tis the season

I should be picking up, cleaning, organizing, and making phone calls while Levi is sleeping.. instead I'm sitting here

drinking this...



and dreaming about this...

1) Apple Picking... making applesauce
2) Pumpking Picking\Carving
3) Eat cider and donuts
4) Be outside as much as possible

I love fall.
The last few days have become very fall-esque around here.
See?




It makes me smile.

This weekend is my birthday. I think we might go to Hillsdale to the fair.
We hear it's amazing and they all say "it's the greatest fair on earth". Seriously.
That's what they say, in fact, it's their slogan. I'm not kidding, it really is. It's a big deal,like kids don't go to school this week big deal. It's kind of like the first day of hunting season in the north. have I mentioned I love the fair, and my birthday. It's like combining my two favorite things!

Anyway. Fall. I love it. I love being outside in jeans and sweaters and sweatshirts, and eating apples, and drinking cider... I always say.. if I could live somewhere in the world that was fall 365 days a year I would.. and not just the temperature, but the SEASON. the leaves changing, the cider, donuts, pumpkins, hay, apples, oranges, reds, yellows etc.. I would move there. No questions asked.

That's my rant today.

I love fall!

on the move!

He's 8 months today, and in the past week has become a crawling expert!

leaves

something about this tree....

 

makes me want to pick apples, drink cider, eat donuts, and play in the leaves....

I can smell fall today, and I love it!

dr visit.

"some kids are just more prone to ear infections"

that's what our little guy has.. another ear infection.
she gave us a stronger antibiotic that hopefully will clear it up.

after another completely awful afternoon of him screaming i decided to call the dr. he had a follow up scheduled from his last ear infection this week. we moved it up a day to get him checked out.

hopefully this time we'll get rid of that pesky bacteria for good.

teeth

He's sleeping now.

 

But boy has it been rough the last couple days. We think maybe he's getting teeth? I don't feel anything, but he is sure screaming like something is happening. Yesterday he cried for almost 2 hours. Not just a normal cry, but the cry where it sounds like you're cutting their legs off? Yea, that kind of cry. Oh, did I mention I was teaching downstairs, and our poor babysitter was attempting to calm him? Yeah. It didn't go very well. It resulted in me excusing myself and heading upstairs several times. Our sitter was doing everything she could, but she just didn't know what to do.

Quite frankly, I didn't know what to do.

He seemed tired, we kept putting him down, and then he'd wake up SCREAMING again. *sigh* I felt awful, our sitter felt even worse. She did laugh though when I said to her.. when your friends say 'I want to have a baby' you can relay this real life moment with them, because it's not always coos, giggles, and smiles. We finally, after exhausting everything, gave him some tylenol. He calmed down within minutes and was completely happy the rest of the evening. Of course that was after our sitter left completely worn out and frazzled from the experience)

Poor Kid.

I hope these teeth make an appearance soon. And if it's not teeth that whatever it is we can figure out, because this bites. (no pun intended)

growin'

Because I adore this smile...



And this face...


He's so close to crawling, it's ridiculous.

L.O.V.E.

 

The tomatoes have finally produced, and I've been busy this week canning and freezing, and trying to stay on top of everything. So, when a piano students mom looked at my 3 bushels of tomatoes and said to me, you could have those done in 3 hours, my ears perked up. I of course wanted to know how on EARTH that could possibly happen. So, she shared with me her way of canning, and I am in love! It's SO much easier for me, especially with a little kiddo who needs my attention without warning. There is no blanching and skinning of tomatoes involved which is pretty much amazing to me because that's the part I hate. You also don't have to process them, you just flip them upside down.

See?

 

I love learning new tricks of the trade, and this is by far one of my favs thus far!