The Farm

On Tuesday this week, my mom and I took Dylan to Round Hill Farm.  I love that place!  There are few places that make me so nostalgic.  I always think of the times my parents took me there as a kid, so being there with my mom and Dylan was magical.  It was a perfect fall day in October, the temperature in the upper 60's, the sun shining, the sky blue.

The ducks were hungry!

And aggressive!  Wait, this one will give you a better idea...

"Whoa!  GET BACK!  Hey!"  QUACK!!!

Of course, Dylan walked along the beam, just like I loved to do as a kid.

Of course, he ran along the wall (racing "Mi-Mi"),

and jumped off the wall.

(Psst...this is from LAST year!)

There was a very talkative turkey.  "Gobble... Gobble... Hey, kid!  Can you help me out?  They put me next to that rooster, and I cannot get a wink of sleep around here!... Oh, and can we talk about how delicious ham is?  You know... for Thanksgiving?"

I've noticed that I take very few pictures of the actual animals at the farm!  For me, it's more about the awesome scenery, and the photo ops.

(Psst... this is from LAST year...)

I tell you, every time I do this, I have to double check the date a few times, saying "This has to be from 2 years ago!"  Time flies, and I have the pictures to prove it.

Yep, so that was Tuesday.  This was Saturday...

Mother Nature, you have one sick sense of humor!

The Best Day Of Summer

I have been SO busy lately!   Busy squeezing out the last bits of fun from summer, and busy getting stuff ready for the 3 sales I'm participating in.  One was a yard sale at a friend's house.  That was yesterday, and even though we didn't make much money, we got rid of a lot of stuff, so I'll call it a success.  Now I have 2 consignment sales to get ready for, plus school shopping, plus vacation.  I am loving August.  If I'm honest, I had trouble with July.  The unbearable heat and humidity took its toll on me.  I was irritable and low on patience, and not enjoying my time with Dylan as much as I usually do.  But, this month, I am back to my normal self.  He seems back to his normal self, too (adults aren't the only ones affected by unbearable heat and humidity).

This past Wednesday was my favorite day of summer up to that point.  It was the first day in the 70's since... I don't remember when!  The air was perfect, the sun was shining, and my sweet boy and I set out to enjoy the outdoors.  First, we went to the farm.  It is the same farm that my parents took me to as a child, which always brings back so many memories.  I walked along that same beam, carefully balancing, my parents close by, in case I fell.  I hope to take my grandkids there someday and watch them walk on that same beam!  I got so many great shots at the farm, but I'll just share a few.

After the farm, Dylan had a special request.  He really, really wanted to go back to Bill's Golfland.  My parents took him there last week to miniature golf, so I assumed that is what he wanted to do.  When we got there, he surprised me by saying "Mom, I really want to hit the golf balls!"  He didn't want to miniature golf.  He wanted to drive golf balls!  My first reaction was to say no, thinking he wouldn't be able to do it, and he would get frustrated and bored quickly, and it would be a big waste of money.  But, I could tell he really wanted to try, so I gave in, figuring I would just hit most of the balls in the basket, once he got tired of it.  I didn't get to hit a single ball!  I wish I would have had the video camera, so I could show you how happy he was, hitting those golf balls.  So you could hear his excitement as he shouted, "Mom!  Did you see how far it went!  I'm good at this.. huh, Mom?"  So you could feel the cuteness as much as I could in that moment.  Sometimes, your heart just overflows with love, doesn't it?
Sitting there afterwards, watching him eat his ice cream, thinking of all the times I had sat in the same spot, eating my ice cream as a kid, made me ridiculously happy and content.

First School Field Trip

(First off, I want to thank all of you who left comments on my wallpaper post.  I really think I get it now!  We were going about decorating all wrong in the past, choosing paint colors and then trying to match stuff to the paint.  We should have been picking room accessories that we loved, and picking paint colors to match those.  I mean, I don't think they'll be inviting me onto Extreme Makeover : Home Edition anytime soon, but I am optimistically hopeful I can make the dining room look great.  THANK YOU!)

Today was Dylan's first school field trip.  I signed up to be a chaperone weeks ago.  I have to admit, after signing up I had a flash back to some rainy, cold, miserable fall field trips I went on when I taught preschool, and had a bit of a "WTH did I just do that?" moment.  In the paperwork, we were told that we would be in charge of one child besides our own.  I was picturing them giving me a little girl with blond hair, whose head spun in circles while she spit fire.  I was picturing her and Dylan jumping on my cold, exhausted body, lying in a puddle of rain, crying "WHY?  WHY DID I SIGN UP FOR THIS?!"  But, then I snapped out of it.

