Fall Fun 2013

This post is basically going to be a large photo bomb of all of the fall fun we've been having :)  Two weekends ago, we went to visit Brian's family and managed to squeeze in a trip to the pumpkin patch:

Fall fun continued this past weekend, when we were able to make our annual trip to Zoo Boo with GG! Jake is hilarious; every single year, he is always more intrigued by the costumes of other kids than anything else.  Giant, majestic lions and tigers?  Rare breeds of animals?  Cute and cuddly penguins?  Who cares!  Captain America is at the zoo!  Oh my goodness, there are the smurfs! It's so cute, it's like he really thinks that all of the kids in costumes are celebrities. 

Another funny thing about that day: Jake's costume is Peter Pan.  95% of the people we passed thought he was Robin Hood.  By the end of the day, Jake just looked defeated and kept saying, "why do they think I'm Robin Hood??"  Poor kid, I was about to make a sign and stick it around his neck that said "I am Peter Pan!".  

I swear, Liam was more excited than he looks in this picture!

I want to break through that glass and steal the red panda, it is TOO.CUTE.

We hope you're enjoying fall!!

Liam's report card

Daycare does a progress report every few months on each child's development, behavior, etc....we just got Liam's most recent report (he's almost 2.5!!)  Here are some of the highlights:

Physical (fine and gross motor): Liam walks up and down stairs by holding onto the railing.  He loves to play on the playground.  He feeds himself with a spoon and fork very well, and drinks out of a regular cup without spilling.  He enjoys cutting paper and is skilled in that area.  He shows some interest in using the potty, and is able to wash and dry his own hands with little assistance. He can build a tower of several blocks. He is able to remove his socks and shows, but needs help putting them back on.

Knowledge and skills of math, science, and social studies: Liam enjoys stories and songs.  He can name and identify objects in pictures.  He is able to count to 5 consistently, and  up to 10 with some prompting. He knows most colors and some shapes.  He knows his ABCs.  He has started to sort shapes and colors with little assistance.  He enjoys browsing books on his own.

Social/emotional: Liam shows a lot of empathy and caring towards others; he will often comfort another child if he or she is crying or hurt.  Sometimes he finds it difficult to wait his turn or take turns, which is normal for the age range.  He is excited about the company of other children, but does often turn to adults for comfort and company throughout the day.  The vast majority of the time, he excels at obeying and respecting the rules of the classroom. 

Communication, Language, and Literacy: Liam forms short sentences, and verbalizes his needs throughout the day appropriately.  He uses please and thank you without reminders.  He knows his first and last name, and recognizes the faces and names of familiar people, objects, and body parts.  He seems to love music, singing, and dancing.  He follows simple instructions most of the time, though has his moments of not listening when he is intent on continuing to do what he is doing at that time.

She feels pretty....oh so pretty!!

She may look like she's ready to fall asleep directly on the pumpkin, but I swear, she loved the photo session.

Wordless Wednesday: Little Helpers

Wordless Wednesday: Fall Fun & Brotherly Love

Another reason to love Pittsburgh.

Why do I love Pittsburgh?   Because GIANT RUBBER DUCKY!

Pittsburgh is an awesome city, for many reasons, including but not limited to:

• Access to many cultural events and locations, including museums, a science center, theaters, and much more.
• One of the top zoos in the country
• Steelers (and even though I'm not a fan of hockey or baseball, I should have in a shout-out to the Pens and the Pirates, too!)
• No shortage of colleges and universities (including Pitt, which is near and dear to our hearts as alums)
• Tons of parks and other family-friendly places
• And the most recent reason.........the arrival of a giant duck!!!

He is here and he is magnificent.   Honestly.  I was jazzed to see him and I've been looking forward to meeting him for months, but I was even more impressed in person.

If you're not familiar with the duck, you may be sitting there thinking, "What the quack?  I'm confused.  What is the point?"  The rubber duck is a work created by artist Florentijin Hofman, and he has been to many other cities (although Pittsburgh is the FIRST city in the US to welcome this big guy, I thank you very much.) From the artist's website:

The Rubber Duck knows no frontiers, it doesn't discriminate people and doesn't have a political connotation. The friendly, floating Rubber Duck has healing properties: it can relieve mondial tensions as well as define them. The rubber duck is soft, friendly and suitable for all ages!

So basically, the answer to the question "why a giant rubber duck?" is "Why not??"

 

 

 

 

It was also the first time we've been to visit Point State Park since it had been remodeled.  It was beautiful!  They really put a lot of work into the area, and we can't wait to visit again next summer.  While the kids definitely loved the duck (in fact, we couldn't get Liam to stop staring at him long enough to snap a picture!), they were obsessed with the fountain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quack-quack!!!

