When you think of October, you think of fall, leafs, Halloween and pumpkins.  Well, little did we know that when you have toddlers that anything they do in October they end up giving them one (ore many) small-sized pumpkins.  Between trips to the petting zoo, their nursery school class field trip and a trip that Jen and our friend Stacey (and her kids) took to a local farm we have more little “shot put” sized pumpkins than we know what to do with.

Wow, Halloween is this Friday.  I can’t believe that October is over this week.  Time is moving at a pace that I didn’t know was possible.  I think (for me at least) part of what has been making the time go by faster than usual are the longer hours that I’ve been having to put in at work lately.  People ask me how I’m doing with my mom’s passing and all that and what I tell them is that honstly I have been too busy with everything lately to sit down and soak it all in.  Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely moments and occasional reminders that pop up that get me sad, but I think I just haven’t taken (or had) much time to sit and just think deeply about everything.  I guess I don’t know if that’s bad or not?

Things here are doing well.  Adam is doing something new every day and is crawling around like a rocket and is even starting to pull up on things.  Today, for example, Jen went in to get him from his afternoon nap and he was standing in his crib.  That’s a first.  I got a call from her telling me “guess what your son did…”  Usually that means Alex did something and somebody has a new bruise.  Luckily this time it was something new Adam did, which apparently he was pretty proud of.  I’m sure Jen snapped some pictures of it, which we’ll get uploaded this week.

Speaking of pictures, if you haven’t already checked out the October album you definitely should.  You can see the kids with lots of farm animals and those lovely pumpkins I was taking about.  We have a ton of videos too that I am going to get uploaded to Google in the next week or so.  I’ll post them up here as soon as I do.  There you’ll see fun clips of Adam crawling around, Alex chasing around chickens, and all kinds of wacky stuff.

Let’s see, what else is new….

Oh, Avery decided she was ready to be potty trained and just picked it up like a champ.  Now both kids are wearing under pants and regular old potty pros.  Avery picked it up so quickly it’s amazing.  She also seems to have a much better ability to hold her pee in, which helps.  Also, she has switched to a big girl bed.  Geeze, a big girl bed, going potty, she seems to have changed overnight from a baby to such a big girl.

Where does the time go?

You have to love the mind of a 2 year old boy.

Yesterday as I was getting the twins ready for their nap, or maybe it was up from the nap, I heard Alex say pee-pee. He had a run a couple of weeks ago where he decided he wasn’t potty trained anymore, so I’ve been more alert than usual for potty words. He was sitting in his bed, and I asked him if he needed to go, and he said, “No, my flying monkey pee-pee on my milk.” He has this toy from a Happy Meal Pop-Pop got for him:

I asked how his monkey was peeing on his milk. He held up the monkey and showed me. The monkey’s head was turned totally backwards so the wings and tail appeared to be in the front. The tail didn’t look like a tail from that angle. And sure enough, my son said, “See? There his penis, pee pee on my milk.”

Then there was the incident two weeks ago when we were headed into a store, and Avery and Alex were getting out of the back of the van. To do that, they have to sit down and hang their legs over the bumper before jumping down. Alex was first and Avery sat down behind him a little too quickly, accidentally kicking him in the back. As we were walking in to the store, with both of them holding on to Adam’s stroller like good little angels, Alex unmistakeably looked at Avery and said, “Aisy knuckle sandwich.” His usage was a little off – he was calling her a knuckle sandwich rather than offering to give her one, but I realized it’s definitely time to start watching what I say around them!

As I’m writing this, I am listening to the twins on the monitor, beginning a third hour of general insanity and non-sleep. Alex has learned to remove his clothes and pee in his potty in his room, which is cool about 5% of the times he chooses to do it. He’s been naked about 4 times tonight and had his diaper duct taped on at one point,but then he peed in it and needed it changed. It’s hard because I know he’s confused when I am proud of him for using the potty in the morning or after his nap, so then at night he does it and gets in trouble. This morning I made a big deal about how he was a good boy because he put his peed through pajamas in the laundry basket before I even got into his room. Guess where his dry, clean pajamas were tonight every time I found him nude… He also likes to climb into Avery’s crib, invited by her or not. Don and I are exhausted and frustrated and feeling clueless. Any consequence will happen tomorrow and seems too far removed to make sense to a 2 year old. Why don’t the sleep experts ever seem to address kids who have to share a room?

On to the Kitchen child who IS actually behaving nicely this evening. Adam turned 6 months old on Saturday. He continues to surprise me with how quickly he learns new things and how easy he is in general. He is still full of smiles and happiness. He’s mobile now, rolling and spinning 360s with ease, and as of the last couple of days, creeping forward to get to something he wants. He’s not always into toys, though he does like the piggy bank. He far prefers paper to eat and the crinkly sound of the wipes package. He’s babbling “dada” among other things, which is adorable. Luna’s his favorite pet and Alex is his favorite person, with the rest of us coming in far behind. I cannot believe he’s been with us for 6 months already. I say it all the time – he’s growing up way too quickly and I just want to keep him little for a while longer.

I started him on cereal on Sep. 12, and he took a few days to warm up to it, but now he gets very excited when he sees me start to mix it and I put him into his high chair. Tonight was the first night that he ate all the cereal as well as some squash and peas.

The biggest news is that he is now sleeping in the crib. Hooray! I had been dreading Sunday, which I’d set as yet another mental date when, come hell or highwater, he was getting out of the swing. I was mentally preparing myself for hours of crying like we had last time we tried, but instead, Adam really surprised us. He cried for 30 minutes at bedtime and then slept for hours, waking up at his normal feeding times ( 10 and 2ish) and going back to sleep in his crib with no crying at all. I had planned to wait on naps and keep him in the swing for that, but he did so well that I put him in the crib for those as well, and it was the same – minor crying and then 3 naps of his normal, hour or so length. Since then, he’s gotten himself to sleep faster each night and is even getting better about not waking up so early. He likes to think 5:30 is a good time to begin the day, but I’ve been putting him back in and he’ll babble for a while and then go back to sleep until around 7.

I’ll post his 6 month stats and picture soon. His original dr. appt. was postponed this week, and I can’t take his 6 month photo in the rocking chair until I figure out where I’ve misplaced the camera. Mommybrain…