Homeschool Field Trip::Sietsema Orchards

This summer Mary, Lindsey and I got together and wanted to start a homeschool co-op.  We envisioned doing field trips once a month with our group of church friends.  We have quite a large group of people that homeschool at our church and what a perfect group to do events with.

Our first trip was to Sietsema Orchards.  They did SUCH a great job.  We went on a hay ride around the orchard.  They stopped 4 different times and explained how the trees grow.  They told us how they make cider, what they do in the winter and their different varieties of apples.  They also do pumpkins and squash so they showed us those too.

 

Their bakery.  She was explaining how they make the donuts here.

Cold storage.

Cider press.  She showed us how it worked.

As part of our field trip we got to sample donuts and cider.  Yum.

They also got to pick a yummy McIntosh off a tree.  Naturally mine wanted to eat it right away.

 

Cranes::Apple Picking

We had to go to Cranes for our annual apple picking.  Everyone needs to bring 708 pounds of apples home.

He wouldn't be a Fitzgerald if he didn't love apples.

 

Big brothers apple is always better than your own.

These sweet babies.  Stop growing.

Lincoln::14 months

Whew.  It's been so long since I did an update on the Little Man.  I do have his 1 year update.  But I haven't gotten around to typing it up yet.  And he looks like a toddler.  Wah.

-24 pounds.  Hovering right around the same weight for a couple months.

-18 month clothes.  We have 18-24 month long sleeve stuff out and it's a bit big.

-Had to graduate you to size 4 diapers.  I really couldn't drag out the last case of 3's.  So I sold it.

-you nurse 3/4 times a day.  For the past 5 nights I have been sleeping in the basement.  Initially because I was coughing so much.  Now I have told Eric I'm not coming back until he sleeps through.  I was talking to Eric about it and he has essentially been sleeping the exact same since day 1.  Waking once, occasionally twice, a night.  I know he was an amazing sleeper as a newborn.  But now he needs to be an amazing sleeper as a toddler.

-you adore eating.  You eat everything.  I'm not sure I can think of something you WON'T eat.
-you think the bathtub is the best thing that has ever happened.

-you are a super speedy crawler.

-you go up and down the stairs
-you get on and off the couch.  And we don't have a short couch.
-loves to wave.  He will wave at me the whole time I'm nursing him.  When he first sees me in the morning.  He waves.  He loves waving at other people.  It's pretty cute.

-walk around ev.ery.thing.  Still won't walk without holding onto something but you are certainly progressing.

-you love your momma.  And hate the church nursery.  You will SCREAM the entire time.  So we are going to start leaving you in there a little bit longer each week.

-you have 6 teeth.  You got 5 teeth during your 11th month.  1 tooth at 13 months and that's it.

-we are convinced you are part goat.  If you see paper you eat it.  

-are slowly working on your listening skills.  I am starting to see a difference.
-you follow simple commands.  "Close the cupboard."  "Close the toilet seat."  You know.  Things like that.

-talk and mimic sounds a TON.

-love going for walks.  Sometimes you ride in the stroller, sometimes the Ergo.

-are slightly less messy with your food.  You don't blow raspberries in it anymore.  But you have been known to chuck your plate on the ground.
-you do love blowing bubbles with your spit.

-Confession::I bought you paci's.  I was hoping it would help with you sleeping at night.  I showed you what to do with them and you did it.  You fell asleep with it the first night and I thought I was in the clear.  HA HA HA.  I kept trying and you would furiously shake your head no and wail at me.  Then Eric promptly stepped on one and broke it.  Which has NEVER happened in our 4 prior years of paci's.  He said "Good.  I thought that was a stupid idea anyways."  To which I have now responded with "It is your turn to get up with him."

-I am back to eating all foods...except white flour.  We don't eat much dairy anyways and I still order vegan cheese if we get pizza.  But I eat butter.  And I wouldn't ask about milk unless if it was swimming in milk/cheese.  I started eating my Einkorn again.  I was really nervous to do it.  But the 40lbs in my basement keeps staring at me and it makes me mad.  So I made banana bread and ate it.  And I was fine.  And Lincoln was fine.  I've been using it since then without problems.  Lincoln has been eating it too and hasn't had any reactions.  Who knows.  I'm just glad we can be less OCD about it.

