Need an Airplane?

My only contribution to this drawing was running to get the camera, hoping he didn't erase it in the meantime, and snapping the photo. He drew this all himself. Holy fudge.

Halloween

Pardon the blurriness of the photos. I was trying to take them as the Usual Suspects were all over the place, along with the moms and Lucia's Oma trying to get photos, and Jeremy trying to help wrangle kids. All as we were seconds away from leaving.

This was the best Sophie shot I could get... she kept wanting to turn around, so I wasn't even able to get a shot of her turtle back. Luckily it's still in the car. After trick-or-treating two houses in our neighborhood with Lu and Pipes we hit up Pomper Drew's, a friend of Grammy's, and then the costume contest downtown. Dylan won Most Creative for ages 0-3!!! Then it was off to Grammy's for trick-or-treating, where the costumes came off and full melt-downs and denials of Halloween being over ensued. Despite the fact that when we were actually trick-or-treating, Dylan had no interest.

Newest Obsession

It sounds like it should be a perfume. But instead, it's Sophie's thing. The Cozy Coupe. The #1 selling car in the U.S. has attracted our daughter to the point of obsession. On a good day there are only 5 fights over whose turn it is, only one scream fest because Mom is removing Sophie because we have to go somewhere, only one running over of some body part. Sometimes she ends up under the car because she's still learning about edges. Sometimes she takes a hammer to it... apparently it's in need of repairs. But most of the time... she just tries to drive backwards. I should have never put her in the cart at Hannaford's that has the steering wheels.

How to Entertain Children

When it's 40 degrees out, windy, and yet Burlington's Church St is still crowded on Church St? Why, just step inside the mall, find the ridiculous ride-on things (what are they even called??), shell out a whooping 75 cents to turn one on. This = happy kids. Until its over, they want more and you try to explain that the machine just took ALL the quarters we had. Luckily they were in the same one when we turned the machine on... only after did Dylan discover the other three. Sophie could have cared less as long as she got to drive.

Leaf Pile

This only reflects a small portion of the leaves that Jeremy and I desperately tried to keep up with and then, finally, gave up on.

Dylan Photo Shoot

It started off with some really cool light in the hallway. I then tried to recreate the original picture I wanted (and naturally didn't have my camera for). This is the result, none of which are as cool as the original, but fun nonetheless. And Peanut decided she needed in on the action, naturally.

Kids in a Box

Dylan and Lu started off playing "boat." I'm not sure what it ended up as but they sure had fun.

Look Park

This actually was a "field trip" that occurred back in September... like most things, I'm finally getting around to mentioning it. Look Park is located in Massachusetts, I missed the turn completely but managed to get us there anyway, and let's just say... there were OWLS. This made for one very happy almost-3 year old. Soph could not have cared less (at the time). We spent 3 hours checking out the small (mainly bird) zoo, playing, snacking, and having a blast. And about 3 hours total driving. Was the drive worth it? Absolutely. But next time we're staying for 5 hours. Or 6.

Starting the day with a snuggle.

Let's GO, Mom!

YAY!!! SWINGS!

(Soph would be a swing advocate if there were such things)

Yes. I CAN fit. See, Mom? Okay...now I'm a bit stuck.

Whee!

(you have no idea how much cajoling occurred to get this to a) happen and b) be able to get a picture because I don't have to catch him on the slide)

A Little Light Reading

 

Great. She wants to chew on books but she'll "read" National Geographic. If it weren't for the glaringly obvious reasons I'd say she's not my child. At least Jeremy was quite proud.

Sophie's Step-by-Step Crawling Instructions

Step one: get your entire body supported by elbows and ankles. Check.

Step two: back into multiple corners, and then end up stuck partially under the couch, partially under the table. Check.

Step three: make your mom cuss in front of the two year old because this was NOT what she expected to see when she followed you into the kitchen. Check.

Step four: try not to get busted. Oops.

Step five: decide if you're going to crawl somewhere, it might as well be to mom. Check.

 

Step six: Mom failed with the camera to capture how well you navigate yourself into the bathroom. Wait, what do you mean it's not bath time, Mom??? I WANT a BATH!!! Throw fit when she takes you out of the bathroom. Start trek all over again.

Drumming Again

My little rockstar.

 

Teaching Soph.

Massive Photo Dump

Happy girl!

A boy and his trains.

This is how we go. 

Splish splash at the Montshire.

First day of swim lessons.

Side note: there would have been a side-by-side last day photo but a) I didn't take one, b) I didn't take one because he was screaming incessantly, and c) the last lesson was actually the 2nd to last lesson because of said screamfest, and d) I KNEW I left something at home.

 

A boy and his mom.

 

Peanut and Granddaddy.

Well, this is about how most days are... happy but slightly skeptical kids. At least it wasn't because of me this time.

Bathtime! In case you hadn't figured that out.

We Have a Blog?!

Despite me telling him several times "I put it on the blog"... or something along those lines, Jeremy recently discovered we have a blog. I guess I should get back to it. My utter lack of motivation has stemmed from my old laptop slowly dying a death... that it still hasn't died. It started with the webcam. Then moved to not letting me do attachments to emails. Then not letting me do any attachments... thus no photos to attach to the blog. Thanks to Mom and the green thing that is now my new computer (yay!), there will be photos coming. In a flood.

4 months

At her 4 month appointment it was confirmed... (you know, back in April, when she actually had her appointment) Peanut is a peanut. She gained less than a pound from her 2 to 4 month appointment which of course resulted in a "you have to do more" conversation with the doctor. Actually, doc, I'm doing what made Soph happy so no, thank you, I don't need a guilt trip. So formula it is. Lets beef this Peanut up. On the plus side, she stayed right on track for length, coming in at a whooping 25 inches (75% percentile). She may be skinny but she is perfect.

Got Helmet, Need Bike

Hooray for Brattleboro's oddities... April is the Month of the Young Child in Brattleboro. What does this mean other than a bunch of activities for 3+ and thus not us? $5 bike helmets, that's what!

Reading to Sophie

Note the book... Eyewitness Travel: Paris. No, we're not going to Paris. But there's a tiny little picture of a commuter train on one of the pages. Dylan happened to find that page. And become obsessed with the book for a week.

Tarrytown...

Perhaps maybe 6ish weeks ago we went down to Tarrytown for the weekend, where Jeremy helped Brian put wainscotting up in the Schneider's dining room and Nicole and I somehow tried, and mostly succeeded, to keep 4 kids out of the way. So I'm a little behind on updating this thing. As I tell Dylan multiple times a day, tough bananas.

"Mom... this is not my playmat! Oh well, fun anyways."

 

Dylan, realizing slides are fun. I only had to go down the one next to him five times before he'd go on his own. And before that, he was on my lap (limbs safely tucked in) a few times.

 

And within an hour, he was a little daredevil, even taking on the curvy slide.

Photo Dump