Fall is Here!

Dear Children, 

This time change business has just thrown everyone off. More so Nathan, who is going to bed later, and waking up earlier. And since Hannah is waking up "earlier" in the morning, you are usually taking a pretty good hour long nap in the morning. 

Hannah must be going through a growth spurt because girl, you are eating everything and anything! When I think you are finished and proceed to remove your high chair tray, you quickly grab it towards you and shriek at me. Nathan on the other hand, seems to be going on a hunger strike, hardly eating anything at meals. 

Hannah has mentally just blossomed in the past few days. You are now climbing ladders to turn on things like water faucets, water dispensers, and even a gas stove. (Grandma sometimes even has trouble turning it on) Oh, an flushing toilets are a new favorite. 

"Cooking" has been super interesting to you. You love pretending to cook with toy utensils and feeding food to big baby. 

 Sometimes the only way I can get food on the dinner table is to have you two "practicing" your skills. Most days I just have to keep Hannah with me, since Nathan is getting pretty good at playing independently, especially if you are working on a cool lego project.

But sometimes Nathan, you see how much fun Hannah is having and you want to come and join along too.

 Nathan, you are still quite the silly boy. You are still pretty interested in trains, but you've recently become interested in police officers. We checked out a book from the library and since then, you have been hooked. I don't know how many times we have renewed this book, you always request it at bedtime. It looks like somebody may be getting it for Christmas.

Speech wise, you are now adding "ted" to anything past tense. Like in the picture below, you would caption it, "I stood-ted on my head." Sometimes you use the present tense word and just add "-ted" but more often, you use the correct past tense word, but you still add a "-ted." I think it is so amazing how you little guys can just pick up a language.

 Hannah's sleeping pretty well. Here's a funny picture that I took the other day with the baby monitor... I heard you whimper towards the end of your nap so I checked the monitor. I saw you sitting up in your crib and your body just slowly fell fowards and you fell asleep sitting up against your crib. You stayed there for about 5 minutes and then you woke up again.

One day I also found Nathan in a weird sleeping position. When I walked into your room to wake you up, I found you in a yoga child's pose on the edge of your bed, with your toes hanging off and your body on top of 2 books. How you fell asleep and stayed asleep without falling off of the bed was a mystery to me. 

Halloween this year was a close one. It's been rainy every weekend and this week we got a lot of rain. Some parts of the area got flooded pretty badly. It cleared up by Saturday and we were able to enjoy the beautiful weather while trick-or-treating. 

Nathan wanted to be either lightning mcqueen or Thomas and since we have about a bajillion amazon boxes laying around the house, I thought we could do the Thomas theme. 

 We walked around with our neighbors for a bit, but little legs get tired quickly, so we spent the rest of the night in front of our house passing out treats to other kids.

 Glow sticks were a big hit. It also kept you guys occupied between "customers." Nathan got so excited when you saw kids coming over. Sometimes you would want to cross the street to go to them, and when we stop you, you would yell out, "Hey guys! Come here, I have some candy for you." While it may be cute now, 15 years from now, it would be considered a bit creepy.

 Hannah eventually got the hang of passing out candy, but since Nathan is so quick, by the time Hannah coordinated yourself to get a piece of candy, turn around to give it to someone, they had already walked away, leaving you, all alone, with your arm held high, in front of you, handing a piece of candy to no one. And then when you realized that they were not coming back, you would yell at them. It was really cute.

 I'd say Halloween, even though we didn't get to participate in as many of the normal festivities, went well. We had fun dressing up, talked with and met some new neighbors, and enjoyed the beautiful fall evening without getting bitten by too many mosquitoes. #win

Hannah's getting pretty good at expressing what you want. You LOVE raspberries. Often you will point to the fridge, I will open it, and then you point to the raspberries and then you sign "want."

The other morning, you handed me a pack of wipes and you pointed to the changing table. I think you may have been telling me that you wanted a diaper change...or it could've been a coincidence. I'd like to think it was intentional. 

Hannah's baptismal birthday was yesterday. We celebrated with Hannah's God Parents, Hope and Michael after church. Totally forgot to take a picture, which reminds me that we need to light her candle tonight. 

Well, that's about it for now. I love you guys so much and I'm so blessed to be able to share these early years with you. 

Love, 

Mommy