Green baby booty at last

I have been holding off posting about one of our latest developments since I had such high expectations for our first attempt and was met with such epic failure. I really wanted to make sure this was going to stick and actually work before I announced how proud I was of myself! :)

Remember back here and here when I talked about our epic failure attempt with g-diapers. Noah hated them, pitched a god awful fit every time I tried to put one on him and in general, expressed his extreme dissatisfaction with the experience. At that point, I had put a bit of research into the true cloth diaper route (which has VASTLY advanced from previous generations of prefolds with pins and rubber pants) and had convinced myself that with me working full time and Tim working full time and doing full time classes, we really didn't have the time to keep up with the cloth diaper route. I wasn't so much worried about the difficulty of the process, the expense (aside from wasting money on diapers Noah would refuse to let be put on him), or about things getting messy, but I really had this notion that it was very time consuming and I couldn't envision how I would fit some other time sucking project into our already ridiculously full lives. The guilt set in a little more, and then Noah got a major diaper rash and we switched to using cloth wipes with a home made solution to avoid using the chemicals in the disposable wipes on his raw behind. I would just throw them in the wash and out they would come all clean. Amazingly, after fighting with the diaper rash for almost 6 weeks, we cleared it up in about 2 days worth of cloth wipe use!!! I started to wonder if perhaps the chemicals in the diapers were contributing to some of the issues as well and even more Mommy guilt set in.

After doing a bit more research into the type of cloth diaper that would be most likely to fit our lifestyle, I saw an online posting for an end of summer sale at the Diaper Lab, a cloth diaper, etc. store a couple of miles from us. Convincing Tim was more of an issue, but only because he was worried about wasting more money on diapers Noah would hate. Through lots of internet searching I picked a diaper brand that gets great reviews, claims to be easy maintenance, and was reasonably priced. I went into the store and claimed complete ignorance and was met with one of the nicest, most helpful moms ever. She agreed that the brand I picked would be a great option for us and even helped to pick out some extra layers (who knew cotton/hemp material is super absorbent and all natural?) to use for overnight to prevent leaks. We got 2 diapers to start with, figuring a minimum of investment would prevent us from really beating ourselves up if we experience wee man rejection. Interestingly, the shop owner/super-helpful mom indicated that her little one disapproved of the g-diapers as well. Perhaps they work well for some people, but no such luck was found here.

After the initial prep work and a wash routine to get everything ready, I tried them out for a day. Noah didn't seem to mind the change and after some minor sizing adjustments to get things situated and prevent leaking at the legs, we were on our way. I was so happy with them that after only a week of testing them out, we ordered 12 more diapers (and got 2 more free with an online coupon), bringing our stash up to 16 diapers, which is plenty to make it through 3 days with a toddler Noah's age. Washing is simple since we use flushable liners that we put in the toilet and flush when we have a dirty diaper. Initially I was just rolling the used diapers up disposable diaper style and putting them in a laundry basket, but since we have become more experienced, we got a cheap small trashcan with a flip lid and a wet bag to place inside and we separate the absorbent inner soaker from the waterproof outer portion of the diaper after each change instead of rifling through 3 day old diapers to pull out the soaker at wash time. At wash time its just a matter of dumping the contents of the wet bag and the wet bag itself in the machine, putting in an 1/8 of a cup of diaper-safe detergent and running a cold wash/rinse and then a hot wash/rinse with an extra rinse cycle. I air dry the outer portions to help the velcro last longer and dry the soakers in the dryer. Once everything is dry, I stuff the soakers back in the outers and everything is ready to go for the next change. I actually admitted to Tim last night that I like doing diaper loads more than the other loads of laundry since they are so much easier.

Noah seems to actually prefer the cloth diapers, I imagine they are much more comfortable on the skin than paper and chemicals. Unfortunately, Nana Lou is less than thrilled about the idea of the cloth diaper scene and since we love her so much, we just send the little man in disposables the 3 days a week he is with her. But at home (and for our recent trip to New York even), we are 100% cloth now and I am surprised at how happy I am with the switch. Tim, even more surprisingly, feels the exact same way and is totally on board with the switch and actually cringes when he has to put a disposable on to send him to Nannie's house in the morning.

