Apple Orchard

 

For my birthday this year we took our annual trip to Sky Top Apple Orchard. We took Sam out of school on an early dismissal and headed up after lunchtime. Unfortunately, about halfway there, I realized I had not brought a single diaper, nor had I changed Claire prior to departure. A rookie mistake. It was also a rather chilly, cloudy day. But, there was a very slim crowd, the scenery was perfect, the apple donuts were delicious (Claire enjoyed her first), and there were still apples to be picked.

We walked around a large portion of the orchard and the boys enjoyed picking a few apples. The goats at the orchard escaped their pen and enjoyed helping themselves to a few apples (or at least all the leaves off the trees), too. After a while we abandoned the picking and the boys headed to the playground. We didn't have time for the tractor ride this year; we had to hurry home to get Sam to soccer practice on time. So, we bought a peck of already picked apples and took our soggy-bottomed baby back home.

 

 

11 months

The countdown is on till Claire's first birthday. I can't believe this year has gone so quickly. At 11 months old, Claire is a well-established little personality in the family. She is a little bit sweet, with her generous, tight hugs, her adorable waving and clapping, and her usually-present smile. But she's a little bit sassy, too. She knows how to throw a really good temper-tantrum. She will throw herself down on the ground in a second, not giving a thought to what her head is going to smash into. When she's ready to eat, if you take too long to get food to her chair, she will squeal loudly, with her eyebrows raised. She's a little bit naughty. She knows I don't like it when she sticks her little finger into her mouth while she's eating, getting food all over her hands and sometimes pulling some out. So, from time to time, she'll slowly bring her finger towards her mouth, while she's chewing, and give me a big smile, waiting for me to swat her hand away playfully and tell her "no". Claire still doesn't sleep through the night. She wakes up at random intervals, varying from one night to the next. We never know what to expect when we go to sleep each night. A few weeks ago she finally added "mama" to her vocabulary, but before that, whenever Dad would tell her to say mama, she would reply "dad!" or "dada" or just "daaaaa!". This would go on for several minutes with Dad requesting her to say mama and her replying with one of her forms of dad, in a very defiant tone. I'm sure that's a positive sign of things to come...

Beach 2013

Over the last weekend of September until the first weekend of October we finally took our family vacation to the beach. Together with Paul's brother Mark's family, we rented a house right on Ponte Vedra Beach, about half an hour north of St. Augustine.
For our travel companions, the vacation started out on the wrong foot: little Owen had a fever and had vomited in the car several times during the 6 hour trip and Mark vomited in the bushes shortly after arrival. But we were determined to make the best of it, no matter if we were all puking by morning.
But, by morning our family was fine, and so we set off to enjoy a walk around St. Augustine. The city is full of so much neat history and cool architecture. Nathanael really enjoys having all the historical plaques read aloud to him. And it is just fun walking along the narrow streets and sightseeing.

 

 

 We spent our early mornings that week watching the sunrise, something we rarely take the time to appreciate during the hectic days at home. Even on vacation, little kids don't sleep in. And for once, I was ok with that. One of the things I enjoyed most about our vacation was waking up each morning, going out on the deck, and watching the sun rise over the ocean. One morning we were even lucky enough to watch some dolphins playing in the waves. Coming back home, I missed hearing the waves crashing right outside the window.

 

 

After having a slow morning, we liked to get out of the house to do something around town before lunchtime. One morning we went back out to Fort Matanzas, which we had visited on our previous trip to St. Augustine. This time we took Mark and Haley, and Claire had her first boat ride getting over to the fort. Thankfully we visited on the day we did because the very next day, due to the government shutting down, all national parks were closed and we would not have been able to go.

 

 

On another day we attempted to go to a pirate museum. Sam had a minor meltdown as we were purchasing tickets because he had peered in and thought it looked creepy (the sound effects coming from inside didn't help). I asked if I could take a peek inside and told the lady the problem (Sam is terribly fearful in general and very scared of fake people). She pointed out TWO areas on a map of the museum with fake people to avoid and assured me that it would be great fun, that schoolchildren take field trips there all the time. So, we paid and dragged Sam inside. Well, nearly as soon as we turned the first corner there was a faux-person, a pirate with some sort of tool, pulling a guy's eye out! We moved along quickly, turned another corner and there was another person! They were everywhere! And by this point Sam's eyes were shut, he was crying and begging to get out of there, completely losing it. So, I told Paul to let Nathanael go through the museum, and I would try to exchange mine and Sam's tickets to go to the Colonial Quarter, the museum's sister attraction right next door. Catastrophe avoided. Sam MUCH prefers history to mannequins, any day. Within about 15 minutes, we were both done, at both attractions, and left wondering what we had spent our money on. At least Nathanael got to go through both because he was free. 

