outside

It is so much fun playing with NJ outside. He loves to run all around our backyard. The smile and excitement on his face is so awesome. I sat him on the limb of a tree in our yard and he thought that was so cool. Experiencing things like sitting in a tree for the first time is so neat to watch.

The one thing that bothers NJ about the backyard is the fence. He is drawn to it and starts shaking it. He doesn't seem to like the limitation. Sometimes NJ acts like a free spirit that doesn't want to be fenced in and sometimes he can't cling to me hard enough.

There is something about being outside that is nourishing to both mother and child. The sun perks me up. I especially love it when the humidity is low. We are gettting into some nice fall weather that is baby friendly!

stir crazy

Yesterday morning I was a bit stir crazy. I decided that NJ and I needed to get out of the house. I knew that Toys R US didn't open until 10 am. So, I thought I would see if there was a park nearby. I stopped by the public pool nearby because I thought there was a playground there. No, I was wrong. Just a basketball court. So, NJ and I waited in the Toys R US parking lot with the other moms and their kids anxiously waiting for the store to open. NJ got so excited when he saw the Diego toys and books. I ended up buying a Diego book because he didn't want to put it down. I was going to buy him some more toys anyway. I don't have that many age appropriate books for him. He is bending the pages on most of his books that are too old for him right now. I also bought him a beaded maze block. It is a wooden box with a wire beaded maze on top. He played with it all afternoon yesterday. He loves it!

I am going to have to find something to do to get out of the house more often. We have MOPS on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays. I enjoyed the meeting and am looking forward to the next one. I am thinking about taking NJ to the Deanna Rose Farmstead next week. They had a good playground for toddlers.

I always thought I was a homebody. Until I am home all the time.

pics of NJ

The top pic is NJ after his haircut. The middle pic is NJ before his haircut at Bass Pro. The bottom pic is NJ right after his haircut from Dust.

Dust, the barber

Dust gave NJ his first official haircut on Saturday. We recently purchased an electric hair trimming set--what barbers use. I was not familiar with how to use the different size combs on the trimmer, so Dust was the barber. NJ was a very good patient. He sat still on my lap as the buzzing trimmers went over his scalp. I know that I wouldn't have been able to swipe my little boy's beautiful hair away. NJ had some really long bangs! There were some long pieces in the pile on the floor after the haircut.

My little NJ looks very clean cut now. It wasn't a buzz cut--there is some length to it. He did, however, lose the golden glow that his hair once had. His hair seems duller to me now. But he is still my cute little boy! I will post some pictures in a later post.

Labor Day weekend

Dust, NJ and I went to visit my family in southern MO. We had a really great time. On Saturday, we all went to "The Landing". It's similar to "Legends" in KC. My brother's girlfriend also came with us. It was our first time meeting her-she's really nice. We had dinner at Garfield's. Dash, we didn't have the steak-a-lada this time. But we all had steak besides my brother's girlfriend. She's a vegetarian.

On Sunday, we went to SDC. It was extremely crowded. We were hoping to make the church service at the Wilderness Church at 11 am. The traffic and crowds got us there too late. Dust mentioned that we rode the barn swing ride. It was pretty cool! NJ enjoyed watching us from below. Grams (my mom) said that his head followed the pendulum back and forth. It was southern gospel picnic weekend. We saw Dottie Rambo in concert. It was a blessing that NJ slept through the entire concert sitting with Gramps (my dad).

On Monday, we went to Bass Pro in Springfield. It was my Dad's birthday and he picked Hemingway's for lunch. NJ enjoyed watching the fish in the equariums. He wanted to run around the store--which was the bad thing. Overrall though NJ was pretty good all weekend! I really enjoyed being with my family and we had lots of fun!