Fall in the Northeast

It's fall.  Time for soup, cute sweaters, and apple picking. 

This year we headed to New Jersey to pick apples at Riamede Farm.  We visited a different orchard this year, so things were a little different but I took my advice from last year and wore sneakers and we made sure to get a wagon. 

Apple orchards are plentiful in these parts and the "attractions" at each varies.  We opted to skip any farms with bounce houses and corn mazes, although it was tempting because Freddie would have loved every minute.  But the reality is the event of picking apples is quite a bit for one day so we decided just to focus on picking and enjoying the crisp fall weather. 

There was a "hay ride" out to the back of the orchard so we opted to take a ride (more than once).

Several varieties of apples were available for picking, but we mostly got Macoun and a few King David (an heirloom apple). Of course those varieties were pretty well picked, so the boys had to work hard to get some apples. 

This orchard didn't have pole pickers, and that's probably for the best because it definitely limited the amount of apples we were willing to pick.  We ended up coming home with about 50 apples after filling the half bushel bag.  That's a lot of apples, folks. 

While Freddie and Charlie picked, H-man rode in style and chowed down.  (I think this may be a recurrent theme in H-man's life.)

The pumpkin patch was also open so we set out in search of the perfect pumpkin(s).  Freddie wanted "two or ten pumpkins."

There were several varieties of gourds but we ended up going for two smallish pumpkins. Small is relative.

And we couldn't leave without picking a few cherry and grape tomatoes. 

The tomatoes were beautiful and made me smile!

After paying for our half bushel of apples, two pumpkins, and half pound of tomatoes we made a stop in the store for the best part of picking at the orchard...

...Apple cider donuts!

We enjoyed a picnic lunch, sunshine, and country living at a nearby park...

 before making a long quiet drive back home to the city.

 

Perfect fall day.

 

Tips for next trip:

•  Not all cider donuts are created equal!  The donuts we had this year were exceptional compared to those from last year.
• Always get the wagon.  Even if I had brought the stroller into the orchard, the wagon is good for lugging apples and pumpkins.  The boys loved riding in the wagon.
• Go early in the season for the honeycrisps.  That's my favorite variety and apparently they are available early in the season and not every orchard offers them.  Check picking schedules in August to plan for a September trip.  This year apples were ready early because of the unusual weather.  My other favorite, fujis, are available in mid to late October.
• Bring lots of cash.  We spent about $45 on apples, pumpkins, and tomatoes. Apples were pricier this year, but it's easy to get $45 worth no matter the cost.  There's something about filling up that bag.
• Pick Your Own is a good place to start when looking for an orchard.  Then check yelp, facebook, and websites to get an idea of what's going on at each farm, the price of admission, varieties available.

15 Months

Appearance:

• You seem blonder and blonder each day
• Little curls in the back, that will most likely be gone after your first haircut.  Thankfully that is a while away.
• 10 teeth.  Those top molars are out, and there are two on the bottom trying to cut through.
• You're wearing a range of sizes, but 18-24 months seems best, but 2T works as well.  I am not sure I am ready for you and Freddie to both be in the same size though.
• Possibly slimming down.  Possibly.
• Freddie has reported more than once that you are getting fur.  On your back. 

Vocabulary:

• Bye bye, puppy
• Hi, puppy
• Wa wa (Water) we've heard it before but you are using it lots lately.  You will use it to request water or to show me the water in the river, drain, water fountain, tub
• Yeah!  And you shake your head "yes" along with it.  You are answering "yes" more often than "no" lately.  
• Uh-oh 
• Hot, as in the food is hot. It sounds like "Ha" and then you blow on your food. 
• You put your finger on your lips and say "Shhhhh."  The entire childcare center is dark and everyone is napping when we pick Freddie up in the afternoons, so you loves to "Shhhhh" as we walk back to Freddie's classroom.
• "Thank you" but it sounds more like you're humming it.  It has the same intonations of my "Thank you."
• Whoa.  I hear this when you stumble or tumble.
• Wow!  Love when you say this when you are exploring a new toy.
• Today I the orchard I heard "apple" a few times.
• Poo poo.  You'll often come to me and say "poo poo" and tug on your diaper.  You also will say it over and over and over while I am changing a dirty diaper. 
• You UNDERSTAND just about everything, and can follow directions, even some two step directions.  I can ask you to go get a toy and put it away....and you do it!  When I ask if you want to go get Freddie from school you say, "Yeah" and open the front door and head down the hall.  

