Fall Happenings

Fall in North Carolina means lots of fun - beautiful weather and the NC State Fair!
The hit of the fair: the Pig Races (literally) and the corn.



He doesn't need help.








Don't touch his corn.




Why do I bother shucking it for him at dinner time?

We also spent the morning recently at a pumpkin farm. You can shuck corn to feed the goats and pigs, but they were way too full to eat. Instead, we played in a corn filled play area.

There was a big pile of hay to play on, a hayride, and Peyton got to pick out his own pumpkin from the patch. He had a great time!




We have also started celebrating Halloween. A local Mom's group sponsored a "Trunk or Treat" where kids can go trick or treating from car to car, all decorated for the season. Peyton's current obsession is airplanes. He loves to go to the observation deck at the airport and watch the airplanes take off. So, I bought him a pilot costume for Halloween. Here we are leaving for trunk or treat. And of course he has his monkey bag with him. Because pilots need luggage!

Sign of the Cross

We've been working on Peyton's prayers, keeping it mostly simple: the Angel of God prayer, and the Glory Be prayer.
Then we started working on the sign of the cross. Here's how that is going:
Us: In the name of the Father
Peyton: And of the Mother (although it sounds like "and of the mudder")
Us: Ok, and of the Son
Peyton: And of the Moon
Us: No, there's no moon in this
Peyton: Yes, and of the moon
Us: Fine, and of the Holy Spirit
Peyton: AAAAAAAAA-Men!

Uncle Matt and Aunt Abby Got Married!!

Peyton was in charge of the rings again, this time for Uncle Matt and Aunt Abby.


It was a beautiful wedding at Michabelle's Inn in Hammond, and Peyton certainly left his mark.
I'll let you see the video for yourself.






At least he walked up the aisle.



Always thinking about how to keep him entertained, we bought a couple of disposable cameras to keep him occupied. It took him all of about 10 minutes to shoot an entire roll of film. Most of them came out like this:
I think there is an abstract artist in there screaming to get out.

But a couple of them came out pretty good. Here's a picture of the paparazzi:

Adventures in Nola

Last week, we traveled to New Orleans for Uncle Matt and Aunt Abby's beautiful wedding. This would be Patrick's brother Uncle Matt, not to be confused with my sister's husband, also Uncle Matt.
As the days were getting closer to the wedding and the suitcases were pulled out and packed, our little man woke up with fever and an ear infection. Lovely. We worried about how he would feel on the airplane and whether we'd have a screaming kid on our hands when the pressure changed. Luckily, he did really well. We gave him some good doses of antibiotics, a little ibuprofen, benadryl for good measure, and some tasty apple juice to drink during take-off and landing. Besides yanking on his ears a little bit, Peyton didn't seem to care about them at all, so our potion of meds seemed to do the trick.
We landed in Tampa for a small layover, but didn't have to change planes. Patrick asked if he could get off and get something to eat for Peyton, which they allowed, but this left Peyton and me up to our own vices. While we were just sitting around, I asked the flight attendant if Peyton could meet the pilot. Next thing I know, I hear a voice beaming, "Hi! I'm First Officer Joe!" and there was one of the pilots standing there to greet us. He invited us to sit in the cockpit and take a look around. I admit, all of those buttons scared me a bit. And it scared me to let my two year old within 10 feet of them. All we needed was for him to open up the luggage bin with one small touch of a button and have everything fall out of the belly of the airplane. When Patrick got back from getting food, Peyton was sitting quietly in his seat with his new airplane wings pin and coloring a picture of a Southwest airplane. I guiltily had to admit that we sat in the cockpit without him.

While hanging out at Lollie and Pops's house while we were home, Peyton took to playing my mom's guitar and singing his own song. I have no idea what he is singing, but it has something to do with New Orleans. That's really the only two words I can make out.





Wedding details and pictures to come....

Red Light, Green Light

Patrick and Peyton were playing a game. Patrick would say, "Red means....?" and Peyton would yell out, "Stop!" "Green means....?" "Go!" This went back and forth a few times. Then Patrick thought he'd mix things up a bit and try to stump Peyton. He said, "Yellow means....?" And to his surprise, Peyton answered in a very drawn out way, "Go reeaaaaallll ssssllllllloooooowwww....."

