This has been an unusual summer for us. Usually our summers are filled with daily activities. Whether we make trips to the pool, play in the park, pick fruit, or go to a festival, we always seem to have something going on. This summer has been laid back. We haven't been to any pools or splash pads. We only went to one or two festivals. We barely went to the farmer's market. We went to the park a few times and we picked some strawberries. Not our usual summer for sure. Luckily fall is coming upon us and opening up our yearly harvesting fun. There will definitely be plenty of pumpkins outside our door and apple juice in our freezer. Looking forward to some fun in fall.
We did visit one apple orchard this past weekend. After we arrived, we decided not to pick apples. The trees were heavily picked already and it was very muddy from rain. Even though we were all sporting our gum boots (minus Apollo), we thought it best to let the kids play in the play area instead. Even that was difficult with all the mud, but they seemed to have a good time. It made me excited to check out other orchards and, hopefully, pick some delicious apples. I see apple juice, dumplings, and applesauce in our future. It's a good adventure for the whole family. Lucian already enjoys those trips, we hope Apollo will too.
Lucian has been doing well in school. He still gets frustrated when people can't understand him, but he has come a long way. He will soon be starting small speech therapy sessions during school. He has his own accent (kind of british-like, really), but I hope being around all the other kids' accents of his diverse school isn't too much for him. We plan to switch his school for the upcoming year anyway. I just know how hard it is for people not to understand you and to not be patient on either side. It's difficult for him, but I know he's strong and willing. He surprises me every single day. He will be having a field trip coming up next week. They are going to an apple orchard. Joseph is going to chaperone. This will be his first field trip experience with a class. Today is also his first picture day at school. I can't wait to see how he hams it up. Considering how much I photograph him, he is probably a pro. He is getting so big. I can't believe he will be 6 next month. He still enjoys video games, board games, reading books, and watching How it's Made. His favorite color is dark blue. His favorite board game is candyland. He loves to explore and learn. And is still very sociable. He makes lots of "best friends", including Apollo.
Apollo is quite the explorer. He isn't walking by himself yet, but he stands up randomly on his own and crawls very fast. He is very independent. He likes to do things himself and isn't much of a cuddler. Therefore, I must take full advantage when he crawls into my lap to play. He still loves all food. He especially gets upset when you don't share food with him. There isn't too many things that he doesn't like, but he definitely prefers a mix of things and lots of flavor. Apollo is a water baby. He loves anything to do with water. Water tables, pools, fountains, hoses, sinks, baths, and random cups of water. If it has water in it, it isn't sacred or off limits to this kiddo. At least we don't have to convince or force him to take a bath. He is usually willing to jump in. He is at the stage of pushing things around on the floor. His favorite thing to push around is an empty food container. He also likes to push around cars or anything that slides easily. He has also gotten good at stacking things. We were playing in the bathroom sink one day and he grabbed a stack of paper cups that were on the counter. I wasn't surprised to see him pull them off the stack one by one, but was utterly taken aback when I watched him carefully stacked several of them back together with such precision. Seriously, it was impressing. This little guy is going to be one next month. I'm excited for the next phase. but kind of sad to see my baby gone. He's practically a toddler already. We better pick lots of pumpkins to make up for it.
Though summer is coming to an end, great things will be upon us come fall. I, for one, can't wait to live it up in the beauty of fall. Surround myself with harvested goodies and feast on the bounty!
