Field Trip to Post Family Farm

Yesterday was Joshua's field trip to Post Family Farm. I've been to this farm since before it was even popular and have lost count on the number of field trips I been on there - I taught with one of the daughters of the farm's owner so we were doing field trips there before it got so popular. Since I didn't really want to carry the 20lb. chubs with me Missy kindly offered to watch Matthew in the morning and I watched her daughter Matea in the afternoon so she could go with her son Eli on his field trip. It was delightful to be able to really concentrate on Joshua and give him that one on one time the whole field trip! Our morning was filled with fun including playing in the straw maze, riding the pumpkin train, petting the animals, going on a hayride, picking pumpkins and my favorite, eating warm pumpkin doughnuts (they melt in your mouth and if you haven't ever had one you are seriously missing out - a half dozen even found their way home with us)! Joshua's favorite part by far was picking the BIGGEST pumpkin he could find. Between being so busy this season and the frost ruining some of their small pumpkins they didn't have many small ones to choose from so they told us we could choose a large one which thrilled Joshua! He had his eye on one as we came to a stop on our hayride, ran right over to it and said, "Yep, this is the one I want. It's a HUGE one!" And huge it was, it was a trick to get it on and off the hayride.

Joshua liked this one because it was white, but the HUGE pumpkin won when it came time to pick one to take home.


Petting the bunny.

Riding the pumpkin train.

Cheesy grin from the pumpkin train rider.

Taking a picture of ourselves on the hayride was not an easy task, but we got a decent one!

Harvest Festival

Oh the lovely Michigan weather! We had planned on going to "The Zoo Goes Boo" with Shawn, Erin, Owen and Aiden this past Saturday, but due to cold temps and rain showers we opted to find something indoors to do so the little boys would be warm. I discovered that there was a Harvest Festival at a church close by and I bravely assumed that the activities would be indoors (and thankfully I was right). There were tons of games to play and for each one played the kids got to choose a piece of candy. There were other activities also like decorating cupcakes, face painting, tattoos, and and inflatable bounce house just to name a few. Joshua and Owen had a great time so mission accomplished for a cold rainy Saturday!

Bouncing around on the hippity horse.

Joshua and Owen thought this was the coolest bounce house given that they are both dressing up like firefighters this Halloween with their little brothers as their side-kick fire dogs.

Joshua got his face painted for the 1st time ever (he never has before because, "it's too messy")

Decorating cupcakes - YUM!

The more sprinkles the better according to Joshua.

Matthew is 6 months!

Unbelievably 6 months has passed before our eyes and Matthew is growing an developing at rapid speed, or so it seems! We are trying to cherish each moment of his babyhood, even the not so fun ones. Today he had his 6 month appointment with the pediatrician and his stats are as follows:



Weight: 19 lbs. 10 oz (84%)
Height: 27 1/4 in. (79%)
Head Circumference: 43.7 cm. (49%)

He is a big, healthy, strong little man who is developing well. He is still outgrowing Joshua in weight and height, but interestingly his head size is slightly smaller. At 6 months Joshua weighed 17 lbs. 5 oz.(50%), was 26 1/4 in. in height (20%) and his head measured 43.9 cm.


At 6 months Matthew . . .

~is sitting up on his own and is very stable. He has even gone from sitting up to manuvering himself purposefully to laying down. It's hillarious to watch as he sits he bends himself in half and shifts his weight and always has a huge grin on his face after he has accomplished laying down.


~can roll back to tummy and tummy to back - however it's kind of exhausting to move all that chub so a few times is enough and then he takes a break.


~is being weaned from breastfeeding and had his first taste of formula today. He is still eating 6 times a day.


~is eating solid foods and has progressed through almost all of the stage 1 foods. He has taken a liking to eating over the past week.


~is very ticklish, especially his feet. He also has laughing fits when daddy blows on the side of his belly.

~naps very well taking a 2 1/2-3 hour nap every afternoon. He takes a morning nap, but the time and length is inconsistent because we are usually out and about.

~has been crying out during the night and not sleeping well lately. He has had crying episodes for as long as 1 1/2 hours. The pediatrician thinks it's most likely a bad sleep cycle and teething, although she said it could be night terrors. Whatever it is we hope it stops soon as it's making for two very tired parents! Funny thing is Joshua sleeps right through all the crying!

~has been wearing 6-12 month clothes, but is going to outgrow them fast at the rate he is growing!

~enjoys playing with toys and tossing them off his highchair of course. He loves to sit on the floor playing with his toys and can entertain himself for quite some time.

~LOVES his big brother and watches everything Joshua does.

~squeals and screeches to let us know he wants to be heard. He is quite possibly the loudest baby ever!

~continues to be a very happy little guy who is full of smiles and giggles!

Ladybug Learning

Last night while Cory was grilling, Joshua our little nature lover discovered a ladybug on the house. As they looked around they noticed a few other ladybugs on the siding along the back of the house. Today as Joshua and I were outside feeding the birds we were surprised to see lots of ladybugs all over the siding of the house. Joshua grabbed one of his bug boxes and off we went collecting ladybugs. We collected somewhere around 40 and there were still some out of our reach that we couldn't catch. This afternoon during Matthew's nap Joshua and I searched the internet to see what we could learn about ladybugs, since I don't have very many kids books we could gather information from. We learned that ladybugs are different colors - red, orange, pink, yellow, green, brown, black and one site said blue - to ward off predators. We also learned that ladybugs hibernate when it is below 55 degrees outside, which explains why we've seen them today and yesterday with the warmer temps. Other things we learned were that they are actually beetles instead of insects and that their proper name is really lady beetles instead of ladybugs. I even found a video on the life cycle of a ladybug so we could watch it go from egg to larva to pupa to ladybug. Thankfully one site told us that if keeping ladybugs as short-term pets we should provide them with water on a cotton ball or paper towel and give them moistened raisins or other non-citrus fruits to feed from. There are lots of little facts we learned via the many websites we visited and Joshua loved them all. Then he got his journal out and drew ladybugs while watching the ones in his bug box. Love this age of being so curious about the little things in life and taking joy in them!

