Trunk or Treat

Our Halloween celebrations began a week early with our church's Fall Festival, Chili Cook-off and Trunk or Treat. I won a golden spoon for veggiest chili for the cook off. The missionaries were the judges. I'm guessing I won because my chili had celery in it which is quite noticeable and a veggie. It was pretty good chili, but not necessarily prize worthy.


Buddy the fireman (he had a mustache drawn on with my eyeliner but decided against it).
Baby X the Dinosaur/Dragon, or as PS has named him "the diagon."
Princess Sparkley as a witch.


Sort of blurry, but I wanted one of them standing up so we could see height differences.



Donut on a string.



So super hilarious to watch. Buddy wouldn't do it.


Ahh... her lips are gone!


We were in charge of helping clean up, so B stayed in the church and helped put away tables and chairs. The kids took themselves trunk or treating. And this is how I entertained Baby X so he would stay in the trunk with me handing out candy.




Happy Halloween!

National Air and Space Museum

Pumpkins

A lot of friends and family did research for us to find a great pumpkin patch this year in Virginia, but they all still charged $8+ for admittance for everyone over 2 years old. And I just couldn't bring myself to spend $24 for me and the kids to be admitted into a pumpkin patch. So we ended up going to one of those pseudo pumpkin patches set up in a parking lot near our house. We actually were really pleased with the pumpkin selection, and now we have our pumpkin so the kids can stop bugging me about it. We went with only three this year because B and I are getting tired of carving so many pumpkins... one each for us, and then three kid pumpkins. So from now on, I think we'll only carve kid pumpkins. Maybe that'll change if they ever get old enough to be trusted with a knife.

Baby X calls his pumpkin a ball and is constantly carrying it to me and handing it to me. Luckily he can't lift PS's and Buddy's pumpkins. PS has already picked out an intricate witch design for her pumpkin, I think I'll let B handle that one.

The Boys

Unfortunately Baby X hasn't been taking a nap very well lately... so by late afternoon and dinner time until bed time, he's a mess. PS was trying to finish up some math worksheets for school on Friday and Baby X was having meltdown after meltdown so I finally turned on Kideos.com (sort of a Youtube for kids) and He and Buddy got in position to watch.

Homeschooling Hardships

Oftentimes, what makes homeschooling difficult is keeping all the kids on track doing something when you are trying to help one kid one on one. This is especially difficult because Baby X doesn't really have anything he's supposed to be doing. Buddy was practicing his handwriting letters the other day when Baby X discovered him in perfect position to be tackled... and tackled him.




Then it was a game of "bye bye boom" that Baby X created for the occasion.

Sports Lovers

We don't have cable... so all of our TV and sports watching is done on our computer. The past few weeks we've been watching a lot of college and pro football, along with the Major League Baseball playoffs. Buddy and Baby X both come running when they realize B is watching sports on the computer. Baby X mostly points at the scream saying, "ball, ball, ball, ball."

Princess Spakley as Sacajawea

We started a unit in history about Native Americans/American Indians/First Americans/First People/Natives ... although I'm leaning towards calling them First People, like they supposedly call American Indians in Canada. Or maybe Natives... which is what the lady at the National Museum of American Indians told her tour group she preferred to be called.

Anyway, I assigned PS to read a book about Sacajawea and I'll have her do a little book report presentation on it for us. She was very excited and showed up with Pomp, Sacajawea's baby, taped to her back and a feather headband.

The Boys and their Trains

Baby X is loving trains just as much as Buddy ever has. Luckily, Buddy hasn't outgrown it yet, so they have a great time building tracks (Baby X helps, making it all more challenging for Buddy to create a workable track).

I can't put the train box away because Baby X comes and gets me saying "wooOooo" and pointing to the box and fake crying (or real crying) until I open the lid again.

Talking

Baby has been expanding his vocabulary a little bit. Hooray! Buddy named Baby X's stuffed animal dog "Bubble" since that's an easy word for Baby X to say and Baby X likes to say it a lot.

He says: Oh, Wow, Whoa, uh unh (for no), nods (for yes), says nya nya for baa like a sheep says, says flag (sort of sounds like wyag) and dog.

Unfortunately, he's also now lost the ability to say Buddy's name properly and calls him "Ball." Buddy thinks this is hilarious.

And he's starting to put words together. Like he'll point at a bus, say "bu" and "dada" because he knows it's Dada's bus, or that Daddy is on a bus, or that Daddy rides the bus, etc. And he's started putting Thank you together with our names, "Thank you, Mama."

We had this conversation yesterday:
X points to a pumpkin, "ball."
Me: Pumpkin.
X: Ball.
Me: Pumpkin.
X: Ball.
Me: Pumpkin.
X: Oh.

Here's some video to document some of his new words. This was last night, before we discovered he could say dog this morning.

Face Paint

PS desperately wanted face paint and her Grandma L was nice enough to send her some. She should have been more specific that she wanted someone who could face paint. Although, really, I think she'd just like to paint all of us up more than being painted herself. Here's what we've created so far...

Columbus Day trip to the Nat'l Museum of the American Indian

B dropped me and the kids off at the Metro station closest to us on Monday and the kids and I rode the Metro into Dc to go to the National Museum of the American Indian for a homeschool field trip.

The kids did really well. I was able to keep Baby X in the umbrella stroller on the train... which was much easier than trying to hold him still and hold onto a stroller.

It was a colder than last time we went to The Mall. Last time it was hot and we were sweating and PS complained the whole time about the heat. This time, I'm glad I made everyone change from shorts to pants and I grabbed sweatshirts. It was about 60 and even though the only time we were outside was walking from the Metro stop to the museum and back, it was a bit chilly.

