Horne Creek Farms & Pumpkin carving

This picture is for mom (Gammy). There's a picture of me when I was about 5 sleeping in the laundry basket in front of the tv when I was sick. I thought I'd make Maddox a cozy little cartoon place. She curls up with her "baby", "monkey" or "panda" and watches Sesame Street. Today was a beautiful 73 degree day that Jeremy and I both had off from work so I wanted to go spend it outside. We went to Horne Creek Farms in Pinnacle. We learned how to shuck corn, peel apples, and see how they lived along with 100 jr high students. So, we actually spent a lot of time at the chicken and turkey coop. Maddox also got to pet a cow that kept mooing at her and sort of scaring her. It's the first time I've seen her shy away a little bit from an animal.

She kept mocking the roosters saying "ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo" (sounding just like cocka doodle doo but they really don't say that at all, just ooohs). I tried to catch it on video posted at the end but I don't think she ever really did it. There's a tiny one, but not like she was doing before I turned the camera on. She thought they were pretty funny. You can also hear the turkeys on the video which I think sound pretty strange. I don't know that I've ever really heard a real one. And they're ugly things!

After that we were going to to drive over to Yadkin Islands park to have a picnic and hike up the Yadkinville River. When we got to the car my battery was completely dead. The farm is WAY out in the country, but at least there were people working there. At the river, especially on a weekday, there would probably be no one. This is a place you have to cross two creeks to get to. So obviously going further out without a good battery couldn't happen. We got a jump, drove back to King and bought a new battery. It was too far to drive back to the river. I was really bummed that we didn't get to hike on the river on such a beautiful fall day. So instead we went to Horizons Park and went to the dog park, played on the playground, and walked around in the woods there. Maddox loves the dog park. All the owners are paranoid that she'll get knocked over or be afraid when the dogs come up and lick her and bump her. She doesn't care, she just laughs. Apparently we wore Jessi out. Last week we had our annual Naked Pumpkin Carving Day. We wait for a 70+ degree day and strip her down. She was reluctant to reach in there and grab all that gunk, but she did it eventually. It didn't really matter what she wanted, we threw it on her anyway. She got all gunky. She didn't like the mess and kept trying to clean up all the seeds and put them on the newspaper.

I still forgot to take a picture of the pumpkin. It said BOO and had a bat on it. But now it's all shriveled so you just won't get a picture this year.

While I cut out the pattern Maddox did her favorite thing and chased Patches around.

Random Activities

Gammy Garrison sent us Halloween costumes for Maddox and Jessi. We tried them on to test them out. Gammy also sent a Little Red Riding Hood book that we read a lot so Maddox might understand that's what she's dressed up like. Jessi is super dog. I'm sure I'll talk pictures on Halloween and post again. Maddox had her first watercolor experience last week. Gammy also sent her this paint smock so we had to try it out. She painted about 6 pictures and then I wanted to clean up and put it away. She threw a huge fit when I wouldn't let her paint anymore. Huge. And now she goes to her pictures, and says "paint?" almost everyday.

We bought a frame and hung her first real artwork. She thought that was pretty cool.

Jeremy ran a 5k on Saturday for the first time in quite a while. Maddox, Jessi, and I cheered him on, chilled. He finished 5th overall and won his age division. Next race is Thanksgiving! Garrison/Wheeler family . . . get ready! Already, we have an overflow of books. Couldn't be because Maddox loves them and I love to buy them, could it? This shelf is in her room, but she can't get to them, and there's books on top of books . . . She has another shelf in the toy shelves we have in the living room and that one is overflowing too. It was time to get another book shelf that she could get to and choose her own books at night.

A little thinned out and not stacked on top of each other now. I didn't want to give her access to too many of her books. I know where they all will be if she could reach them all.

Her new shelf that she saw this morning when she got up. She's been thrilled with it all morning, pulling books off, reading, putting them back, another, another . . .

See? Thrilled!

Let's see, what else is she doing? Talking, a lot. She talks gibberish ALL the time, just like she knows what she's saying. But she's also saying a lot of words. We're already having to spell words in front of her. Like cookie. If she hears you say that she's sure she must have one and cries if she doesn't get it. others: pumpkin, boo (if she see's a ghost),night night, moon, apple, pee pee, poo, potty, please, kank koo (thank you), up, down, all done, constantly bossing around "jessi, jessi", Gabby, Gady (Grady), knows most of her body parts and will point to them. Even obscure ones like her elbow and shoulder. She's to the point that if you ask her to say something she'll try and she's starting to put two words together. "bye bye pee pee" "mo cookie?" "jessi jessi, sit"

I've been trying to teach her to fold her hands and pray and say Amen. She'll sit on my lap at night, reluctantly fold her hands and bow her head for a few seconds then look around while I bow my head and pray. Then I say Amen and ask her to. She wouldn't do it at first so I'd put my finger on her chin and move her mouth and say A-men for her. Now at the end of the prayer she puts her finger on her own chin and says "may men". She figures the finger must be part of the deal.

I just asked her "What else can you say Maddox?" And she said ppllllbbbb (buzzed her lips, how do I spell that?) We went to the zoo twice in one week that last time we went and talked about what the elephants said a lot, buzzing tight lips really hard. Now anytime she sees an elephant on a cartoon, book, movie, picture, stuffed animal she points and says ppplllblbb. That new nickelodean cartoon Jungle Junction just came on that has an elephant, she loves it.

You can also ask her just about anything and she'll say "no" in this cute, quick voice. Maddox, do you want to take a bath? "no" Maddox do you want to go outside? "no" Maddox, will you give me a kiss? "no" Maddox, do you want a cookie? "cookie?", and she runs towards the kitchen.

Well, that's all the cute things I can think of for now. I think we'll get dressed and spend some time outside!