 

 

Another day we took a tour of a chocolate factory. We got to sample their different chocolates and see their artisan chocolates being made. It was interesting, really, and Claire had her first taste of chocolate. Her first bite elicited a giggle and she finished the tour with a stream of chocolaty-drool running down her chin.

 

 

Later on, I realized that we had missed several things at the Colonial Quarter, and after talking to a worker I realized that unless you take a guided tour, you don't actually get much out of your visit at all (total false advertising on their brochure, by the way). So, on our final day in town, just before we headed back home, we ran back by and took the guided tour (at least our admission was good all week). That, I'll admit, was pretty interesting. The tour guide was entertaining and the boys got to participate in a musket drill and canon drill.

 

 

After our morning explorations, there was plenty of time in the afternoons for playing on the beach. The weather was just perfect: not too hot, not too cold. And we basically had the entire beach to ourselves. Sam enjoyed reading books on the beach, just like his mama, but also spent time jumping waves and digging big holes. Nathanael had fun playing in the water with Haley and Dad as well as digging in the sand. And Claire, well she wasn't really sure about it at first, but it didn't take her long to start having fun in the sand and water too. But mostly, she took her naps while we were out on the beach.

 

 

 

 

Each evening after dinner, we liked to go out and do a little something before putting the kids to bed. A couple of nights we went out walking on a fishing pier. There were swings on the pier and it was a nice place to watch the sunset. We even got to watch a man reel in a large butterfly ray.

 

 

A couple of other evenings, we headed to a nice park. We were drawn to the park because of the carousel, but I'm pretty sure that Nathanael enjoyed the slide made from rollers just as much. He and Haley had a lot of fun running around and playing on that playground.

 

 

As with many other vacation locales, St. Augustine does not lack candy shops. One evening, we went back to walk around downtown and bought the kids some chocolate treats. Nathanael picked a chocolate-covered marshmallow on a stick, which he really enjoyed...until the last bite, when it fell off the stick and onto the street. He was distraught and I was afraid the night was going to end very poorly. But, as I was trying to console him, within just an instant, a store employee came outside with another one wrapped up for him! What a wonderful act of kindness! That guy saved the night, for sure.

 

 

We really had a great time on our vacation, though Mark, Crystal and Owen would not agree. They had the worst vacation ever, with Owen running a 104 fever the entire week, puking, multiple trips to minute clinics or pediatric ERs, no true diagnosis, and finally, hospitalization and surgery upon their return home. Owen is making a slow return to health, but they are still dealing with the nightmare of a severe case of pneumonia.

 

10 Months

Claire is now well over ten months old. In fact, in just several days it will time to write about her at 11 months. Sometimes it's hard to keep up.
This month she wasn't really into her photo shoot. Perhaps the sun was a bit bright and perhaps my camera whacked her in the head when I was trying to lay her down. And perhaps she doesn't like to lay on her back. Or on concrete. At least she's forgiven me.
Claire now has 4 teeth: 3 on the bottom and 1, just barely cutting through, on the top. She also has a hemangioma on her left cheek, just an inch or so under her eye. It popped up sometime in September and is just a small red raised dot. She is wearing size 12 month clothes, though truly she could probably wear 18 month if that didn't make me really sad. She loves to eat. Everything. Except formula. She happily gobbles up nasty things like canned pumpkin mixed with cottage cheese and doesn't complain about spicy foods, as we've given her plenty of southwest flavored meals as well.
She loves to be free to explore and usually goes straight for the areas she knows are off limits: the toilet and cabinets containing cleaners. She can climb stairs but doesn't voluntarily choose to, neither has she tried to go down them. She started saying "uh oh" which is the cutest thing ever, though I doubt she knows what it means. She's just parroting. She LOVES to give hugs, and has really taken to snuggling with her lovey and a stuffed frog.