Scotty's Birthday and other fun times

I'm still blog-bulimic. The last six weeks have been fun and busy, but not too photo-worthy. I'll post a few highlights. First and foremost, Scotty turned 4! I'm still a little weirded out by the fact that he's been around for 4 years. So long, yet so short. Here he is with part of a favorite bday gift from Aunt Katie, a lego candy building:
James enjoying Scotty's cupcakes:
Our little impromtu dress-up party:
The big 4:
The following week, another huge day in Scotty's little life: the first day of preschool. All grown up:
Scotty love love loves preschool. He goes 2 hours a day, 4 days a week, to a little free preschool program through the local high school. Ever since he started, he's been a different kid. About 1 timeout a week instead of 10 a day. I think he was starved for that social outlet. He's definitely in his element now. So fun.

All but about 3 days in September were absolutely dreamy weather: 60-70 degrees, sunshine, breeze, a little fall chill in the air, but usually not enough to require a jacket. We made the most of it one Saturday by going to Bushkill Falls, an hour or so north of Bethlehem. Some great views and a pretty good stair workout. Here are dad and James:
Scotty at the top of one of the falls:
My favorite view: (Note the tiny little people in the bottom left-hand corner)
Two more falls:

And a sweet bluegrass band we listened to while we ate our ice cream at the end of the hike. Fun day.

We were back down in Baltimore to see Ben last weekend. This time we went to Weber's Cider Mill Farm. If you live anywhere in the greater Balto-Washington metro area, *must purchase cider here.* I've never in my life tasted its equal. Phenomenal. Wish we would have bought gallons. We went on a little tractor hayride:I caught the boys looking extraordinarily bored, but handsome:
There was a hay bale maze Scott dragged me into... I barely fit and Scotty dusted me. I had to ask the people on the bridge overhead how to get out (haha!) :
Hillside slides. I think Jer might have been trying to steer??
Coolest ever turkey. Hard to see in the pic, but his head looked like a glob of external blue brains. Very cool. He was also really, really mad and literally "gobble gobbled" and a little girl as we were walking up. She screamed and ran away -- it was pretty intense! Last but not least, James had fun pushing around the pedal tractors. I'd never seen him do anything like this, but apparently it readied him for WALKING! Two days later he took his first steps, and he's been adding new little tricks daily. He's so proud of himself as he walks he looks like he's going to pop with happiness. He also does his giant open-mouth smile and his inhale-laugh the whole time. So fun. Took him a long time to catch up to his buddies, but he's there, finally, at 18 months. Yay James!

You Nork City and Balmer

Let me start the post with the *best ever* Mr. Potato head. I've never seen its equal for statement-making potato heads. Although James appears to be the proud father, it was Scotty's creation, sitting there on the couch as it is to greet me one afternoon when I came downstairs.

Next, "summertime head II:"
Maybe now Jeremy and I, the young parents that we are, will know better than to have a family race .to the car. over pavement... doh!

Here is proof that we had one good tomato off our pathetic little plant:
We figured that little tomato cost us about $15. Not sure if we'll try container gardening again here. Everything's moldy. I think it the plant molded. The pizza was good though, and Scott actually kneaded his little pizza alongside me. He looks that proud for a reason! He's turning into quite the little kitchen helper.

Labor Day weekend was busy for us in the very best way. Saturday we made the trip to Baltimore again to see my brother Ben. Scott, every time he sees his uncle Ben, runs full tilt and clobbers one of his legs with a bear hug. They're becoming great buddies. It's fun to see. We had a picnic at Federal Hill Park with this view:
Then the boys thought they might try some hill rolling, but thankfully waited until Jer was near to start:
After the picnic, we shopped a bit around the harbor, then went to Ponyo, then out to sushi. It was great to see Ben, as always. Mellow fun day.

Monday we decided to take our first all-day trip to YOU NORK CITY!!!! Scott is convinced this is how it's pronounced. We decided to take the ferry from New Jersey to Battery Park and frequently on the boat Scott would half yell, half sing "You Nork Cityyyy, You Nork Cityyy." He refuses to be corrected, and frankly I'll be sad when he learns the grown-up way to say it.

The hands-down most unforgettable moment of the trip was when, about 15 minutes before arriving at the ferry, Scott pipes up from the back, "My shoes! I forgot my shoes!" No joke. He had no shoes. We thought, "aw, we'll pick something up when we get there." Little did we know that the people of New York do not buy shoes for their children. They can't possibly shop for their kids in the city. We walked *miles* peeking in shops, high-end to low-end, and found one (yes, only one) pair of shoes, $55, that I didn't even like. So he went barefoot, the whole day, hopping on an off the stroller, in big yucky New York. I kind of wish I took a shot of his feet before we washed them, but I'm also kind of glad we didn't.

The ferry trip:
James saying "uaaaaaau:" Ground Zero:
Rockefeller Center (hay hay 30 Rock!):
Carnegie Deli. Note Jeremy's horrified sterno-cleido-mastoids. Yes, that's ONE sandwich, in two halves. The four of us couldn't finish the thing:
More "horror," very tasty this time:

FAO Swartz. I'm not sure if it was more embarrassing to have Scott wear my socks (why did I pick that day of all days to wear my craziest pair of socks??) or go around with filthy footies:
THE PIANO, with crazy socks
Central Park boulder climbing:


And the ferry ride back to Jersey:
Fabulous day. There really is something about that city! I'm thoroughly charmed. As much as I loved it, though, I was grateful to come home to quiet little Bethlehem. It's fun to have the city so close, but it's also fun to not have to live there. Maybe I'm not as much of a city girl as I thought I was?

