Can you catch a chicken?

We visited a local farm this weekend as part of the Piedmont Farm Tour. Griffin got to see a variety of animals, but he was most interested in trying to catch the chicken they had running loose...

Here are a few pictures.

Griffin's Boo-boos

Griffin was playing at a friend's house on Saturday night and his dump truck went faster than he could on the concrete driveway. The result...knees meeting the driveway. He didn't really cry at the time...but when we got home and washed his legs off...boy, did he cry then. Anyway, his knees are slowly healing..but that is a bad spot for a little active boy to have hurt knees. He's ripped the wounds open almost every day since Saturday. He's a tough little boy and he'll soon have the scars to prove it!

A little boy...

Yesterday evening a couple of the older neighbor boys were playing in our yard while Mike and I were out working. These are 8-10 year-old boys horsing around. Griffin promptly took to playing with them and he had no idea he is only just under 3 and they are much bigger than him. He was having so much fun and I was thinking...where did my baby go.

Griffin is growing up so fast! He definitely thinks he is a big boy.

Despereaux

Griffin has absolutely fallen in love with this movie. Grandma and Grandpa gave it to him in his Easter basket and we've watched it many times already. What is really great is to see him act out things later. During the movie the little mouse uses a needle as a sword to help save the princess. This weekend Griffin promptly took the 3 pieces of our vacuum cleaner (the crevice tool and two extension pieces) and pretended he was Despereaux.

I finally ended up putting the two extension pieces away in the closet so he wouldn't lose them. Sunday night as Mike was getting ready to vacuum, he asked where the crevice tool was. I said I had no idea. I had seen Griffin playing around on the deck with it so I took a flashlight and looked around the deck...not there. We then kind of just forgot about it because we didn't really need it at the time and figured it would show up.

Fast forward to Monday morning.... Griffin and I were getting ready and Griffin was playing in the laundry room. He messed up the blinds a bit so I pulled them up to fix them. Lo and behold, what do I see, but the crevice tool laying out on the roof outside the laundry room window (our laundry room is on the 2nd floor). I asked Griffin to look out the window and tell me what he saw. He told me he saw the needle. And I asked him why it was out there...he said he was done playing with it so he put it out there. Ha, ha! Yes, Saturday I had the window cracked as I was doing laundry and he and I were in the laundry room (there is no screen on that window yet). Somehow he managed to throw the tool out on the roof and I never noticed (I was watching to make sure he didn't himself try to get out there--but I never thought he'd throw anything else out there).

The boy cracks me up... And, I handily used the broom to get the crevice tool back in the house. What fun!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Here's a birthday wish from Griffin!

Mr. Independent...

Griffin has reached the age of independence.... He wants to do everything by himself. He also now thinks he has a sense of fashion. He told me Monday that he didn't want to wear the shirt I got out for him because it was too big! It's so interesting to see how he changes and grows each day. He's definitely no longer a baby...now if we could only get the potty-training underway!

Do you see your shadow?

When I picked Griffin up from school yesterday he told me they were reading a book about the bear seeing his shadow (don't know the actual name of the book). Griffin mentioned the book several times so apparently he liked it. His teacher told me he had it all figured out. They talked about shadows in the morning and in the afternoon when they were outside, she asked if they could see their shadows. She said Griffin promptly responded "no" and when she asked why. He said it was because of the clouds. She said he figured it out before they even talked about it (they had talked about needing the sun for shadows, but they were going to talk about what happens with clouds today).

I have no clue how he figured that out. Their little brains certainly soak up a lot of information--and it makes you doubly aware of what you are exposing them to!

Murry and Autumn go a roaming...

Things have been super busy for us so I haven't been able to get on to update. But, had to share a funny story.

When I arrived home yesterday evening, the dogs were their usual excited selves...wanting to go out to go to the bathroom. I took them out and noticed the were sniffing around our yard a lot. When we got back in the house, Murry immediately sat down next to the water bowl. I filled it up and both dogs ran over to drink (I thought this was a little odd--they weren't usually that excited for water!).