Help us please!!!

Tim and I are at an road block for a theme for Noah's 2nd birthday party. We have it narrowed down a bit, but just can't decide between the two finalists. Give us your input and help us decide.

Option 1: Trucks & Construction or this one

Noah is a huge fan of trucks, buses, cars, bikes, trains, etc. There are a couple of cute, wee man appropriate options out there.

Pros: Tim is more excited about this option, it ties in (sort of) with his birthday present from us, which is a train table and train set, its not a repeat monkey theme

Cons: I don't like it as much as Option 2, its not as adorable at Curious George, Noah's fascination with George may be currently larger than the fascination with vehicles

Option 2: Curious George

Noah is a HUGE fan of George lately. If we were absent parents, he would certainly sit in and watch George ALL DAY LONG.

Pros: I like this idea better, the matching colors are just your ordinary primary colors and therefore very easy to match, George is just adorable

Cons: Tim isn't as big of a fan, we did the Mod Monkey theme last year for his first birthday (the George fascination is a new development that we really didn't have anything to do with)

So what are your thoughts, make sure you vote on the poll at the top right of the blog. Hopefully we can make a decision and order some supplies before the Thanksgiving holiday!

My and You

I think my favorite part of having an almost 2 year old in the house has been the development of language. I know every parent says they can't wait until their child can communicate back with them and everyone who has ever finished raising their own children responds back with the one liner, "you just wait until they do start to talk, then you'll wish you could figure out how to shut them up!" For the record, Noah talks A LOT! He keeps a running commentary about the goings on during just about every waking moment. A fellow customer at the coffee shop yesterday even commented about how cute his non-stop running commentary was. Its adorable, but it is also non-stop! What has me marveling though is watching him try to figure out the grammatical idiocy of the English language. He misuses pronouns constantly and is utterly convinced that his name is "You." We never refer to him in the third person, so it is entirely our own fault that he doesn't refer to himself as Noah, but it is hilarious to listen to him:

Noah: Mommy hold you blankie?
Me: You want Mommy to hold your blankie for you?
Noah: Uh-huh (while nodding emphatically)

Noah: Mommy hold you?
Me: You want Mommy to pick you up?
Noah: Yes, Mommy hold you peeeeese.

Interestingly, if you call him by name or say to him: "Noah, will you please bring this cup to the sink?" He will listen and respond appropriately. He knows he is Noah, but he doesn't refer to himself as such! :)

He is also still working on the MY/MINE/I distinction. He uses my universally, which results in conversations that go like this:

Noah: Memere pee-peeps
Me: Yes, Memere is good peeps!
Noah: Pepere pee-pees
Me: Yep, Pepere is goog peeps too!
Noah: Daddy pee-peeps
Me: Yes, Daddy is definitely good peeps!
Noah: Mommy pee-pees
Me: Oh thank you Buddy, I am so glad you think so!
Noah: Unter pee-peeps (Uncle Tim's dog, Hunter...but, apparently not Uncle Tim yet??)
Me: Yep, Hunter is good doggie peeps!
Noah: MY pee-peeps!
Me: Yes buddy, you are definitely good peeps too!

Noah: My hold you kix?
Me: You want to hold my bowl of Kix?
Noah: Yes, my kix!
Me: No buddy, those are my Kix, you have your own bowl of Kix, see, right there.
Noah: My neeeeed you kix?
Me: Do you want to trade bowls?
Noah: Uh-huh

Also found in the running commentary are the phrases: My play playdough? My play block? My play choo choo pieces? My coloring? My hep you? My cooking?

I know these days are fleeting and before I know it he will be using all of the parts of speech appropriately, so for now I am going to enjoy his mistakes and mis-steps, they make him who is is right now, and right now its just perfect!

