Hayride

Last weekend, we had a Fall hayride with Sarah and her gang. The only thing that would have made it better was actual Fall weather. It was 80 degrees.

The whole gang

Charlie with Sarah's fiancee, Jason, & his boys: Cole, Elijah & Luke. Sarah is about to add to the testosterone in her house when she gets married soon :)

Laughing with my boy

Loud tractor!

Best family shot we could get

Love this shot of Elliot and his "Daddy-duh"

Best photo of the day & also the loves of my life

Sarah & Jason

Roasting hot dogs

Noah roasting his dog

Don't let this fool you. He didn't forget about the chocolate

There is nothing like special occasions when you get to drink "junk juice"

Post S'mores

Elliot started sampling the graham crackers, taking a little bite out of each one

Running wild

E's cracker collection

Good at sharing for a one year old :)

Daddy & Noah being silly

Of course, E had to get in on the action

Love this face

Noah had a lot of fun despite having a yucky cold and cough

Minor details like a hacking cough and runny nose don't stop my boy

Jason was trying to get acorns down from the tree.

Great picture of all six of them!

Charlie & Cole

Jason & E meeting on the path

KC Marathon

I ran in the KC Marathon last weekend on a relay team. There were five of us and each of us ran a leg of the run. I ran the first leg, which was a 5K. I run a 5K three times a week so it sounded easy enough. What I did not plan on was a very steep/long hill at the end. Adrenaline and a few new songs of my ipod had me running fast the first 2 miles, but that really slowed me down. I still finished in a decent time. Our whole team did great! We finished 9th place out of 34 female relay teams. I walked from the end of my race all the way to the plaza to meet Paul & the boys at Panera. Then walked to Sunset Hills where he had to park due to the marathon all around the city.

I went home, showered, ate and then met my team members near the finish line. We ran the last part of the race with our last leg runner to finish as a team. It was a lot of fun!

This is part of our team. We were towards the end of the race waiting for our last runner. The girl on the left I went to High School with (Amy). The girl in the middle, Crystal, I met that morning. She was the 2nd leg runner.

Running with my team at the end

Finishing strong as a team!

The energy at a marathon is so much different than any race I've done before (only 5k and 4 mile races). It was exciting watching all the full marathon-ers finish. Some were hobbling and grimacing in pain as they finished to their supporters cheering. Pretty cool. Paul & I are planning on doing a 10K soon and then we are going to start training for a half marathon that we are going to run in April! Pretty crazy, but I know we can do it!

Mr. Independent

I walked into the playroom to find Elliot had gotten down the diaper wipes, pulled his pants down and was wiping his legs. Sure enough, he needed a diaper change. I'm just glad I got to him before he proceeded to take off the diaper, too.

Haircut # 5

Noah's new game

I love this new game of Noah's. We'll be driving home and he'll pretend he is asleep in his carseat. Knowing he's not really asleep in the past I just left him in the car (in the garage) for a little bit while I put away groceries or whatever. He told me one day after doing this he was upset because I was supposed to pick him up and carry him to the couch since he was "asleep". So we established that this is what he wants me to do in this situation. Now I play along when he does it. It is obvious he is faking and he does this out loud sigh/hum thing like that is so funny. The best part is his smile/smirk he does with his eyes still closed when I lay him down and he thinks he pulled a fast one. He inevitably "wakes up" within a couple of minutes. Love it!


And just because posts are more fun with pictures, here he is not faking sleep in the car.

Pumpkin Patch

We had a great time at Johnson Farms yesterday. It was unseasonably warm. Almost too warm for a traditional fall activity. We had lots of fun!

Out in the pumpkin patch

Cole & Charlie with their pumpkins on the wagon ride back

Luke with his little pumpkins

Paul & Elliot on the wagon ride to the patch

Charlie, Elijah & Noah checking out the goats

Llama Llama having fun

Cute little goat

Baby chicks - Charlie wouldn't leave them alone

Elliot loved them, too

Swinging

The giant inflatable pillow. So fun!

I may or may not have played the "can I jump with my son? he is scared" card, just so I could get in a little friendly competition on who could jump higher with Noah

That's my boy. Not sure the lady bought that he was "scared" once she saw him in action.

We are so competitive. Yes, I know he's 30 years younger than me, but that boy is a machine so I consider him fair competition.

Wee!

Hay barn fun

Who says you have to limit jumping to the inflatable pillow?

A good day

Today was another nice Fall day, in a string of nice Fall days this year.  The weekend started a little early, with Mandy calling me at work telling me something about Noah, the shattered glass front door and Elliot standing in the middle of it.  I came home, found the boys had been bandaged and cleaned, and proceeded to clean up the glass (more on that story later).

Since it was a beautiful afternoon, we took the boys on a bike ride to the park to play, while we waited for Mandy's mom to arrive so she could watch the boys while we went out for my birthday.  We met some friends at the Classic Cup on the Plaza, then had an ice-cream nightcap at a unique ice cream shop.

