Once Upon a Time...

...I used to pride myself in my awesome pumpkins.  

I spent a lot of time making my own patterns and carefully cutting them out.

I carved awesome things like Ariel and Captain Jack Sparrow.

Then we had kids, and there's just not much time for detailed carving between dinner and bedtime.

So...you let your three year old decide what to carve.  

This year's winner?   

A mad pumpkin.

Then he insisted I also carve the tiny pumpkin he got from the orchard we went to.

This one was to be a happy pumpkin.

Look carefully--there are two pumpkins.

See?  Two.

And carving those little guys with a steak knife?  Not easy.

Both kids were thrilled with the results: 

"That's the best you can do, Mom?"

Little pumpkin, little Princess: 

Now excuse me while I go eat another (six) handful of pumpkin seeds.

Multiple Choice

Lunchtime is:

A:

The highlight of your day

or

B: 

A tiresome ritual to be endured, not enjoyed.

(Hey, if all your meals consisted of pureed fruits & veggies, you wouldn't be too thrilled either)

Eight Months

I swear Catherine gets cuter and more fun every day.  I love this stage of baby-hood!

At eight months old, Catherine is:

*hungry.  All the time.  She would eat four solid meals a day if I'd let her.  I've started giving her some pureed big people food and some yogurt in hopes that she'll get enough calories.  Because otherwise I'll spend all day just feeding her!

*insisting on feeding herself.  She's really good at eating her puffy cereal foods and Mum Mums without any help.  As for the real food--I can usually distract her by giving her another spoon for her to chew on.  Usually.

*willing to eat anything provided I mix enough corn in it.  She's actually getting pretty good at eating (and enjoying) her veggies.

*addicted to bananas in her mesh feeder.  If she catches a glimpse of it, she whines like crazy until I give it to her.  If I take it away to put more banana in it, she yells at me.  If I put anything besides banana in there, I am in BIG TROUBLE.  She can eat an entire banana in one meal.

*somewhere in between 2 and 3 naps.  Her naps are lengthening (sometimes), but she's so easy-going that I don't care if she skips the last one.

*still not quite sitting up 100%.  I've decided our kids are hindered by our hardwood floors on the main level.

*clapping.  And pretty dang proud of herself, too.  She loves that she can recognize the word 'clap' and respond correctly.

*rolling over both directions and squirming all around.  She's really good at moving backward.  Still working on forward...

*enjoying her walker.  Thank you, Sommer, for letting us borrow yours again!

*wearing size 2 diapers, somewhere between 6 and 6-9 month clothing (although there are a few 3-6 month holdouts still lingering in the drawers).

*sleeping from 7:30 pm to 4:30 am, then back to sleep until 7:15 am or so.  Although lately she's tried getting up at 6:30 am.  NOT. HAPPENING.

*capable of put her own pacifier back in her mouth (she's actually been doing this for a few months now, but I keep forgetting to mention it).

*singing and talking to herself most of the day.  If she's happy, she sings and shrieks to herself for 15-20 minutes straight.

*very, very good at making her wishes known.  Jon & I were talking the other night about how odd it is to realize that she can't actually talk--she can tell us EXACTLY what she wants with no words at all.  Oh, the Princess...

*babbling.  When she's happy it's 'da da da da da'.  When she's mad/sad/hungry/angry it's 'Mmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!'.  Guess which one means 'Mom'?

*cutting her top two (?) teeth.  From the few times I've been able to stick my fingers in her mouth without getting chomped on, I can feel that they are REALLY close.  Which explains some of the grumpiness lately.

*grabbing EVERYTHING.  Holding her is getting difficult because she spends so much time lunging for things as we pass.

We love you, little bug!  Thank you for making us smile every day!

Lohr's Orchard

A local orchard offered $3 hayrides to school groups of 15 or more.  Well, between all the homeschoolers and preschoolers in our ward, we managed to get ourselves a group of probably 30.

Seth (and all the other little kids) waiting for the ride to start

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that our $3 ride included picking one apple and one small pumpkin.

After much searching, Seth found one almost as big as his face.

Pointing out all the rotten apples we passed.

Of course, the highlight of the trip for Seth was riding behind the tractor.

Here he is, completely mesmerized by the wheels: 

Heading into the pumpkin patch to find the perfect pumpkin: 

Catherine approves of Seth's choice.

(don't mind my creepy stare--I tried to keep myself out of the shot, but it's too close range) 

Guess who was the first one back in the trailer?

Tractors trump pumpkin patches any day. 

After the ride they took us all in a (pitch black) barn for some cider tasting.

Catherine Washburn was kind enough to get a decent picture of me & my Catherine: 

Angelina & Seth try their cider (it was really, really good): 

Our 'little' group: 

Our ward is awesome.

Zoo Day

Monday, October 3rd was Free Admission Day at the Baltimore Zoo.  After some deliberation because of the weather (it was supposed to be cold and rainy), we decided to go and call that a Joy School field trip.

(WARNING: picture overload beginning)

We got lucky--it ended up not raining, and while it was chilly, it wasn't too cold to have some fun.  

Besides, kids are so cute in winter clothes!

Catherine sporting her too-big hat and too-big gloves:

Seth, also sporting a too-big hat and too-big gloves: 

Honestly, I expected the zoo to be run-down, dirty, and disappointing (this is Baltimore, after all).  I was pleasantly surprised!  They had a TON of stuff for kids to do--more than we could do in the four hours we were there.

Seth would only touch this statue after I touched it first.

And even then, only with great trepidation.

Seth in a nest

If you look closely, right in the center of the window are two otters.

Seth was so perplexed as to why they were rolling in the mud.

Seth was not a fan of the fake cave.

"It smells bad in there."

