Happy Halloween!

Our little strawberry monster... BOO!

Happy strawberry in the yard.

We went to a pot-luck Halloween party thrown by a couple Molly knows from Locally Grown. Levi was too interested in the kids behind us to face the camera.

Some of the food.....

Some of the little ghosts & goblins...

UGA's newest football commitment

Well, order has been restored after UGA defeated the camaro driving, jean-short wearing, mullet-headed Gators 42-30 yesterday. Levi, wearing his lucky Dawg outfit, helped me cheer them on. Immediately after the game, Coach Richt called and offered Levi a scholarship which he accepted on the spot. Daddy's so proud. The official news release is below the picture.

The University of Georgia received it's first commitment for the 2025 class when 4-star crawler Levi Burnam verbally committed to the Dawgs following their 42-30 win over the Gators Saturday evening. Although not yet walking, Coach Richt said the coaching staff is extremely impressed with Levi's "escapability". So are his parents.

Levi, who at 2'6" and 20 lbs., crawls a 1:20 forty, chose UGA over offers from Head Start, ABC Pre-school, and Happy Days Kidcare.

Hunter's Moon Feast

Eric & Chris, the market managers for Locally Grown, invited everyone up to their place in Royston to celebrate in a Hunter's Moon Feast (the full moon was on Thursday). It was another great fall day - full of friends, blackberry mead, meat, river-watching, homebrew, happy children and more food than could possibly be eaten. To quote Eric "I didn't know if we'd have 75 people or 10, so I cooked 55 pounds of meat!" There was shrimp, emu, lamb, goat, beef, & bbq pork.

Cindy, Will, & I drove up to Royston together.

Working through the tables of food - I must have had 5 plates full throughout the afternoon/evening.

Chris & Eric's place is on the Hudson River - this is their daughter Vivian.

River-watching.

Pumpkin, Ants, Sleep Deprivation

Lately, some nights have been much worse than others (infant sleep-wise). This is much to our dismay because for many months we have had relatively sleepFUL nights. Last night has got to be up there in our top five most rotten nights. Joe fled to campus today (even though it's fall break) and I was left holding the bag.
My little charge & I escaped the confines of the house with a (brief) visit to the garden - above is the one sorry little pumpkin our garden produced in these drought conditions. Shortly after taking this pic, Levi crawled off the blanket & found the nearest fireant bed. 20 bites later & we're back in the house. Joe's coming home soon & I'm going to a much needed yoga class.

Bun in the oven?

An astonishing (and incredibly popular, even from near strangers) question asked of me these days is... "okay, when's the next one"... It caught me off guard the first time (toting a 3 month old), but 60 times later I've my arsenal of answers ready and waiting:

1) "You've got to be freakin' kiddin' me!"
2) "One's certainly enough."
3) "I was married 6.5 years before producing this offspring..."
4) "You don't like the one I've got??"
5) "The human population is WAY outta hand already."
6) "Who are you? And how is this any of your business?"

Dad's Edit:
1) Let's enjoy this one for awhile first.

Double take

In a complete act of laziness I am stealing one of Nicole's blog-posts.

"Molly and I took the boys to visit Rhonda in the hospital last week. She gave birth to the newest Veit last Thursday. Jonathan and Rhonda welcomed Mary Linda Veit into their family. She is a beautiful little baby girl.

I installed the car seat from Sam’s truck in my car so we could take one car. Grady and Levi didn’t know what to make of the company. And it totally freaked me out to have two car seats in my back seat. :) "

EC

After a few inquires I thought I'd share it in a post... we're working with Levi using a technique called elimination communication (EC for short). The basic idea behind EC is that infants are aware of 'elimination' and that 'potty training' can be started at a very young age. You use verbal cues & make trips to the potty especially after the child wakes or eats. We're having 3-5 'successes' each day - hopefully this will make the training process easier for Levi since it's already part of his daily routine. Here's an informative link: EC.

Tinchville Wine Festival

On Saturday, our neighbors Susan & Jamie (in far right of above pic) had their 5th annual Wine Fest. Here's the crew above. We had a great time - it was a *perfect* fall day.

Tastes like sunshine...

A rare "Mommie & Levi" shot, outside on a perfect fall day. Sampling the pinestraw of the day.

World Without Us

Something I stumbled across today... follow the link: World Without Us.

Mommy's weekend of Solitude

I've been saying to Joe that I'd love to have another get-away weekend to relax and have "me" time (like the backpacking trip I took with Deanna this summer), but that I'd really just like to have that weekend here with the house to myself. Done! Joe & Levi are on their first (of many I'm sure) road trips together - they made the 4.5 hour journey to Jennings, Florida to visit the Burnams. Thank you Joe!!

I got to sleep-in this morning & am still enjoying my "morning" coffee at 1:30pm! Ahhh....

Weekend outings

Cookie & Granddaddy came for a 4-day visit (it's their fall break at school) & got to spend lots of time with the little man.

Off for a walk.

At Lake Herrick with Granddaddy.

Trying out the slide for the first time with Aunt Carrie & Cookie at Bear Hollow.

Levi & Cookie - Lake Herrick.

Lucky Egg

Levi's old enough now to have egg yolks (hold the whites... they're one of the most allergenic foods) & I decided to try it out today. I picked out a pretty big blue egg from the carton I got at Locally Grown last week. The particular 'grower' has some Araucanas, also called Easter Egg Chickens, which lay funky colored eggs... hence the big blue egg! Anyways, I hard boiled it & when I cracked it... it was a double yolk. What a lucky first egg.

Happy October!!!

Ahhh, it's finally here - one of my favorite months.