Let the snow fly

in a month or two!! Just kidding, we don't want any snow in the near future, but in the event that it does, we are all set to go!!! Saturday night we went out for a dinner at a Mexican place with an awesome kids menu and then hit up the local L.L. Bean store to buy Noah his winter duds. Incidentally, while out to dinner, the place was so family-friendly that they had run out of the traditional highchairs, so we reluctantly opted to try out a booster seat for Noah in the booth with us. Given that he has never sat in one of these before and he is a bit of a wiggler, I was worried that he wouldn't stay still in the seat and would fall out with out the straps holding him in. HE DID AMAZINGLY WELL!! There were no straps to secure him in the seat, but he stayed quite nicely until dinner was over and the plates were cleared. He wolfed down his hot dog and fries and helped himself to generous portions of Daddy's ranch dip! Such a good boy...not the healthiest of meals, but his behavior was solid gold! A stop at L.L. Bean resulted in snow pants, mittens, a winter parka, and an order for the matching hat which they didn't have in stock in the toddler size (only infants). The hat will arrive this week and with any luck will fit him for at least a couple of years. We opted for the size 3T gear since they weren't terribly big on him and with their additional rip-out seam, which gives the sleeves on the coat an additional inch and a half, we are hoping that we can get 2 years out of the coat at least...perhaps the snow pants as well if we are lucky. Even if the pants are too short, only having to replace the pants and boots next year would still be a huge savings! Let's hope for the best!

The weekend itself was pretty low-keyed, with some rainy day indoor activities and a non-existent nap on Saturday and a lot of backyard cleaning on Sunday. We finally got around to cutting the grass and raking the leaves one last time before the winter hits. Almost all of the leaves have fallen off the tree in our backyard, so we should be good to go now. We also cleaned up all of Noah's backyard toys, including his car, his wagon, the sand table, and his playhouse and put them all in the basement for the winter. Its a bit early I know, but with our crazy schedules, if we hadn't done it when we had the chance this weekend, we might have ended up in a panic the night before a snowstorm trying to get everything in. Its sad looking back there and not seeing all of the wee man things that remind me of how much fun we had back there all summer, but we have been heading to the park around lately more to get out for a walk in the nice fall weather, so they have been used less and less over the last few weeks. Hopefully Noah doesn't notice the missing items until it is too cold to be outside, for now, we'll just keep heading to the park so he can play there.

Monday was our first Mommy & Me swim class of the new session. I missed taking him, but we had to wait through the summer until the Monday morning classes came around again. There are other types of Monday classes, like tumbling and that sort of thing that I think we'll try out over the winter while waiting for our Monday swim class again. This class runs through the very end of November, which will give us a bit of a break just as we are getting into the birthday/Christmas season. Overall, Noah has fun in the class, but it took him a bit to warm up, literally and figuratively. His little lip shivered for a bit, so next week I may bring a shirt for him to wear along with the trunks! He clung for dear life to me for the first third of the class, not to sure of the idea of being in the water, but by the end he was kicking and laughing and playing with the toys and having a grand old time. Hopefully he can gain some more confidence in the water so when the next round of classes start, he'll be ready for the next toddler level where they start working on actual swimming skills!

Hopefully we'll have a quiet and more importantly, HEALTHY week since Friday we head to Maine for Halloween and some trick or treating in Memere & Pepere B.'s neighborhood. We had a great time there last year and hope for some good weather (not too cold please) and some tasty treats, which Noah can sample this year!!!

Vaccine Frustrations

To preface this post, I want to make it clear that I have no strong opinions of what people should or shouldn't do in terms vaccinating themselves or their children for either the seasonal flu or the H1N1 flu. I know the CDC is strongly endorsing getting yourself and your children especially vaccinated against both viruses, but really, if you do it or you don't do it, I don't personally care. Now vaccines for other, much more life-threatening diseases, like measles and tetanus, are something else altogether and that is where I draw issue with the non-vaccinating crowds...but that is another topic altogether. All that said, Tim and I have decided (or I did the research, presented it along with my opinion to Tim and he went along with it) to have Noah vaccinated against both the seasonal flu (which we did at the end of last month) and the H1N1 flu as well. I have yet to decide if I will be seeking out the H1N1 vaccine for myself since I am not pregnant and won't be in the fairly near future. I am in one of the higher risk groups given my chronic asthma, but perhaps the largest deciding factor in whether or not I will get the vaccine will be how hard it is to get my hands on it. I am getting the seasonal flu vaccine early next month through work and Tim is planning to do the same once the shortage is less of an issue.