Observing and drawing in his journal.

He decided to make a green ladybug instead of a red or orange like we collected.




Green Ladybug

Two colorful ladybugs.

He asked how to write ladybug.

The final product. A red, blue, green and pink ladybug each on there own leaf.

(not sure why this uploaded in the wrong direction, but I can't seem to correct it)

Trunk or Treat

Saturday afternoon was Trunk or Treat put on at a local park in our area. The weather was picture perfect, except for the cold breeze so it was crazy busy, but lots of fun! There was candy of course, but also some cool things to see - a UPS truck, a firetruck, the Griffins mascot Griff and much more. Joshua was excited to see his friend Emma there too! Another fun fall activity and more use out of those Halloween costumes!

Joshua and "Curious George"



Joshua and Griff


Emma and Joshua being silly!

Posing in the firetruck with Emma.

Joshua by the UPS truck (he has a little replica of this UPS truck that he plays with).

Our local library had fake mustaches in their treat bags and we couldn't resist putting it on Matthew!

Playdate

Friday morning we met Missy, Eli and Matea at Koetsiers. They have a great fall set up for kids including pumpkin painting, inflatables to play in, games to play, corn to dig in and a maze to go through. Eli and Joshua had a riot trying out everything - seems they couldn't get enough of the maze of the inflatables though! Matea got in on some of the action too, including painting a pumpkin although I'm not sure if she enjoyed painting the pumpkin as much as she enjoyed trying to eat the paint the silly girl! Besides watching the big kids have fun Matthew did get to go in one of the inflatables that blows balloons around. Not sure if his screeches in the inflatable were letting me know he was having fun or if he was annoyed. The boys had so much fun, I think we stayed almost 3 hours! Matthew in the inflatable that blew the balloons around - probably mid-screech here!

Joshua loved chasing the balloons as they flew around.

Matea, Eli and Joshua having fun catching balloons.

Painting pumpkins - even Matea gets in on the action.

Relaxing and watching the big kids.

Painting pumpkins is serious business apparently.

Chillin' in the stroller.

The corn bin is always a big hit!

Allergy Testing

Since having an allergic reaction to peanut butter and getting a blood test 2 years ago and finding out that Joshua was allergic to peanuts we have wondered what other allergies I have passed on to him. We decided along with his pediatrician that it would be a good idea to get him tested. Yesterday afternoon the poor kid endured a scratch test on his back as well as skin tests on both of his arms. I had prepped him the best I could for this painful process, but even with that he cried and screamed during each of the tests and progressively louder with each test (I secretly wished they had put us in a soundproof room)! I wasn't exactly thrilled about Joshua's inability to cope during the testing, but the nurses reassured me that all kids scream and cry during it. They actually said he did very well. One of the nurses who held down his legs during the scratch test didn't want to come and help with any more tests on Joshua because she said, "his tears made me want to cry." One of the other nurses was surprised at how strong his 4 1/2 year old little body was. Thankfully he didn't go through the testing for nothing. They discovered that besides peanuts Joshua is also allergic to tree nuts, specifically almonds and pecans. He is now to avoid tree nuts as a safety precaution. They also found that he was allergic to cats, dogs, dust mites, mold and trees (yes, trees - talk about vague). People have asked if we will be getting rid of our cat due to his allergy, but what is not understood by most is that if you live with a cat for an extended period of time you build up an immunity to that cat. Since our cat Logan has been around just shy of Joshua's whole life there is an immunity built up. Thank goodness, because Joshua loves Logan! The doctor said that given his genetics (ah, that would be all the crappy allergies I have) he is prone to develop other allergies as he grows older. They think he may actually outgrow his peanut allergy, so we will keep testing for this every year or so until he is found to be in a "safe zone". I hated to put Joshua through this, but wanted to know what we were facing when it came to allergies and his safety. Here's hoping he doesn't hold all this trauma he endured against me!

The scratch test on his back.

-14-09+Allergy+Testing+002.jpg"> The peanut and treenuts are all in a line on the bottom.

Skin test on his left arm.

Skin test on his right arm.

Photo Shoot at the Fire Station

Thanks to friends of ours we were able to take some pictures of fire fighter Joshua and fire dog Matthew on some firetrucks. Thanks to Joel for allowing us to do this!

Farm and the Pumpkin Patch

Last Saturday we went to the Potter Farm for our annual fall visit. This year Farmer Joel invited the whole Hager clan and we all got to go on a hayride around the farm! The kids enjoyed Jeep rides and tractor rides of course. We took some pictures of the kids all dressed up in their costumes too. It was a bit chilly so we were all bundled up, but it was a blast! After the farm we made a quick trip, due to the rain that had begun, to the pumpkin patch across the street to get our gourds and pumpkins to decorate with.

On a hayride!

Not sure if Matthew was diggin' the hayride.

Poor Aiden and Matthew were very bundled up for the hayride.

Farmer Joel stops the hayride so we can visit the horses.

The cousins- at least most of them.

Feeding the horses some grass.

Joshua and Nicholas having a hay fight!

Uncle Paul and Owen join in!

Hay flying everywhere!

Picking a pumpkin at the patch.

Ready to chop down the corn.

All of the Hager cousins

Our little firefighter and his fire dog.

(This was the best shot we could get with all the distractions around.)