I can move mountains

They put all the balls as "bubbles in the bath".  It does look like Ethan's baby bath

Whitney sitting on dump on ex wood chip pile spot

Close up of Whitney on Dump with Tucker in the background

Tucker insisted that I didn't take a photo of him on his dump, like Whitney.  His cheesy smile

A button parking spot for Bertie the bus



Filling "snort" up with buttons.  Snort, as in Snort in Are You My Mother.  Whitney in the background making a parking spot for Bus with big buttons, since Bus is big

This is at a power plant of all places.  The flowers there were incredible and the playground was really fun, too.  Papa snatched these pics while they were running barefoot in the grass.  This was back in August.  This picture makes Jeremy and I laugh because of the crazy look of Whitney's arms.  I have no idea why she runs like that.

Tucker saying hi to Baby Brother on the picnic blanket.  Ethan was 2.5 months old.

Ethan three months old showing off the fat

Watching Jesus movies on the ipad in a different position to get full use of the box



I love the sweetness of this moment of them just being together.  At the power plant

Jeremy trying to take a picture of the bees on our lavender in our yard.  This one turned out pretty cool.

Watching Curious George together.  Tucker and his silly faces

Huh?  Future facial expression of a teenager.  And a cute one of Whit

Mommy with her boys at the power plant.  Check out these flowers!

Whitney and her pink bread.  She also had pink milk to go with it.

Whitney and Tucker trying to get the snap dragon flowers to talk.  I showed them how to make them talk and they were so fascinated by it.  More flowers at the power plant place

This week I finally finished moving that mountain of wood chips.  I never thought that mountain would move.  I pretty much moved it myself.  Jeremy moved a few wheel barrel loads and my mom did a chunk out of it, but for the most part I did it with Tucker and Whitney either looking on or helping me by loading up their dumps or wagons. Now.  On to the next project of painting the trim in my room.  That ought to take another 2 months or so.

Whitney wasn't so excited about the moved dirt pile.  She asked why I was taking down their dirt pile.  But it worked out because she liked helping me tape the room in preparation for my next project that will only take forever to get done.  She was actually really good at it.  I didn't need to re do what she did.  I was pretty impressed with my perfectionist and observant daughter.

We are back to rainy day activities indoors.  AAAGGGHHH.  It has been pouring buckets and buckets of water for the past three days.  In case anyone is wondering where their relief from summer is.  It is here.  Come and get it.  Lots of puddles.  Thank heavens, though, it hasn't been too cold and we've been getting outside between downpours for the puddles. 

Whitney asked for her Meow meow umbrella and splashed around a bunch.  Tucker didn't want to get wet, so he drove his bike around in the dry part under the house.  He can do it if he pulls a tight circle.  But it seemed to help just to get out.

We now officially have resident deer.  They sleep in our backyard in the woodchip piles Jeremy put back there.  I guess they like that plus my hydrangea flowers and roses I have back there.  Or used to have back there.  Grrrrr.  Sammy and Rocky did help around the house.  They kept the food (and ants) off the kitchen floor and the bunnies and deer out of the backyard.  But no longer.

I invited a friend over the other night and the deer were chilling in our yard.  She loved it.  She exclaimed "you have a zoo in your yard!"  I was talking about how it is probably because of the apple trees nearby and my roses.  She was surprised.  She thought deer ate nuts.  I wish.  It was kind of fun to explain all the things that deer eat.  She had no idea.  I refrained from complaining about how I really hate how they eat my tulips and would like to get a bb gun out during the spring to scare them off, but we live in city limits.  This same friend was also surprised about how big my backyard is.  She commented that it was big enough to build another house for my parents.  I commented that is true, but the city wouldn't allow it.  She was confused.  She asked if it was our property.  I told her "don't ask". I didn't feel like explaining to someone whose primary language is Japanese the nuances of city zoning restrictions.  Not to mention when you start explaining things like that and you get looks like, why are things like that, you realize how crazy it really is.

