Solebury Orchards

I may be biased, but I don't think there is anyplace more exciting in the fall than Pennsylvania with its crisp air, numerous local farms and historic residences set against colored foliage. We have been enjoying the fall so much lately; I think Ben would be outside 24 hours a day if we let him and now that it is no longer 100 degrees outside we've been spending more time outdoors.

This morning one of the playgroups we're in decided to go to a local farm to go apple picking. So, we drove out to Bucks county and visited Solebury Orchards for some exploring. The kids LOVED it and got the biggest kick out of seeing the gigantic pumpkins and picking their own apples. Once we got home, Ben and I ate some of our fresh picks for lunch - yummy!

We arrived a bit earlier than everyone else, so Ben had a chance to explore the grounds on his own at first. He loved seeing (and trying to touch!) all of the fresh produce in the little shop but especially loved playing amongst the pumpkins. We'll be going later in the season to pick our own pumpkin so we didn't bring one home but Ben certainly enjoyed climbing on them.



Once everyone got there, we ventured out into the orchards to pick some empire apples. Of course it took us longer than usual to walk to our destination since the toddlers kept getting a case of ADD and fleeing in various directions. The stray cat that they spotted distracted everyone for a good 5 minutes! But we finally got to the orchard and started to pick some apples...

Ben pulling one off the tree. I can't stress enough how exciting finally getting one off the tree and getting to throw it into the basket was!! :)



Looking at his find before throwing it into the bucket. Ben actually preferred to hurl it into the bucket with full force but these apples are so fresh that none of them even ended up bruised. He has quite an arm on him when we play catch. There may be a baseball scholarship in his future...

Into the bucket!

Caroline finds an apple low on the tree and is pointing it out for us, just in case we didn't see it :)


Here, Olivia guards her basket of apples.


Ben and Caroline obsessed with taking apples out of the baskets and throwing them back in. We had to watch to make sure they didn't put any of the "yuckies" ones from the ground into the basket (or try to bite into them!).


Julia looking through her basket and counting her apples...

Olivia taking a bite out of one of her picks, with mom Kiera.

Julia with mom Nicole looking at their apples...

Caroline with her mom Roberta taking a break...


Finally, a photo of me and Ben. This one is a tribute to Aunt Cinty...see, I actually do take some photos where Ben isn't smiling :). Too much excitement leaves Ben feeling overstimulated sometimes so after an hour of running around, Ben started to crash. I bought some fresh apple cider in the store for the car ride home and that seemed to revive him :).

Just before leaving, the highlight of Ben's entire morning...seeing the tractor ride go past! There was an organized tour there today so we weren't able to get on one but we'll have to go back since the kiddies would love this, I think.

18 Month Photos

I took Ben for his 18 month photos today since we have not had professional photographs taken since his first birthday. Here are our favorites of the little guy. What a charmer!

We're Moving!

We are very excited to share the plans for our upcoming move to Telford, PA with everyone! We had the deal verbally accepted in July and have been waiting over 2 months for it to be finalized and approved by the bank, since it is a foreclosed property and needed extensive review and approvals before it was okayed. We are very excited to enter this new phase of our life!

I have created a new blog where we will be tracking this latest adventure and have placed it as a link on this blog called Our Big Move:

http://martinbigmove.blogspot.com/

Our house is also on the market for the past week and we have had numerous showings so far with an Open House scheduled for next Sunday, September 30th. We are praying that someone will like our house enough to place a bid soon, since the real estate market is not what it once was. Please pray for us as we go through this phase in the process; we have been doing improvements around the house, packing to declutter and getting the house ready for sale over the past 6 weeks. We now are in the midst of having to maintain our house in pristine condition at all times and have spur-of-the-moment showings at all hours of the day. It's been rough with a toddler and a big dog to keep in line, but it is going well. We will keep you posted on this new blog of any updates so check back often!

