T helped me make bread and brought Pez along to watch.  But Pez was too close and got a little bit of flour on him.  T exclaimed "Mom!  Pez is dying!".  It has been a couple of weeks since we saw the salmon but he remembered the salmon that were dying had white scales and incorporated into play.

T was very sweet with E yesterday.  T wanted to feed E his lunch.  And E let him do it, even to the point of putting the sippy cup in his mouth and letting T help him drink.  That takes skill!

W and T played whale goes to the dentist.  I have no idea why the whale needed to go to the dentist, but he sure had a lot of sugar buggies.

T wanted to take some pics with the camera, so I let him use a smaller one.  He thought it was so funny to take pictures of his siblings and his Pez.

E loves the yellow shower sponge.  He loves to lift it up and down and let the water drain off of it.  He usually exclaims "wow" or laughs a bunch.

He also loves the kid chairs, most especially the dora chair when we are inside and the blue outside chair.  He giggles when he sees them.  He seems so impressed with himself when he sits in them and leans back surveying his kingdom.

He also has started to read books with animals in them.  Any book as long as it has animals in it.  He skips to those pages if they are books without animals.  He likes to get all comfy in my lap as if I am one of his kid chairs.  And mommy eats it up

I started playing the super simple song of Twinkle Twinkle for E when I want to cut his finger nails.  I loves it and hoots when he sees the owl.  He now hoots at all owls.  The ones in books and the ones on W's blanket.

The noise he makes when he sees "ghosty" is similar to the owl noises, but he loves to find ghosty ( a stuffed Halloween owl) snuggle him, and make ghost noises of his own.


I tried the marshmellow experiement with my kids.  Supposedly forever ago a scientist gave 4 years an option.  They could eat one marshmellow right away, or wait and get 2 later.  So I tried it on T and W.  I wanted to make sure that they didn't have any toys to play with and they were hungry just in case that's why the kids in the experiment didn't wait.  But they did it!  I put the timer on for 15 minutes while I made lunch.  I put them in separate rooms and told them not to leave the toy free space and had the marshmellow in reach.  And they waited.  T was so excited to get 2 marshmellows for lunch.  He told me that he really really likes marshmellows so that is why he waited.  But the next day he informed me that he would rather have mommy time that day instead of waiting to have 2 marshmellows.   So right now Mommy time is more valued than marshmellows.  Melt my heart, my well fed child.

We were cleaning the church.  I didn't realize how much the lesson of the church is God's house has sunk in until I was having trouble figuring out how to install the paper towels.  I couldn't figure it out, so I said I was going to ask him.  I meant the guy directing the cleaning activities, but T said "Who?  Heavenly Father?"

E and T got hair cuts.  When E was done, his hair was sticking straight up again.  T looked at him and said "E looks like Uncle Erik when he was a baby".  In all reality, E looks nothing like Uncle Erik when he was a baby, but they both have hair that sticks straight up when short.

E is in the phase of perfect mimic of all activities, especially of his siblings.  E even mimicked T's personal care routine to perfection.

Grocery shopping with the kids has gotten interesting.  T doesn't want anyone but him pushing the cart.  If I touch the cart, he is annoyed I'm helping him.  E doesn't like T driving the cart.  E needs to be strapped into the cart unless my hubby can somehow become weathy enough to buy all items in the whole store placed 3 feet high and below.  W wants to know which item we are shopping for next.  And comments on the yummy stuff she sees.  So I stand next to the front of the cart so E thinks I'm steering but T knows I'm not touching it.  I thought I was doing pretty good this one day we got a cart with no child strap.  E wasn't trying to get out or anything.  When we got to the check stand I found out why things were going so well.  E had been snacking.  He had eaten half of one of those huge hot house tomatoes by the time he turned around to look at me unload groceries.  I was so surprised that I had missed that.  I yelled, "E!  how long have you had that!  Quite a while I guess!"  He was a little scared from my sudden exclamation that he immediately gave  me the tomato back.  thank heavens the lady in front of me and the cashier were grandmas.  They thought it was funny.

T was off playing in the living room while I was in the kitchen.  He came back very excited about playing bank.  He even informed me that he put his money in the bank and the bank would hold it there until it he was ready to use it again.  I knew he was pretending the bent cards I gave him was money.  It is either money or train tickets.  But then he said his bank looks like a vent.  Wait a minute.  What vent?  He had put them all in the intake duct for the heater.  I wasn't too excited about that.  I wanted to dig the cards out because they are light enough to travel to the heater.  I voiced that concern to W and she ran outside the minute the heater turned on because she thought the house was going to catch on fire.  I had to reassure her a few times that I got all the cards out and tell T that I was glad he told me so I could get those things out.  And here I was watching E thinking he is the one that needs to be more closely attended to.