I took the picture of Lincoln, for his 14 months, just looked at it and laughed.  Holy Adelyn.  Lincoln is definitely the least hairy baby.  But good grief.  The kid is like a clone of Adelyn.  I'm gonna put a bow in his hair and put him in a dress and see if anyone gets confused ;)

Released!

We had Joelle's urologist appointment today.  Her ultrasound went great and then the doctor came in.  She gave us a couple options.  We are going with unofficially officially released.  A little background.  Her initial urologist was amazing.  He was very old school.  Wasn't against us not prophylacticing.  He actually encouraged it.  Then he retired.  We saw her new doctor.  She mentioned surgery right away.  I went all "I don't like you."  We saw the PA next time.  It was love at first visit.  So we have seen her ever since.  To be officially released from their care you need to have another VCUG.  Which, for an older kid, is NOT fun.  They have to be put under.  But only semi put under.  They still have to be conscious enough to go pee.  It's very traumatic and not something I want to sign my child up for unless if absolutely medically necessary.  The PA was OK with me saying no thanks but said if she gets a UTI then we have to do it.  Since we haven't gotten the all clear (because we didn't do the VCUG) we still have to take her in, if she gets any symptoms.  But we have a standing order and specimen cups from the lab.  It's as simple as me getting her to pee in a cup at home and bringing it in.  I much prefer that method.

We went to Starbucks to celebrate :)

JBZ::Fall Edition

We love going to the zoo in the fall.  Nobody is there.  It is a little cooler.  The animals move around more.  All around win.

No lines for the John Ball statue.

The bear was swimming.

And then he got out.

To see which children were for lunch today.

The lions impressed us with their roaring.  They were quite entertaining.

 

 

The kids tried to impress the lions with THEIR roaring.  I don't think it worked.

Face to face.

Because We Homeschool

Just some of the things that hit me when our homeschooling year started.

Because we homeschool we can say "Yes" to things like "Can we go for a hike after supper?" instead of "No, you have to go to bed on time for school tomorrow."  We can wake, on our own, instead of setting alarms.  We can take naps, if we are tired.  We can catch frogs and toads and run away from groundhogs to our hearts content.  We can take our time and walk with bare feet in the grass.  

 

 We can go mushroom picking.

 

And dawdle by the creek.

 The baby can fall asleep and wake up when he wants to, instead of when we have to pick kids up from school.

We can take LONG hikes and not worry about the setting sun.

Can you spot what we spotted?!

A frog!  We tried to catch him but he was QUICK!

Then we ran into this little guy.  He wasn't so nice.  He would NOT veer off into the weeds.  He was dragging his back leg.  Yet he was amazingly quick.  When he wanted to be.  We wanted to take the loop around.  We couldn't make it past him, without him hissing and showing his teeth and chasing us down.  So we had to turn around and go the same way back.

 Hahahaha!

Then this happened.  I was like "Maybe we can sneak by him, one by one, and continue on our way?"  I made it past.  No one else did.  Then I had to try to get past him again.  I found a reflector post in the weeds and battled my way back.  All with L strapped on my back.

Our view on the way back.

Brecken and Joelle wanted to wear their rain boots.  They didn't have socks on.  They got these wicked awful, no good blisters on their heels.  I could literally hear their heels squeaking in their boots.  Joelle said the only thing that kept her moving (and not complaining) was because she thought, if she stopped, the groundhog was going to eat her.  We made it back to the bike path and they took their boots off.  Oh, their feet looked so sad.  Poor babies.

**Updated Stats**

New Stats are in bold.