The Boys in the Yard

When the weather's nice, one of our favorite things to do is to take Ben and Barney outside in the yard to run around. They love to play with each other and it gives the dog exercise and tires Ben out so he's ready for nap and bedtime when it comes. Since it has been beautiful out lately, we've been going outside a lot and it has become the highlight of Ben's day. When I ask if he wants to take Barney outside he starts yelling "Buh Buh" (aka Barney) and immediately runs to get his shoes so I can put them on him!

Today I snapped photos while Andrew played with the boys in the yard.


Riding the big, fierce Barney bareback. Of course Barney doesn't seemed fazed by anything Ben does to him and seemed more interested in eating grass than the fact that there was a giggling 28 pounder on his back!

Playing fetch with Barney. Barney will *sometimes* let Ben have his toy and is very gentle with him but usually prefers almost letting Ben grab the toy and then turning away at the last minute. Sometimes this game even results in Ben being totally knocked off his feet, laying dumbfounded for a second or two in the grass and then giggling and getting back up to try full-force to get that toy away from the dog again!

Sharing the toy together. With us, Barney will pull his hardest to try to get it back but with Ben he is very gentle.

Running after Barney as he goes to play fetch...determined that he will get there before the 90 pound dog...

Pulling Barney's tail to try to get him to drop the toy when, in fact, Barney manages to reach it first. We checked a book out of the library recently called Tails Are Not for Pulling...and this is a concept we are trying to work on...

Just before coming inside, Andrew and Ben did some chin-ups together. Ben always thinks this is hilarious when Andrew lifts him up into the air and then makes funny faces at him in the meantime.

Doctor Updates

Well, this post isn't the most exciting since there are no photos, but Ben and I both went to the doctor on Friday for our check-ups - he for his 18-month and me for my monthly OB appointment - so I thought I'd give an update.

Ben is doing very well. He is very active and has really started to want to communicate even more, even though he is not talking much yet. He follows directions, points out many body parts and recognizes lots of pictures in books and around him when asked to point them out. So, the doctor said that he doesn't have a cognitive problem but just thinks that he may be a late-bloomer when it comes to verbally expressing himself. We'll see how he does over the next few months but he has started to say a few words consistently over the past few weeks so hopefully this will continue. His favorite word now is "more;" quite appropriate since he loves to eat!

He is still our growing boy. He's 33 inches long (65th percentile) and weighs 28 lbs. 6 oz. (70th percentile). His head is 18-3/4" in circumference (50th percentile). He also had two more shots and is all set now until he is 2 years old. Poor guy looked so wounded when the nurse gave him the shots but like all other times, he got over it quickly enough.

As far as my appointment, I am now 14 weeks along and am starting to feel less nauseous. I am feeling fairly well except that I have now developed a case of severe insomnia, which I also had last time I was pregnant. I'm waking up multiple times per night and sometimes cannot fall back to sleep from 3-3:30AM on. It's been rough with everything going on in our lives lately, as you will read about in the next post, since I'm not able to nap many days. I have started to exercise everyday for about a half hour now that I am feeling better since this really helped me sleep last time. The OB said that he could put me on Ambien if it keeps up since this is supposed to be safe during pregnancy but I do not want to take any medicine as a personal choice so I'm praying that it will clear up on its own. Please pray that I will be able to get the rest I need and that the exercise will help me to sleep better at night.

All of my other stats looked great. I've only gained 2 pounds so far this pregnancy even though I feel like my stomach is starting to get much bigger. I guess running after a toddler this pregnancy keeps me active! My bloodwork came back normal - I still have an rh- bloodtype (B-) so I will need to have the Rhogam shot at 28 weeks and immediately after the baby is born, just like last time. This keeps my body from forming antibodies that will clash with the baby's blood if this happens to be + type. I've been though this before, so no big deal. What's one more needle when you're pregnant, right? :)

I was also tested early for Gestational Diabetes since I have a history and it came back negative this time. This was expected since it usually doesn't show up until later. I'll be tested again at the usual 24-28 weeks and will see if I will have it for this pregnancy again. Other than that, I have a script for my level 2 ultrasound that I am trying to schedule for sometime the end of October. This is where I will (hopefully) be able to find out which gender baby I am having this time. If the baby doesn't cooperate, my OB said he would do another ultrasound for me in the office a few weeks later so we should be able to tell everyone this big news in about 4 weeks.

