Happy Birthday My Little Man

I started blogging when he was about a year and a half so there is not much on here of him before that. So I will back up a bit today.

  It may have been three years ago that someone took this picture but I remember all very clearly.  This is not a labor story so I will not go into that but they were about to take him to the bassinet and I told them no and reached out for him.  I figured they could do anything they needed to with him on his Mommy.   I checked his toes to see if he got my stubby toes and he didn't!

Here he is all brand new and shiny.

Shiny, small, and yellow from jaundice.

 

I loved his frog legs, the way they would curl up together and his feet would go flat to his thighs. 

He spent a lot of time on the bed in his diaper in the sunlight.  He hated it.

He was so little!! But growing so fast.

This is how Lori and him spent a lot of their days.  He was and is a cuddly soul and wants to be in contact with a mommy when he is sleeping.  Lori loves napping so it was a pleasure for her to accommodate his request.   

This is around 6 months old and I think I was feeding him sweet potatoes that day. He started out a good eater and even now he eats all the foods we do and loves his veggies. 

I was always taking pictures of him and he learned to model at a young age. 

He is 11 months here.  Notice, he still has no hair! 

Two years ago today! 

A couple of months later eating what looks like chicken and puffs.  

And later, we have some hair! 

He has been helping me in the kitchen for a long time now.  I love him helping me, even when he spills all the peppercorns out of the pepper mill.  Which happens more than I would like. 

This was at his party last year.  I really went all out, at least for us, for this party.  I really enjoyed it but it is not something we can do every year!   

This earlier this year, he is growing so fast.  It happens right under my eyes so I don't always notice the changes but looking back at photos can bring tears to my eyes! 

He is working on his style now at two and a half!  I don't think he will be starting any trends but I think he pulled it off quite well. 

And at two and three quarters being a ring bearer at Jamie's wedding. 

And today at 3 years old! 

Happy Birthday Baylor!  Love you more and more everyday. 

Stasburg Railroad

Today was the day we had planned to take Baylor and his grandparents to the railroad for his last trip for the year on the train.  I read on the site they would be running the LO&S train but the did not mention it only holds about 30 people at a time!  We arrived at 11:40 and the 12:00 was already sold out and we bought our tickets for 1:00.  We decided to just stay at the station and walked down to the few open places on the platform.  

This is a steam tractor with a talking farmer.  I never listened long enough to know what he was talking about other than the pumpkin farm and play area up the tracks. 

Baylor spied the water tower right away.  That is a lot of water! 

We had never gone in the Thomas store and after Baylor saw the train table, we knew we were set for the next hour and 15 minutes. If only they had a lounge for parents to use while the kids play it would have been perfect. Instead we took turns watching him, but of course as the favorite parent, I took a lot of turns. I managed to get him out for a walk around the rail yard and we saw the coal pile, some backhoes and forklifts. A farmer was raking his field with his tractor and we watched him take a few rounds around the field. After another play at the table, we heard the whistle of the train coming back. To say he was excited would be an understatement!

After everyone got off the train, the driver had to go into the station and Baylor was about to go mad with anticipation!  He wanted on that train and he wanted on now. 

Finally we got to board. 

This train was kind of the efficiency vehicle of its time.  It could hold 44 people, the size of the people back there is definitely different from the size of people today!  There was no way Lori and I could fit in one seat without sitting on each others lap.  The don't sell 44 tickets so they are aware of the issue! 

Along the way, the farmers in this field were baling the corn stalks.  I know the Amish don't like their photos taken but I think with them living along the railroad, this is not the first time for them.  Due to construction along the line, we only went half way out the route and then the driver took his levers off the front and walked them to the back.  He gave information stops and tidbits along the way and was very knowledgeable about the trains and even the Amish.  Baylor fell asleep on the way back.  He did wake up at 5 am.  He is an early riser like me, even on my days off.  He stayed asleep while I got off the train and the walk to the car.  The transition to the car seat never works with him and he was half awake and he was cross, as they say on Thomas.  He calmed down on the ride home while I held his hand. 

We quickly made lunch, which was at 3!  With him having an interrupted nap, the rest of the day was a crap shoot.  He does not fall back to sleep when that happens.  After lunch I got the cake ready and he was so pleased with the candles especially the Thomas candle. 

Dad took pictures of Lori and I with Baylor but I did not think to have him use my camera.  I was trying to rush it before there was a meltdown but as you can see he was overjoyed! 

We ended up lighting the candles and singing three times.  He would have had us lighting and singing until the tall candles were melted to the cake but we cut it off at three. 

After I cut the cake, Thomas needed to take a ride on the track and down the cake! 

And then he went back up again! 

Grandma and Buddy bought him Goldfish crackers, gummy vitamins, a glass window ornament with cardinals, and a new snow suit!  And three big balloons which he loved! 

