Two All-American Pastimes For Fall

Eating And Baseball. Or is that Eating A Baseball?

Wearing Our Heart On Our Sleeve

Dash With the Animals

Dash has been enthralled with every animal he has ever seen from puppies and bunnies to tiny ants (that subsequently attacked him...they were fire ants and he had little red bites on his ankles for weeks). But we have yet to venture a trip to the zoo because of distance, nap times and heat. The animals at the pumpkin patch were the closest Dash has come to a zoo...maybe it was even better because he could pet and feed the farm animals. We got our cups of goat feed when we entered, and, after trying to explain to a 13 month old that even though it looks like cereal, it is yucky for little boys, we were able to find some goats very happy to munch away. Dash giggled every time he touched the goats or the furry sheep. Now if only we had a goat for our backyard...it would certainly help with the mowing!

HAYRIDE!

After frolicking around the pumpkin patch and seeing the farm animals, we got in line for the hayride. We had the best seat in the house from Dash's point of view...right behind the tractor! In fact, he pointed at the tractor for the better part of fifteen minutes, just to make sure that Mr. Incredible and Mommy didn't miss this very exciting discovery. He was the last one off the hayride. We also found a green and yellow tractor to play on...Dash has one hand on the wheel and the other on the shifter. He is ready to go!

Pumpkin Patch!

Saturday was a beautiful, sunny October day, so we took Dash on his first trip to the pumpkin patch. He had a great time playing with hay, animals and farm equipment. There are so many pictures that I'll have to post a few times!

He literally ran from the car to the entrance at top speed. He discovered that pumpkins roll if you knock them over, that goats will lick you if they think you have food, and that tractors are ever cooler in person that in books.

Hook 'Em Horns

Go Texas! UT won the annual Red River Shootout
against OU this weekend. Dash saw a real live longhorn on Saturday when we were at the pumpkin patch (more pictures to come!) and played with a cool new Texas football from his Aunt, so he was very excited about the win!

I Guess We're "Real Learning"

Or at least we are following our first "rabbit trail!" Dash has recently become obsessed with "things that go" including trucks, cars, wagons, and construction equipment. We have already checked out board books from the library on trucks and constuction equipment. I have been driving a longer way whenever we go out because some huge bulldozers and diggers are laying pipes nearby. Sometimes we park in the lot across the street and watch them work. And today we postponed my planned trip to Babies'R'Us because 2 moving vans parked right across the street from our house. We went to get the mail and half an hour later came back flushed, but very excited. One burly man asked Dash if he could lift a television. No such luck, but we continued watching the big vans from the dining room. Dash also tried driving Mommy's car, which was fun because there are lots of buttons to push from the driver's seat. I think we will have to get Dash some of his own Usborne books on trucks for Christmas.

Other Highlights

• I really do have a belly. Here is the proof:
  See the bump? I promise it is there! Since I've never had a belly with a little one before, I am still somewhat unsure of the best way to carry Dash (not usually an issue, since he likes to walk himself, but occasionally, like when you stand at the street to watch the trash truck empty our trashcan and then every other trashcan on the street, it is necessary)...do you hold him on the side? On top of the belly? And for anyone who is jealous of a small-measuring tummy...I have heard that posterior babies make mom's tummy stick out less. I would take a HUGE belly and an anterior baby any day of the week.
• Dash made it for a whole one hour, fifteen minute mass last week and one weekday mass without having to go to the back for the first time since he was a sleeping newborn. I don't want to get my hopes up, but very exciting nonetheless.
• Mr. Incredible had jury duty this week before jetting off to NYC. He was picked for a jury and the case was, I kid you not, about two 18 year old guys pretending to be ninjas and taking pictures of themselves jumping off of a roof for promotional material to open a ninja school. They were apparently dressed from head to toe in black practicing ninja techniques, including stealth and "invisibility". The defendant's lawyer apparently pointed out that they could readily be seen in the pictures. One guy broke his leg as he jumped when the other guy was shooting a bebe gun at him. Not surprisingly, the jury found them both negligent and awarded no damages. The judge referred to it as the case of "dumb and dumber." Our tax dollars at work. At least it makes a good story.
• Momo spent several days here and her little apprentice, Dash, is progressing in his training. Having already mastered the art of the power drill, he proved that he is not afraid of heights and helped measure some drapes.
• I went to my book club and out of 11 women, 6 were pregnant (and showing), 3 had infants and the 2 others had toddlers. We looked like an ad for maternity clothes. It is so great to be around Catholic mothers!

Nesting

I am in full-fledged nesting mode, and not even 6 months pregnant yet! So I have been spending my time cleaning, purging, sorting, washing and organizing everything from to the pantry and refrigerator to Dash's baby pictures to my closet (yes, coming up on 6 months, and I have finally conceded to give the maternity clothes their own shelf instead of constantly returning to the storage box). Thus, I have not been posting pictures of our cute little boy. He has been very helpful, even checking out his baby brother's car seat while Mommy washed the cover. I remember the box saying that the car seats fits average babies until one year...well now we have proof that Dash is not an average baby.

Dash has also started hanging onto our legs, which is too cute...for now at least.