Monday, October 22, 2012

Fabulous Fall weekend

17 months, 1 week

We had a wonderful weekend filled with fall activities! On Saturday we went drove up to Weston, MO with Gary and Judy to visit the Weston Red Barn Farm. It was the cutest little farm with animals you could feed, tons of pumpkins and activities. Like last weekend, Brock mostly just wanted to run around like a crazy man in with all the free space to roam. We ate lunch in Weston at a cute little small-town restaurant with greasy, delicious food and then headed home.

Judy was a life saver and helped me get Brock's Halloween costume started. The main part is complete and I learned not only how to sew using my sewing machine, but also how to hand sew! I would have never even gotten started if it weren't for her and now I feel comfortable using my machine!!

It's not fall in Prairie Village unless you've spent at least one full day raking and bagging up leaves in your yard. We have a huge tree in our backyard that has huge leaves and acorns that fall all over the place. Our front yard usually gets covered in everyone else's leaves before the leaves even fall off ours up there. So usually there are at least 3-4 days out of the fall that we are working on leaves, 1-2 of them being full day affairs.

Before Brock, Nick and I used to tackle it together. We have always had the 'we're a team' mentality (I had Team Colbosa engraved on the watch I gave him for our wedding) and this was no different. Neither of us really LOVED doing it, but it was better if we did it together. Well, for all of you out there with kids (especially toddlers) you know the days of having time to just tackle these household duties for however long it takes are long gone. We assumed our days of working on the yard together were a thing of the past. One of us (Nick) would have to be banished to the leaves while the other (me) would be entertaining Brock some other way.

We got the most pleasant surprise however this weekend. Trying to soak up some of the few nice days left this year, we decided to try and take Brock out with us. We would tackle the deck area and getting the yard prepped before lunch/naptime and then Nick could just mow up the rest in the afternoon. Phase 1 went better than expected! Not only did we get everything done, but Brock loved it! He was rolling around in the leaves, jumping in them, laying in them, just loving it. He was a filthy mess and didn't care at all.

Phase 2 didn't go as planned when the mower wouldn't start, so Brock and I came back out to lend a hand again. We spent the better part of the afternoon out there as a family working on the leaves. Brock would use his toy mower to mow the yard, or the small rake to help rake the leaves or sometimes just wander around the yard exploring.

It was definitely one of those 'take a mental picture' moments. I was so overcome with pride at how well we were able to both get work done while Brock entertained himself. We had become so used to one of us having to watch his every move that it was more of a relief than I realized when we could all be out there together, doing our part. At one point, I just stopped and looked around the yard and just smiled. It was so bittersweet because we most likely won't live in this house next year. As excited as we are to move into our next 'family' house, we will all be sad to leave our first home. But it was the perfect way to celebrate another season in that house, all working in the leaves together as a family.

Here is Brock walking through the leaf pile. As you can see, it's pretty tall and there were probably 7 piles this high!


In other news, Brock has become OBSESSED with the movie 'Cars'. The funny thing is, he's never seen it. A few weeks ago we were at Costco and they had 'Cars 2' on the TVs there and we stopped to watch maybe 5 minutes of it. Yet somehow, he can find any 'Cars' type memorabilia, point it out and say 'Cars'. He found a picture of the 'Cars' characters on a CAN OF SOUP at the grocery store. I'm talking one tiny can of soup in the middle of maybe a hundred other cans of soup. At first I didn't believe him, until I finally saw it! 

It looks like this movie may be in our near future to watch on repeat like we've been having to watch 'Puss in Boots' or the 'meows' for the last 2 weeks. I try not to let him watch much tv, but he walks in the living room, points to the TV and says 'meows'. We've tried putting in on something else but he just won't have it. He knows when it's the 'meows' and when it's not. I think we've created a monster with this one! Luckily he only watches maybe 10 minutes at a time before he gets distracted. 

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