Parchman Farm

Jack is officially in crawling mode, pulling up mode, and trying to walk mode, thus he is constantly on the go. Baby gates are a necessity now as he goes straight for the stairs, and Lily has had to be a lot more careful with her toys as he likes to get right in the middle of anything she has created. He is down to 3 bottles a day now and has sampled many different foods such as nutri-grain bars, cheese, turkey, tofu, kidney beans, and baked beans. He is doing very well picking up his veggie puffs and cheerios, but does not seem to want to pick up other foods quite yet.

Lily is continuing to work on identifying and writing her letters, and likes to spell out words in books. She is very focused on learning to read, and we often catch her reading books based on memory of the story. On Thursday, Lily had her annual school trip to the farm where she petted the animals, rode a pony, took a hay ride and visited the pumpkin patch. On Friday, Lily had her last gymnastics class and participated in a medal ceremony. She learned quite a bit this time around and is always trying new tricks - she was actually trying to do a backbend at gymnastics on Friday but stopped herself before she completely fell. We are going to skip this next session but will likely sign up again after the holidays.

Also on Friday, Lily and Jack had fun celebrating Stuart's birthday, and got him some gloves to use for his new bike. On Saturday, we bought Lily's booster seat which will be going in the car this week, she is very excited. We spent the evening with Hayley, Cole, Ms. Michelle and Mr. John. Jack had a blast hanging with Sammy the dog, he definitely loves dogs, and we know he would have loved Gypsy. On Sunday, Lily spent the morning setting up the basement for a party with all of her "Little People" and any other small toy she could find - she has become very creative with all of her toys and loves to set up for special events. Sunday afternoon brought both sets of grandparents, pumpkin carving, and barbeque for Stuart's birthday. Post-birthday celebration, we headed over to Pierce's (neighbor & classmate) house for an outdoor marshmellow roast - yummy!

Enjoy the pics!


Feeding the goats and sheep during Thursday's farm field trip.


Petting the bunny.


Riding the horse.


With her pumpkin.


"Enough with the camera already."


Celebrating a successful gymnastics season.


Gymnasticing with Jack.


Ready to dig into some birthday brownies.


Tennis anyone.


Jack making his move.


One more.

Dressing Up

Fall is upon us and we had our first Halloween event but just a few things to cover first...

Earlier in the week, we thought Jack had recovered from his cold, no more runny nose, but Thursday night he came down with a fever and the next morning the doctor diagnosed an ear infection. Fortunately, he has made a quick recovery and the rest of the weekend he was a very happy boy. So Jack could get in a good nap and recover from his visit to the doctor, Grandpa Maurice took Lily to gymnastics on Friday - she had a great time showing off all of her tricks and playing on the huge train moonbounce slide. Later in the day, Lily took a spin on her bike and we visited the playground where Jack did some swinging and sliding.

On Saturday, Lily and Jack both dressed up in their Halloween costumes for the neighborhood parade and festival. Grandma Gail and Grandpa Tom came over to take them to the parade and festival so Marcy could drive to NYC to meet Stuart (his flight from Austin was cancelled Friday so he flew directly to NYC Saturday) to go to dinner with cousin Emilie and to see Saturday Night Live.

The kids had fun parading and Lily enjoyed the moonbounce and other games. They then headed to G&G's house for a sleepover. The kids had a great time playing with lots of toys and they got in a trip to the playground and Lily got in a bike ride with Grandpa. Jack enjoyed squealing anytime he saw Ivan, and is now in full crawl mode although he is taking it pretty slow. He now pulls himself up in his crib and other low pieces of furniture.

Enjoy the pics, and there will be many more pics of the costumes as the Halloween festivities have only just begun!

Lily and Jack want to send out birthday wishes to Dad who will be celebrating his birthday on Friday!


Jack getting his first manicure.


Getting ready for Halloween.


Halloween parading ... Jack is in the back on the left.


Recovering from the parade.


Watching the Redskin's game with Grandpa Tom.

