Apple Picking '09

Every year we go apple picking with our church community to a local apple orchard, and we happened to go last weekend.


We waited in a very long line-up to get the wagon ride to take us to the orchard where we could actually pick apples.


Some of us got cranky as we waited.



So we did a lot of walking around.


When we got to the picking part of the day, some of us picked apples, and some of us played with apples from the bag.

This was not helpful in getting the job done.

Especially when two out of the three members of our family were involved.

But atleast they had fun.

In addition to taking the picked apples out of the bag, Asher discovered that banging apples together was also fun.


Some members of our family decided that apples were meant for eating, and spent some time doing that.

While other members were not so interested in the eating part.

Asher did lots of running amongst the trees.

And some running away from his mama.

The mandatory group shot was taken.


As well as a family photo.


Or two.

And it wouldn't be a Lawson family photo session without a funny face shot.

Or two.

Some cute pictures were taken. :)

Oh, and this guy is pretty cute too.

A lot of pictures were taken, actually.

Which makes me wonder, was this day about taking pictures, or picking apples?

I think maybe a little bit of both!

What's worse?

What's worse, having to run up and down 3 steep hills consecutively OR having to run 4K to get to and from said hills? THE HILLS!


What's worse, having your underarms waxed OR your bikini line? UNDERARMS! (Yowch!)


What's worse, seeing a movie you hate in theatre OR having your wife repeat Dirty Dancing lines to you for days after seeing said movie? Repeating the lines, apparently. (I don't see why Greg would feel that way!)


What's worse, being stuck inside with 2 toddlers OR getting wet, but going outside to play anyways? Being stuck inside!


What's worse, allowing your child to eat the Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal he seems drawn to OR chew on public toys at the YMCA? I'm going with the public toys on this one.


That's some of the highlights from my week! It could be worse, right? :)

sneaky cereal boy

Lately Asher has found his way into our kitchen cupboards where we keep the breakfast cereal.

And lately he has enjoyed pulling the cereal boxes out of that cupboard.

And lately he has even taste tested a few of those breakfast cereals.

And lately I have found him having an afternoon snack after I've already given him his afternoon snack.

The funny thing is, the boy has a favorite. Pretty much every day now for the past week or so, I have found him trying to get into the same cereal box to snack (and he's usually successful). Can you guess what kind of cereal it is that Asher likes so much? (hint: it is not something I would ever give him, which means it's a treat, and it's Greg's)

The crazy happenings in the Lawson household as of late...

I enjoyed writing my bullet form blog a few months ago, and lately my friend has been doing the same on her blog, and I've been liking it a lot.

So here's my newest version: the crazy happenings in the Lawson household as of late...

* I took care of not one, not two, but three 1-year olds for the better part of a day last week. It was BUSY, and CRAZY, but we all survived and no one got hurt. (score!)

* My dear husband decided to run 8K with me on the weekend. We had no baby (he was off at the grandparents) and Greg has been saying forever that "it can't be that hard". He finally took me up on the challenge and he survived! I can't believe he ran 8K, after not having ran seriously for decades. He was, however, a hurting unit and to this day is still complaining about his thighs burning. I think my moment of joy was when he looked at me and said "this is friggin' hard" and "I can't believe you're so comfortable on this run". Yessssss!

* Greg and I spent a part of our date night in Chapters on the weekend, and I had the time of my life. (I love books!) Greg, on the other hand, spent most of his time throwing a stuffed sheep at me and making annoying noises. Just when I thought I had a night without a baby...

* Asher has "graduated" from physiotherapy! He is doing so well, and has grown so much in such a short time, that the physiotherapist doesn't feel a need to see him anymore. So proud of my boy.

* The "zoo friends" and I continue to look like fools when we make our monkey noises every week at the gibbon's cage. It pretty much never fails though that we get Molly and Hoot to "sing" for us. I love the zoo!

* I got on one of my card rants last week and bought 8 Hallmark cards at once. If you receive a card from me in the near future, it is because I love you.

* Wednesday I start hill training as a part of my 10K clinic at The Running Room. I have to run up and down 3 hills consecutively, and then gradually build up to 6 hills over the next 4 weeks. I'm scared. (And I better have buns of steel after this is all said and done!)

* My husband has a surprise for me planned for Wednesday night and I can't wait!

an update in photos

I just took a bunch of photos off of my camera (which feels like the never-ending task, by the way). Here's what you'd see we've been up to the past week or so, by the pictures we took.

We've gotten into this really nice routine of going outside as a family after supper to play together, or hang with our neighbors. Asher has been loving the slide these days, and one day last week he even got to play on one of the neighbors kid's ride-on toys.

