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. :)

Open Gym and Gardening in your Undies

Can't think of two things that go together better than that! I'm just trying to catch up on posting some pictures...for the umpteenth time, we went to open gym last week. Lewis wanted to go to the 'bouncy house' and keeps asking when gymnastics starts, so off we went:

 King of the Mountain

 A boy and his ball

I know the picture is blurry, but I wanted to show that Lewis got that basketball and didn't let go of it for a good 45 minutes.

The rope swing!

He's done this a few times before, but this visit, it was a particular favorite. There were hardly any other kids there, and especially none interested in the rope swing, so he had pretty much free reign of it. He got some good practice in on how to stay on and how to safely drop into the foam pit. 

 They have 4 beams of various heights, this being the tallest one. He climbed up there himself and started to walk, but he soon yelled out for me to help him. He can do the lower ones pretty well on his own, but he still likes to hold my hand to get across the big one.

On another day/time, I looked out from the kitchen to see ol' Lewis, gardening with no pants on. A few minutes earlier, he was totally naked, but we told him he at least had to wear his underwear:

 Watering our one last living thing in the garden

The garden didn't fare so well this year--tomatoes and banana peppers were over-productive, but everything else (peas, basil, bell peppers) didn't do well. That's partially my fault, I'm sure, for being a slacker. The cooler weather might have been a factor, too. Maybe next year. :) The weeds in my flower beds certainly were awful!

34 Week Update

Back of the Head

At my 20 week ultrasound, the baby was breech (which is no big deal, so was Lewis at that point). My doctor had scheduled an ultrasound for 34 weeks to see if he/she had flipped, so today was the day. Unfortunately, this baby did not cooperate like Lewis had at this point--this one is sideways (transverse). The head is up in my right ribs (as I've thought it's felt like for months) and the butt is pointing at my left hip. [Side note: I can do sort of a Stupid Human Trick--if I push on the head, it dances/kicks down at my belly button. It's nice to know which body parts are which now. :)]

My doctor gave me three options: to do nothing, schedule a C-section, or do a version (external cephalic version), where they physically try to push the baby (from the outside) to the head down position. She said that the do nothing plan was not really a plan at all, and she wants to avoid a C-section since I've already given birth the old-fashioned way. Since I have plenty of fluid, have already had a child, and the baby is already halfway there (not fully breech), she said I'm an 'ideal' candidate for the version, so we decided to go with that.

In the meantime, I do have some stretches to do at home to try to get it to flip, but if those don't work, the version will be happening in two weeks. I'm nervous about it because I just had a friend describe hers to me, and it was like worst case scenario all the way. BUT, she was full term and it was her first baby and the cord was involved and so on...my doctor was pretty reassuring about the whole thing today.

My doc does not actually do versions (she said she's tried in the past, but has been unsuccessful), so I'm going next week to meet one of the two doctors in the practice who does do them. He will talk to me about it and then schedule it for the following week (if it's still necessary). If it doesn't work, they will schedule a C-section for later on. If it does work, I get to go home and go about things as normal until I go into labor (assuming I go into labor on my own this time).

The baby was also turned away from the camera, so all we got were back-of-the-head shots. :) The ultrasound tech was able to show us that the baby has a full head of hair, so that was cool to see. Otherwise, everything looks fine, I guess.

The Dog Days

Lewis and I had no plans the Tuesday-Friday of the week between our Cincinnati weekend and Labor Day weekend, and that felt like a lot of time to fill for some reason. Part of the reason was the weather...the 10-day forecast had every day in the 90s with storm chances (which means nasty humidity). We've stayed pretty busy this summer, with camps and play dates to break up our weeks, but that week was pretty dead.

Anyway, I thought a trip to the zoo would be doable, with the focus being on hitting up the splash park--I chose the day where it was *only* going to be like 92 vs. 95 degrees, and we headed out. Wow, what a difference it makes once school has started--there was hardly anyone there! It might have been the fact that it was nasty hot/humid, too, and field trips haven't really started yet. Anyway, I was able to modify our usual route to make it more pregnant-lady-friendly, and we had a fun and not-too-miserable morning:

 Lewis spent some extended time under the misters (in the background)

 Watching the elephants do their exercises 

 Polar bear training

Qannik

She was born the month before Lewis (January 2011). 

 Ahhh, the splash park! It's been real!

I knew that it would be closed after Labor Day, so I'm glad we got one more visit in for the summer. I was a bit more involved with the water this time aka I was happily walking through the sprinklers, too, instead of trying to stay dry. :) I also went up and stood with Lewis to make sure he was waiting in line for the slides (a concept he's still working on)--he did pretty well with it that day. When he'd get to the front of the line, he'd ask the lifeguard, 'Is it my turn now?' They were so patient with him.

