Pumpkin Patch

One sunny weekday, we went out to Carpinito Brothers’ pumpkin patch. Not to get a pumpkin, really, but to get pictures of JT in the field of pumpkins. I can’t believe how lucky we got to get this family picture with the camera on timer. Gotta love the Gorillapod.

One with Mom… one with Dad…

JT did think the giant pumpkins (giant compared to him, of course) were pretty funny.

Before we left, JT got to pick out a pumpkin from the bin of just-right sized pumpkins. Here he is comtemplating his choice.

And finally, you know the photo shoot is wrapping up when your child starts signing “more” (food). 🙂

By Myself

While still a cautious child, it is fun to watch JT start to do things on his own. The other day we were at our neighborhood park and he pointed to the slide. I said, “Sure, bud. Go for it.” And he did… without me at the bottom or anything.

JT has also outgrown the baby swimming class. His group are all over a year old, and the instructor moved them up to the next swim class. There are no songs, no games, and no bubbles… but you do get to go down the slide. JT wears a float belt now in preparation for “water running,” which is when the kids run with their legs and move across the pool. We will have to move to two days a week in November, so we may take the winter off.

Motor Skills

Now that JT has conquered walking, we’re working on other motor skills. He has recently transformed from a feed-me eater to a me-feed eater. I don’t help him with breakfast at all now, and he does lunch mostly on his own. We each get a spoon at dinner so I can help get food down while he stirs in the bowl… otherwise we’d sit there until bedtime!

We hadn’t colored in awhile and when I got the crayons out the other day I was shocked to see him use them so differently. He is a confident scribbler now. Here is his most recent piece of art work (no help from Mom, I promise), and a little clip of him creating it.

I got JT a jack-o-lantern ball at the store when we were shopping. (Side note: he thought it was soooo funny to throw it out of the cart and watch it bounce down the aisle. And actually, it was funny. But he had to stop, and I told him so, and he did.) He has been rolling and bouncing it around the house ever since. Notice Slider is conspicuously absent from this clip… that’s because she’s on a down-stay in the family room. She loves playground balls like these but will pop them within minutes, so she is not allowed to go near JT’s new ball.

JT loves his big red wagon, and I got him this little wagon last spring. While I was weeding the backyard the other day, JT spent at least twenty minutes pushing his little wagon around. He fills it with rocks, dumps the rocks, and starts all over. Fun times!

Salmon Days

JT and I hit Issaquah’s Salmon Days festival this weekend. I have been a few times, and JT went last year, too (one year we took Slider!). It was just as great as we remembered! Thanks to many “ohfishial spawnsors” (seriously) there are lots of free things for kids to do… not to mention watching huge salmon struggle their way up the river, up the fish ladders, and into the hatchery. Great stuff.

I thought I grabbed the camera but when we arrived, it was not in my bag. My cell phone camera is not great, but I managed to get a few shots.

JT and I watch the salmon come up the river and under the bridge to the fish ladders.


JT takes his chances in the Wheel-o-Death for baby salmon.


Checking out the salmon in the fish ladder
(this is a one-in-a-million, unedited photo – can you believe that fish is real?)


Getting some stroller-free time before heading home

A New Chair

We’ve been thinking about getting JT his own chair for awhile. At Banks Lake, we had his portable high chair on the ground a lot, and he would want to go sit in it. And besides, everyone else gets to sit in a chair.

Then recently I had his portable high chair in the house getting ready to go somewhere, and he was so occupied trying to sit in it (and have the tray on). This was probably twenty minutes of activity that I have kindly cut down to less than a minute for your viewing pleasure.

So I looked on Craig’s List and found a chair just like I envisioned for a steal, right here in our town. We went and picked it up that night! It is in perfect condition. I am not thrilled with the color, but it’s not awful either. I am thinking about recovering it to match our family room.

JT loves it. He sits in it a lot. He grabs a book and a sippy cup and reads… sometimes out loud. Then he gets down and switches books, and climbs back up. We had the fireplace on and he looked super cozy! And yes, check it out, it’s a recliner!

My favorite part of the video is when Slider starts barking and JT is going to the door, but then he decides to turn around and put his book on the chair for safe keeping.

P.S. He holds his finger up because of the part in “Five Little Monkeys” when the doctor says (say it with me), “No more monkeys jumping on the bed!“

Hall Family Gathering

We just got back from an overnight trip to Portland to hang out with Jim’s mom’s family – and what fun we had! Jim’s cousins planned a get together at a park and we ate, played Bocce ball, ate some more, and had a great time catching up at something that wasn’t a wedding, shower, or funeral. We hope to make this an annual event!

The Group

The Second Cousins
JT and Great Grandma Hall

JT, Grandpa Keene, and Isabelle watch the Bocce Ball tournament
Our team called in referee Kimberly for the final word.

JT snuck into Isabelle’s chair when she got up to go play!

Jim’s team was in the finals.

The tournament was so exciting that it wore JT out. He got a nice nap in the shade with Grandpa Keene!

After the park, the Keenes’ truck was making funny sounds. All the boys (ahem, men) went outside to take a look. JT was soooo interested in what was going on out there.

The men were so hungry from working on the truck that Uncle Mark broke out a big box of hamburgers and lit up the grill. JT got a taste of my double stack and he loved it. That’s our little carnivore! 🙂

Back at Uncle Steve and Aunt Sue’s, JT had a bath and went right to sleep. What a great day!

Still Buds

I haven’t posted any pictures of JT and Slider for awhile… it’s not because they’re not still best pals. Now that he’s walking so quickly, JT can keep up with Slider around the house. His newest fun game is to grab her tail and walk behind her holding it. Slider doesn’t really enjoy it, so JT is going to have to come up with another way to share the love.

Here JT is doing another favorite: Dog Couch.

Do the Puyallup

It’s getting time for winter jammies! Happy first day of fall.

JT has been fascinated with our iPod lately… he even holds the ear bud up to his ear to listen.

Our lawn project is finally done! Grandpa Keene came and helped one day so we could use his truck. JT got out his wagon and trowel and helped finish the backyard too.

This weekend, Lisa, Jen, and I cooked 27 freezer meals! Lisa and Jen are both pregnant and wanted to have some meals stockpiled. Lucky me, they invited me to join them. We each took home nine meals at the end of the day.

Finally, with the lawn project over, we took a day off and went to the Puyallup Fair. Here Jim and JT are testing out the riding lawn mowers at the John Deere exhibit.

JT got to try a famous fair scone with jam. Yum!

Here we are at the end of a long day… we were trying to get JT to fall asleep in his stroller (and he finally did!).

Before heading home, we dropped by Great Grandma Christensen’s house. She lives just minutes from the fair. We delivered some of her favorite sugar free pie from the Young Life pie booth. How fun!

Our friends the Hollanders gifted us a tool bench that their two kids were done using. What a blessing! JT just loves playing with all of the tools, and we put it in the office so he’ll have something to do while I’m working on this blog. 🙂