Pumpkin Fun!

Mr. G and I tend to be the biggest holiday procrastinators.  You know the type - shopping on Christmas Eve, getting a tree, like, a week before, and hitting the pumpkin patch the week before Halloween.

Not this year.

This year, Mr. G wanted to do both pumpkin patch AND corn maze.  There is an amazing corn maze about an hour from where we live.  We've always been at night (so fun!) pre-kid, but we figured it'd be pretty awesome in the daytime with our girl, too.  And the weather here is currently incredible, not at all like our usual wet Octobers!  We had to seize the opportunity.

And bonus?  They have a killer pumpkin patch on the same farm.  If you are local you MUST check out Bob's Corn & Pumpkin Farm.  Must!

This wasn't even half of it.

Ruby took kind of a crappy nap, and didn't sleep at all on the way there.  Which took forever, thanks to an accident on 405.  So she was in a really weird/out of it/grumpy mood when we arrived.  We parked, trucked it in past some farm animals (that she was interested in, but still way out of it), purchased our passes for the big maze, and while we waited for the tractor hayride to take us there, we discovered that the Snohomish County firefighters were there with some apparatus' for the kids to check out.

Mr. G was a firefighter back in the day, so you know we had to get our girl in that engine!

But she was still super weird and out of it!  It was bizzare.  Anyway, we decided to head over to the tractor pick-up area.  All around us were amazing smells of roasting sweet corn and cider donuts.  When Ruby saw the (enormous!) tractor, she perked up.  This tractor was so huge, she could've fit inside the wheel.  It might have been her favorite part.  It pulled two huge haywagons to take us across the street to the maze, so we hopped aboard.

Still a total grumpapotamus, but she thought the straw was really cool.  Once we arrived, you could either go to the pumpkin patch, or head into the 10 acre maze.  Yes, 10 acres.  That's where we went!  We thought Ruby would enjoy running through the corn stalks.  No.  She wanted to be carried.  But not really.  She just wanted to grump?  I was kind of worried.  We got into the maze, and promptly got lost.  In case you're wondering what we were dealing with, this is this year's maze:

via

For reference, both the start and the finish are in the upper right corner (start is the opening at the bottom of that notch), and the large square at the bottom left is the halfway point.  Oh, and the crop circles are areas for private firepit parties when you do the night maze (night maze is so awesome).

Anyway, we were lost, and we weren't even to the "BOB" part yet.  And Ruby was grumping.  We found a dead end, put her in the Beco, and decided to use the map (thank goodness we took a map, we almost didn't because we never have at night).  Except when you're lost, it's almost impossible to orient yourself with the map.  It wasn't until we stumbled into the O that we figured out where we were.  We figured it wise to use the map with a cranky baby, but even with it, it was SO challenging!  We got a little mixed up near the bee, but luckily I am pretty darn good with direction.

Thankfully, Ruby decided to fall asleep, and we all made it out alive a couple hours later.

We decided it was time to find the great pumpkin, so we headed out into the patch.  Ruby was still pretty grouchy (what the heck, kid??), but once she saw the pumpkins, she asked to get down.  It wasn't long before those big orange orbs turned her mood around.

Pumpkins everywhere!

She tried to lift some huge pumpkins, and got really annoyed that she couldn't just pick them all up.  Then she found the little one with the long curly stem, and it became her BFF.  She kept pointing to it, and saying, "Wow!!!".  It was super hard to walk out there over the dead vines (thank goodness it wasn't too muddy, since her rainboots arrived at our house while we were at the farm), so we decided to snag her little pumpkin and one of the cute white ones there, but head back across the road via tractor and get our big pumpkins by the barns, since we had all our stuff and they had another smaller patch over there.

We made a quick stop at the barn to see how our little lady measured up, and so that she could again show us how much she loved the curly-stemmed pumpkin, before walking over to the patch.

That face!

She was freaking hilarious, trying to pick up all of the (huge) pumpkins.  Mr. G decided to take the majority of our junk back to the car, so Ruby and I fooled around in the patch, taking tons of pictures of her cuteness.  It was awesome to see her so excited about the pumpkins (especially after all the grumpies earlier!).

She really liked these greenish ones.  I did too, I'm kinda sad I didn't take any home.

"This one, Mama."

Daddy came back and found us horsing around the barn again.  Ruby would point to a pumpkin, then point to herself, which is how she usually lets us know she wants something.  Haha!  At one point, she even kissed a pumpkin!

