PYO Blueberries

I haven't been to too many farms around here, but I can't imagine it would be easy to beat Honey Pot Hill in Stow, MA. They have a little area with animals (goats, chickens, rabbits, and literally, three little pigs), a great farmstand with soft serve, cider donuts, lemonade slushies and fresh produce, and amazing blueberry picking. They don't charge a fee to get in and it is almost always quiet. (How many years do you have to do something in a row before it is considered tradition? We went last year for Ashton's second birthday and went again this year right around the same time. I just re-read that linked post and it's funny because I have nearly the exact same pictures for this one, just with a bigger kid!)

We ventured out to Stow last Saturday with my friend Kathleen and her two boys, Jackson and Adrian. I believe I've mentioned them here before but she is extra-special to me because her husband has the same schedule Jason does - he works evenings and weekends too. She and I have had standing Friday night pizza parties all summer, our boys get along great and in general it's just nice to have someone to hang out with during what is usually family time for most people. She had never been to Honey Pot before so I couldn't wait to show her how cute it was.

Honey Pot has two blueberry picking areas, the best one is a few minutes' walk through the woods.

Off we go!

Ashton was very serious about his blueberry picking. Frankly, it was odd. He was nearly silent the whole time with like laser-beam focus. It really wasn't necessary because there were blueberries everywhere. You could have closed your eyes, ran your fingers through the branches and come out with a perfect handful. They were just falling off at the touch. Anyway, at one point I looked over at him and he was kneeling down with his carton on the ground, sorting through, picking out the "bad" ones and pulling off any stems that he could see.

We had such a good time! The boys were finding huge berries and even Alex stuck his chubby little arm out once or twice to get in on the action. I had him in the carrier and he did great.

Our "mom" pics :) Because darn it, sometimes we should be in the picture too!

After we had full cartons, we walked back to the main farm, had a picnic lunch, got some ice cream, and fed the goats (the goats are up on a very high platform and you can send a can of feed up on the trolley = endless entertainment, or would have been if we hadn't run out of quarters!)

After we got home and Alex went down for a nap, Ashton and I made muffins, because that's what you do with fresh blueberries.

And that, my dear readers, is the latest in my PYO series. Hard to believe, but it's likely apples are next...the summer heat has definitely left the air and apples mean fall and cider and sweatshirts...I have mixed emotions on this but for now, I am enjoying these gorgeous, humidity-free summer days and I know Ashton is too!

Before and After: Doorknobs

This post is going to rival the one about my mailbox in terms of excitement level. By the end, you'll look down and realize that your socks? Those things were knocked clean off. So here we go.

Our house was built sometime around 1920. We have fabulous vintage glass doorknobs that I have always loved and a very antique-y looking decorative panel behind it. What I have not always loved is that they are a tarnished, scuffed gold color. Observe.

There is a doorknob and panel on each side of every main door in the house, and also hardware on the inside of the closet doors as well. There are upwards of, oh I don't know, 10 doors? It doesn't sound like a lot but each set went through the following beautification process.

First, I unscrew the knobs and panels and give them a good wash. Then, and this is the most annoying part, I have to tape off the glass part of the knob just so.

Then I gin up some sort of box-structure that can support the knobs being pushed through from below, leaving only the metal part showing. I punch the screws in, lay the panels, and spray baby spray.

Patience is the key virtue here. The spraying itself takes 8 seconds, but you have to take your time with the proper taping and also give it plenty of time to dry in between coats. This particular set belongs to Ashton's door - Jason took him to Long Island for three days (hellooo peace and quiet!) so this has been the first opportunity I've had to take off the door hardware for the amount of time needed to pretty it up. They left Sunday and I just screwed it all back on this morning after three coats of paint over two days.

A true before and after:

Isn't that so much nicer? But you can see why this takes so long. I made the mistake of trying to do a bunch of sets at a time a little while ago. Screws got lost and things didn't fit when I tried to put the hardware back together after mixing up the parts (this stuff is old old old!). But now I am just about done and basking in my oil rubbed bronze transformation.

You are now free to go find your socks.

Don't blink or you'll miss it!

Alex just turned four months old...*blink*...oh wait, you mean he's five months old?! What just happened? Some sort of magic trick that eats time for breakfast? Seriously it has a been a finger-snap since I last posted about his age. Right??

[Recovering from shock.]
[Let's start again.]

