Lex has taken an interest in building
“airplaters” lately. An airplater, apparently, is similar to an
airplane, but not exactly the same. It has wings and a door for
the pilot to get in, and it flies, but it’s not an airplane. He
builds them with blocks, K’Nex, more blocks, and almost drew
one the other day, but changed his mind. After a few days of
this I asked him to spell it for me because I wasn’t sure what
he was saying. “Airplater” is what he spelled. Funny kid.

The beautiful fall weather is here
in force and the nights are getting chilly. I got tired of
watching the forecast and worrying about frost alerts, so I
decided to harvest the garden yesterday. We only had tomatoes
and carrots left anyway. The kids both helped and got very
dirty. When we came inside Lex was super excited to eat a
carrot, but I insisted on washing the kids first, then the
carrots. After bath I scrubbed up a few carrots and Lex at 2
huge carrots all by himself! He put a sizable dent in a 3rd,
but couldn’t finish it. I think he ate enough servings of
carrot to make up for all the servings of veggies he’s refused
in the past :) Today he ate two more! Eve ate a whole carrot
that first night too. It took her awhile, but she did it! They
sure do love the garden. Next year’s will be bigger and
better!

I got a scalloped
bread tube from the Pampered Chef Outlet and we tried
making some bread. The Use & Care card comes with a
recipe which uses store-bought “dough in a tube” but I thought
it would be fun to try from scratch. Lex loves the bread
machine, so we got that out and made some tasty Italian
seasoned bread. Here is what happened when I baked it in the
bread tube…

The bread came out pretty tasty
though and I can see how it would be cool with some practice
(and the proper amount of bread dough!) Eve loves them and
calls them cookies. I’ll confess to eating a few myself
:)

Another new skill I wanted to document is
Lex’s backwards counting. He counts backward from 10 before
doing things. Like a big countdown before throwing his clothes
in the laundry :) It’s a fun new skill.

We went apple picking last weekend with
Jim and Julie and baby Molly. It was fun. Eve loves apples and
Lex loves anything he can pick off the trees himself. They both
ate a lot! I’m not sure they actually finished any apples
though, they seemed to prefer a few bites then on to a new
apple. Julie found a woolly bear that was captivating for the
kids. Eve kept saying “bear!” and making the bear baby sign.
When Julie put it down by a tree Eve trotted right over and
started saying, loudly, “bear! bear!” and pointing at it :) I
think she liked it. We also saw Steven Tyler. Alan did really,
Julie and I saw him from the back and heard him talking. Alan
wouldn’t let us go ogle and take pictures. Something about
respecting his privacy and all :) We came home and made two
Dutch apple pies. They took awhile to cook, but were soooo
tasty! One is in the freezer. It’s safer for all of us that
way. I’ve since made two batches of applesauce with the kids.
It’s surprisingly easy to make and the kids love it!

Checking
out the woolly bear caterpillar with Julie.

Eating
apples. He won’t do this at home!

Eve
doesn’t look happy. I think she’s watching Julie put the
caterpillar down.

There
she’s happy!

Molly
woke up from her nap and joined the apple picking
party.

This is
a crazy pumpkin/gourd thing.

Relaxing. Alan is eating two apples!! (finishing
Lex’s and Eve’s :) )

There
was an adorable puppy there. Eve loved him, but wouldn’t get
close enough to pet him, Lex ran around with his normal
abundant excitement and Molly just looked a little unsure about
the whole thing. She makes great faces!

Lex has
decided that he’s big enough to “help” Eve get places by
picking her right up around the middle and carrying her away.
It’s funny, especially when she’s in a good mood and doesn’t
shriek. In this picture I had asked her to come out of the
little store tent, so Lex ran in to “help” her get out.
:)

Eve’s been trying her hand at counting
lately. I often see her pointing to things in a row and saying
“one, one, one, six” and then starting over :) She’s got the
idea, just not sure of the words. She has also started
attempting the alphabet song. She dances to that beloved Word
Whammer toy and does her best to sing along.

