Crow Creek Pumpkin Patch 2013

One of my favorite things about being parents is that we do stuff that we would never consider doing when it was just the two of us. 

Last year was our first year to go to a pumpkin patch (we actually visited two, Crow Creek and Burt's Farm) and this year we decided to use Daniel's day off for Columbus Day to go back to Crow Creek.

I kind of hope that going on Columbus Day becomes a tradition, 1) because Daniel has the day off and the farm wasn't very crowded and 2) it was nice to do something on a day that also happens to be Canadian Thanksgiving. I hope that as Jack gets older we are able to celebrate this Canadian holiday even if it is in a smaller capacity.

The pumpkins at the farm this year were kind of small, but we still enjoyed the experience. The Crow Creek Pumpkin Patch includes a hayride out on the farm to the pumpkin patch to pick up your pumpkin as well as a corn maze, a small petting zoo and several play areas.

Jack wasn't so sure about the animals and was actually nipped by one of the donkeys. If I recall, I got nipped last year. Overall I think he enjoyed the experience.

I am looking forward to growing our traditions as Jack gets older. 

For dinner tonight, Jack helped me make a pumpkin pie. I wanted to have something that reminded me of Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to going to Canada this weekend for my cousin's wedding and seeing a lot of my relatives. 

On a sad note, three different people I know lost loved ones today; including my Nana whose brother, my Great Uncle Dean Hotchkiss, passed away. He is the first of my Nana's six siblings to pass, so she and my other great aunts and uncles are on my mind today.

Jack is 23 Months

I missed Jack's 22 month update. Life has been incredibly busy, but Jack has not stopped growing and changing. It is getting hard to keep up with how much he is learning on a daily basis.

Since it is only one(!) short month until he turns two I thought I would show some current pictures as compared to months ago. It is so hard to believe my little boy was ever so small!

I don't even know where to start. Jack is stringing more and more words together. New phrases include, "Oh my goodness" and "Ride Four Wheeler?" He names everything he knows whenever we are out and about. I spend a lot of time explaining differences of everyday items. Jack made the connection that all things that open must be doors. So right now we are working on differentiating between what a door and a lid is. He's a pretty smart cookie.

Jack is able to connect sounds with things that have engines. He can discern (by sound) the difference between a truck, a car, a plane, a fire truck and a motorcycle. I don't know if this is normal for his age but we are impressed parents.

Jack has been able to do stairs since he was 10 months old (scooting down backwards) now he can walk up and down without holding the wall or a rail. This makes us nervous at times, but he is really pretty careful. Yesterday we were outside on our porch and realized that we weren't sure where Jack was. We soon discovered that he had walked down our big brick steps into the back yard. We had a little chat with him about why that wasn't ok.

Since Jack doesn't have a sibling to imitate, I have caught him imitating Sophie on occasion. He actually tried to lick milk off the floor the other day after watching Sophie do it. I have also seen him sniffing rocks and the carpet. Silly boy. I think it is time for a little more human interaction.

Jack continues to be a trooper with our constant traveling. Next week Jack and I will actually be traveling to Canada for the weekend by plane. Daniel is sad that he won't be able to have this first plane experience with us. I think we will be ok since Jack is such a good traveler and loves to watch airplanes. I am praying the trip goes off without a hitch. I'm looking forward to seeing my extended family at my cousin's wedding.

 

My next update will be about a two-year-old! Crazy.

Vacation Rental House vs. Extended Stay Hotel

After three straight weeks staying in an extended stay hotel (Sun-Thurs), this week we were back at a vacation rental property. There are some pros and cons to each place, but overall we are fans of being in a house when possible. Here are some of our comparisons.

 

1) In the hotel there was a complimentary hot breakfast every morning. Also, Tuesday-Thursday nights the hotel had complimentary appetizers in the lobby (which was pretty much a meal for us). The pro is that I didn't have to cook and we saved a ton of money with all of this free food. The con was that I didn't have to cook and none of the food we ate was particularly healthy. 

2) In the rental house I actually cook at least one meal each week. This means we eat better and Daniel has better options for lunch since I typically have leftovers. Last week I tried cooking at the hotel and it was a flop.

3) Since we have a dog, staying in the hotel means multiple daily walks. Again, this is a pro and a con. Exercise is always a plus (I was walking an additional 2-4 miles per day) but it also takes time and if I didn't feel like walking or was tired or it was raining, I couldn't skip.

On the flip side, the house we stayed at this week is on 3 acres and we could just open the door and let Sophie roam to her heart's content.

 

4) The hotel suite was two rooms (a living room/kitchenette and a bedroom/bathroom). Once Jack went to sleep (for naps or the night) we were pretty much stuck in the bedroom part. We watched a lot of TV. In the rental house, there is much more room and once Jack was down for the night we weren't stuck in one room. Interestingly enough, we rarely watch TV when we stay in a rental house.

5) The hotel is a little further of a drive for Daniel so we never did anything fun during the week when we stayed downtown. Our evenings seemed to consist of going out to eat and then collapsing into bed.

This week, we squeezed in a mini hike at the Three Gorges part of the Cumberland Trail in Soddy Daisy. It was 5 minutes from our rental house and we will definitely be going back. 

6) Regardless of where we stay, I have been thankful to take advantage of the local YMCA's and their free childcare. This gives me a break and some time for myself.

On Wednesday I took Jack to a story hour at the Hixson library. Afterward I had planned to go to the Hixson Y to do a Kettle Bell workout. Unfortunately when I got to my car I realized I had left my tennis shoes at this house. So I did a quick about face and went to the downtown Y instead where I could take a Yoga class. It has been great to be in a city again where we have so many options!

