Pumpkin Patch Pictures

So I promised pumpkin patch pictures back in November, so pumpkin patch pictures you shall receive....in December. You're welcome :)

We went to the pumpkin farm that I went to as a child, but they changed the way they do things now and sadly I don't think we will go back. Disappointing.

We did however leave with these little beauties. 

Love how Nick tried to hide in this picture, but then you see this large foot at the bottom, haha!

We got to go with our buddies, the Loftus'. It doesn't get much cuter than these guys.

Fall Fun

Recently we have gone a few fun fall outings (say that 10 times fast) to some pumpkin patches and "apple orchards" that you must feast your eyes on.

One lovely fall day daddy took a day off of work to go apple picking with Grandma and Auntie Andrea since Auntie had a day off. We did our research and thought we found an apple orchard that actually had apples for folks to pick (Illinois got hit with warm weather early and then a frost which killed a lot of the apple blossoms). Well apparently this orchard had not updated their website, and there were indeed no apples to be picked. We asked if we could just walk in the orchard so Miles could get a sense of apple picking and they said "...sure, but it will cost you $5 a head". The cheapskate in me said no thank you. I am not paying $25 to take a walk amongst some trees so we looked at the chickens they had there and took pictures next to some pumpkins.

After that disappointment we met up with Grandpa at a fun little zoo. So the afternoon wasn't a total bust.

Miles also had a great time with his friend Charlie running around Charlie's backyard and jumping in a huge leaf pile. Good fall fun. Pumpkin patch pictures to follow.

September/October update

Our little man has really been changing these last few months in good and ummm.....not so good ways (that's mommy's nice way of putting it). He sure has been testing us and excising his use of the word NO. He says it in such a cute way sometimes that it takes all that I have not to bust out laughing. We've tried many methods to get our point across that he should not be doing certain things (some I am more embarrassed about than others) but the one that seems to be working well right now is to explain things to a fault and it just seems like he takes it all in, processes it, and is ok with it (most of the time). We have also started to do time outs which are working much better than I ever imagined. So, we'll see if any of these things work, but I sure am trying.

"Hi Mom, I'm a penguin"

Mommy and Miles goofy time

Teaching him young

I've also found that he is less defiant and grumpy when we stay very busy, so that is what I've been trying to do. On Tuesdays we take tumbling (cutest thing), Thursdays we do a play group through the park district, and Saturdays he does soccer. All the other days we try to do play dates, park visits and museum outings. I'm not sure who is more tired by the end of the day, him or me. It's going to be rough once the weather gets cold, let me tell you.

Bouncy house after soccer

Example of friend hand holding

Tumbling is awesome!!

Frightened and fascinated he can do this

Tumbling with his buddies Marcus and Neason

Has a fascination now with cars and trains. Boys

More friend hand holding

He has been doing some pretty cute things lately, like really getting his groove on when music is playing. Miles is also mimicking a lot of what we are saying now and his vocabulary is really picking up (He's no Macy Damdar, but I'll take it).  When he's having a good day he is just so fun to be around and cracks us up. One of my favorite things is that he hugs all his little friends and holds their hands to guide them places. He loves too hard sometimes and doesn't know when to let go, but it's cute nonetheless. And no matter what kind of mood he is in or in an outburst, if you say "give mommy a hug and kiss" he plants a wet, juicy his right on your lips and says "huuuggg" and gives you a squeeze. One of Nick's favorite things to do with him is to go on these long walks on the lakefront where Miles dictates how long it takes us and where we go. He has more patients then I do. Miles loves it and so does dad.

He's such a funny, goofball of a kid, he must be ours!

BFF's

This summer has been fun because Miles has really been able to interact and play with so many great kids. He seems to really understand when we are going to visit people and repeats, and repeats, and repeats their names chant like if you will (no, no this does not drive me crazy at all). We've had a lot of fun play dates and have had some regular ones with some of our friends hence developing BFFs.  I know technichlly you are only supposed to have one BFF, but who can choose when you have friends like this.

*Note: BFF's are listed in no particular order.


BFF #1 Henry: Although Henry is a little bit younger than Miles, he seems to hold his own and amuses and entertains my wee little man. He is starting to walk now so I think we are in for it with these two. There's no stopping them now.

