eight will be great

Man, that top picture makes me laugh.  It was Seth's birthday and Paige was upset about something.  His birthday was great and he was counting down from several weeks out.  What a delight.

Paige spent her allowance on bubble gum a few weeks ago.  She, Dustin, and I had a bubble-off and the little boys were thrilled.  It may very well be the only time Dustin ever wishes to be clean shaven.

a quick succession

That kitchen photo?  Yeah, that was our daughter's angry response to...something.  Probably something like..."No, you may not wear your gymnastics leotard to ride your bike, as it is 42° outside."  It did remind me of being burgled when I was a kid, seeing every cabinet opened at once.  I was a twinge impressed that she went to so much trouble. She had to fix it all, but I'm thinking the next time maybe she'll have to open and close each cabinet twenty or thirty times.  Perhaps that will cure such happenings?

One night last week Dustin got into bed before eight and I came home from a later-than-usual walk, wondering what I would find.  Adam was cozied up with Paige, every single light was on upstairs (including all closets!) and Noah was entirely naked.  And this is why I still do those bed checks.

"Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings." has been running through my head recently (Oh, Fanny Price).  Emphasis on the quick successions, not busy nothings.  I am starting to see why people have such strong opinions concerning their beloved planners and calendar apps.  I still haven't figured out the best one for myself; I have a hard time committing to anything more than my color-the-month wall calendar I buy each year in January for 90% off at Michaels (that makes it...a dollar, I think).  Maybe I will graduate to something mobile or start keeping up with that planner I got a while back.  Or maybe planners and I are just not meant to be.

those speedy cows

You know in Winnie the Pooh movies, when the seasons are changing and the days just fall off the calendar and are swept away with the wind?  Yeah, it feels like that right now.  October?  What happened to September???  What!!  It's the middle of November?!  

So these are from several weeks ago.  The big three went to a corn maze and had lots of fun (Noah went to physical therapy with my dad and also had lots of fun).  They had this cow train - those barrels all hooked together and pulled by a mower that little people adore - it was crazy.  The cows were hitched to a tractor and it flew.  That thing went so fast that they required riders wear protective goggles.  Eye wear, for a train ride!  You can see in the before photo that Adam's starting to wonder what's up (finger in the mouth screams "What's going on?!").

He was super excited going in and understandably terrified afterwards.

spectators

It occurred to me recently that my parents actually taught me how to play all those games I know how to play.  And that Dustin and I will have to teach the peeps how to play them all too!  Oh man.  I think there could be big money in something like Board Game Day Camp.  Aside from dealing the abject despair of someone's great loss every now and then, games are starting to be [lots more] fun.  Right now we play a lot of dominoes, checkers, Crazy 8s, and Candy Land.  I'm thinking this winter we can add Guess Who?, Uno, maybe Battleship (with rules; they currently like to "play" it).  Oh!  Animal Rummy!  Surely we can cultivate more game loving Spricks.

The neighbors across from us had some work done in their backyard last week.  Adam and Noah opened all of the windows, made snacks, moved chairs and bundled up to watch the action for a surprisingly solid amount of time.  Fresh air and happy, stationary little boys?  Yes, please.

a few moments

I love that Paige has the entire platter of cantaloupe in the first photo (the pic is from Sept but I just came across it).  Noah loves to dip pulled pork in yogurt.  Actually, he loves to dip everything in...anything.  He is our condiment baby.
The camera is mostly put away lately - not enough hours in the day.  I can hardly believe we're coming up on November (wasn't August just a few weeks ago?!).  Everyone is growing and going (and going and going).  Noah has said goodbye to his morning snooze.  This makes our mornings much louder.  He held on to it for a long while, but with tears, walks, popsicles and parental fortitude, I do believe they are a thing of the past.  The poor thing must be exhausted, keeping up with all his bigs.  This morning I watched him just running around the downstairs in a big loop, trying to follow anyone that came into his line of vision.  He doesn't want to miss anything, and puts his shoes on immediately upon crib-freeing each morning.  I imagine he will be the youngest to self-jacket and learn zippers - and maybe the phrase "me too!"