We grabbed a pumpkin wheelbarrow and loaded up our little pumpkin for a ride through the patch to the other side, where we found the perfect mama & daddy pumpkins.

Back up at the barn, we found a cute little Ruby-sized pumpkin, too.  Mr. G went in to pay, and Ruby and I watched kids swinging from a tire swing on a big old tree.  Seriously, how awesome is this place?  

After that, we had just enough time and energy to grab some hot apple cider donuts (my stomach just growled thinking about them).  Ruby took one bite and couldn't believe what was in her mouth.  After that, all we heard was, "Bite?  Bite?".  They were amazing.

We bumped along with our wheelbarrow way back out to the car (it was next to that black one driving in the picture above, oof), and loaded up for the trip home after what turned out to be an amazing day at the pumpkin patch.  I already can't wait to take Ruby next year, and I feel like this was a preview of just how awesome holidays are going to be with a toddler.

And, hey!  Since we weren't slackers this year, we still have time to take her to another pumpkin patch if we want.  I'd love to take her back to the one we went to last year!

Calendar Girl - Seventeen Months

Uh oh, guess what day it is?  Guess what day it is!  Nope, not hump day.

It is the actual day that Ruby turns 17 months.  And here's her calendar girl post.  BAM!

Yeah.  I'm a little proud of myself.

So, seventeen months is where it's at.  Seriously, I am so in love with this age right now!  Ruby is just so so SO much fun!

Last month, I had a feeling that we were on the verge of a big language explosion.  There was a lot of babbling going on, and it just seemed like she had something to say.  BOY, was I right!  In just one month, Ruby is up at least 25 new words!!!  I say at least because, well, that's how many I remembered and wrote down.  And, of course, like any toddler, some of the words aren't actual words, but sounds that she says the same every time she means that one thing.  So it counts.

Added to her vocabulary this month are: guy, shoe, no, cheese (this one is SO cute), wash (wa), buh which means buns, box, bag, bus, buckle, or pocket (wtf?) depending on what she's talking about, spoon (which is what she calls all utensils), boom (thunder), girl, cake, bite, ride, guh (glasses and hanger), nice, dance, boo boo, down, bone, bowl, chair, and boots.  Phew!!!

Adding those to the words (and sounds) she already knew, we now can basically have conversations with each other.  It is totally awesome!  Of course, it's also kind of a bummer.  Like when I pick her up to change her diaper, and she starts yelling, "Down!!!".  Or I try to eat a cookie and she demands, "Bite!  Bite!".  But it's also really adorable.  When she sees (or makes) a mess, she exclaims "Oh, no!!!".  Kid cracks me up.

She is straight up obsessed with Braidy.  She kind of always has been, but it's reached a new high.  She gives her hugs whenever she can get her hands on her.  She brings her her bone (which is probably why she chose to learn to say that word).  When she wakes up in the morning or from nap, she doesn't call for mama or dada.  She calls for "Bray".  At night when we're going to sleep, she asks about her ("Bray?  Bray?") at least a dozen times, and finally accepts it when I've told her (also a dozen times) that Braids is ninights.  And the cutest part, is whenever Braidy walks into the room, Ruby lights up and goes, "Heyyyyy, Bray!!!".  It kills me.

In other news, sleep continues to be going all right.  It's much the same as last month.  We get one nap a day in the crib (unless we're gone somewhere at naptime).  We read our stories, sing a song, and I put her down.  For a couple of weeks, she went down without crying AT ALL.  Then one day I realized she had pooped while we were reading stories, so I had to change her first, and that totally unnerved her.  She had a few days in a row of protest cries, and now sometimes she does and sometimes she doesn't.  Probably more often not.  

Nights are also the same.  She falls asleep cuddled up with me in my bed, then I pop her over to her own.  Which sounds like it should be a bad thing, but it is totally working for her.  Once in her crib, we don't hear a peep from her until morning.  It has been much colder at night, and she has outgrown all of her sleepsacks, so instead of buying large ones, we've been making the switch to using a blanket (that my aunt knitted her, so it's holey and breathable).  She's still not totally sure about it, but will allow me to put one over her after she's asleep at night, and seems to like it when I put one on her at naptime, but she doesn't usually keep it on for the whole sleep.  I'm not really sure what else to do, other then just keep offering it to her, but I have been kind of worried about her being cold, as her room seems to be the chilliest in the house.

