31 for 21: Day 11, FAIL, Try Again

Apple picking and pumpkin patching with the crew yesterday. It was a spectacular, perfect fall day and every year this particular outing gets a little easier and a little more, dare I say, fun?

OY. I am not doing well at this 31 for 21 this year. I had such high hopes for myself.

Let's go for some bullets, shall we?


-Leo is still difficult to understand speech-wise. I won't lie when I say I would have thought by now, at age 11, things would be clearer. I'm guessing this where we are for him and that breaks my heart a little because he has SO much to say. I suppose I should be grateful for that at least, right? But he's likely always going to be tricky (for strangers and people who don't know him well--most of the time his family/friends/teachers do OK but even we are still perplexed and yes, frustrated). However. I love that his speech is getting more advanced and interesting and mature. This morning for example, he busts out with "Speaking of apple bread..." (We were discussing what we could make with all the apples we picked.) I mean, "speaking of...?" Just love it.

-This week was a doozy for Ellie. It feels like the bloom is falling off the rose on the new school year: Apparently third grade is a "big deal" (this is news to me as this is my first time going through third grade for a 100 percent gen ed kid). Multiplication, long division, more and more standardized testing. The list goes on and on. There has been a lot of talk of feeling "pressurized" (Ellie's words) and worry about the speed at which math is going. I checked in with her teacher and she's doing fine, so this is likely self-imposed stress (she's hard on herself and a bit of a perfectionist. Hmm. No CLUE where she gets that, cough cough). Every night after Ellie finishes her homework (math worksheets and language arts and spelling) she does her computer homework for 30 minutes. One evening this week I waxed nostalgic about how after homework Ellie used to draw. "I don't have time for that anymore," she announced, matter-of-factly. Geez, kid. Just stab me in the heart, why don't you?

-I met a woman yesterday at Leo's soccer yesterday who has a 20-year old daughter with Down syndrome (she's in the same special needs soccer program as Leo). It's bizarre to think about the fact that I actually don't know anyone with an adult child with Down syndrome. How did that happen?

As we chatted, we realized our children shared a few teachers, so that was a fun little trip down memory lane. There are a few younger children with Down syndrome in the soccer program too and as we watched their antics we shared a few funny stories of our trials with Impossible Young Children with Down ("When she was little, I never sat down!" this mom recalled). Yup, sounds familiar. I tried to take off my journalist hat and just act like a normal, friendly mom (in these situations where I am starved for information I tend to ask a lot of questions) but I was dying to know: What's high school like for her? Does she have friends? (Answer: Yes, tons. Or at least, everyone seems to know her. Huh. That sounds familiar. How much independence does she have? Does she go home after school by herself? The answer to the last one was no, she still has someone with her at home unless it's just for a few minutes. That one was a little tough for me to swallow.

Her daughter is in her last year of high school and her mom is now looking at programs for next year. In her words: "You're pretty much on your own." The future. I can't can't even go there. But I know the drill. I opened up Facebook this morning and there was one of those sob inducing "Memory" pictures from five years ago: Six year old Leo and three year old Ellie at the SAME apple farm we went to yesterday. Um. EXCUSE me? Five years?

Apple picking, October 2010.

And where were the twins? Oh yeah, not BORN yet (I was actually pregnant the day this picture was taken but didn't know it). And the future that mom spoke about yesterday? It will be here before we know it. But for now I'll go back to my cozy spot with my head resting firmly in the sand.

The "Punky" Patch (and Apple Picking)

I like to call this one, What Happens When You Say "Let Me Take A Picture," to four small children. This one will definitely go in the scrapbook. Certainly the mantel. By the way, Lucy's back intentionally to me? That sums her up right there. That is Lucy to a T.

We waited until late in the season to go apple and pumpkin picking this year (yes, we were the crazy people who went to the pumpkin patch the weekend before Halloween but guess what? Turns out it's not so crowded at 9 a.m. on a Sunday).

We waited, partly because I like to go when it's cold(er)--(hot apple cider, hot cider donuts, are you sensing a theme?) and partly because I may have been procrastinating. But I KNEW the kids would have so much fun, it would be worth all the energy it takes to take all four of them to any wide open space. We just had to go.

And if there was ever any doubt on my part, I had to remember this: a few weekends ago Ellie and I were at Home Depot and she was all excited about the garden center's "pumpkin patch" (poor kid). When she asked to get a pumpkin and I mentioned we'd be going to an actual pumpkin patch in a few weeks, well, you'd have thought I just told her we were going to Disney World. You can say what you want about our kids but I just love the fact that they are really pretty easy to please.

