Pancakes, Lounging, and a Pants-less Picnic

We had a nice low-key weekend this weekend. We mostly stuck around the house and worked on leaves and laundry and some cleaning. We also finally got our chimney sweep done on Saturday and had a cap installed (2-3 years in the making...), so now we can have fires this winter without the fear of catching birds' nests on fire. :)

Saturday morning, Lew wanted to help with pancakes:

 

The measuring was a little imprecise, but Kevin was able to make it work. :)

He's been into watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse since the Butts visited a few months ago. Yesterday morning, Kevin called me in to the living room to see how Lewis was maxing and relaxing:

 

One chilled out dude :)

Today was a school day, so I ran some errands, got a haircut, etc. After picking up Lew, we still had some time before lunch, so we got to work on the backyard. We pulled the remnants of plants and cleaned out the sandbox and did a little (never-ending) raking. As we were wrapping up, he asked if we could eat lunch outside. He had dirt, sand, and water all over his pants, so he ate lunch sans jeans. :) Thankfully the weather is pretty great today, so he didn't freeze. 

  

Who needs pants?

:)

He'll probably be asking if we can eat outside well into the winter. Maybe we'll get some nice enough days to make it happen. :)

A Walk on the Wild Side

Lewis and I went for an impromptu trip to the zoo this morning--he had a doctor's appointment to recheck his ears (all looks great!) and to get a flu shot, so we were already halfway to the zoo and figured what the heck! 

We didn't have as much time as usual, so I asked him which animals he wanted to see: giraffes and gorillas! And the playground, of course. 

Riding a baby elephant

Gorilla-watching

He'd been face-to-face with one noshing on a green pepper for a few minutes, but she jumped down and left some of her lunch behind.

Checking out the van that reminds me of Lost:

Almost tall enough to reach those pedals!

He wanted to 'start it,' but I was able to convince him that we didn't have the keys and therefore couldn't drive away with it. :)

And, finally, we stopped at the lions on the way out, and I'm so glad we did:

They were walking around kind of restlessly, I think because it was almost time for them to eat.

They treated us to this show, which was so, so cool:

School Pictures

I finally got the CD of Lew's school pictures today. We think they turned out pretty darn great, especially for having an ear infection. :)

 Our sweet boy :)

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).

Lewis the Truest, Vol. 2

Kevin has been working on teaching Lewis what to say at bedtime. He'll say 'Goodnight, Lewis.' And Lewis will say, 'Goodnight, Dada.' However, since reading Happy Halloween, Biscuit a loooot of times, things have changed a little bit:

Dada: Goodnight, Lewis!
Lewis: Happy Halloween!

----------

If I am particularly stern or tell him he can't do something, eat something, etc., he'll sometimes say:

Lewis: Dada on way? 
     [Meaning, Is Dada on his way home from work?]

Because he is tired of dealing with mean old me and wants Kevin instead. :)

----------

Sometimes if we're going somewhere he doesn't want to go, he'll suddenly come up with things he'd rather do instead. And the things he comes up with crack me up because they are the things that he gives me the most grief about on a normal basis.

As we pulled up to school the other day
Lewis: Go to Target? Go shopping?

As I was getting him dressed for school the other morning
Lewis: Take nap? Take nap?
To which I thought, 'Hahahaha, real funny, child.'

As I told him it was time to get ready for school
Lewis: Watch Today Show in living room?


I guess his avoidance all goes back to school, which has been MUCH better the past two weeks. I jotted these down while he was still in a funk about going, but he's happy to go now and hasn't had any tears in weeks.

Gordon's Baptism!

I'm about a week late, but last weekend we went up to Bloomington to visit Ben and Adie (and Gordon) and to celebrate Gordon's baptism! We are so happy and honored to be godparents to this sweet boy of such great friends. I don't have any pictures of the baptism, but Gordon was a darling throughout. (Lewis, on the other hand...) Thankfully the church had a train table out in the lobby for Lew to play with during the service, and he met a few bigger boys who he had fun chasing around afterwards.

I do have some pictures from the rest of the weekend:

Lew found a kitty cat! (Rogue)

We headed over to an awesomely huge playground at the nearby school, and Lewis had a ball: 

 

 The Blur

 

 

 Adie and Gordon :)

Ohhh, stop it, Dad!

Gordon took his first swings in a swing:

 Not sure what he thinks just yet.

 Ahhh, yes, I think this is going to be great. :)

 I direct you to push me higher, please! :)

Lewis hijacked Adie and asked her/made her run a lap around the track with him. :) He was so funny all weekend--he clung to her at a few points, wanting to hold her hand and go play or sit with him. He chose a few other people on Sunday when family/friends came over for lunch after the baptism, too.

 

:)

He ran most of the lap, too! I was impressed. After they finished one lap, of course he said, 'Again?' But we headed out soon after.

These were pictures Kevin took back at Ben and Adie's after church on Sunday: 

 

 

Whee for tree swings! And fall leaves!

It was the weekend of the time change (I'd almost forgotten!), and Lewis woke up everyone but Ben and Gordon at 5:30am on Sunday. (Sorry about that, again.) :) That was rough, but we were able to enjoy a quiet drive home:

He fell asleep before we got to Nashville and didn't wake up until we pulled into the dogs' kennel.

It was a great weekend, and we were glad to see friends we don't often get to see (and those we get to see more often, too!). It was neat to see some familiar faces at St. David's where we used to go when we all worked at Waycross (which was 12-15 years ago for me, 12 years ago for Kevin).

Walk with the Animals and Yard Work

Saturday we headed out to Salato Wildlife Education Center for their trick-or-treating event. We'd gone two years ago, too, and we must have had a conflict last year. We weren't there all that long, as Lewis ran from one trick-or-treating station to the next. He really got into that race car spirit. :)

Fishing

Buffalo!

And sitting by the waterfall

Later that afternoon, we raked our most leaf-heavy section of the yard (there are still many leaves yet to fall). I'd found a small rake on clearance at Target the other day that was a pretty good size for Lewis to actually help, and help he did:

He was surprisingly helpful at bringing the leaves to the pile.

Then Kevin wanted to show him how to jump into the pile...the hilarious blur below is Kevin. :)

:)

And then Lew's turn.

After bagging up the leaves, we moved over to filling some low spots:

He was sort of helpful with spreading out the dirt, but he really got into helping me stomp it down with his feet. He was really good at that. :)

And, finally, fun with the leaf blower:

Look out, Peter! :)