Delp BBQ

Last week our friends Julie and Randy hosted a BBQ for everyone in our weekly Bible study and it was lots of fun! The kids had a blast playing in the yard and enjoying make-your-own sundaes after dinner.

Here's Ben covered in water and sand from the sandbox and water table. He had so much fun playing in the sand and splashing in the water but had to be changed into a completely different outfit since he was soaked and filthy. What better fun for a boy, though!

The men on kid duty, watching the kids as they play on the swingset...

...while the moms enjoy some time alone, away from the kids! (clockwise: Julia, Heather, Julie, me and Aimee).

Ben had such a fun time climbing up the stairs and going down the slide...many, many times!

On the teeter-totter with Daddy...

Finally, the highlight of the evening for all of the kids: ice cream sundaes. I started out trying to give Ben some of mine but he quickly made it known that he wanted his own bowl and spoon and preferred to feed himself like all of the other kids.

Peach Festival

This past Saturday our church held its annual Peach Festival, which is basically just as it sounds - a full day revolving around fresh peaches served up just about any way you can imagine. There is also other food, games, music, vendors who set up booths, an entire kids area with a petting zoo, pony rides, moonbounces, face painting - the works! It's a fun event for the whole community.

My mom organization - MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) - was holding a consignment sale for children and baby goods in order to raise money for the organzation. I was on the planning committee so I was at our table for just about the entire day but I did take an hour or so off when Andrew and Ben came to meet me after Ben's nap. We had a fun time walking around seeing all of the sites and eating some yummy peaches.

Here Daddy and Ben finish up a homemade waffle with ice cream, peaches and whipped cream - yum! Ben didn't mess around when that was offered to him and kept letting us know that we were moving too slowly in feeding it to him!

We spent almost the rest of our time in the petting zoo - Ben loved it and didn't want to leave! Having Barney at home has really curtailed any fear of animals from Ben as he will walk right up to just about any animal and start to pet it. We are trying to work on making him a bit more cautious around animals he does not know but at a petting zoo, he had the time of his life!

With the "baa baa's"...
His latest obsession - chickens!! He kept coming back to them and was intrigued by them. Of course he calls them "ducks" but at least he has the right family!

"Don't pick them up, Benjamin, just pet them..."

"Look, Mom, a bunny!"

Feeding the friendly goat, or "Buh" as Ben called it since apparently any larger, brown/yellow animal reminds him of Barney (aka "Buh").

He thought the tall llamas were so silly, especially when they bent their heads down close to him! Too bad I didn't get a photo of that...

Checking out the pig with his daddy...

After the petting zoo, we caught one of the tractors just leaving on a tractor ride (yes, we do live in Pennsylvania!) and Ben was intrigued. Tractors are his other obsession (in addition to chickens). He has a Matchbox car tractor that he treats like his child and carries just about everywhere. He may still get some of the other Matchbox cars confused but when you tell him to go and get his tractor, he knows immediately which to get!

Stickers!

I bought Ben some stickers for the airplane trip when we went to Seattle a few weeks ago since he had never really had any before and I figured it would be something new and exciting to hold his attention. Well, he now LOVES stickers and thinks they are incredibly amusing! He first unpeels them and explores how they stick to his fingers. Then, once he gets used to that, he loves to put them on everything from his clothes to his face to other people and Barney! Here he is covered in stickers as he and Andrew played with the free address labels we got in the mail today.

Easy Chair

Ben's easy chair is in our family room and lately he has really started to think of it as his own little domain within the room. He relaxes on it when he watches TV or is tired, reads his books on it, climbs on it to reach something that's too high for him, moves it across the room if he wants to sit someplace else, etc. The only thing he doesn't do is fall asleep in it!

Relaxing before his nap, while I make him lunch.

Being silly while reading a favorite book.

Smiling as he watches Dora the Explorer (su programa favorito!) this afternoon.