From Tom

A quiet day here today with the boy and me trying to come up with something to do. So Barrett decided we should show everybody how well he walks now (especially since it is his Omi's birthday). Enjoy and happy birthday Omi!

Fall

It is officially Fall in spite of what the thermometer says. It has been well into the 80's and pushing 90 degrees most days. Ugh! Even with that we've gotten a couple of light frosts. Enough to do some damage to the more delicate plants in my garden.

I still can't believe how quickly this summer has gone. One minute Bear is barely crawling and the next he is practically running. (Not quite yet thank goodness, but soon) The leaves are starting to turn and we have a pumpkin sitting on the back porch. Canned goods are starting to stack up and we are working on winterizing the house. The fence is almost done too! Just a hair over 20 feet of wire left and we will be done stringing the wire. Then it will be time to build a gate.

Let's see... if things work out today we should be getting a new stove/furnace for the house too. A couple different people have some nice ones listed on craigslist for a decent price. Pretty amazing what you can find on there. It will be nice if we get one of these since they are both newer (and hopefully more efficient) than the one we have.

Other Bear news: He finally says Mom! Makes me happy at any rate. He is learning to sign Thank You, and has All Done down pat. Slowly, as I learn more sign he will too. He knows that bears growl and dogs bark. We walked into the hardware store yesterday and he growled at the mounted black bear up on the wall. He'll sit at the front door in the morning, when our yappy neighbor dogs are going and bark back at them. He's a pretty funny kid. He loves to laugh and make us laugh. He is such a ham that he will do whatever he can to get us going. This morning it was playing with his milk and Cheerios that was cracking him up. Who knew breakfast could be so funny?

I'm kinda dreading the kid turning into a teenager. He can already eat me out of house and home. We have found a couple things he doesn't like. Finally. Olives and green peppers. Because of the green peppers he isn't fond of the steak fajitas Tom made the other night. He loves fruits though, and I can't keep him away from my tomatoes. Not that I try very hard. He also apparently loves the prunes that come off the trees next door. Yesterday he ate about 5 or 6 of them and then when Grammy and Grandpa Burr got here they gave him another plum. Well, he started with a pear, but then saw Grandpa with the plum and traded. The funniest was when Grandpa tried to trade back. Bear wouldn't have any of it. I'm kinda dreading the results of all that fruit today. We'll see though. I'm amazed at what that kid can eat. For only having 6 teeth, that I know of, he does very well with meat and fruit skins, and crunchy stuff. Pretty amazing.

I guess I'd better see what I can get accomplished during nap time. I especially need to see if anyone with stoves has returned e-mails. One of these days I'll update pictures with the fence in them. I suppose I'll have to actually take some photos to make that happen.

What we've been up to...

Bear watching t.v. from his box. The movie is "Lost in the Woods"

Bear was just hanging out in Dad's lap after his bath listening to his boom box. Bear in the pumpkin patch at the Harvest Fest in Frenchtown. We had fun checking out the animals on the farm and picking out a pumpkin while hanging out with good friends.

We have been crazy busy lately. Tom's schedule changed so we have Fridays off together. This means trying to get projects done around the house. That being said it seems that we still can't catch up. Typical.

Bear has been a walking machine lately. He has figured out it works pretty well for a way to get around. Although if he wants to hurry he still crawls. He still only has six teeth but they serve him well. Last night on our walk we picked some apples and Bear quite happily sat and ate an apple. He loves fresh fruit and vegetables. I can't bring in a fresh batch of tomatoes without a bite being taken out of at least one. At any rate I was impressed that with only six teeth the apple got eaten just fine.

Besides continuing to grow (he's got to be pushing 30 pounds) Bear has finally said "Mom". He has said Dad for quite awhile now, but just the other day got around to saying Mom. He "talks" a lot. He has learned to sign "all done" and "more" as well. We are working on "thank you". I guess I need to learn some more signs. I only know a few I learned from my friend who uses sign a lot with her daughters.

Right now I think Bear's favorite animals are cows, turtles, and geese. We have seen all of these in person and he loves them. At the Harvest Fest he got quite good at making goose honks. Turtles crack him up after meeting Barney, and he waves at cows along the road after he got to play with a calf at a petting zoo that was at the fair. Goofy kid. He sure makes the days fun though.

I'd better get going so we can work on our fence since tomorrow we have a potluck to go to. Busy always.

Bear is

Catching up

Time sure does fly. It is already September and the weather is cooling off. I can't believe it. We have been super busy winterizing the house, canning fruit and salsa, travelling, and working. Somewhere in there we have gotten in the habit of taking nightly walks. Buddy is loving those.

Winterizing the house: Since last winter we were cold and had all sorts of drafts I have been going through trying to caulk all the gaps. The big old single pane windows don't really help, but caulking them and putting plastic up on those to help cut down on the cold air. We are almost done with the window project, are done with the outside of the foundation, and about to start on the attic. After the gaps get sealed in the attic, then we can install more insulation. We did some earlier, but need more. First things first though. Also, I have gone through and caulked along the baseboard in the living room. This summer we had morning glory vines starting to come up along the baseboard on the inside of the house. (No wonder the spiders can get in.)

Canning: I have been canning the bounty from the garden and fruit trees. Mom and Dad came up and Mom and I made apple butter and salsa a week or so ago. Now it is time for some tomato sauce and some plum butter. Also, I finally discovered what one of our bushes is. Elderberry. My neighbor asked us if we were going to make elderberry wine. Good to know that we can use that fruit too.

Travel: This last weekend we got to go to the zoo with Bear. It was my first time too. (At least to a real zoo.) We had a lot of fun visiting with all the family. Now, I just need to figure out when I can visit my friend and her new baby. That and I suppose I should figure out some sort of plan for Thanksgiving. We'll be visiting Tom's family for Christmas so that is pretty well settled. Then we are planning on Austria again next year. It is a good thing Tom is employed at the airlines.

Work: Same ol' same ol'. Busy. Still workin' my 40hr weeks with them being 4 ten hour shifts. Tom's schedule changed a bit though. Now we actually are supposed to have Fridays off together. That will be a nice change of pace. Still can't complain too badly since we haven't had to pay for any sort of daycare for Bear yet.

I think that pretty well catches everything up. Things are going to stay hectic for awhile with preparation for winter. It seems things never really slow down.