Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving just isn't complete without an after feast nap.

Skipping Rocks

We headed out a little while ago to do some hawk spotting. We ended up out at the bird refuge teaching the kids to skip rocks.

Ethan got the hang of it and got a high score of 4 skips. Matt got one that we lost count on but was at least over twenty.

Joanna's still figuring it out.

What a Difference a Year Makes

This is Joanna one year ago.

This is her now.

I know I've already used this picture before, but I just love it. Those cheeks, those gorgeous eyes. She's a doll.

Blessed is the Thumb

There are two, and only two, responses we get when people see Ginny sucking her thumb.
1. Oh how cute! She's sucking her little thumb!
2. Uh-oh, you've got a thumb sucker.
Now with both my girls (Joanna was and still is a big thumb sucker) I have put myself in the first category and added a "Thank heavens!" In my experience, thumb sucking=good sleeper.
There is many a dire warning that comes (unsolicited) from those in the second category. It will mess up their teeth (no problems yet with Joanna), it will interfere with eating (again no problems here). It's such a hard habit to break. Hmm. Now we haven't come to that bridge yet, but I have hope, since Joanna has kept the thumb sucking to times of distress and sleepiness.
And really, when it comes to getting good sleep during those first years, you'll take anything that will help. When Ginny first sucked her thumb and followed her sister down that path, I swear I heard the Hallelujah Chorus playing softly in the background.

More Kid Stories

Our backyard is awesome in the fall. The trees drop so many leaves the kids can just about swim in them. I recently did an impromptu photo shoot of Joanna so I thought I'd share some of the pictures along with a couple more stories.

Ethan will often ask for "music that is fast and that I like." That usually means some kind of punk music, his favorite being the Ramones. The other day in the car Matt put on a song that started out slow with just some piano. Ethan whipped out a whiney "nooo" followed by "I want music with a drummer and a guitar and a guy with a microphone that sings, NOT piano."

The kids were fighting over who got the green cup. I said "If you close your eyes, the cups are exactly the same." Joanna squeezed her eyes shut really tight and said "oh, dawk." She did it over and over all over the house.

Ethan asked me how old Ginny is. I had toothpaste in my mouth at the time so my answer came out as "five mumfs."
Ethan: "what are mumfs?"
Me: "no, five months. She's five months old."
Ethan: "oh, ok...what are mumfs?"
Me: "no, I meant to say months but I had toothpaste in my mouth so it came out sounding like mumfs. Mumfs is not a word."
Ethan: "oh, ok...but what are mumfs?"


If Ginny seems to be getting shorted blog time, it isn't because she's not cute. It's more like everything she does is cute, but in a 'you had to be there' sort of way.

Cold days are upon us

Of course the fates would have it that we'd get a slushy snow storm and freezing temperatures the week that Matt is in Vernal.
I still force the kids outside, but we don't last long. Ginny's usually the first to complain, having never known cold before in her life. Joanna's nose becomes as red as a cherry and starts running like a faucet. And even for me, the lure of chatting with the ladies starts to be trumped by the lure of hot chocolate.
Ethan's the only one that doesn't seem to mind the drop in temperature. He never seems to notice what the weather is like (some of you may remember the trouble we had getting him to dress in anything but sweat pants and long sleeve t-shirts when the temperature was in the 90s this past summer.)
I knew it was inevitable, this move towards winter. And I should be grateful for the long Indian summer we had. So I guess I'll just accept that I can't go out in flip flops anymore, curl up with a cup of hot chocolate, and dream about when summer will come again.
Ethan, not too long ago, enjoying the last warm days with his friends Aubrey, Carson, and Jake

Emo Jo

When Joanna gets out of the tub she's got great emo hair.
She'd fit in nicely with AFI
Or maybe not, she might be too much of a sweety pie.

Halloween

This Halloween was a good one. In the morning I took the kids with my friend Sue and her kids to downtown Logan. A lot of the stores hand out candy to trick-or-treaters and it was a good way to wear the kids out so they'd nap before the rest of the festivities. It's become tradition to have the entire neighborhood meet in the late afternoon and do a costume parade to the end of the street and back. People put out stereos and play Halloween music to walk to, and after the parade we gather for pizza. After some mingling and picture taking everyone dispurses for some Trick or Treating.
Ethan went as a spy
Joanna was a tiger
and Ginny was a bug
Here's all the neighborhood kids (Ethan is in the front to the right, Joanna is front middle behind the frog)
I tried to get a picture of Joanna with her friends Allie (lion) and Aubrey (skunk) but I didn't manage to get one with all of them looking cute at the same time, so to be fair, here's the one with no one looking their best
This is Ethan with his best friends Carson (Tiger) and Jake (Cow).
And one last one. These are the kids that usually play together every afternoon, minus Joanna.
Left to right: Lily, Aubrey, Carson, Ethan, Jake and Allie.
I love Halloween. Yes, the candy is awesome, but what's really great about it is that it makes these kids, who are just about as cute as you can get, somehow even more cute.