We Love Katie!!

We LOVE when cousin Katie hangs out with us!

(Louie saw me putting up this picture and got sad. Poor kid, doesn't get to go on our fun outings anymore.)

Holding onto my sister

Where have you been?

There's two things we've been not seeing enough of: the zoo and our friends, Owen and Eli. Unfortunately, Louie couldn't join us on this trip, but we still had a good time.

This boy is a climber. He has almost no fear.

Monkey-see, monkey do, and if you can believe it, Charlie has even less fear Ben. Not good for moms with a tendency to worry.

Hopefully it won't be Christmas before we see these guys again!

Thoughts of a Parent

It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities--J.K. Rowling

Whenever I was pregnant I would imagine what that child's life was going to be like. What his or her interests would be, what sports would be played, what would direction his or her life would take. I'm not going to lie; some of that leaked into my thoughts after they were born, too.

Is Louie's fascination with numbers and his pretty impressive drawing abilities mean that he's going to become an architect?? (This was one of my dream jobs.) Will Ben play in the Bigs as the pitcher he says he will be? Will Charlie become a speech pathologist?? And Miss Meredith will a shuttle commander (does anyone else have fond memories of Space Camp?).

When I saw this quotation, it really made me think about how true it is. My kids can't be defined by what they can or can't do. Maybe they don't do well in everything they attempt, but they chose to try it, and those decisions help me to see that my children are much more than I could have ever dreamed.

Baby Food

Meredith started really taking to baby food recently.

We discovered that she likes veggies way more than fruit.

And she does NOT like cereal on its own.

She's still getting used to the taste.

But she really does like it!

What I didn't expect

I am one of those people who grows old before her time. I am disillusioned by all the kids who get freaked out by dirt, who know video games better than sports, and who leave behind childhood more quickly than I think is reasonable. Or good, for everyone involved. Yes, I'm crotchety ;)

But there is hope, I have found. I drive two boys home when I go to pick up Louie and these kids have access to all the latest gadgets and games out there. Do you know what they love to do, in fact, they race to get in the van to do this? Play with the Etch-a-Sketches we keep in the back. I have no idea why because, as neat as it is, I find it extremely frustrating not being able to make it do what I want.

Something else is that Louie and another of the boys are in one class and the other is in a different class. While we're waiting one or the other to get out, a group of boys run around the school yard playing something that looks a lot like imaginary football. I am not familiar with this game, but a huge group of five- and six-year-olds call to each other to toss the "ball" and then other go crashing into them. They are having a ton of fun, and I'm so impressed that they are pretending. That's so two years ago!

Fall is fleeting