Overall we have been making our transitional lifestyle work for us (whether we are in a hotel or a house). I know we will both be thankful to be back in a home of our own full time. We have been spending the last several weekends working on our house and hope to have it listed for sale by the end of the month.

See Jack {late August-early September}

This is an ongoing series of videos that I am sharing so that our extended family can keep up with how Jack is growing and changing in these early years.

 See Jack kick, kick, kick. Hopefully he will learn how to swim next summer.

{late August}

See Jack, my little drummer boy.

{late August}


See Jack "take a picture." Picture. Smile.
{late August}


 See Jack's parents encourage him to say, "Wassup." He would rather cut the pickle.
{early September}

Our Week in Food, and other things.

This week was our third to spend in an extended stay hotel. We are getting much faster at the weekly pack up our lives/live in a hotel thing. I'm pretty sure that Jack's favorite part is getting to ride the luggage cart.

Last weekend we rented a rather large lift so that Daniel could fix a couple of spots on our roof and do some pressure washing to the side of our house. We need to get things in tip top shape before we list our home. I'm pretty sure that while it was a hard day's work for Daniel, he enjoyed getting to operate big equipment. As I mentioned on Facebook, he even took me up in the lift after Jack was in bed so that we could gaze at the stars from above our roof line, a good 40 feet in the air. It was a pretty sweet experience.

Over the weekend I also had the chance to work on a chair recovering project. I inherited this chair from my grandmother. My dad says it was his grandfathers from the early 1900s. I have found evidence of at least 4 kinds of fabric as I have removed the current fabric. I even remember some iterations of the older fabrics, so it has been a little walk down memory lane.

Sunday night we ate at Lupi's Pizza Pies in Chattanooga and discovered that you should never park your car under trees that are full of birds – even if it is a good parking spot.

Monday I attempted to cook in the hotel. It was a bit of a flop. The cooktops in the hotel are tiny and the burners are small. The pan I used (that was included with our kitchen) was not flat so it didn't heat evenly. It took well over an hour for my rice to cook. And even then there were occasional hard bits of rice.

Tuesday we ate at Cheeburger Cheeburger. I had been interested in eating here for some time. They make their burgers to order and Daniel and I both agreed our burgers tasted better than Five Guys (one of our favorites). We split a basket of onion rings and fries. The onion rings were way too greasy without much flavor while the fries were decent, though we prefer Five Guys fries. Finally we split a chocolate peanut butter shake. Daniel loved it while I thought the flavors were good, but a bit too intense. Overall it was a good experience. We sat outside on the street since the weather was nice. It was a bit too close to the road for me (especially with a toddler). We had to keep a firm hold on Jack and not let him get down from the table. While we waited for our food, Daniel and Jack took a long walk. Our waitress was a bit slow in checking in with us, but that is somewhat to be expected when you sit outside.

Wednesday night we opted to eat the burgers and salad offered by our hotel. They were pretty good. We have been impressed by the complimentary offerings at the Staybridge Inn and Suites.

 

We have decided to chill out on finding a place to rent (as you might remember, last week I mentioned that we were a bit stressed about this process). The last two weeks of rental house hunting were frustrating. 

Thankfully we realized that we were straying from some of our original housing goals that we had agreed to when we started this whole challenge of traveling during the week. 

We are in the process of regrouping so that we can make the best decision about where to live. In the meantime we are focusing more on getting our house ready to put on the market. 

See Jack {early-mid August}

This is an ongoing series of videos that I am sharing so that our extended family can keep up with how Jack is growing and changing in these early years.

 See Jack get the hang of riding his baby four wheeler (Powerwheels). 

He still needs to work on steering and watching where he is going.

{early August}

See Jack draw his masterpiece – hah. Really he is focused on learning colors. 

We need to work a bit on the whole "orange" thing.

{early August}


See Jack do a little exploring with Sophie.
{mid August} 


See Jack having fun with a ball and his daddy.
{mid August}

Books I Read in September (#20)

On a bit of a whim, I downloaded a free copy of The Soulkeepers by G.P. Ching with my iBooks account. I don't read a lot of young adult fiction so I was a little leery at first, but I really enjoyed this sci-fi, paranormal story.  

The Soulkeepers is the first in a trilogy of books that follows 15-year-old Jacob Lau after her loses his family and has to move from Hawaii to rural midwest America to live with relatives he didn't know existed. During this time of transition he discovers that he possesses special powers. 

There were a few times I felt like the book didn't flow that well, but overall I was really surprised by how much I liked the book – especially as more characters were introduced. I was also intrigued by the explanations/accounts of the paranormal beings. I don't want to give it away, but I thought this was a good story and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good sci-fi/paranormal novel of the young adult variety. I gave the book 4/5 stars on Goodreads.

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This has nothing to do with reading, or books, but last week we were in a toddler parenting class at the Clear Creek Church of Christ and we were discussing discipline. 

The teacher (from First Things First) brought up spanking and said that there was a time and place for this type of discipline (agreed). She said that you should consider the H.A.L.T. method. Are you Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired? Make sure you are in the right frame of mind before administering the punishment. 

A parent raised her hand and said, "When are parents of toddlers ever NOT one of those?" Touché.

If you have a chance to take a First Things First seminar, I would definitely recommend it. Being that we are older parents, I didn't learn a ton of new things, but I did get a few good reminders. If you are a young parent or didn't come from a good family environment, you should check out one of these seminars.