bucket list.

i'm in charge of jack's bedtime routine at our house, which i absolutely love. i use the term "routine" relatively loosely because except for the jack-sleeping part, it sort of varies depending on the day. somedays it includes a long bath full of splashing water all over the walls and trying to coerce the pups to join him in the tub. other nights he opens the bottom drawer of his dresser and pulls out all the pajamas and laughs, while looking at me with his best "what are you gonna do it about it, mom?" look. some nights he is fixated on the paper lanterns hung above his crib, crawling from spot to spot to peer at them slowly moving in the breeze from his fan. no matter the day, however, the theme is usually the same: jack is a-moving. john calls this "the zoomies," and jack usually gets a pretty severe case right before bed. and i've been missing him all day, so i don't mind what he's doing... i'm just soaking it all up and having fun watching him cause trouble, make messes and have fun.

for about the last week, though, we've been settling into a new routine. jack curls up on my lap and lays his head on my chest while i sing to him. i know that this might not seem like earth-shattering news, but ever since jack learned to crawl, he's been OFF TO THE RACES. he will not stop, pause or sit still for longer than 32 seconds. he has to see everything, discover everything and destroy anything and everything within his reach. i can't really fault him for this because i don't sit down either, so i'm sure he's just imitating what he sees. the past week, though, as i said, has been quite a change. he just lays in my lap, staring up at me while i sing him off-key tunes. and, can i just say, i LOVE the change in pace.

i love it so much that i started crying the other day while singing him all i could remember of edelweiss from my time as a von trapp in my high school's production of the sound of music freshman year. he looked up at me confused, touching my face where the tears were. he patted my cheeks as if to reassure me that he wasn't growing up too fast. but the box full of clothes he's outgrown in the past month sitting on the floor of his closet tell another story. my sweet baby boy is growing, changing, getting older so very, very fast. how can it be that in 17 days he will turn one year old? how can i be the mother of a little boy who can scale the stairs, yell "dadda" at the top of his lungs and enjoy lasagna like it's sunday dinner on jersey shore?

so in the spirit of treasuring every moment, i resolved to create seasonal bucket lists to encourage us to spend time doing fun things together, to focus on the stuff that's important and to let go of the rest. after making this resolution, i started about the list and promptly realized i don't know the first thing about making a bucket list. it started off promising enough with "family trip to the pumpkin patch" and "make a big batch of butternut squash soup," but quickly turned into a to-do list: "paint the trim in the dining room/living room" and "hang picture collage about couch" and "organize entryway closet." and that, my friends, is exactly why i am in DIRE need of seasonal bucket lists. because i would spend all my time frantically trying to accomplish the million projects i have planned in my head. i absolutely NEED a seasonal bucket list to keep my crazy project ADD at bay.

and so after some tweaking, i came up with a fueger family fall bucket list for 2011. and this weekend we crossed a few things off that little list.

jack, at the pumpkin patch

picking out the perfect pumpkin!

trying to eat his pumpkin

another one on the ole list was taking fall family pictures. done and done. we had a great shoot with our friend, marie on sunday. (beautiful weather, good times, lots of laughs and even a little cooperation from the wee one. you can check out some of those 300+ moments she captured on her site.)

and since i envisioned using one of my four goodwill chair purchases at the shoot, i suppose you could say that my bucket list inspired me to get cracking on my lengthy "to-do" list. without further ado: goodwill chair specimen numero dos:

i don't know how often i'll use this bad boy, but for $5, i couldn't resist (even if it's only ever a photo prop, how could i say no at that price???) i painted it benjamin moore's tangelo, courtesy of a free coupon in my pottery barn catalog. they were running some kind of promotion where you could take said coupon to any retailer carrying benjamin moore paint and receive two free pint samples. well, the two places in dbq that sell the paint weren't honoring the coupons, so i called corporate and sweet-talked a nice man named george who agreed to give me 1 quart of semigloss vs. 2 pints of satin. badda bing, badda boom! done and done. thank you, george, for helping me give this sad old highchair a happy new life.

and speaking of happy life, go check something off your fall bucket list. it's good for the soul.