Life With a 1-Year Old...

...is crazy! Dan has been a lot of fun these past several weeks since my last post. He has been working on some sign language with the sitter and can now sign "more," "all done," "milk," and "food." Although "food" isn't extremely clear at all times, we get the picture. Also, "more" is more like clapping than the actual "more" sign. It works. We know what he's saying. We're working on "please" and "thank you" right now. I still can't say enough good things about our sitter. She has been doing a fantastic job with Dan. She brings him and her son to the park when the days are nice, does art projects to keep them busy, plays with the neighbor kids when they're home. We are definitely lucky to have found her.

So, what have we been up to since Dan turned one. Let's see, the day of his birthday Dan came down with Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease. No, not the same thing deer get. This is one of those childhood rashes like chickenpox or measles. Typical symptoms start with a fever followed by a few days without eating followed by the spots/blisters that center around your hands, feet, and mouth (hence the name). Dan caught it from the sitters son, who caught it from a neighbor kid who had just gotten over it. While the sitters son expressed your typical symptoms - fever, little appetite, blisters - Dan only developed the blisters. There are several reasons why I think that was the case, but the two big ones are that he is still breast feeding and that he hasn't been vaccinated. Strong immune system that hasn't been compromised due to vaccine ingredients plus the extra boost from breast milk makes for mild diseases. If you would like to know more why I haven't vaccinated Dan, please comment below.

We had Dan's 1-year pictures taken just over a week after his birthday. Here are some of my favorites.

The look he has in the last one is priceless! If you are a fan of the show "Friends" you can almost hear him saying "How you doin'" just like Joey.

That was September. In October we celebrated the end of football season. Jason's team won a few games this year which is a vast improvement over last year. I don't think the varsity or JV teams won a single game last year. Congrats to Jason, the rest of the coaching staff, and the players for a successful year!

Towards the end of October we also spent the day at a local pumpkin farm. They had a bunch of activities for the kids and you got to go pick your own pumpkin. It was a pretty nice set up. A little pricy ($10 per adult), but it looks like Dan had fun.

Playing in the corn pile

Sliding down the big slide with Mama

Time to pick out a pumpkin!

With fall also comes leaves. Now for those who have seen our house, you know how big our trees are, and how many we have. For those who haven't visited (and why haven't you?!?!?!), we have 5 very mature silver maple trees and one mature Norway maple tree. That equals a LOT of leaves. Here's pic of our first fall at the house. The pile of leaves spanned the entire front of our property.

Fall 2009

That is me standing in the street! And yes, we can rake our leaves into the street as the city picks them up for us. SO thankful for that! I can't imagine how many bags we would need to use to pack all that up! This year Dan decided to help out. That's Daddy's empty can he's lugging around with him. Working like a true 'Sconie already!

Fall 2014

 The local fire department had their open house mid-October. This was Dan's second trip to a fire station. Here's a few pics from that.

I think the coolest thing that happened during October was I got to attend a birth as a doula! This mama was pregnant with #2 and wanted a home birth like she had hoped for with her first before the doctor played the "dead baby" card despite her healthy pregnancy and baby. After a lot of hard work getting into a steady labor, she delivered a healthy baby girl in the early morning hours of October 22nd. It was extra special not only because it was my first birth, but October 22nd is also the anniversary of my Dad's death. To witness new life coming into the world the same day my Dad left was incredible.

Of course, with October we can't forget about Halloween! Jason really wanted Dan to go as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. I really liked the idea, but never found a way to get the costume without spending a fortune. I probably could have made one, but the time just wasn't there. So instead he went as a minion. All we had to do was buy the hat. As you can see in the picture, he didn't really like the hat. So we went around trick-or-treating in just the overalls and shirt. The second picture is from a house down the block from us. I thought it was pretty cool that they set up the skeletons on their bike!

Otherwise, we are working on getting Trooper's allergies under control. We went ahead and did the skin test to see what he's allergic to. Turns out a lot of trees, some grasses, and dust mites. Oh, he also came out positive for human dander. I'm going to try and see if we can't manage the symptoms using essential oils and other supplements before we do the injection treatments. Not only are the injections expensive, they are life-long. The first month alone you need to inject them every other day, and you won't start seeing results for up to 3 months! Yeah, not fun.

Anyway, I hope one of these days to get pictures of our basement put up. All the big stuff is done, just need to get some pictures hung on the walls and find a desk and rug for the office. The bathroom is still under construction, but with all that we've been doing, plus me now having a regular yoga class, time goes by much faster than what we would like.

I hope to get back into regular posting here as the holidays are upon us. I hope fall has been treating you well!