Sniffles

A new month means a new daddy date (yes, I do realize, it's kind of halfway through the month now). This time they went ice-skating. Rhianwen was SO excited. She drew a picture of it before they went. She loved it once they got a walker for her...or should I call it a skater? They skated for 2.5 hours! You can see her glide and even hop in the video below:

Look who's raking the leaves voluntarily! They have been waiting and waiting until there were enough to rake into a pile for jumping. They are quite a duo and definitely feed off each other most days. I went to vote and had to take everyone with me in the evening before supper. Rhianwen and Alden bounced into the building and immediately started talking to all of the poll-workers. Here's how the conversation went:

Alden to a line of poll-workers (it wasn't very busy): "What are you talking about?".

Poll-workers: "Oh, nothing much. What is your name?"

Alden: "I'm Tigger!".

Rhianwen: "And I'm Rabbit".

Both bounce off towards mommy but then decide to clamber all over a set of wooden seats lined against a wall. Happily, a poll-worker intervened with some "I Voted" stickers to give me time to cast my votes without worry of broken necks.

They've started doing little art projects together. Alden and Rhi will both draw things on the same piece of paper and decorate it with stickers to make a complete work of art. Here they are working on our Tom Turkey for Thanksgiving. But when they are doing their own thing, it comes out with lots of colorful scribbles, waves, lines, circles, and occasionally a monster or jellyfish(Alden's contribution), and Rhianwen will fill in with people.

It's been exciting to see Corwin joining in pretend play with the kids too. He loves the castle and the people, and he also is really good at driving cars around. He even makes a Brrrm Brrm noise consistently when he drives things around.

Family devotions has been fun especially now that Corwin is joining in. Rhianwen has speculated multiple times now about how we will get to heaven. Mostly it goes like this: "We might go to heaven by dying or we might go in a chariot." We keep trying to convince her that the chariot is a very rare occurrence.

We do have our first colds of the season, but the title of the post refers to Cor-baby's new game. He loves to sniff at us and have us sniff back in return. Rhianwen did this too, but she was more open-mouthed and flamboyant about it. I didn't have any good video, but maybe soon. I just love that he is playing games now. He's also waving and pointing a lot. He loves to point to people that he likes, even if they are complete strangers. It's like he's saying to them, it's your turn. Go ahead and do something to make me smile. He says, "Hey didi!" to greet us. He's still climbing whatever he can! I can't believe I have a climber before I have a walker!

I just have to put up loads of videos of him. He's too cute.

"Hey didi!"

Drawing.

So, her printing needs work, but pretty good for not having been taught much. I'd love to take the credit, but sadly, it's just kind of happened without me.

More family togetherness. Montessori model at work...ah yes, genius. Corwin loves looking at the Very Hungry Caterpillar book. This whole blog post has made me see how much our family does things together. I am so thankful God is answering yes to our prayer for unity and a strong bond among siblings.

He's even learned to count to five using cheerios and butternut squash...just kidding.

His favorite spot out front. I keep thinking I should just make my planters into mini-sandboxes for him.

Alden with falling leaves. We have enjoyed showers of them. So magical! I love fall.

The cutest Alden quote:

Mommy (after hugging Alden goodnight): "Thank you for that strong hug."

Alden (shy smile while tucking his chin into his shoulder): "I'm a strong man....somtimes I pull down trees. Not big trees, little trees."

Fairly

One of the favorite attractions for our kids at the state fair. We decided to forgo the rides since Rhianwen would be the only one big enough for them. Since they've never done them before, there was no precedent for them, and that way Alden wouldn't be sad.

A giant chair! And why? It's the state fair, that's why. Everything has to be big there.

Loved these.

Alden could have stayed here all day.

One day we'll be on it! I think fair rides are scary and look like a 3 year old's attempt at constructing something out of tinker toys.

More big. 522 lbs.!!! More than our entire family's combined weight!

Aw.

Family fun on the tire swing at our park.

Today Rhianwen was calling herself "Rainbow Jewel Flylady". They're flying here!

And now for her latest trick...

I just left him for a few minutes, and look at what he did! Demolished our deck. SIGH. (Just kidding). Wally has torn down our rotten deck and is in the process of building a new one. It's a little scary b/c the back door now opens to a 6 foot drop.

"Playing" Enchanted Forest. We actually have played it with them, but they love love love to just play imaginatively with the board and pieces. Thanks Uncle Christopher! This game was one of my favorites when I was little even though one of my best friends always won! She's probably still better at it than I am.

Early morning story time. Their "green alien clock" (OK to Wake clock) turns on at 6:45am, and they often will go to the family room where Rhianwen will "read" books to Alden. I never thought I would see the day when they would voluntarily do something calm and cozy early in the morning. Rhianwen has also started narrating what she is acting out in a British Accent. We just finished listening to The Little Princess on cd in the car, and the reader on there had a lovely accent. So don't be surprised if you see Rhianwen in a princess dress and fairy wings flitting around commenting in her best British. She also has started asking God direct questions in prayer, like, "But, God, why did the bad king throw the law into the fire?". Then she'll finish, look at Wally, and say, "How is God going to answer me?". Wally then usually goes to the Bible and reads the answer to her question. It's been a very interesting development in family devotions. She certainly knows how to keep us on our toes, as do some other people I will not mention specifically....you know who you are ;0) Alden also has begun thinking through his prayers. The other night he prayed, "Thank you for the trees and flowers and all the glory forever. Amen."

Rarely does my big girl take a nap, but this day she was snoozing away when I came in to say that rest time was over!

A spur of the moment craft project since they missed Bible study this week b/c Corwin's car seat was MIA in Wally's car, they were very sad they didn't get to make the creation story craft. So we made birds. I am amazed at how things have changed. These projects aren't half as messy as they used to be, and I just have to provide the supplies, and they do the rest. They really are growing up!

Corwin is also growing up. He abruptly has stopped using his infant swing (we got the one that goes up to 30lbs when he was 2 months old b/c he loved it so much). He really doesn't want his morning nap, but so far I've "made" him take it. His favorite place to play is the toilet. If you notice that he is quietly playing alone for long periods of time, you'd better start racing down the hall to the bathroom. You'll have a nice cleaning job to do when you get there. The kids have learned the importance of closing the lid!!! Corwin also has mastered nesting and will nod his head in enjoyment as he does it or sees us do it while playing with him. He also has really increased his baby talk and has started raising his hand in greeting or to get a high five.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, Rhianwen informed us that cookie monster does NOT eat cookies, he eats carrots and potatoes. PBS brainwashing??? I don't know....