Bates Nut Farm Luca is 11 months, and pumpkin painting

It was fun to visit Bate's Nut Farm Again. We hadn't been there in 3 years since I was 8 mos pregnant with Chiara.

It was a very windy day, but we still had fun with Marc's brother as we went through the the hay maze, picked out pumpkins, took a hay ride and saw the crafts and animals.

 Cousins

 Getting lost in the Hay Maze

 Waiting in line for the tractor pulled hay ride

 My handsome and wonderful husband

 Chiara (very dirty!) sitting on a giant pumpkin

 Luca was mad because he wanted to hold the 11 months sticker

 I got a gray pumpkin from Bate's and colored some of the ridges. We mixed food coloring with old latex house paint and it worked! Below, we helped Marc's nephew turn his pumpkin into a purple minion from Despicable Me II

Luca is 10 months

Luca is crawling and pulling himself up on everything!

The blessing of Friendship

I only consider very few people in my life "friend" and of those there are even fewer who I truly trust and feel I can count on.

My friend Shari and I have known each other since we were 18, we met the first day of our freshman year of college. We were fast friends and we have been blessed to live 40 mins from each other and have had our kids within the same years, although hers are a few months older.
Waylon is Chiara's best friend. I'm not sure if it is because he is the only friend she has who is close to her age, but their personalities are so similar and they have so much fun together. Waylon's little brother is only 5 months older than Luca, so I hope they have as much fun together as Chiara and Waylon do.

Thank God for friends

Chiara...2 and 9 months

Chiara is growing up too fast! But I'm having fun with her new sense of self and independence. She always wants to help in the kitchen and is almost completely potty trained!  What's been really cute lately is that she wants to have "circle time" and be a teacher. Now I'm not sure if she thinks all adults are teachers since most of the adults in her world are, and she has been to both Marc and my classrooms. Yesterday, she put on back pack and said she was going to work and kissed Luca and I "goodbye". Today, she took out her stuffed animals and made a circle. I am enjoying her ability to play more independently, however Luca and I do join her most of the time.

Miss. Chiara's Class

Luca is 9 months

Luca is 9 months! I'm already planning his 1st birthday! He is so much fun. He laughs at himself and others easily. He communicates well when he is pleased or tired or mad or when he wants something. He is very loving. Luca actually has a great throwing arm. He loves to throw a tennis ball to myself or Chiara and he even stops/catches it when it's rolled back to him. He can feed himself small pieces of food and claps. One of his favorite things to do is open and close drawers and cupboards. He can pull himself up and scoots on him bum. I was worried he didn't care to crawl, but his Dr (who I knows her stuff) said he is perfectly fine in every way and may even be advanced so if he has decided scooting gets him where he wants to go just as well as crawling then its ok. Being a special ed teacher, I want him to meet the milestone of crawling to ensure proper development, but God has His own plan for Luca so I'll wait to see if he is an early walker or crawls after all. Here he is!

Summer Fun

Here is a composition of all that we have been up to this fine summer

Sea World: I was home with a sick Luca so I missed out :(

The Beach

4th of July

Luca turned 8 months!

 Papa Sal will be in California for a while so he can receive radiation treatment. He never goes any where without his harmonica! Chiara is the only other person Papa allows to play his harmonica.

Luca 7 months

My handsome boy!