Foiled Fall Plans, but More to Come

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

Fall is always a busy, fun filled time of the year. There are many fall festivals, Halloween parties and pumpkin patches to visit. Today, we had the annual Halloween parade at your school. All of your friends came dressed in cool costumes and you all proudly marched along the church hallways trick-or-treating for candy. It was too cute. 

 You were pretty excited about finally being able to wear your costume. You've been playing with everyone else's costumes for a few days, but today you got to wear yours.

Seeing all of your friends dressed up for Chapel was almost unbearable. Everyone was just too cute! 

Other than the rain this past weekend, the weather here has been beautiful. We pretty much try to spend as much time outside as possible, but this rainy weekend we were forced to stay inside for the most part. We had craft time, 

 Wrestle and climb on the couch time,

 And a play date with other MOPPETS at church.

 When the weather cleared up for just a little bit, we braved the muddiness and got a few pumpkin patch shots in. This was the best one of both of you two.

 The rest are just of Hannah because Nathan, you walked away to explore pumpkins.

Nathan, you've been wanting to be like a baby lately. You call me "ma-ma" in a baby voice and you do silly things like try to fit in newborn clothing. 

Hannah, you are getting really good at letting others know what you want. When Nathan invades your space or has something you want, you are not afraid to be be aggressive and push Nathan out of the way. Nathan, you react by dramatically flinging yourself backwards and whining, Hannah pushed me. I use this as a perfect opportunity to remind you how Hannah is now stronger than you because she eats her green stuff. You always grumble a bit and then walk off. You are starting to understand boundaries and how to play with Hannah so that she doesn't cry or get upset. 

Hannah, you still love to follow Nathan around and copy what he does. You actually like playing rough with him sometimes and I always have to wait for either a cry or a giggle after what seems like intense moments. There are more bursts of laugher now than cries, so that's good.

This Saturday we're going to try to go trick-or-treating if it's not too rainy. I'm excited about our family Thomas costumes. You'll have to wait until next week to see what we end up doing, but I can promise it'll be pretty cool. I'm excited.

Well, that's about it for this week. Hannah's baptism anniversary is coming up soon and pretty soon Thanksgiving will be here. Time is passing by too fast!

Love,
Mommy

Fairs and Carnivals and 14 Months Old Girl

Dear Hannah and Nathan, 

The weather this week has been pretty awesome for hanging out outside. On Thursday, we met up with Nathan's old time friends (and their little sisters) at Pedernales State Park. We arrived and had a nice picnic lunch in the shade. 

 Then you guys ran off to do some exploring. Nathan, you found a good spot to throw rocks to make big splashes.

 Hannah, you also did some exploring of your own. You explored rocks + gravity.

 We then found a good spot with a nice steady flow of water for all of you guys to dip your feet in. At some point, all the diapers and undies came off and there was just a bunch of naked tushies splashing around. Too cute!

 The hike back took about twice as long as it did going down. We had to take a picture to keep spirits up.

 And we were very thankful for all the cool logs that we could rest on along the way.

Needless to say, a long morning in the sun led to amazing naps in the afternoon. 

On Friday, the elementary school across the street had their annual fall carnival. Nathan, I am so proud of you being able to ride the barrel train by yourself. 

 And we tried the football throw, it took you a few tries (and very close proximity) before you finally launched the football into the hole.

 And then the corn hole toss, you kind of cheated there as well.

And then the man at the ring toss let you have pretty much infinite numbers of turns and tries.

 I tried to let Hannah down by the petting zoo and as soon as I started to unbuckle you, Hannah, you fussed and shook your head vigorously. You wanted to be safe in the stroller so those evil chicks and lambs don't come and get you. I completely understand.

On Saturday, we hosted an Iron chef party. You guys were so well behaved and tried lots of pear foods. When it was time to go to sleep, Hannah went down without a peep and even though Nathan was allowed to stay up a bit later, you chose to go to bed.

Auntie Momo also came down to visit. You guys had lots of fun playing together this weekend. We went and got some Ramen, which both of you slurped up like crazy!

But to work up an appetite, we attended the annual Texas book festival down by the capital. We went on Sunday when it first opened, so it wasn't terribly busy like most family oriented events are these days. 

We walked around the capital grounds a bit and took some silly pictures:

 And we even got a chance to go and explore inside an ambulance. Nathan, you did a good job asking the paramedic lots of questions about the function of pretty much everything inside, followed by "Why?"