Call Letter Blues

Another busy weekend in the books...

Jack has somewhat recovered from his cold, although his nose continues to run. He is working on eating solids but does not seem to have a lot of interest. He gets himself into the crawling position no problem, but then will just scoot on his belly or his bottom. If we tell him to come over to us, he will now really work hard to scoot himself over. He is pulling himself up and moving his feet around a little bit.

Lily is a letter and spelling machine. She can write all of her letters and is working at determining the first letter of every word. She will see words on signs, and identifies all of the letters, and has started to write three letter words on her own like cat, mom, and dog. This week at school they are learning about fire preparation, and she wanted to remind everyone to "stop, drop and roll" if there is a fire. Ballet and gymnastics continue to go well. She is also enjoying riding her bike and seems to be getting down the brake system.

On Friday, Mom took Lily and Jack to Grandma Gail and Grandpa Tom's house for a sleepover. Lily went to a duck pond on Friday and went to a fall festival with Grandpa Tom on Saturday where they went on two hay rides. Saturday afternoon Mom and Dad returned and had dinner with G & G, Great Yellow Grandma, and Great Uncle Michael who was in town from Louisville. On Sunday, we headed to another fall festival where there were all sorts of activities, including another hay ride and pumpkin picking. Sunday night Grandpa Maurice and Grandma Phyllis joined us for dinner.

* Lily and Jack want to send out hugs and kisses to their fabulous parents who are celebrating six years of being married!! Lily always wants to know why she was not at Mommy and Daddy's wedding but after many discussions and explaining that we were thinking of her when we got married, she now looks at our wedding picture and says "I could not be there but I was in your head Mommy, right?"
** Lily and Jack also want to send out a special shout out to Mom who finished her first half marathon on Saturday, and a special shout out to Dad who ran a great 5K and did a great job tracking Mom on the bike.

Enjoy the pics!


Slip, sliding away.


Lily getting ready to go down the big slide.


On a hayride.


Lily pushing Jack around.


Just being cute.


Getting comfy with his pumpkin.


Horsing around.


Playing around with Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa Maurice.

The Running Kind

Needless to say Stuart and I are GLAD the weekend is over...

On Friday, Jack woke up with an extremely runny nose but we figured it was just related to teething....Mom, Lily and Jack headed to gymnastics, and then went to meet 9 day old Holden, son of friends Erin and Rob. He was very cute and small...and he is also lucky enough to have a blog, ...upon returning home we went on a family walk while Lily rode her bike. She is becoming more comfortable biking and we only have to "hold on" half of the time. She is practicing breaking however still tends to put her feet down on the ground when she actually needs to stop. She is already talking about when her training wheels are taken off...and yes she talks about this while on the bike, looking backwards and almost crashing into a car...

Saturday we awoke to Jack definitely being under the weather with a cold - runny nose, sneezing, and just looking pitiful - and Lily complaining of a tummy ache. Lily attempted to play soccer that morning but still was not feeling well so we left early. Even with her not feeling well, she just has not been too excited about soccer so we have decided that it may be a little early for soccer so we have decided to bag it for another year, and we will gauge her interest next year. But it was good that we left soccer early...we returned home and both Lily and Jack went down for a nap - this is a rarity for Lily so we knew she must really not be feeling well. After sleeping for about two hours, she came downstairs to watch some television and promptly threw up, and threw up two more times during the day. This combined with Jack's runny nose made for a lovely Saturday. Fortunately, both went to bed early, and on Sunday Lily awoke a new person. It appears that it was just a 24 hour stomach flu. However, Jack's cold has continued. We did manage to get together with friends Chris, Kristen, and Wyatt in the afternoon/evening but Jack went to bed early again.

Today, Lily began ballet again which she enjoyed, and Jack stayed home with Mom...we are hoping for a healthy child tomorrow!


"I am sick and I have teeth coming in. Stop staring at me."


Sick as a dog.


Calling her friends to talk about the big Redskins win.


Getting comfy with Wyatt.


Getting ready for ballet.