Fall is here. The days are getting shorter, the
weather is getting crisper, the leaves are falling and pumpkins
are here. We’ve had a few beautiful fall days with
jack-o-lantern carving, raking leaves, and baking pumpkin
bread. I know I’ll be raking as many leaves this year as I did
last year, but I’m hoping to stay on top of the task so it
doesn’t become quite as arduous as it was last year. We’ll see.
We carved pumpkins on Saturday with Alan’s parents. (yeah,
probably won’t last until Halloween, but oh well) Lex drew all
over the pumpkins (and himself and the table) with permanent
marker and took great thrill in the anticipation of putting his
hand into the pumpkin. He wouldn’t actually touch anything
inside, just sort of reached his hand in. Silly boy. Here are
some pictures and a movie.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KDV_XA7v4w]

Friday night. Lex is eating dinner (you
can hear him in the background) and Eve is on the floor. She’s
moving pretty good these days!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUW_uBxxYwE]

Friday night, turned the camera on Lex having
dinner with the raccoon.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YQkC06jhcA]

All done eating. Time to play. I was hoping
he’d finish the puzzle while I was recording, but he can’t
quite get it. He’s done it once or twice. It’s a tough puzzle,
but a good next step from his other puzzles.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vggFCP2c_Tk]

Happy house to us. Today marks our 1 year
anniversary for owning this house! Yay!

We put Eve to bed at 8pm last night and
she’s still sleeping! I didn’t even have to get up during the
night to replug her. I, of course, am up at 6am with Lex. Oh
well. Eve has started sleeping on her belly. We put her down on
her back and at some point during her sleep she rolls onto her
belly. I’ve found her that way for the past 5 times she’s
slept. She’s such a sweet sleeper! :)

Lex fell asleep in the car on the way home
today (more on that below) and I brought him upstairs. This
used to work well, but not so much lately. In the process of
changing his diaper and closing the shade, he woke up. I left
him there anyway and went down to nurse Eve. I brought her up
to bed about 10 minutes ago, very tired and ready for sleep.
Lex was still awake. A few minutes later I hear Lex over the
monitor saying, “Lex and Eve woke up. Yeah!” over and over. I
left them alone for a few minutes then went up to find the
light on, the fan off, Eve grinning with her arm out of the
crib reaching for Lex and Lex just walking around. When I went
in he was very excited and told me again that they woke up and
“Want mommy and Lex and Eve to go downstairs.” Funny boy. I
explained the difference between being awake and waking up and
that he has to fall asleep before he can wake up :) Now they
are up there and both of them are talking and I’m pretty sure
the fan is off again. I sense a no-nap day today :/

I headed over to the Shoetorium today to try
to buy Lex some shoes. Grandpa and Grandma met me there to tend
to Eve while I shopped (a very difficult job, I know). I picked
that store because they have a very good reputation in the area
for accurately measuring shoe sizes and working well with kids.
The poor sales guy didn’t stand a chance with Lex. With great
patience and persistence we were able to get a size
measurement, but Lex would have no part of trying shoes on. He
cried and kicked and screamed and said over and over “want no
shoes, want no shoes.” He honestly sounded like I was torturing
him! So he’s either wearing too-small Crocs all winter (not
really an option, of course) or I’ll do what I did last time he
out grew his shoes — buy the exact same ones a size bigger :)
I’m in trouble they day the stop making Lex’s favorite
shoes!

The playground is a funny place. When we
go I always hope there are other kids for Lex to play with, but
at the same time, the more kids there the more vigilant I have
to be. We went today and there were a bunch of kids (most of
whom we know) and I had to watch him the entire time. Makes it
tough for me to socialize! :) There was a boy we know that
started pushing Lex from the minute we walked in the gate. Lex
took it for awhile, watched as the kid took his hat, poured
sand on his arm, and generally acted annoying. Then, at one
point, the kid pushed Lex and Lex apparently decided it was a
game and yelled (playfully, but a yell nonetheless) and ran
towards the kid. I’m not sure what his goal was, but the kid
put up his hands and pushed into Lex. I interjected at that
point and took Lex away for awhile. It’s funny because you want
to let the kids kind of figure stuff out on their own, but at
the same time I don’t want to allow or condone pushing and
unfriendly behavior (which he’s been doing a bit lately). On
our way out he was running around with Dylan having fun and
then suddenly pushed him over and made him cry. No fun! I
strapped him into the stroller and told him that he can’t play
with Dylan if he’s not going to be friendly. Of course, this
was also a punishment for me because I then had to push an
extra 30lbs up the hill to the car! Oh, the sacrifices we make
;)