"There, there, little friend. I will teach you all about being naughty..."

"....but first, lets snuggle"

BFF #2 Nieson: We don't get to see Nieson as much as we would like but when they get together they have nothing but fun (did the opposites attract song come into anyone elses head with that line? No? Me neither). Who doesn't love going out for cupcakes? Nieson also has an older brother that Miles just thinks is the coolest too.

BFF #3 James: So what if they don't live in the same state, they can still be good friends! With the help of friendship immersion with a visit to Texas and then James visiting Chicago, these two get along great. They are both super active and just seem to have endless energy when together.

BFF #4 Charlie: Ahhh Charlie. He's the ying to Mile's yang. They were able to spend a lot of time together this summer with Charlie's mama being off for the summer because she's a teacher. We went on a lot of fun outings together, had backyard play dates, and Miles ate his first PB&J sandwich with Charlie. When we are on our way to see Charlie, I have learned my lesson not to tell Miles where we are going because he literally will chant Charlie's name the whole way there. We haven't been able to see him as much with the school year starting but Miles will randomly say his name while playing, I think wishing he was there. We are hoping some of Charlie's good behaviors will rub off on our boy (fingers crossed).

Waiting in line for a carousel ride

Eating first PB&J

A hug that turned into a wrestle attack on the ground

BFF #5 Teagan: I sadly don't have too many pictures of Miles and Teagan together. Maybe it's the fact that Teagan has twin brothers and when we all get together there is just NO time to take pictures when 4 kids are involved. He has a great time with this older lady and when he's not making her gag with his gross eating habits (sorry T), I think she likes him too :) She's always trying to encourage him to follow her and try "new" things and she says him name so cute it makes he smile every time.

Here's a group shot that Teagan is in.

And just because they are so darn cute, Teagan's brothers Brendan and Colin

Could a boy be any luckier to have such wonderful BFF's? It will be fun to watch them grow up together...even if we have to force them to be friends ;)

Indy, Indy, Indy!

Last month we took a trip down to Indianapolis to visit some friends and hit up the Children's museum. We had such a fun time with our friends and really enjoyed the museum. We were super impressed with the size of the place and all the fun things they had for the kiddos.

Most of all I think Miles liked hanging out with these guys the best....

 

And he thought it was super cool that he had the same PJ's as a big boy.

And this guy gave him a run for his money. Both little guys are super active and I think Miles met his match in Ryder (who has the most adorable bouncy run. Made me laugh every time).

I wasn't lying when I said the Children's museum was impressive. This is what you see when you drive up to it. Insane!

And Rigg kept talking about "Bumblebee" and I was told it was a Transformer from the latest movies but was not expecting this....

And of course Miles had a great time in the lego, car, and carousel rooms.

Cari and I have determined that we are getting old because we can't seem to even handle a carousel anymore without feeling nauseous. I'd hate to see how my body would react to a roller coaster. Would not be pretty, I'm sure.

While we were there we had one of the most miserable nights sleep we had with Miles in a long time. We shared a room with him; he was in his pack and play and we were in a super comfy bed (thanks Cari and Andy). When Nick and I headed to bed we were so careful not to make too much noise and we actually made it to bed without waking Miles. I then decided to drape a blanket over one side of the pack and play to block some of the sunlight in the morning so we could hopefully not wake with the sunrise. Well that little man must have sensed me (because I was very, very quiet of course) and woke up. It was over. He did not want to lay down at all and was screaming his little head off. Since we were in a house with four other people we didn't want him to wake anyone up so we tried bringing him into bed with us. We've never tried to do this at night so we weren't sure how it was going to work. Well, it didn't work well at all. Every time I thought he was sleeping he would put his hands on my face, snuggle, and sit on me. If I weren't so exhausted, I would have thought it was cute. 2.5 hours later we finally got him to sleep in the pack and play but he was still up at the crack of dawn. So much for my blanket....darn blanket.

It was just really great to spend a few days with friends, catch up, eat great meals, play games, and watch our kids play together. Thank you Chastains for letting us crash your pad. Had a blast.