Turns out, my kid was harder to handle than the one they gave me.  (The $20 spot I slipped the teachers when they were making their selection helped).  First, he put his feet up on the seat during the "Pumpkin and Gourd Presentation", getting mud all over the seat and the kid I was in charge of.  Then, I had to tell him repeatedly "We can go soon", during the presentation (which WAS ridiculously boring), as he asked loudly "WHEN IS THIS GONNA BE OVER?"  Then, he made me go in the foul port-a-potty because he had to poop.  He spilled his entire bowl of peaches on the table during lunch, after dumping some of his crackers on the floor.  Plus, he was the only kid who got hurt and caused a scene. (Totally not his fault, but still.  He was on the swings and some girl pushed the swing next to him sideways so it hit into his head).

We got to ride on a bus to the farm, which he was excited about.  After the ridiculously boring presentation, we went on a hayride, picked out a pumpkin, went through a corn maze, went in a teepee, and played in a pirate ship play structure.  Then, we got back on the bus to ride to a playground, where we also had lunch.  

I joke, but I am really glad I have a job that enables me to go to things like this.   I'm glad I got to hear him laugh as he ran through the corn maze.  I'm glad I got to see his smile when he saw me get on the bus and come over to sit with him.  I'm glad I got to marvel at how adorable he looked when he fell asleep on the bus on the way back to school.  I'm glad I got to share his first field trip with him.

(If I didn't have this rule where I don't post photos of other people's kids unless they say it's okay, I would post all the shots I took of Dylan and the kid I was in charge of.  Just picture Dylan with a look on his face that says, "Mom, you are SO embarrassing!", and the other kid with a look on his face that says, "Does this lady ever quit?  Why did you put me with her?  What about that $20 I spotted the teachers?")

Welcome Fall

Wow, have I got behind here!  I know it's not officially Fall, but to me, summer is over when school starts and the pools close.  I'm proud to say that we crossed every item off of Dylan's Summer To Do List.

Even though I hate for summer to end, I do like Fall.  I love the new beginnings and the crisp feel to the air.  I am much more a "Fall Cleaning" kind of gal, than a spring cleaning one.  I get motivated to tackle those boxes I haven't looked at since I moved in 3 summers ago.  To rip wall paper off the walls.  To go through my clothes to find (once again) that I "have no clothes to wear".  Fall means hay rides, and changing leaves, and Halloween costumes, and candy.  Uh, oh.  I'm going to gain back those 10 lbs I lost since taking my nutrition class, aren't I?  No problem.  Fall also means layers.

This weekend we went to the farm.  I've noticed that every time we go to the farm, I take (more or less) the same shots.  I have many traditions.  I have to get a shot of Jim and Dylan walking in this spot.

It makes me sigh every year, because those two together are just too cute.

It's hard to compete with this kind of adoration!  That boy loves his Daddy.

I have to get a shot of my favorite tree.

Dylan has to run along this wall, and jump off it, (while I hold my breath).

I have to hand the camera to Jim and force him to take at least ONE shot of me, with Dylan.

I did get one completely new shot this time.  To my knowledge, we have never been there when they had these gorgeous sunflowers.

We really didn't even need to go to the farm to see animals, since we saw this guy right in our backyard that morning!

He's All Hands, But I Don't Care

We were very busy this weekend. Saturday we went to an indoor play area for a birthday party. Besides the kids in our party, there had to be about 5 other parties going on in the place. It was CRAZY. It was LOUD. It was FUN.

Believe it or not, after that we went to the farm. It was in the 70's, and we decided we just couldn't waste a day like that.

Yesterday was a day to run errands. We went to two different Target's, looking for a particular birthday present for Dylan, only to find both stores were out of them. We also went to Dairy Queen to order Dylan's cake for his party, to Lenscrafters for them to fix my bent glasses (guess who did that?), and out for dinner. Dinner was definitely my favorite part of the weekend, despite the fact that we waited over 1/2 hour for our food with a squirmy toddler!

Usually, I make Jim sit next to Dylan at restaurants. I figured it was only fair. I have to supervise all the other meals, so I deserve to "relax" when we go out. Jim usually spends the time complaining about Dylan's grimy hands continously finding their way to Jim's shirt, and I secretly(or possibly not) enjoy watching.

For some reason, yesterday I sat next to Dylan. I had no idea what I was missing! My normally unaffectionate child held my hand, snuggled up to me numerous times, and at one point wrapped his arms around my neck and exclaimed, "Oh Mommy! You're so cute!"

I'm so cute?! From now on, my clothes will all be stained, but I sure will be happy.

Strawberries

On Thursday last week, my parents and I took Dylan to Triple B Farm to pick strawberries. He was very excited to go, but very serious once we got there. I only got one picture with a smile! He was busy finding good ones to pick and put in the basket for a while, but once he ate one, it became more about eating and much less about picking!