Back to Tucker and Whitney.  Whitney started not helping with clean up and Tucker only helps with clean up with bribes of books or under strict attention.  I realized it was because of the huge messes they were making.   So I decided to put away almost all of their toys.  I thought it would be really annoying because they would play less independently.  It's not true.  They play independently the same amount of time.  Crazy.  And it helps with the huge mess because I always have a bribe.  If they want to get out any other of their toys, they have to clean up the current toys.  They either go back to playing with the ones out (most of the time) or clean up.  We are all much happier and less grumpy, to my surprise. 

The other benefit was that I had to go through the toy closet to fit everything in there and found stuff we haven't played with in a long time, so we've been having fun playing with some stuff together that I don't let them play with on their own.  That has let us have more interactive time.  It makes me stop and slow down to be with them more.

They had a friend over the other day that is 2 and 1/2.  I forgot my house isn't 2 1/2 year old proof.  I have a sewing desk with stuff like scissors and needles and such in it.  Tucker and Whitney don't play in it because it isn't new to them.  But it is new to their friend.  The three of them were playing very nicely in Tucker and Whitney's room and my friend and I got to talking.  Until Tucker came in saying that his friend was "cutting up meow meow".  Oh yeah.  I hadn't taken the scissors out of my sewing drawers.  Sure enough.  I ran in there and she had the scissor in hand cutting up Whitney's Hello Kitty sheets.  Whitney was standing there kind of in shock and dismay.  I was just glad the friend didn't do any bodily injury to herself.  Or find any of the needles or other stuff.  Those things are all locked away now.  And I'm glad that they come to me to let me know if something is not going right. 

We had lots of fun on that rainy day playing buttons, making parking spots with buttons and house shapes out of buttons on a blanket.  We also have gotten back into playing the piano and painting.   Tucker remembered where a C is on the piano from a previous discussion, so I'm going to keep introducing concepts and see if he stays interested.  He always likes to pick songs out of the song books.  I also let them have the balls out.  What a huge fun mess all over the house.  They decided to put away the balls one by one by putting each ball in their mouth, crawl over to the bag and spit it out in the bag.  That was a huge trial of my patience.  But they completed the entire clean up that way. 

I'm not sure I blogged about the power plant we went to back in August.  It was a beautiful place with lots of flowers.  We also stopped at this small Mexican store for dinner.  It was actually a really good dinner.  Jeremy bought us quesidillas that were really yummy.  Whitney helped him shop a bit.  I had sent them in to get dinner while I fed Ethan in the car.  When I went in they had gotten pink strawberry quick milk and a big pink Mexican sweet bread.  Jeremy said he put that huge thing back twice, but Whitney kept putting it in the cart, so on the third try he obliged.  Tucker got a brown one to match his brown milk, but took one bite and didn't eat the rest of it.  Whitney downed the thing.  We also had to get diapers for Ethan because I forgot again to add diapers to the bag.  These were special diapers though.  When we got home, they had the Mexican store smells infused into the diapers.  I smelled the store for the month that the diaper package lasted.

Before the rains came, they were having lots of fun in their tree.  I heard them saying things like "I hear the thunder coming!" and then they would run into their house.  I shocked them a bit by sitting in the tree with them a few times.  That was fun for them and me to play the same games.  They also asked me to clean up their bird house by raking all the leaves out that they pulled off.  There were some sticks in the clean up that were the "worms" I needed to feed them.  Then, when I gave them paint brushes and water, they painted their nest "bright and shiny" just like their dumps.

Whitney melted my heart by staying by me and mimicking my behaviors in a good way.  She has liked "staying by you, Mom." this past week, which I have loved.  She helped me fold laundry for a bit while she was near me and helped me move a few loads of wood chips, too. 

I made bean dip for dinner one night.  Tucker got really excited about it and exclaimed "Mom!  That's delicious food.  I'll eat it all!!" 