The first picture is in front of the Capitol. Then Buddy next to a Bombadier (sp?) which is some sort of vehicle contraption that current native fisherman in Canada use to ice fish. Then PS in front of a pretty cool statue. Then one PS took of Buddy in front of the water feature outside of the museum where we ate lunch. Then the tiny pictures... all three kids in front of a fun native painting and Buddy and Baby X in front of a canoe on display.

The museum is part of the Smithsonian and thus, free. It is a bit more modern American Indian culture than historic... but I realized that's something we should all learn about too. The Native culture still exists and their way of life is often still very different than our own. If I was shelling out big bucks (or any bucks) the museum had a restaurant where you could chose from four different native regions on the menu... one was salmon.

The kids liked the museum okay. We picked up the family guide at the information desk on our way in, which directed us to find certain things on each floor, and had stuff for the parent to talk to their kids about. So that was nice. There were parts they actually enjoyed, but for the most part, it wasn't the fun they were expecting. So when we left, we went across The Mall to walk back to the Metro, saw the Capitol, and walked through the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery. They liked this a lot. Although, really, the highlight of the trip for Buddy was riding the Metro.

Buddy was especially handy to have with us because he has his dad's sense of direction. I knew basically where we needed to find the Metro stop, but had forgotten to pay exact attention to where it was when we emerged on our exit. I told Buddy as we were walking back toward it to go home, "We need to look for Metro signs, okay?" He answered, "Why? I know where the Metro is." I asked him where and he pointed, and far off in the distance, I could see the Metro "M" sign.

The train was much more crowded heading home, but eventually, as we got closer to our stop it cleared out. Baby X kept pointing at the floor of the train and saying "Woo ooo ooo" which is his word for train. And I'd say, "Yeah, we're on a train." And he'd point at the floor and repeat the converation. Finally I explained to him that we weren't just ON a train, but in it. So he looked around in amazement. Buddy and PS took turns standing and holding on to a pole. Baby X joined in on this as well.

Sad Wally

Even with our Wally watching the game, the Red Sox still got swept by the Angels.

Baby X and his Blankey

Baby X, like his older brother, formed his blankey attachment with a burp cloth I made. Buddy has two pathetic looking former burp cloths as his blankeys (good blankey and bad blankey). As a way to replace these, I let him pick out the fabric (race car fabric front and back) and I made him a new, square, more blankey like blanket... only about 2 feet by 2 feet. I had some extra fabric and made it into two burp cloths for Baby X... this was when he was still a tiny baby. Unfortunately, he formed an attachment with these burp clothes and thus, stole Buddy's small blankey of the same material and claimed it as his own. (Buddy has since picked out a bunch of fabrics for a quilt I need to make him soon.)

Last summer, I came across the same fabric as Baby X's blankey at Walmart so I bought enough to make a real blanket for him. Then I had my nice parents hunt down the other side (I could only find the blue race car side, not the red). I finally got around to sewing it last week.



These are just some recent pics of Baby X and his little blankey.




Here's his new blanket. You can see the red back fabric is not the same as his little blankey... but in the same line of fabrics. I probably would have gone with a back that was a little more subtle, but Buddy was the original picker outer of all this fabric, so I went with it.


I probably should have saved it for Christmas or something, but I was too excited to give it to him. Here he is wrapped up in it when I showed it to him the morning after I finished it.



Here he is a couple days later... he was sleepy and PS had brought his blankeys and everything down to our couch and had him all tucked in and was calling him her little prince. I also made him a matching pillow case for a little pillow he now has.

Baby X and the Remote

B's sister's family gave us their old TV while we were in Richmond. We dropped Brandon off at school before coming home, so the TV stayed in the car and only the remote made it in in my purse. Baby X found the remote, went and sat on the couch and started pointing it at the coffee table/wall are where a TV should go. Pretty funny.

My Little Acrobat

We were sitting at the kitchen table doing school one morning when I looked over to see Baby X doing this. It went on for awhile. I love how he pauses, like a true gymnast psyching himself up before the big performance.

Buddy Loses His First Tooth

Buddy's first tooth came out yesterday. We don't know where it went. All of a sudden I looked at him and said, "Your tooth is gone!" Which freaked him out a bit. We don't know when or where it happened, but it's out! You can see the adult tooth growing in behind it. Unfortunately we didn't capture any pictures of the tooth fairy like we were able to with PS's first lost tooth. B was out late so when he came home we went in Buddy's room and B found a flashlight and pried Buddy's mouth open so he could see the hole. Then I made Buddy get up and go potty because I'd forgotten to make sure he went right before bedtime. I told Buddy all of this in the morning and he didn't believe me since he remembered none of it.

For the record, since I didn't record what the tooth fairy left PS and it would have come in handy last night when the tooth fairy was trying to figure out how much to leave Buddy, she/he left him four quarters.

Baby X Plays Ball

This is how Baby X plays ball. With one hand he holds on his baseball hat (which is a baseball cap shaped ice cream bowl from a 31 Flavors promotion from B and my childhood) and in the other hand is the ball. This makes him less of a lefty when he throws because usually his left hand is occupied with holding the hat on. He typically has once ball in each hand (when one isn't needed for the hat) and whichever hand is holding the bowl throws it. Left first. Then right.

Visiting Richmond

We visited our Virginia cousins (S and G) down in Richmond last weekend and got to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa M as well. Here are some pics from getting ice cream with them and going to Maymont... which we did several years ago with them on a Spring Break trip to Richmond. Very fun! Thanks for having us cousins.




Maymont. March 2007
Buddy, cousin G, PS and cousin S


Maymont. September 2009
PS, cousin G, Buddy, cousin S, and Baby X

Blog Look

The background went all crazy on my blogs... so until I figure it out, you get to enjoy this nice, minimalist look.


Later.... we're back being fun! Layout issues resolved.

Words, Noises and Body Parts