Watch them grow, but don't blink or you'll miss it...

We went to pick apples the other day, which has become something of a fall tradition for us. We usually make 2-3 trips to the orchard throughout the fall and enjoy lots of fresh apples for eating, as well as lots of yummy baked goods, and home-canned applesauce throughout the winter. Joshua remembers last year's apple picking fondly, and he's been asking everytime he eats an apple all summer when we can pick apples again. It's quite hard to explain to a two year old who's in the process of eating an apple that there are no apples available to pick!

My kids have had a nasty cold all week, and by midweek we were suffering from cabin fever from being inside--however, where can you take your under-the-weather-kids that you're not going to run the risk of making a lot of other people sick in the process? With the perfect weather I decided on the apple orchard, much to Joshua's delight. So, the kids and my younger brother (visiting this week from MI, yay!) picked apples while I took pictures.

While snapping pictures, I realized this was one of the few things we have photos of Joshua doing each year. I can't believe it's his third season in the apple orchard already--and it's crazy to look at the pictures of Joshua from last year and think that Lydia will be that big next fall. I thought you might like to see some shots from previous years, in addition to the pictures from this week.

Anyway, the weather and the changing seasons have me a bit nostalgic today--where does time go?

Joshua, Fall 2006Look how tall I am, Mom!

Yum, Yum!
Content to sit and munch

Joshua, Fall 2007

No wagon this year, I can do it "by self"

"So, Big" (And, I realize, the only year he's facing forward)

Lydia and Joshua, Fall 2008

My newest apple baby (no, I didn't really let her eat a whole apple)

Look at him grow...

Back to the wagon, now pulling it himself

On the Move

It's been a busy week. Thankfully, it's been less stressful than last week, but still filled with somewhat notable happenings.

Weve enjoyed the weather, continued to watch the Olympics and spent time with friends, but mostly we've watched our kids grow up. They both seem to grow and change every day and it is hard to believe it, or keep up some of the time.

Joshua has taken up singing in the past week or so. We were shocked about a week ago when he sang, nearly perfectly no less, the "ABC" song. I knew he recognized a few letters, but didn't have any idea he knew the song and he's never really been in to singing even songs he knows well. (He loves to hear us sing and it's a big part of his routine, he just never joins in.) He's followed it up with renditions of "Jesus Loves Me" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" as well as "I'm a Little Teapot" as well as many made-up songs and snippets of TV-show themes, etc. All of our car rides recently have included hearty serenading, sometimes to the dismay of the stressed driver. All-in-all there's just nothing like your child singing almost anything in his sweet little voice. My favorite, however, came while we were walking the other night. Joshua was singing away to himself and started skipping along. Here's the conversations that ensued:

Joshua: "I'm skipping mommy"

Me: "I see that, why are you doing that?"

Joshua: "I'm skipping like 'myLou'!"

Lydia has decided that days of sitting and observing the world around her are over. And, she seems to think that one form of mobility at a time is not enough--she wants it all, and she wants it now! On Saturday she started full-blown crawling (defined by me as up on all fours, moving all limbs to locomote). On Sunday it was cruising--around the room and from item-to-item by Tuesday. Today we found out that she can climb up stairs...Yikes!

I've been instantly transformed into crazy child-proofing parent--except I've been lulled into complacency by 18 mos. of relative calm. I've gotten used to a child that knows what will support his weight or that you don't climb up if you can't get down. Now I'm trying to see things through a newly-mobile little one's eyes. Whew! It's just crazy to turn around and find Lydia someplace entirely different than where I placed her. The only time she's still is when she's sleeping...

Joshua is doing as well as can be expected with her ability to move to get the things she wants. Most of the time he's really proud of her--but when she takes something of his he's left lying around he tends to get really upset. We're trying to work on the "if you don't want her to get it put it away or up high" but he's not really gotten that concept yet. He's become quite the little boss recently and advises all of us (especially Lydia) about what we should or should not do.

It was mildly annoying at the time (but humorous in retrospect) when he decided to tell me when to pull out into an intersection the other day. Let's just say there's a reason that you have to be 16 to decide that on your own--his judgement was just a bit off, but he was very emphatic. As soon as the car in front of me pulled out, he started yelling "Go mommy--go now!" He is quite the champion on what the different light colors mean though. :)

Anyway, we're looking forward to enjoying a relaxing weekend and hopefully catching up on things around here, since we're leaving at the end of next week for an extended weekend with our extended families in Michigan. We're really looking forward to it, since we haven't seen any of them since June!