Kilby Cream

After a quick search of my blog, I realized I have never really done a post about one of our favorite local places, Kilby Cream.  Though this one is a bit away from Newark, I would still consider it close enough to call local.

A quick jog down 95 will lead you into rural Maryland (third state Eli has visited now).  It always amazes me how quickly we can get to the country here. When we lived in Phoenix it took FOREVER to get "out of the city".  Here we are not nearly as trapped in the urban sprawl as we were there.

This dairy has really great ice cream, a petting zoo (calves, goats, mini horses, etc), and a playground that Theodore just can't resist.  And in the fall it is home to a corn maze.

Last year was our first time there, and we had a fun time taking Theodore through, though we went at a busier time and some of the lesser behaved children annoyed us.

But this year, we had the whole maze to ourselves on an early Sunday evening, and Theodore really had a blast leading us through.  He wanted to "read" the map the whole time, and kept deciding "This Way" at all the intersections. He was oddly right most of the time too.  Every now and then he wanted to trick dada by telling him to go a different way, but then would get worried when he was gone.  T would literally jump in the air when dada would sneak up on him by going around a different way, and then start giggling.  It was a lot of fun, and of course was followed by some great scoops of ice cream!  Not a normal fall pairing, but one Theodore is probably going to always link-  ice cream and corn mazes.

Elijah: 1 Month

Oct. 12, 2012

Today you turned one month old!  You are still the sweetest baby ever.  I've started calling you "little goat" because you sound just like one when you mewl.  However, I much prefer that to crying and am lucky you are so calm and rarely cry or spit up.

Your umbilical cord finally fell off on the 1st of Oct.  After being grossed out by it for a month, your brother turned 360 degrees and became upset when it fell off and complained he "want cord back" for the next few days.  You seem to be interested in your big brother, and like to watch him.

Weight:  10 pounds 14 ounces
Length:  22.5 inches
Size:  We can just barely squeeze you into newborn clothes and diapers, size 1 and 0-3 months fit better.
Feeding:  Like a clock.  You eat every two hours if you have a "half order" and every three hours if you have a "full order".  At night you only eat every four hours.
Sleeping:  All the time!  You do like to get up more in the late afternoon and evening hours, which works well since that's when dada comes home.  You like to sleep on mama, but will also sleep in the bassinet and the vibrating chair.
Likes:  Being swaddled at night, rocking and being cuddled.
Dislikes:  Binky, hiccups (you get them all the time!)

First Out of State Trip

I have felt a little trapped in my own house since the baby was born.  I really can't leave with both boys, since I am not supposed to lift Theodore and there are too many instances in any trip where I would have to lift him and I haven't fully started driving yet after my surgery.  And Brian is working as much as possible, so he can't really take us many places.  But today, I made him take us for a little outing.

We couldn't really decide what to do, but I've been wanting to drive up to Lancaster for a while now, so we headed north without any real plans except to find some "orange trees" as we instructed Theo.

By the time we got there around noon, we were quite hungry so we searched for restaurants on our GPS and randomly picked the fifth one it listed - The Smoketown Diner.  Apparently, Smoketown is one of the many, many towns that cluster outside of Lancaster.  It was a small diner, loud enough that Theo wasn't too distracting to everyone else, but quiet enough that the baby stayed asleep pretty much the whole time.  It was a cheap meal, and pretty filling but not too large portions, though we had to wait a bit.  Though I normally don't order dessert, I was excited to see peanut butter pie on the menu and disappointed when they didn't have any.

We picked up a guide and a map here, and were interested by a dairy, and a pretzel shop, and headed that way.

The dairy, Oregon Dairy, turned out to be the perfect place to spend one of the last nice days of the year with both boys.  We ordered some really tasty ice cream and ate out on the ice cream deck which was perfect with the sun warming us.  Theodore then had a great time playing on the playground, and I enjoyed seeing all the white deer they kept there.

Then we traveled just a bit more and came to a nice, historic town called Lititz.  We found  "the first commercial pretzel bakery in America,"  Sturgis Pretzel Bakery.  Though it was too close to nap time for us to take the tour, it looked interesting and was only a couple bucks a person.  We picked up some bags of pretzels, and a few hot freshly baked ones as well.

On our way out, we enjoyed the rest of our scenic, winding drive, and headed home a different route through Gap.  Of course, we had to stop at our cheese shoppe there.  Theo, always the chatterbox, thanked Bill for the cheese as we left with Manchego and an Irish cheddar with porter.

Elijah only cried a little on the drive home, as he was getting a little hungry.  Overall, it was a very successful first outing as a family of four, and Elijah's first time out of his home state.