Some fun family time that I don't want to forget is when Jeremy came home to show them blowing toothpicks in a pan of water.  They loved it.  Jeremy said it was a joke where you splash the water in their face while they were blowing the sticks.  He decided to leave that part out.  Then we watched the Mahnamahna video from Sesame Street and the aliens that discover the "bad baby".  They stared at the mahnamahna video like it was weird.  But then Whitney has been singing it off and on this week.  Tucker picks that song out for me to play on the piano "because Whitney likes it".  But they loved the alien videos.  They thought the aliens were being silly and laughed a bunch.  I had fun showing it to them since I'm a huge Muppets fan anyway.

It took me a really long time to learn how to park my van and I still have a hard time parking when I have to turn to the right to park.  I keep having to check if I'm in the lines.  So now they check for me and congratulate me on getting the car in between the lines all the time.  I thought they might like to park their bikes and I was right.  I had to draw a parking spot for Fiery, Henry, Whitney Dump, Tucker Dump, and Mop.  If someone parked in the wrong spot, it was the start of a fight.  They drew their own parking spot for Scoop.

They've had so much with Meow Meow this week.  They went to Milli's to play and she has several kinds of Hello Kitty stuffed animals.  Tucker picked a Christmas Hello Kitty because it had a scarf.  Whitney picked a bee one.  I think it was because it was smaller.  Milli gave them each a "vacuum".  She has two of those push noise maker toys, so she gave one each to Tucker and Whitney.   Tucker told me to pick up Ethan's burp cloth so he wouldn't vacuum it up and told Whitney to clean up the toys so they wouldn't get vacuumed.  Hmmmmm.  Where'd they learn that?  Meow Meow also helped get the vacuuming done.  tucker was holding her so that she could push it.

Tucker got an earache this past week in conjunction with his increase in snot.  One night he woke up moaning and crying in pain and pulling at his ear. He was also saying that "the bees are making honey in my ear".  I told him I was going to get medicine for the pain.  I gave him the children's Tylenol in the cup and he was about to pour the stuff straight into his ear.  I had to show him several times to drink it. He wasn't processing my instructions too quickly and was very confused as to why he needed to drink it if the pain was in his ear.  Finally he got it.  I got him a rice heat pack in the meantime and got a Mommy sweet moment with that.  He said thank you so very sweetly and full of sincere emotion.  It made it worth it to be his mommy nurse.

He takes care of me, too, and helps me remember the rules.  He fed me some bread the other day saying "I'll feed you your bread since you didn't wash your hands"  He was right.

Tucker and Whitney have caught on to the idea of gentleman and lady lately.  Not sure why they are into this, but I love it.  Right now Tucker will say he is opening the door for Whitney because he is the gentleman.  The other two times that have melted my heart is when he stopped mid wash of his hands, got off the stool and said "Oh! Ladies first" even though he was the one done first going potty and already washing his hands when Whitney was ready for her turn.  He also hauled her church back pack into the house trudging through the downpour and puddles for her.  It was so, so cute.

They are getting better at counting and can mostly count to 50.  There are few skips in there and a few reversals of numbers, but for the most part they get the idea.  They count lots of things.  They also like to memorize recognizing favorite words.  Like panda.  If we read some words I write out on the driveway, they take the time to read the first letter and then they pretend to read the rest of the word that they have memorized.  They are getting the idea and have some letter sounds down.  One time Whitney "read" a sign for me.  She pointed to a paper she was playing with and said "It says dead glow sticks: $1" 

I was in a neighborhood of a friend the other day.  It happened to be in the same neighborhood of another friend of theirs that has a trampoline.  When we drove out of the neighborhood without stopping to visit the trampoline, Tucker was seriously upset.  It took me a good 1/2 hour to calm him down about the whole thing.  I guess he really likes the trampoline.  I'm pretty sure he doesn't care about the friend, but definitely loves the trampoline.