What I do take an issue with, besides the obvious mom-to-mom judgmental talk that goes on back and forth over vaccinating or not vaccinating, are the moms (and presumably members of other groups as well) who are in such a media-induced flu-related panic that they feel the need to use their time, money, connections, social status, etc. to jump the line and get themselves or their children vaccinated early, ahead of people who are at higher risk or greater need. Since the whole country is in the midst of shortages for both types of flu vaccines, the government has actually spent time deciding the hierarchy of need, meaning those at highest risk for exposure to the flus (e.g., health care workers) and those at risk of experiencing the most devastating health ramifications should they contract the virus (e.g., pregnant women or very young children under age 2) should be the first to receive the vaccine. Obviously, the intention is to eventually offer both vaccines to everyone who wants them, but this is going to take time. Yet, there are people out there who work hard to, and then succeed at, jumping the line, getting the vaccine (or the appointment for a vaccine), and then brag about it on their blogs or on other social media sites. I understand this is a serious situation and that everyone obviously wants the safest route for their child(ren), but what makes your 3 or 4 or 5 year old more deserving of getting the vaccine before mine, who actually falls under 2 and is actually in one of the CDC's labeled groups at highest risk???? I have been keeping in touch with our pediatrician's office who has promised to call patients in the order of highest risk (based on the CDC's guidelines) as they receive batches of the vaccine. Their first batch went out to siblings of babies under 6 months who are too young to receive the vaccine...which I think makes a ton of sense. The next batch(es) will be distributed by appointment to those patients under 2, when I am sure we will be able to get Noah in for one. In the meantime, however, I am going to stew and talk injustice about those people to feel the need to cut the line ahead of us because somehow they feel okay with skirting regulations and potentially leaving higher risk people without a vaccine so they can sleep better at night with vaccines for their family.

Its the ears again

Poor little Noah has been having a rough go of things the last week or so. I posted a few days ago about the cold and the congestion. It seems as though just today the congestion is starting to ease up a little bit...this all started last Thursday. He is still coughing a bit from all of that congestion, but thankfully it doesn't sound like a cough that will stay once his nose stops running. His fever is long gone, but over the course of the weekend I was starting to get the idea that we weren't going to get out of this without a co-pay or prescription of some sort. My suspicions were confirmed by Monday morning when he woke up on the metaphorical wrong side of the crib and spent the morning jabbing a finger in his right ear. A quick visit to the doctor's office (complete with the removal of an obscene amount of ear wax) confirmed that the little dude had another double ear infection. Weren't we just here a month ago??? After some hemming and hawing on the part of the doctor who is concerned about the recent rise in amoxicillin-resistant bacteria, we decided to try the pink stuff anyway and hope for the best. We were told if he didn't improve in a couple of days we would have to move on to harsher medications that are "generally less well-tolerated by the little people." Who wouldn't want to take the tasty bubble gum flavored stuff if given the opportunity? So far I am not entirely convinced that its working, we had some serious baby meltdowns going on yesterday evening approaching the dinner/bedtime hours. He was clearly not himself, refusing to sit at the table for dinner, refusing all food, poking and jabbing at both ears, and in general being completely unbearable to be around. I put a call into the nurses' line at the pediatrician's office who told me they do not re-evaluate kids until they have been on the antibiotics for at least 48 hours. After a successful dose of motrin and some miracle numbing ear drops, Tim and I breathed a collective sigh of relief when the little dude was finally asleep for the night. He seemed to be in better spirits this morning and woke up asking for "Mommy" calmly instead of crying and screaming and whining, which has been the daily welcome for almost a week now. Here's hoping that the pink stuff really is doing its job and we can have our happy healthy baby dude back!