Lastly, one of Jeremy and my favorite things to do when we get to a new place is hunt down the hilarious signs some businesses use to rope in customers. Not that we don't love where we live/have lived. Don't take this personally Des Moiners or Bethlehemers. One of our favorites in Des Moines went out of business before we ever had a chance to take a picture. It said only: "Service Saw. If it's dull, get it sharpened." I don't know why it struck me as so hilarious, but I loved driving past and getting the giggles. Here, my favorite so far is this:
Incidentally, anyone know what cargo those trucks ship? Peeps! Marshmallow peeps. Yep. Just Born, the Peeps company, is only about a mile away from us. So if you're a fan, come stay with us and take a tour. Wahoo!

Random pics

Scott plays a "buy me! buy me!" game while we grocery shop. This time he had no idea how conveniently he'd placed himself until I pointed it out. One of James' latest favorite perches:
The coolest ever park in Central Park. We met up with our friends the Homers oh-so-briefly, which was fun. The whole park was lined with these raised bricks so even the parents can scale the walls.
Scott was too excited to stand still for even a split second. James and Sal cooperated though.
Post-swimming (we have a little freezing cold pool). Helpful big brother:

More pics of our last few summer trips to come.

3 year old boys

I'm making dinner and Scott says, "Mooooom, I need to go pooootttty." He doesn't need my help anymore, but still announces every time. I say OK, then I hear the front door close. Thinking it was Jer coming home early, I went to the front room to greet him. No Jer. Did Scott...? No...
Yes. Open the front door, and there he is, on the front walk, pants around his ankles, watering the lawn, smack in the middle of a townhome culdesac, his face looking like he'd just made an earth-stopping discovery. One of those moments I wish I had a little camera mounted behind my eyes.

Phun in Philly and elsewhere

Happy 4th of July! I'm embarrassingly slow on posting, but there's a good reason: we have bid farewell to our old, crash-prone DMU laptop as our main family computer. It was too full to download even one more pic, and posting was so slow it was painful. The beast has been replaced by an iMac. wahoo! It's a lovely piece of machinery. Resident friends, your husbands qualify for the student discount promo that runs through the end of the month, so take advantage! It was our graduation present to ourselves. And worth every penny so far.

On with the post: We went with our friends the Yorgasons to the parade in Philadelphia, the birthplace of Independence. We thought it fitting, being only an hour away, and it was memorable. I was moved to tears three times during the day, and I'm not a cryer. The first time I teared up was during the parade. I know, so silly, but it was a great parade. What was most moving to me was the diversity of groups represented. There were groups from all over the world, *big* groups, from so many countries. I got to thinking about how we're all immigrants to this country somewhere on our family lines, that most if not all of our families have sacrificed for this country in some way, and that we owe those family members a tremendous debt. I love the "melting pot" of the US. I'm grateful to be here. We're hoping to take full advantage of being so close to the historical sites while we're living east. I'll be sure to post our future adventures! Here's Scotty strutting his flag:
James' version of Uncle Sam, sans hat:
James turning suddenly un-patriotic:
Benjamin: "Hey, look! You can be cool like me!" Scotty: "Really?" Scotty: "I'm cool now."Lisa and I didn't plan the matching plaid shirts. I thought they were pretty cute together. Must have been a somber part of the parade...
After the parade we went to an all-you-can-eat ice cream tasting. Note the tower of cups. It was fun, but *super* crowded, and we all had tummy aches afterwards (surprise). Had to do it once.By the time we got to the spot we reserved for fireworks, we were all exhausted. In hindsight, we probably should have called it quits then, but we all stuck it out. We all felt like James looked:And this hadn't happened since he was less than 6 weeks old (he likes to be in his BED):

He woke up for a few of the fireworks, but Annie and Scotty (the whole reason we were there) both crashed before they started. (sigh) I ended up enjoying the fireworks more than usual, though. Philly had prepared audio clips of my favoritehistorical figures who fought for various freedoms. It was well choreographed with the fireworks, above the art museum on Benjamin Franklin Blvd. Even with the exhastion we all felt the next day, I'm glad we went.

A few weeks later we went to visit my brother Ben again in MD. We tried a picnic at a state park which was inconveniently (for us, not for James) muddy, with no grass.

This is his I-like-to-eat-dirt-but-don't-want-my-knees-to-touch-it crawl:

Here's uncle Ben and the boys (James sans mud and clothes) on the Swinging Bridge at Patapsco State Park:

Uncle Ben taking Scott on a little hike:

And finally, a trip to what used to be the Enchanted Forest. It's now converted into a little playground/petting zoo. Very fun.
Scott refused to pose, but *loved* this boat. It was in a little pond with frogs all around the edges. Every little kid that came by while we were there was forced to call him "Captain Scott."
That's all for now. More pics to come. Miss you all and wish you were closer.