October 24

Did you know that today is October 24?

That means two things:

1. We first visited our current house exactly a year and a day ago. These fall colors and gentle breezes have me feeling nostalgic for that first walk-through, when we fell in love. (You know, before we realized all of the yuck that comes along with living in a former foreclosure.)

2. This weather is insane. Today was 85 and sunny. I busted out the shorts and flip-flops for the kids. Crazy! We spent almost all day outside.

I was really hoping to have some sort of a fun adventure today, but when I asked Caleb if he wanted to go somewhere outside, he replied, "I want to go somewhere outside... in our back yard!"

These kids really, really love to swing. I had no idea.

Happy swinging (barefoot) Daisy.

Happy swinging (tennis-shoed, despite the fact that I offered him flip-flops) Caleb.

This is what I saw all day. I'm pretty sure I gave myself tennis elbow from pushing the kids so much.

This girl will scoot toward the swings, saying, "Baby! Baby!" until I put her in her swing. (Why "baby"? Because she knows she gets to ride in the baby swing!) After a few pushes, she says, "Ack? Ack?" What's that? It's "attic", of course! Caleb calls the little slide clubhouse the attic, and Daisy loves being up there and going down the slide. She's pretty proficient at the ladder now!

I finally got the kids off the swings and we wound up in the front yard, where I raked up a bunch of leaves.

Caleb was confident that I had raked them for the sole purpose of his enjoyment.

Inspired by Amber's fun photos of her kids leaping into leaves, I asked Caleb to show me  his best ninja jump. 

I got this.

He clearly doesn't understand the concept of a "leap" yet.

But he sure was happy with his efforts.

One last leaf photo, just for fun: 

Ha!

(No Mom, he wasn't hurt.)

October 23

Two (surprisingly) unrelated things:

1. Daisy just got her third molar.

2. Girl is trying to kill me with her napping situation. She'll only nap for thirty minutes at a time before she wakes, screaming. If I don't rock and hold her until she falls back asleep, she'll just. keep. screaming. And then? When I get her back to sleep? IT'S ONLY FOR ANOTHER THIRTY MINUTES. Like I said, she's trying to kill me. It's been two days in a row like this, and I'm not sure what to do.

Today what I did was give up after three attempts and let her be awake. (I may have also had a small glass of wine. Don't judge.) Then as soon as Caleb woke from his nap, I loaded them into the car and we headed out to a new park. After a gloomy few days, I figured we needed to take advantage of the sunshine and gorgeousness and fresh air. Plus, my mom joined us. Grandma time seems to make everything better - for all of us.

The park was a hit! It is brand-new, and really thoughtfully designed.

Most parks seem to have gotten rid of their merry-go-rounds, but this park had one - and it was topped with climbing nets! Unfortunately, it was really hard to spin. I had quite a workout getting the kids up to a respectable spinning speed!

I know Caleb looks sad in this picture, but he wasn't. This was actually a pretty big deal: it was a tall (taller than me) climbing rock. I showed Caleb how to climb it, then walked away. He's always been too afraid/nervous/hesitant/timid to do things like this. But when I turned around, there he was at the top! It was amazing! Even a month ago, Caleb would never have tried something like this. I hate to say it and sound like a weirdo, but I really think that his new confidence (or, normal level of willingness to try things) can be attributed to our new diet. Since we've changed things up, Caleb has been significantly less fearful about normal things. It's an amazing, and unexpected, benefit.

Caleb said this marimba-type thing was his favorite part of the playground.

Daisy loved the butterfly. She saw another girl sit on the butterfly's head, and immediately insisted that Grandma put her up there, too.

Of course, if Daisy does something, Caleb has to do it too. 

(Did you notice that both kids are wearing Cardinals shirts, despite the fact that our Redbirds lost the National League Championship Series. Caleb chose his own shirt today, and Daisy had a different shirt on, but asked to wear her "Fredbird" shirt. Not even kidding.

Once Daisy vacated the butterfly, Caleb was free to pretend it was a motorcycle and it's antennae were handlebars. Then he informed me that he was pretending to be our (motorcycle-riding) neighbor, and I could pretend to be his wife and ride behind him. Where does the kid get these things? Who taught him that wives ride behind? I need to start teaching him that wives get their own bikes...