Alex just turned five months old. I have no stats because there is no pediatrician appointment until September, but he's bigger, fatter and heavier than he's ever been ;) I shouldn't say fat. We all know muscle weighs more than fat and that's what this kid has. Muscles. From bouncing <--- That's a YouTube video where of course (you guessed it) nothing happens.

I swear it is all he does. Maybe because that's where I always put him (haha). But seriously, you touch his thigh and you can totally feel the strength underneath all that fat I mean muscle.

Besides dispelling the notion that white men can't jump, the other big news this month is that Alex officially wants nothing to do with sitting in a reclined position. Which means, buh-bye swing and buh-bye bouncer (technically, it's the Baby Bjorn Babysitter Balance. What's with me and the links to my favorite baby products lately? Is anyone paying me for this advertisement? No. But anyway, do yourself a favor, note the astronomical, completely unjustified price and get a used one. The seat is worth it. Oh, but don't come home without the wooden toy bar that goes with it.) Anyway, Alex spends most of his time in the jumper and the rest of it in the Baby Einstein. All this is to say, he's upright and working on his mobility. It's actually really funny, when he is put down in a reclined position (including his carseat) he fusses and tries to sit up, which results in something that resembles baby crunches. If babies did crunches.

Alex celebrated his five month birthday on a walk around Fresh Pond, which was actually meant for his older brother who needed to scooter something fierce. Alex seemed to know this and fell asleep.

And then later on, we got out the trains. Ummm, also an activity meant for his older brother. But he was a good sport about it.

If Alex were a Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavor, he'd be "Milk and Cookies". Warm, comfortable, and sweet. Smells good too. (Ashton on the other hand..."Coffee, Coffee, Buzzbuzzbuzz!" He'll wake you up without a second thought and keep you there!)

What else about Alex at five months? Overall he's doing great (not sleeping through the night, but that's okay)  and every day he is more aware of the world. He wants to grab absolutely everything and stick it in his mouth, including grocery carts and my ponytail. Silly Alex. I hope that doesn't mean that teeth are on the horizon. He was just born for pete's sake!

Ashton turns 3 - Part 3

It has taken me two years to recover from Ashton's first birthday party. I mean, for real. There were actual invitations for that, I rented linens and tables and chairs, made paper flag bunting and favors...I even had signs for the drinks. It took like a month to pull off, we had way too many people, and it was approximately one thousand degrees out.

So I never threw Ashton a second birthday party. This year, on his third birthday, I invited three of my friends that have kids that Ashton hangs out with a lot. (Three year olds get their friends picked for them I'm afraid. If I'm friends with the mom, Ashton is going to be friends with their kid. That's the breaks.) Don't be deceived, between me and the other moms, there were eight kids/babies, but I knew that was as much as I could handle so I kept it small. Plus I had nearly no time to put something together so I said to myself, "I'm just going to set up the pool, sprinkler and water table in the backyard and call it a water theme."

Here we go with the "water themed" birthday party. First, the setup.

(Sorry Patty for the balloons, if you're reading this. I disposed of them properly!)

That awkward blue "table" in the front is where we did our ocean-in-a-bottle craft. I pre-labeled the bottles with their names and pre-filled them with some clear baby oil, and the kids added blue water, sparkles, sand, shells, and fish.

Afterwards I hot-glued the bottle tops on and that was that! They came out...okay.

I should have used more baby oil in each bottle. The idea is that when you swirl it, the oil and water don't mix so it's kind of a lava-lamp effect. Or, um, should be. It was also a disappointment that all the stuff we put in sank. It would have been way cooler to have stuff suspended between the water and the oil when you shook it. Oh well. It killed about 6 minutes of the party ;)

Then we had pizza, cake and presents (I made crazy cake, wacky cake, depression cake or whatever you want to call it because of Ashton's egg allergy (depression cake because that's the era the recipe came out of, when it was hard to get milk, eggs and butter - this cake has none of those ingredients)). It was blue with some plastic fish on it. Water theme, remember?

Both boys wore clothes of the aquatic persuasion.

Now at this point I hope you are thinking: what is that amazing shark watermelon behind Ashton just there? Well, the answer is, it's an amazing shark watermelon! Yes, I carved it. Ashton "helped".

And it came out great. I made some blue jello (hellooo, the water) and it was the piece de resistance at the party.