They have been using the couch cushions to make Tucker, Whitney, or Mommy chocolate bread sandwiches.  Or fish sandwiches for Tacky the Penguin to eat.  The fish and the chocolate are us.

Something that got us all giggling was sticking the suction cup toothbrushes horizontally in the sink instead of vertically.  It does look silly.  They also figured out that soaking wet foam paint brushes stick on the side of the wall on the shower tile.  

I tried painting with them this year.  Yeah.  Not going to happen with me alone.  I got them all set up to paint in the shower, swimsuits and all, but that lasted 10 minutes.  They really just wanted their swimsuits on, not to stay in one supervised location.

We went to the kids museum for an hour.  They have this play dough stuff that looks like little tiny Styrofoam balls brightly colored.  It kind of works like play dough in that you can shape it and pull it apart and such.  Don't ever buy the stuff though, unless you want little tiny Styrofoam balls that are sticky everywhere.  The cool thing though, is that Whitney sculpted a tree with it and it looked pretty much like a tree.  Tucker did a tree, too.  Or so he said.  It was more of those modern art looking trees where you have to trust the cliff notes on the interpretation of it.  Whitney definitely has a perfectionist streak in her and good observation skills at this age where she can mimic already created things.

Tucker really likes people and talking.  Mina always comments how Whitney usually doesn't even give her the time of day, but Tucker usually says hi to her and will have conversations with her.  He is like that with most people.

We went to a neighbor's house to visit.  I thought the kid that is their age was home, but apparently she wasn't.  No problem.  Tucker was going on and on about Twilight sparkle this and Apple Jack that while working on the coloring book.  My neighbor was commenting on "how verbal he is".  Yes.  He has a talent for being comfortable with people and social right away.

Tucker's expression that made me laugh this week goes like this "Whitney.  You get enough and I get a lot"  He was referring to how many of the plastic balls she got, but he also uses those phrases in reference to brushing his teeth.  Mommy gives him "enough" toothpaste while Papa gives him "a lot"

My child that is her father's child said to me the other night "Mom.  Don't lay on my pillow because I like it cold."  That really made me laugh.  The other day I was trying to get Jeremy to tell me why he always steals my pillow in the morning when I get up to feed Ethan.  He finally told me it's because he likes cold pillows.  They seem fresh to him.  I can understand that.  It's how I feel about cold toilet seats.  Not fond of warmed seats, especially in public bathrooms.  But I had to laugh that they like the same thing for the same reason, even though they both told me this without the other one hearing.

Making Papa proud and Look Ma! no hands

 

Grandpa, you should try eating mistake noodles this way with chopsticks!

learning about magnets and the force of gravity

These my little ponies have magnets on their feet

playground games

 

playing with dumps

Tucker "feeding" Meow meow

fishing video

The "trash" is the laundry basket they use to store their stuffed animals.  Or in this case, their "fish"

grandma comes again!!

A series of Ethan pictures.  this one is the what is that thing? face.  Referring to the camera

Discovering face

talking face.  he coos really loud, but we like it

exercise face

I see my Mommy face

I'm outside and I love it here face

This is relaxing but a bit bright out here face

...Hop, hop.  We like to hop.  We like to hop on top of Pop....

Ethan with Papa

Two birds in a tree.  One bird is "looking out the window"

The bird up in her "room"

