He’s started giving us toys, putting them back on the shelves (hooray!), and putting toys into bins/drawers and other containers.  We spend a lot of time passing toys back and forth.  His favorite game right now is peekaboo.  He loves to cover himself with a piece of fabric and then giggles as he pulls it off his head.  On our drive to Bend last weekend he spent a good 20 minutes playing peekaboo with his reflection in the car mirror.  It may have been the cutest moment I’ve ever seen.

Our busy little dude has a sensitive side, and it sometimes takes us by surprise.  On Wednesday morning Sammy woke up while J and I were taking showers.  It was a few minutes before we could get to him, and when J got to Sam’s room the poor little guy was hysterically screaming.  J settled him down, but when Sam saw me he threw himself into my arms and clung to me for several minutes.  Now Sam has waited a few minutes for us to come and get him before, but for some reason on this morning he got scared about something and it left a mark.  We have to remember that our precious little guy has a special heart and it’s our job to protect it as he goes out into the world.

Alternately titled ‘The year that Mom bought two costumes for each kid.’  Or ‘You want to dress as a what?’  Also known as ‘Missed Photo Ops.’

I’m still figuring out this Halloween Mom thing – and once again this Halloween felt a little bit by-the-seat-of-our-pants, disorganized, rush around, yet somehow still fun.  It began about a month ago when I asked Clare what she wanted to be for Halloween.  I was shamelessly plugging for her to be a cowgirl, based entirely on the boots, but she had other ideas.  She wanted to be a tiger.  Yep, a tiger.  And she wanted Sammy to be a lion.  I let my cowgirl dreams go (until next year) and ordered lion and tiger costumes online.

Well, besides just trick-or-treating, we attended the preschool-fest Monster Mash at the local community center a few weeks ago.  Unfortunately there was a delay in the costumes arriving and two days before the Mash we were costumeless.  I asked Clare what she would like to be instead of a Tiger.  She thought about it, tilted her head and said “ummmm… I would like to be a fly.”

Huh?  Come again?

“Yep, a fly.”

Then J jumped in and said “yeah, you could be a fly caught in a spiders web!”  About this point I was kicking J under the table.

So then I was tasked with finding a fly costume and somehow getting it caught in a spiders web.  Amazingly, and truly it felt amazing, I found a fly costume being sold on craigslist.  Even more amazingly the nice family was also selling a caterpillar costume so I nabbed two bug costumes for a small price.  A quick stop at the consignment store got me a baby bee costume and I had an assortment of insect costumes for my little Bugs.

So away we went to the Monster Mash, which was fun, though Clare was disappointed not to see any Monsters.  Sammy wasn’t all that impressed with his bee costume but  he was a sport about it.  Clare, on the other hand, was the happiest little fly you’ve ever seen.

But, if you’re paying attention to this caper, you’ll notice that we still have a lion and tiger costume on order.  They arrived a few days ago, just in time for trick-or-treating.  So tonight we dressed our kiddos in Costumes #2 and headed out with our neighbors to do some candy nabbing.  I barely got pictures of them in their costumes before Clare drug us out the door.  She took her trick-or-treating very seriously – running ahead of the group, banging on front doors, and chanting “get candy get candy get candy” under her breath like some kind of internal pep talk.

Snow in the mountains

 Clare and J love climbing on the rocks near the River House.  Clare has been calling some of them “Grandpa” and “Grandma” Rocks for a while.  This time she looked at a big outcropping and said “Oh good!  Here is my Rock Family!”

This was her Cave with Lions in it – fortunately they were friendly lions.

What a difference from the pony rides last year.  This year Clare didn’t want anyone to walk next to her, she smiled the whole time, chatted with the lady leading the pony, and was such a big, confident girl.  She actually got two pony rides out of the deal (ahem, Grandma) and loved every minute of them both.

Besides pony rides, we had a hay ride, got some lunch, and enjoyed a few hours out on the farm.  Oh yeah, and we got a couple of pumpkins.

  

“I dreamed of white horses, brown cows and orange elephantses.”

This last week we discovered a new kid-oriented activity, and that’s the local children’s theater.  We went and saw a production of The BFG, The Big Friendly Giant, and Clare hasn’t stopped talking about it since.  Yep, we may have a new little theater lover on our hands.  She was a little scared of the giant (which, as you can see in the picture above taken at Clare’s level, he was pretty imposing) but she loved the story, the characters, and the whole experience.  We’re entering a new world of parenthood, that of experiencing things with our kids and it’s really fun.

In general Clare really likes soft, comfy clothes.  She likes long sleeves instead of short sleeves, pants over skirts and shorts, and bright colors.  She insists on wearing socks all the time, even with her sandals.  She’s played a little bit with layers (see below) but in general she likes to dress simply, comfortably, and with clashing patterns.

I wanted to get a picture of her outfit (complete with my shoes) and Clare ran to get a cracker to pose with.

 While I don’t tell a lot of stories about my kids bodily functions, I hope you’ll forgive me a poop story.  Last week Adam heard Clare and Gabe run into her room and slam the door.  This is pretty typical and he went down a few minutes later to open the door figuring he would find them jumping on the bed.   He walked in and realized he smelled something.  Clare looked guilty.  Then he noticed that there was a little pile of poop on the floor.  “Clare, where are we supposed to poop?”  “In the potty.”  “Why did you poop on the floor?”  “B-b-but… it’s a Halloween decoration!”

We’re also facing a fair amount of talking back and arguing these days.  It’s frustrating, but also kind of funny and I struggle to keep a straight face sometimes.  Today I found that Clare had ripped the pages of one of her books during naptime.  This has been an ongoing issue and a few days ago I told her that if she did it again I would take all the books in her room.  So today I had to do that.  She looked at me and said “No Mama.  I just ripped the one book, so you should just take away the one book.”  I told her that if she couldn’t treat her toys and books with respect then she would lose them.  “No Mama.  I respected the other books so I should keep them.”  While I appreciated her logic, we still packed up her books and she’ll get them back a few at a time in the next week or so.

 I can’t believe that we are fast approaching Sammy’s first birthday.  In a few short days he’s going to be 11 months old (eleven!) and the developmental milestones are coming thick and fast.  The picture above is blurry and the color is off, but it showcases how Sammy spends his days – on the move!  Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, in the house is safe from Señor Sam.  He can race down the hall in a flash heading straight towards whatever mischief we try to keep him from.  His usual destinations are the dog’s food and water, the toilet, the floor lamp, and the open back door.

When he’s not crawling, he’s pulling up.  Sam wants to be upright – reaching, climbing, and exploring at a higher level.  His favorite, favorite, activity is destruction.  No toy or book left on a shelf, no puzzle left with pieces in it, no food or dishes left in the child’s kitchen – everything methodically, intentionally, and, preferably, noisily is thrown onto the ground.  I spend lots of time cleaning up toys… and wondering why on earth we have so many darn toys.

Besides moving, and moving, Sammy is talking up a storm.  He’s only said “jump” the one time, but he’s pointed at a picture of a dog in a book and said “dog” the other day.  He also will “woof” in response to when we say it.  He sings little “doh doh doh” songs when he’s happy.  The cutest moment was last week when he woke up from his nap and started crawling around the house looking for something.  He crawled down the hall towards Clare’s room, where she was still napping, and started yelling babytalk variations of “Clare.”

Sammy is still a big boy.  At his 9 month check-up he was 25 pounds, and I bet he’s 27 pounds now.  He’s pretty much outgrown his 18 month clothes and is fitting comfortably in 18-24 and 24 month size outfits.  I put him in a 2T sleeper last night and it fit.  Sheesh.