Things with Marek around are actually going pretty great. We're still working out some kinks with nap time, but he and Asher are really enjoying each others company. Last week we did an errand to the grocery store since we got rained out from our zoo trip! We also did a trip to the local library, had snack in the library building, and tired the boys out enough with all of that to have them both pass out in the car!

And finally, we went to an outdoor wedding this past weekend for one of Greg's co-workers, and Greg snapped some pictures of Asher and I playing. I feel like I'm the one always taking the pictures, so it was nice to have some of Asher and I for a change!

Vocabulary of a 16-month old

Asher is constantly amazing Greg and I with the new words he is saying. It's crazy how his language is really taking off! I wanted to make a list of his vocabulary to date to remember, so here it is, the words Asher says at 16 months old:

"Mama"

"Papa"

"hi-eee" for hi

"hewwo" for hello when he sees a phone

"yo" for yo (we were getting tired of hearing hi-eee a million times a day, so we had to teach him another greeting)

"peek" or "boo" for peek-a-boo

"baw" for ball

"booh" for book

"mowh" for milk

"ju" for juice

"ow-oh" for olive

"heees" for cheese

"nana" for banana

"nac" for snack

"doh" for dog

"duc" for duck

"uppie" for up

"dow" for down

"aww doh" for all done

"no" (self-explanatory!)

"nose" for nose

"betty" for belly

"eahr" for ear

"bubbo" for bubble

"bebe" for baby

"uh-oh" for when he drops something

"noh noh" for knock knock

"dohr" for door

"shus" for shoes

"naah naah" every time he sees a truck (I think he is trying to make a truck noise)

(It's hard to try to write them how he says them, but that's my closest guess.)


Asher also repeats a million other words, even complicated ones, like blueberry, waffle, buffalo, cracker, cereal, and Jesus. I haven't counted these as words yet because he only repeats them, he doesn't initiate them on his own yet like he does with the first words I listed.


And I just love his little voice too, it's so cute!

Time = 33:25

I completed my second 5K race this past weekend as my "graduation race" for the 5K clinic that I just completed. I regularly run more than 5K now that I'm training for a 10K, but for some reason, I found this run difficult. Maybe it's because it was in the morning, and I never run as well in the morning, or maybe it was because there was one mother of a hill on this trail, or maybe it was just a mental thing, knowing I was in a race. Despite that fact, I still kicked the butt out of my old time from my first ever 5K race, by shaving off over 4 minutes, and coming in at 33:25. That's a lot of time when you're running! I'm very proud at having gotten stronger over these past few months, and I hope to keep getting faster too.

Here's some pictures of the day that Greg took:

Running with some of my 5K buddies, coming into the home stretch.

Trying to give it my all for those last few hundred meters and, after seeing this picture, realizing my form isn't in top notch at this point.

Checking out my time of 33:25 as I crossed the finish line.

My ultimate running buddy and I after the race. Runs always go so much quicker when she's around for me to talk to!


And lastly, Asher apparently is aspiring to the day he'll cross the finish line on his 5K too!

Something old, something new, and you were right

Asher and I like to get out and do lots of fun things while we're at home together. I think it's important that Asher has opportunities for social interaction with other children, especially since he doesn't go to daycare, and also opportunities to experience fun activities from which he can grow and learn.

So here's our something old, an activity that we've done lots of:

Every week for the entire summer we have been going to our local zoo with our "zoo friends" as I like to call them. We all have seasons passes to the zoo, and us moms enjoy the outing just as much as the babes do. We've gotten to know so much about the animals (don't get me started on this, because I could talk for paragraphs about it), and each other this summer. I love these ladies to bits! I finally took a group picture this week by the lions, one of our favorite stops.

And our something new, which we did for the first time last week:

Asher has had a membership at the YMCA for a year now, when he started his swimming lessons at just 3 and a half months old. In addition to his swimming lesson, and open parent and tot swims, the Y has other activities for little ones. One of these activities is called Play Pals, but the child has to be walking in order to participate. Since Asher is now officially in that category, we went this week. Basically the Y sets up the gym with tons of equipment and the children just get to have free play. Asher had a blast! He climbed and threw balls and went down slides and teeter-tottered and ran and crawled through tunnels and practiced "sharing". We will definitely be making this one of our regular stops.

How fun is that?!?!

And this picture?

You were right, Asher has just graduated swimming levels going from Splasher's to Bubbler's, and received this sticker from his instructor to celebrate. Usually kids just move up when they're 18 months old, but our instructor says Asher is ready at 16 months! Our first class will be this week, so that should be fun!

Can you guess?

Something big happened this week in Asher's world, and that means a big change is coming up. It involves something he really enjoys. Here's a picture as a clue, a picture of a sticker Asher received as a result of this change. Can you guess what's happening?