We went about our evening and a little later one of our neighbors that lives up the street came by. Apparently we left our back door partly ajar yesterday morning so the dogs managed to open the door (Murry definitely knows how to use his nose). The dogs had quite the time running around the neighborhood. They didn't have their collars on so we are lucky they didn't run away. Both dogs were so excited to be out (sadly, we don't exercise them like we should) that there was no way they were willing going to come up to our neighbor when she saw them by her back yard. She bravely decided to use her beagle as "bait" and took him out to the open field by our house. Both of our dogs came charging up to the beagle and thankfully just sniffed him. Our neighbor managed to get the leash on Murry (there was no way Autumn was getting close enough for that). She took Murry into our house and Autumn followed.

We are so thankful our neighbor took the time to do this for us! And, obviously, we've learned you just never know what your pets may be up to during the day when you are not around... (We double and triple checked all the doors were shut and locked this morning!)....

A Floating We Will Go....

Here are a few pictures from a recent canoeing trip....

Halloween!

Griffin got to partake in several Halloween/Fall festival parties. Here are a few pictures....




We took Griffin around the neighborhood for "trick or treating" and while we were just taking him around for fun, he quickly caught on that the other kids were getting something. So, soon he was getting a piece of candy at each house. We only let him have a couple, but he was asking to go trick or treating for several days after!

Refrigeration Required

Well, we have now had our first "emergency" appliance purchase. Last Tuesday I noticed our morning bagels were not frozen (after they had been put in the freezer on Monday night). Tuesday evening we discovered most of the items in the freezer were on the way to being thawed, while the things in the refrigerator were cool. We didn't get to the store that night (it was too late, by the time we discovered everything was thawed) so we went Wednesday after work. Of course, they couldn't deliver the fridge until Thursday. But, we are happy to now have a new (working well) fridge.

I will say though...one day without a fridge, made us realize just how much we rely on our daily conveniences!

Griffin's Treasures

Oh, to see the world through the eyes of a 2-year-old! This afternoon as Griffin and I walked from the daycare to the car, he stopped to investigate and pick-up many treasures. Of course, he wanted to bring them home. He has always been very observant, but now he seems to be becoming even more enchanted with the world around him. Here's a picture of all his treasures....

He also made this handy, dandy pumpkin during art time today....

Feeling yucky in the tummy...

We'll we have experienced another official rite of passage into parenthood. Griffin had his first bout with a stomach bug of some sort on Sunday. He had been fine--we got home from church, had lunch and went out to play in the yard for a little bit. We got back inside and were getting ready to go to the store and Griffin started complaining of his head hurting. I had gone upstairs to get some medicine for him. Mike was playing with him in the mean time (trying to distract him because he was upset and we weren't sure why). Mike had him lifted up in the air (as he frequently does) and heard some unusual gurgling sounds. Mike quickly figured out what was going on and put Griffin down--but the damage had been done...Grifin was covered from head to toe (literally). Not a pretty site. And, the poor little boy had no idea what was going on. Somehow, through all of this, Mike managed to stay clean (which I think is a great feat, considering he was holding him up in the air).

Griffin spent most of the afternoon laying by mommy and sleeping. He still had a fever when he went to bed, but was already back to eating some by that point. He stayed home from daycare on Monday (as a precaution)...but was back to his old self.

All in all, I'd say we were fortunate. I'm sure we will have many more of these types of adventures to come in the future!

So, it may take me a while...

Well, it may take me a while to become a regular at blogging...but, I'll keep trying...
We wanted to share some pictures of our house. We took these earlier this summer, shortly after we moved in.

And, Mike has now successfully painted one room in the house...here's one of he and Griffin putting primer up on the walls!

Griffin is the typical 2-yr-old and wants to be part of the action!!

The Future's So Bright...

Well, nothing major happening this week. Griffin is really liking his new daycare and he has generally been in a good mood in the evening (until he gets sleepy or hungry). A few nights ago, he decided he wanted to wear his sunglasses while we were eating dinner. Here's a picture of it. (Of course, as soon as he saw the camera, he started saying "cheese.")

And, this is a video from about 6 months ago when we discovered he said "cheese" when seeing the camera...we still don't know where he learned that from! (He says it a little more clearly now!)

Trying this out

After some inspiration, I decided to try this to see if we can keep up with all of our out-of-town family and friends more regularly. We'll see how we keep up with this! Here's an old picture of the dogs I had on the computer. This was pre-Griffin days when the dogs actually got out of the house!