So sorry for the nearly a week delay!! I
hope you’re all doing ok out there in reader land! :) We’ve
been busy here and apparently I’ve neglected you. We had Alan’s
parents up for a visit last weekend (they brought us new-to-us
dining room chairs and a computer desk!), then dinner with
Grandpa and Grandma the next day. Lots of Pampered Chef stuff
going on. I signed my 3rd recruit!! Go me! :) Michelle and I
took the kids apple picking on a day that was supposed to be
sunny and beautiful. Turns out it was the first frosty morning,
but we had fun anyway. It was a short trip, but fun :)

Caitlin
and Eve. I was debating about getting Eve a more girly winter
wardrobe, but then Michelle offered to let me borrow a very
nice girlish winter coat for her. Yay! So here she is looking
like a boy, but soon you’ll see a more girly look on the girl
:)

Lex,
playing tug-o-war with the local apple stand puppy. He’s an
adorable dog! Lex is sporting his new jacket from our neighbor.
I’m still undecided if I like it, but Lex has taken a liking to
it so I think my opinion probably doesn’t matter
anyway.

Got
back from dinner tonight with our friends Mike & Andi
and their boys. The evening ended around 7:00pm when Lex walked
in to the kitchen, almost in tears, and said “mommy, we need to
go home now.” On the way home he explained that he was crying
because he was angry at me. I had said about 10 minutes earlier
that we had to get going soon, so apparently he was angry at me
because I started talking again and we didn’t leave right away.
I suggested perhaps his tiredness and bad dinner (chips!) also
had something to do with his feelings. He said, “yes, the pizza
made me angry.” Sarcasm? We had pizza for dinner (Caprese Pizza
from Pampered Chef, soo yummy!) and I had him take one bite to
taste it. I guess it was an angry bite! Crazy kid. Anyway, it’s
way too late now and I really should be sleeping. I’m training
my new recruit tomorrow and immediately afterwards several
other consultants will be joining us for a a Pampered Chef
movie night to watch a fun new training DVD. Will be fun, but
busy. Hope this will tide you all over for a few more days.
I’ll try to be a better blogger ;)

Here’s you see an airplater in action,
with a little more information about the green wings. You also
get a little tour of my messy house :)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIDJQWZZdWM]

Monkey time.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-1ERizUmo8]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDbPBhpfslM]

More fun with Max.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhBX_Dbz6JY]

Lex is an amazing person these days. Three
really seems to suit him. He is still barrels of energy, but he
can settle himself down, usually, when necessary. My family was
in town last weekend and we went out to brunch. I brought along
a coloring book and a few crayons (turns out the restaurant had
64 crayons though!!) Lex sat quietly through the whole meal! He
ate his food, colored with the crayons, did the activities, and
was very well behaved. I think Uncle B sitting next to him
helped a lot! Grandpa entertained Eve on the other end of the
table and I think it was the first restaurant meal in 3 years
that didn’t end with Alan or I chasing kids around. Lex also
has a renewed interest in drawing and has started to make
recognizable shapes. Nothing like our friends Lauren and Sarah
(they are amazing!) but he draws lines and squiggles and then
tells me, “Mom, I made a balloon!” Or a box, or an animal, or a
rainbow. He’s branched out from just drawing rivers, which is
refreshing :) He also seems to like activity books, which is a
new thing for him.

His other big development is on the food front.
He’s gone from eating barely anything, to eating some things!!
:) I read a book called Food
Fights, written by Dr. Shu, our old pedi, and she had
a great part about the “no thank you bite.” Have I written
about this before? Anyway, the idea is that instead of
pressuring your kid to eat everything on their plate, just give
them a little of the real dinner and something else they will
like. Then have the kid take one bite of everything and if they
don’t like it they can say “no thank you” and they don’t have
to eat any more. I always thought this was a good idea, but Lex
would flat out refuse. The idea is that once they have tasted
everything they can then have more of what the like or dessert
or whatever. Lex would just leave the table without eating
anything. Frustrating! Then a few weeks ago something in his
brain clicked (I think it was triggered by the carrot harvest!)
and he has become quite a reasonable eater. He still whines
sometimes, but for many days now he has tasted everything on
his plate, often announcing that he DOES like the food. Today
he ate an apple with sunflower seed butter and raisins for
snack. That’s a huge and healthy deviation from goldfish and
bunnies. At dinner he ate all of his green beans, more apple,
and his bagel. We’ve been keeping the fruit bowl full and on
the table, which is good for my WW purposes and apparently good
for him too. On a regular basis he will help himself to a piece
of fruit with his meal. So cool!! I’m loving this new phases
and feeling like a much more competent mommy. (In the picture they are eating
SFSB&H; sandwiches, but Lex decided after the fact that
he wanted cream cheese as well. At his insistence I put cream
cheese right on top of his sandwich, and, of course, she wanted
some too. I thought it sounded pretty yucky, but they both ate
it up.)

He is almost completely done with naps now. This
is good and bad. He tends to be very tired by the end of the
day (and so am I!) but he also goes to bed much earlier. The
past few days he’s been in bed by 7pm (6:30 tonight!) and more
and more he goes to bed easily. Last night we finished stories,
he put them back on the shelf and went right up stairs. It was
great!
(Here
he is playing with the recorder from our hand-me-down music
kit. He’s started being interested in music and we listen to
lots of CDs and sing and dance along.)

I think I’m done for now :) Its just amazing
to watch him become a little person. Smart, funny, and often
even rational. We’re pretty lucky to have him around!