Trick or Treat!

We had a very wet Halloween this year!  It rained all day, and we were worried that we were going to have a very difficult time trick-or-treating in the evening.  It would have been such a shame for Jimmy's first Halloween experience.  Fortunately, right as we were getting ready to leave, the rain stopped!  It stayed dry the whole time we were out, and it ended up being quite a beautiful evening.  Everyone was out at the same time, and the mood was quite festive!  Anna ended up with a ridiculously huge haul, and Jimmy ended up with a lot too (considering he's a baby and can't eat most of it!).  Ms. B was so cute while she was trick-or-treating: this was the first time she would go up to the houses by herself, ring the doorbell, say, "Trick or treat!" get the candy, and then say, "Thank you!  Happy Halloween!"  It was wonderful to see her be so excited about the evening and so polite at the same time.  Some people were so impressed at her manners that they ended up giving her more candy because of it!  Jimmy tried his first piece of Halloween candy when we got home (a 3 Muskateers), and, while he seemed to enjoy it, he didn't even finish the mini-size!

Fright Fest!

Jimmy got to go to his first Fright Fest yesterday!  Anna went to her first Fright Fest 4 years ago, and it was a little different than this time around, I'd say!  Jimmy does not appear to be a thrill-seeker like his sister; she loved all the rides she went on, but Jimmy seems mostly content to just watch the rides.  The only one he seemed to really enjoy was apparently the "Krazy Kars," which is probably because he got to have a steering wheel to turn.  For the most part he was happy during the day though, because there was so much for him to see I think he must have been entertained.  Anna was in her element and rode as many rides as we had time to do.  There were so many people that we didn't get to ride as much as we wanted (I really wanted to ride the Whizzer, but it was just too long of a wait).  We did, however, get to ride the Dark Knight together, plus a lot of the little carnival-type rides.  Us adults also got on Raging Bull, Giant Drop, the Eagle (backward!), and by a last-minute fluke, the new X-Flight.  While we ran right onto that one, Anna and Uncie Eye managed to run onto the last Demon ride of the night.  She was so excited about it, even though it went upside down (she was terrified to go upside down, but she absolutely loved it)!  So it was a long, tiring day, but it was lots and lots of fun!  We were very glad to get to spend time with Uncie Eye too!

Baby on the Move!

I guess I spoke too soon, because it seems as if Jimmy is mobile now!  He's not actually crawling yet (at least not conventionally), but he is definitely able to get around.  He does a sort of crawl/scoot type of thing, where his hands and one foot are on the floor, and then he scoots on his bottom.  He's getting pretty good at it!  Plus he can pull himself up to standing very well, and he even can cruise just a little bit!  It's amazing how quickly all of it can come together.

Why Isn't He Sleeping???

For the past couple weeks, Jimmy's sleep patterns have been insane!  Toward the end of the summer, we were in a great groove: he would take a short morning nap, a long afternoon nap, go to sleep at around 9:30, wake up once during the night to eat, and then sleep until about 8:00!  It was great.  Now he goes to sleep anywhere from 10:00-11:00 (or tonight it was 11:30...), take one afternoon nap, and then wake up once or even twice to eat at night!  AHHH!  I don't know if he is having a growth spurt, but somehow I don't think so.  His growth has slowed down considerably since birth.  It's possible that it could have something to do with his desire to get better at standing.  I keep waiting for the day that he figures out how to cruise.  Maybe once he does he'll go back to being a better sleeper.  One can hope, anyway!!

Baby (not) on the Move

Jimmy's 9-month birthday has come and gone, and the crazy little boy is still not mobile!  I know that one day I will look back on this and think, "Why on earth was I in such a hurry for him to move?!"  But as of right now, it is quite a surprise.  Tim and I did notice today that he is able to lunge and sort of slither forward.  He is quite unconventional and inconsistent with how he gets around.  Jimmy's interest does seem to lie mostly with standing.  He's getting marginally better; slowly but surely he is able to stand a little better, but he doesn't seem to understand that he can't stand on his own yet!  Sometimes he just lets go!  So, in any case, Jimmy's road to mobility is definitely a slow one!  We'll see what ends up happening with his "walking" progress...

