up to the class that Jambuca is in, so they will have lots of time to play together.

Once they tired of the sand, I took B-Boy over to the swing. He hadn't quite gotten happy about being at the farm, and I know how much he adores the swing. Not only that, but he is usually calmed when we swing together. The only problem was that I couldn't get him off of it!

We sat on the swing and watched the other families- kids climbing the haystacks, sand pile, jumping in the bouncy houses, and even riding the horses!

When Cat headed to the goat pens, I decided it was time for B-Boy to participate rather than watch. He didn't want to go at first, but once he saw the goats, he perked up.

The farmers are quite smart- they put food machines out so you could pay a quarter to get a handful of goat food. A fun activity for the guests, and a way to get their goats fed for free!

Goats say NA-NA-NA!

B-Boy laughed when the goat stuck his head out to eat from my hand. He and eBaby watched the goats quite a bit, in fact, eBaby had them all named by the time we left!

That one is Bella and that one is...

I feed my kitties... 

but their food is round, not shaped like this.

The farm had a nice hand washing station next to the goat pen, and after we washed our hands, we headed to the hayride! The kids seemed to really enjoy the hayride (thank goodness no one was allergic!). We got to see the cows eating pumpkins, tour around a small pond, and catch a glimpse of the corn maze from the back side.

CHEESE!

Wheeeee!

After the hayride, we walked down to the corn maze. Not to go in, but B-Boy had grabbed my hand to "Walk Mommy!". He led me down almost to the entrance but then quickly turned right to where they had corn hole boards set up. Kids were already there throwing beanbags, and B-Boy thought that looked like great fun.

He tossed a few, and then tried to surf one of the boards...

I'll get it!

Play corn hole Mommy!

And then it was time to go... but not before we played in the pumpkin patch!

We should get this one!

All in all, it was great fun. I was so happy Cat invited us!

Blowing Bubbles

B-Boy found a bottle of bubbles in one of our moving boxes, and wanted to immediately go outside to blow bubbles.

"Bubbles! Bubbles! BUB-BLES!!!!"

So off we went to the screened-in porch!

Hi folks! Mommy says we can blow BUBBLES!!!

B-Boy is at the stage where he wants to blow his own bubbles, rather than having you blow them for him. Unfortunately, he likes to press the hole of the wand on his lips while he blows, so no bubbles come out!

Once Neb got home from work, he joined us on the porch and worked with B-Boy to keep the wand in front of his face. (Happily, because at one point he started putting the wand IN his mouth.... Yuck!)

 And he was successful!!! (If you look at that last photo, you can see the bubble on the wand after Neb caught it.

Once he started to get it, B-Boy wanted to sit by himself to blow his own bubbles,  It took a few tries, which you can see by all the wet spots on his shorts, but he was eventually able to blow his own!

Look! There is a bubble starting on my wand!!!!

YAY! I blew a bubble!

Do you see it?

It is right above the bottle!

Now if we can just get him to stop eating the wand!

Two Wa-Was!

Today was a pretty big milestone, especially considering B-Boy has two math majors as parents.

This evening we went for a walk. It was a particularly good walk, with B-Boy in good spirits. I had put his stuffed Cookie Monster in his big plastic shopping cart... that way he could push Cookie Monster like \we push him. He had a blast running down the sidewalk with Cookie looking right at him.

When we came inside afterward, B-Boy picked up the straw cup filled with water that I had waiting for him. Happily drinking, he walked over to the kitchen island where a second straw cup sat filled with water. He picked it up, got a big grin on his face and said....

"Two Wa-Was!"

It took a moment for me to realize.... B-Boy has grasped the concept of TWO!!!! Yay!

I replied, "Yes B-Boy, two waters!"

B-Boy helps out

B-Boy loves to help. If he is upset, ask him to help you. It has magical calming powers.

At daycare, he helps his teachers get ready for snack. He will walk to the kitchen with them, and carry back whatever they will allow. He is so proud to help- and I would be surprised if he doesn't start opening doors for people soon. He just likes to help that much.

So I decided that it wasn't too early to give B-Boy a job. One that would let him help at the house, and give him that feeling he gets at school everyday. Now, I know what you are thinking, he's not even two years old... and I am already giving him chores.

Yep, as we say in my family, my momma didn't raise no fool. :)

Everyday, B-Boy feeds the cats. I usually save the "helping" for when he is misbehaving, because it is a very effective way to redirect him when he is upset.

