Okay, prepare yourself for a shock.

We had always promised ourselves that when Jon decided that it was time for a different haircut, we'd honor his wishes. And, for the last several haircuts, I would ask Jon if he wanted the same haircut, or something different. He has always told me to cut it the same.

Well, about 2 weeks after the last haircut, Jon started telling us that he wanted his hair to be cut like Daddy's. I had to explain to him that he would have to wait until the back grew out.

Jon kept asking if his hair was ready to be cut like Daddy's. Finally, it was. So, today he got his first ever short haircut. I kept a lock of hair from the front for his scrapbook.

Jon loves his new style, and so do we! The one thing we realize is that we'd like the front to be a wee bit longer to show off the twirl. It's going to take some serious getting use to.

I wish I could be there to see the look on his teacher's face tomorrow morning!

So, now it's your turn to let Jon know what you think of his new do!

Saturday morning activities.

Jon's favorite place to eat breakfast on the weekends. He will sit in his bus, watching Speed Racer, and eating breakfast.

Jon got this silly little noise maker in his teacher's treasure box. The kids get to visit the treasure box every Thursday when they've had a good week. Jon has yet to miss a week!

Daddy came across this fabulous sight, and motioned for me to come look.

It's Dash!We got to calling him Dashernater.

Off to the Renaissance Festival!

Jon found a pirate with a treasure chest. We all know how much Jon likes finding treasures!

This time, we decided to rent outfits there. It was so much fun that we now want to make some for next year.
Jon was finally able to climb up by himself!

Jon sat down with a tambourine to play with the drummers. He thought he was part of the band! This pirate took a regular stroller and made it into a pirate ship.Jon was very disappointed when the fairies weren't in the same place as last time. He was looking all over for them. When we told them about him remembering the magic stone he received last time, every fairy reached to pull out a magic stone! One even gave him a "pearl" on a shell!
Jon went digging for crystals. Considering that he had been wanting to play in dirt all day, it was perfect timing.

Mommy got to go an the elephant ride this time! It was fun!
We came across these gnomes on the way out.

Last Monday, I took Jon to his first Optometrist appointment. I kind of thought that he might need glasses, since he had been getting headaches in the evenings. It also seemed to me that he was struggling to focus on each word when reading.
Well, we got our answer. Jon is a little bit far sighted. He needs his glasses for reading. So, they are for school and homework. He looks so studious in this picture. You'd never know that he's actually playing his Leapster! This evening, he decided that he prefers playing it with the glasses on.

At the beginning of October, we decided to go on a weekend road trip to San Antonio. We needed to get away after a rough week.
After checking into the motel, we went to hang out at the pool. Jon got a little freaked out in the big pool. I think he's used to the floaties that YMCA has, and didn't like being carried around the pool by us. Luckily, the hot tub wasn't really hot at all. It ended up being the perfect place for Jon to play.Time to practice blowing bubbles in the water.

The next morning, we went to the San Antonio Zoo.

Lately, Jon has been a bit afraid of butterflies and dragon flies. I hoped that taking him into the butterfly area would help. It did. He hasn't been afraid of either since.

These blue moths were hard to get pictures of.



We stood watching this bird for quite a while. It seemed to show off for it's meal, but we never saw it eat. Maybe it realised that the food wasn't going anywhere!
I love this shot of the tiger licking it's paw! I couldn't resist getting the cheesy picture next to the sign! There seemed to be so few pictures of Jon.We went for a ride on the train around the park. It was a nice ending to the day.
We went back home ready to tackle the next week.

IKE

Something happened to September
It was here a moment ago
I've looked all over
But it is nowhere to be found

The first 10 days seemed normal enough
Then "poof" the month was gone
When I look at the calendar,
I have to wonder, who took September?

I have my suspicions
There is talk in this town
Of a fellow who tore through here
And left trash all around


Where these branches landed is uncomfortably close to where my van would normally be. After an entire morning of being stuck in the house from the wind & rain, we were happy to go outside and clean up! In fact, a couple of times, we went for walks in the rain just to get outside and DO something.
We got lucky. All we lost were some tree limbs.
Some neighbors came over and helped us clean up the branches. One neighbor had a gas powered chain saw, and made quick work of the big ones. Jon had great fun helping the get the branches in the pile. You can see an entire tree on it's side across the street.
After helping us, the neighbors went with Charlie across the street to help cut up and stack the fallen tree.
Jon raked the leaves and small branches to be mowed over.The yard looked much better by the time the sun started going down!Jon had to be a ham for the camera!During one of our post-Ike walks, Jon did a face plant. He was pushing his Tonka truck, and fell forwards. That would be the scrape on the side of his nose.
A couple of weeks ago, we went to a park. We did a treasure hunt. Jon is a treasure hunt addict!

Jon found the paint, and decided to paint. Luckily, I had quickly put down the plastic. He was in the mood to body paint!

If you are wondering why the paper is so clean, well Charlie pulled through a few blank spots by the time this was taken.
Jon had a shower to get most of the paint off, before getting into the bath!
Well, this gets us mostly caught up. It took us a while to get our computer up & running. When power did come back on, the computer crashed. It took a computer tech to scrub the drive, saving our pictures for us. We had been borrowing Jon's super slow computer so that I could check email for work.

Jon's first day of 1st grade!!!

I took Jon to meet the bus. He was so excited to be getting on the bus again!
I was surprised that he looked back at me. Even more surprised that I managed to get a picture of it!
Jon had been looking forwards to wearing his new Buster Brown hiking boots since we bought them. He knew that they were for school, and has been reminding us of this at least once a day. (Right down to pointing out that they are Buster Browns!)
This morning, I find him walking around the house in his pj's, those new boots, and a big smile! I asked him where the rest of his clothes were, and we quickly got properly dressed.


Yesterday morning, I found this cute sight! That's a birthday present all by itself!