I wonder how often they have to replace the fence around the donkeys' pen...

Seth would ONLY go down the giant tree slide on someone's lap.

Since I was too mean to do it, he conned Melissa into it.

Catherine was pleased as punch to be left out of all the fun.

Seth watching the animals.

This is a cheetah.

That thing we saw before was a spotted jaguar.

It's not that hard to tell the difference, people of Baltimore.

Gabe & Seth having a disagreement over whether this is a cheetah or jaguar.

Seth was correct, but Gabe was more insistent.

Angelina was just happy to have Seth there, cheetah or not.

For some reason this picture makes me feel like the giraffe is wandering around my high school campus.

Haven't quite figured out why--the building design?  

It's very uncanny to picture a giraffe wandering around your high school.

Three monkeys climbing to get a better look at some monkeys.

Angelina, Gabe & Seth

All the gorillas were out cold. 

By the end of the day Catherine wouldn't stay in her stroller, and Seth wouldn't get out.

So I held Catherine while Melissa pushed Seth, with Gabe's assistance.

I'm not sure who had it worse--me, holding the whiny baby, or Melissa trying to push that beast with two three-year-old boys climbing all over it (and her).

I wasn't sure how Seth felt about our trip until a few days later when he lined up all his animals (which he's never played with before) and made a zoo.  Guess he really did have a good time!   Now if only the Aquarium would have a free admission day...

Conference

For the first time in a while, we actually sat down and listened to Conference together.  Usually we start watching until the Internet craps out, then give up and say we're going to watch it later.  

We never do.

So this year I insisted we watch it together.  We ended up just listening to the audio since that doesn't take as much to stream.  I was worried about how Seth would do, so I did what any good parent does when you want to get something done: bribed him with peanut butter M&Ms.

I made him a little paper with pictures cut out from The Friend magazine.  If he heard one of the words (scriptures, prayer, prophet, temple, etc.), he got to put an M&M on that picture.  At the end of the talk, he could eat all the M&Ms he put down.

The novelty wore off after about two talks, but he still just played quietly so we let it go (and I ate the M&Ms while he wasn't looking).  Maybe by April he'll be a little more interested.

In between sessions on Saturday we finally pulled out the bike trailer.  Catherine is (mostly) sitting up now, so we were pretty sure she'd handle the trailer fine.  

Neither Seth nor Catherine were sure about this whole trailer thing when we started:

But apparently it was quite a bonding experience: 

They both really seemed to enjoy the ride once we got moving.  Now if we could just find some extra time to do it again...

A Seth story to close:

I was feeding the kids dinner after Jon left for the pre-priesthood session festivities (pizza).  Seth decided he wanted to play a game called "I the Prophet".  He would be the prophet and I would have to put (pretend) M&Ms on my (invisible) sheet while he spoke.  And here is what the prophet had to say:

"BahbablahbTEMPLEbabluhbalabaSCRIPTURESbabluhblubbMISSIONARIES...."

Apparently Seth heard a very, very interesting version of Conference:

A lot of unintelligible babble mixed with a few M&M-earning keywords.

I love my little man.

Happenings

Just a little bit of this:

(listening to Catherine's heart after our lesson on our insides)

(playing with the new kitchen faucet we installed)

(my turn at Joy School--pudding painting)

(Seth pudding painting)

(Gabe takes the grand prize for pudding body painting) 

(Seth & Lamby Baby--so glad he's finally projecting his baby issues instead of acting like a baby)

Sorry--between Primary Program and Halloween costumes, blogging is not high on the priority list!

Joy!

Joy School, that is.  For probably a year now there's been a small group of my friends who wanted to do a preschool together when our kids were three.  One mom has done Joy School in the past and loved it, so we all just jumped on the band wagon.  My only issue is that we've had to turn down so many people because our group was getting full--that's what happens when you have 19 three-year-olds in your ward...

First day of Joy School--all the kids (and Krystal & Nora, since Victoria wouldn't sit alone)

back row: Nora, Krystal, Victoria

second row: Seth & Angelina

front row: Brie & Gabe

My son is a cheeseball.

Playing with playdough--a huge hit

Mom won't let me near this stuff at home!

(he always turns it into a car--surprise, surprise--and then 'drives' it all over the place, making a huge mess)

Doing some toe-painting

I was kind of surprised to find out that Seth was one of the 'problem children' in our group.  I guess I should have expected it: he's the second to youngest, and the youngest boy by six months.  The only one younger is Victoria, and she doesn't count since she's been speaking in full sentences since she was one.  

He's not a punk, he just prefers to play independently (always has).  He's also an observer--he doesn't like to jump into something without seeing what is going to happen, first.  So the hardest parts for him are learning to sit when it's time to sit and to participate even when he'd rather play cars.  We also had to have a discussion about how babies don't go to school, so Seth Baby (translation: Seth acting like a baby) has to stay in the car until school is all done.  I know it's a good thing for him to learn to be in a structured environment, but I understand his need for independent play and try to make sure he has plenty at home.

Speaking of at home...

Joy School is Mondays and Wednesdays.  On Tuesdays & Thursdays I try to have an hour or so of 'school' with Seth.  So far we've learned about our bodies, our skeletons & our insides, plus started on our five senses.  I love having the time to play with him and to introduce new ideas to him.  I love this age--he's like a little sponge!  I could swear to you he's not listening to a word I say, but then the next week I'll hear him singing the song he refused to sing with me.  

Seth & his body

He drew the face himself--we're both pretty proud of it!

It's a lot of work, but it's worth it.  And it's good practice for me since I'm very seriously considering homeschooling him for the first few years of school.  I know it sounds totally crazy, but if you saw the school he'll be going to, you'd want to keep your kid home, too.