On the hayride back from the field, (as he sat munching one after another), a lady asked me "Did you weigh him before you left today?" You are supposed to have them weighed before you pay for them, before you EAT them! I think we would have had to sit on the kid to prevent him from eating them. He ate tons, and then we went to get lunch, and he ate a whole (kid sized) pizza. A short while later, he moaned, "Oh my belly hurts!" A short while after that, he was farting like a racehorse. Then, he got a rash on his face. He has eaten strawberries from the store without an issue, so what the heck? I found out later, that they do spray the strawberries with a pesticide, so that could have been the issue, since they weren't washed before he ate them.

There was a playground at the farm, complete with a barn that you climb through to go down a slide. It was going to start raining any second, so Dylan ran around trying out every single thing on the playground once, saying "No rain yet!". I love that he wants to try everything and get the most out of each experience!

Something happened that day that is one of those "you had to be there" moments, but I'm going to write about it anyway, so that I can remember it. I had only been to this farm once before, so I printed out directions. I was driving my parent's car. My mom was supposed to be giving directions. I was getting flashbacks of our car trips to Florida as a kid, as I was yelling, "MOOOOMM! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE FOLLOWING MY DIRECTIONS!! MOOOOOMMMM! WHY DID YOU TELL ME TO TURN, IF IT WASN'T IN THE DIRECTIONS!! MOOOOMMMM!"

We stopped a couple of times for directions, but couldn't find "Center Avenue". We saw a guy standing beside a Pepsi truck, and my mom called out from the backseat, "Ask this guy where Center Avenue is". As I pulled up along side the guy, my dad leaned out of his window to ask, "Excuse me, can you tell us where Center Avenue is?"

As the words were coming out of his mouth, we all saw it. The guy was holding back the rows of Pepsi bottles that were about to fall out of the truck into the street. He was using both hands to hold back different areas of the truck, and I think he might have even been using his knees to hold back others. It was like an I Love Lucy episode. He turned to look over his shoulder at my dad with crazy eyes, while admonishing, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW?"

That was it. All three of us bust out laughing at the same time, and we were cracking up as I quickly pulled the car away from the guy. We could hear him swearing as we drove away, and as I looked in my rear view mirror, I could see a few bottles falling out of the truck. That made me laugh even harder. My mom and dad were laughing harder than I've seen them laugh in years, and I was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down my face, and I started hyperventilating. Every time one of us would calm down, someone else would start laughing again, or say "ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW?", and we would all be in hysterics again. Dylan, who was obliviously napping through all this, woke up, looked at all of us as if we were on drugs, then fell back asleep. More laughter.

The poor guy. I would have loved to hear the story he told his wife about his day, and the crazy, rude people who stopped to ask him directions!

Eggs for the Farm

We've been really busy, and I want to document it all, but don't have the time, so I'm doing 3 posts today to catch up.

On Friday, I was supposed to meet a friend and her 3 sons at the farm. When I told Dylan that we would be going after his nap, he said, "Nap, now?!", so you could say that he was excited. I had to wake him up from his nap, because we were going to be late. That is never a good idea, because if you wake him up before he is ready, he is whiny. I got him dressed, and tried to rush him down the stairs to get his shoes on. We made it down, but then he stopped, and said, "I need the X!" He went back up, repeating over and over, "I need the X!" Problem was, I had no idea what he was saying. He just stood at the top of the stairs looking pitiful, whining about the X. I looked at my watch, and got more anxious by the second, but as I looked at him, I could tell this could go one of two ways. One, I could yell that he needed to hurry up, grab him and carry him down the stairs, and try to shove his crying, kicking self into his shoes, at which point he would grow hysterical, flinging himself onto the floor and sobbing because he needs his dang X. Two, I could try the sympathetic, caring approach. Luckily, I picked two.

"Dylan, honey, what do you need for the farm?"
"The eggs!" (the poor kid was really looking pitiful at this point)
(It finally hit me that he was saying "eggs", and that he was talking about his plastic Easter eggs. I took a deep breath, willing myself to be calm, and asked...)
"Why do you need your eggs for the farm?"
He looked at me with the cutest little face, and said, "To give the chickens!"
(Okay, WonderMommy, now what?, I asked myself.)
"Dylan, that is so nice of you, that you want to bring the eggs for the chickens, but the chickens already have all the eggs they need. The ducks really need some bread, though. Do you think we could bring the ducks some bread?)
His sad little face changed into a grin, and he shouted, "YEA!" (Man, I love that kid!)
So, we had a fun day at the farm, despite the fact that my friend's little boys got sick and she had to cancel last minute, and those D$@# ducks wouldn't eat any of our bread!


"Whoa! That's a big turkey!"



(He grabbed a fistful of grass and fed the cow! Is he afraid of anything?! Luckily he still has all his fingers.)

"Ducks?! I'm not happy with you, ducks".