So the title says it all.
We went camping Labor Day weekend, at Little River State Park. It was a lot of fun. We brought the playpen, and that worked out wonderfully. We took a nature hike, and saw some abandoned stone cellars, and some dead pine trees & apple orchards.  Andrew was NOT impressed with the scenery.  But did enjoy the backpack ride.

Andrew always has fun camping, especially in his animal camo footie pajamas.

Earlier this week, we took Andrew to the Champlain Valley Fair. He had a lot of fun in the petting zoo and seeing the gigantic Batman sandcastle.

Andrew had his checkup; he’s something like 31 inches long now. Weight hovers around 22 lbs. Drs are all excited; he’s in 75th ptile for height & weight, so he’s a healthy guy.  We added photos to the photo gallery, if you’re curious what he looked liked in July & August.
We’re taking a couple of weeks off, there’s a wedding at the house in a few weeks, and Momma has to go back to gardening.  See you in a bit.

Andrew is now 9mo old.  He’s over 22 lbs, and is long.  We find out how long Tuesday.  He’s in 12-18mo PJ’s and 9-12mo clothes for now…

Today Mom & Andy spent the day together.  Mom made up some fingerpaint with flour, water, and food coloring.  And Andy spent part of the afternoon painting on posterboard.  Here’s how the afternoon went….

I think the 2 paintings are beautiful.  And I’m glad that we have a bathtub.

So we went camping!  That means we update our blog.

We went to CT and visited Karen, Kevin, the twins, and saw Uncle Gary.  We had decent enough weather, and a great time.  The campsite we stayed at was wonderful, and had we known how nice it was, we would have stayed an extra day or two.

Some other updates:

• The rain has been awful for my pansies, but I have tons of green tomatoes, and this year — have sunflowers!  The only year I didn’t plant any is the year that I get them.  Go figure.  And, on top of that, I see honeybees pollinating them.  I’m very excited, because usually I only get bumblebees at my house.

• Craft-wise I’ve been busy.  I am now on an online forum of Quilting Moms, and its helped me with some of my current projects.   Especially to stay motivated with quilting.  I have completed a carseat blanket for Andrew, and sent 2 blocks to others on the forum.  One is a social swap, where I recieved a block in return.  The other is a block that I donated for a quilt to be raffled to support a children’s advocacy/abuse program.

Andy’s carseat blanket:

The block I sent:

The block I recieved:

 The block I donated:

• Oh…Andrew!  He’s doing well.  He’s figured out that screaming is fun.  And grunting means he’s frustrated.  He is trying to pop out his 2 front teeth.   Here’s a recent photo to keep your Andy-fix down until we can update the gallery.

Many of you know we both went to school and majored in engineering.  As part of the curricula, we purchased very expensive handbooks to assist us in remembering dimensionless numbers, and coefficients, and equations that could be relevant to our profession.  We store these in our den.

Andrew has been finding them.  Specifically is taking an interest in Perry’s Chemical Engineering Handbook.  While I enjoyed it as a reference, it’s not light reading (either in weight or in style).

Part 1:2

Part 2:2

Andrew is getting really good at crawling.
I do NOT suggest this as a before-bedtime routine, but it is pretty funny to watch.

BTW — he did this for about 10 minutes before bed today.  Just chasing around the little roll-a-round ball.  Good times.

We went camping again this weekend.  Very short, but very fun.  The campground was nice, but nothing spectacular enough to merit a photo.

Since we posted last, Andrew is just cruising right on into adulthood.
He now weighs 22 lbs, and is in 9-12mo clothes.  He is about 1/2 as tall as his Mom, so probably around 30″.

Andrew’s palate has now increased to include cheerios, pancakes, graham crackers, and other carbs.  Watermelon, blueberries, and other soft fruits.  Peas & corn are normal staples too — and as he eats more finger food, he is disliking puree more & more.  He knows the word “book”, and tries to sign “all done”. We think he knows “mamamama”, and likes to jabber away while he’s playing.