Lots going on these days. Well, lots from
a kid development standpoint, not really from an activity
standpoint. But the kid stuff is more interesting anyway
:)

Eve has started talking up a storm lately. She
now can put multiple words together to form a cohesive (mostly)
thought. A typical Eve statement sounds like, “dinner. yummy.
eat it! mommy, eat it!” or “book. couch. read it. READ” She
gets bossy sometimes, usually demanding I eat something or read something or sit
somewhere :) It’s funny. She’s also getting creative, in a
silly sort of way. Today she said “doggy, hat, duck!” and I
looked down to see her putting doggy on top of the duck, like a
hat. Silly girl. Today she was a silly girl in disguise,
dressed head to toe in Lex’s old clothes. With the weather
starting to get chilly I was thinking about buying her a fall
wardrobe, but decided instead to pull out some of the less
boyish clothes from storage instead. Today she was sporting the
colors! Clemson pants, shirt, and a Syracuse sweatshirt, with
his blue hat on top and his old Vans on her feet. Lots of kids
on the playground were calling her a boy. :) I told them she
was a girl in disguise!
(the hat in the picture is an infant halloween “cat” hat that
Eve found in the box of old clothes. she pulled it out and put
it on and has been wearing since. it barely fits, kind of like
a scull cap. funny.)

On the
Lex front, I’m about to jinx myself by finishing this
paragraph. I very hesitantly will say that we’ve made it
through the sleep battles, for the most part. He doesn’t nap
every day anymore and I think my allowing that has done a lot
to ease the battles. When he does nap it’s usually pretty easy
and he doesn’t argue much. Most nights are fairly easy too,
with just a drink request or so, no kicking and screaming. Yay!
I’ve also been able to get him to try what’s served for dinner
the past few nights! This is a big accomplishment in our
house… ok, in my mind anyway. I started trying to get him to
take a “no thank you bite” as recommended by Dr. Shu, our
favorite pediatrician. In the past he has flat out refused, but
lately he’s been more agreeable. Last night he tasted tofu and
went back for a few more bites. Tonight he tasted the corn
(which he used to love!) and finished what I served him and
helped himself to more from the dish! He tried the beans too
(burritos for dinner) and said he liked them, but didn’t eat
much. But he tasted them and that’s a big accomplishment these
days!!

I think so far three has been a
good age. He is very cooperative, friendly, funny, and sweet.
He likes to talk to people now and he’s starting to understand
people’s feelings and care. He always asks us of we are happy.
“Daddy, are you happy now?” “Mommy, are you tired? Do you need
some tea?” It’s sweet. And he’s an endless source of hugs, most
of the time. :) It’s a good age. And, of course, one is always
an adorable, silly age. We have fun these days.

We also had a great weekend with a visit from
Jim, Julie, and baby Molly. We went apple picking. I have lots
of great pics that I’ll post later… tomorrow maybe. We’ll see
:)

Lex is a big fan of blocks. We actually have
several sets, so there are blocks available in most every room.
Lately he’s starting to demonstrate skills in color patterning,
structural integrity and general architectural creativity — if
you can say all that about “towers” of bright color plastic
blocks. It’s neat to watch him him build. So far he’s
pretty good natured when the demolition squad (aka Eve) comes
calling too! Here are two building projects from the other day.
He was playing in the living room for awhile and when I came to
check on him I saw this first picture. I asked what he was
building and he said it was a wall for the cars to use. I was
impressed, and even more impressed with the little room for the
fish on the back of the wall. He had no real explanation for
that, it’s just the way it is. When all the blocks were used up
he jumped up, ran into the office, and started building a
“fence.” He had a good start before the demo team woke up and
went to work! He tried to build, she tried to wreck, and I took
pictures :) Someday I’ll get up the nerve to dig out Alan’s
enormous box of Legos. I’m not sure Lex is ready for the tiny
pieces yet, and I’m positive that Eve isn’t ready!, but when
the time is right Lex will have a pretty cool new toy to play
with. I think Alan will be pretty happy that day too
:)

Our neighbor is the groundskeeper for a
couple that owns a beautiful house on a river nearby. A few
days ago we got invited up to play for the afternoon. It was
fun, and a little bit of country. She made a little grove of
trees and prunes them (or whatever) so they are great climbing
trees. The boys loved it! Eve wanted to climb too, but settled
for eating a freshly picked apple from a nearby apple
tree.

Eve checked out their
cool “chair” rock and they all took a “canoe ride” to find
buried pirates treasure. Parrish did the paddling and, I’ll
admit, Lex was confused. :)

Eve just held tight to that apple
and all was good. We had a really fun time. We have nice
neighbors :)

A funny little aside…
when I was getting the kids ready to go I asked Lex if he
wanted to play with Parrish. He said yes and Eve got very
happy. We got hats and shoes and went into the garage. When I
tried to put Eve in the car she threw a little fit and said
“Parrish! Parrish!” over and over. I put her down for a minute
and she ran to the door of the garage, calling Parrish’s name
and trying to get out. I think she was really confused that we
were getting in the car to visit Parrish :) It’s cute that she
can say his name and she was very happy when we got out of the
car and Parrish was there.