Our maiden voyage on the tram

 Part of my strategy for minimal mama-passing-out was to ride the tram from the splash park, up the hill to the top (near the exit). Contractions tend to happen when I'm walking up hills and/or pushing a stroller and/or trying to coax Lewis to walk up a hill, so the tram was a welcomed alternative. :) Lewis seemed to enjoy the ride--he sat very still, holding on the whole time. 

:)

 Finishing our trip with the carousel

We'd started out the morning on the train, of course. (As if Lewis would let a trip to the zoo go by without riding the train!)

Another day that week, we headed to the Science Center. Our membership had expired, but I decided to go ahead and renew it due to the hot weather situation. Lewis had asked to go there a few times that week, out of the blue--plus, it will be a good place to go over the winter when it's too cold to play outside (especially for a newborn): 

 Again, it was so empty!

I couldn't believe it--I thought it'd be busier with the hot weather. There were just a handful of other kids, which was a little disappointing for Lew. It was kind of nice to have the place mostly to ourselves, too, though.

 This quickly turned ugly

He was watching the water come out like a geyser, and he accidentally pointed it towards himself. The water went down the apron, soaking his shirt and shorts and shoes. :) He tried to dry off a little and was 'all done' with the water table after that. 

 Sensory stations

We spent quite a bit of time in this area--it was pretty peaceful, playing with different sand-type materials. Of course Lewis found a tractor and carried it around (see right hand, above). :)

So long, ambulance!

A few days after our visit, they were going to start a major renovation of this space. Demolition, I guess I should say--they're getting rid of KidZone entirely (plane, bus, ambulance, space ship, construction site, water table, etc.) and are expanding the Science in Play exhibit into that space. I like SIP, but I hope that they include some of the things that Lewis is into, too (e.g. vehicles). They are doing it in two parts, and I think it's supposed to be finished by next summer.

To end that week, Grandma and Grandpa T. called and asked if they could have Lewis on that Friday, so that kind of saved the week for me. I was running out of things to do to keep us cool! Today, Kevin has taken Lewis to the zoo, and I think (hope) that the weather is supposed to start to cool down some and be more fall-like. Hooray!

Weekend o' Fun in Cincinnati

Way back when, I bought a Groupon for The Beach in Cincinnati, thinking we could take Lewis for a special getaway before the baby arrives. We went the weekend before Labor Day--to the water park on Sunday and the Museum Center on Monday. We'd thought about the zoo, but that will have to wait for another time (too hot/humid for this mama). 

We left the camera and our phones in the car so that they wouldn't get wet, so we don't have any pictures from The Beach. It was a fun day--hot and humid, good for floating in the lazy river. They don't have much else for kids of Lew's size, so our options were pretty limited--I think the cut-off for water slides is 45 inches, so he needs to grow about 3 more inches. They did have a nice splash park-type area with sprayers and slides galore. He had a great time, riding the slides over and over (and over). It was complete and utter child anarchy, and he had a blast. He jumped right in with a group of other kids, all riding the slides one after another, and he'd come out of the slide just cracking up as they ran into each other at the bottom.

There's a new attraction that Lewis saw and wanted to do--it's called the Soaring Eagle, and it's a 2-person zip line that flies high over the big wave pool. Lewis met the height requirement, so he and Kevin decided to go for it. I wish I had pictures or video to show just how high they were a-flying, but I don't. I'm very glad that it wasn't me up there--Kevin said it was a little spooky at the highest point, but Lewis had a blast. 'I was FLYING, Mama!'

Our hotel had a Graeter's (ice cream) in the parking lot, so we thought we'd go get some ice cream that evening after dinner. Little did we know that it was National Waffle Day, which meant they were giving away free waffle cones, so the line was probably 30 minutes long. We persevered, though, and got to enjoy some of the best ice cream around. :) 

Enough words--onto pictures of Monday. We went back to the Cincinnati Museum Center, which has a children's museum, natural history museum, and history museum, all in one. We'd gone last year, too, but hadn't visited the history museum--it was the best part! Trains, streetcars, riverboats, and others of Lewis' favorite things:

Children's Museum:

 Fill 'er up!

 Scooping rocks at the construction site is serious business

 Doing some light grocery shopping

The scanner actually scanned the bar codes! My former 11-year-old self geeked out for a second--I used to want to be a cashier. :) 

 :)

In with the fish and turtles

 I love my boys.

 The woodlands/tree house climbing structure kept Lewis entertained for a while.

Until the water table caught his eye, of course. :)

Museum of Natural History & Science:

In the (fake) cave

Hanging out with a wolf, learning about glaciation :)

Cincinnati History Museum--I can't believe we didn't go here last time we visited:

 Toot toot!