The bird in her living room.  This is where the mommy bird can also sit

another bird in his room

bird feet and bird upside down

in the bird house

swinging wild

impromptu picnic with friends.  It happened to be dry during lunch

Whitney likes drawing and building fences at the moment.  A fence for the cars

Tucker's feet left

inside the tube

drying off carefully so the sand doesn't get on the towel

drying off feet

last day with Grandma

Fiery in the fort

playing in the tree fort

as seen together

train ride.  The part with the view

overwhelmed by fun

Ethan on the train with big sis

snuggle me Grandma

The gang on the train

how they spent most of the ride

cheek to cheek with Grandma

Ethan snuggle nap with Grandma

loves to be in the upright position during all waking hours

prepping for grandma.  I found them like this after picking up all their toys so I could vacuum

playing with dumps

We had a ton of fun with Grandma in town.  And I was glad to have another set of adult hands while Jeremy was traveling the world again.  He went to Japan for work, but decided to go to China "for the weekend"  I'm only mostly jealous.  While he was gone, Ethan was really sick with a cold.  Just like Tucker, his snot comes out his mouth, not his nose.  What a mess.  And I had some issues with my teeth that ended up in me having a root canal.  I wasn't feeling so awesome, so it was good she was around.  She brought Oliver, new books to read (like Katie Caboose) and lots of fun ideas that I would never do alone.

They loved her cooking and gobbled all of her food.  Like my dad said, "they can really pack it down".  When my mom made lentil haystacks, Tucker commented on how she made "really delicious food".  They had a great time saying lentils over and over.

Oliver was sometimes a friend and sometimes a foe.  It really helped with speedy clean ups.  Any toys left on the floor had the potential that Oliver would chew on them.  Tucker and Whitney went with my mom to take Oliver potty and were very entertained with that.  We always let our dogs out and let them do their thing, but now the yard isn't fully fenced.  My mom gave Oliver a treat and said good boy, so Whitney did the same to Tucker when they played "taking Oliver potty".  Tucker did a great job perfectly imitating Oliver's stance in going potty, too.

Tucker's snuggle blanket looks very similar to Oliver's.  Tucker spent lots of time explaining to Oliver in no uncertain terms that "this is not an Oliver attack blanket" as he held it high over his head or ran down the hall with it trailing behind him.  Right Tucker.  Oliver ignored his words and chased the blanket anyway.  

My mom decided that Tucker would love a train ride.  Boy was she right.  Tucker did.  And so did Whitney.  We went to the train museum and then took a ride on a train to the next town.  While at the museum, they found Katie Caboose in real life!  They were very observant the whole time, finding Creaky Cranky and other such characters.  Later that week they played "ticket" where they took leaves off the rhody bush and punched holes in it just like their ticket had after the conductor took it.  They also used the same leaves to give each other tickets for driving their bikes too fast.  My mom asked if it was someone in our house that got a ticket.  Not that I know of.  Jeremy?  But I do think it is from a book that Tucker loves (and I have very little love for) called Goofy's Big Race.  Donald gets a ticket in that book for going too fast.

With Grandmas you go on new and exciting adventures.  Stuff the mother would never dare consider.  Like going clothes shopping.  Talk about a really bad idea to do with three children.  If I fin them clothes, I kind of just hold them up to them and make sure the garment has an appropriate waist adjustment or fastener.  My mom decided to take Tucker and Whitney clothes shopping.  Can't imagine why.  I don't think those ill fitting end of summer outfits had anything to do with it.  She promised to take them each individually.

Whitney went first and was very compliant.  They were gone for three or four hours and Whitney came back with an entire winter wardrobe complete with adorable accessories.  Phew.  Something grandma and granddaughter enjoy and have in common, and one more thing Mommy doesn't have to do.  Tucker was very stressed out about whether he was going to get his turn or not the whole time they were gone, but Grandma had to keep her promise.  Poor grandma.  She had to keep her promise the same day.

When grandma pulled up just in time for dinner, Tucker was ready and raring to go.  We had to convince him to eat dinner first and let Grandma do the same.  Then he was out the door as soon as he was done eating to get in Grandma's car.  Once in the car he had all sorts of comments about how he was going to pick out "all the delicious vegetables".  Imagine his confusion when they arrived at a store that had NO VEGETABLES to pick.  What kind of store is this???  No food??!!  And trying on clothes?  What is that?  He asked Grandma if he "should keep my panties on or not?"  As far as he knew, any changes of clothes other than the morning involve getting into a swimsuit or getting into the bath.  Once my mom pulled into the shopping center parking lot, Tucker started rehearsing for her which of the potties flushed by themselves and which didn't.  He had them all memorized correctly.

