Its Fall!

Its time for lots of fall things like leaves artwork! and other things below.


James' first "incident" at daycare is so ridiculously minor. He has a small scratch on his forehead and they weren't sure if he scratched himself at daycare or at home, so they wrote it up anyway. Honestly, I don't know either. It could have happened anywhere! I'm glad that they take little things like that seriously. There was another (unwritten) incident where another kid hit James a few weeks ago. They told me about it even though it was really minor and the other kid was the problem. I guess James handled it fine.


Mmmm caramel apples!


James has been enjoying his music class every Friday. I don't know if he has learned songs at the class or just in the general daycare, but we have heard him singing the Days of the Week song, and the other night at bedtime I heard him singing the months of the year! Such a smarty pants!


Such a wonderful skill. Opening the refrigerator door whenever he wants. Ugh!


James chose a yogurt for this unscheduled snack.




We knew Saturday would be a rainy, fall-like day so we headed to Edinborough Park for some indoor play. I wasn't feeling well so Dada (Jim) bravely followed James around the many levels of crawl space and obstacles.




Bounce House.


Edinborough Park also has a large gym space with plenty of balls, hoops, and scooters.






Dada needed a push.




Watch out!!


I tried this idea because I thought I would tempt James with a Meatloaf cupcake with mashed potato frosting, but he was hungry way too early and ate before I could finish making dinner. Oh well. I doubt if he would have eaten it anway! (This was a good way to make meatloaf, it cut the baking time down by half!)


For dessert and sharing at work- Pumpkin spiced cheesecake brownies. I guess there is a shortage of canned pumpkin so when I saw a stocked shelf at the grocery store the other day, I loaded up! I had to bake something pumpkin! Pumpkin also screams fall!!

Mrs. Tauer

Look at me!

I made the switch this year at work/school to Mrs. Tauer. The kids are confused. They are asking- did you get married? (Yes, five years ago.) Is your name still Lisa? (Yes, but that's my first name.) Why did you change your name? (I'm getting older ((does that equal a Mrs. though? It must in my mind.)) and all the teachers go by Mr. and Mrs. so now I match them.) Will I get in trouble if I call you Ms. Lisa still? (No.)

Oh, and look at my pretty new necklace! I love it. I bought it at the Venetian in Vegas. Its my favorite millefiori style of venetian glass. Millefiori means "thousand flowers".

I love art!

James came home with the most beautiful artwork from school. I suppose its from multiple days of school, and not just what he did on that one day :) The pieces are laminated so I think they used to hang on the walls of the school. I will have to take pictures one day of his classroom- its very decorated and fun!



Construction paper tree with red painted apples.


We are in awe of this piece of art- the teachers must have had a mess that day! It looks like James had paint up to his elbows and they placed his whole painted arm down to make the tree trunk! It is beautiful!




We have a lovely, decorated refrigerator :) I know I should let go of a few pieces of art soon and send them to Grandma or a Tia, but how do you let go? Its like the thousands of pictures that I have saved on our computer hard drives- how can you delete memories? Sure, I take probably tens or even a hundred pictures at a time, but they're all special. (Though I should really delete the blurry, unusable pictures!)



James has a new TV show that he loves- the Fresh Beat Band. A group of teenagers resolve some sort of conflict within the show and do it playing instruments! There's always singing, drumming, and guitar playing. The episode that James loves involves a bounce house and guitar playing, so tonight he jumped on the couch with his guitar. It was really funny!

Word cloud

Como Zoo and weekend update

First, a daycare update. Everything is still going very well for James at his new daycare. He seems to enjoy going every day to his "school". I still love the time of day when I pick him up and I get the most wonderful, sweetest greeting ever. "Mama! Mama!!" as he runs into my arms. He proudly points to me and says to anyone around him, "My Mama here!"

The "school" seems to have focused on the same theme for a while- apples and leaves. James brought this artwork home on Friday.

Tissue paper apple. The daycare laminated the apple so its shiny and smooth!


Construction paper leaf with orange scribbles.


So if I haven't mentioned it before, I missed our baby while we were gone on our vacation. It was a much needed vacation but we thought of James every day! I didn't get to see him until Thursday after work and I was DESPERATE to spend time with him. We had a good dinner and played. Grandma Laura stopped over unexpectedly.

So Saturday was our first whole day with James and we knew we wanted to do something fun. We took James to the Como Zoo. We really zipped through the zoo because James became so one-track with his thoughts of going golfing. I guess he remembered our last visit to that Zoo and that we had gone across the street to the mini golf course. I missed the whole golfing experience because I had to walk across the zoo to return our rental stroller, but I know the boys had fun :)

I didn't get many pictures because the zoo trip was so short, but James had a good time!

Looking at the turtles


We had a great time walking through the "jungle".


Sloth in the tree.


Wow! Bananas growing on this tree!


James is already starting to break the rules. He spun the wheel twice!


On the way home, James cracked us up! He was nodding off in the car, ready for his nap, but I was trying to keep him awake in the car so he would nap at home. I was talking to him and I gave him his Blankie to keep him company. He whispered to Blankie, "Blankie, are you tired?" and then he told us, "Blankie said he wants a nap!" I guess Blankie talks! It was just too cute!

I don't think Grandma Rosie had any use of time-outs, but we had to give a couple this weekend. James doesn't always follow directions right away so we do have to put him in the corner. Don't worry, its not often. And we tell him that when he's ready to say sorry, he is done. He's usually sorry right away and gives us a sweet hug and a "I wub you".


Grandma Rosie got him hooked on "cooking". James pretends to cook eggs (using his golf balls!) and he has a "stove" and uses my cooking utensils. I can never find them now, they're hiding all over the living room :)


Jim found this cool Dora game online that James loves. Its a Dora golf game!


My handsome boy!


Yup, he's going to a be a heartbreaker!

Videos

Just a couple of videos that I didn't upload the other day.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Vegas

I took these few pictures before we headed to Vegas for our anniversary trip.


James being dramatic on the driveway. He just laid there, not hurt or anything, but just to see what I'd say?


James has been great about helping me to water my flowers.


Grandma arrived on Saturday to play with James and then to take him for the week. Look at the mess!


We owe a huge THANKS to Grandma and Grandpa. I can't think of anyone better to take care of my little boy. Who else has so much love, enthusiasm and energy than this Grandma?! I knew we'd come back and James would be well fed, happy, and spoiled rotten!! I know that he already misses his Grandma because he told me so and he keeps calling me Grandma by mistake! I take it as the greatest compliment though :)

I put our Vegas pictures in a slideshow. I wish I could have taken more pictures!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We brought James a small gift from Vegas. He has been asking for a guitar and when we saw this one at FAO Schwarz, we knew we had to buy it! I forgot to upload the short video I took of James receiving the guitar, which is too bad because he was pretty damn funny! He did like the guitar and got right to playing :)