One happy buddy. 

 Sitting in a streetcar, which might have been his favorite thing

It was hard to get him out of it.

 Rocking away the day in a little log cabin

There was a Stephen Foster impersonator in this area, so we sat and listened to some of his life story and songs (My Old Kentucky Home, Camptown Races, Oh Susanna!, etc.).

  A Cincinnati street, a long time ago

A riverboat, which he also really liked

We had a good time--it was a fun way to end the summer and spend time together before school started and before Baby #2 arrives. 7ish more weeks!

First Day of School (2014-15)

First Day of School (2014-15)

Jungle Juniors

He had a great first day (yesterday). He'd gone to camp off/on through the summer, so it didn't feel that much different, but I noticed a big difference when I picked him up. He suddenly seems so much older--last year, I'd ask him how his day was, what he did, etc. and would barely get a peep. Yesterday, he went on and on about it! He seems really excited about his new class. I've heard good things about his teachers, so I'm looking forward to it, too.

His rundown of the first day included:

• I did NOT do Art.
  [I'm not sure if they ran out of time or if it's a today or tomorrow activity or what, but he made it a point to tell me they did NOT do it.]
• I'm in the ANIMALS class.
  [Last year he was a Turtle Two--this year, a Jungle Junior.]
• I played on the playground.
• Tomorrow we are going to the LIBRARY!
  [They have a library at the school--I asked what type of book he would be looking for, and he said a book on TRACTORS.]
• Arthur is in my class.
  [Arthur is his potty buddy from last year.]
• There was a Lightning in my class, and I played with it for THREE minutes.
  [Lightning McQueen, which probably means he didn't let go of it the entire morning.] :)
• We had circle time and sang songs about the boys in our class and about the weather.
  [Then later, at nap, he was singing in his room, to the tune of Farmer in the Dell, 'Is Lewis here today? Is Lewis here today? Hi-ho-the-merry-o. Lewis is here today.' Followed by, in the same tune, 'The sun is out today, the clouds are out today, hi-ho-the-merry-o, the sun is out today.' So apparently his teachers are a bit more sing-song-y than they were last year, which is good since Lewis loves to sing!

Can't wait to hear what he has to say today! He was really excited to go back this morning--he was wondering if they would have Art and what they would do in Art. They have divided the 3s into younger and older 3s, and he is the older class on W-Th-F. There are a few familiar faces from last year's class, but just a few. Should be a great school year!

Lewis the Truest, Vol. XIV

Last week, I made some zucchini bread (thanks for the zucchini, Sharon!). Lewis couldn't quite say zucchini:

Lewis: Mmmm, this is yummy Bikini Bread, Mama!

He continued to call it that all week. :)

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He's checked the weather a few times over the past week, which involves him going to the back door, stepping outside, and then coming in with a weather report. The temperature is, surprisingly, always the same:

Lewis: It's 60 degrees. That means we can ________ (example: go outside and play on the playground, go to the zoo, etc.).

If he mentions the playground, he then goes on to explain the rules of the playground at school:

Lewis: You climb up the ladder and go down the slide. Make sure you are on your bottom and feet first. You don't climb up the slide.

Which is particularly hysterical to me because I have watched him climb up the slide at school many-a-times while I've waited to pick him up. 

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Speaking of school, he had his orientation one night this week. As we pulled up, this was our conversation:

Lewis: You dropping me off, Mama? (like usual)
Me: No, buddy. This is your orientation night! Dad is coming, too, and we are going to meet your new teachers!
Lewis: Ok.

Not 10-15 minutes later, in the gym, he was running around with other kids and came up to me to say:

Lewis: Drop me off, Mama!

Like, you can leave now! I'm good! Be gone with you! :)

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He's been doing a lot of this type of stuff lately:

Lewis: Can I have some Goldfish?
Me: No, it's time for lunch. Let's eat lunch.
Lewis: But I NOT huuungryyy! I not hungry. I want Goldfish. Waaaaah! (sometimes followed by throwing himself to the ground)

I calmly try to point out that wanting Goldfish = some sort of hunger, but it's usually a waste of my time. He's also pulled:

Kevin: It's time for bath.
Lewis: I NOT want to take a bath. (and in the same breath) I want to take a bath.

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Yesterday we went up to Don and Brenda's house for their Labor Day party. Kevin had told Lewis where we were going, so at breakfast, I asked Lew about it:

Me: Lewis, do you know where we are going today?
Lewis: To Bronda's house!

Then the whole drive up, he kept asking:

Lew: Where is Den and Bronda's house?

I kept saying Don and Brenda, but it did not stick with him. Den and Bronda, it is. :)