Pumpkin Patch

 

 

This year we took Bryce to Motley's Farm. We loved it! There was so much to do! Best of all, it was in town and cost to get in the gate and then you could do as little or as much as you liked.

 

 

 

We started off with a hay ride. He was more interested in the tractor pulling the hay ride than anything else.

They had a petting zoo area with all sorts of farm animals.

This is as close as he was willing to get. I have no idea where he got his scaredy pants genes from, haha!

 

He was so cute pointing to all the animals and making their noises at them.

 

Hay mountain. He was kinda freaked out by the hay. Are you seeing a pattern here? He doesn't like anything new or different.

Once he got to the top, he was so proud.

Scott was an awesome dad and climbed up on the hay and made all the cracked out big kids to quit pushing Bryce out of the way and to let him have a turn on the slide.

Again, he was scared of the slide. He isn't used to one that big.

They had a maze made out of hay bales. He loved running around and around in there. I stood at the exit and Scott at the entrance to make sure he didn't escape unnoticed.

The older kids were playing hide and go seek inside the maze. Bryce didn't understand of course, so he just followed that little cutie there with bow around and would hunker down with her. Then, Bryce and the little girl went into an area of the maze where I couldn't see him. Then, the little girl started screaming something awful. Her dad jumped the bales to her rescue. She was covered in ants! It was a terrifying moment for me because I had just seen Bryce go around the corner with her and now I couldn't see or hear him. He probably was covered in ants too and I couldn't reach him. There was a commotion, as you can imagine, with parents jumping the walls, snatching up their own kids, tearing their clothing off searching for ants. They were pouring bottled water over the screaming girl in an effort to get the ants off.  When I finally saw Bryce, he was panicking. Luckily he didn't have ants on him and he was just freaking out because of the mass hysteria.

Overall, we had a great time!

18 months

So Bryce definitely has his own little personality and opinions on things these days. It's been so much fun watching him grow and turn into a toddler (a little adult) right in front of my eyes. Here are some of the moments I wish to remember from these days. 

1) he is crazy about trucks! In the way to school we ride down the freeway and Bryce has his eye out for trucks. He screams "duck" and points out the window

2) his favorite shape is oval. I don't know why, but he loves to find ovals everywhere we go. The old navy sign, the Ford logo, a number zero, and anything else he can see. I'm curious if he knows his other shapes but oval is just the easiest to say. 

3) he has taken an interest in watching TV. I still limit his TV watching, but it is a MUST when you are basically a single mom. It's pretty much impossible to get anything done when Scott isn't around to entertain him. 

4) he have pooped in the potty! We haven't don't it again since, but I'm not stressing. I think he'll be more ready around 2

5) he has started to pretend play. He loves to make his toy cow moo and stomp all over me. The pig too. It's a lot of fun. 

6) he does this Tim the Tool Man Taylor grunting for "yes". For example "Bryce, you wanna play outside?" He responds with grunting. It's really cute. 

7) he loves bananas! He goes to the kitchens saying "nana, nana, nana" until he gets what he wants. I'm creating a monster, I know. 

8)he know only cries for 10 secs if he cries at all when I put him in his crib. Some nights he actually points to the crib and throws himself into it. He is so cute when he pulls Curious George up under his arm.  At least a few nights a week he actually sleeps trough the night without waking at all.  

9) he is so independent. He feeds himself and has been for awhile now. He attempts to put on his shoes and socks, but we are a long way from accomplishing that. He can drink from a straw cup with ease and understands not to tip it up or it won't work.

10) he is such a problem solver. The other day he was trying to pick up his paci and his sippy cup at the same time. His sippy cup doesn't have any handles so he had to grip the entire cup. He was trying to grip the cup with one hand while the other hand picked up the paci. This didn't work. He needed both hands to pick up the cup. He tried both hands while the paci was still in his hand. This didn't work either. So he put the paci down and focused on the cup. Once he had it wedged between his arm and body he then went back for the paci.   I'm so excited to see this develop. Dynamic vs static brain development, you know I'm all into that. 

11) he thinks that the longer he holds out the N, the more serious his "no" is. Lets change your diaper. Nnnnnnnnnnno

12) spanking is a waste of time. He is about as hard headed as I am. We have been trying timeout. Surprisingly he actually stays in time out, usually pouting and looking over his shoulder to give us some pathetic heart melting face of repentance. It's like he really understands WHY he is in timeout. Yes I know what all the research says about time out before 3, but I know my child. He knows. 

13) he is terrified of vacuums, hair dryers, animals, and people in wheelchairs. Not sure about the wheelchair thing, he is around them all the time at school. 

DIY Painted Canvas Curtains

So in the 4 years we've been married, we've only had curtains on our windows once. When we lived in the basement apartment in Provo, I bought some $8 valance curtains at Walmart. In all the places we've lived, out windows have always been curtainless. Why? Idk, I guess when getting settled curtains are kinda last on the list I guess. Also, I think they are kinda stupidly priced. By the time you buy 2 panels (presumably for 1 window) and the curtain rod, you've spent $50. I'm cheap, so this doesn't work for me. 

I saw on Pinterest where they made curtains by buying a drop cloth at home depo, cut it up the middle, painted the 2 panels and then hung then up. Sorry I don't remember which blog it came from so sorry I can't give them credit for the idea. 

I bought the drop cloth at home depo for about $11. It just happened to be the perfect size. I have 10ft ceilings and wanted them to hang from really high up.

  I cut it right up the middle. I didn't really measure, just folded in half and cut. It's not a quilt or anything, so being precise doesn't really matter. The great thing about using the drop cloth is that you get a lot of fabric for cheap but also it's already hemmed all the way around! Now that you've cut up the middle you have 2 raw edges. You can fold the raw edge back an hot glue it down. I actually was out of hot glue, so I just decided to see it anyways. Not a big deal, just a straight stitch. So to make the sleeve for the rod, I just folded the top over a few inches and made another straight stitch. Again you can hot glue just as easy. 

For the painting you can use craft paint or fabric paint but for some crazy reason I thought I should use latex paint. I guess bc I had some red left from the cabinet doors I redid. It worked out fine, just smelled up my apartment for days. My original plan was to do something trendy like chevron, thick stripes,maybe even an ombré look. But then after a good look a around my living room I decide I really needed something really simple. There is a lot if busyness in the rug and lots I color  on the walls and the ladder shelf, so I didn't want to make it too crazy. So I decided to just paint the bottom 1/4 red and leave the rest plain. I did measure and tape off where I wanted the paint so it would be straight and even on both panels. 

I know it's hidden behind the TV. My thinking was that we won't be in this apartment forever. The tv isn't always going to be in front of the window. 

I spent about $25 total after I bought the   curtain rod and the paint. So I saved myself about 50%! 

I love how it completely changed the room! It feels so much more homey! I definitely underestimated the value in having curtains!