Snow, sick, and no power

Three updates that might normally be unrelated combine to make one very odd and unfortunate situation.

Update #1: The first update is that we have officially had our first snow fall of the season. Yes, that is correct, it is mid-October and we have been snowed on! If this is supposed to be some sort of sick joke, it isn't funny and I am most certainly not laughing. On Friday morning there were definitely some small white flakes falling from the sky. Worse still was today, on a trip out to the mall, we were actually caught in a snow storm. Huge white flakes raining down like it was the middle of January or something. Its not even Halloween yet people, what is going on??? We haven't acquired the appropriate sized winter weather gear for the little man yet. Tim actually laughed at me a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned that we should start looking for that stuff. I suppose the only up side was that Noah was fascinated and seemed to really enjoy checking it out. Hopefully its still fun when it is really accumulating and he can go outside to play in it!

Update #2: Poor Noah has a cold from an alternate universe. He is more congested than I have ever seen him before. He had a hard night on Wednesday night, waking up multiple times after we had put him down for the night (which is way out of the ordinary), and just not himself. By Thursday morning he was very stuffed up, but didn't have a fever and seemed to be okay to go to Nana Lou's. By the time I got him that evening, he had a 102 fever and was a mess. We kept him home on Friday and the fever seemed to brake in the afternoon at some point. He is still a congested up mess that requires constant nose monitoring. He isn't sleeping as well and certainly doesn't have his usual appetite. We are bringing him in tomorrow to see the doctor to make sure he doesn't have an ear infection (I've seen a few pokes and grabs at the ear to give me worry about it). He certainly doesn't have any of the classic symptoms of the flu, so at least we don't have to worry about that end of things.

Update #3: We lost power for a 19 hour period due to fires in some manholes down the street from us. There were explosions and some blown off manhole covers, with flames to be seen and everything. What we got out of it was a power outage starting around 11am Friday morning and ending at almost 6am Saturday morning. Not a fun experience with a toddler. We discovered that Noah is not such a fan of extreme darkness (neither am I frankly), and he sadly does not find candle lit evenings appealing.

Okay, so lets summarize for a minute. Friday morning we woke up to mid- to upper 30 degree temperatures, cold enough for it to actually SNOW. It never really warmed up, topping at mid- to upper 40s for the day. Noah is sick and at home all day Friday with Tim trying to rest up and feel better. As the boys are home, the power disappears and doesn't return for 18 hours. Poor Tim was at home with no power (no Curious George, no cooking meals in the microwave, etc.) and a sick little man who can't really be taken out and about to warmer and more interesting places. It was bad. By the time I got home from work it was 64 degrees in the place (we normally keep it around 70...which actually translates more to 65 if measured by something other than the inaccurate thermostat thermometer), and there were two very restless boys running around. We managed to watch a couple of episodes of "George" on my laptop and have a living room floor picnic before it was time for Noah's bed. Thankfully by the time I got up for the day on Saturday, the power was back on, if not there would have been an impromptu visit to Maine for some warmth. While the power outage used to look like an adventure and was a neat diversion from everyday life when we were kids at the rented summer cottage, when you are adults at home with a sick toddler, power outages are not such fun!

Goober dude

After a great deal of debate, a lot of internet searching, a bit of inspiration, and a ton of disappointment, we have finally decided on a Halloween costume for Noah this year. It arrived in the mail on Monday and I wanted to make sure the size was relatively close. Noah had just woken up from an almost 4 hour nap and was in a supremely good mood. He asked to "sit up Mommy's chair?" so I put him up in the glider and tried on a couple of the costume pieces. He kept asking for pick-urs so I happily obliged. The costume fits perfectly and even better I have some hilarious and absolutely adorable pictures of my baby goober dude!

