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!