 At the kids tents there were white boards for drawing,

 or just playing...

 Lots of coloring stations,

 And various book readings. We even heard an author read a story that we listened to during story time at the library!

 After the busy weekend was over, we settled back into our daily routine. Nathan showed Hannah the correct way to eat raspberries. Soon, both of you guys finished off almost half a pound of raspberries! Those were pretty good.

Basic Raspberry Eating Technique

Advanced Raspberry Eating Technique

 For craf-T Tuesday, we made some baby chicks and Nathan did some painting. While Nathan painted, Hannah loved popping the pom poms into the container. After every few pops, you would put your arms in the air and wiggle with joy as if you were saying, "This is awesome!"

 Nathan created a paper plate fall wreath. (Note: he's wearing undies..)

Morning naps are a bit tricky with Hannah. You are able to make it for about 5 hours before you crash for a nap, but when you don't take a nap in the morning, you only sleep for 1.5 hours in the afternoon and since it's earlier than normal, you wake up about 30 minutes after Nathan goes down for a nap, not giving me much time to get stuff done. Well, I guess I lucked out for a year with simultaneous PM naps (for the most part).

Nathan, you have been showing some attention seeking behaviors lately like calling us "Mama, and Dada" in a baby voice, or biting other kids' clothes. I think I just need to spend some more one on one time with you. We tried having a movie night on Friday, we watched Mulan, but you got scared and didn't seem to enjoy the movie too much. We thought that out of all the disney movies, this one would be the least scary. but you are an emotional boy and when Mulan's dad had to go out and meet the emperial messengers, you started to cry. We also talked about what it means to be brave and to help others in need.

One thing that completely surprised us the other day was when we were in the car and were asking you why you were mean to another kid at the playground. As if scripted, you said, "He not like me, that why I not like him." Woah!!! Where did this come from?!?!

(Actually, as I am re-reading this maybe you are not a racist after all.  You are simply reciprocating someone else's feelings towards you.  I had thought you had meant, "He does not look like me, I don't like him." but instead, I think you mean, "He doesn't like me, so I don't like him too." We'll get this straightened out after nap)

Well, that's about it for now. Until next week,

Love,
Mommy

Scooting Down Stairs Adventures of Week 60

Dear Hannah,
Just the other day you totally surprised me by scooting down the stairs all by yourself. A friend had randomly stopped by and so I quickly went downstairs to answer the door. After a few moments of chatting, here you come, laughing as if you were coming over to say a friendly hello.

You love to mimic facial expressions and sounds. Sometimes, when Nathan and I are talking or making silly sounds in the car, you will just randomly copy the sounds that we make. Nathan absolutely loves making you laugh and will do just about anything to get a chuckle out of you.

You also love to play rough. Whenever anyone is laying on the ground, you will stomp over, Godzilla style and tackle us. It's so cute and actually a lot of fun.

You love bath time, playing with water (still going for Teddy's water bowl) but now you climb the step stool or ladder to try to reach the sink now.

Today while running errands, I gave you a little food pouch to munch on the go. As I opened the car door to get you so that we could go pick up Nathan, this is how I found you, covered in orange goop. 

I exclaimed, "Hannah Bear!" and you just responded with a sheepish laugh. Hey, better food than poop. 

Dear Nathan, 

I bet you are having so much more fun with Nathan now that she is getting older. I know that sometimes it can be frustrating because you now have less time to gather up your toys so that Hannah doesn't grab them, but for the most part, you guys play really well together. 

Here you guys are on a pirate ship, sailing the high seas. 

 Of course, you get hungry on long journeys so you need to go fishing.

 Can you believe it, the weather is still in the 90s so we get to still play with the water table during hot afternoons.

 And you are getting so good at blowing bubbles

 And catching them as well.

 You've been pretty obsessed with guns lately, proudly carrying around your just-like-Nick's (neighbor) lego gun and pewing (shooting) random things.

 The other day you shouted, "I'm going to kill you!" which surprised me because we had not talked about this. We finally figured out that you picked it up from your older neighbor kids and we had a good talk about why we don't use the word "kill" when we play.

This week we finished up our stretch of fall birthday parties. Both you guys had a great time and surprised me with your gymnastic abilities.

And then we also went to a MOPS picnic where all the kids got to whack a pumpkin pinata.

Well, that's about it for this week. We go hiking tomorrow and who knows what this weekend will bring.

Love,
Mommy