Making sense of the world:

• More and more pretending.  You carry on long phone conversations.
• You pretend to eat and cook in the kitchen.
• You hug, kiss, and rock your baby.
• You comb your hair, my hair, your baby's hair.
•  When others cry, you are very interested in what is going on and watch to see how things are going to be handled.
• You wave to everyone and everything.  I love this phase.

Motor Skills:

• Lots, and lots, and lots of walking.  I just follow you around.
• You reach out for help going down the stairs.  You're getting better.
• Stooping to pick things up and crouching down to examine things
• Scribbling, sometimes on the walls.  Sigh.
• Overhand throw of balls and sticks and rocks.  You love to toss back and forth with Freddie.
• Now that we've started wearing sweaters and fleece, you've figured out how to get your arms out and you're working on getting it off of your head. 
• Consistently using your fork, and working well with a spoon.
• Lots of dancing!

Likes:

• Eating
• Reading.  You bring Dada and I books all the time then plop down next to us for a listen.  If i ask if you want another you respond with a "Yea" and head off to return that one and come back with another.
• Playing rough with Freddie.
• Walking around exploring and splashing in puddles.
• Zooming down the slide
• Screaming, especially if Freddie echos your call.

Dislikes:

• Diaper changes
• Getting dressed, although you are starting to help more with getting dressed by offering your arms, legs, or feet.
• When I ask if you are ready for bed you say "Noooooooo" and run in the other direction.

Sleep:

• 7am-6.45am
• Napping once in the afternoon, 12-2.30, but we're going to start trying to push this back to 1.00pm so you can participate in some music classes.
• You're cuddling with a teddy bear for sleep lately.  I call him "Teddy."  Pretty creative, eh?  He was a teddy hanging around in one of the toy bins.  I am desperately searching ebay for a back up. 

Getting involved with the group

Personality:

• Your "tantrums" are lessening.  I think my firm stands have been effective, although it is definitely hard to walk away from you when you are having a fit.  
• I call you anti-social, but that's not true really.  You are definitely more shy than Freddie was at this age.  You'll hold my hand or sit in my lap for a while when we go to play group before exploring.
• Having Freddie allows you some confidence interacting with groups of kids.  You'll wiggle into any group of kid Freddie is busy playing with.
• You'll hug Freddie's teachers goodbye.  I was surprised to see this!  For a while you'd only offer a "bye" and a wave but now you'll lean in for a hug on our way out the door. 

Freddie's Fortune

You would make a good lawyer.

He's a talker alright, and his sense of fairness is rapidly evolving.  Anything's possible I suppose.

Dining

We went out to dinner tonight.  At a restaurant.  With plates.  And water glasses.  And table cloths.  Someone served us.  My food was warm when I ate it.  We didn't even have to pad the tip to make up for dinner on the floor or drinks splattered on the wall. Even though Hans screamed a few times because I couldn't get the sesame beef on his fork fast enough, it was a success! 

Where y'at?

We've been

• Visiting with grandparents
• Going to birthday parties
• Strolling the boardwalk at Coney Island
• Riding the subway
• Checking out the aquarium
• Enjoying the fall weather
• Purging closets and dressers making room for sweaters and jeans
• Opening the windows

We haven't been:

• Taking pictures
• Responding to emails
• Grocery shopping
• Returning phone calls
• Sitting at the computer

We're planning on:

• Cooking soup
• Picking apples
• Bike riding
• Baking
• Fall cleaning
• Roasting pumpkin seeds
• Hosting a play date

You can learn something from everything

Freddie loves maps, and his new maps have been getting lots of perusing lately.  Of course we've found the usual spots:  New York City, Minnesota, New Orleans, Denver, Oklahoma.  Our community has lots of international residents, so that's prompted searching for some locations;  his preschool teacher is visiting family in Bosnia and he met a boy on the playground from Kenya so we've talked about countries and continents. 

