I think we are ready for the bike trailer...don't you think?

Pumpkin Patch

Two weekends ago we went to a pumpkin patch with Jack. It was really more of a family farm, but it was really fun to go as a family and pick out our pumpkins for the season. I guess I had high hopes for more photographic locations, you know, like bails of hay or wooden cut-outs that we could put our heads through. I was hoping for a corn maze, but I didn't see one either (maybe that was going to be done the next week?). Anyhow, we did get two bigger pumpkins and one little baby one for our front porch. I have included a few photos from the excursion...the last one is my favorite.


This picture includes the two pumpkins we picked out and our little pumpkin.
Maybe this was the maze? Jack was afraid to follow his dad into the walkway and I didn't really want to squeeze my pregnant belly through there so I didn't follow.
This is one of Jack's favorite things...to be thrown in the air. Don't you just love it?

Road Trip: Boone, NC

We decided to make a climbing/camping trip to Boone, NC. This was the first time we took Jack camping and I was a bit nervous how it would work out with Jack. Fortunately, he did excellent sleeping in the tent (probably because he was sleeping right next to the both of us), but during the day it was a different story!

We left on Friday night after Joe got home from work. This was the perfect getaway trip, because it is only about a three hour drive so it didn't feel too long. Jack slept for most of the trip and we were able to get the tent set up before he awoke. It was cold outside and at this point almost eight thirty, so we decided to go to sleep as a family. I think at first Jack was a little scared of the tent, especially not understanding that we were going to fall asleep in this place. We decided to keep a headlamp turned on for another thirty minutes just so he would feel comfortable and realize that we are all going to fall asleep.

The next morning it was super cold outside. I knew it was going to be cold and windy, but I guess I underestimated how it would feel for Jack. He was not so happy, especially because he little hands were cold. I had a hat and jackets, but no mittens. We tried to take a hike before the outlet mall opened, but Jack was not having any fun and started to cry. About a mile into that hike, we had to stop and Joe trekked back to the car as quick as he could, while I hiked up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and waited. It was sleeting a little bit, so a nice older couple offered to let us sit in their car. Jack was crying the whole time and I felt so embarrassed, but thankful that we had a warm place to wait. He did much better after we bought a pair of mittens and a new hat. We tried to take another hike and see some cows, I think those pictures turned out perfect, but that was also the only time it was actually sunny outside.

Later in the afternoon we met up with a friend and Joe went climbing with him. I sat in the car and read my book, because Jack had fallen asleep and I didn't want to wake him up just to venture into the cold and wind. He did pretty well the rest of that night as we sat next to a fire and of course I think it helped that we went out for dinner. The next morning I left with Jack to visit friends in Charlotte, NC. They have a little girl and it was nice for Jack to have two days to play with another kid. I think it was a great camping trip and I look forward to many more days of camping and climbing as a family!








At one point we sat in the car while daddy made hot chocolate because it was so cold!
This was a picture from the first hike, before Jack had his meltdown!

Fall To-Do List

Maybe I will be more motivated to get everything done if I have written it down. So consider this the location where I put all those fun ideas on "paper." Maybe you will all have some ideas for me to add to this list...so feel free to add them!

• Visit a Pumpkin Patch


• Carve a Pumpkin


• Take Jack trick-or-treating


• Reel Rock Film Festival Date Night


• Make a Baby Blanket for the future Little Girl


• Start making Christmas Presents


• Buy fall decorations after they go on sale


• Camping


• Thanksgiving Week Family Trip


• Make a dozen recipes that call for pumpkin


• Get Jack to jump in a Leaf Pile


• Plan a Thanksgiving Meal


• Rock Climb until I Can't Anymore


• Lots of Hikes

Jack is 12 Months Old

*Many of the pictures I wanted to use are on another computer and I don't want to waste too much time getting this up! Well, Jack's birthday was last Friday, so this is being updated a little late, but I really wanted to include some pictures of the birthday party. Plus we are transitioning from one computer to a new one, so I am trying to get all the pictures that we took in the last month (it feels like we didn't do so well this month, oops!). This last month was a busy one in our house. After getting home from our trip to Northern Virginia, Joe started back to work in a new school, we renovated two more rooms in our house, and Jack started to walk. I can't wait to show pictures of our finished rooms, but that will have to come at another time, since I am still waiting to put up window treatments, plus this is a post about Jack! This will be the last monthly post about Jack but I hope to be more proactive about writing on my blog in the future, with some shorter posts.

