About time....

I posted an update, huh? Shortly, I'll post some pictures from our trip to Eddy's fruit farm, which was almost 2 weeks ago now. Wow. Fall is flying by... we've been lucky to have some lovely weather weekends. The weekend of the 11th was crispy and wonderful and spent picking apples, baking a pie, and taking some walks. The intervening week blew by in a blur of meeting and not getting quite enough done at school, and evenings of walking in the neighborhood with Jack and Cor. Thursday we had a lovely time at breastfeeding support group. Jack's drinking buddy Kenny celebrated his 1st birthday with snacks and the two boys had a good time sharing animal crackers. And by sharing I mean, sucking on a cracker for a bit, then handing it with smile to a friend. Good thing Jessica and I both have dogs and are pretty laid back about the whole spit-sharing thing! I can't believe Kenny is a year old-- seems like yesterday we were first meeting them, and Kenny seemed so much younger than Jack (though he's always weighed more!) Now that they're both in that nebulous category of "one," they are practically indistinguishable. They really play together now; for a while they teamed up and pushed around one of the folding chairs...
Friday the 17th was NEOEA day, a quasi-day off for us teacher types, and we celebrated with a real, genuine night out as grown-ups. Jack stayed home with grandma and Nat and I headed out with Melinda, Will, and Kate to Wolf-Creek Winery. We shared two bottles of wine, petted goats, enjoyed the view and talked a lot about cheese. It was lovely.
The rest of this most recent weekend seems rather nondescript in retrospect, as we did not have any particular agrarian themed activities going on. The highlight of Saturday was a trip to Trader Joe's. It's a good thing Jack seems to enjoy shopping. He continues to charm people everywhere we go. Sunday we had dinner at Melinda and Will's, where Jack was a delight, playing with trains (he can say "choo choo", or at least a close approximation thereof) and sitting at the table with us on a regular chair.

Here are some updates on our soon-to-be 14 month old:
*He has apparently been in the mood to reminisce recently, going back to waking 3-4 times a night. Sigh. Hopefully, like all things, this is a phase...
*He is still a bit of a booger about eating. Current successes include eggs with asparagus and deli sliced chicken, and goldfish grahams.
*His vocabulary is constantly evolving. It's hard to say that he's adding words because it seems that after he uses a word for a week or so he retires it in favor of new words and noises. But, new words recently include "do" for phone, a very clearly stated "hello" when answering phones (a new favorite activity), babbling in a questioning tone, "down" and "car".
*He is very into trucks and enjoys pointing at them when they drive by.
*He is a speed demon on the stairs and consistently turns around to climb down off of things.
*He is starting to like walking with his hands held. He particularly does this at the park, like he wants to show off and get around like a big boy there.
*Speaking of parks-- he is obsessed with playgrounds. He loves turtle park and I do beleive he tried to day "turtle" as we passed the park on our run today -- "tur? tur?". He also loves the "big kid" playground at Peace Park. The other day I let him crawl around and explore and he was so excited to climb up on the the platforms-- and so mad when I made him come down!
*He is a very opinionated little guy who gets upset when told no-- but generally listens. He loves to throw food off his tray at meals. Tonight when told no, he put on a dramatic whining face, then looked over the side of tray and said "no no" while he cried a bit. Almost funny...
*Tonight he sang along to the ABC song. OK, not letters. But, his do,do,do sounds were in perfect rhythm and I DO think he said "s" with me at the appropriate time.