Tonight after asking to read the label on my beer bottle, Freddie needed to find California on the map.  Now let's see where Sierra Nevada is brewed, he said.  This kid's going to have a lot to add to discussions in geography class.

An Elephant and his Toys

Freddie

At 3 years, 6 months:

Appearance:

• 30ish pounds, about 20th percentile
• 37.5ish inches, about 20th percentile
• Clothing sizes:  Varies from 2T-3T in pants.  Slim sizes work best, as usually 2T can fit in the waist but be too short.  Thsirt sizes 3/4 fits well.
• You're growing!  You've gained over two pounds and two inches in 6 months.  That's what Dr. G told me to expect for a year's growth, so I wonder what the next 6 months will bring.
• You're a pretty sweaty kid.  You're very active, so I imagine that's part of it, but you work up a sweat in no time flat.

 Diet:

• You're eating!  Not only have you recently tried a hot dogs, but for the most part you try everything.  I cannot say that you *eat* everything but you usually taste just about everything I serve.  I decided to no longer plan meals around your pickiness, and low and behold, it worked.  You can usually find something I am serving to fill up on.  And then there are some nights I can hear your tummy rumbling while we're reading bedtime stories.  This pains me, but I think I'm doing the right thing. 
• You're starting to eat breakfast.  I've been threatening to break you of your morning "special milk" (pediasure) habit because I think you'd be inclined to eat even more if you weren't loading up on liquid calories.  It's pretty expensive and high in sugar so it's got to go.
• You have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every single day do lunch, and an apple. 

Activities:

• The scoot bike has been getting lots of action lately.  You have great balance, and you keep telling me you plan on asking Santa for a pedal bike.
•  You still love dancing.  We've been seeing some handstands incorporated into your "break dance" moves lately.  Along with something you call the crab walk.  Oh my.
•  You LOVE school.  Preschool has been so good for you. 
• Pretend play is by far your favorite activity.  You play in your kitchen, tend to your babies and stuffed animals, drive the boat (sled) around the house, drive the fire engine (play equipment at the playground) to put out fires.  It is never ending.  Your pretend play is gaining complexity and you assign roles to Hans and me.  I get to be the Dada a lot, or when we play school I am assigned the role of "Sam."  
• If you're not pretending, you're finding a way to be physical.  The sight of a new playground makes you giddy.  Your fear of heights is lessening and you are more eager to explore climbing on top of play structures.  Please, please, please don't break anything.
• Games are more and more fun with you.  Sometimes you are bothered by not winning and sometimes you have no problem congratulating the winner.  I suppose that is just part of being three.  You are a fan of hide and seek lately, and when Hans naps we're able to play Candyland and Go Fish.

Personality:

• You are pretty independent and assertive, although at school you tend to be a bit shy.  I have started to see a little shyness come out in certain situations outside of school, although your determination to not miss anything usually takes over and the shyness is stuffed down.  An example of this is at the pool you wanted me to go with you to ask the lifeguard for a kickboard, but when you saw another boy getting a noodle from the lifeguard you quickly raced over without me.
• You are very affectionate with me, Dada, and Hansie.  We hear lots of "I love yous" and you like to give us "pats" and kisses.
• You aim to please, for the most part. 
• You can get frustrated and tell me, "I'm so frustrated!"  I just tell you to take a deep breath and try again, and usually that does it.
• Sass, sass, sass.  But only at home.  Never ever at school.
• You are catching on to the art of telling jokes.  As Dada thanked me for supper one night (pizza), you pretended to put a phone to your cheek and blurted out, "Thank you, Dominos!" 