Sadly, Meme and Pap were not able to join us.  Meme is having knee surgery on Friday and she would not have been able to walk around with us or get on the train.  Baylor and Lori are going to go see her on Monday and they will celebrate with her then. 

I cannot believe that next Wednesday the 16th he will be three!  I am off that day too but it will just be Baylor and his Mommies celebrating! 

Do you think he will like it?

A Few More Weeks left in Fall

Well, I finally have the computer back. Baylor decided to knock over the laptop and the screen cracked. Two weeks and $200.00 later, it is home.  I am not sure if Baylor will be allowed to watch any videos on the laptop any more but we will see.  So the week before Halloween was wonderful Fall weather.  He had to go to the sitter's one day during the week and when we got home we played in the leaves.  I had a wheel barrow and so did he. We raked leaves into a pile and some we played with and some we put in the in the new compost pile. Lori humors me about my neurotic recycling and composting.  She made me a new place to compost but had her nephew take the old pile down the to creek bank to dump it.  Not sure why neither of the thought to put it in the new pile, but we are off to a good start anyway on the new one.

The sun was out and it was just wonderful fall weather.  I love spending time with my little man but too often I am trying to get something done while he plays around me.  I am not too plugged into what he is doing and I have a lot of guilt about that.  Maybe that is why I try to do something every weekend with him so we are just spending time with him and not doing something around him.

Another night, the girls came over to play.  We bought this digger for Christmas but he caught Pap putting it together in the garage.  It was all over then and he took it to the sandbox at their house right away.  It is still a Christmas gift but he is enjoying it now.  Every time we tare around one Baylor becomes obsessed with playing with them.  He waited in line the construction Rodeo to play with one there with love in his eyes the entire time so I knew I had to find one for him. Quick Internet search and email to him Mamma and it was on the way to our house. 

 He was building a foundation for the house and they all took turns digging. 

We made pumpkin cookies for work and his daycare.  He loves his sprinkles and I had to shake off the extra on many of them. 

I love his look at Mommy face! 

Finally, Thursday came around and it was trick or treat night.  Our town has it on Thursday so it does not interfere with any adult party goers.  ToT is 6-8 and I don't think there are too many drunks on the road at that time.  Having said that there were two children struck by a car that night and one boy did not make it.  He lived in the neighborhood and was a school friend of Joy and Sue's children.  It is so hard to hear about children passing and it is especially hard when they are so close to your own life.  You find yourself hugging your children more.

And Thomas was very hugable!!  It was a very cold night but he tolerated it well especially with ToT involved.  He is not too much into the candy as much as the whole activity.  He has Lofty in his hand.  We had bought the costume and then he decided he wanted to be Lofty.  So I told everyone he was Lofty dressed up as Thomas. Then we went over to see the girls.

We had a witch, princess and a train in tow. Natalie was sick last year and was not able to go.  Thankfully she was well this year and all three kids headed out to get as much loot as we would let them.

We walked over to the neighbor's on the other side to see Riley and they were the first house.  Then it was across the street to Mrs Kitty Goss.  She looks forward to seeing the kids every year. 

Her house in on the street level and while we were there, two fire engines came speeding down the road.  Natalie does not like loud noises and she would not watch.  Baylor on the other hand was about to jump into the street to get closer to them. 

We drove to the local neighborhood that while it does not have sidewalks either, it is at least off a state route that is always full of traffic.  We went to the same cul des sac we took the kids too last year.  There are about 5 or 6 houses with lights on and we went to them all.  The kids were very polite and very excited to go to the next house.  It was very cold and we did not go past that street. 

Baylor found a lollipop and wanted it for the 2 minute ride home. 

Saturday the October snowstorm arrived around 10 am.  Like most Pennsylvanians, we had to run to the store.  Not because we needed milk, which we did, but because I did not have enough coffee creamer to last the weekend!  I did not buy eggs or bread because we did not need to make french toast.  It started to snow when we were at the check out.

We watched the snow pile up and I think we went out three times to shovel snow.  It was a heavy snow and I know snow is wet but this was dripping! I could wring water out of my cuffs. 

Sunday was bright and shiny and right for melting snow.  Since Baylor was a little man I have been bringing him bowls of snow to play with inside.  His first one was when he was 13 months old.  Look at that big bald head!!!

 He wanted one this year too.  We went through several bowls of snow and several sets of outfits playing in the wet snow.  We used the new digger and built a snowman.

We did lose two good size branches in the maples but they were too high for me to be able to clean off and it really could have been worse. 

It took a few days for the snow to all melt and we are back to fall turning into winter.  We went to the garden center to buy bird seed and they are decorated for Christmas.  As we were walking in he said, "I think they are getting ready for Santa!"  This is the same place we had his Santa photos done last year.  He spent the rest of the time hollering "Merry Christmas" making many people smile.  Including me!!