Of course, we all know that Ruby started school this month!  So far, it seems to be a hit.  Sadly, we've only been twice.  We had to skip this week because the new school germs got her down, and she had a cold.  But she's been getting more daring at moving away from me to go try things she likes (she even crawled through a tunnel!).  She discovered the play kitchen last time, and loved it, so yay, since that's what Santa's likely bringing her for Christmas.  She also love LOVES getting her hands stamped at the end of circle, and has been walking around "asking" for more stamps since we've been.  I was so sad we had to miss last week, I already look forward to us going so much!

Girl on the go.

Speaking of being more daring, my girl finally braved up enough to go down a slide on her own!!!  She likes to slide, but she's always been too fearful to do it herself.  When the weather is nice, we walk over to a little toddler park in our neighborhood, and last time we went, she marched herself up the little steps, sat down on her bottom, and slid down the little slide!  I couldn't believe it, really.  And I think she was a little surprised, too, but she did it a few more times.  Go Ruby!

Ruby continues to knock our socks off with her smarts.  One day, I dumped a bunch of blueberries into a colander to rinse them.  R was standing next to me, so I absentmindedly handed her the empty container.  Next thing I knew, she was opening the pantry door and putting it into the recycling!!!  Then a few days later, she finished eating a snack while we were down in the living room.  She climbed up the stairs into the kitchen, I didn't see her for a minute, then she came back, without the bag, asking for help down the stairs.  I had no idea what she'd done with the bag, until later, when I found it neatly in the garbage can.  What the heck, kid?  And she now does this all the time, and she always knows what's supposed to be recycled, and what has to go in the garbage!

Requisite pointing-at-airplane shot.

Ruby is still a good eater.  She still hates yogurt (and most all white, creamy dairy).  She LOVES broccoli, and would probably eat a whole head if I let her.  I cut her off at 1 cup.  Insane.  In the past, she has disliked oatmeal, but I have been making this pumpkin oatmeal recipe that I found on Pinterest, and she loves it!  She's doing pretty well at eating food off of a plate (instead of her tray) now, but has some learning to do in the utensil department.  Use of fork is starting to pick up, but she doesn't really like eating anything off of a spoon - except that oatmeal, which she practiced scooping herself just yesterday - yay!

Oh yeah, and to eat that food, she needs teeth, right?  It's been a couple of months since she's gotten any new teeth.  Understandably, she doesn't like me feeling around in her mouth, but I check periodically.  Knowing molars are on the horizon, I figured we'd know about it when those were coming in...  Um, NO.  Sneak-baby cut BOTH top molars sometime in this past month without even telling us about it.  I just discovered them a couple of days ago.  Either she is crazy tough, or she should be a poster child for amber teething necklaces!

Overall, she is just the most awesome, delightful toddler.  She's had one solitary tantrum (and it turned out, she was getting sick), and while she has her whiny moments (like while I'm trying to cook dinner), she is just so happy and fun!  She loves to give kisses.  She brings us our socks and shoes.  She'll walk up behind me when I'm sitting down and drape herself over my back in a hug.  She notices everything. She likes to help me cook.  She still is obsessed with the dishwasher and can unload almost the whole thing.  She's getting into crayons ("color color").  She is still very much into clothes and shoes.  She likes to sniff spices when we're baking, and flowers if she sees one.  She is the love of my life.

It's hard to believe that the next one of these I write will be 18 months.  One and a half.  Time is flying.

Random...

Perhaps I was not cut out to be a blogger...  I am so bad at it!!!  Always, always, always running behind on posting.  In fact, the other day I saw that I'd started a post back in June (with some really adorable pictures of Ruby at the park!), but I never finished and published it.  What the heck?!?

My poor little sick girl.  But I love her sweet face.

Anyway...

First of all, YAY!  It's October!  That means it's Halloween month!  We kicked it off right yesterday with a pumpkin breakfast (pumpkin pancake for my babe, pumpkin bagel with pumpkin cream cheese for me), then I decked Ruby all out in orange & black striped leggings, a Halloween t-shirt, and this witchy clippie I whipped up for her:

If you follow me on Instagram, you already saw this picture.  And if you don't follow me on Instagram, GUESS WHAT???  I put a cute little button over there just below Ruby's birthday ticker that will take you right to me!  Oh, and hey!  You can now follow me on Pinterest, too!  Want to know the real reason I'm a bad blogger?  Yeah, it's those two time-sucks right there!  But whatever, I'm just proud that I figured out how to do buttons.

