It is hard to believe that Lizzie is 17 months old! She is very much the young lady these days. She has really increased her vocabulary and is able to communicate in sentence fragments. Through sign language she uses "please" and "thank you" regularly. She spreads her arms out wide to tell us that she loves us "this much". She loves to bring us books to read together (she is quick to say "lap" when she wants us to hold her and knows when her favorite parts of the book are coming up). She knows how to say and ask for bananas, pasta, cereal, apples, pudding, vitamins, etc. We continue to be amazed by how much she is changing and growing! She is quite the ticket these days. One of the other big changes in our family is Brinkley's new cousin - meet Griffin (or Ken Griffy or Griffindor - I can't help myself)! See Kate's blog for more details, but as you can see from the pictures below, we are having fun with him. He is only 8 weeks old in these pictures, but weighs about as much as Lizzie. See below - he wants to use as little effort as possible to get his drink - maybe that is the cleanest way?
Grammy, Ti-Ti and Lizzie give him a bath - he needed it! Now he smells like roses.
He was very good in the bath - don't let this expression fool you.
Also, we went to pick pumpkins in the garden - we didn't actually cut any yet (Ryan has a bunch cut for the stands - we will probably use whatever is left at Halloween), but enjoyed the hay ride.
Few! Busy weekend ahead - the last CSA share delivery is Friday, we have some commitments at the Common Ground Fair and then Lizzie and I will go see Mimi on Sunday for a jewelry party.
Because it was meant to be chilly today and we were headed to the Common Ground Fair, we looked through Lizzie's hats to see what still fits here. She liked wearing the pumpkin hat and asked to put it back on when I took it off of her. Plus she wants to sing wheels on the bus (based on the book she is holding):
Grammy, Ti-Ti and Lizzie give him a bath - he needed it! Now he smells like roses.
He was very good in the bath - don't let this expression fool you.
Also, we went to pick pumpkins in the garden - we didn't actually cut any yet (Ryan has a bunch cut for the stands - we will probably use whatever is left at Halloween), but enjoyed the hay ride.
Few! Busy weekend ahead - the last CSA share delivery is Friday, we have some commitments at the Common Ground Fair and then Lizzie and I will go see Mimi on Sunday for a jewelry party.
Also, Kate had a birthday this week. I won't tell you her age - I think she is keeping it a secret (ok, this finger holding up thing is something we have done since we were kids). We were able to surprise Kate and John with a visit from Char and Buster - they brought some delicious ice cream from Tubby's (I think that is what the place is called - either way, very yummy! I have never had such good maple walnut ice cream or hot fudge - though the grape nut ice cream was my favorite - perfect with the cake!). We had a wonderful time visiting with everyone, though Lizzie was asleep for most of the party.
Today we took Lizzie for her second annual apple picking adventure. We filled our bucket quickly and I am sure will come back for a few other varieties later on in the season. I am headed straight to the kitchen after posting this blog to make a fresh apple pie (and then I will help Ryan unload some firewood - I think the baking pie will be good incentive to unload the wood quickly).
Here are a couple pics from last weekend - we went to a fundraiser in Lamoine and enjoyed some great views! 
When I say that "we" were raking blueberries, I mean the other three adults raked while Lizzie and I did our best to keep away from stinging creatures and rotten berries.
Mimi helped Lizzie find some of the best berries in the field.
I didn't mean to upload this picture - I must have grabbed the wrong one - this is from weeks ago, but it is a nice picture so I will leave it here.
Here is some tent setup at the farm - we were able to clean out the back barn for a dance floor, etc and had two smaller tents for food/beer/wine. 
Here are Ryan and Lizzie right before the party - Grammie Susie goes tulle happy at these parties and has therefore tied a tulle bow around Lizzie like a belt (with a bow in back of course - she won't always be okay with a butt bow, I think). Both dogs sported tulle bows around their collars as well. Very festive!
Lizzie was a great sport and fell soundly asleep at her regular bedtime. If only the rest of us could say the same!
Lizzie has had her first real fever this weekend - started on Thursday. She was a little better yesterday, hopefully she is slowly coming out of it now!
