Pumpkin Patch

. . . according to my iPhone

We have a lot of fall traditions in our family. One of these is going to the pumpkin patch. And like most of our traditions, it gets more and more fun each year as we're able to watch Porter get more and more involved and excited.

We were extra lucky this year to have Uncle Brad & Aunt Katie and Grandpa & Grandma Nye there with us.

We took a hayride and got to pick our own pumpkins. Actually, Porter picked most of ours, which is why we have funny, lopsided pumpkins sitting outside our front door right now.

Should Be Sleeping

I'm tired. I got 4-5 hours of sleep last night. It was a long, stressful day at school. I came home and have been cooking, cleaning, and taking care of kids. And now everyone's asleep . . . except for this little girl (and me, obviously):

When I put her down, she's as mad as a hornet.
But when I hold her and start blogging to kill time, she's as happy as a clam.
And apparently when I'm wanting to be asleep, I start talking in similes!

I guess I can use this time to talk about my sweet Lucy . . . since she's the reason I'm up in the first place. Here some words that best describe our Lucy-Girl:

BIG
Lucy is one day away from being 4 months old. She's a big girl. I can't keep up with her. She's wearing 6-9 month clothes and she's in size 3 diapers. I feel like we're switching out clothes/diapers every few weeks. But we're grateful that she's such a big, healthy baby.

HAPPY
She is a happy, happy girl! She will smile if you so much as look at her. She smiles a lot. And coos. And giggles.

ROLY-POLY
She doesn't roll all the way yet, but she's pretty close. Whenever she's put down, the first thing she does is start twisting around. I think it's because she wants so badly to see everything going on around her, which leads to her next word . . .

OBSERVANT
Lucy is so aware of everything. She likes to watch whatever's going on. You can see her big blue eyes taking in everything happening around her and it's like you can tell she's logging it away in her brain for future reference.

SWEETSY
Lucy has many nicknames, but this one is my favorite. It's how Porter says Lucy.

BEAUTIFUL
Perfect, baby-soft skin. Dainty hands. Button nose. Big, blue eyes.

DISLIKES CAR RIDES
She shows off a decent set of lungs whenever we drive anywhere. Sometimes we get lucky and she'll fall asleep for part of a ride. But usually, she'll have a tantrum at least once on each car ride.


There are so many things I could tell you about our sweet Lucy. But she has fallen asleep and I am going to bed. Finally!

A Little Gentleman

This is a true story. 

This morning, I made apple pancakes for breakfast. We were about to sit down to eat, so Porter went to my chair, stood behind it, and said, "Mommy's chair." I thought that was sweet, but I had to run out to get Lucy and bring her back in the kitchen. When I came back, Porter was still standing behind my chair and said, "Mommy, sit?" I said, "Sure." And Porter proceeded to pull out my chair for me. I sat down and he helped me scoot it in until I was settled. Then he went to his chair, pulled it out himself, then asked me to help him scoot his in too. 

I was dumbfounded. Seriously?! My two-year old has enough manners to pull out my chair and help me get settled at the table before he sits down? Where did this kid come from? Maybe the babysitter is holding regular etiquette lessons while I'm away at work.

I am constantly amazed at Porter's awareness of others. I read in a book once about teaching empathy to children. It said it's sometimes a tricky skill to teach and it often seems to be a skill that some children are just born with. Porter must be one of those. A little later in our breakfast, when I finished my first pancake, Porter said, "Mommy, more?" and got up to get me another one from the counter. He did this each time I finished a pancake.

And last story: 

Tonight when Porter and Lucy and I went to Barnes and Noble, we had several strangers help us by holding doors as I tried to maneuver a stroller and a jumpy 2-year-old into the store. And with each one, Porter beat me to saying "Thank you so much." He said it over and over each time. It was so cute!

Now, while I share these stories to point out how amazing my little Porter is, I don't want to paint an unclear picture. Porter is still a two-year old. He still stuck his fingers in the saucer of syrup at the breakfast table and cried when I took the iPhone away while we ate. And we still had tantrums at Barnes and Noble and moments where he thought it was wildly funny to run away from me and make me chase him across the store. But at the end of this long day, I'm going to choose to remember the good manners and be grateful for that little gentleman sleeping in the other room!

The Teacher's Children

I spend all of my days focusing on how to educate 48 six-year-olds. As a result, when I get home, Porter doesn't always get the educational enrichment I dream of giving him.

Ironic, right? He learned his letters and sounds from a Leapfrog video, for crying out loud!

And though I love to dream of the day I might be able to stay home full-time and create engaging lesson plans to use on my own children . . . that day's not here. So for now, I'll do what I can.