So last weekend Erin and I drank about nineteen cups of coffee (each) and took the kids to our favorite Pumpkinpatchapplepickingfarm.

If, for no other reason than, Harry + hay ride? That was a sight I needed to see. As Leo says, "It will blow his brain!"

Harry, on said hayride. Safe to say, brain = blown = very happy guy.

(By the way, the last time we went to this farm, the twins looked like this):


September, 2011

I think Harry had more fun this year. I know I did (although breastfeeding infants in an apple orchard IS my idea of a good time--really missed that this year--said No One Ever).


Off and running, on the hunt for apples.






Another moment when I think I had the gall to suggest a picture. Lucy's all "See ya, Mommy."


It must be pretty weird to be two years old and to see something you eat almost every day, growing on a tree. Harry (and his eyelashes) seemed to think so.

Moving on to Paradise.

I mean, the pumpkin (or as Lucy calls it, the "punky") patch. Seriously, doesn't this look like something out of Grandma Moses?


Leo and Ellie had a fight over who got to show Harry the tractor.


These girls are excellent wagon haulers.

Clearly they need jobs.

The key to having a good time in the stage we're in is low expectations.

Mine were definitely surpassed this year on ye old punky patch/apple picking trip. Plus, we returned home with all four children. So I call that a win. And did I mention there were cider donuts? And they were hot? Mmmmm.

Apple Picking x Six

I'm happy to report that autumn appears to have blown in here seemingly overnight. Chilly mornings, crisp, cool, golden days, the evenings are coming earlier, and with them, dramatic pink skies. There's finally a need for a jacket or gasp, my personal favorite, cordoroys.

And in celebration, we went apple picking.

We went earlier than ever this year and it was perfect. No crowds. The better to manuever this not so graceful beast.

As everyone knows, we don't travel light these days (if you squint, you can see the other three out of six of us up ahead in this shot).



Twin apples!

I was very happy and relieved with how the day went. It was the first outing of the kind we took with the babies, the first semi-complicated excursion and while some accomodations from previous years had to be made (Erin and I tag-teamed hayrides with the big kids and of course there we were feeding bottles in the middle of the apple orchard). But all in all, everything went swimmingly. As all the twin moms have assured me with their unsolicited though sweet comments as they've seen me, babies screaming in the background, harried at Target or exasperated at the playground, it truly is getting easier (and better!). We can and will do things as six that we did as four.

It's a good thing they didn't weigh Leo and Ellie upon entering the farm because they just kept eating apples and would have surely charged us extra. Nearly every time I tried to take a picture, someone was eating. But imagine how ridiculous I felt, chiding them for eating too many apples. Leo kept threatening to eat "One hundred!"

Just can't stop eating apples!

Harry, a bit concerned with the apple consumption.

Wide Open Spaces


Note the apple picking ensemble that Ellie selected. As my mom would have said: "It's a look."

The day's Booty.

Pickin'

And now, the pictures.




They will actually pose together now (sporadically). Leo always wants to hold on to Ellie for far longer than she'd prefer though, and invariably, kissing is attempted.

Leo kept sticking out his tongue in the pictures. Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.


My dad noted something quite interesting about this photo: "Leo is such a love bug even when he takes a bite out of an apple it is in the shape of a heart," my dad wrote to me in an email, after I sent him this photo. Well, would you look at that?

Silly geese.


Grandma Jerry (Erin's mom) showing Ellie the finer points of apple picking.

Moving on to the pumpkin patch.


I am captioning this one "Tote that barge, lift that bail. Get to WORK Ellie!"
She is, apparently, very serious about her pumpkin patch.

Epic Fail at 31 for 21: Will Pictures Suffice?

I have not been the best 31 for 21er this year.

Once again, I will use these people

as an excuse.

Speaking of those people, it's been a while since I posted any pictures of substance. That's because my camera died. I had to wait until my new one was ready.


I think it's fair to say

that I love my new camera.

Or maybe I'm just crazy about my subjects.


In case you couldn't tell

we went apple and pumpkin picking last weekend.

There was also a hayride. It was pretty much kid heaven.


The day with nature wouldn't be complete without a little junk food.

Neither Leo or Ellie had ever had anything like this before (still not sure what to call it--it's a chocolate dipped marshmellow thingy, I guess).

They obviously both had no problem figuring out what to do with it. But Ellie definitely took a beating with hers.

We came home and played in the backyard. Ellie had so much fun she didn't take a nap.

We ended the day with a game of "Red Rover."

This is my new favorite picture of Leo-this is quintessential, ecstatic, happy, stubborn and nearly omnipresent joie de vivre Leo. This just captures him, completely.