After Grandma left and we went real shopping, I told them they could pick out whatever vegetable or fruit they wanted.  Whitney knew she wanted the yellow cherry tomatoes.  Since she was so certain and excited about her choice, Tucker was certain that's what he wanted, too.  But he doesn't like tomatoes much.  Whatever.  He was excited about it anyway until we got home and he tried one.  Then he remembered he's not really a fan.  Whitney ate both containers.

We had some funny stuff come out of their mouths.  Of course.  They are three.  Once when we were in the car, Tucker started to go to sleep to take a nap.  None of that.  Grandma tried to wake him up and he insisted that he wasn't asleep but that "my eyes closed and made my body go to sleep".  True.

My mom and I also had some bonding time.  Like the time when I got this great idea to move the bookshelves upstairs.  Just us.  Ryan, the mover man, would have been very frustrated with the manner in which we performed this herculean act.  We also decided to go the beach in the evening.  Happened to thunderstorm just as we pulled up.  My mom asked before we left if I thought it looked like rain.  I pointed out that it had looked like rain all day.  And of course it rained.  Hard.  But only for about 15 minutes and then it cleared up and was beautiful the rest of the time we were there.

This past week we had some clear skies and it was kind of warmish.  So I took my big kids out to star gaze before bed one night.  It was a blast!  It still wasn't really all that dark yet, but close enough.  They were able to count some really bright stars.  It was very calming.  Tucker was very chatty about the day in general.  Whitney counted up to 39.  I have a feeling today might be the last warm day of summer, but maybe not.  More on that later.

Had I known that cutting the rhododendron bush would have provided all sorts of entertainment, I would have done it sooner.  They actually helped me prune it.  Tucker is very good at using the small hand pruning shears.  He helped me quite a bit and did it just right.  He was pretty proud of himself and would show me every time he pruned a small branch.  They have played in that thing for three days.  Or maybe it is because I let them play barefoot up there.  More on that later.  They figured out which branch they can hang upside down on.

They like to play cheep cheep or panda in the rhody bush.  Tucker is usually Whitney's pet panda.  Today I served them chocolate bread for snack.  Mostly because I wanted chocolate bread.  They were commenting on each other's moustaches.  Once Whitney said that Tucker had a moustache, Tucker pointed out that he "now turned into a Daddy cheep cheep".  Yep.  I guess you can't be a daddy without a moustache.

One morning they started playing cheep cheep as soon as their eyes were open.  I was holding Ethan and Whitney started quoting the Are You My Mother book about Ethan.  It went like this: "Baby bird (pointing to Ethan) can't fly, but he can walk".  Then after a short pause she said:  "Well, not that one."  

They have finally figured out how fun bike riding is.  They biked for an hour straight while I clogged.  That was the first time since Ethan was born I put him in the baby Bjorn.  He loved it.  HE went right to sleep.  I guess it was just like being in utero for him.  I was clogging the Thursday before he was born not knowing he was going to be so early.  I was surprised he slept this time, though.  He usually never sleeps when in the upright position.

So, the saddest bit of news for Tucker is the loss of his flip flops for good.  His other Hello Kitty flip flop finally broke.  Poor guy!  Summer has ended for real!  But the bummer is that it broke when we were very far from home.  He had to walk very slowly to keep it on (sort of) in the library.  It was sad and cute.  He was very patient with the flip flop.