I went to the dentist yesterday morning.
Let me tell you, there is nothing like a drill in your mouth to
remind you of the importance of flossing :/ Lex didn’t want to
brush his teeth last night, so I got to remind him how mommy’s
mouth hurt all morning and if he brushes well every day he
won’t have to have his mouth hurt when he’s older. He thought
about it for a few seconds then got up and walked into the
bathroom and grabbed his tooth brushes (yep, he brushes with
two brushes). And speaking of teeth, we made more teething
biscuits yesterday – we’ve been out for about a week and Lex
was going through withdrawal. He was thrilled to have more and
I gave one to Eve too. I’d forgotten how they become slimy,
gummy messes when baby is just starting to teeth on them. Lex
pretty much eats them like cookies, since he is way past
teething. Eve seemed to like it though. I also started giving
her Cheerios, but she is still figuring them out. She can’t
pick them up herself (too small) and when I put them on her
tongue she sort of moves them around and then spits them out.
Just last night she actually swallowed one.

Yesterday we also made zucchini cheddar bread
and apple sauce. I’m trying to use up the garden stuff my
neighbor brought over and the million apples we picked in 10
minutes a few weeks ago. So far I’ve made 2 pies and a double
batch of apple sauce and I have about enough left for 2 more
pies. Alan is very happy! I feel like a regular Martha Stewart
these days… or maybe a farmers wife, since Alan is always
working and there are always children at my side. :)

We got home from our trip to Franklin Friday
night. About 20 minutes from home Lex started crying and saying
“Does your butt hurt?” (His statements are usually in the form
of a question these days) I felt bad for him, but I wasn’t
about to pull over when we were just 20 minutes from home. He
cried and fussed until we came to a train crossing and had to
stop for a train to cross :) That made him happy. It was a
really long train too!

On Saturday,
Alan’s parents came to visit. Unfortunately their truck broke
down on the way here. Alan went to help get it to the dealer
and they ended up taking our Saturn home until the dealer can
fix their truck. We finished the day with a lovely visit and
yummy dinner. We also got a visit from a neighbor up the
street. He came with a basket filled with goodies from his
garden. He left a whole bunch of greens and herbs and other
stuff and (I’ll confess) I had to have Alan’s mom give me a
little help on what to do with it all. Glad she was around! Lex
had picked a big tomato from our garden and was eating it like
an apple when the neighbor stopped by. He gave Lex a purple
pepper and Lex put the tomato down and bit right into the
pepper instead :) He’s so funny! Glad he’s eating his veggies
though!! The 3rd picture down is him biting into the pepper and
the 4th picture shows his reaction, and Eve’s finger. She is
VERY grabby these days and was trying to “help” me with the
camera. She has lightening fast hands now and nothing is safe
within her short little reach :)

Today
was a fun filled day of grocery shopping (the bill was huge,
but then I realized that I haven’t been shopping in 2 weeks, so
I guess it was ok), working, and cooking a yummy lasagne dinner
(I even made one to freeze for later!). I ended today (so far)
with a short fall down the stairs. I had Eve in one arm and
stuff in the other and I slipped on one of the bottom-ish
steps. Luckily I fell on my non-Eve arm and just scraped it
against the bottom newel post. We are all fine, I’m a little
sore and probably bruised and Eve thought it was a fun little
ride :)

Tomorrow we are going to MA to
visit Julie for the day. Hopefully we can get in a little
shopping at the big box stores they don’t have ’round these
parts. Maybe we’ll slow down on Tuesday. Or maybe we’ll have
someone over for a playdate. Time will tell :)

For now I’m going to go read the newspaper
(I’m only a week behind!) and wait for Alan to come watch some
3rd Rock with me :)

It’s late and I’m tired, but I wanted to
post a few quick pictures. We went for a long walk this
morning, over the hills and through the fields. It was
beautiful. Then we went to visit Aunt Rosy and played at a
pretty cool place called The Discovery Center. Both babies had
fun. Better still, both babies came home completely worn out
and fell right asleep! So hard, in fact, that Lex fell out of
bed and it didn’t wake him up!! That’s a good vacation :) Here
are a few pics.