I gave out the Melissa and Doug "Water Wow!" books as party favors and that, my friends, is it! I think Ashton had a great time turning 3. And I also think we've beaten this topic to death, so this is my last post on it. I can hear your sighs of relief! ;)

Ashton turns 3 - Part 2

We are a week past Ashton's birthday and yet, it is still going on somehow. At bedtime just tonight, I said, "What song should we sing?" and without missing a beat, his answer: "Happy Birthday Ashton". He asks for cake at least twice a day. Actually, it's more like he demands it: "Where my birthday cake? Gimme it!". And he still has presents coming in, so I'm not quite sure how to cut him off. We threw away the last of his cake last night so that's a start (he insisted that we put a candle in and sing, that's when I knew things had gone too far). I said, "One more bite, and this is going in the garbage." But I said "garbage" in the french style "gar-bajjj". Ashton looked really confused and asked why we would put his cake in the garage.

Anyway. As is tradition, let me tell you how Ashton spent his birthday weekend. Saturday Jason took him to his first movie, Disney Planes 2: Fire and Rescue. I implored him to get a couple of good pictures. You know, for the blog.

Mmmm notsomuch. Now, you know if I had taken him, I would have done "Ashton't first movie" justice with a good solid post. But according to Jason, there was nothing to say about the experience. They didn't even make it through the whole thing. Soooo useless. So I saved his ticket stub and what else can I do but move on?

Sunday morning August 3, his actual birthday, he woke up in his Bubble Guppies 'jamas and had a bagel. His favorite.

Because we were on vacation and time ended up getting away from us, Jason and I found ourselves with no presents at this particular juncture. We had pow-wowed about getting him a big boy bed, hoping he would associate turning 3 with growing up and not needing a crib anymore. But it was the day of! Even if we had the money for this ridiculousness, he would never see it within the next 8 hours. The only place we could think of to go, to get the whole kit and kaboodle and bring it home that day (bed, mattress, sheets, etc) was...Ikea (insert music from Jaws).

Pretty much any parent will tell you, Ikea is a f^%@&^$#%*#king nightmare with kids. Every time we go we ask each other why we did that. Honestly. But we braved it, Ashton picked out his new bed, we brought it home and set it up.

It's a little underwhelming, I agree. But for $40, that's what you expect. I've already thought about beefing up the headboard somehow. 

In the meantime, Ashton doesn't even sleep here. His crib was moved to the opposite wall and for now, that's where he feels most comfortable. We read books on his bed and I ask him if he's ready to try it, but no. I finally ordered a bed rail off of Amazon so when that comes, we might just disassemble the crib and try our luck.

We ended August 3rd with a little dinner, a little cake, and a few presents from people that were not Mom and Dad ;)

He hasn't quite gotten the hang of the bike yet, I think we need to raise the seat. My kid is learning to ride a bike and is heading to preschool next month. Whaaaaat.

OH MY GOSH. You guys. I can't believe I almost forgot to mention this. So in my last post, in my loving letter to Ashton, I told him we were going to need to ditch the paci now that he was 3. Out of all the things we need to conquer at this age, I was dreading the paci almost as much as the potty. Ashton is like an addict. He'll even double up if he gets the chance.

I know he has a secret stash somewhere because he'll just show up with one in his mouth. And he steals from Alex! It's bad. Real bad.

I'd read lots of ways to get rid of the paci. Take them to the post office and mail them to babies that need them, have the pacifier fairy come, cut off the tips, go to build-a-bear and put the paci inside, etc etc. I couldn't imagine any of these ideas working.

I came home from work last Thursday and Jen said, "Oh by the way, at his naptime today, I told Ashton I couldn't find his pacis and that Mommy must have them. He seemed to accept it and napped completely fine without them. He didn't even cry."

I think I felt something like this.

But I knew the true test would be bedtime that night. After his tubby, he started asking where they were. He said, "You have them!" and I told him I did not. We "looked" everywhere: under his new bed, behind the chair, inside his dresser drawers...I nonchalantly said, "Oh well! Guess we'll have to sleep without them. Now lay down so I can do your blankets..." and, no joke, he sighed and said, "oooooo-kaaaaay".

That's it. And guess what - he is now, like, five days sober! Oh he's almost relapsed a couple times. He'll pull Alex's paci out of my bag, hold it up, look at it, look at me, look back...but every time I've calmly said, "That belongs to Alex" as if I'm barely paying attention and he puts it back! This is, for lack of a better word, monumental. Overall, it seems he outgrew them on his own and was just waiting for me to notice. And until I did, the pacis were kind of like free food that's left in the conference room at work. You don't need it, but it's there, so you have some. Maybe you even go back a couple times until catering takes it away. That's me in this situation! I'm catering! And those pacis are gone.

