Shameless Bragging from a Proud Mama

I borrowed a set of beginning reader books from James' school to try out with him yesterday. After sitting with James for about 5 minutes, he could read the first one by himself and surprised Tim by reading it to him when he got home from work yesterday. We bought him his own set today and James read this book all by himself the first time he sat down with it. We have a pre-reader and I could not be any prouder of him!

Fall=Apple Orchard

We ate dinner over at a friend's house on Friday night where we had cookies and warm apple cider for dessert. It was James' first experience with apple cider and he quickly declared it his new favorite treat. On our drive home I decided that we needed to go apple picking immediately because it just seemed like a fall kind of thing to do. Well, of course living in the Mont, there is an apple orchard less than 10 minutes away from our house. Score. But when I called them this morning I found out they only let a set number of people pick apples per season and this year is already sold out. Boo. But we could still go see the orchard and the animals and go on a hayride. James and I were sold and Tim and Mac were good sports and tagged along.

After our hayride around the orchard, we ate a picnic lunch and bought some cider, apples and apple cider donuts from the farm to go with it. Delicious.

 James bought a basket of carrots and got to feed the horses and donkeys.

 This little foal was only 2 weeks old. So cute!

So I am now madly in love with apple cider donuts and may or may not already be planning multiple trips back to the orchard just to buy more of them. Now I just need to be on top of things and get us reservations early enough next year so that we can pick our own apples!

Brotherly Love

James' failed attempts at loving on Mac. 

That's the Way We Roll....

Fall is definitely upon and us and we have been having some amazing weather. It was cool enough at the beginning of the week that we were able to break into some cold weather clothes and this weekend was about 80 degrees. We took advantage of the weather today and took both boys on a wagon ride to the park. Mac loved every second of his wagon ride with his eccentrically dressed big brother.

 Mac's head apparently went on a growth spurt since Crystal and he doesn't fit in any of his little bucket hats anymore, so we had to upgrade to an old size 2-3T hat of James'.

 James told us this was his miner's outfit and wore it all day. He kept asking us if he looked like a miner. Ummm, I guess so???

 Macky does not love swings the way that James did at this age. We give him a couple of pushes and he just looks at us with a concerned expression on his little face and looks very relieved when we take him out.

Trying to push the wagon home.

We topped off our perfect fall day with pork and green chile stew and a buttermilk peach pie with fire roasted chiles and peaches from the farmer's market. I love fall!!!

Waiting for Daddy

11 Months Old!

Mac is 11 months old today! He woke up this morning and seems to be coming down with a cold, so excuse the worst brother monthday picture ever. He looks like a hot mess and I reserve the right to retake it tonight if he is feeling better.

Some facts about Mac at 11 months:

-He clearly loves me about 100 times as much as anyone else. He flaps his little arms so fast when he sees me that it looks like he is about to take off flying. He can't get to me fast enough and then throws his arms up in the air as his demand for me to pick him up. When I do leave him with other people, he is fine and perectly happy the whole time that I am gone and then the second that I return and he sees me, his whole face crumples into the most pathetic and sad thing I have ever seen and he just sobs until I pick him up.

-He loves laughing at pretty much anything James says or does.

-He is pretty fearless, he pulls up to stand on anything and will let go to grab something and come crashing down. He is recovering from a black eye right now as a result of this fearlessness. 

-He has not met a food that he doesn't like. He will eat pretty much anything I put in front of him, which is making meal time easier and easier. He usually just eats whatever the rest of us are eating.

 -He will sometimes sleep through the night until 5am (and one glorious time until 6 am). Too bad this is not predictable at all, and other nights he will be up 2 -3 times.
-He has the cutest crawl I have ever seen. He crawls on his hands and knees, but after every 2 scoots he does with his knees, he throws his foot ahead of him and does one giant scoot on his foot. He is fast!
-He is seriously opinionated. If you take something away from him or try to remove him from something potentially dangerous, watch out! He will let you know in no uncertain terms how unhappy you have made him. Likewise, when he is happy he is not at all stingy with his big grins and giggles.
-My favorite time of day is putting him to sleep for naps or at night. The second his lights go out and his sound machine goes on, he snuggles into me and reaches up to grab my face. He will pat my face as he nurses until he drifts off to sleep. I try to soak up every single second of his sweet babyness and our special bond during this time.
I can't believe that we have just one month left in his first year! James has been looking forward to their joint birthday party for months now and plans are well under way. My two boys are almost 1 and 4, how did this happen?

First Day of School

James started back to school today with much enthusiasm from everyone. Mac and I walked him over this morning and he ran right in the front door looking for his best little school buddy, Cyrus. He found him and grabbed his hand and they took off into another room. I tried to get him to say goodbye to me and/or give me a hug and was denied either one. When we went to pick him up, he was still eating lunch and he informed me he was, "Too busy eating to come home and could he please stay for storytime?" When he finally finished eating and washing up, he came running towards me with arms open. My heart swelled thinking he actually missed me until he bent down and gave Mac a giant hug saying, "Moo Moo! I missed you all day!" Oh well, at least one of us was missed.

 James had a great first day back at school. He made homemade play-doh, played outside and read a lot of books. He ate spaghetti with "meatballs" and tomato sauce, sauteed zucchini and garlic bread for lunch and had cucumbers and oranges for a snack.

 When I asked him what the best part of his day was he said, "Playing with Cyrus in the Cozy Corner" (the reading area). We went out for ice cream after dinner tonight to celebrate such a great first day.

He looks so much older than his first day of school last year, it is hard to believe it has only been a year!