Cousins on the Farm

B's older brother lives south of Kansas City on 10 acres with sheep, chickens, and dogs. Each time we visit our kids get a bit braver on the farm. Buddy was so excited about getting to jump on their trampoline again and I watched him out there with his cousins that tend to be more rough and tumble than he and PS and they were holding their own and having a great time.

PS facing off with a chicken.

The kids are off building a fort with cousin E.
Click the picture to enlarge.

I was out on the balcony taking pictures and when I turned to go back in I found this.
Baby X held his own too with cousin D who is 6 months older and much larger. You know how Baby X likes to flip stuff, like his binky handle?? He went up to cousin D, flipped D's binky handle, and then yanked the binky out of his mouth. Cousin D looked at me like, "what are you going to do about that baby taking my binky?"

Buddy on the fort.

See the sheep?

Zoomed in as much as my little camera can zoom.

B's Runs the Kansas City Marathon

B's decided to run the Kansas City Marathon several months ago, started training, but then school and life got in the way and his running regimen slowly disappeared. Even so, he still decided to go ahead and run it but instead of a goal time, his goal was to finish. My goal was for him to finish without dying. He accomplished both goals.

B ran the marathon with his older brother. His brother was nice enough that after he finished and got his free massage, he went back and ran the last bit with B to help encourage him.

Here's the family cheering him on. Grandma and Grandpa M (Grandma taking a
picture, Grandpa on the phone with B's brother's wife), Baby X in the stroller,
Princess Sparkley and Buddy).

We were near the finish line for a lot of the race and Princess Sparkley had seen a lot of kids run the last 100 yards or so with their mom or dad, so she ran the last bit with B to help him out. She told him it was the fastest she'd ever run except once in gym when they ran races. Here they are about to cross the finish line. They called out B's name and city and announced that he was running with a little [our last name], a [our last name]erino. PS loved that!

After they removed the ChampionChip from his shoe. The ChampionChip helps time the runners, makes sure they follow the course, and accounts for the wait at the start of the race when so many runners are trying to cross the start line at once. Throughout the course

the chip would beep as B crossed sensors making sure that runners ran the

whole race and stuck to the course.

He did a great job. We're all very proud of him. I've never come anywhere near running 26.2 miles in a day and never plan on doing it. He was lucky enough to get a free massage at the end of the race which I think helped a lot. He ran the Lawrence Half Marathon in April and was pretty sore afterwards. He's walking around slowly today due to sore calf and thigh muscles, but looks great for having run so much yesterday.

Pumpkin Patch with PS's school

Princess Sparkley's school had a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch today and let us tag along.

Click here to see them at the same Pumpkin Patch measuring their height in years past.

Baby X... I couldn't get him to stop looking at the rocks. I thought maybe he's stand up holding onto the wall... which would be perfect, and which he does all the time at home. No such luck.

PS got paired up with a classmate and her fourth grade buddy,
so Buddy, Baby X and I were on our own.

I love fields like this. Buddy likes that trains go by in the distance.

I assume this is what Baby X looked like the whole time. He was in a pack on my back. He was very quiet. And one point, he exhaled loudly right at my ear and scared me.

Buddy finally decided on a pumpkin.

It was much larger than the pumpkin he picked last year, which was about the size of a mango.

Princess Sparkley on the hayride with her class.
(The redhead behind her is a 4th grade girl who was baptized with her mom a couple of weeks ago, she was excited to recognize me there and came up to let me know I was from her church.)

Buddy and a scarecrow.
Buddy couldn't get enough of the maze this year. He made me do it three times then did it again on his own. And he was really brave this whole time in the playground area. It was all first graders and fourth graders and PS was off with her friends. I could barely keep track of him. It was nice to see that he doesn't always have to be clinging to my leg to try something new.

Baby X got two pumpkins. Buddy and I picked out a small pumpkin.
Then Buddy found this teeny tiny one and insisted we get it too.



I love his little pointer finger investigating everything.



All three kids.






Baby X is tired.



He's getting huge, isn't he?

