The Harvey Family: November {2016}

November happenings:

Took a trip to Tennessee for Thanksgiving. It was a lot of driving but the boys were unexpectedly very good. They don't seem to want to do anything in the car other than sleep, eat, and Brett played with his Kindle a bit.
We sold our Florida house. We got a contract on it pretty quickly which was wonderful and it took a month and a half to close. Now we get to start searching for a home here in Ohio.
We finally found some good ground beef! There is a chain of stores called Fresh Thyme and they have grass fed beef that is antibiotic and hormone free and it is freshly ground daily instead of being crammed into those "fresh packs" that make the meat have the worst gummy texture.
I attempted to take pictures of the supermoon.
Got a humidifier and his name is Elliot. He is an elephant and he has been nice to have upstairs in the bedroom, but he just wasn't quite enough to help in the main living room downstairs.
Got to go to Rock City when we were in Tennessee for Thanksgiving. They have a ton of Christmas lights all over the place and it is really beautiful. I've been wanting to go for years and was glad to finally get to see it. Hopefully I'll get to see it again one day during the day, and hopefully during fall with all the beautiful trees.

This month Brett:

loves reading the Berenstain Bears books. His favorites are "Go to the Doctor" and "The Missing Honey". He is really good at sitting still through the whole story and insists on reading them before nap time and bed time every day. We did get a few books from the library that he likes reading but the bear books have to be read first.
saw his first snow flurries. We had a day where the temperature finally got below freezing and there was precipitation in the forecast. It ended up looking like little sleet that landed on the ground and then melted pretty quickly, but with a dark background he was able to see it. I'm sure December will bring a much different story.
has an imaginary friend named Flickery. Whenever he lists out his family members that are going to do something with him, he always adds "Poo-poo" and "Flickery". It makes everyone laugh so he continues to do it. I seriously cannot figure out where Flickery came from though.
wants to be a doctor when he grows up. He loves reading about the Doctor in the Berenstain Bears book and using the doctor's play kit that we have so he said that's what he wants to be when he grows up. Of course Chris is on board and will hopefully live vicariously through him if that actually happens haha.
made his first pizza. He was so excited and used more vegetables than anyone else. We decided to make it with Daiya "cheese" instead of real cheese because of his (and my) dairy allergy but it was not good at all. I mean, it has a similar consistency to mozzarella but the taste just isn't in the same ballpark, so he only took 1 or 2 bites.
still likes to be in the middle when sitting on the couch. If 2 people are sitting or lying next to each other, he will shove his way into the middle. It doesn't matter how close together they are to start with he'll throw some elbows or kick you to find his way to the middle. Most of the time if Blake is one of those people and he's close to the edge of the couch, he'll end up on the floor from Brett's mule kicks.
has been taking naps in the big bed and is doing really well. He pretty much will scream his head off if I leave him in his bed to go to sleep and will never settle down. He was so mad one day he actually figured out how to climb out of his crib for the first time. I didn't actually see which way he climbed out but I just heard him open the bedroom door after leaving him in his crib for nap time. Luckily his crib is right next to the big bed so hopefully he just went out that way.
still likes his baked beans and fruit pouches. I keep a big can handy for him at all times because he goes through them so quickly. He usually asks for baked beans first thing in the morning or sometimes before it's time to wake up. Then if he's awake and hungry, he'll bring you 3 fruit pouches at a time to eat because he can't open them on his own thankfully. His favorite flavor is sweet potato mixed with fruit and basically won't eat it unless it either has sweet potatoes or is just the apple sauce one.
really likes milk lately. Has been drinking Vanilla flavored Almond Breeze (which I also love in my coffee) and he drinks it all morning. I have to admit it is really tasty and I'm glad he finally has a source of calcium that he can take without an allergic reaction.
is wearing size 8.5M shoes. His feet are getting so long and skinny, it's hard to believe my little boy is growing up so much!

This month Blake:

made a lot of ice in his ice factory. He spent a few days taking ice cubes and putting them in containers and letting them melt and then putting the water back in the freezer to freeze again. He even tried putting little toys in the water so they'd freeze inside the ice and then let them melt again.
seems to do pretty well in mildly cold weather. He seems to be warm all the time and always kicks off his covers at night while the rest of us need a couple layers to stay warm. His core seems to always been warm so I guess we'll see how he does when it gets really cold outside.
saw his first snow flurries. He wasn't really impressed since it didn't stick to the ground.
almost started preschool. We found a preschool that seemed like it would be fine that had an afternoon opening 3 days a week but on the first day we found out that it wasn't peanut-free like we were told so we decided not to go through with it. Now we're on a waitlist for a couple other schools that we like better anyway but I'm not sure there will be any openings this year.
wants to be a scientist when he grows up. He loves figuring out how things work as long as it doesn't take too much time and effort so he decided that being a scientist and possibly inventing things would be a good career path for him.
has to be wrestling or throwing things or running with a fist in front of him all the time. I know that boys are supposed to be a lot more physical than girls but sheesh there is a lot of physical contact between him and his brother. They seem like they're fighting all the time but I guess it's not always out of anger (although sometimes it definitely is).
loves to help vacuum the floor. He has always been a great helper around the house and loves to do all the things that I do. Most recently he likes to get out the vacuum and use the hose attachment to clean under our kitchen table.
ate at a restaurant for the first time. After a lot of fussing we decided to let the boys eat at Chipotle (since we figured it was the smallest chance for any peanut contamination) and for all the excitement beforehand, it ended up being pretty much a failure. The boys shared a kids make-your-own-taco meal with rice, pork, pinto beans, and tortillas and I think the apple juice in a box was the only thing that got tried more than once (Brett finished that and got a sugar high).
got to go "sledding" down a hill for the first time. We went to Summit Park and they had the most unique kids area that we've seen. They had a hill covered in fake grass and it was so much fun to slide down! Of course there were signs that said not to use cardboard so there were a bunch of cardboard scraps lying around that made you go a lot faster down the hills.
got to play his first real pinball game. We were shopping at this crazy big international market called Jungle Jims and near the award winning bathrooms they had a couple of old school pinball machines and both boys thought they were really cool.
is wearing size 11.5M shoes. His feet keep growing but we were surprised that he no longer needs XW shoes and that he went all the way down to medium and doesn't even need wides anymore.
doesn't seem to like to eat anything for breakfast other than pop chips. He'll eat hard boiled egg whites every now and again if they're freshly made (and warm), and sometimes he'll eat toast and maple syrup but it's been hard to get him to eat anything that will actually fill his belly. Bacon goes over with him once he smells it but we can only eat that so often.

Pics:

We found some leaves to play in and had to take some pics.

The boys were so cute throwing the piles of leaves in the air.

And I told them we should make a pile to jump in. It was too exciting to make a bigger pile than this.

This is what I got when I asked them to pose. This really shows their personalities. <3

Cute boy in the leaves.

Brett practicing his letters.

Blake working hard on his Preschool workbook.

A couple of the pretty lake at Voice of America MetroPark before the moonrise.

Our first view of the Supermoon. Instead of rising next to the pretty water tower it decided to make its appearance behind the power lines. Thanks, moon. It was pretty big though.