If Ethan is awake, he wants to be upright.  Or he will cry.  The librarian asked if he is always that happy.  He was standing on the counter smiling at her and cooing.  Yep. As long as he is upright.  Today, though, I think he was crying because he could hear his siblings, but couldn't see them in their play.  Once he was outside watching them, he was happy.  He tracked all of their movements.  He also is a little frustrated that he can't handle toys.  He tracked the movement of a ball, but couldn't quite grasp it and cried about that.

Ethan flipped himself over this week from his stomach in a controlled fashion.  He also is starting to grasp objects, but it takes both arms to bring objects to his mouth. I thought he also might be ready for rice cereal.  hah!  Yeah right.  The whole time he had this look of "what IS this stuff mom?  It is sooooo gross".  Hmmmm.  I did use formula to mix it up.  I have to admit, formula is so gross smelling. I have no desire to taste it.  But either way he couldn't figure out how to take it with a spoon and it got all pushed out by his tongue.

Tucker told Ethan that he couldn't feed Oliver because he doesn't have open hands yet.  He also informed Ethan he needs feet as big as his in order to stand and keep his balance.  Whitney shows Ethan all the time how to walk.  She says "You walk just like this" and walks around in front of him.  She HAD to bring that up!

After Grandma went home and we all were recuperated, we went to the state fair.  That was Papa's idea.  That was overwhelming, and later, downright boring for them.  When we first got there, we walked around and looked at all the rides.  I figure might as well go when there was no one in line. I don't think they knew what rides were, or it was too many choices.  I told them they could each pick one.  So Whitney decided on.... drum roll... the train ride.  Duh.  Tucker picked that one, too, after Whitney wanted it.  Waiting in line was pretty fun.  There was a huge "Diesel" engine painted on the entire wall.  They stared at it in amazement.  One of the best parts of the ride.  The other best part was when we went by a bunch of old previous train cars the size of the train we were on.  Tucker pointed out each one and said their "names"

Another part of the state fair they absolutely loved was being pushed around in a stroller.  Tucker fell asleep, it was so relaxing.  Ethan wanted nothing to do with the stroller, but to be upright in the front pack and stayed awake for a good three hours, it was so exciting.  Child of mine that doesn't sleep longer than 30 minutes outside of his crib.  Whatever.  At least he sleeps at night.  He went right to sleep that night, no problem.

Jeremy wanted to go to the fair for the food. We ate corn dogs, fried pickles, curly fries and a caramel apple.  I asked Whitney which food she liked the best.  She said the curly fries because they were springy. She spent quite some time bouncing it like a spring.

Whitney stayed with me while I fed Ethan.  We were seated by the giant pumpkin carving exhibit.  That was fun.  We watched as six men worked to get it tilted up on it's side and Whitney was fascinated as they sawed off the back and opened it up.  All of my kids could have fit inside that pumpkin together.

Tucker and Whitney watched the piglets the longest.  They were pretty stinkin' cute.  I guess at this fair they try to put a sow and her piglets there that are born the day of the fair.  The ones we saw were about a week and a half old.  So cute!

Whitney and Tucker also looked at the horses.  The one they watched the longest was not happy about being in the cage.  This one also had some sparkle paint or horse tattoo or something under it's eyes and on it hind legs.  Whitney liked the sparkles.

We went on a carousel together.  I'm not sure if they liked it or not.  It was in the beginning when they were overwhelmed.  The only time Tucker seemed excited was when he talked about what color horse he was on.  Whitney commented that her horse was going wild.  The gear it was on didn't turn smoothly and so it would jerk at a certain point in the up and down.

We decided to go when they started to ask if they could play on something and started fighting over who got to ride in the bigger stroller.

Another fun thing about fall is the salmon run.  The local fishery is getting full of fish right now.  We had a blast going there as a family and showing Papa the fish.  Tucker and Whitney loved watching the fish "jump into the shower" trying to get over the dam.  Papa had fun practicing taking pictures and we even tried "chasing the moon" and "capturing it" while we drove around trying to get a vantage point of the full moon.  We don't often get view of that around here.

