Sweet moments

Just wanted to post an update on things. Sorry in advance for the randomness, but I just wanted to put down some "bookmark moments," if you know what I mean.

I was driving home with the boys the other afternoon, and Logan was rather toasty in his car seat, the sun beating down on him. He said, "Hey, mom! The sun is following us home!...Does the sun love us?"

Yesterday, I was told that Logan didn't want to nap, but Miss Dawn told him to stay in his room and rest. When he finally came out of the room, there was yellow all over his face. She went into the room and found that not only did Logan not nap, but he had taken a marker (washable, thank goodness), and colored the walls, various dolls, and the carpet yellow. She said, "Logan, we need to talk about this." He replied, "No, Miss Dawn. I don't want to discuss this right now." Really?! She did make him feel remorseful, though, by making him apologize to the girls for trashing their bedroom. Apparently, he broke down in tears after his apology.

All four of Auden's molars and his last bottom incisor are coming in at the same time. He's surprisingly pleasant despite the ouchiness he must be feeling, but he's waking up more frequently at night. He always seems to wake up about 10-15 minutes before my alarm is set to go off. Infuriating. I'm wondering if Eric just naturally sleeps that soundly, or if he's playing possum.

Always the happy eater, Auden has finally learned to feed himself with a spoon. He takes in a big mouthful of yogurt and says, "Aahm!" with this self-satisfied grin.

My parents came in a couple of weekends ago, and we went to the orchard. Seems hard to believe we went there one year ago toting Auden in a Baby Bjorn. Now he's toddling around of his own volition--he even played in the corn silo. Logan tried so hard to ride their John Deere tricycles last year and couldn't reach the pedals. This year, he sped around the dusty circle track, effortlessly maneuvering around the smaller, slower kids.

We had some family pictures taken. Logan was running around like a maniac. Auden was crabby and crying, and he had a big red bug bite under his eye. The only time we had the boys sitting together, Logan wouldn't smile, only stuck his tongue out at the camera. It will be amazing if we have one picture that looks decent.

Eric's huge goldfish were on the brink of death a couple of weeks ago, but they fought back and only lost one member of their ranks to shock. I'm relieved we don't have to test the flushing capabilities of our toilet.

And yesterday Eric brought home a scooter from the '80s. It doesn't run. And it's hideous. I think our friend Adam said it best by quoting a line from Dumb and Dumber: "Just when I think you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you do a thing like this...and totally redeem yourself!!!

Kites Galore!

It felt like it should be a somber day today. It's the 10th anniversary of 9/11--hard to believe 10 years have passed. I've been listening to NPR, and since Friday, they've been playing interviews with people recalling where they were on Sept. 10, for instance, among other things. Most of my students were in kindergarten when it happened. Their memories are hazy, confused, some have no memories of it whatsoever. After all, most people's first instincts would be to shield children that young from the truth. I wonder how I would share the information with Logan if anything on that scale were to occur today.

We decided to spend at least some of the day in an all-American sort of way by enjoying ourselves at Kite Fest. A gentle breeze was blowing; the sun was hot. The perfect day to fly a kite. I tried to tell Logan a bit about what the day was about, since he was stunned by the ladder truck displaying an American flag.

We did a bit of kite-flying--mainly, Logan did--and Eric was able to have his kite repaired, which was nice. We also spent most of our time there watching the massive amounts of kites in the air. One kite was penguin-shaped, as large as a short school bus. Really. Who buys these things? Another was over 90 feet long and shaped like a trilobite. Again...who gets the idea to make a gigantic, rainbow-hued, trilobite-shaped kite? Anyhow, they sure did put on a show.

The sour tomato and sweet harmonica

Hello, Fall!

We've had quite a dramatic seasonal change here in the past few days. I spent most of last week sweltering in my non-air conditioned classroom, and carting the boys to a very warm cross country meet this Saturday, but by yesterday, there's a crisp chill in the air that smacks of tart autumn apples and hayrides. Of course, it's a little too soon for that yet, but we are all a little anxious for autumn to arrive. We enjoyed our day yesterday by riding to the playground and harvesting squash, tomatoes, and basil from our garden, which, at this point, looks like it could overtake our house. The pumpkins and butternut squash have already crawled across the span of our yard. Eric cooked about 10 squash and one ginormous pumpkin yesterday, which went into the freezer and into a delicious pumpkin soup that we enjoyed for dinner. We've given a few away to neighbors, but there are still many more just hanging out in a box in our kitchen and a few more ripening on the vine. Lesson learned: Take the seed packet's advice. When it tells you to "cull the plants," you really can stand to kill off a few of them after all.

Still, it's nice that the squash will last us quite a while--they keep pretty well. And they are fairly preservable, after all.

We've learned that Auden loves cherry tomatoes. I was cutting back the basil yesterday, and he eagerly picked a few of our orange cherry tomatoes off the vine. I was really concerned he would choke on them, so I tried to at least bite them in half for him. He didn't like that idea--he shrieked in protest and threw the remaining tomato on the ground in a fit of rage. So I let him take the next one, which he squished quite happily. And I discovered this weekend that he is not just gumming the food any longer--his top molars are both coming in. They are now very fine points on either side of his gums, which probably account for his wakeful nights of late, drooly face, and snotty nose. We played a lot of music this weekend, since I finally got around to finding out the names of the artists of those few random songs I've liked on the radio. Auden bobs his head up and down or does a saucy but smiley "no," twists his torso from side to side or bounces to the beat of the music. Such a joyful little boy.

Logan is still enjoying his weekly rotation. He gets to see Miss Dawn and learn new things, and then he gets to play all day over at Jen's. Dawn has been introducing Logan to letters of the week. M was the first week, and that one seems to have stuck the best. He excitedly points to the capital Ms in the stories we read--The He-Man book is his obsession of late. Boy, am I thrilled about that. B and H have been the letters that have followed and apparently leave much to Logan's imagination. He could care less what sounds they make or how they look. I was, however, able to spark some interest in the letter B by buying him a roll of Bubble Tape as a treat at the grocery store. They offer little shopping carts for kids to drive around so they can "help mommy," which Logan loves to do. Every once in a while, I let him try out his shopping skills, and he actually behaved really well. No near-collisions with other shoppers, and he walked beside my cart the entire time. So, I felt it appropriate that he get a bubble-gum treat, in honor of the week's letter, B (and in honor of his hopping up and down asking for the stuff!). We listed some of the B things we bought in the store, like bananas, berries, bread, and, of course, bubble gum. I threw him a curve ball and told him that avocados started with B, too. He fell for it. But, hey, he's learning. "Just about everything in that store starts with B! But some of it doesn't." So true.