                    Adelyn                         Brecken                              Joelle                             Lincoln

Birth          7lbs 11oz                        6lbs 4oz                           6lbs 12oz                           9lbs 1oz

                   19.5in                               19in                                   19in                               21 1/2in
Left Hosp. 7lbs 8ozs                           6lb                                  6lbs 5oz                           8lbs 12oz
1stDr.Visit 7lbs 12oz                       6lbs 3oz                             6lbs 3oz
Wt. Check                                       6lbs 7oz                              6lbs 9oz

2 weeks    8lbs 9ozs                        7lbs 1oz                              7lbs 1oz                          10lbs 1oz

                  21 3/4in                          19.5in                                  19.5in                              21 1/4in

2 months       12lb                           11lb 6oz                              11lb 8oz                          14lbs 4oz

                     23in                            21 3/4in                              21 3/4in                             23 1/2in

4 months    15lb 2oz                       14lb 11oz                            15lb 1oz                          16lbs 12oz

                  25 1/4in                          24 1/2in                             24 3/4in                             25 1/2in

6 months    18lb 5oz                        17lb 3oz                             17lb 11oz                         19lb 4oz

                  26 3/4in                          26 1/4in                             26 1/4in                              28in

9 months    19lb 11oz                      20lb 14oz                           20lb 2oz                          22lb 4oz 

                  28 1/2 in                         28 1/4in                              28 1/4in                           28 1/4in

1 year        21lb 11oz                       22lb 8oz                              23lb 3oz                         23lb 4oz

                  30 1/2in                           30 1/4in                                  30in                              30.5in
15 months  23lb 15oz                      24lb 10oz                           24lb 12oz
                     32in                               31in                                     32in

18 months  26lb 3oz                        26lb 2oz                              27lb 2oz

                    33.5in                            32.5in                                  33.5in

2 years       30lb 4o                          29lb 2oz                              30lb 2oz                                                                     35.75in                         34.75in                                 35.5in
2.5 years      34lbs                           30lb 10oz                            32lb 10oz
                     37in                                36in                                   37.5in

3 years         38lbs                            33lb 6oz                             36lb 6oz

                    40.5in                           37.75in                                 39.9in
4 years         41lbs                            36lb 9oz                             39lb 4oz
                   43.75in                           40.5in                                    43in
5 years        46.5lbs
                    46.25in

Milestones

*My definition of milestone is when they can do something repetitively.  Not they did it once and then started doing it frequently 2 weeks later*

                 Adelyn                            Brecken                               Joelle                           Lincoln

Smile:       1mo 1d                            1mo 15d                            1mo 21d                            3wks

Grasp:       2mo 6d                            2mo 12d                             2mo 7d                             2mo

Roll F-B:   2mo 6d                           3mo 26d                             4mo 25d                          5mo 25d

Laugh:         5mo                              3mo 29d                             4mo 17d                          3mo7d

Roll B-F:   5mo 4d                           6mo 17d                             4mo 22d

Grab Toes:  5mo                               5mo 2d                                                                      5mo 5d

Start Food: 3mo 21d                         5mo 6d                               5mo 6d                           6mo 6d

Sit:             5mo 15d                         6mo 7d                                6mo 7d                          5mo 14d

Lay-Sit :                                            7mo 2d                               7mo 30d

Crawl:        8mo 14d                         7mo 29d                              8mo 9d                          8mo 4d

1st tooth:    11mo 6d                          8mo 9d                                  9mo                              11mo

Pull -Stand: 8mo 21d                         8mo 10d                             8mo 18d                        9mo 7d

Walk:         11mo 18d                        10mo 4d                            13mo 15d
Breastfed:     13mo                             15mo                                  15mo

16 teeth:    2yr 5mo                            21mo                                  20mo

No paci:      2yr 5mo                         2yr 4mo                               2yr 4mo                          never

Potty Train:2yr 6mo                        2yr 7.5mo                            2yr 10mo

Big Bed:     2yr 7m                          2yr 4.5mo                           2yr 4.5mo

24 teeth:       4yrs                              2yr 7mo                               2yr 6mo
Riding bike:3yr 4mo                        2yr 7.5mo                            2yr 8mo
No pull-ups:3yr 5mo                        2yr 9mo                                  3yrs
Pumping:    3yr 5mo                        4yr 3mo                               4yr 3mo
2 Wheels     5yrs 3mo                     4yr 6mo