His physical development is really impressive.  He has learned how to crawl, and stand up on things.  There is now a magnetic current in our house attracting babies to dangerous things.   And my son has a super-power of destruction.  His favorite “game” is to topple things over, knock them down, and basically leave a path of toppled blocks, uprooted link-a-doos, and overturned baby cars in his wake.  He also likes to push full laundry hampers around the house, eat grass clippings & dirt,  & splash in the water & gnaw the beaks off rubber duckies.

Below is a photo of the shock & awe that occurs daily here.  Note that 30 seconds after this photo was taken, that car was upside down & Buster was on the couch praying Andrew would forget he was trapped in “baby jail” with him…

See videos here, or photos here.

In following our trend, we’ll probably post again mid-August, after our next camping trip.  Then again, we might surprise you…never know these days when we’ll have time to do a decent blog update.

He loves this musical table. Andrew kind of gets into it a bit.

Andrew’s now 7mo old. I havent’ updated his baby page, but here are some things he’s doing:

• Rocking on all 4s
• Rolling and army crawling around the living room
• Sitting up unassisted just about everywhere including the bathtub
• Eating finger foods that are mushy
• Cut 2 teeth (bottom)
• Had his 1st ear infection & first 2 viral rash/infections (coxsackie & 5th disease)
• Kneeling independently
• Vocalizing vowels and short syllables (Ba, Ma, Hi, Hee)

He’s now 20.5 lbs. He’s wearing 6-9 mo clothes, and 9-12mo PJ’s. Photos of how ginormous he is are in the gallery. He’s had his first Radio Flyer ride, swim, and camping trip. We’re trying to jam-pack his summer full of firsts. Here’s what we’ve tried to do so far…

Camping at Half Moon Pond, Hubbarton VT

Had a great time camping with the Millers. We all shared the popup, went swimming, and went for a walk around the campsite. Andrew slept great through a torrential thunderstorm & downpour.

After we returned home, the atmosphere was still pretty turbulent.  That afternoon, there was another thunderstorm, followed by sun.  Perfect conditions to catch a rainbow in our front yard.

And a deer in the back.

So the family came down with hand/foot/mouth disease, a deviant form of coxsackie or enterovirus.   Read all about it at the CDC webpage…

So Andrew gets vaccinations last Monday (3/19).  Starts running a low-grade fever on Weds.  I think nothing of it; he has done that before.  Starts cutting teeth on Saturday; still has a low-grade fever and gets pretty angry.  I am still not concerned ’cause its normal teething symptoms.

Memorial day comes around.  Rob mentions feeling gross.  Still, we’ve all been battling a cold and I think the trip down to NJ & lack of sleep due to Andrew cutting teeth may have caught up to him.  And Andrew starts to not want to eat as much; and want to snack.  Again, this is normal for teething so I don’t think there’s a problem. Tuesday rolls around.  Rob stays home from work still feeling lousy.  That afternoon I start to get a little queasy; get the chills and feel wicked tired. Go to bed early.   Andrew is all 1-toothy smiles, so again, no concern.  Us adults just need to deal.

Wednesday rolls around.  Rob is weak& still sick but decides to go into work.  I drop Andrew off at daycare; they post “COXSACKIE” is going around, but not in Andrew’s infant room, so don’t be concerned.  Rob comes home at 2.  Come Thursday afternoon, Andrew has fever blisters on his hands, feet and mouth.  He has caught the coxsackie virus & has symptoms of hand, foot & mouth.   Off to the drs we go… they mention that adults usually don’t get the blisters, they just feel general malaise & weakness.

Now its the weekend.  Rob has stayed home Thurs & Fri.  It’s now Sunday & he’s just starting to feel better.  But he now has blisters and things like that on his feet, hands, and inside his mouth.  Andrew is back to eating like normal, so I think he’s now getting out of the woods.  So far I am germ free.  Let’s hope it stays that way.

Here is a photo of what fever blisters inside a mouth look like.