Apple Festival at Boyd Orchard

Over the perfect-weather weekend, we went to our first event of the fall--an apple festival! I'd read about an orchard just south of Frankfort (in Versailles) that has festivals every weekend from now through Halloween, so we decided to check it out. We usually go up to Huber's (and we might, still), but this place has a train you can ride, which I knew Lewis would be pumped about:

Riding the big slide

That was pretty slow-going, even on a potato sack.

Toot toot!

Ready to leave the station

Riding the train is serious business. :)

 The biggest hit of the day--the bouncy train!

He ran through that thing countless times, and it totally wore him out. He'd lay at the end, just waiting to get stomped on by the next kid coming out of the exit. He's nuts! He would have been happy playing there all day.

Whee, a slightly faster slide

Entering the slide structure (on that mini climbing wall)

He'd get up in there and climb up and around and through the passages...after 5 minutes or so, he'd make his way down a slide and want to do it again.

Help me, Dad!

At every level, Kevin had to give Lewis a boost, and Lewis reminded him each and every time. Help me, Dad! Help me, Dad!

They made it!

 Petting Zoo

Lewis loved the baby goats...ooooh, look at the babies. Aren't they cuuute? He loves baby animals--hope that translates directly to baby humans. :) 

On the hayride

He lounged against me most of the ride. :)

 Cheeseballs, wouldn't look at the camera

 It is possible he was distracted by a certain tractor :)

Once he saw another boy up by the tractor, he decided he needed to ride up there, too.

 Winding down with a pony ride 

And time to go for one pooped out Lewis Pete

It was a lot of fun for us and for Lew--I'm such a sucker for all things apple and pumpkin and the like! I must say, however, I was disappointed in their apple cider donuts, so we might have to make a trip out to Huber's, yet, just so I can get one of theirs. We'll see how the next few weeks go. :)

Last Day of School!

Today is Lew's last day of school! It seems like the spring semester went by much more quickly than the fall semester did. We love his school and his teachers and have been so happy with how he has grown over these past nine months.

In the fall, with baby-on-the-way's impending arrival, we're bumping him up to three days a week (vs. two this year). We'll start getting him ready for that adjustment over the summer--they have camps all summer, so we've signed him up for six weeks of 3-day camps. He'll be doing camps on nature, cooking, community service and giving, sports, Legos and space, so hopefully he has a good time and can start to get to know some of the 3-year-old teachers better, too.

 Last Day of Preschool (in the 2-year-old room)

What a cheeseball! This morning was a very trying morning for ol' Mama (he was too excited to do much listening), so this was the best of the bunch from Wild Man Lew.

And, for fun, here is back on the first day of school, back in September:

First Day of Preschool

So young and innocent then. :)

Sensing a Theme

Lew's school just sent home a questionnaire last week for us to work through with Lewis about his development--gross motor skills, fine motor skills, social, problem-solving, etc. 

One of the problem-solving questions was something like: If your child spots something out of reach, does he/she get a chair (or other), in order to reach the out-of-reach object? 

I guess Lewis is on track for that particular skill--here are some pictures I just found on Kevin's phone from the past few weeks that made me giggle:

 

 Getting to our car keys

 

 

And trying to open the gate to the neighbors' yard

I'd gone through the gate to repair a couple of boards that Peter had popped out (from trying to scale the fence to chase squirrels up on the power lines...), and Lewis wanted to come with me.

I've just about outsmarted him on most child-proofing inside of the house except for door handles. We have knob covers, but he has figured out how to take them off. Before he gets into whatever he's not supposed to be into, he is considerate enough to put the 2 pieces of knob cover away in a basket or neatly on a counter top. :) So now I've bought some hooks to put way up high so that he can't reach them (even if he is standing on a chair).

Bouncing Off the Walls and Bouncing At the Bouncy Ball Place with Carlton

Phew! This past week was one of those weeks! Lewis didn't nap a single day, Kevin worked late a couple of nights, and it all left me pretty short-fused and crazed by Friday. Thank goodness for the weekend (though today was a busy runaround day, too...).

First, Lewis at dinner one night while I was (quite obviously) not paying attention as I cooked and he ate yogurt:

 

 

I remember it being one of Kevin's late days, and I remember I, personally, was at the end of the road for the day. :) I'm pretty sure he mostly ate the yogurt using his hands and the handle of the spoon. He had it up to his shoulders, all over his chest, in his hair, all over his face. That was a night we went straight to the bathtub. My, oh my. (I guess if there was a positive out of the situation, I was unintentionally too lazy to put a shirt on him after 'nap.' One less thing to launder. Go me.) :)

We met Carlton and Tonya at open gym on Friday--we hadn't been all summer, so it was interesting to see the differences in Lewis' abilities compared to last spring. (Lewis calls it the Bouncy Ball Place.) 