The last installment in Ashton's birthday series, Part 3, is forthcoming.

p.s. sorry my ice bucket link didn't work in my last post. If you haven't seen it by now, and want to, *click here*.

Ice bucket challenge!

Anyone who is on Facebook has seen the incredibly viral "ice bucket challenge" going around to raise awareness for ALS. I haven't been nominted yet, which I am 100% fine with, but Jason was last week and then yesterday, Ashton was! He was thrilled. We may or may not have done it several times, and also may or may not have used warm water ;)



(Note: if you get my blog posts via email, you won't be able to see this video. Head on over to http://anewnill.blogspot.com/2014/08/ice-bucket-challenge.html to watch!)

Ashton turns 3 - Part 1

There is a whole world of "mommy bloggers" out there and I have read lots of their stuff. Usually on birthdays or special occasions, they write long sappy letters to their kids, highlighting their favorite things about them and describing the impossible love they have for them. I'd like to do that, except Ashton is such a darned PITA lately it's hard to think of what I would write. The 3's have already hit, and hard. It's not terrible twos, it's terrible three's. Trust me on this. But anyway, I'm going to give it a try.

Ahem.

Dear Ashton,

You turned 3 two days ago. I can honestly say, this year has gone the fastest and you are all of a sudden an actual, real-sized kid. Not a toddler, not a baby. A kid. Allow me to tell you about yourself.

You love fruit snacks. They are probably your favorite food. You don't really eat baked goods, ice cream or candy that much so these are the next best thing. As such, you ask for them all the time and I have learned very creative ways of saying "No." At least, I think they are creative but you know what I'm really saying and after asking and asking and asking and asking for yet more fruit snacks and not getting them, you throw yourself on the floor and cry like there's no tomorrow. You scream. I honest-to-god worry what the neighbors think I must be doing to you. You also love crackers, and I think you might just love to say the word because you find a way to repeat it all the time. "Cackers! Gimme CACKERS! Cackers cackers cackers, mommy, I want cackers." You are my little cracker monster.

While we are on words and therefore speech, you can't say "r" or "l" very well and some of your pronunciation is downright hysterical, but you talk up a storm. For whatever reason, popsicles are "copsicles" and popcorn is "copcorn" and those are just two examples of the many little word-isms that you have. Some of the things that come out of your mouth stop me and/or your dad right in our tracks. In a good way. We love sharing stories about you between us. One of the things we always say to each other, apropos of nothing, is "God he is so big." Like we just can't believe our eyes sometimes. And it's true, people comment all the time on how tall you are. Here are your latest stats:

Height: Ummm...
Weight: Well...

See, what happened is, I forgot to make you a 3 year pediatrician appointment. I called on Monday to ask when it was and they said, "You never scheduled it." I said, "Really?" And they said, "Yes." "Didn't you even call to remind me?" "Yes, we did."

Oops :-( So, it's in September now.

Besides being big, you are incredibly rambunctious. Loud. "All boy" as they say. You run, spin, bounce, jump and hurl your little body everywhere. You love to swim, scooter, swing, and slide. Dirt is your friend and your knees often look like this.

I always joke that it's hard to tell which is which between the dirt and the bruises. It really is! Our poor bathtub is perpetually brown because you love dirt so much. You put it in your water table. And then you get the garden hose and make a mud puddle to drive your trucks through.

Our laundry machine has started to ask for more money. I might take it from your piggy bank.

You also love construction vehicles, trucks, trains and all those boy toys. I swear, I did not push you that way. We bought you that stuff because that is what got you excited and happy. The day that there were actual, real-life machines working on our street was the best day of your life.

What else. Oh, haircuts are a disaster. You are the king of "two minutes!" when it comes to transitioning and I don't know what I would do without my iPhone timer. And while I'm on my iPhone, you know how to use it. It's scary. What is also scary is that when we read the classic books, like Goodnight Moon, you don't know what the black thing on the nightstand is.

You ask me "Where's the phone Mommy?". I presume millions of other kids don't recognize it either. Nothing proves that "times change" more than watching my kid learn about a world that is different from what mine was. Preschool starts in a month and will be the official beginning of your education.

Anyway, as busy as you are, you always settle down for your stories before naptime (which is about 2 hours in the afternoon) and bed and it is one of my favorite times because you are still. You sit on my lap, listen and ask questions and I love it. What I don't love is reading the same book a zillion times but you seem to find it comforting. [Side note: some of the books that are out there boggle my mind. I think to myself: "someone made actual money by having this published? A monkey could have written it!" and I've added "come up with children's book idea" to my list of things to do. It honestly can't be that hard given what's made it to the library shelves.]

