Change of Seasons

For some reason this fall has been kind of special among fall seasons for me, I've always been more of a spring person. Perhaps it's having such of a high energy child who wants and needs to be outside. Looking forward to going outside at least once a day in the blazing heat just isn't as fun. So we have been LOVING the cooler temperatures!

Thanks to Daniel we replanted our garden. I kinda skipped the summer posts about it because it was kind of a failure. We planted too late again and didn't mulch well. The weather was weird, but other people I know had far better gardens than us:( Oh well here's to the fall garden. We planted some plants from seed: "weird" greens- broccoli raab, lettuce (our only true successful endeavor), and carrots. Then we set out a few tomatoes and swiss chard from the nursery and half of them died after a weekend of rain from the tropical storm. I'll try to post pictures later. I'm trying to stay upbeat really so I won't go into the compost issues...

And it seems we are changing in other ways too around here: our baby is getting to be such of a little boy. Before he turned two he went through a phase of eating less and nursing more which was odd to me, but this book warned me it would happen. A few weeks and we are definitely past that phase. There were also signs that changes were happening, he has started independent play and you momma's with babies that have been entertained with staring with their own hands for hours might not see the significance of this. But my boy really hasn't been that into many of his toys which I carefully selected at all until a few months ago. We received a play table that is in our living room and it is a great place to put his hand-me-down train, legos, blocks, colors, etc. and keep the clutter on the floor to a minimum for me:)

He is less interested in the comforts that momma can provide and really craving more social interaction, he asked for his good friend all the time and wants her right beside him. He says her name and points beside him. It is so sweet. And if there is a group of kids he wants to go stand in the middle of them, his verbal skills aren't quite up to conversing and he mostly likes to observe. He is talking more and more, but only Daniel and I can understand him much of the time. It's kind of a sweet phase in my opinion:) He is more and more ok with going on a Daddy outing without as much concern of where Momma is. Interestingly enough he is more snuggly than ever, briefly but he is into hugging and kissing us. We love it! He's always been too busy to snuggle much.

Personally I have gone through a stressful patch of Daniel working a lot, trying really hard to do it all here and kinda burning out. When I was unable to sleep one night two thoughts came to me: "Acquire a peaceful spirit, and around you thousands will be saved." St. Seraphim of Sarov. I love this quote and when I reflected on my life I haven't done a good job of acquiring peace in my life. And in my former life of listening to many podcasts on Ancient faith radio I remembered a priest's wife saying that in a very busy and stressful time of her life a nun told her that if you are feeling overwhelmed with the load that has been given to you pray that your capacity to handle it will be granted to you. It was to me an answer to my prayers. So I have restarted two podcasts via ancient faith radio: one scripture readings prescribed for the day and the other one a saint or two of the day. They are short, but with a very busy two year old sometimes it takes a while to have 7 minutes where I can really listen ! I think this has greatly blessed my life. I still struggle with trying to balance everything but I'm trying to put first things first. I hope everyone else is enjoying the beginning of Fall.

Big Boys

I titled this post Big Boys because that seems the theme around here lately! Simeon's version is Baboos, very cute to hear him say. Although we have started some big boy transitions we are definitely not pushing him to grow up to fast, I'm certainly not quite ready to relinquish my baby.

My little chef! I bought this for him on a whim and he LOVES it! Who would have thought a not yet 2 yr old boy would love to dress up. He mainly loves the apron. There is a matching mitt that is also very cute.

Beginning of our Fourth of July weekend, who could resist such a face? At the fancy shopping center close to us playing in the fountain. It is so close to us, but this is our first visit this year.

Ok naptime seems over, so trying to keep this brief. In the above picture Simeon is wearing his Little Beetle Learners, which I have been buying here and there to try to find a good price. After a few washes they are absorbant enough to hold a small pee accident and being Simeon is not going #2 on the potty yet they snap down the side for clean up of those messes. He showed some interest in pottying a few weeks ago and he actually peed without prompting too much a few times. So we decided to go for it.

He seems young to me and it's going to be a process. I guess he has always wanted to be mobile and do just what we do, so... Praise and treats really seem to help. I do have to tell him most times it's time to potty. And though this may seem pushy it seems preferable to me to the battles over diaper changes. The child has always hated them. He is so proud of his Baboos, and I think they are adorable. At home that is all he wears most of the time because he wants his shirt off to potty and putting it back on every time is not happening. Plus it is so hot here and we don't run the air at 70 degrees.

We had a few setbacks when we traveled to Memphis for our church conference, then he was sick last week. He was scary sick, like running fever greater than 103 for 3 days. Ughhh, no fun at all for anyone. He looks like he's lost weight too, he was totally uninterested in food for an entire week. Mostly all he wanted was to nurse. And although I'm mostly a quiet promoter of breastfeeding especially a toddler mostly because in our culture many see it as weird (honestly I thought it was strange too before I had a baby). But this was definitely a benefit, he was too sick for anything else and if not for nursing he may have dehydrated. It ended up being viral and we just had to treat the symptoms.

Another big boy change was adding the full size bed to his tiny room. I planned on transitioning him to the bed from the crib, but he wants no part of it. It's ok there's not a big rush. I did really enjoy having the bed in his room when he was sick, there was no way I was going to leave him alone when his fever was so high.