I'll ask him "B-Boy, do you want to feed the kitties?" He will usually respond with the word we use to call the cats, "FOOD!". He even says it in the same singsong pattern that I do.

He opens the slide lock on the bag and I scoop out the first scoop of food. (There is one bowl that usually gets eaten from more than the other, so it gets a big scoop of food.) I'll then point to the bowl he should put it in... and he gently, carefully will pour the food into the bowls. He rarely spills, but if he does, he will pick up the pieces and put them in the bowl.

"FOOD!"

He then puts the scoop back in the bag and scoops up more food, all by himself. He then puts the contents in the other bowl, without any assistance from me. He then will put the scoop in the bag, and close the slide lock all by himself.

"Scooping is my favorite part...!"

"Mommy says that if I keep feeding the kitties,

I am going to be thier FAVORITE!"

He likes the slide lock, so he will open and close it a few time before I have to redirect him to something else, but I think that will subside over time.

He is such a good helper. I can't wait for when he can mop the floor. I'll be all about getting him on that!

Mr. Polite

Being from the south, manners are quite important to us. Mostly because you can get away with a lot as an adult if you have good manners. :)  Plus, what mom doesn't want to beam as thier child shows the world good manners? My friends all advised, start early, don't wait, because if you miss the window of them listening to you, you are toast!

So Neb and I have been working on B-Boy's manners. It all started when B-Boy began talking. To encourage him using words, we would reward him by letting him have whatever word he used. Once that was mastered, we began Project Manners.

We first changed the rule. It was no longer ok to just say the word to get what he wanted. At first, we would ask him "Can you say please?" It took a few tries before he parroted back "Please!", which sounds more like "Peas!". It didn't take long for him to realize that if he threw a "Please?" on the end of anything, he got it.

If he forgot, we would ask "What do you say?" and almost always got the correct reply.

We started hearing "Please!" a lot. Especially when it came to watching Elmo.

He then evolved his please to be more musical sounding. He would start at his normal tone on the PL part, but slide up an octave on the end for the EASE. Too too cute. We even found ourselves trying to get him to ask for something just so we could hear the cute new musical Please.

Now, all Neb has to do is look at him with THAT LOOK, and he will add a "Please!" to the end of anything. Heh heh.

Once we had that down, we moved on to the concept of "Thank you!".

I am happy to say, he picked that one up much faster, and often says it without any reminder. He will tell anyone- from Neb to me to the checkout lady at the grocery store- "Tank you!".

I think it is only a matter of time before he starts reminding us to say "Thank you!".

Next up, "you are welcome!".

Baseball!

Did you know that B-Boy knows what baseball is?

Well, we certainly did not. Basketball, yes... but only because AuntSly sent him a kid-sized basketball goal for Christmas last year, and he loves playing with it. If we are trying to find a way to get him upstairs on his own, we will ask him to go play basketball. He loves it, and it is usually an affective way to get him ready for bed.

He calls it B-Ball, which makes me giggle.

So you can imagine our surprise when B-Boy let us know he knows about baseball. I am sorry to report that it had nothing to do with Neb or I. We figured we would introduce the sport to him when he was a little bit older.

My dad played baseball, so I am sure he probably was sending a baseball vibe to B-Boy....

But I am getting wordy here... let me get back to the story.

We were eating lunch the other day, and Neb had the TV on in the living room. A baseball game was on, and he had been watching it. You can see the TV from the kitchen table area, and so B-Boy had a view from his chair.

A player swung his bat and the ball made the trademark "Clink!" noise.... B-Boy reached out toward the TV and said very clearly "Baseball!".

Neb and I just stared at each other. We aren't sure where he got the word, or how he associated it with the man swinging the bat, but he did. Uh oh, I think I see some baseball games in our future, which will make GatorGrandpa very happy indeed.

Feelin' the Love

B-Boy has entered a new phase, and we are both really excited about it.

B-Boy now loves to give hugs and kisses. He was not been a very affectionate boy until now, and so Neb and I are really enjoying getting all this affection from him.

He will often run up and say "Hug!" and then give you a hug. This is usually followed by him saying "Kiss!" which means you better lean to him so he can smush his lips on your face. He hasn't gotten the concept of puckering yet, so his kisses are more from us than him, but they are still quite sweet.