So anyway, speaking of Instagram and Halloween hair accessories, did you know that there are all kinds of shops on Instagram???  I just found this out (guess I've been living under a rock), and it is daaaangerous.  But I snagged 2 super adorable Halloween hairbows in this crazy fast flash sale over there.  Handmade by a mama, and very reasonably priced.  They haven't arrived yet, though, which is why I made the witchy hat above!

And on the subject of making things (yet another reason I'm a bad blogger - in my free time, I can blog, make something, or clean my house, so... yeah), I'm one of those moms that feels the need to make my child's Halloween costume.  Which means I should probably get on that!  Though how I'll top last year, I'm not sure...

Ahhhhhh!!!  She's TINY!

Ok, so, looking at that picture, there's no topping last year.  This year, she's going to be a black cat.  I like to keep it traditional.  I purchased a sequin cat ear headband, so basically I'll be making a tutu and a tail.  Add a black onesie/tights, and we're set.  I also like to keep it easy, and I don't mind at all that her get-up will be similar to last year.

I'm also trying to decide if now is the time to start my Etsy shop.  I actually have a name picked out and registered already, I've just never taken the time to create an inventory.  Ruby's toddler school is having a craft fair in November, and I'm thinking about participating and using it as a jumping off point?  I have some irrational fears about making things for people to buy though, so I guess that's my hesitation.  It would be fun to have some playing around money if I sold anything, though.    Hmm...

OH!  That reminds me of something else!  I'm kind of a shopping addict, but as a SAHM, I have a very strict budget.  A while back on here I shared my MyHabit referral link.  I don't know who you were, but TWO very lovely people clicked that link, made purchases, and earned me referral credits!  Whoever you are, thank you SO much!  I had an opportunity to put them to good use the other day:

I have been searching high, low, and everywhere in between for toddler rain boots that would fit Ruby.  We live in Washington, she NEEDS boots!  But finding cute ones in a size 5 (which is still a size too big, but the smallest they go)?  Impossible!!!  Ok, well, there's the toddler Hunter boots that I'm dying over, but they are way way too expensive for toddler boots.  Anyway, the other day these Carter's boots popped up on MyHabit, and I was able to purchase them with my referral credits!!!  And those adorable flats, too!  For both pairs of shoes, I paid $1.10.  So thank you, thank you, thank you (Mr. G thanks you too) for using my link, whomever you are.  Seriously.

Now if somebody could find me a raincoat for Ruby (yeah, she doesn't have one of those either), I'd be set...

Ruby Goes to School!

Sniff sniff, tear.  My baby is all grown up.

Ok, not really, but it feels like we just had a huge milestone!

Monday was Ruby's very first day at toddler group.  

I know.  What the heck is toddler group, and why do I keep calling it school?  Basically, it's preschool. For 1 year olds.  So it's pre-preschool?  It's a one day a week (we go Mondays from 10:15-12:15) program for the one year old class.  It's parent co-op, which means that I go with her, and I (and all the other parents) am very involved in the class operation.  Throughout the year we adults will help with the children, help with clean-up/maintenance, snack preparation, and assist the teacher with some curriculum material prep.

It is also a parent-education class, and is run in conjunction with a local technical college (so I'm getting college credits while attending, too, ha!).  This means that once the year gets settled, half of the parents will be with the kiddos helping, and the other half will be in parent-ed session.  Then the next week we'll flip flop.  So every other week, we get our learning on while the kids are playing in their classrooms.  I'm excited about this part, because even though I actually have a degree in child development, I can always learn more.  We also have occasional evening parent ed events that we must attend, but there are some fun evening/weekend activities for the whole family to do together too.  It is very community oriented!

Ruby is in a class with 17 other toddlers (which sounds crazy, but it was actually ok!).  Her school has two classrooms.  One with toys, blocks, puzzles, a rotating activity based on the week's curriculum, puppets, books, and a sensory table.  The other has the art projects available for the day, a different sensory table, and some dramatic play items.  Then we have the "gross motor hallway" full of fun things like ride-on toys, a toddler sized basketball hoop, and ball pit to name a few.  The kids have free reign of all of their areas, and can choose their activity at will.

