Today Jace fell on the playground at school, got a minor scratch and showed off his Band-Aid for the rest of the day.

He came home to find Grandma and Papa visiting. He made popcorn for them.

He helped Mommy and Daddy do the grocery shopping and managed to slip an item past us into the cart. When we got home Joel asked if I had decided to purchase the Silly Band bracelets. No, I did not!

Jace learned what the little Jack-O-Lantern bucket was for. I taught him to say Trick-or-Treat and when he went to the kitchen and said it for Daddy he got some candy in the bucket. He was super excited. It should be a good Halloween.

Joel had the forethought to lock the bathroom door. Jace was surprised to find it locked and spent several minutes trying to unlock the door using various plastic toys as keys. The whole time Jace was reassuring Joel, "Unlock it Daddy." (like he would soon rescue him from the locked bathroom)

There were some overly dramatic tears when the Band-Aid came off.

It was a full day around here.

Grandad's House

Jace had been talking about going to "Grandad's house" for weeks and we finally made the trip this weekend. We had not been to Wray since July and Jace definitely noticed. On the way out on Friday we stopped at Brush for dinner. Everyone in the small restaurant knew that Jace was on the way to visit Grandad's house because he talked non-stop the entire time we were there.

We had a fun visit. Jace got to spend lots of time playing with Grandad and getting out all the toys in the basement.

On Saturday we enjoyed a beautiful fall afternoon in the country. We checked out the equipment at the edge of the corn field (all ready to start cutting on Monday). Joel helped me gather ears of corn to take back to the preschool for our sensory table. Jace loved walking between the rows of corn. We had some yummy roast beef and watermelon and saw lots of 2nd cousins at the Kitzmiller BBQ.

Today we had a fantastic chicken noodle dinner at Grandma and Papa Courtney's house. After lunch the guys helped Grandma push start her VW Bug. By the time we got in our car to come home Jace was exhausted. He was even asking to "sleep". He napped most of the way home but by the time we got home he was asking again for "Grandad's house."

We will visit again soon little man. I promise.

Jace insisted that Grandad join him on the kitchen floor this morning while he snacked on crackers and milk before breakfast.

Daily Jace: Tonight I got out some wrapping paper to wrap a gift. When Jace realized what I was doing he came running over to check it out. He stopped right next to me and said, "That's cool." I wasn't sure I heard him right at first because I've never heard him say that before but he said the same thing twice more while he helped me with the tape. "That's cool."

long day

I spent about 30 minutes with Joel and Jace today. Between the preschool and my class tonight I had no time at home.

Daily Jace (from what I saw): The first thing he did when he got home from Grandma and Papa's house today was take off his tennis shoes by himself and ask me to help him put on his new boots. He really loves his new boots. They look so big on him. I can't believe how big his feet are.

Locked out

Daily Jace: He entertained everyone at dinner tonight by singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star then danced around the living room during the opening of Dancing with the Stars.

I called to check in with Joel during my lunch break today. I was curious how the Playschool drop off went this morning. Joel said it went pretty well but that they were lucky to make it there on time. 10 minutes before they needed to leave the house, Jace locked Joel out of the house. Joel stepped out to water the flowers on the front step and heard Jace flip the dead bolt. Yikes! Luckily Joel could see Jace through the window and was able to convince him to unlock the door. We will be making some modifications at our house this week.

He was excited because he figured out how to work the voice recorder in the car and could play back his silly noises.

a hot day in September

I'm so far behind on blog postings there really is no way to catch up. Maybe I'll find time to do some flashback posts. Maybe.

Getting a drink from the sprinkler.

We are settling in to our fall schedule. I'm back to work. The days are active and full and go by quickly in the preschool classroom. I feel like a week goes by in a moment. I'm also taking one class in order to finish one of the Early Childhood credentials that the state requires. Jace is at a childcare center two days a week and spends much of the rest of his week at Grandma and Papa's house. Joel does everything that would not otherwise get done. He works for Gary, takes care of Jace, packs lunches, cleans the house and still manages to run 5 days a week as part of his marathon training. It is amazing to me.

Jace seems to like the childcare center. The first few weeks were rough at drop off (again, Joel is awesome cause he had to deal with the tears). Now, Jace asks for his teacher on days that he is not going to see her.

This weekend was the last big sailing event of the season, the Colorado Gov. Cup at Cherry Creek. Joel spent two long, hot days on the boat. They were able to win Vern a trophy for the end of this season.

Last night Joel and I joined Becky and Justin downtown for the Great American Beer Festival. It was a huge event at the convention center. Hundreds of American Brewers were pouring 1oz. samples of their beers for four hours. The crowd and the noise was unbelievable. It was definitely an experience. There was such a variety of beers. There was a wild cherry ale that tasted like malty cool aid, a winter brew that smelled like oranges and cloves, a sweet bourbon flavored stout, a weird one that the server described as "smoky" and I described as "this tastes like a box of Band-Aids", and a flavor failure that was just called "Mango". My favorite of the evening was a Rye Ale from Montana. I took notes in order to remember some of what I sampled. It was a unique event that I would like to do again but one that I would only want to do once a year.

Today was long and hot. Jace is fighting a cold that had him coughing in the night. He seems fine during the day but has trouble sleeping soundly when congestion settles. He and I spent a quiet afternoon at home. He had a good nap. We went to the store to pick out snacks for his first day of Playschool at the church tomorrow. After sailing, Joel came home and grilled burgers.

Photo: He picks my flowers and dances with them on his head singing, "la, la, la." It makes me laugh so he gets away with picking the flowers.

Daily Jace: While we were making dinner Jace found a penny that I had in my pocket. He was excited because he knows that the mechanical horse at the grocery store takes pennies. He danced around the kitchen saying "horsey, horsey". Then he accidentally dropped the penny and it bounced directly into the furnace vent. Jace was a little sad when I told him the penny was gone. He moped around for a few minutes. When I found another penny in my pocket I handed it to him saying, "Be careful don't loose it again." The words were not even out of my mouth when he ran to the vent and dropped the second penny in. This time on purpose. Joel and I both said something like, "Well, that's it, the pennies are all gone. We can't get them back." Later, at dinner he asked about them again. "Where go?" We said, "Sorry, they are all gone. We can't get them." (in our slightly sarcastic parenting voices) Jace had a solution. "Oso get 'em." Joel and I both had to laugh. Oso is a James Bond like secret agent panda bear cartoon. He shows up when kids have problems and helps them learn how to do simple things like fix a wagon wheel, or feed an animal at the petting zoo. Jace is pretty sure Oso could get the pennies back in "3 simple steps". Thanks, Disney channel.