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Other Notables

Here is a run-down of other things going on at our house. Conrad is quite the little caretaker. He loves playing with his "baby" = Jill's old cabbage patch doll. He has learned to open the drawer below the oven and enjoys playing with the lids and dragging them around the house. We also changed his carseat to forward-facing and as the picture indicates, he is loving it!

Pumpkin Patch

I really, really wanted to start the tradition of going to a pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin. The first patch we tried had already closed but Dad came to the rescue with the hunch of another one in nearby. Conrad was happy to chill in his now forward-facing carseat for the ride.

The pumpkin patch was more than I could hope for. Piles and piles of pumpkins, hay bales and scarecrows. All of this complete with a Conrad size fence and lights on a string. Conrad loved running around the patch and even met a four-legged friend. She was so sweet with Conrad. He was content to follow her and her family around the patch.

Yes, we paid more for his pumpkin then say the $4 pumpkins at the grocery store. But, the extra money was well worth the family time and fun we had searching for our pumpkin. What Halloween traditions do you have?

Fall Festival

We had a dress rehearsal for Halloween at Conrad's Fall Festival on Friday. He, surprisingly, only tried to take off his costume one time! He participated in most of the activities: the duck pond, the fishing pond, the photo booth and the cake walk (he won on his first try!).

'Tis the season

to find ways to give back. As I have been trying to de-clutter some of our closets, I mean organize, I was shocked to find that lots of junk followed me to our house! My kitchen with all of it's glorious cabinets, has 4 junk drawers! YIKES!! In one of them, I found an old cell phone from ages ago.

Now, I'm trying to be a responsible citizen since having a kid so I: vote at each election (but especially this one!), recycle, am slowly switching to green products, bought energy efficient appliance (I LOVE those front loaders-- not that I can take credit for doing any laundry-- Love you Hubby!!) and looking for ways to donate my junk versus filling a landfill.

So, I have a couple of ideas. One is obviously the cell phone and October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Here are a couple of ways you can donate your old cell phone:

1. National Coalition Against Domestic Violence: http://www.ncadv.org/takeaction/DonateaPhone_129.html This has a pre-paid mailing envelope you can print out for mailing. It doesn't get easier than that!


2. Donate your spent battery here: http://aboutus.vzw.com/communityservice/hopeLineRecycling.html and your used phone to any Verizon Wireless retail store.


3. Cell Phones for Soldiers http://www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com/shippingLabel_generic.html If you have AT&T it appears they will pay your postage for you. You can decrease your postage by not including the battery...which you can donate at Verizon Wireless see #2.
   

So which one am I going to do? Hmmm... I'm not sure so maybe I will need to find another cell phone lurking in a junk drawer.

Paying it forward

We truly are blessed and I need to realize this more often. Rather, I need to take heed to the old addage "Count Your Blessings."

One of our blessings is that in less than two months, no more formula. Buying formula at about $25 a can weekly or more was definitely an expense I thought we would avoid with nursing.

On more than one occasion, we have gone to purchase formula to find a store coupon hanging off the shelf. You see, some blessed soul saved all those crazy coupons that print out at the cash register based off the food you bought that day. Instead of throwing theirs away (of which I am very guilty), they slipped there's under the item.

So, I started to pay it forward with the formula coupons. But as I was shredding receipts yesterday and found a bunch of those coupons expired and co-mingled with receipts, I realized I had been slacking on paying it forward.

Anyone who has bought formula knows how even just a few dollars off formula can save a ton. I'm going to be better about paying coupons forward. I know it brightens my day when I've found them under a formula. Thanks for the blessings!

Ingenious- water playscape

As if running away was not enough celebration of Conrad's 10-month milestone, he was treated to his very first visit to a water playscape. How ingenious is this idea?!?!? Combining a play area with spraying, dumping, shooting water!

Conrad was a bit apprehensive at first (see pictures with shirt on), but then got into the groove of things. He was the only kid there at 10am but it wasn't long before 3 brother arrived and showed Conrad the ropes. He had a lot of fun trying to keep up with them and was then amazed by the buckets that unexpectedly dumped water. I couldn't pick just one favorite pick of the day so here are several. Enjoy!

Escape artist

Conrad reached several milestones today. He is now 10-months old. We are still trying to figure out where these last 10 months have gone or where that little baby has gone.

He also ran away from home. He got as far away as the driveway so not so far. Barry had the door to the garage open and the garage door cracked about a foot or so to ventilate. We finally are getting some cool mornings. This has become somewhat normal to have these doors open. Normally, Conrad steers clear of the garage, but today curiosity won out.