In the mornings, if we bring him to our bed after he wakes, we will sit him in between us. (This usually gives us an extra half hour to lay in bed which is always welcome, and a nice way to start the day if we have the time.) He will look at one of us and say "Hug!" and then get a hug. He will then look at the one who didn't get the hug and say "Hug!"... and then the other is happy. He will then do that several times until each of us has at least three hugs, if not more.

But it doesn't stop with us... he gives his teachers hugs... my Mom got several hugs the last time we visited, and MacMommy got a hug after dinner the other night. He makes me so proud to be so open to his extended family.

But that's not all! He even shares the love with his stuffed animals, which he has started taking around the house. After we dress him in the morning and say "Good-bye Room!", B-Boy will ask for one of his stuffed animals (or hard figurines of Elmo and Ernie)... 

• "Moose!" (which usually comes out as Dooce!)
• "Ernie!" (which comes out as Wee-Wee)
• "Cookie!" (Surprisingly, he gets this one spot on- funny because cookie was my first word)
• "Tigger!" (which he pronounces Igger!)
• "Elmo!" (a word practiced so much that it is also spot on!)

He will clutch them all very tightly, as many as we will allow, and carry them downstairs to have breakfast with him. Sometimes they will even make it into the car...

But what is really cute is when B-Boy decides to show them some love too. One morning, I walked into his room and he was playing with his Seahorse toy. He had pressed it's tummy so that it was illuminated and playing music. He then said "Kiss!" and kissed the seahorse on his tummy. He then picked up his Elmo and said "Kiss!"... then he made Elmo kiss the seahorse's tummy. He proceeded to do this will all the animals in his crib. Each time he uttered a little "Smack!" kissing noise. It was so adorable, but I was not thinking clearly enough to video it.

Oh well, hopefully the story is just as good.

New shoes and a haircut

This week, B-Boy got two very much needed things- a haircut and new shoes!

His old shoes were a size seven, and I had him measured to find he is a size 7 and a half. He had neen wearing his sandals for most of the summer, and some cute blue rubber shoes that ran a bit larger in size. His toes were creeping out of his sandals, so it became quite important to get some new shoes.

The problem is, he is right between the "Baby" and "Kid" category in shoe size. He needs to wear a size 8, and unfortunately, Stride Rite does not carry much in that size. The good news is that his tennis shoes still come in that size, but his brown shoes do not.

B-Boy was quite happy to be in his tennis shoes again, but he doesn't like the brown shoes I bought. I think those will probably get returned, but I'll give it some time.

And to help all of you understand just how big his shoe is... I took this photo with his old pair, new pair, and a dollar bill. I didn't notice until I lined them up... next to each other they don't look quite as different in size as they do when they are seperated. On his feet, the new shoes look HUGE, and the old ones on the floor look so small. Sigh.

The other thing B-Boy got this week was a haircut. His hair was REALLY long, and since it kept getting caught in his bib, I knew it was time to get it cut.

I was not looking forward to this, because of two reasons.
1. The place we took B-Boy to previously was by our old house. I would be taking him to a new spot, which is always tricky.
2. This was the first haircut he would get without a pacifier.

Say what you want, but number 2 was what was really holding me back- having something to block the screaming was such a nice crutch!!!

It took about 3 tries to get the hair actually cut, mostly because I didn't want to wait in line for 45 minutes the first two times... but the third time was the charm! It went pretty well, mostly because he watched Elmo on my iPhone the whole time- but he cried quite a bit.

I was pleased with the result, and shocked at how much the cut aged him. Gone was my baby boy, and what remained was a growing boy!

Is that a kiddie toy?

B-Boy has taken to play on the cat tower.

This is not good news for the cats, because the top of the tower is their "escape from B-Boy" ideal location.

The funny thing about that is that B-Boy likes to play with the parts that the cats could care less about- the round tunnel (which he likes to hide his toys in and sit on) and the solid carpeted cube that hangs down from the perch. He likes sitting on the floor swatting the cube over and over. I don't think the cats have ever noticed either of them.

The cats like the scratching post and the perch. They both like the perch since it *was* out of B-Boy's reach, and had a great view of the trees outside. B-Boy hasn't really noticed the perch yet, unless you count it bonking him on his head as he sits on the tunnel part.

So, my question is this- is this a kitty tower or a kiddie tower? :)  I guess the answer will be whomever plays with it longer? To quote the show Survivor, "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast"!