He was insanely happy, and actually got slightly irritated with me when I tried to put the camera away!!!

Such a little ham

Later in the day, once I had finally succeeded in getting the little man dressed, he asked for more pick-urs. Notice he is still wearing the monster feet slippers. He refused to let me take them off and put them away. I believe they may become a permanent part of his everyday wardrobe now. Since they are so cute, I am all for it!

And for the best one yet, when I asked him to take out his pacifier, he actually did! He was so intent on taking more pick-urs that he willingly popped the thing out and posed. Of course as soon as I took the picture the paci went back in!

Noah does New York

We had a bit of an adventure this weekend with a trip away from home. I had a work conference in New York City, the Social and Affective Neuroscience meeting. Since the city is such a reasonable drive from the Boston area, we had decided a while back that we would make it a family trip and bring Noah to check out the Big Apple. Little did we know when we planned the trip how popular of a decision it would end up being. As anyone who knows the little dude knows very well, he is a HUGE fan of anything transportation. He makes sure that everyone in his presence knows about every SINGLE bus, truck, bike, car, trash truck, fire truck, ambulance, police car, etc. in the near vicinity. So it was no big surprise that he had an amazing time checking out all of the vehicles in the city. The view from our hotel room was by adult standards unspectacular, but for Noah, it was perfect...a view of a busy street with lots of cars and buses and trucks going by on a non-stop loop!

After arriving on Friday evening, Tim and the little dude went out for breakfast Saturday morning in City Hall Park and for a walk around Battery Park. Once I was done with my morning conferencing, we all headed to Times Square for lunch and a visit to M&M world. Given the fact that I think M&Ms are still a bit of a choking hazard for him, he wasn't really sure what to make of this dude. Got to love the confused "I need to get a closer look at this thing" look that the little man has on his face. I asked him what he thought of the big M&M and he said back, "my color paper?" He wanted to steal the crayons from the M&M and color too! Hehe, so cute and so smart!

After visiting with the M&Ms (which Noah calls M-eh-nemens), we went for a stroll around Times Square, and by stroll, I mean, we shoved our way through the enormous crowds of people. We were able to get a couple of pictures of the two of us. Noah has the most adorable habit lately of asking "Mommy hold you?" when he wants to be picked up. Most of the time, he uses this power for good and gets to see what is up on the counter or help to cook, but occasionally he uses his powers for evil. When he is trying to avoid something...like bedtime or a diaper change, he will occasionally haul out the whiny voice and look extra pathetic while saying, "Mommmmyyy hoooooold youuuuuu!" Its really too bad he doesn't know how to work people already!!!

A quick ride back to the hotel area on the choo-choo (which was immensely popular by a short man), and it was time for me to head back to the conference. The boys hit up the beds for a much needed nap. A good long nap resulted in a super happy Noah, who got spoiled thoroughly since we were away from home and had a cookie snack in bed. I hovered with wipes to make sure we didn't want to sleep in a chocolately bed. I must say, he did a great job being careful!

Thankfully Noah didn't wake up from his nap until 6pm or so since dinner was a very late debacle. The conference was short, which didn't leave a ton of time to play in the city, but we did get out Sunday morning the three of us to have breakfast in the park again, we checked out the fountain with all of the water.

We had a great weekend. It was nice to get home and get back in the routine, but it was so worth the trip to see the excitement on the little man's face while checking out all of the various forms of transportation around such a big city!

What???

So, an update from the land of "my car horn is possessed and goes off unprovoked at 2am." Its not pretty people. We brought the car in to an actual Pontiac dealership this morning to be checked and "repaired." The car was checked alright and they charged us a $100 fee to look at the thing for 15 freaking minutes. Then they quoted Tim an $1100 repair, saying the reason the horn won't stop blaring is because we need a new airbag module. Needless to say, since the car runs just perfectly with the horn fuse removed, and without a horn fuse the horn won't blow randomly, we are re-taking possession of our car and getting a second opinion from a trusted source. If the repair truly needs to be done and it really will cost $1100 to do so, then obviously we'll find a way to pay for it, but I am not dropping that kind of money at a shop I have never been to before for a repair that technically doesn't need to be done until we need to pass inspection again next July. So we'll be finding a way to get the car up to Maine to the shop my dad brings both of their cars to on Halloween weekend when we are up there next and we'll see what they say. Hopefully it is a little less shocking and panic inducing than an $1100 replacement of the airbag module. More to come on that saga. It would be nice if someday we could start banking as much money as we seem to be putting towards all of these other fires.