Whitney started asking to play with the buttons from her great great grandma.  Someone asked me where the buttons came from and Whitney remembered what I told them the next day.  She asks to play buttons with me at the moment.  We made pictures with them.  Tucker and Whitney like to play throw up.  So gross.  They dump buttons from one container to the next, saying, "that one had too much snot".  Never fails.  Whatever is going on around the house gets put into their play.  Ethan was sick for it seemed two weeks and is still a baby, so throw up is a topic of interest, apparently.

As the weather turned cold, I told them they needed shoes and socks to play outside.  No sirree bob.  Better to stay inside ALL DAY than put on shoes to play outside. I wonder how long that is going to last.  Probably until Mommy goes crazy.  Toward the end of that day I got tired of them inside the house and said they could take off their shoes in their tree, since it is safer for climbing anyway.  Well.  All they did was play in the tree.  Hmph.  Kids 1, Mommy 0.  They are starting to get it, though.  By the end of the day Whitney shut the door behind her.

When they can play outside, they have started putting their pandas in the window to watch them play "panda" in the tree outside.  They also like to ride their bikes on the chalk "track" drawn on the driveway.  I wasn't smart the first time I drew it and traced it from the garage back into the garage.  I soon figured out they would ride their bikes along the car and scratch it up very nicely.  New track.  It is a complete circle on the driveway only.

I've been rearranging toy play areas to accommodate a very hopeful move of Jeremy out of the office to another area in the house.  He hasn't moved yet, but we have.  This has created other play ideas.  They like to take the blankets off their beds to make tents with the new sewing machine desk they have in their room.

Tucker or Whitney made a new Rubik cube for Jeremy to figure out.  Somehow they put three trucks into the doll house fireplace.  It took my hubby a good couple of hours to figure out how to get those dumb trucks out.  He pointed out that it must have been easy because there  were no marks on the fireplace to show any jamming.  Right.  Figure it out, hubby.  He did, but before then Tucker kept commenting over and over how the "trucks don't like it.  They don't like getting burned up".

Speaking of doll house furniture, Whitney has started feeling the doll house couch.  Hmmm  Good point.  There is a sort of silky material on the miniature cushion.  I like this because the doll house couch is very portable and she doesn't have to be in her room to feel her sheets.  Usually when she goes into her room, she falls asleep.

They love each other, though.  One morning Tucker told me "Mom.  Go check on Bug, please".  Bug is my nickname for her and he wanted his playmate to wake up.

A bit about Jeremy's trip, since he probably won't comment much on it.  He went to Beijing after staying in Bangkok for a day.  The funniest part of his trip was the Frenchies he met and how much they loved their pee dolls.  It is a doll that tells if the water is too hot for the tea.  He went and walked around on the great wall a bunch.  He also saw the longest reclining Buddha in Bangkok.  That's the second time he's been there.  He likes it for the sound of money tinkling in the collection tins behind the Buddha.  It's very peaceful except for the sound of that.  It reminds him of a wind chime.  He took a video of driving around.  He visited Tienanmen Square.  I asked him why and he said it is because it is famous.  He also visited the Forbidden City and the Ming Dynasty Tombs.  Lots of people everywhere he went except the Ming Tombs.  Apparently it is bad luck for the Chinese to visit.

While in Bangkok he watched some people fish with birds catching the fish.  He also decided not to be with tourists and had another person taking pictures talk to him in Thai first.  He said other people asked if he was Thai.  He feels he was welcomed to his homeland this time.  You know.  The second time he went even though I asked him not to go to Thailand without me.  I'm not too happy about that either.  I know he's not going to want to take me there if he's been too much.

The best part according to Whitney and Tucker was the monkey park.  They liked the monkey videos he brought home.

He finally brought back a kimono and another outfit for Tucker and Whitney, as well as origami paper.  They had a great time cutting up the paper with the scissor in the package and Mommy's slide cutter.