Vacation!!

We took our first all-out vacation as a family of 4 the last week of July!  We ended up going to Holland, MI, so that we could keep the car ride short and everything a little low-key.  We had a very good time!  We started off the vacation right: at the beach!  The water was icy cold, but the air was pleasant, so we mostly stuck with playing in the sand.  We ate at a place called New Holland Brewing Co. and had a VERY good meal, followed by delicious coffee!  The next day there was a threat of rain, so we tried to pick things that also had indoor things to do.  We started out at DeGraaf Nature Center, which Anna found fascinating (she actually liked the indoor exhibits more than the nature trails).  It was pleasant though, and none of the trails were particularly long, which works well for little ones.  We then headed over to the Windmill Gardens, which was one of my favorite places of the trip.  There was a huge, still operational windmill, and they give tours and show you how it works and everything.  We were surprised that Anna was so interested in learning about it.  We even got a bag of the flour that they grind there!  The rain held off long enough for us to tour the grounds, learn about/hear the street organ they have (unique and very cool!), play at their bebow, and get Jimmy on his first carousel ride!  We then went to John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids, which was built on a hill and is very shady.  It was beautiful, and we had a great time!  I think Jimmy even liked it there.  Ms. B's favorite part was the treehouse bebow, which of course has nothing to do with animals.  It was pretty neat though, so I can't fault her there.  The next day we drove to Kalamazoo and spent the day at the Air Zoo.  They had tons of airplanes, space exhibits, simulators, and even some carnival-type rides.  I think Ms. B enjoyed the rides the best, and I'm a little disappointed that she wasn't super excited about the space stuff.  That's not the type of reaction one would expect from a future astronaut!  The next day we went to the Dutch Village, which was jam-packed with stuff to do.  We didn't expect to stay from open to close, but there was so much to do!  Anna enjoyed the "zippy line" the best, but there was also a dutch dancing show, shoe carving, Delft-making demo, swings, goat walking (seriously), a slide, a street organ, and various little tidbits about dutch living.  Our last full day in Michigan we spent in South Haven.  We walked around the downtown a bit, went to the beach (which was ridiculously crowded), and ate at Clementine's.  Jimmy wasn't very cooperative during that meal, so that wasn't too fun for me.  Actually, it seems like he got less and less happy the more we ate out.  That's rough when you eat out at virtually every meal!  But I'm imagining it was pretty boring for him.  Anyway, we also went raspberry picking, which was fun for everyone!  Our last day it was raining, so we had to just buy already-picked blueberries instead of picking them ourselves.  Oh well.  It was a very fun vacation!

Michigan

We took Jimmy's (and the Ford Plex's) first trip out of state this past weekend!  We went with Auntie Lynnie and Uncle R2 to the farm.  It was probably the busiest we've ever been there; usually we slow down and take it relatively easy.  We got up there Friday evening, so we pretty much took it easy and went to bed.  Saturday we went to the beach, where the water was really, really nice!  Jimmy was pretty unsure about the whole thing, but he ended up tolerating it alright.  Anna still isn't very interested in getting better/more independent at swimming.  She just wanted to be held the whole time!  But everybody had fun.  We ended up going to a really fancy chocolate place, had a "tasting" (all three of us), and each of us picked out a package of our favorite truffles.  Yum!  Then that evening we had a bonfire and discovered that our bug spray does NOT work.  But Anna loves roasting marshmallows, so she didn't seem to mind too much.  She kept getting up early too!  Luckily Auntie Lynnie and Uncle R2 didn't seem to mind, and Anna ended up getting to help make breakfast, which made her very happy!  The next day we went blueberry picking and got almost 10 lbs!!  Anna picked 1.5 pounds all by herself!  So everybody had a great time, and we're looking forward to going back again sometime!