Pumpkin Patch with the Petersons

On Saturday we went to a great pumpkin farm we hadn't tried before, where we were joined by our friends Danny and Sylvia Peterson and their wonderful kids Julia and William. There were a million other people there, but the farm was spread out and we had plenty of room for animal petting, hay rides and all that. It was a blast.

Julia looked after Oliver a little bit -- especially when he took off running from the group to see the baby chicks again. She chased after him and herded him back. She also took him on a little ferris wheel for kids only.

Here William and Oliver help push the cart with our pumpkins to the weighing station. Strong guys!

Last Days of One

Oliver turns two on the 28th. We've been working for a while on his answer to the question "How old are you?"

"One!"

So now we'll have to do some new training. In the meantime, he's speaking in full, if challenging, sentences. We're having so much fun with him!

I took this picture a couple days ago when I picked Oliver up from daycare. He seems to be the only kid in the room, but there were several others. Here's the gang that gathered around me when I came into the room.

Oliver is about to transition from the "Wobbler" room to the toddler room, where he'll hang out with 2 and 3 year olds. He spends a couple hours in that room each day. The great thing is that, as Jenny and I are working on the potty training at home (not much progress yet other than some useful vocabulary), the daycare will reinforce the lessons. They have a bathroom right next to the toddler room for just that. Won't that be great!

Oliver is really into his blocks and we have a great time building houses and choo-choos with them. Sometimes, he'll just spend a long time, quiet and absorbed, sorting them by color and shape, or building little structures like this:

A blurry shot from our walk this afternoon (with Abbie in tow).

Sunny Weekend at the Beach

Last weekend we loaded up the boy and the dog, some Bob the Builder videos and buckets and boots and tennis balls, and went to our favorite beach getaway -- Proposal Rock in Neskowin. We've gone there at least once or twice a year for a long time now. We like the dog-friendly rentals right off a beautiful beach and a creek perfect for dog splashing. The weather was amazing, sunny and warm. We were so ready for rain! In fact, we wished we'd packed shorts, sunscreen, and flip-flops.

We last took Oliver here when he was just six months old. I remember he just sat there in the sand, tasted some of it, and smiled at the wind. This time, he was much busier. He found a bucket of toys in the condo and brought as many as he could hold out to the sand, where he had a lot of fun just shoveling sand and flinging it as far as he could (a lot of it into his own hair, and a bit into mine). There was also shell collecting, wading in the creek, running after seagulls, and throwing the ball for Abbie (who is always disappointed to have to chase a ball less than ten feet.)

-Keith