T was in charge of the lesson for family home evening this week.  I tried to direct him to a religious topic, but he was not having that.  He couldn't get excited about those choices, but boy, he sure got excited about teaching us about batteries.  We have a cardboard tube that he calls the batteries to his train engines (kid chairs on their side).  He showed us the battery and told us the inside had brown battery acid.  Then he put the tube up to each person's eye and asked them to look inside and tell them what was in there.  Brown battery acid is the correct answer.  J and I laughed about how serious and insistent he was in teaching each one of us.

E was in charge of dessert that particular night.  W was concerned about E being in charge.  I told her I would hold up the choices and E could pick.  I held up ice cream and their Halloween pumpkins.  It was easy.  He picked Halloween pumpkins in no time flat.

Today he made a dump truck out of our IKEA chair upside down and the stuffed animal bin.  He even told me about how dump trucks have two steering wheels.  Wow.  It still amazes me about what they remember and connect.  We talked to the garbage man about 2 months ago about his new garbage truck.  It was him that told us he has two steering wheels.  I don't think we even talked about it since, but his dump truck had that exact feature.

T has been making "hand sanitizer" in the bathtub.  He has started putting himself in the tub recently.  My hubby let him do it the other night I was gone and I came home to no more shampoo and no more bubble bath.  Anyway, they were in the tub tonight making it, even E.  They all give me some hand sanitizer to put on my hands and E wanted to make sure I got some from his.  My little kid is growing up way too fast.

He also has walking up slides down pat.  He likes to load and unload dishwashers, especially the knives.  Aaaggghh!  This phase is lasting a long time.

E does not like shoes or jackets.  Another W

W told me tonight that summer is her favorite season.  Yes, yes it is very true.  Warmth and as few clothes restricting her body as possible.  I think E feels the same way.

E loves to sit in the Costco boxes I brought home.  A few times I heard silence and went looking for him, only to find him in the playroom with his blanket sitting in his box like a secure boat.

He really likes rain and is fascinated with puddles and standing in it while it pours.  Even if he has had his jacket wrestled on him by his mother.

E likes dogs lots and discovered his pjs have a dog on them.  He points to it and barks.

We watched the blue planet a bit the other night.  We couldn't find it at first so Jim put on a recent Disney movie. They didn't like the other Disney movie and wanted to change it so we found blue planet on the ipad that doesn't have red pigment at the moment and they were enthralled.  Even E, who isn't too much of a tv fan as far actually watching stuff.  When we switched it to the big tv with regular color, E ran up to it smiling and pointing, then stood right in front.  Until the sharks swam fast.  Then he ran away and stood near mommy for a bit.

T likes to play little owl.  He puts on different colored owl feathers.  Pajama feathers, sunday clothes feathers, play feathers.  He likes to hoot a bunch and E copies.

They have been playing dump truck.  An invention of T.  He informed me today of where the exhaust pipes and bumpers are on the over turned chair.

W picked hide and seek as the activity for FHE.  E loved it and ran around looking for everyone.  He roared at the kids like I do to scare them when they found him in the hiding spots.

I had a bunch of night time engagements last week and left as soon as J walked in the door for four out of 7 nights.  So when J walked in the door in the middle of the afternoon on Sunday, E ran to me and started crying.  He thought I was leaving and Papa was staying.

But then as soon as he heard the key in the door today turn, he smiled and started yelling Papa before the big kids.

T and W started talking about friends one morning.  They were taking turns discussing who was who's friend and why or why not.  And then there are kids that are "sometimes my friend"  whatever that means.  Then T asked W if one of his friends was her friend and she said no.  So he said, "well, I like to go wherever you go.  Do you, Whitney, like to go wherever I go?"         No response.       Change of subject completely.

Another game they both play is Good Dedo and Good Dedo in Dedo land.  W was playing that Dedo was swinging on vines (her hair was the vines), then T tried the same thing with his Dedo in Dedo land.  "But oops!  Too short!" and he pulled on his own hair.

Rapidly putting Pez in bed before "Alicia gets home from young woman's"

Pez getting 5 movies

W making a fall leaf bouquet

E following and helping W

"blue hair man".  T was running and up and down the hallway with this on, pronouncing blue hair coming and then ripping it off his head saying he got a hair cut because he needed one

E stuffing himself in the basket.

a snake coming out of her burrow

Look!  A snake coming out of her burrow

T getting a pic of E

after E his next photo subject was "little pez" 

W mummifying her friend at the harvest party

E walking off with the pumpkins supposed to be used for pumpkin bowling

The fall color can be breath taking sometimes

Individual shot with fall collor

T in the fal

E with fall color under duress of being locked up



E playing with tongue depressors, but I got the pic because I love baby knees and thighs

 Videos of stuff that make us laugh at E.  Dragging a pot around the house and laughing so hard at getting the pumpkin pulled out of his shirt.  When we replayed it he laughed at the sound of him laughing