Pumpkin Farms!

This month we visited two different pumpkin farms.  On one warm October weekend we headed east to Barton Hill Farms.  They had a huge Willie Nelson-themed corn maze and some activities for the kids.  It was fun but HOT! We couldn't take the sun very long.

A couple weeks later we went to Sweet Berry Farm, accompanied by Nana & Pop-Pop.  The weather was much more seasonal but the place was just teeming with families!  Still a fun experience.

Wesley couldn't get enough of feeding the goats!

Kiddie train ride

Wesley loved crawling all over the pumpkin pile.

JJ successfully made it through the Candy Cornfield Maze and rang the bell at the end.

We all did the hay ride and then picked some flowers to cap off the outing.

These dudes were completely tuckered out after all their adventures.

Wesley's 15-month checkup

Wesley visited the pediatrician for his 15-month well check today. We learned the doctor is retiring soon, so this might be the last time we get to see her. Too bad - she's a great doctor!

As soon as we walked into the building Wesley started to get fussy. My theory is that taking him to get his hair cut last week (think flailing, screaming toddler pinned down in my lap while nervous stylist came at him with scissors) scarred him and left him extra wary of unfamiliar situations. He screamed his head off while said head was getting measured, cried and fought the weigh-in, and continued to sob while the doctor examined him. Our poor little sensitive boy. He did recover quite quickly after his 3 vaccines, though.

The important thing is that he is healthy and developing on track. Here are his growth stats:

Length - 33 inches (98th percentile) - this measurement is totally wrong, due to the wiggling
Weight - 23 lbs 12 ounces (50-75th percentile)
Head Circumference - 48.9 cm (95th percentile)

I'll include a few notes on what Wesley is into these days:

• Cars. He loves to watch people drive away in their cars and to point at cars and trucks in books, saying "ca".
• Saying goodbye. He is quite enthusiastic about parting ways. He says "ba" and flaps his hand in a wave.
• Water play. The little troublemaker will climb the stool in the bathroom and turn on the faucet to play with the water. And I've figured out the best way to occupy him while I put on my makeup in the morning is to turn on the bath faucet so he can stick his fingers in it. He also loves the water table outside, and if the hose is on, you can be sure he's heading straight for it.
• Books. He doesn't often let us read a whole story to him, but he loves to thumb through books and point things out - mainly cars, cats, dogs and elephants. He does a great elephant noise. If I am sitting on the floor, he will often grab a book and plop right down in my lap. I love that.
• Light switches. He could flip light switches all day (see photo below).
• Climbing. This kid has no fear. He's been climbing the ladder of the playscape for quite awhile (always with a spotter right behind him). He is just figuring out he can climb onto the couch and is an accident waiting to happen once he's up there.
• Biting. This one is unfortunate. He is in a biting phase, and the target is usually his brother.

He's slowly adding words to his vocabulary. He can say mom ("ma") (and he uses this word to refer to Mom, Dad and Miss Ana; so much for me getting excited about him saying ma before dada), car ("ca"), bye ("ba"), kitty ("keh"), down ("da"), shoes, cow ("moo"), JJ (we've only heard this one a few times), banana ("nana"), and water  ("wa").

Finally, here are some recent Wesley pics:

Family hike in Circle C

Obligatory spring bluebonnet photo shoot

Shirtless goofball

At Children's Museum Houston in early May

Uh-oh! The museum police got him!

Peekaboo with Nana in the toddler section of the museum

Unrestricted access to a light switch = best thing ever for Wesley

Wesley twins

Joking around with Pop-Pop at Hermann Park in Houston

Butterfly Center at Museum of Natural Science in Houston

Just hanging around at Circle C Park

Naked brother bath hugs

Easter Weekend

We had a fun-filled Easter weekend! It kicked off with Duke AND Michigan wins in the Sweet Sixteen on Friday night. Saturday morning was soccer practice and good times at the church egg hunt extravaganza. Here's a video courtesy of Nana.