Learning:

• You are consistently reinforcing your knowledge of capital letters and I think you know most of the lower case letters as well.  You are showing awareness of lower case letters being placed within words and capital letters beginning names.  
• You are writing all kinds of letters and are gaining more fine motor control of the pencil.  The pencil grip has greatly strengthened because you love to do "mazes."
• You have started to do dot to dots and are so tickled to see the final product.  This has been a big motivator to learn your numbers.  You recognize numerals 1-5 fore sure, and sometimes surprise me with the others.
• Addition is on your radar.  You comprehend the concept and I've been hearing some simple addition problems from you as you look at your blocks, fingers, cars and such.
• It is amazing how much your cutting has improved in the last week.  You have become interested in craft projects and so your scissor practice has really increased.  
• You are able to enumerate without much issue.  Smaller objects on a page used to give you some trouble but recently I noticed you using your pencil to help manage this, perhaps a tip you learned in school.

Lovin'

• The tongue controlling cutting, and writing, and drawing, and even feeding the goats
• Cocktails on the rooftop, sans children and husband
• Fall weather
• Ealry morning quiet time
• Quiet time when both boys are in the same room
• Organizing long sleeved shirts and pants!
• Searching for states, cities, countries on the new maps
• Requests for a new room to decorate
• Halloween costumes
• Apple picking on the calendar
• Soups on the meal plan
• Boot shopping
• Shadowing a wobbly walker
• Hi Ho Cherry matches

Problem Solver

It won't be long before he opens two drawers to climb up to reach everything that's been pushed back out of his reach.

Hans Scoots

Nothing like having a big brother to show you how to do everything.

Let's make a scrapbook!

Freddie:  I've got an idea!  Let's make a scrapbook.  That's a great idea.  I need some squares and glue and some pictures. 

Yep, he lets everyone know when he thinks his ideas are great.  He'll also tell you when you come up with a great idea as well.

I have no idea where he caught the scrapbooking bug.  He has some definite ideas about what scrapbooking entails and it seems to mostly revolve around pictures and squares.

He asked me to write the title and I asked if I should write his name as the author.  I'm not the author, I'm the illustrator.   He wrote his name, attempting to use some lowercase letters.  Those little Es are tricky.  He drew, I cut, he glued.

Viola!

And then there's Freddie on page 1...

Mama and Dada on pages 2 and 3...

And Hans on page 4...

He seems to be getting interested in crafts.  He is starting to want to draw more, but really looks for any reason to use glue, scissors and paint.  And he's prolific.  Thankfully lots of his artwork is on the chalkboard or whiteboard so that just gets erased.  The other stuff gets displayed for a while and then I feel guilty about tossing it.  So I decided I'll start photographing and archiving some of it here.  Lucky you.  {wink} I'm tagging it in "Freddie's Gallery" and think ultimately it will be nice to see the progression of his "craft." I think I'll put this scrapbook in his memory box though.

My Name

Freddie:  How do you spell your name?

Mama:  M...

Freddie:  No!  Your OTHER name. (Writing an E on the board.) E is for Erin.


I am really enjoying watching his writing evolve.  Just some talking about lowercase letters and he's adding them in on his own. 

Moving Up Ceremony

Summer is over, and we're transitioning into fall.  A new "school year" begins, and for some of Freddie's classmates this means they'll be moving to kindergarten at a new school.  To mark the end of their time in preschool, his class participated in a "Moving Up Ceremony."  Every time Freddie talked about it he confirmed he wasn't moving anywhere, but his teacher talked to the group about some friends leaving and those remaining in preschool moving into the role of leaders, helpers, and mentors.

There was a concert to begin the celebration.  All of the kids enjoyed it, and I loved watching Freddie.  He did all of the motions and sang his little heart out.

The preschool class performed a few songs.  Obligitory video (he's third from the right)...
 

It made me giggle.  He's always singing these songs around the house.

 Each child got a certificate, but Freddie was most impressed by the "goody bag" filled with pencils, notepads, bubbles, stickers, and tattoos.  He found ways to use the phrase "goody bag" at least ten times that evening.

H-Man couldn't wait to bolt out of my arms and make himself a part of everything.  Something tells me the time between now and when they are both in cap and gowns is going to fly by.