Nicknames: Peanut, Stink Butt, Big Boy, and Mr. Giggles

Temparament: He continues to be a happy baby and smiles at everyone. I should count my blessings that he never went through a separation anxiety and would always allow others to hold him. Usually he is shy for the first few minutes though, but when he feels comfortable he smiles, walks, crawls, or plays with anyone. His sleep patterns are still super inconsistent. I don't know if it is caused by teething issues or if I have just raised a child that does not know how to fall asleep on his own in the middle of the night. Here is what happens...We have a bed time routinue (bath, teeth brushed, story, then in bed with music and a little head rub). It takes about ten minutes, but he goes to be every night without problems. The hard part is that he wakes up in the middle of the night and cries and does not want to be in his crib alone. If I give in and let him go in our bed though, he doesn't sleep well either. In fact, he tosses and turns, wimpers and cries with unsteady sleep in between. How do I fix that? Any ideas? I guess we are lucky that he still takes two naps during the day and they are good naps, which allows me to shower and clean a little.

He is also growing in personality. Last night he started laughing really hard when either I or Joe sneezed. I guess it was funny. So when he sneezed I decided to giggle with him. Jack has also been able to have a lot more play dates with kids through church and in the community. Sometimes he is super observant and other times he tries to play with the other kids, but usually he just pulls out pacifiers to put in his own mouth or he hits them! That can be pretty discouraging! I'm sure he will have lots of time to work on sharing when his little sister arrives.

Solids: Jack continues to branch out with the foods that he is trying. I can almost always give him items from our dinner. He eats a variety of foods, but has showed some pickiness by spitting out items he doesn't like. He also points to foods or drinks that he wants. Maybe we are one step closer to talking? He will go to the doctor next week, so I don't know if he is getting any bigger, but he is developing just fine so I have decided not to worry anymore. I guess that just means we will get away with wearing nine month clothes for longer!

Items/Toys That We Love The Most: Jack is playing with all his toys and he received quite a few new ones for his birthday (just what we didn't need in our crowded house). Even if it makes things crowded, he is happy and that makes us happy. Forntunately some of those gifts are almost better as outside toys so that helps. Although, I find that we don't really need toys for him to be happy. All Jack needs is a handful of cherrios, a dog to climb over, and a playground to go to each day. He loves being at the playground, especially since he can walk. I am learning he has an eagerness to explore and climb/walk all through out the playground. We try to go as often as possible each week.

First Experiences: On August 23rd Jack took his first steps alone. We happened to be in Charleston at the Home Goods store and I was worried that he would not want to sit in the car seat for another hour to go home. So before we left I tried to have him walk around or move a little bit. I put him down and he stood in place, so I thought, let me get in front of him and see if he would walk towards me and he did it. It was only two steps but I was thrilled and cheered him on so he did it again two more times at the store. I couldn't wait to go home and show his daddy. However it took a while from that point to his official days of walking. It took almost the rest of that month for him to feel confident enough to decide that walking was better than crawling. We are now at that point and it is cute to see him follow me around the house with such excitement. He is no longer our baby boy and is growing into our toddler child.

My World Comes Full Circle

Don't you love when you have one of those moments when you are reminded of the past? Well, I had one those crazy moments where I ran into someone from my travels overseas in the most random way and it pulled me back into those days of exploring. Oh, i miss those days and I am itching for the opportunity to work overseas again (in about seven years!).

This past Monday I arranged to go climbing with a few friends from town. I haven't been able to go regularly since Jack has been born. However, there was going to be a very good size group and three of us were pregnant, which meant they were at least baby friendly! So after Joe got off work we headed to our friend's house to meet up with everyone. We started with introductions, since there were two couples we did not know and then we hatched plans for where we would go for the evening. During introductions we were introduced to a man named Matt, who has an Australian accent. He mentioned that they were building a house in Summersville (just a few towns over) but they own a hostel in Switzerland. I didn't think much of it, until we were riding in our car headed to the climbing area. I told my husband that I thought Matt looked so familiar and I wondered if that was because I stayed in a hostel in Switzerland. It was actually the first place I had ever rock climbed! I have even told Joe about this place and how beautiful it is and one day I wanted to go there with him.

So when we arrived at the climbing area, I had to ask him. I couldn't remember the name of the hostel, the town, but I definitely remembered all my memories from the trip. So I asked Matt how long he had lived there, since it was in 2003 that I took that trip with an ex-boyfriend. Sure enough, his wife said the name of the town, Gryon and I knew it exactly and couldn't believe he was the guy who first taught me how to climb at the Chalet Martin Hostel. Almost ten years later and I was going to be taking him out to an area where I live and love. Now feel like there is so much more incentive to make another trip to their hostel. I look forward to that day.