The Easter activities continued on Sunday with church followed by a ham & potato feast, another egg hunt, and Easter baskets at Nana & Pop-Pop's house.  The Easter bunny was very good to everyone, as usual, and JJ was quite excited about ripping open his presents and then enthusiastically helped Wesley open his gifts, too.  Another video shot by Nana:

JJ's 3rd Birthday!

Sooooey, JJ is THREE!

We started off JJ's actual birthday with some presents in the morning and, of course, a cup of chocolate milk.  Check him out here, drinking his milk all casual-like.  He already looks older!

Delighted by the Thomas card

Opening his gift from Great-Grandma and -Grandpa Anderson. A Toy Story plate and bowl, cool!
(JJ calls the guy "Buzz Lightbeer.")

Opening his gift from Grandpa Doug. Huge remote control truck!

He then spent much of the day with Ana, but Mommy and Daddo took JJ to lunch at Hat Creek Burgers where he once again enjoyed some chocolate milk along with his chicken nuggets. But his favorite part of lunch was the playground.  It was a nice warm day for February.

Nana and Pop-Pop came over for dinner, and Nana made a birthday apple pie.  Yum!  Dinner was followed up by more presents!

Cat keyboard from Nana and Pop-Pop.  Just like Fiona and Annabel's!

Opening the personalized Mickey CD from Mom & Dad.  He would really become obsessed with this one.

Fast-forward to Saturday, JJ's party.  He requested a pig theme, so his party was called "If You Give JJ a Pig Party" in the vein of the "If You Give A..." books.  Several of his little friends came over for a couple hours of fun & games & lunch & cupcakes.  JJ was very excited about pig cupcakes.

I found a tutorial for a watermelon pig and Andy implemented it with impressive artistry.

Nana contributed some really cute pig rolls.  

The main course was a big platter of nuggets from Chick-fil-A, one of JJ's favorite places to eat out.  Thanks to Pop-Pop for delivering the tasty tidbits.

The three musketeers: Cady, Wesley and JJ.

"Pin the Tail on the Pig" in the background (created by Nana)

Party favors (with pig bouncy ball, pig cup, pig snout, pig beanie and candy), and JJ's Pigu

"Toss A Pig A Pancake" game, created by Nana

Andy shows off his surprising skills once again, this time in pig balloon art.  He drew pig faces on almost a dozen balloons, a different variation for each one.  This one was my favorite.

Mantle decor.  The recycled football banner totally works, if you think of it as a pigskin :)

Party candids. (I was sort of overwhelmed during the party and didn't get many photos.)

Notice the custom "JJ is 3" pig shirt painted by, you guessed it, Nana!

Happy 3rd Birthday to our little Pook!

3-Year and 1-Year Checkups

With their birthdays quickly approaching, it was time for JJ and Wesley to visit the pediatrician for a checkup.  We scheduled the appointments together for efficiency's sake, but it ended up being a little challenging to keep both kids well-behaved while the doctor was examining them.

They both got a clean bill of health.  Wesley was due for some vaccines but because of an annoyingly rigid school requirement (as in kindergarten, yes - over 4 years away!) if he got the vaccines 5 days before his birthday they wouldn't "count."  So much for trying to be efficient with our doctor visits!  We'll head back in a couple days for those vaccines.

Here are the kids' stats:

JJ

Height - 38" (75th percentile)

Weight - 33.5 lbs (~50th percentile)

(Photo of JJ at the appointment, donning the exam gown)

Wesley

Height - 30.5" (75th percentile)

Weight - 21 lbs 10 oz (50-75th percentile)

Head circumference - 48.3 cm (90th percentile)

He's about an inch and a pound bigger than JJ was at one year.

(I didn't get a photo of Wesley at the doctor so here's a recent shot.)

We are looking forward to a fun birthday week ahead!!

Walking Wesley

Wesley took his first step on January 4th, and since then he has been taking a few more steps here and there.  We caught a nice little amble on video today.  He can't do more than ~6 steps yet, but I'm sure it won't be long until he's walking all over this joint!