Book Review: Reconstructing Amelia

Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight 

Description from amazon.com:

In Reconstructing Amelia, the stunning debut novel from Kimberly McCreight, Kate's in the middle of the biggest meeting of her career when she gets the telephone call from Grace Hall, her daughter’s exclusive private school in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Amelia has been suspended, effective immediately, and Kate must come get her daughter—now. But Kate’s stress over leaving work quickly turns to panic when she arrives at the school and finds it surrounded by police officers, fire trucks, and an ambulance. By then it’s already too late for Amelia. And for Kate.
An academic overachiever despondent over getting caught cheating has jumped to her death. At least that’s the story Grace Hall tells Kate. And clouded as she is by her guilt and grief, it is the one she forces herself to believe. Until she gets an anonymous text: She didn’t jump.
Reconstructing Amelia is about secret first loves, old friendships, and an all-girls club steeped in tradition. But, most of all, it’s the story of how far a mother will go to vindicate the memory of a daughter whose life she couldn’t save.
Fans of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl will find Reconstructing Amelia just as gripping and surprising.

My review:  LOVED this book.  Could not put it down.  (Confession: last Friday it was raining outside and we had no plans, but the kids had been excited to watch a new 45 minute Jake and the Neverland Pirates special that I had DVR'd earlier in the week....I put that on after dinner, settled in on the couch and finished the book while "watching" with them.  Win-win for everyone!) I enjoyed the style the book was written in (it switched back and forth between the mom and daughter as narrators, and flipped back and forth between past and present).  I agree with the amazon review that if you liked Gone Girl, you'll enjoy this book...I actually liked it even more than Gone Girl. I'd definitely recommend this one!!

Outside aversion and a mommy confession.

 "Mommy, mommy!  It's so warm out, look I'm wearing shorts!  Can we play outside?  Please?  I want to ride my bike and my scooter and crunch the leaves as I drive over them!  Pretty please?"  

We are four days into October.  The Halloween decorations are up, pumpkins are on the front porch, mums are planted, and it's 80 degrees.  One of these things is not like the other, right?  I will be the first to admit, I HATE back and forth weather.  I hate not knowing what to wear from day to day, and I especially hate it if it gets hot again.  But the kids?  The kids LOVE it.  Jake mourns that day that I put his shorts into storage (which was 2 weeks ago....once the temps dipped down into the low 60's, I thought we'd be in the clear)  Not so much.  Had to dig those things back out the past few days. 

So while I have not been loving the sudden fall heat wave, these kids have been soaking up every minute of it.  The snippet of conversation above is what I was bombarded with by Jake after school.  Liam was quick to chime in with a "pweeeeeease?"Meanwhile, a dialogue was already running through my own head:

I was in my work clothes; all I wanted to do was change into pajamas and retreat for the night.

Nothing was ready for dinner.  Nada.  Zip. Zilch.  Not even an idea in my head of what to do.  We had already had the standard fall backs of pasta and tacos earlier in the week.

I had a headache.  The whiny voice inside my head was on a roll, "ugh-can't they just play inside?  Don't they just want to sit down and color a picture or something while I supervise from the couch as the tylenol kicks in?  It's only Thursday, why is this week not over yet? ugh, then I need to figure out dinner on top of everything else.  I'd say we should just go out to dinner, but I'm feeling too lazy to even put the effort in to get everyone back in the car.  Maybe we can just..."

"MOMMY!" 

My thoughts were interrupted by the boys standing there, looking up at me with their shoes in their hands. 

"Can we go?  Please?  Pretty soon it will be dark after school and we'll be sad".

I wanted to point out to him that the collective "we" he used did not include me.  I know, I know...in a few months from now I will be complaining that we are cooped up in the house during the long winter, how we rarely see daylight anymore, and will be counting down the days until spring.   

But here's a mommy confession for you: I am sick of playing outside. There, I said it.

I'm sick of dragging out a gazillion toys when we're out there.  I'm sick of coming home, rushing to get inside only to change clothes, then put everyone's shoes back on and go BACK outside once again. Oh, and don't forget the fun part where we then have to put all of the aforementioned toys away, drag everyone back in the house (usually not willingly, and without the use of threats and/or "I'm going to count to three, and if these toys are not being put away..."), and make sure hands are washed while simultaneously trying to finish cooking dinner.  So there it is.  I'm over it.  Over the outside playing.  I'm looking forward to long weekend days where we have no plans, and sometimes don't even bother to change out of our pajamas all day. 

But alas, last night was not the night to start our winter hibernation.  Even I, the fall-loving freak, thought last night was too great to pass up.  And sometimes, despite my best efforts, these two are just too great to pass up...even if they want to do things that I would normally never, ever do.  Like be outside, fully dressed, running around my driveway at 6:30pm after working all day.  For the record, dinner was pretty much nonexistent.   We scrounged together some leftovers and random side dishes, while I ate a bowl of cereal.  No one ever said balancing it all was easy. 

But it was one night, and we all survived.  And there will be other nights (and there have been already), where the voice inside my head DOES win the battle and I do say no, we're playing inside tonight.  And I think that's ok.  We're still trying to figure out this whole balance thing as we go along.

That is special.

Jake comes home with a lot of projects and worksheets from kindergarten, and while I love looking at all of them, the one that came home last night was a real gem.  In case you can't see it clearly in the picture, the instructions say to draw a picture of something special you can do.  The teacher then wrote out the words below, and Jake traced them. (I want to clarify that here, I posted this pic on facebook last night without that disclaimer about the tracing and people thought he had better handwriting than most adults)

Yep.  Sports Center, baby. Da-na-na, da-na-na!!

Happy October!!