Train Ride to the Pumpkin Patch

Every year on Tyson's bye weekend, we try out a different pumpkin patch in the area. This year, we went to the Heart Dixie Railroad Museum and rode a train to a pumpkin patch. It was a pretty fun little trip; the whole "excursion" lasted about 2 hours, and both boys were awesome the whole time!

I had been looking forward to this trip for Jake for a while...the boy LOVES trains. And sure enough, he thought it was so cool to see all the different trains at the museum. The actual train ride, though, wasn't as big of a deal to him as I thought it was going to be. I think he was a little disappointed because the conductor never said "all aboard!" Poor baby, that's all he really wanted to hear! :( Oh well, he quickly forgot about it once we pulled up to the pumpkin patch.

Once at the pumpkin patch, Jake felt the need to pick up every pumpkin, inspect it, and then throw it back on the ground. I thought Tyson was going to have a coronary! Luckily, Jake didn't bust any of the pumpkins and eventually caught on to the fact that you just "gently" put the pumpkin back down if you don't want it. :)

Speaking of pumpkins, how do you go to a pumpkin patch and not come home with a pumpkin? Easy...you spend your pumpkin money on boiled peanuts and wine. Yes, boiled peanuts and wine!!! Classy, huh? There was Vineyard right next to the pumpkin patch that had a wine tasting for the pumpkin patch goers, and Tyson and I couldn't turn it down. The wine was amazing!! So anyways, the pumpkins were a no-go, but Jake never even noticed. Don't they sell pumpkins at Walmart? ;)

It was such a fun day with my 3 boys! I sure wish we had Tyson around more often on these beautiful fall weekends!

Brothers

After breaking down crying to my pediatrician last month about Jake and his sibling rivalry towards his little brother, I am happy to report that things have been going really well with the boys. I'm not quite sure what happened or what changed, but all of a sudden one day, Jake just fell in love with his brother and has been a different kid towards him. Don't get me wrong, Jake is not one to gush all over his brother and ooh and ahh over him, but he is acknowleding him, trying to play with him, helping me out with Walker however he can, and loving on him more and more every day. It's awesome and does my heart good. Maybe Jake is finally seeing how much Walker loves and adores him...who knows, but I just wish it could stay this way forever!

***Scroll on down, there is another post below! Have a great weekend! We have a fun one planned, so be on the look out for lots of pictures!

Walker's Walker

(Walker on the top and Jake on the bottom)






Well, I guess it is technically Jake's walker, but it's Walker's walker now. Does that make sense? Anyways, in a desperate attempt to find something to keep Walker occupied while I fix meals, clean up, do the dishes, eat, etc., I decided to pull out the old walker. Walker hasn't figured out how to "walk" in it, but it is definitely keeping him occupied just hanging out in it. Plus, Jake can now help keep Walker entertained by literally pushing him around the house in the walker. Jake has a blast, and Walker, well, the expression on his face in the picture says it all! Ha!

Wednesday's with Walker

Since Jake goes to school on Wednesday's and Walker doesn't, I get some special one-on-one time with my little man on these days. We play, we sing, he naps, he eats, and of course, we take a lot of pictures--the day is all about Walker. As I was feeding Walker some peaches this morning, which might be his favorite food so far, I decided to snap some pics of his messy little face. As soon as I snapped the picture, I knew I had seen that picture somewhere else before:

The picture on top is Walker and the picture on bottom is Jake the day before he turned 6 months. Look alike much?

Don't forget that UAB plays UCF tonight at 8/7 Central on ESPN. Go Blazers!

Soccer and Starting to Crawl?

SCORE!

SCORE AGAIN!!

My future goalie?

Let me just be honest here, Tyson and I are not big soccer fans. I'm still not sure why he isn't, but speaking for myself, it was just one sport I never grew up playing and I honestly have no clue how it works. I do know you aren't supposed to use your hands and that's about it. Well anyways, Tyson and I agreed to let our boys play if they were interested, and low and behold, Jake has shown interest in soccer. And according to Tyson (who apparently knows more than I do and even took a coaching class on soccer in college), Jake's pretty good at it...especially dribbling the ball.

Well this year, Jake's school started offering soccer classes once a week for 8 weeks; however, the class is for 3-5 year olds...and Jake doesn't turn 3 til January. Long story short, Jake said he wanted to play so we signed him up; he's the only 2 year old in the class, though, and is a good foot shorter than everyone else! Well, I went a little early to pick Jake up last week so I could watch some of his first soccer class, and he was awful! I don't know if it's because he is a good year younger than the other kids, but it literally took him 4 times to ring the goal whereas it took the other kids 1 or 2 times. I felt so bad for the kid! I will say this, though, he never gave up and just kept on trying and I was so proud of him for that!

Anyways, I went to Target this week and got him a goal and a new soccer ball to practice with at home, and I'll have you know that we practiced the same drill as I saw him doing at practice, and he can now ring the goal with only 1 shot! Yay! Practice does make perfect I guess...well, maybe not perfect, but pretty close!

Gettin' ready to go!...

...and then the dive for my phone!

...and then he's back up and ready to go!

The other day, Tyson asked me when Walker would start crawling, and I told him that even though Walker has already reached a few milestones before Jake did at this age, I didn't think Walker would be ready to crawl like Jake did this early on. But sure enough this weekend, Walker started using his arms some (and when I say "some," I mean very minimally!) to army crawl to get to things, and he started getting up on his knees into the crawling position! And just like Jake, as soon as he gets into position, he just dives for whatever he is trying to reach...mainly my Blackberry or the remote control! Ha!

Gosh, the thought of two mobile little ones sure makes me nervous! I'm secretly hoping it takes Walker a little longer to put all the steps together to this crawling thing; Jake doesn't quite understand the magnitude of leaving his toys (especially ones with little pieces) on the floor, so I need just a little bit longer to work on that. Plus, this means I have to step up my childproofing game again! Oh well, like it or not, here it comes!

Football Practice

My best attempt at getting both boys in the picture.
LB/TE drill with Tyson looking on.

Even though UAB had a bye week this week, Tyson still had to work this weekend. Boo! So I loaded up the boys today and we went to watch practice.

Jake insisted on wearing his faded and way too small UAB shirt, the worst pair of khaki shorts he owns that probably need to be thrown away, his boxy UAB hat, his scratched up sunglasses, and some socks that were too tall but just topped off his outfit. He looked so thrown away, I admit, but I just didn't have the heart to tell him how ridiculous he looked. I say all of this because Tyson only saw Jake from a distance but was quick to question his get-up when he got home. Ha!

The boys really enjoyed watching practice; Jake particularly enjoyed all the "tackling" and watching the quarterbacks drills, which he tried to mimic. Too cute! And Walker enjoyed drooling and watching his brother be silly and drooling. Ha!

Next up for the Blazers- UCF Wednesday night at 8 pm Eastern on ESPN. Go Blazers!