Weekend at the Farm!

We celebrated the start of summer vacation by taking little man up to the Ranck Family Farm- "Verdant View" in Lancaster, County PA this weekend. He had quite an experience of country life! He just adored all the animals, especially the baby goats that surrounded him and nibbled his ears! Big thanks to Pat and Elisa for hosting us this weekend. We had so much fun, and even got to meet their dear Amish friends, a young couple our age with 5 little girls! The youngest is a month younger than John Patrick, and they had so much fun playing together and sharing some puffs for a snack. Sorry, no pictures of the Amish playdate!

Play Date with Ani!- Almost 9 months

Ani is our neighbor's little baby girl. She is so cute, and will be turning a year in a few weeks. The two play so well together. Ani is inspiring John Patrick with her walking!

Memorial Day Outing- Picnic and Ice Cream with Mommy and Daddy

We enjoyed a really relaxing Memorial Day together as a family. We went for a picnic on Roosevelt Island, which to be honest is not very picturesque for picnics, so we probably won't go back unless to hike, and then a drive over to Alexandria for the delicious homemade frozen custard at The Dairy Godmother's. William and I went there the week before John Patrick was born. Well, he liked the frozen custard then and he loves it even more now! He had strawberry custard, and I had strawberry rhubarb sorbet. William stuck to the classic chocolate. It was so good I wanted a second scoop.. but William controlled me :)

Simple toys: kitchen utensils! Almost 9 months..

Gilmore Memorial Day Picnic!

Always such a fun time when the Gilmores get together! We enjoyed lots of swimming and good food at Mary Lu and Sue's place last weekend. John Patrick adored all the attention from all of his cousins!

Playing the grass! Almost 9 months old

John Patrick started crawling doing the military crawl around 6.5 months, and he got around just fine for the longest time like that. But he has evolved now into the traditional crawling on all fours, and has gotten quite fast! He loves to crawl in the grass chasing after bugs and picking weeds. One day he picked up a piece of bird poop and tried to snack on it. Luckily I intercepted! GROSS!

Last Swimming class! Almost 9 months old...

They call him Michael Phelps... he just seems to have a natural inclination for how to move in the water. It is a lot of fun to watch John Patrick try to take off and swim after one of his water toys, or after another baby in the water. Our 6 sessions of swimming classes were so great for him. Now that the pool has opened in our neighborhood, I am taking him swimming daily, and he is loving it!