When it comes to Alex, there isn't exactly a "world's greatest big brother" t-shirt in your dresser ;) But you are getting there and learning he is not a toy. "Gentle" is your key word. When Alex needs a diaper, you are right there to help me and when he is crying, you pat him and say "I right here All-yex, I right here." Or you run to me to tell me he needs a paci. You proudly show strangers "your baby" when we are out and I know it won't be long until you are best friends.

I have some tough business coming up as your mom. We have a lot of transitions to get through. 3 seems like a monster age and what was acceptable when you were 2, well...some stuff has gotta go. Specifically your crib and your highchair at dinnertime (perhaps I'm the one clinging to these because they confine you!). Also, your pacifiers and diapers (yesterday marked the first potty poop so we are on our way!). But it's hard not to feel like I'm failing or that everything is my fault. Like I should be stricter with your paci, or the reason you're not potty-trained is because diapers are just flat-out easier for me. Maybe you don't listen because I don't enforce consequences. Sometimes I'm so tired, you watch more TV than I'd like. We should brush your teeth twice a day but only do it once. More vegetables, less fruit snacks. That kind of thing. But even as I stress about my own shortcomings and the day-to-day, it can't change the happy, healthy, energetic, curious little boy that you are and for that I am grateful. You and your brother are everything I live and breathe for. This blog exists because of you and is a testament to the joy you bring to my life. I'm sarcastic a lot of the time because frankly it's funnier and no one likes to read sappy letters like this. But it's your birthday and this is what mommy bloggers write on birthdays ;)

xoxoxo
i love you i love you i love you
Mom

[edit September 2014: Ashton weighs 38 pounds and is 40.25 inches tall]

Summer Vacation - Block Island 2014!

Block Island is one of our favorite places to spend a week every summer. It's relatively close (90 minutes to ferry, then 55 minutes across if you're on the slow boat with a car), unpretentious and beautiful. The beaches have nice soft sand and the ocean is warm and clear. Most people know we got married there 5 years ago and overall it just has a special place in our hearts, especially now that we have children to take with us. So we went last week, stayed in an incredible house, and enjoyed the most perfect weather anyone could have asked for. We had all kinds of family with us but by far the best part was watching Ashton have the time of his life. He swam, boogey-boarded, hunted for frogs, fished for crabs, ate hamburgers and ice cream, built sandcastles, had a mini early birthday and got a shark tattoo. It's permanent. Just kidding.

Here are some of my favorites from his many BI adventures this year.

Haha I love this one:

He and Grandpa were totally worn out from a long day at the beach. They were watching cartoons together :)

This was Alex's first year on BI. Well actually, when we went last year, I was about 6 weeks pregnant with him so technically, his second year. You just can't see him in the picture on the left.

This was standing in almost the exact same spot in the exact same bar restaurant. Let me tell you, nothing puts a damper on a beach vacation like no margaritas, so this year was significantly better in that regard.

Anyway, Alex had a great time too. Although you can't tell by some of these pictures. Babies are hard to photograph, their faces always look so different from shot to shot. Like these first two:

Maybe I'll do a post called "Is it Alex or is it not?" and mix in his picture with other babies and see how well you do. Ehhh, that would be boring. Not as boring as my mailbox post but still boring.

Where was I. Oh, Alex's BI pictures.

After all those pictures of Ashton and Alex, we attempted some good Nill family photos...

 And actually took a lot of selfies, whether with Jason's arm or the camera's self timer ;)

First night:

 Last night:

With many, many more in between. You think I posted a lot here? You should see my iPhoto album ;) I have three problems with my picture-taking that result in these photo-heavy posts.

1) A kid that moves at the speed of light, making 9 out of every 10 shots blurry.

2) No time to actually learn how to use my camera. And let's be honest, no interest either. It is perpetually on the "Auto" setting, so I click and hope it knows what it's doing. Because I sure don't. 

3) FOMO ("fear of missing out", for those not up in the acronym world). On not properly documenting so I can post it here, of missing an important milestone, of Ashton's perfect smile or one of Alex's firsts.

So for these reasons I take a gazillion photos and hope that a fraction of them come out well. Just in case. And I tell myself, I can always delete some, which I do, but thousands still remain. Oh well. 

The moral is, I hope you can tell we had a wonderful summer vacation. I think I took enough pictures to prove it ;)