Yes. I Am Relieved To Know That I Am Not A Golem.

My Nib in the hat Aunt Gillian made for The Precious, all set for the park. Don't you just want to reach through the screen and kiss those rosy cheeks?!


Andrew and Elsbeth occasionally have moments of sort of playing together - usually one is trying to play with the other, and the other is busy doing something else, but it's really sweet. A few days ago I went into Andrew's room to get him up in the morning and he saw his sister and said, "Elsbeth looks so beautiful. I love her." Be still my heart.

We were on our own for Thanksgiving this year with Phil running a half marathon in the morning and our extended families spread around the world, so our dear friends the Peabodys came over in the evening to share a meal and lots of chaos and laughs. (Gillian there next to me is the one who made the hat in the first picture). The most amazing moment for me was when both babies were down, Andrew and Eunice Chantilly* where entranced with a video and the four adults sat down and played a game together. It didn't last long, but we got in 1.27 rounds before a baby needed to eat and it was delightful!

A couple fun Andrew tidbits.

1) He has started calling me "sweetie" - hilarious! It usually comes out when he's a little annoyed with me, like when I'm coming over with a glass of milk ("Sweetie, I wanted some juice!")

2) He can READ! I just discovered this new skill last night, and it totally blew my mind. He's been fascinated with letters and words, so a few weeks ago I picked up some reading flash cards at a yard sale thinking he might find them interesting. Last night I asked him if he wanted to play with them and as he handed them to me, I thought I heard him try to sound out the word on the first card. Now, he's been giving me the sound of the first letter in words for a bit, but never the whole word. I showed him a card and he sounded out the whole thing, but it didn't occur to him that he was saying a word (like when you play Mad Gab). Then the light went off. You could see it in his eyes. He got a new card, sounded it out, triumphantly announced the word, I started yelling, he started yelling and jumping around, we terrified Elsbeth ... it was a moment. Then he wanted another card, then another, then he wanted me to put them into sentences. I was blown away.

Forgive me my bragging, but what else is a mommy blog for? :-)

Warum Tragt Dein Vater Lippenstift?

Elsbeth is sitting up! Doesn't she look so pleased with herself? I still keep something soft behind her as she will occasionally pitch backward, but she's really enjoying her new found skill. Such a big girl!

I am enjoying her other new found skill ... sleeping through the night (as in 11 - 12 hours straight with no snacks). Whoo hoo! It's only happened the last 2 nights, so I'm trying not to get used to it quite yet. Andrew was over a year old before he did that consistently, so she may just me toying with me. But it's been a nice couple of nights.



Let's see, what other disjointed bits of information do I have to share? Ah, yes ...

So I made a rather half-hearted stab at getting some exercise into my system by scanning through the Exercise TV section of my On Demand cable thingy, planning to try out something pilates-ish. Naturally, Andrew was fascinated and did some of the exercises with me for a while (I thought of Emmy doing the "one hundred" with you, Rhianna). Then he decided it would be fun to jump on my legs as I tried to lift them (and I wasn't all that great at getting them in the air before the 30-lb ankle weights). I decided to explore some of the other excercise options, thinking The Precious might enjoy something bouncier. I was right. I'm so sad now that I ever deigned to select something called (and I am not making this up) "Cardioke" because it is now his favorite on and he begs for it ("I want to do the one where the guy jumps off the stage!") I'm one of the more uncoordinated people you will ever meet and can't follow any of the steps (especially the ones that come after I'm encouraged to "get funky") ... and it goes on and on ... and it's just so painfully stupid. I once tried to fast forward through some of it when I thought Andrew wasn't paying attention and he was devastated.

In addition to Cardioke, Andrew has been really into picking out his own outfits lately - they often add spice to our day. Here's what he decided to wear to gymnastics a couple weeks ago. It's actually one of his less shocking selections, and he was pretty sure that his teacher, Miss Amy, would really like the necklace. Fortunately he wasn't too upset when I explained that wearing a long string of pearls while tumbling could cause some problems, so they ended up waiting for him in the car.

I really enjoyed it when he strapped Elsbeth's bouncey seat to himself like a rocket pack. I think it was a little tougher to walk around like that than he'd anticipated.

I still haven't done tons with solid foods yet with my Nibblet. She just wasn't that into the rice cereal or the butternut squash. I did give sweet potatoes a whirl this week, and it appears that she might have actually given half a hoot about them!

In closing, a Phil story to delight the soul. He was getting measured for some clothes this week by an old Italian tailor who's been in the business for abolutely ever. His first shocking discovery was that one of Phil's arms is a full inch different in length from the other. Freak! He then moved on to take a measurement for the, ah, gluteal region. He looked at his tape measure, shook his head in astonishment, then took the measurement again. Realizing the first numbers were accurate, he shook his head again and muttered, "Unbelievable." :-)

There Are Two Ingredients In Candy Corn: Wax And Nasty

Oh my, Halloween was such fun. My wretched camera battery dared to die as Andrew was getting all dressed up, but Dave came to my rescue and got a family picture. Phil saw this and said, "Elsbeth looks like she's desperately trying to remain dignified." :-) I love my hilarious little farmyard family.

We had a lovely chili dinner with the McSchnazzys and the Leathers, then went on an early jaunt around the neighborhood. The kids were so adorable! At each door, Andrew would hold up his new candy and yell, "Look Mommy!" Then he'd ask me what it was. His most prized possession was a ring pop, and he'd check on it between houses.


We had fun pumpkin carving as well. He didn't relish pulling out the guts like I thought he might (personally, I found it exhilarating), but he enjoyed my very elementary face carving and, of course, watching it glow.


I love autumn.