This was Caleb's other favorite part of the playground. He called it the tire swing, though it was clearly more saucer-like.

These were large chimes with attached mallets. Another big hit.

And Daisy met a sweet little girl just her age. She smothered her in kisses. How funny that the little girl looked just like Daisy...

OK, so maybe it was her reflection. Daisy didn't mind. She was happy with her new friend.

October 21

I have three stories for you today.

1. It was my turn to take Caleb to church today. When I picked him up at his classroom after church, he was smeared in green paint. They told me that he had danced during worship for the first time (a big deal - all the other kids do it, but Caleb has been too timid/hesitant to do it until now), and that they learned about the Holy Spirit today by comparing God to an apple. (Holy Spirit is the seed that lives within you and helps you to grow to be more like God.) And then they cut apples in half and made apple prints.

I looked at the wall to see everyone's artwork hanging up to dry - they all looked pretty much like this:

(not my picture - click on it for the source)

And then there was Caleb's. I scanned it for your viewing pleasure:

Hmm. I think we need to work on his painting skills. Or his direction-following skills. Or his sheer enthusiasm when faced with apples and green paint.

2. It was a beautiful day today. After naps, we played outside for a long while.

Caleb rode his "motorcycle" through the leaves,

and Daisy mowed the lawn.

(Oh, my goodness. Do you remember Caleb first walking with this mower? Granted, he was fourteen months old, compared to Daisy's seventeen and a half, but still. Darling!)

Check out those sweet new shoes! My friend Jen gave us a whole bag of her daughter's outgrown shoes, and they are all darling. Daisy saw these and wouldn't let them go. She kept them on during lunch, through her nap, and for all of her outdoor play. She loves them. Thanks, Jen!!

What, did you think Daisy was wearing the helmet just for lawn mowing? Nope. She did some serious cycling. She can ride - all by herself - all the way down to the neighbor's driveway, steering to keep on the (relatively straight) sidewalk. Chris and I were impressed.

Also impressive? 

Daisy's new walking skills. She'll do up to ten feet at a time now!

Look at this zombie walk... 

 

annddd... SPLAT!

She's getting better!

Caleb practiced his handstands, just like the elephants at the zoo.

I love him. Remember how cheerful and sweet he looks here, because I have another story to tell at the end of this post.

One of Caleb's current favorite games is "sword", in which he pretends any long, pointy object is a sword. Then he pretends to be Jesus' disciple, Peter, in the Garden at Gethsemane, when the centurions come to arrest Jesus. Caleb "chops" your ear off with his "sword". We keep reminding him that Jesus always says, "Peter, that is not the way!", but Caleb doesn't care.

Have I mentioned that Daisy now has ten teeth? Four on top, four on bottom, and two top molars. Based on the way she was gnawing on my finger (and everything else in sight), I think she's working on a bottom molar, too.

I love her delightfully crooked little face!

3. Our neighbor Terry was home alone tonight, so we invited him over for dinner. I was roasting a chicken, and told him to come at 6. After the chicken was in the oven, I threw together a (grain-free) apple crisp and whipped up some (raw milk, honey-sweetened) ice cream and put it in my ice cream maker.

Terry came at 6, and the chicken wasn't ready. No big deal. Fifteen minutes later, my meat thermometer said it was done, so I pulled it out and started carving.

It was definitely not done.

I scrambled to carve and sautee in a pan on the stove and get dinner on the table. But I noticed that my ice cream maker was still churning, even though the ice cream should have solidified a long time ago. 

It was cold ice cream soup. 

We finally sat down to dinner, which was fine, but Caleb started complaining that his mouth hurt. I could tell something was up, so I let him get down from the table (that never happens here). He looked pale, so I laid him on the couch. Then he started coughing. Chris noticed things were out of the ordinary, so he took Caleb to the bathroom. They almost made it before it happened.

Caleb puked everywhere.

So. Raw chicken, ice cream soup, and a puking kid. Poor Terry took it all in stride, but I'm pretty sure he'll never accept a dinner invitation from us again.

Caleb was still pale and clammy when we put him to bed, and he said his tummy felt "ba-yad". I offered to make him some ginger tea to help his tummy, and he fell asleep while he waited for me to make it. Hopefully he sleeps off the bug and feels better in the morning!