Our parent-ed classroom is across the hall, and the kids are welcome in there too.  Which means if it is my week to be in session, but Ruby is just really needing her mama, she's welcome to come in and be with me.  Pretty awesome.

So, how did our first day go?

It was great!

Upon arrival, we put our stuff away and went to wash hands.  Admittedly, Ruby was scared of washing hands on the stool in the bathroom, but it was ok.  We signed in and got our nametags (we put the kids' on their backs so that they wouldn't pull them off, lol), and went in for open choice play!  Ruby was a little unsure, but the ball pit was calling her name...

Sizin' up the other kiddos.

After a bit, she noticed a bear in the "blue room", so we went on in.  Ruby had a lot of fun playing with  more balls, trucks, cars, and puppets.  After a while, I encouraged her to see what was in the "green room".  She saw her buddy J in there, and requested to sit down in one of the little chairs at the art table.  She was super into the tiny chairs.

She did some "art", which consisted of sticking cotton balls to glue (that I'd helped her with), and coloring with markers.  Which she really liked, probably since I've never let her use them, ha!  And in case you're wondering, yes, washable markers wash out.  Not that I've already learned that or anything.  

Once she was done, I let her explore the green room.  I needed to grab my sweatshirt from the coat area, so I left her in the care of her buddy's mama, Jessie, and when I came back it was already clean up time!  I got assigned gross motor hallway clean up.  Ruby was happy to stay with Jessie (she already knows and loves her), so I put all the big toys away, then snatched up my girl to go wash hands again before snack.

For some reason snack was scary to her (weird, because we all know she loves to eat!).  She liked sitting in the little chair again, and ate up her blueberries, but wouldn't touch the other food!  It was so funny to me, because snack was basically all of her favorite foods, since Jessie was the first snack mom - she brought foods that she knew Ruby & her son loved, since those two were her only frame of reference.  Ruby proclaimed she was "all done!", which everyone thought was pretty cute, so we cleaned up and went back to the blue room to read stories until the others were finished.

Once everyone was done, it was circle time.  Miss Susanne led us in songs, ending with our good-bye song, Teddy Bear Teddy Bear.  The big bear Ruby had noticed upon our arrival "helped" out with this, and Ruby was ALL over that.  Miss Susanne blew some bubbles for the kiddos to try to pop in the middle of circle too, which was also a hit.  At the very end, all of the toddlers got to go up to the teacher and get a hand stamp.  Ruby was super into it, so she got one on each hand, lol.

Our school is awesome and has a little playground (none of the other toddler groups around here do), so we ended the day by gathering our things and heading out there.

Ruby loved the playground!  She and her bff did some "cooking" together.  These two have known each other since they were about a month old, and see each other every week.  So they're pretty comfortable together!

Outdoor playtime is also a time where they prep parents (we all take turns with this job on a rotating schedule) reset the classroom for the next day's class.  Their kiddos can stay with them inside, or the other parents can keep an eye on them on the playground.

Ruby & her buddy had a great time out there.  We were the last ones to leave!

Pale baby is pale. 

Note to self.  Invest in a raincoat and boots.  We play outside rain or shine, and in Washington, well, it's pretty much going to be rain!

The only bummer about school is that it is pretty far from home.  About a 45 minute drive.  We toured the many toddler programs around the area, and this one blew all the others out of the water.  It was also the cheapest, which was not really a deciding factor (though the one closest to our home cost twice as much!).  It was a bonus that we had several friends decide on the same one as well, since we all said we were going to choose whichever was the best fit for us.  

The bummer?  Class ends at lunchtime.  And a full morning of school + a 45min drive = guaranteed car nap.  Which means Ruby really needs to eat lunch before we leave school and head home.  That car nap will likely be her only nap of the day!  We ate at a park down the street, which Ruby loved, but come winter I'm not exactly sure what we will do. =(  Still, if that's the only bummer about her school, I will take it!

Overall, I am so excited for the year to come, and so grateful that programs like this exist.  I can't wait to see Ruby blossom in an environment designed for her and her peers to grow together.  And I look forward to the parenting sessions with the other moms (and sometimes dads).  Our first day was great, the other families are very friendly and down to earth (and we already knew several from our Parent-Baby class days), and the curriculum is incredibly developmentally appropriate and seems like it will be a good stepping stone into Montessori preschool when Ruby is old enough for that.

I think she's pretty excited too.  Can't wait for next week!