Baby X explores the great outdoors

Baby X hightails it for our front door whenever it is open. Until this weekend, he'd stop on the threshold and just look out. Friday the kids were outside and Baby X was downstairs by himself (I'd run upstairs to switch clothes from the washer to the dryer) when the wind blew our front door open and he hightailed it out of there. I watched him go. He crossed the sidewalk onto the grass and hurried down the hill. He even face planted and got grass in his mouth and didn't cry or stop. Here are some pictures of him in the great outdoors.

37 weeks

Daddy Shrunk

Oh no, Daddy shrunk. Oh wait, it's just Buddy.
(I asked him to take this sweatshirt upstairs the other
day to help clean up and this is what he did with it.)

Pointy Tongue Genes

Buddy (Dec. 2004, 8 months ish)

Buddy (today, Oct. 2008, 4 years and 8 months ish)

Baby X (the past few weeks, 8 months)

X

36 weeks and 4 days*

36 and 4 days*

For Grandpa L

This was Buddy's outfit today. He woke up this morning and we gave him the news that the Red Sox beat the Angels and will be playing for the American League Championship. He was excited, but a little disappointed because in the National League he was cheering for the White Sox (I think because they are similarly named to the Red Sox). I tried to talk him into the red sweatpants rather than shorts because it was kind of cool and rainy today. But he insisted on wearing the shorts. So I tried to get him to wear just the shorts (it wasn't THAT cold). This is what we ended up with. I shouldn't complain. Yesterday he and Princess Sparkley were dressed like The Incredibles all day in all red clothes and he went to Walmart with me with his shirt and pants both on backwards. And he's been wearing his shirt backwards most days the past week or two. Don't know why. He says it feels funny and he likes it. It's sort of disconcerting because you think you're seeing the front of him because you're seeing the front of his shirt, but then you look up and it's the back of his head. Ahh!

Baby X reading and developing his pointy tongue

.

Here's Baby X reading. Notice his pointy little tongue.

I love finding him sitting up in a room playing with a toy or book.

Cutie.

Baby X, his pointy tongue, and me.

There's the tongue not quite as pointy.

Here's a very unflattering shot, but a gives you a good idea of his pointy tongue. Buddy has a pointy tongue as well. It can touch his nose all pointy like. I'll try to find a picture of Buddy's pointy tongue to post.

36 weeks

You may notice there's no picture here. Baby X erased it. I uploaded it from my camera, named the file, he cried, I picked him up he hit his slimy fist into the keyboard, it disappeared, I can't find it anywhere. And I'd already erased it from the camera. Only half the file disappeared, so here's one from Saturday when he was 36 weeks old. I'll have to take another one properly tonight when he's 36 weeks and 3 days old. Argh. Naughty Baby X.

He's discovered his pointer finger and uses it to poke lots of stuff. Here he's poking the alligator's eye. Good thing it's a friendly alligator.


He also erased some videos of him chasing (crawling quickly) after Buddy on his tricycle. It's pretty funny. I'll have film that again as well.

What Baby X Is Getting Into Now

Here's my cute little boy this week:




And here's what he's up to now:



Walking along stuff!!! Can you believe it. He's 8 months old.

Princess Sparkley, First Grader

These are Princess Sparkley's official school pictures for first grade. We didn't buy any since 1) they aren't great, and 2) we had her picture taken in July at JCPenney.

PS had to go to the doctor today so her school had a more recent physical exam on record. She's 6 years, 1 1/2 months old. She weighs 45 lbs. and is 46 3/4 inches tall. According to her doctor she's in the 50th percentile for height* and weight. I'm not convinced this is right. She's taller than average and thinner. But oh well. She's healthy!

*Every online growth chart calculator I've plugged PS's numbers into has given me a different response (46th percentile to 75th-90th). So who knows?

35 weeks

8 months, 1 day

Father/Son Campout

Last weekend was the Father/Son Campout, which is always very exciting for Buddy... and very very sad for Princess Sparkley. But this year, a bunch of moms and girls (and some baby brothers that weren't old enough to go camping) met up and had a fun time eating pizza and popcorn and candy and watching movies. But we didn't have the camera, B and Buddy did. Here are their shots:





Last year's campout.

Baby X Loves Books

Baby X loves books, but not quite the same way the rest of the family does. I think he's our first to actually chew on our board books. My poor books. :(

Cutie Pies

I took these pictures last Sunday (Sept. 21).