Good Morning from That Baby.

Baby Bill is 4 weeks old today. I mean Will. Or William. Or Little Fatty.

We still don't have a stand-out choice of name for him, but he doesn't seem to mind being called "that baby" or "the small one."  He is also losing all of his hair, but that doesn't seem to faze him either.

 

For the most part, he just hangs out and spends his time pooping or eating or sleeping, as all good babies should. If he's crying, it means that either a.) he's hungry or b.) Colin is antagonizing him.

 

He's quite popular around here, so I often bribe the older kids with the opportunity to hold him. "If you pick up the blocks without complaining, you can hold your baby brother!"

(Sorry, Bill. I can justify this because you won't remember any of the trauma of Colin holding you when you're older.)

Minnesota Harvest

Last weekend we took our annual trip to Minnesota Harvest to pick our yearly bag of apples. This year, the plywood photo prop got a new coat of paint, and we added to it our newest member.

Can you believe that baby wouldn't even smile for this?

Exciting tractor wagon ride.

Colin takes tractor rides very seriously.

Selecting a choice apple with Grandma.

Annual selfie on the wagon ride.

Their apples rarely made it into our bag.

Running through the sunflower maze.

This baby did not contribute to the apple picking.

Jared, ready for the maze.

Since then, I've been making apple stuff. Apple smoothies. Apple butter. Apple cake. I even made these apple turnovers, which Oliver dubbed "gross burned triangles that aren't even food."

So they're not exactly Martha Stewart quality, but I wouldn't go so far as to label them "gross burned triangles."

 

Next weekend, we're hitting the corn maze. Good thing I won't come home with a giant bag of corn to bake up.

State Fair Time

Last weekend we loaded everyone up and headed to the Minnesota State Fair, in accordance with tradition. We got there early and stayed most of the day so that we could eat an unreasonable amount of fried food. This year we ate:

1. Korean BBQ pork collar with kimchi pickles.
2. Bison hot dog.
3. Pickle dog.
4. Big fat bacon, on a stick.
5. Cheese curds.
6. Smoothies.
7. Deep-fried peanut butter buckeyes, on a stick.
8. Sno-Ribbons, a weird mix between shaved ice and ice cream.
9. A bucket of Sweet Martha's cookies.
10. Mini donuts.
11. Deep-friend pickles.
12. Cotton candy.
13. Dairy barn milkshakes.
14. Blue cheese corn fritters.
15. Chicken in a waffle.
16. Beer gelato.

Colin enjoying an inflatable flapping man.

Colin trying to cheat in the maze.

Oliver, finally not afraid to jump high this year.

Colin, who is never afraid, whether he should be or not.

He would have gone a lot higher if he could figure out how to jump.

Jared, enjoying a giant piece of bacon on a stick.

Colin enjoying a deep-fried mess of peanut butter and chocolate on a stick.

William, who didn't even appreciate the beautiful cows.

"What does the cow say, Colin?"
"Neigh."

Annual photo op in the horse barn.

Now that September is here, we'll be frantically running around trying to pack in the last few weekends of outdoor fun before the cold sets in. Our weekends are already booked for the corn maze, apple picking, Oliver's birthday, and the pumpkin patch.

Things have been going surprisingly well here on the home front. William is a pretty easy-going baby. I'm tired, but I'm not as tired as I could be. This time around I've made it a lot easier on myself. I've given up completely on doing any housework. I've got premade frozen meals for dinner. The kids have been making their own lunches. I've let other people do the work for me.

And while the house is a complete mess and the kids have eaten yogurt and dry cereal for lunch almost every day, it's so much better this way. It's too bad it took me until our last baby to figure this out.