spiders

The preschool teacher asked me this week if we read a lot of fact books to Nate because he seems to want to throw out facts quite often in class. I hadn't thought that we did anymore than any other book. Since she has made this comment I have had more of an ear for how many times Nate does throw out facts. I am not sure where he gets his facts, but I do know that sometimes they are just things that make sense. Here is an example. The other morning Nate was talking about spiders. He mentioned that spiders like basements. I said, yeah I think they do like dark places like basements. He then said: "mom you know there are more spiders in the world then there are houses." I asked him where he learned that and he said he knows because there are spiders is everyone's basement. While we were out on the swings with the neighbors Nate said, "do you not that some daddy long legs bite?" I said, I didn't know that and asked him where he learned it. "After some thought he said from dad. Later I asked dad if he knew this and he said he did not. The neighbor at the time confirmed that she had actually heard this fact before.

Growth Spurts

Both boys are amazing us every day. I will start with Nate. Just this morning he said "Connor" starts with C "C-ONNOR" He has been doing this more lately. He will also say things like "bathroom starts with bath" etc. He is loving preschool. Not sure if this new line of thinking is coming from preschool since he just started, but ya never know. This is what his teacher had to say about him "Nate is doing great! He is easy going and goes with the flow. He loves sensory activitites and "science---exploratory" activities. He is very bright and has a lot to say. We talked about color mixing primary colors today into secondary colors. We read a book about color mixing. Ask him about the rabbit...he was white at the beginning and brown in the end. " We are so proud of him.
On to Mitchell. He is now crawling a lot. He also is into sitting up on his own. Now that he can do it he gets excited about doing it. He also gets excited about walking, with help of course. He also is very tickled with himself when he pulls himself up.
This past weekend we drove to Ohio to attend my parents annual party. My aunts boyfriend provides the music. It was an enjoyable time. Some high schoolers babysat for the boys. I think Mitchell didn't do to bad. It feels like his mood, since he can get around more, has brightened a bit more. He seems happier with others, unless of course he is tired and hungry. We also spent a lot of time on Saturday picking grapes, sorting them and making juice. I, Angie, had the joy of picking grapes in a downpour. We made over 40 quart. Now, I should be going to bed, but stayed up late to puree tomatoes to get them ready to cook tomorrow so I can can some more pizza sauce. We have really gotten into canning this year. So far we have made 21 pints of salsa, 11 quarts of green beans, 40 quart grape juice, 10 pints of pizza sauce and probably at least another 20 tomorrow. It feels so satisfying to put up ones own food.

MMmmmm Sweet Potatoes

So Mitchell is 6 months and 18.9lbs. He decided (after almost a month of trying) to eat food. He hasn't yet taken a liking to baby cereal, but sweet potatoes seemed to have hit the spot. He also ate about 140z of breastmilk under someone else's watch today. Usually in the 8 hour period that he is with someone else, he maybe eats 6oz. while I usually produce closer to the 14oz. He still needs to work on sleeping more during the day, but we will take what we can get. To update you, Mitchell is almost crawling and he's managed to pull himself up on lower things that he can reach. He has learned to move one knee forward and one hand before he goes to his tummy, then he will get up again and repeat the process. He propels himself forward in this manner. I don't believe it will be long before he moves forward without the tummy breaks between each "step" forward. Mitchell also likes to make noises with this tongue and mouth. He is talking a lot, by saying dadada, babababa, etc. Mitchell knows what he wants and will let you know if he wants something he can't get. He also is realizing when things are taken away and gets upset when that happens as well. He is still sleeping with us, but as of the past few nights, he is at least starting out in the crib. Usually though he wakes up to eat by the time I go to bed, so I don't really get to enjoy the benefits yet.
On another note, Nate started preschool this past week. This week is his first official full week. He is only going 2 mornings per week (Monday and Tuesday). It is quite different getting the kids around. I would always drop them off at an approximate time, but now I have to get Nate to preschool at exactly 8:50. Let's just say that, Mitchell is going to have to learn to be a bit flexible on Monday and Tuesdays. Nate seems excited about preschool. Today he told his grandma Reeser that his favorite part of preschool is the snack. When I asked him if he met any new friends he said "I am too busy playing, mom". Scott has mentioned a few times lately that it seems like Nate has made another leap in thought. He seems "more intelligent" as Scott puts it. He is suddenly using bigger words and seems to put deeper thought into his questions.
It is September and summer definitely feels like a long time ago. Today it was cold and rainy. We enjoyed one of the last warm days at our friends lake in Minnesota just over a week ago. We went to Minneapolis over Labor Day weekend to visit them. Nate was sad to leave his bestie, Leah, in Minnesota. They seemed to have a wonderful time playing their made up game of baby cheetah. Here is a nice political sign to end this blog...