Both boys were up early the next morning - a few minutes before 6:00 - so we decided to make the best of it with a ride down to the Plaza to get coffee/breakfast at Starbucks.  It was expected to get into the 80s by mid-afternoon, but the temperature that early was only in the high 50s, and it was still dark out, so we handed out jackets and I duct-taped my flashing bike taillight to Noah's bike just to make the little guy could be seen.

We headed off into the darkness - the only ones on the street.  We got to Loose Park with no problem, with Noah powering up some of the biggest hills.  The final stretch from Loose is a huge downhill into the Plaza, and Mandy and I stopped to give Noah some additional instructions. 

Noah has no fear of downhills, and reaches speeds that are hard to keep up with.  Inevitably there are required stops at cross streets, or stops signs, and Noah has a tendency to go full speed (yelling "Whoooooooo!" all the way), slamming on his brakes at the last second and leaving a long skid mark.  Doing that on this hill could have easily put him out of control, so we told him he had to ride his brakes the whole way down.  He did, reluctantly, with Mandy yelling at him to slow down every time he got going too fast. 

After coffee, chocolate milks and something to eat, we took the Trolley Trail back home to avoid traffic.  Noah has a bell on his bike, and we have been teaching him to ring it as we approach joggers, then pass on the left.  He usually does pretty well, although at one point this morning, he rode right up on a couple of older gentlemen joggers and started laying on that bell from about two feet behind them.  They first tried to slow down so Noah could pass them, then tried speeding up, perhaps thinking they could outrun him, but he stayed glued to them, ringing that bell the whole way.   I thought they had had enough harassment for one morning, and finally told Noah to stop for a few seconds as the men ran away. 

There was a local running sports store hosting a run that morning, so we passed dozens of groups of runners on our way back, with Noah dinging his bell in support of them, and them cheering him on right back.  We made it back home around 8:30 AM after a nearly 6-mile round trip, and got the boys ready for a trip to the Johnson Farms pumpkin patch with Sarah and her four boys (Mandy will post more on that later).

After all that activity, both boys went down for naps, with Noah sleeping more than three hours.  When he woke, he and I rode to the grocery store to do a little shopping for grilling out that evening.  After dinner, Mandy took Noah on an "exciting adventure" (a walk to Arno Park), while I went with a walk with Elliot, who "rode" his bike down the street.  When Noah started riding his pedal bike, Elliot inherited his Stryder pedal-less bike, and is actually doing pretty well in getting used to it.  Right now, he just walks it along, which is how the little ones start.  If we keep at it, I can imagine him actually riding on it by next spring.

Baths and stories ended another great day.  A repeat tomorrow would be just fine with me.

Thanks Amelia!

For my birthday card:

It was a very sweet surprise. See you at Thanksgiving?

What is missing?

Me: "What did the teddy bear lose?"
Noah: "his baby?"
Me: "What body part is he missing?"
Noah: *studies picture very seriously* "his penis!"

Couldn't hold in the laughter. But, hey, he is right.

School Boy

I am so proud of Noah and excited for his next big phase of life. He will be starting preschool in January. Noah's always been very attached to me. From infancy he would cry inconsolably when left with anyone other than Paul or me. He couldn't even be happy with his own Grandma or Aunt (without me around) until he was a year old. It wasn't until Elliot was born and Noah was about 2 1/2 before I ever left him with a babysitter that wasn't family. Going to the YMCA twice a week and leaving him with child watch is a big accomplishment for him. He has said he doesn't like school and doesn't want to go for the past year or so. In recent months he has talked about that he'll be ready to go when he's four. And by golly, when he turned four, he said he wanted to go to school.

I've been doing a lot of research (mostly talking to other mom's in the community) and have found what I think to be the perfect preschool for him. The director started the program 32 years ago and she is just one of those special teachers that everyone loves. She makes every kid feel special. She goes to birthday parties, swim lessons, takes kids out to lunch at the mall, etc. She took the time to hear about Noah over the phone and what we are looking for and wants him in HER class! She dropped off the enrollment packet at our house. I was so excited (kind of like in 5th grade when I found out I got Mrs. Rizzi). She said in 32 years she has never had a student leave and thinks Noah will love it. He will go two mornings a week to start out with beginning in January. In the Fall he'll no longer be in her class, as he'll start Pre-K and should move up to going 3 mornings a week.

Yesterday, I stopped by the school to drop off our paperwork during his teachers' class recess time. She sent me a visitor badge so Noah can visit several times before starting. He went in and played during recess and got to meet his teacher. I'm going to let him visit several times. I can't believe he's growing up so fast. It will be bittersweet to let him go to school. He is excited that he can ride his bike to school. I'll get him a lock so he can lock it up just like the big kids. No carpool lane for us, unless there is snow or ice. I'm so glad he's ready and am excited for him, but I will miss him those mornings. I think Elliot may have a harder time than me having him gone for 3 1/2 hours! And now I get why parents cry when they send their kid to school. I never thought I'd be such a sap, but I get choked up just thinking about it.



P.S. And it is noteworthy to mention that not only does this school offer half day preschool, but also half day kindergarten! So many schools have done away with this, and I think it's awesome! I don't think a kid that age needs to be in school all day and come home exhausted.