It hasn’t been a whole lot of fun in our household for the past 5 days or so. Both Alex and Patrick have colds. These aren’t the kind of diseases that keep you inside all day (as you will see soon, we got out this weekend). But the stuffed-up nose means Patrick isn’t sleeping that well, which means Molly isn’t sleeping that well. (I could pretend to be chivalrous and say we’re both not sleeping well, but we all know the truth. And come to think of it, in the age of chivalry, I don’t think the knights were getting up in the middle of the night to take care of the kids. So maybe I don’t feel so bad.) And Alex has just plain been a grump, especially in the afternoons. That’s taking its toll on everybody.
We’ve still gotten out to enjoy the Fall weather. The best way to deal with a grumpy Alex is to get him outside, so maybe the cold has made us a little more willing to explore. And Fall has emphatically arrived this past weekend in Seattle: Gray skies, rain, cold mornings. We had a strong wind storm on Saturday which also seemed to be blowing away the remains of the summer. But it’s also really colorful outside right now, so I’m glad we got outside in spite of the rain and the colds.
On Saturday, we took Alex back to South 47 Farm. This farm has the pumpkin patch we took Alex to last year. Yes, he’s a lot taller now.
This is a great farm to visit with kids. In addition to pumpkins, they have animals for the kids to feed (goats, chickens, ducks, and alpacas), hay rides, live music, and a corn maze. If you ever want to have a bad parenting experience, let your two year old run off into the corn maze, unsupervised, and have a 15 second head start. Yes, that happened. Yes, Alex is fast. And luckily, he tripped about 50 feet into the maze.
I teased Alex and let him look for pumpkins.
And here he is with the pumpkin we didn’t buy. At the last minute, I decided I didn’t want a pumpkin sitting around the house for 4 weeks.
In spite of the gray and rainy weather, Alex had a great time at the farm (just like last year). We were there with his friend Asher, which certainly helped make things fun.
This morning, we met with our PEPS group at View Ridge playground. In spite of the threatening skies, we wound up having a beautiful, dry Fall morning. There had been a windstorm in Seattle on Saturday, and the playground was full of colorful leaves and branches. One family made a cool little fort out of branches with a floor lined with leaves. The PEPS kids had a great time playing in that fort, too.
Looking at the pictures from this weekend, Patrick really got the short end of the stick. He was with us at the farm and at the playground, of course, but all he did was sit in his stroller the whole time. I now understand why there are never as many pictures of second children.
Hopefully, this week will bring us healthier children and happier parents.