A fall tradition

After getting rained out of our scheduled apple picking adventure last weekend (which Memere & Pepere B. had driven down for incidentally), we ended up with an absolutely beautiful day to go outside and play for the afternoon. We have been having a rough weekend schedule-wise with Noah. For some reason, Mr. Man decided to sleep until almost 9:30am on Saturday morning. Now, that would sound heavenly normally, but with a toddler on a schedule that is working for everyone, a 9:30am wake up just throws off everything. He had a bit of a fever when I got him up, only 100.2, and I remained hopeful that I would be able to get him down for a nap before we had plans to hit the outlets for a few hours. No such luck! He stayed awake until we finally got him strapped into the car seat and pulled out of the driveway for Wrentham at almost 4pm. There were a few ugly moments just before dinner, but for the most part he was a good boy and we accomplished what we had set out for. We got him to bed late last night and it was no surprise when he slept in again this morning, until 8:45. Add in a serious "I'm trying to annoy Mommy off the brink of sanity attitude this morning" along with another day of no napping until we headed out the driveway, and you have some seriously stressed out people! We chanced it and headed off to the apple orchards, we visited Tougas Family Farm in Northboro again this year since it was such a hit last year. Our gamble paid off this time and when we arrived after an hour and a half nap in the car for the little dude, we had a very excited and happy little man on our hands. He was fascinated by the tractor rides and all about the idea of "pick apples!" They take you for a ride around the orchards when you first arrive. Noah was all about it, saying "tractor, Mommy ride, tractor, Daddy ride, tractor, MY ride!!!" You could tell though it was a bit scary and big for him. He sat on my lap clutching my arms tightly around him. He was having tons of fun, but wanted to make sure Mommy & Daddy were close by...too cute! Once the tractor ride dropped us off in the picking rows of the orchard, we were off. Noah wanted to carry the bag.

Those bags fill up quickly when you have huge McIntosh and Cortland apples going in. Noah helped to fill up the bag, and was more than willing to come over and retrieve any that you had gotten down off the tree for him. The last 3 apples were for us to sample. Noah thoroughly enjoyed his and toted it around the rest of the farm. He got he hang of biting in right away even though we hadn't ever given him a whole apple to munch on.

As you might expect, Noah preferred the apples that were at his height, which were pretty much the ones on the ground. We had to keep an eye out on him to make sure none of the "yucky" ones were making their way into the take-home bag.

After all of the picking, Noah found his way over to the pumpkin patch. He has been talking about "punkins" all week after discovering them at the grocery store. We tried to get the classic baby in a pumpkin patch fall picture, but someone had other ideas of running amok and toting his apple with him. We never did get a good one, here is as close as we could get! :)

The farm also had animals to feed and visit. Noah wasn't so much on board with checking out the goats or the pigs, but he was infatuated by the chickens. These were some fancy chickens they had, not your run of the mill barnyard bird, they had frilly feathers going on. Noah kept walking up and down the fence laughing and checking them out. They weren't fancy enough to share his apple with though...thankfully for us!

We got a chance to sit on a real tractor, Noah seemed very impressed, but it didn't last long as about a minute after he got on, he was asking for "down, walk?" I think he was too impressed by the playground and all of the big kids running around.

He got a few minutes to check out the place, but the kids were really big, not well supervised, and a bit too rambunctious for a small dude to play safely. We ended the afternoon with some apple cider donuts, which Noah asked for more of for the first 20 minutes of the ride home. He has good taste that little man!