An Adjustment

Peyton has started his new school, and he's doing pretty well. His teacher told me that he had one of the best first weeks she has ever had with a new kid. Patrick told me she tells everyone that, but I'm going to believe that she was telling me the truth. But he seems to be doing well there. They have a different theme each week and they focus on different topics within that theme each day. One week they did music, another they did sports. Last week they did feelings. Now, when he's mad about something, he tells me he's "grumpy." They have lots of toys and trucks to play with and a big yard outside where they play twice a day.

While things were going pretty well at school, we noticed that he started waking up super early in the morning and waking up in the middle of the night, which he very rarely did before. He came in our room one night around 2:30am talking about the blue airplane outside his window. He went on and on and on....in my incoherent state at 2:30am, I kept putting him back in his bed, and he kept coming back! Patrick had a little more sense about him and finally rocked Peyton back to sleep. We came to the conclusion that he was missing all of the hugs and cuddle time that he got with us, and Mrs. Lauren when he was with her. He just seemed to want to be held a little more, which was totally fine with me!

However, all the hugs in the world wasn't preventing him from coming to our room at 5am to tell us that he was awake and ready to watch cartoons. We'd bring him back to his bed and he'd come wandering back to our room a few minutes later. At a more appropriate time, we would just get up. In his mind, if he was persistent enough, we would just give in. For him, he didn't seem to be grasping the concept that there was an actual time when it was time to get out of bed.

We decided that he was a little too young to tell time, but started looking for something that would help him understand the difference between night and day. And it was time to be drastic. $35 for a freakin' night light seemed a little extreme to me, but I decided that if I could sleep until 6:30am (I've stopped dreaming of ever sleeping until 8am again!) it would be worth every single penny. So we invested in the Good Nite Lite and crossed our fingers that this would help him understand the difference. We set the timer in the back so that at 8pm, the night light looks like a moon. At 6:30am, it turns into a sun. Well, by golly, it worked! He gets so excited about waiting for the sun to come up. There have been several mornings where I can hear him in his room talking to himself or singing, but he stays in there until he sees the sun. And then he throws his door open and comes running in our room to tell us that he sees the sun!

Our master plan backfired slightly this weekend, however, when it was time to take a nap. He informed us that the moon wasn't on. Right. We wondered at that point whether we would have to buy another one of these lights so that he would take a nap. Luckily, we convinced him that it was ok to take a nap without the moon. The pleasant part was that when he woke up from his nap, he stayed in his room because he didn't see the sun. Hee hee. I was tempted to use this to my advantage, but decided that I didn't want to push things, so I went and got him up.

This morning, I was afraid it had all come to an end. He woke up about 5:45am and came to our room to tell us that he needed to potty, which is fine, we have no problem with that. But my concern at 5:45am was that I had 45 minutes more to sleep and I figured I could just kiss those precious minutes good-bye. After he went potty, I told him that the moon was still on so that meant it wasn't time to get up. I explained that he needed to go back to bed until he saw the sun. I figured he would come back 15 times in the next 45 minutes. But back in his bed he went and he stayed there until 6:30am. Now, of course I didn't go back to sleep because I expected that at any minute he was going to come running back into our room. But I'm ready to sing the praises of this night light because it actually works!

Taking the responsibility off of us as to whether he's supposed to stay in bed or get up has made things much easier. He's willing to listen to the sun and the moon. Is there another light out there to tell him when to pick up his toys? Or when to wash his hands? Oh, the possibilities!

Peyton's New School

Peyton will be starting a new daycare on Monday - Children's Campus at Southpoint. Today we stopped by to introduce him to his new playmates and teachers and visit for a little while. I explained to him before we went that he was going to be going to a new school with new teachers next week. I told him that we were going to visit today and that I was going to stay with him while he played but that next week he would go by himself. He seemed a little apprehensive at the thought of being left there but I explained again that I would stay with him today. Then he wanted to bring his backpack. I'm still wondering how he knows that kids bring backckpacks to school. Although not necessary, the teacher did say that he could bring his backpack and put it in his cubby everyday if he insisted.

We arrived to his classroom and all of the other kids were eating their snack. He took advantage of all of the toys being available and dove right in to play. With what, you ask? The trucks, of course! The teachers kept the kids at bay for a little longer and let Peyton explore the room and get used to his surroundings. After about 10 minutes, Peyton put his hand on my cheek and sweetly said, "Mom, you go home now." I think he's going to do just fine on Monday. Me, on the other hand, that's a whole other story.