1st Birthday party invite and Zoo Trip

Maddox went to her first birthday party last weekend. Our next door neighbor turned 3 and invited her to his Batman party. She even got a cape! She's coming out of the batcave.

There was a pinata and M was the last one to get a change to pull the strings. She chose the right string and all the candy came falling. She was a little confused by this. But once the bigger kids got all the candy they wanted she had a great time gathering and organizing what was left. No, we didn't take it home!

On Monday Jeremy had the day off so we went to the zoo. This panther had his eye on a guy working in the woods because he thought me might have food. He was pacing back and forth in front of that window right by Maddox.

A helicopter in the Elephant exhibit.

I guess the rest of those didn't really need explanation. Typical zoo activities. We stayed until about 2:30 and she promptly fell asleep in the car. She had a good time checking out all the animals and got plenty of exercise running all around the zoo. So did I, carrying her on my shoulders and back! She quickly figured out the stroller was not half as fun as Mom's shoulders or back!

The now annual fall trip to see the Chiefs play and visit a new bball stadium!

I'm going to start this blog by documenting the fact that my crepe myrtle is FINALLY blooming after being in the ground for about 3 yrs. now. My dad bought it and put it there and is greatly relieved (as I am) to see it blooming finally. Yeah! So anyway, we set our alarms for 1am Sat. morning so we could leave by 2am to drive up to Washington DC. We wanted to spend a half day there before driving on north to Baltimore. And that way Maddox slept in the car. So we got to DC about 7:15 on Sat. which is a great time to arrive if you want a good parking spot right along the Mall. We wandered around and saw all the memorials and white house and ate our breakfast on the Lincoln memorial steps. Here's J and M in front of the Washington monument.Behind us is the new WWII Memorial and of course beyond that the Washington Monument again.

Maddox thought it was great fun to run with us. Especially after sitting in the car for 5 1/2 hours.

She's so tiny compared to the Lincoln Memorial!

Goofing around at the Korean War Mem. which is off to the left.

After spending the early morning wandering around all the memorials we went to the Holocaust museum for a couple of hours and then to the Air and Space Museum. Obviously the Holocaust museum was not much fun for Maddox so we found the hands on area in the Air and space museum and let her loose.

We then started walking back to the car where we had a picnic out of our trunk on a bench by the Mall. On the National Mall in front of the Capitol:

After DC we drove north to pick up my parents at the airport and drove on into Baltimore. That night we just went out to dinner and wandered around the inner harbor.
"Mom, this bike isn't really a comfortable ride."

When the science museum on the inner harbor closed they brought out all the left over bubbles for people to play with. She couldn't figure out that you didn't have to blow these bubbles, that you were supposed to wave them. Whatever, she was having lots of fun . . .

Maybe too much fun . . .

After getting up at 1am to drive, and a long day sightseeing Jeremy and I decided to utilize our free babysitters and go to Howl at the Moon. Can't pass up a chance to go to a dueling piano bar!! We only stayed a couple of hours and were home by 10. What partyers. But it was fun anyway. Short but sweet.

Sunday morning we got up and walked down to the Ravens stadium without any tickets. Since it was the home opener it was a lot harder to get tickets than expected and all the scalpers wanted $100/ticket. My limit was $75 (for 55 dollar seats). So Jeremy and I split up and left Mom and Dad and went searching. If you ever have to buy tickets like this be a woman and have a baby with you. Then you don't get picked on by all the Ravens fans and you get 4 tickets for $290 instead of the $400 they wanted.

It was pretty warm out there! Sometime early in the 3rd quarter I got Maddox to fall asleep and she slept until the end of the game.

In between drunk people falling on Dad and other drunks wanting to start something with Jeremy we had a good time! The Chiefs lost of course, but did better than i though they would!

Monday morning we went to the aquarium. We did it all including the Dolphin Show and the 4D theater show. We got warned that M would probably be scared in the 4D theater and we'd have to leave if she cried. She was fine and intrigued. She wore her glasses for the last half of the movie and only jumped when she got water squirted on her.
Grandma and M looking at the fish:

Found a sandbox--one of her favorites

Big fish . . . I think we have a picture just like this from last fall's Atlanta trip and the aquarium there.

Towards the end of the Aquarium visit Maddox was getting hangry (hungry/angry) so she threw herself on the floor and started kicking. That lasted about 10 seconds before she realized that we didn't care and it was more fun to laugh and be tickled.
Monday night after the aquarium we went to a Baltimore Orioles game. They played Tampa Bay which is mom and dad's new team and TB won. Maddox kept pointing and saying "bay ball". J and I and M stayed for the whole game until about 10:15. Then she kept saying "bye bye bay ball".

M knew what she was supposed to do with these binoculars, she just couldn't quite get it right. She tried and tried!

After a while Grammy, Maddox and I wandered down to the kid's zone where M played and got balloons ("boons").

On the drive home from Baltimore we stopped to have lunch at a park and play on the playground. Maddox's feet got really dirty but luckily one of her favorite things to do is clean. Giving her a wet wipe took up another 20 minutes.

We got her one of those drawing magnetic board toys for the car and she played with it for over an hour. She loves it! She also played with it this morning for about 25 min. in my bed while I kept sleeping. I'm liking this toy!

Maddox was so good the whole trip. A lot of long days, very late afternoon naps or just very short ones in the stroller or a lap, and late nights, and she never got grumpy or fussy. As long as she's on the go she's happy and so easy going!

It's another rainy day here in NC so I got out her Elefun which she's hasn't seen since she got it for her birthday. She just holds her net up in the air and hopes a butterfly falls in.

I am now going to be late picking up the kids at school . . . gotta shower and get going! Thanks Mom and Dad (Gammy and Papa) for a great trip! Let's do it again next year!