Love-Love-Loving Fall!!!

WOW, how can anyone NOT love this fantastic time of year? Please, If you don't like fall, please let me know why this is the case. I have always loved this season and last year around this time, I loved being in our new home, taking walks surrounded by trees that take your breath away by their glorious colors and I daydreamed about sharing this with our child.All I can say is,Wow, this year has gone by so, so quickly. John Paul must take after me in some regards because I think he loves this season as much as his mom. He will sit in a pile of leaves and play with those leaves longer than I have ever seen him play with an individual toy. When we take walks, I will hand him a leaf, and unlike a toy that will be tossed on the ground, he holds such a tight grip on that leaf, inspecting it the entire time. He is always curious and taking in the sites and the sounds from his stroller perspective. We have had wonderful visits from GiGi, Aunt Carrie, Grandmommy and Grandpa the past month or so and he is pretty bored when it is just the two of us (You should see him practicaly leap into his dad's arms). I think he is saying "Come on, Mom, aren't you going to pay attention to me and spoil me every second you are awake, too"? I do try but he is certainly full of energy. I love our days together, our trips to music class and the library and everything in between, but I never knew how much energy this boy would have! I certainly give much, much deserve credit to our parents for finding the energy to raise four crazy (and brilliant and kind...) children-wow! I love being a parent for many reasons but one of the best things about being a parent, in my opinion, is that we can act like children and do things just as much for us as for John Paul. We took John Paul for his first apple picking adventure with Aunt Carrie and for his first Halloween pumpkin with his Grandmommy and Grandpa Pete. We loved these adventures, the beautiful weather, and making memories that I so badly want him to remember but I am pretty sure this family takes enough pictures to remind him!

how did I let this happen?

So,I originally thought that I would be writing on this all the time-I mean, our little boy was sleeping like an angel during the day and at night-we had it made. Unfortunately, that is not the case anymore and although I am certainly flattered that an adorable boy wants to spend all of his time with little ol' me, he does not leave me much time to sit down on the computer. I apologize for my lack of picture taking and picture sending but I do hope-pray-long-for the day when he decides to take a nap. Well, even if he doesn't, I'm sure I'll have time when he starts pre-school. This little boy is growing soooo fast-it is unbelievable. He is standing now on his own and I can tell in those amazing blue eyes that he wants so badly to move a little bit more but he finds himself just as comfortable slowly taking a break and sitting down. He absolutely loves his new car that his Gigi bought him. An unexpected surprise is that this ride on toy is also educational and we love that!!! I never thought we would be 'those' parents who would be so excited over him learning to 'open' or 'close' or 'press the button'. It may sound ridiculous but we love it and we love him which makes us really not care!!