Learning Tree Farm

Yesterday EJ and I went to Learning Tree Farm with our friends Jen and Hannah. The kids both had a great time seeing all the animals. EJ's favorites were the little piglets. He kept chasing them around, but they would not hold still for him to pet them. There is a great video on the bottom of the post of him trying to feed the piglets some hay.

Hannah and EJ on the big rock

Checking out those little piglets

He wasn't so sure about the goats with the big horns

EJ trying to feed the piglets some hay

Our Newest Addition

Paco and I are pleased to present the newest pictures of our little bean. He or She is growing right on track and moving around like crazy. The ultrasound technician was even calling it a little monkey because it kept squirming and jumping all over the place. We could have found out gender today, but we are opting to be surprised again...sorry Dad I know you are dying to know! Due date is still on for April 9, 2009.

Profile of the skull

Baby is doing a crunch

Baby is lying on it's back with hands near it's face. If you look closely you can see five little dots on each hand that are the fingers

Baby on it's back again. Legs are on the right side and up in the air while hands are up near the head and face.

Three Silly Kiddos

This is a video from the apple orchard today. Clearly, EJ, Brady and Katie were having a delightful time just running around and being silly two year olds. Enjoy!

Apple Picking

Today EJ and I went to a wonderful apple orchard with our friends Jenny, Brady, Jen and Katie. We all had a fantastic time and the kids absolutely loved every minute of the day. EJ was so funny picking apples from the tree, taking one or two bites, and then moving on to another apple. I had to watch him very closely so he didn't eat up the poor farmer's entire harvest. The simple goodness of a day spent on the farm is often overlooked in these times, but these kids sure did enjoy every minute.

EJ and I in the orchard

Enjoying an apple

Katie, Brady and EJ in the orchard

Some of the delicious apples we brought home with us

Go Irish...again

I am not normally the superstitious type, but last week ND won while we had EJ in jammies and ND jersey on the webpage so here we go again. I much prefer watching the games with my husband while Notre Dame has a sizable lead vs. getting killed so let's hope this brings us luck again!

Go Irish, beat Spartans!

Movie Night

Paco has been away this week so I have had a hard time filling up those last few hours before bed. We have gone out to dinner, played outside and gone for long walks. Tonight, being a Friday, I decided we would just make it a movie night. EJ and I got a pizza for dinner then put on PJ's early and settled in for a fun night. He chose to watch Cinderella. I absolutely love that at this point a boy will watch a "girly" movie and think nothing of it. He especially likes the cat vs. mice chases and laughs out loud. Here is a picture of him with blankets, pillows, and of course some popcorn!

Halloween Jammies

I saw this pajamas at Gymboree the other day and knew EJ would absolutely love them. I do realize that Halloween is over a month away, but I wanted to get my money's worth out of these so he gets to wear them early. The boy asks to wear them all the time and calls them his bone jammies. The really neat thing is that each bone glows in the dark so he looks really neat at night. I tried to get a picture, but alas with flash they didn't glow and without you could barely see him.

Go Irish

Go Irish...Beat Wolverines!

Pacifier update

Great news!

EJ is now paci free. The first night wasn't really too bad. He was tired out from a birthday party and fell asleep within an hour or so. Nap time on Sunday was the worst. We put him down at 12:30 and he did his usual "I have to go pee pee" three or four times :) When he was sufficiently emptied I told him that it was time to lay down and go sleepy. Well, he was not happy about the pacifier being gone. I left him in his room with the intention to let him whine/complain until 2:30 (when he usually wakes up.) At 2:25 all was finally quiet in his room. Yes, victory to the parents! Sunday night he went down without so much as a peep and tonight he is already sleeping like a baby. Next hurdle--get him out of the crib so we can give it to baby next summer. I think I will enjoy this small victory for a while before tackling that one though :)

The Paci Fairy

We decided that it was definitely time for EJ to give up his much beloved pacifier. He only gets it at naps and bedtime, but it is still very important to him. Paco and I have been tossing around a few ideas to get rid of it, but we finally settled on using the "paci fairy". Past generations may not know of this addition to gift bearing mythical creatures, which was developed to let parents buy toys they want while having an excuse :) Paco has been dying to get EJ a train set and this was the perfect opportunity. So, last night the paci fairy left EJ an envelope and he placed all his pacifiers into it and placed the envelope by the front door. We told him the fairy would leave him a present in the morning if he went to sleep without his paci.

It was a rough start to the night. He went down great, but within a few minutes we were hearing "I want my mommy!" and "Mommy, come into my room PLEASE!" Just imagine that in super whiny 2 year old tones. He never really full on cried, but whined until about 11:00. I went into his room and rocked him a bit to calm him down and after that he must have been too tired to complain much more and fell asleep and was out until 7:30 this morning. We are trying to get him to nap right now, but he is missing his paci again. Hopefully he will conk out, but I'm not holding my breath.

EJ did get his great train set though and has played with it all morning long. It is the fisher price geo-trax and he and Paco are in love with it. Here are a few pictures of their morning fun.