 Trampoline with Carlton

 Flying Down the Slide

These next three make me laugh. He's doing his best real life Spiderman impression:

 

 

This was inside an inflatable, and he kept climbing to the peak of that yellow bridge behind him. He'd jump off and land not very gracefully, but he kept getting back up for more. Wild man!

The place we go is primarily a gymnastics facility, so for 45 minutes in the middle of the open gym time, they open it up for the preschool crowd to run around and try out the equipment: 

 Sliding Down into the Foam Pit

He used to hate landing in the foam (it scared him, not being able to stand up or get out easily), but this time he didn't seem to mind it as much.

Bouncing Along with his Buddy

It was way more crowded this time than in times past. I'm not sure if that was because it was a Friday or the sudden cooler weather or what, but I hope it isn't that crowded if/when we return. Lewis had a fun time, but he quickly melted down at the end (as was the case most days this week...). I'll hope for a day or two (or more!) of naps next week. :)

We Made It! and Day One (EAA AirVenture Museum)

I'm sure Lewis was more than confused on Saturday--we met him and my mom in a Hardee's parking lot off of I-65 in Indianapolis. The reunion was sweeter than sweet--he had the biggest smile on his face when he saw us, and I just held him and hugged him and covered him with kisses for a good five minutes. After transferring his luggage, we hit the road again, Wisconsin-bound! (Thanks again, Mom and Dad, for everything.)

A lap full of cars and a new (to him) Bob the Builder book!

Our drive up was pretty uneventful, in a good way. We borrowed a friend's I-pass for the tolls in Illinois, so we were able to just zip on through all of those without stopping. We were surprised that we made it all the way to Milwaukee before having to stop for gas (and it was just another hour and a half after that to Oshkosh, I think).

We arrived Saturday afternoon, just before dinner. This was how our first jaunt into the yard went: 

 Get in the lake!? Ride boat?!

 Dragging Dada down the dock

We actually took him out in the rowboat today, and he seemed to just want to go back to the house after a few minutes. Hopefully the newness has worn off for him--I totally couldn't fall asleep the first night, thinking of all of the ways that Lewis could get out of the house and end up finding the lake. Alas, we've deadbolted and childproofed all of the door handles, JUST in case. :)

Sunday, it was cool and rainy, so we headed to the EAA AirVenture Museum (which was free with our Science Center membership). They had a great hands-on kid area where we spent most of our time:

Lewis loved this plane!

He kept going back to it. 

 Trying to fly a hang glider.

 Sitting in an F-22 cockpit

 

A couple of the hundreds of planes on display

Every time we tried to get a picture, Lewis was looking in all other directions (except at the camera). There were literally planes everywhere you looked.

When we got back, we did lunch and nap. Nap attempt #1 was a fail, but attempt #2 (an hour or so later) was successful (with me sleeping with him). He had had a runny nose all morning, but he woke up from nap with a fever. I gave him some Advil, and we spent the rest of the day at the house. (The fever is gone today, but his nose is still a little runny.)

We took another walk down the dock last evening, this time with both Kevin and I holding a hand (er, wrist). 

That's more like it. :)

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

Kevin and Lewis took our recycling yesterday morning and stopped at a playground on the way home. I can't think of a time when Lew has attempted the climbing wall before, but he figured it out yesterday after watching a bigger boy go up it:

Like a pro.

And he seemed super proud of himself once he reached the top, too. :)

Big Boy Bed: Mid-week Report

Last Friday evening at dinner, Kevin and I decided it was, at last, time to go forth with the crib removal process for Lewis. That day, he finally climbed over the side of his turned around crib (with the high side in front). He scratched and bruised his back on the bookshelf on the way down, so something finally needed/needs to be done. We got home, disassembled the crib, and took it to the basement, with Lewis' help. Our plan was to time it over a weekend so that Kevin could be here to help with the wrath of No Nap Lewis.

Well, today was Day 4 with No Nap Lewis, and this mama is about to lose her damn mind. With his lack of sleep and subsequent fussiness, on top of my lack of sleep (waking up at 5:22am or 'sleeping in' until 6am), I'm not winning any awards for patience. What keeps me going is the thought: 'He has to sleep eventually, right?' but I'm beginning to lose hope and my sanity. Maybe tomorrow will be the day...today was most certainly not the day.

His new room set-up:

His bed has a little bit of Mater, Thomas, and Bob the Builder

Bob!

He and I ran down to 50% day at The Unique on Sunday (Kevin had to go into work), and, lo and behold, there was a set of Bob the Builder sheets. It's like the thrift store gods knew we were coming. :)

:)

One happy buddy.

Haha, Lewis. Real freakin' funny.

He slays me when he pretends to lay down and/or yawns. It's like, 'Really?!?'

This was the result of yesterday's 'nap': 

 

At least the lined-up shampoo bottles made me laugh. :)