Rustic Cabin and positive interactions

A couple of weekends ago we went on an adventure with some friends. A guy I work with recently became a member of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club that allows you to rent many different cabins for a very modest fee (~$30/night). These cabins are rustic - no running water or plumbing, but there was a wood stove, outhouse, and stream nearby. Ahh, brings back my days in the yurt.

The 1.8 mile hike in was a bit ambitious for us, particularly our toddler. He is not the most coordinated fellow (bless his heart) and the recently fallen leaves and rocky terrain made for a long haul. He was exhausted and needing to be carried more than we expected, which was tough considering we were carrying an infant and all our food, clothes and blankets for the night.

Regardless, We had a great time, and look forward to getting the family in the woods again next year. Now we know that Alder just needs a bit more training beforehand.

Here is the beautiful cabin:

and all the kids...
Another fun thing of late is that Alder and Heath are beginning to interact more, and it is really cute. I looked back at Alder in the car yesterday and asked a common question - "Is Heath awake or asleep?" Alder looked over and a huge smile emerged on his face and he said - "Awake! and he is happy!" I proceeded to laugh and tell Alder how much Heath loves him. Heath smiles hugely when Alder enters the scene or merely looks at him and proceeds to kick his legs and reach for him. Alder is finally coming around and recognizing that this can be fun. He regularly sits with a book near him and talks about what he sees on the pages. So sweet, when he says: "Heath, you like this book? Okay." Yesterday morning as Heath was waking up in our bed (as he often comes in our bed ~5am or earlier), Alder brought his guitar (yuke) in and set up next to him and sang his ABCs to him.

Here they are in the bathtub together for the first time:

...and Heath's first experience in the exersaucer - Alder was directing Heath to play with/chew on this or that.Oh yes, and here are a few nice pics of Heath:

halloween, trip to RM, and pretend

Halloween was fun. Granna visited a few days before and brought a couple of costumes she bought on sale last minute and this really worked out well being the slacker-mom I am who has never really gotten all that excited about this particular holiday.

Here is my little cow


...and sorry, but this is our only pic of Alder's Indian/Davey Crockett outfit while cruising the neighborhood with his friend Sylvia, the carrot.

We had a great time - Thanks Janet and Dan for joining in the festivities. I handed out raisins and granola bars to two families and then I think the word got out that the Bulluck house was lame...and our street is less exciting than others. We told the kids that we were looking at decorations and visiting neighbors in the moonlight. We were grateful for this likely last year we could hold off the candy intake - refined sugars weakens the immune system in this icky flue season that is just beginning.

Weekend before last we went to RM for a family reunion and had a great time. Here is Alder with his cousin Gabriella. She was so sweet to play with him and he loved the attention. The helmets are from the motercycle rides with PaPa.


We love you PaPa...Heath is enjoying the mirror and playing with his feet these days. Like the crack?!

Sweet boy with his daddy

We got creative this last weekend with a box we got in the mail - thanks Jamie for the wonderful presents for the kids! We made the box into a barn and Alder had a blast with this! We did not intend to do this, but we ended up showing him how to pretend. It was so fun to see him model our words and throw in some of his own. It was also nice to see him enjoying something other than cars and trains. The pig was eating the farmer's garden so we had to build a fence to keep him in, all the animals and tractors got on the roof to take a nap, we brought in pine straw to be hay, etc.