November

Our baby officially stopped breastfeeding at the beginning of the month. I guess it was time but it's a little sad.

And he started walking.

And he finally realized how yummy raspberries are. He loves pomegranates too.

And he gives stuffed animals hugs and kisses. And even us once or twice.

He's gotten really into books. Look at this adorable bedtime storytime.


Eating yogurt with his hands. Super messy.

He usually uses a spoon (we fill his spoon for him and hand it to him). Except this once and also the entire time he was sick this month.

He'd been trying to do this very thing for several days. Perhaps not exactly what he expected.


I should really get a video of him playing music. He loves instruments. (This is why I brought out instruments when I took pics of him on his birthday.)


We raked a lot of leaves! I love my little helper.



Our preschool took a field trip to the zoo. It probably would have been better if we hadn't gone - our preschooler had been sick (and was better), but after that baby and I got sick, and got it worse than big brother had had. The temperature was nice considering the time of year, but it was really windy so I blame the zoo trip.
But, it was fun.

>Baby had fun, I even got him out of the stroller a couple times.
>They have a couple dozen Panamanian Golden Frogs which was our preschoolers favorite thing the whole trip. The sign said the little frogs are likely extinct in the wild.

This turtle was super fun.  They all took a turn sitting on the front.

We got an additional preschooler this month! An adorable little girl. (Not pictured as they were out of town.)

Before our field trip I asked Zachary if he wanted to go to the zoo to see animals like elephants and giraffes. And he said "no elephant, no giraffe. Peacock." Haha, the Maryland Zoo doesn't have any so we might have to go somewhere that does :) Hot Cup showed him a YouTube video and I thought that might satisfy him but nope.

During naptime the afternoon after our zoo animals lesson, I could overhear our preschooler on the monitor saying "My mommy. My mommy, not your mommy. My mommy." ♥

When we were out for a walk and passed a home at the end of the street where they have I think 3 dogs, our preschooler said "dogs play car in there." Sounds fun!

He loves this lego train and is always finding new ways to build it.


I didn't take any pics but we spent Thanksgiving with our families and it was fun to be with them and there was lots of yummy food. It was after the fieldtrip and our baby was still not well. The next day we took him to the pediatrician and found out he had an ear infection and croup. A few days later, and with the help of a humidifier and some antibiotics, he was fine.

Peek at a Peacock II

Lest you believe that our preschooler only remembered the Peacock song the day of class, here he is singing it two weeks later (11/26).  Sure he heard it more than just during preschool as I was the teacher of that unit; so he had that advantage.


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The day of this video we overheard him singing it through during "naptime" and asked him to sing it for us after.  He said no until I suggested he sing it for the camera so we could watch it on the computer :)

Walking!

November 4th was his first day walking.  They were little baby steps but they took him where he's the most excited to go (the diaper genie - he thinks it's pretty cool).

He kept working on it all month long and on Saturday November 22nd he decided he was ready for a real switch from crawling to walking.  He spent at least 10 consecutive minutes walking all over the house, practicing.  He knew what he was doing and was super excited for his new skill.  Here's a video from that day.


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Peek at a Peacock

It was my turn to teach preschool today and we sang a song called Peek at the Peacock from I Have a Song For You Vol. 3.  Later I started singing it as the boys were finishing up lunch and heard my preschooler singing along :) And then at before naptime ...


141113-PeekAtAPeacock

Let me know if you need the password.

October

Our preschooler is a funny little guy.  Even though he can count pretty high, if he sees or wants a lot of something then it's "17."  And if it's really a lot it's "more than 17."  He's replaced the words have and want with need.  He needs everything.  He'll occasionally section off a small part of the room so he can play without interference from baby brother.  His stuffed Curious George is often a full member of our family.

Sometimes the two of them actually play together for a little bit and it makes mama so happy.

Our baby is reaching some big milestones.  We think he had his first word this month and it's either "amen" or ba"nana".  We realized one day that we thought he was saying amen after prayers and asked him to repeat it, which is what prompted big brother to advise us baby doesn't talk as I mentioned in a post a couple weeks ago.  Baby doesn't often respond to being asked to say something.  It's easiest to get him to do it right after a prayer.  Or for nana, when there is a banana.  He scoots a lot, using one foot to move himself forward and pretty much sitting on the other.  Once he started using the walker he quickly became proficient at navigating with it.

Watching TV.


Playing peek-a-boo with me using a table leg during Sunday School. We try not to be too much of a disturbance.


He loves hats.


Using a bowl.  (George often shared meals with us, but here you can see Thomas has a (empty) bowl of food back there.)


I had my first turn teaching preschool.  They're a fun group of kids who seem to really enjoy it.  I think it must be part of being a 3 year old.

Our preschool has a field trip or party scheduled for about once a month but it just so happened that there were actually two in October.  At the beginning of the month we went apple picking at Larriland Farm and at the end of the month we went to see the animals at Clark's Elioak Farm.

Baby brother didn't fall asleep at either, but it sure seemed like he wanted to at Larriland.


And here's the whole class.


Feeding and petting the goats was a favorite at the farm.


In the end I felt bad I'd left baby in the stroller the entire time. I'm sure he would have loved petting the goats, the slides, and other activities.


One of them couldn't make it because his grandparents were in town.


Pre-Halloween activities like dying clothes and painting a pumpkin. He used up all the paint on that pumpkin.



And a few more pics of our little puppy.

Happy Halloween!

Our toddler insisted on being Curious George for Halloween so we went with it, and it was really fun :) Baby and I are characters from the TV show (not in the books).


In case you're wondering, I made the boys' headbands and ears and Hundley's tail. Hot Cup dyed his shirt and pants and I made his tie cover and hat. And I added pleats to my lab coat because Professor Wiseman's isn't baggy.

The real deal from the PBS website:

(I wore a collared blue blouse to the trunk-or-treat and should have today too.  For some reason I decided it didn't matter but it would have looked better.)

The stars of the show.


My big sister came up to join the fun. Our baby wasn't sure about taking a picture with his auntie at first.


I don't have a pic but it was super cute to see our baby crawling around in his dog costume.

We went trick-or-treating on our street and it was so much fun to see our little Curious George do it.
Then The Man with the Yellow Hat asked him if he wanted to hand out the candy and he did and he was amazing at it. After a few minutes they decided to sit on the porch. Hundley and I sat behind them on that chair (when I wasn't taking this picture).


Our ward trunk-or-treat was last Wednesday. Our preschooler enjoyed all the games they had set up.  Hundley served as our trunk decoration while I handed out candy and Curious George and The Man with the Yellow Hat had all the fun trunk-or-treating and going on the hay ride.

I'd planned to color our baby's nose black but somehow managed to forget both days.

We had a great Halloween. Our preschooler is at a really fun age for it!