October 20

This is how my husband does yard work:

I kind of love him.

I think the kids do, too.

And then my mom came over to watch the kids and we went to a dinner/circus/cabaret performance with Chris' employer. Fun, fun, FUN!

October 19

Crummy naps + broken dishwasher + fussy children = 

Today was a yucky day.

Luckily, our friends Amber and baby Andrew came over to play this afternoon. I should apologize, because these photos definitely don't do justice to Andrew's adorableness or his ability to sit like a rockstar. He did much more than lie on a blanket, and Caleb and Daisy adored him

Daisy was very curious to see what Andrew was doing with her toys. She might have adored him a bit too much - she tried to share a toy car with him, and bonked him on the head. Oops!

She gave him a few little kisses and gentle pats. It was pretty sweet.

Yep. She's an Andrew fan!

October 18

I love fall.

Do you remember last year, when Caleb was terrified of leaves? 

Not anymore.

Chris raked leaves onto Caleb, and Caleb loved it!

Have I mentioned that I love fall?

(note: I did not dress Caleb in the red-on-red ensemble. He spilled water on his jeans, so we switched into these spare pants. Really.)

Daisy didn't want to get into the leaves, but she was happy to sit near them while Caleb did some enormous leaps.

That sweet look was directed at our neighbor, Terry. He was laughing at Caleb's antics, and Daisy was happy to see Terry enjoying her brother as much as she does.

I took this one while I was lying on my back, and Daisy had climbed onto my stomach. She was pleased with her climbing feat.

Girl is walking up a storm - now she regularly only needs to hold onto one finger. We're almost there!

Off to rake some leaves!

October 17

Do you ever wonder what we do all day? Sometimes I wonder that. Most mornings, we start with something like this:

OK, maybe I should back up. Chris gets up at 5:30 and gets ready for work. As the kids wake up, usually around 6 or 6:30, he takes care of them and feeds them first breakfast (fruit and "good morning coffee"). Meanwhile, I snooze away until 7, when Chris leaves for work. He deposits Daisy in bed with me, and we snuggle while I nurse her. Usually Caleb joins us for snuggles, too. I often feel guilty that I'm enjoying one of the best parts of parenthood (snuggling in bed with the kids) while Chris battles traffic and works his tail off to provide for us, but then I remember that my job has tough parts, too.

When Daisy finishes nursing, playtime begins.

Playtime isn't usually this active, but Caleb was feeling particularly frisky this morning.

Immediately before he took a flying leap, he informed me that he was being "a trapeze guy."

I was really hoping he would forget that part of the circus.

Even Daisy gets in on the climbing and playing.

Sometimes, she even tackles her brother.

Playtime's nearly over. How can I tell? Daisy has laid down on my pillow and is pulling the covers up. Right after this, she pretended to sleep. Funny girl.

Then we made zucchini muffins for breakfast. The kids sat on the counter and "helped" while I worked. When the muffins were ready, we all sat at the kitchen table and read the newspaper while we ate breakfast (my only breakfast, the kids' second breakfast. They're like hobbits.)

After breakfast, we all got dressed and I loaded the diaper bag so we could head to Costco. But I got distracted by how cute Caleb and Daisy looked in their Cardinals gear, so we had an impromptu photo shoot.

I love her little tongue sticking out! 

(Yes, she's wearing Cardinals slippers instead of shoes. It's one of the perks of being a baby.)

I got these expressions by singing, "Doo doo do doo do DOOOO..."

This is their "CHARGE!"

Cute, huh?

Caleb was delighted to roll around in this new grass that we planted last month. I'm delighted the grass is growing!

Giving Daisy a "leaf shower".

She didn't mind.

Girl is practicing her walking! I really think she may have it by Halloween!

I love him, even when he's a stinker.

Speaking of stinkers... 

This is what happens when Daisy realizes she has a bow in her hair and I won't let her take it out.

We eventually made it to Costco, and we even made it home before Daisy fell asleep in the car. It's always better when I can feed her lunch before naptime. Unfortunately, I didn't photograph anything else today, so you may safely assume that we did nothing all afternoon.