After sessions on general conference weekend, we pulled out our Halloween decorations. Didn't actually get to decorate too much because the kids were so helpful and I got distracted with Christmas music on the piano (yes, that starts in October), but we still had fun. Katie loved climbing into the box.
She even climbed out, crawled (still not walking yet) to the kitchen, grabbed Tom's uneaten pizza crust and came back to slobber it in the box.
Tom wanted his picture taken too.
Shad has Tom repeat words of books when they read together now, so here's a video of them reading one of Tom's favorite books, Three Cheers for Tacky.
I forgot to flip the vertical pictures, so I apologize for neck kinks. Tom likes to play Bubbles on my phone and decided that the best place to do so would be sitting on the arm of the couch.
Spaghetti night! I don't know why we don't do this more often. It's a favorite that Shad and I share, Tom actually ate some veggies (he didn't pick out the green pepper!), and Katie's picture should be pretty self explanatory as to how she feels about spaghetti.
This two-year-old is big stuff and has a chore now! He is very good at unloading the silverware basket from the dishwasher, as well as putting the basket back. He came to me somewhat distressed one night, saying, "Mom! Nee hewp. Bakis back!" Shad had closed the dishwasher so that Katie wouldn't climb into it.
And Katie has discovered that she's tall enough to try and look in the trash can. We've fixed that problem before it became a problem. She loves tipping over the shorter recycling can next to the trash can, so the problem had to be stopped before it started.
Tom and Katie were great helpers one morning as we cut up our first honeydew from the garden. Tom moved the chunks from the cutting board to the tupperware, and Katie begged for samples.
We've been enjoying hot chocolate lately on cold mornings and evenings. One night Katie found a mug left on the coffee table and tried to suck out any leftovers from it. It was mostly empty, except for a couple drips.
We decided to take a ride down the stairs in the laundry basket one day.
Tom was in a fix-it mood one day when Shad was putting our laundry room back together. He started by trying to fix his walkie-talkie that Shad had stollen the battery out of. He got the screw driver and told me, "Mom, Tom fix it phone." Then he went to work on the door to the office. Realizing that he was too short to reach the screws, he got my step stool from the kitchen.
And here Tom is learning how to do push-ups so he can earn a cookie.
Miss Katie stands well on her own, and has taken one step on two occasions. She is expert at climbing and going upstairs, though for months she's been terrified of going downstairs. Wouldn't even let me teach her, though I forced it a couple times. Those couple of times proved to have been successful earlier this week when she just started going down full flights of stairs on her own accord. I'm thrilled! She loves throwing her hands up on her face to cover her eyes (or not...it doesn't matter) and we say, "Oh no! Where'd Katie go?" She's getting good at saying, "Boo!" when she reveals herself. Ever the wiggler, she likes being involved in our bedtime reading of Goodnight Moon, though she doesn't sit still for it.
Tom's language is a fun thing. He still says "Fuh keen bibi van" and we're still working on that pronunciation. He picks up our patterns of language really well. I usually call him "love," and it's been so endearing hearing that in return. "Mom, Tom ha-hum boy?" "Yes, Tom, you're a handsome boy." "Ohhhh! Anks, yove!" Or yesterday when I was having a bit of a rough day and sat down, took my glasses off and rested my head in my hand. He came and found me, crawled his head into my lap and, looking up, asked, "Wha happened, yove?" I can't remember right now what other funny things he says. I think I need to adopt my friend, Robyn's, practice of writing kid quotes on a paper on the fridge. Today, Tom felt that our favorite librarian, Mary, needed kisses. So he chased her into her office and blew kisses to her.
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Yesterday was one of our insanely windy days, and Tom saw the wind out the window and asked if we could go out to the garden. So we picked some pumpkins. All summer I've noticed these yellow beetles that look like ladybugs all over the garden. But they decided to build a hotel in this pumpkin. Tom helped me evict them. We gave the pumpkin a bath in the sink. Boy, was drowning good influence in coaxing the little buggers out. But then they didn't drown, and they began climbing the sides of the sink and trying to fly away. So we put some vinegar in an empty can and scooped the bugs out of the water with spoons. I suppose just draining the sink and turning on the disposal would've been faster, but Tom and I had fun. I was surprised to see the vinegar also not killing the bugs. So after we harvested them all, I put the can on the stove and turned the heat on. It only took a couple of seconds and I didn't even get to see it because I got distracted making a phone call.
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