November 7

It's official: the day after Daylight Savings Time ends?

Longest. Day. Ever.

I know the experts say that the longest day of the year is in July, but they're either fools or childless. Daisy woke up sometime around 4:30 this morning; Caleb started talking around 5:15. Normally the kids are still asleep when Chris leaves for work by 6:30 am, but we were all up today to send him off to work. By 9:00, it was rainy and dreary and I was exhausted.

Luckily, Caleb had plans for us. While Daisy and I sat on the couch, he wandered into the laundry room, pulled his rain boots out of the shoe bin, put them on, came back out, and announced, "You need to go outside!"

How could I argue with that logic?

So I popped Daisy in the Ergo, grabbed a jacket and an umbrella, and threw Caleb's dinosaur raincoat on him and we all went outside. First we just splashed in the puddles in our yard; then Caleb decided he wanted to go to the forest. Off we went! We ended up walking to the little pond, where there were at least two dozen ducks happily swimming in the rain. I told Caleb that they were having a duck party. His response: "Maybe they have cupcakes! With icing!"

After naps, we ran errands. Daisy fell asleep in the car on the way home, so I let her nap in the car seat while Caleb and I played outside.

Waiting for Daddy to come home.

This was when he informed me, "You runnin' a marathon!" When I repeated it back to him to make sure I understood, he replied, "You runnin' a HALF marathon!" My mistake. Clearly he's too young to be running a full marathon, but he should be able to run a half marathon by the time he's three, right? (Check out the link - it's fascinating! And Budhia Singh has been in the news lately, too...)

This girl was happy when Daddy came home. Have I mentioned that she's finally started babbling? I guess it was yesterday that she started saying, "da da da da". It's really pretty cute, and she's so pleased with herself.

See?

Also, I got the files from our family photos last night. Despite the fact that the kids weren't as cooperative as I had hoped, we're pleased with the results. We're especially pleased, considering it was just a 15-minute mini-session.

All of these photos were taken by Michelle Ross, of Under Grace Photography. I've been blog and Facebook stalking her for a long time while I worked to convince Chris of the benefits of hiring a real-life photographer to take our pictures. Benefit #1? I'm in them, and I don't look harried or rushed because I've just set the auto-timer on the camera and am running back to be in the shot. (Though any of you can feel free to get me a wireless shutter remote for Christmas...)

This one's probably my favorite...

Caleb would not smile for anything. He was very suspicious of Michelle, though she did everything right. He only became moderately cooperative when we found this water pump. He started trying to pump and re-enact the "Easy Goin' Day" scene from Follow that Bird. (Are you enjoying all of the links in this post?) Also, do you see the little teardrop just escaping from his right eye? Something about the chilly/foggy morning made our eyes water.

Daisy wouldn't smile, either, but at least she could sit up on her own!

I think we may have to document in her baby book that her first solid food was fallen leaves.

This moment was completely unsolicited. He just came up, sat next to her, and gave her a kiss.

How sweet are they?

My hot husbando. Though the pose brings pregnancy to mind, and we are definitely not pregnant.

Now I'm going to bed.