After a couple of retrievals from the garage, we closed the door. A little bit later, Dad decided he would open it again (unknown to me). All was quiet which now means Conrad is somewhere doing something he shouldn't.

Suddenly, Barry yells that Conrad is out on the driveway as he is running to the front door to unlock it and get outside to capture the runaway. I run after him and sure enough, Conrad is standing on the driveway looking very PROUD of himself.

Come to find out, Barry saw Conrad go out into the garage and kept an eye on him to see what he would do... and when he started to go under the cracked garage door that's when he decided to intervene. Ya think?!?!??!

This hammers home the point that we have and will have our hands full with all of Conrad's "adventures" to come.

Tongue roll

So I wondered if Conrad would be able to roll his tongue like I can. Barry cannot. I thought rolling your tongue was an inherited trait. So, who's genes would win out on this one?

Caught on film by his Aunt Jill today (granted, he was probaby coughing, but nonetheless, a tongue roll) my genes won out! Or so I thought until I did some research here and here. Bummer, it turns out it may not be genetic afterall. But according to one of these websites, he maybe inherited my moter skills... maybe that's why he was a walking machine before 9 months!

Who can roll their tongue in your family?

The Backyardigans dance

Conrad loves himself some Backyardigans. Everyday when him and Dad get home from work and daycare, Dad puts on The Backyardigans for Conrad for distraction while Dad puts away all of his bottles and etc.

One day, Conrad will think this video is embarrassing. For now, we think his dancing skills are super cute.

Lazy days of summer

Today's weather was just way too nice not to enjoy the outdoors. Finally, a nice breeze and less than 95 degrees!!!

Conrad loved the swings at your park. We've decided he must have some allergies because he eyes were watering and nose was running (at least more than usual). Nonetheless, he loved running around the park. His favorite parts: sticking the woodchips in his mouth and digging in the dirt. No pictures of either of those events as he kept us occupied running after him.

We look forward to taking him to nearby water park where he can splash out all of his energy.

Grandpa visits

Pictures coming soon... or as soon as they are emailed.

Drummer boy

Not so long ago, Conrad and I escaped the doll drums of the burbs and headed downtown to visit Auntie Z. She has some really cool stuff for Conrad to play with... Kitty, Kitty's cat food dishes, miscellaneous items not put out of Conrad's reach (oh, how we miss the days of leaving pens, books and magazines lying about).

Most of all, he loved or hated (some of both) Joe's drum set. He was completely surprised at how much noise it could make. After some prodding, he took the drumstick and started banging away. He made so much noise he made himself cry but kept on banging: pa rum pum pum pum.

Joe and Auntie Z are convinced he needs a baby-size drum set. Yikes!

Daycare chronicles

So Conrad was kicked out of daycare this last week until Thursday due to thrush. Last week, he had croup for which he was prescribed an oral steroid (which did NADA except make him hyper and more irritable so I don't recommend this to anyone). Apparently, the oral steroid gave him thrush which Dad discovered Labor Day morning feeding him breakfast.

Back to daycare he went, and he was sooo happy to see his teacher and she him. Each day, we receive an "Infant Daily Report." This usually just has his naptimes, diaper changes (we always hope to see BM checked off for us) and of course, his many feedings throughout the day. Occasionally, his teachers write a memorable or cute moment from his day. Here is the note we received from Friday, September 5th:

"When J.D. [a younger baby in the same class] was crying, Conrad found J.D.'s pacifier and put it back in J.D.'s mouth. It was cute."

We're sure Conrad knew how much J.D. wanted his pacifier. Afterall, he loves his too. And, we were relieved that Conrad was not found sucking on J.D.'s pacifier.

Fenced out

We finally broke down and purchased a baby gate for our study. The study (besides being a catch all room and very messy) just had too many fun things for Conrad to get into:

• pushing the printer off the stand



• eating the printer paper



• playing with the Playstation controllers



• tipping over the paper shredder to knock off the top and proceed to eat the paper shreds



• banging on the keyboard



• tearing the DVDs off of the media storage, etc..
  

Conrad was amused with gate while I was putting it together and has since tried to climb through it. Eventually, we would like to get doors for the study. But for now, this cheap, quick fix works great.

Thanks to LBJ's birthday, I didn't have to work today (skeleton crew day means day off if you want). Conrad went with me to my dental cleaning then went to my work to show off his new walking skills. We then had lunch with Barry at his work. He impressed all of his coworkers with his walking and warmed up to his coworkers and explored the office.