No Nap

Meryl decided not to nap today! Note the droopy eyes.

Instead she put her fisher price animals in alphabetical order (following the zoo map that has pictures) and played at the table with paper dolls. Then I found animal families lined up around troughs of food. 1 little zebra and 2 big ones at the basket of apples. Two hippos and a rhino at a bag of grain. Such grown up play! I need to find a way for the two little ones to play alone more often.

Halloween

So I guess I am supposed to post cute pictures of my kids in costume. Or the jack-o-lanterns glowing. Or the kids passed out in a sugar coma. Nope, not happening. I didn't get a single photo of Logan in costume.

But we had a full Halloween schedule. ToT in the commercal district the next town over. (Doesn't anyone make costumes anymore?) The neighborhood pots and pans parade to scare away the ghosts. (Doesn't anyone cook their own food anymore? Not a single homemade item on the food tables, unless you count chocolate covered marshmallows homemade! Ugh) The literacy night at school where you were supposed to dress as your favorite literary character. (3rd grade is too old to dress up?) And of course the regular ToT. Beautiful warm night, light off and on drizzle. 400 kids knocking on your door for candy. (Yes, our neighbors kept count but ran out of candy at 400.) Kids who didn't even put a hat on and call it a costume. Kids who knocked after every light in the house was out. Oh, and someone stole Logan's bag of candy after he finished ToTing.

Bah hum bug.... I am becoming such a scrooge.

Insert some witty segue here.

We've been missing the morning bus a lot recently. The bus used to come at 8:07ish, but the route changed and it now comes at about 8:25ish. We had never missed it until it started coming later. Go figure.

Sad kids waiting for me to drive them.

Picking nose kids waiting for me to drive them.

Waiting for me to drive them!

Closing in on the end of the season

Sadly, the last of the carrots were pulled today. Also, sad is the fact I did not pull the last of the rutabagas. Ugh..... how did we end up with so many rutabagas???

This is a nice time of the year to be in the garden with the babies. Anything above ground is dead and can't be destroyed, so they can climb around without me cringing or telling them to stay off the growing plants. We had a nice morning taking our time.

Where was I?

So I've come to a place where I am not very comfortable nursing both girls in public. Partly because in the US so few people nurse past one or two years. Partly because I have stomach flab that I would rather not share with the world. (Sorry about the visual there.) Then I saw these things on the same day.

Nursing in Mongolia

Bumper sticker

Gandhi- and no I didn't see him, obviously. It was a lecture/sermon about him. Basically the message I got was "if you're gonna talk the talk you need to walk the walk."

If that doesn't tell me perhaps I should just suck it up and do what is best for my girls AND get in control of my eating and exercise, I don't know what will. I loved the article about nursing in Mongolia. It is so true about nursing solving the problem 100% of the time. I can talk about taking turns or I can get two of the same exact toy, but that doesn't always soothe things over. But if I were to just lift my shirt and say "Who wants it?" I can pretty much guarantee that I'd have two kids running over. So what did I do at the playground today when Finley was having a tough time and needed to nurse. I let her. But when Meryl also wanted to nurse. Sorry. Time to go home or nurse in the car.

Sigh......

Weekend Round Up

THURSDAY-after school

Leaf Ride

FRIDAY-
Topsfield Fair

Crazy Bus

SATURDAY and SUNDAY-

At Grandma's House- the big Yew tree is always a hit.

This was the first time the babies spent the night in the barn. It went suprisingly well. The main house is not toddler-proof in the least, but the weather was great and the newness of it all kept the babies busy. The house was a disaster when we left though. I think Grandma will be cleaning up peanut shells for a few weeks.

Grandma has cats, but we never see them. This guy got a lot of attention from Finley.

On MONDAY we hired a babysitter to take the babies to the new SMILE playground. For 2.5 hours Cathy and I just cleaned/organized/picked up the house/yard. It felt good, but hardly made a dent in the chaos and mess in which we are now used to living. I think the babies had fun out on a scavenger hunt and at the playground.

All in all a lovely long weekend, even if we didn't go to St. Louis.

Before- During-

After-

School Holiday

Monday was a school holiday so we headed into the Boston Children's Museum.

The Peep water area was a hit for all 4 kids, which shocked me. Someone did a good job designing a play space that can be enjoyed by a 9 year old as well as a two year old!

Meryl enjoyed the hand air dryer the best.

The walk to the parking garage was really, really long thanks to Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz filming and taking over the entire area. We had to stop and take a break. This was the first time I intentionally left the ergo at home and I normally don't take the stroller. Oops.

Next week we have a 4 day weekend and Cathy will be home. We had hoped to go to City Museum in St. Louis again but the flights don't work. Topsfield fair and a trip to Grandma's will have to suffice.