Family visit and Pumpkin Patch

We all got a nice break from moving and settling into our new digs while Grady's aunts Tara and Annie and his cousin Austin came out to visit.  They were good sports about Fuzz's random night of constant yowling, the overly loud heating vents, the lack of room, and other "quirks" that we are finding and figuring out in the new place.  Grady was quite taken with everyone, but especially Austin.  Austin, in turn, was a very sweet older cousin, playing with Grady and humoring him when Grady pointed and waved at him.

We were a pretty active crew while they were here - voodoo donuts, Powell's books, walks around the neighborhood, and a pumpkin patch on Sauvie Island, among other adventures.

I thought Grady would be pretty excited by the tractor in the pumpkin patch.  What can I say - a mother is never wrong!

Uh, Grady?

Grady was quite impressed with the corn maze however - at least at first.  He had very definite ideas ("this way!") and actually navigated us through the first half fairly well.

Are you guys coming or what?

Follow that corn!

Grady sat it out (in the stroller) for the second half.  Oh, the second half.  Well, we didn't sink to the level of the woman who called 9-1-1 after getting lost in the pumpkin patch, but I can't say we wouldn't have done that had we thought of it.

Afterwards, we checked out the barn.  Grady, as always, was quite taken by the goats.

Do you see that protective fence in front of the goats?  Well for some reason, they neglected to put that in front of the goose, and Grady got quite a shock when he pointed his finger at it and it nipped his finger.  He was pretty inconsolable for a bit.  I think it was a mixture of the shock, the sting, and - as we later learned - the 102.5 fever he had that day.  Poor kid.  That didn't stop him from wrestling with some pumpkins, though.

Hmm....

That one!

So heavy!

I don't have pictures of the rest of the visit, except for one shot of the Wilkinsons - luckily, Matt has recovered from the tree coming out of his head.

Progress on the house is coming along.  The inside is basically gutted already.  It's pretty crazy to walk through and see the bones of it.  It was a bit of a "what have we done!" moment when we first saw them ripping everything down and apart, but we are optimistic that it will be well worth it in the end.

We are settling into the new house, and the cats finally seem back in their routine.  Where is Besa anyway?

 Grady's vocabulary continues to explode.  Every day he busts out a few new words.  Some he really struggles with and carefully articulates - triangle, gone/going.  Some he just says out of nowhere, without me realizing he ever knew them - crayon, heat.  He's putting more and more words together, and likes to tell stories with them.  For instance, the story of how he touched the goose poop at the park was a big favorite yesterday and even today.  (Don't worry, hands were immediately washed.)

He is sort of awkwardly running now, and continues to love to climb up onto everything.  He is also big into taking little steps by himself - off of small curbs for instance.  Navigating inclines and declines are also a pretty fun activity.

The other current favorite activity is dumping.  We have a box of Fisher Price "little people" (aka "poopoo").  He can easily spend 10 minutes just pouring them from one plastic box to another.  Not sure of the fascination, but it's nice for mom too, since I get a bit of a break while he keeps himself occupied!

And I would be remiss if I did not add the photos of the newest Wilkinson - here is Tuzz's debut, at approx. negative 22 weeks.

She was pretty spunky during the ultrasound, and over the past few days I've been feeling the jabs a bit more.  Grady was a very mellow baby in utero, but I sense a departure with this little drama queen.