And that includes giant taped letters on the wall.

And while I must give a great deal of credit to the Leapfrog corporation, I have to brag that my 2-year-old is now sounding out the words in books. Well, actually he's just repeating them after me-- but it's still a pretty big deal.
I'm counting "Mat" from the BOB Books Series as the official first book he ever "read." (definition of "read": repeated the sounding out and blending of the first 5 words of the book before he lost interest)

He's such a smarty-pants!

Popular & Protective

Our cul-de-sac is full of young kids. I don't often bring Lucy out. But when I do, it's not unusual for this to happen:

 It's so sweet to see all these tough kids abandon their Nerf guns and Big Wheels and turn into absolute sweethearts when a baby is around. They tickle her toes and talk in baby talk.

But amidst all this baby-love, Porter can be found shouting, "No! Stop it! MY Lucy!" He gets so upset. I had to pick Lucy up today before a fight broke out over who was allowed to touch her head. Plus, Lucy needed a good washing after all those dirt-stained fingers were all over her.

Here's Porter gently removing a neighbor girl's hand from Lucy's person. He's so funny about it.

I love these two cuties.

And even if he struggles with sharing, I'm glad Porter loves his Lucy so much!

Dear Journal,

 Lucy listening to our prophet speak in General Conference.

As I slowed down to listen to the General Conference talks this weekend, I realized something. My busy, busy life is flying by and I'm too busy sometimes to notice or remember all the wonderful things that are happening. I know this blog is a great way to record these things, but I often get caught up in thinking that I'm writing all this for whoever reads the blog and that each entry should be perfect, witty, and entertaining. But that's not why I want to or need to record my life. I need it written down so I can remember; so my family can remember. I want Porter and Lucy to know what life was like when they were babies. And I need to write these things down so I force myself to slow down to remember and enjoy the everyday moments. Things are constantly changing- Lucy is growing up with each blink of my eyes- and I don't want to take these precious days for granted.

So here it is. I will try (once again) to be better about recording our lives. But I'm going to try to remember that I'm doing this for us. Our stories might become boring and the photos probably won't be of stunning quality. But there's not enough time to worry about those things. This is our journal

Pretty Lucy

I'm so far behind on documenting everything I'd like to on this blog. If I ever get a free moment someday, maybe I'll do that. But in the meantime, I just wanted to share one of my favorite pictures of our sweet little girl.

Isn't that adorable?! I'm so in love with that girl! This is from when she was 3 weeks old I think. Now she's 2 months old. Yes, I'm just a little behind on my blogging!

The photographer is Justin Smith. You should check out his page: http://www.facebook.com/jsmithdigital

He's looking for baby models right now and you can get a free photo session out of it. If you have a baby (newborn, 3 mo, 6 mo, 1 year) and live in UT, you should contact him. We loved the pictures he took for us! He also took Lucy's "Birth Story" photos the day she was born. That's another thing I haven't gotten around to documenting here on the blog. Someday, someday! But since I'm back at work now and my summer's over . . . who knows when that someday will be!

Lucy's Blessing

We held Lucy's baby blessing a week ago (Sun, July 29). It was a beautiful day! And she was so beautiful (despite a poorly-timed outbreak of baby acne that weekend)!

I always forget how much shorter I am than Brian . . . until I see pictures of us. Wow.

Lots of friends and family came to share the day with us. 

I love this picture of Lucy & Daddy. I just wish it wasn't so out of focus. 

 Lucy with Grandma Sudweeks

Lucy with Grandma Nye

Backyard Campout

With Lucy's arrival, we didn't quite feel up to taking a camping trip this summer. So instead, we planned a camping day at home. Porter absolutely LOVED it! Brian and I pretty much loved it too!

Brian set up the tent in the backyard. Porter was thrilled. He played in that tent and didn't want to come out!

We made tin foil dinners on the grill and ate outside.

Then we roasted s'mores (also on the grill). Miraculously, Porter didn't injure anyone with his roasting stick. Seriously a miracle.

Finally, Brian and Porter settled in for bed. After putting Lucy down, I joined them for some bedtime stories and to snap a few pics. Then I headed back in the house to sleep in a soft, cozy bed (this was definitely my kind of camping).

Around 1:30 am, I was up feeding Lucy when I heard Brian and Porter coming into the house. Apparently, the excitement was too much for Porter and he didn't ever go to sleep. And here he was, 5 hours past his bedtime! Crazy kid.

We put him to bed and we all had a nice sleep-in morning the next day!

Attached

The bracelet finally broke on Thursday. Now he's just wrapped around her little finger instead of his wrist.