Before I end this post, I must tell you about some of the amazing things I was able to do there. Maybe you will want to experience it for yourself. While we were there took an amazing hike to a cross on top of a mountain. It started out with sunshine, a storm hit, and then sunshine when we reached the top. We ate our lunch in a ski lean-to although and gazed out at the wildflowers on the mountain. It was amazingly beautiful. I wish I could show you those pictures, but that was before digital cameras and I really don't look through that scrapbook much since it involves an ex-boyfriend. We also managed to swim in freezing cold glacier water, under a damn! Eat delicious steaks, which were cut by the local butcher and then he marinated it with his own stuff, and we grilled it out on their deck overlooking the snow-capped mountains. We spent a day climbing a local crag, followed by a trip to the thermal pools (a spa resort). And it was probably one of the nicest hostels I have come across. I can't wait to bring my family back there one day.

All pictures that you see here are from the Chalet Martin website, http://www.gryon.com/

Jack is 11 Months Old

Only one month left of being an infant for little Jack. This year has really flown by and also been such a learning process for the both of us. Every day I think he looks more like a little boy and less like a baby. The funny thing is that I have always wanted children, but I guess I'm sad to think that he will grow up. I love him this little and I know I will keep loving him as he grows, but I just love having a little one around. I can truly understand when people say they miss when their kids were "that age." I'm already sad to see that he is changing.

Nicknames: Pumpkin, Little Man, Peanut, Sneak Butt

Temperament: This past Monday, we took Jack out for an afternoon climbing trip. There have been many times when it doesn't seem all that successful and I end up heading home early with him. However, maybe it was the larger number of climbers (8 people, 3 of which were pregnant), but he was a very happy camper. He was crawling all over the rocks and giggling with everyone. I was happy to get some climbing in before my belly gets too big with baby number 2. We took a trip to visit family for a couple weeks, which completely messed up his sleeping schedule. Thus, we went through the whole process of falling asleep in the crib. He is doing OK at it, but still wakes up in the night. I am beginning to wonder, will that ever change? Although Jack can have his moments, I have found that he takes most things in stride. He loves to be around people and interact with them. He also loves to play with dogs or cats. We are lucky to have such a laid back child. Another thing he really likes to do right now is open and close doors or cabinets. Last month we put safety looks on the kitchen cabinets so that helped from having a big mess of pots and pans. However, he still loves it when he can find an open door to play with. Who knew they would be so much fun?

Solids He Has Tried: Just the other day I had mentioned to Joe that Jack can pretty much eat anything we are eating. Usually at dinner time I will give him small pieces of our meal. So far that has meant, spaghetti, casserole dishes, tacos, beans and rice, etc. He still eats some baby food though and I give that to him during the day. I went to the WIC offices today to apply for some support and after they weighed him, he was only 19lbs. That seems a bit discouraging for me, because I feel like he has really increased his diet, but only gained 1/2 a pound in the last month. Maybe I just need to be trying to feed him more often?

Items/Toys That We Love The Most: While we are at my parents house, my mom bought a baby walker and it quickly became his favorite toy. He loves to walk behind it and gets a big smile and he almost giggles. I always laugh too, but that's because he runs into everything and doesn't understand when it bangs into something and he can't move forward. I am learning though, that I don't need too many toys. He is just as happy to play with Bodhi (our dog) or crawl around when we are outside. When I take him to the park he likes to be in the baby swing. Oh, and when we are around other children I have noticed that Jack is not afraid to pull other kids pacifiers out of their mouths so he can try theirs! Um, sorry about the germ swap! Although he doesn't always listen to me, I have noticed that he definitely understands. If I explain things to him, more than half the time he will follow my directions. He is so cute!

First Experiences: While visiting with our family, we were able to take many day trips. One of my favorites (which also happen to be too short) was to Intercourse, PA. Jack had no idea he was about to experience such a place as Intercourse, but he was happy none-the-less to be with all the family in my parents truck on the way up. Basically we went to explore Amish country. We stopped in a few stores, then ate a huge and very delicious lunch, followed by some bike riding (although I was a slow and timid rider). Overall, I think Jack had a good time. He also decided to take his first steps. Now, he is not walking yet, but that will come with time. I happened to be on a trip to Target in Charleston. Since it is an hour drive before we return home, I decided to let him walk around for a bit in the store. I put him on the floor and he just stood still. So I let go with my hands fully expecting him to squat into a sitting position, but he just continued to stand with this huge grin as if he was proud of himself. So I moved a few steps away from him and said, "Come here," and sure enough he took a few steps forwards into my arms. Since then he has done that a several times, but only at my encouraging. I'm not sure he really wants to walk yet, but he can do it when he is ready!

You can really see how pretty his eye color is in this picture! I think he has my eye color!