Fall Is Here!

Yay, it's fall! I'd been dreading fall a bit, mainly because I had a couple of long-ish road trips for work, but now that they are over, I'm settling into enjoying my favorite season.

We went last weekend to find Halloween pumpkins. Rachael loved riding around in the wagon at the pumpkin place! Here are some pics from our trip:






Happy fall! :-)

Getting Ready for Winter...

It's strange to be thinking about winter when it's still warm enough for shorts and t-shirts, but today we went out shopping for Rachael's winter coat and snow pants. Last year I waited until Rach actually NEEDED such things (end of October-ish), and I ended up buying from the pile of rubble that was the winter coat selection. So I was a bit more proactive this year.

Anyhoo, this is the coat we ended up getting--we have the matching snow pants too. Cool, eh? I wish I could get away with wearing a shiny pink coat. ;-) If you're looking for little kid outerwear, Gap had a lot of cool stuff to pick from, and their prices were in line with Carter's and other common outerwear haunts. Gymboree only had coats available online last I checked (not in stores for a few more weeks, they said), but the few they had online were insanely expensive. If you are insane, be sure to purchase your toddler's winter coat from Gymboree online. Heh.

If this hadn't been at a brunch buffet, this would be disgusting

We went to brunch last weekend at Fox Hills, home of the best brunch on the planet. It's a rare treat...my friend Kim and I both happened to have won brunch passes earlier in the summer, so the five of us (Kim and Mike, Dave, Rach and me) headed to Plymouth for a morning of gluttony. That is when David appeared at our table with a piece of cake and a strip of bacon. Only at brunch would it ever seem OK to have cake and bacon on the same plate...and even at brunch...it's a stretch. ;-)

I applaud your creative menu, sweetie! Good thing this isn't anything close to our usual meals!

Zoos and Tutus

Busy day today! Rach and I went to the zoo this morning with our friends Kristin, Gabby, and Sophia. We had a great time--Rachael enjoyed the reptiles the most, mainly because she could get right next to the glass and see the animals an inch away from her face. The poor turtles are probably scarred for life after seeing Rachael's nose pressed against the glass like that. Beyond that, her favorite part was running around the zoo's playground...oh, and eating lunch. :-) Here's a pic of her, zoo-ready (thanks, Jim, for the sunglasses!):

I admit, I was looking forward to Rachael sleeping for hours when we got home. After all that running around in the sun, I was expecting a 2.5 hour nap from her. I was wrong. So wrong... After refusing to sleep (and ignoring my pleas), Rachael got up, cranky and over-tired, demanding entertainment. And of course she wasn't interested in puzzles, blocks, outside....UGH. Desperate, I ended up having her try on the tutu I'd picked up at the Gymboree outlet.

Hee hee....she dug it! Her tired eyes lit up as she started twirling around in the filmy tulle. A girl should never need a reason to throw on a tutu, even if it's paired up with a dirty shirt, right?

And *any* tutu is set off perfectly by mom's (gigantic) brown sandels:

So glad I took today off work! Zoos and tutus are way better than conference calls. :-)

What Child Labor Laws?

As I have been whining about on Facebook, we spent our last two weekend moving mulch. The yard looks nice now that the mulching is done, but in the end we had 11 yards of mulch that had to be moved from the heap on our driveway to the various mulch-happy places in our yard. If it weren't so flippin' expensive to have a service do this, I swear I'd hire it out.
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In lieu of hiring labor, we turned to our nearly-two year old! Ha. She was intrigued by our mulch mountain and found the process of shoveling mulch into a wheelbarrow just hilarious. She even pulled on her daddy's work gloves so she could truly play the role of laborer. Our neighbors got a kick out of watching us put our kid to work. ;-) Perhaps we get her a kid-sized shovel for her birthday next month?

Getting a ride back to Mount Mulchmore....

A New Post. Finally.

I know, I know...so much for my resolve to post more regularly. I always have lots to write, but evenings seem to be so short and laundry piles so high. Excuses, excuses. ;-)

We just got back from Connecticut after a few days of visiting my brother and sis-in-law. They are awesome people and superfans of Rachael's, so we had a great time and kept comfortably busy.

We went to the Mystic Aquarium on Saturday, Rachael "getting it" much more at 21 months than she did at 13 months. Jim and Jen have two large aquariums and she LOVED those too, especially their huge orange fish. No, we will not be getting fish of our own. I don't mind cleaning litter boxes, but I do mind cleaning fish tanks. Ew.

Sunday we went to the beach and--shocker--Rachael loves the ocean. I think she has a modest respect for water, but not enough to appreciate how dangerous it can be. So all four of us had eyes on her as she splashed about, giggling in the refreshingly cool waves and digging her little hands into the wet sand. It's so cool to watch her catch on to new things--so rewarding. As my friend Brad always says, "kids are the bomb!"

Here are a few pics from our weekend, all taken using the fresh, tiny camera David's folks gave him for his birthday.

Check out this filter:

Playing blocks with Daddy

"Daddy, I want a fishy like THIS one!"

"Uncle Jim, I'd like an ocean just like THIS one!"

I love this one of Dave and Rach

"Aunt Jen, tell my Daddy that I need a fish tank JUST like yours..."

Beluga Whale smiling at Rachael

All American Girl

I love this picture from Memorial Day and just wanted to share it. Gotta love girly camo shorts (the camo is made up of butterflies. So cool.) :-)