Socks?

Socks?
Socks!

My little Jude is currently I love with socks!

He takes them off his feet...
He tries to put them on his feet...
He runs around while chewing on one...
He takes them out of the sock box one at a time...
He puts them back into the sock box by the handful...

He takes them into the bath tub at bath time...
Wait...what?!

Yes
Socks are now a bath time toy. To catch water from the faucet, to squeeze water on brother, to soap up cars, to fling around and get water everywhere.

So...
No need for expensive Christmas gifts.
Jude will take any old box and a package of socks.

Wordless Wednesday with Leaves

Brotherly love in the gorgeous fall weather

 

 

I voted!

After getting to the poles at 7:05 am and waiting in line for 70minutes...I did my civic duty and voted.
Brian and kids were there too; it was a family affair.

The kids did great and made many friends in the line while waiting, including talking with our neighbors, who were about 15 people ahead of us.

Jude tried to "help" me vote by attempting to write all over the ballot.  When he was denied, he wrote on my arm instead.

Here's to the future!

Halloween at the local zoo

On Sunday, I took the boys to our little local zoo for their boo fun.  The boys went as dinosaurs.  Tamlin is Buddy the T-Rex and Jude was Tiny the Pteradadon.  Tam's face did have orange make-up and a toothy grin...but with eating candy and wiping snot this mostly disappeared by the end of the two hour visit.

 

Tam did a great job of walking around and saying trick or treat to everyone.  

He loved getting candy and playing the ring toss games.

All around the zoo there were lots of big balloons to check out...

The usual exotic exhibits had the animals out for the winter...

but were filled with creepy Halloween guests

Dinosaur Train!

Jude had a continual look of amazement as he toddled around.  

We saw many exotic creatures, such as gnomes, fairies, pirates, and singing mermaids.

There was music and swing dancing.  Tamlin quickly scored a partner to dance with.  Jude was more interested in snagging some goodies from Tam's bag while he was busy.   Jude eventually found a bag of crackers to shake in his happy fist.

There was a chance to play musical instruments with a couple of drummers.  

Jude played a mean rattle and Tam grabbed a drumstick to bang out a beat on several objects.

We ended the day on the zoo playground.  It was fun to watch my little dinosaurs crawling around, sliding down, and having general sugar-filled fun.

We also are doing trick or treating at the local Mall on Halloween.  Safe, well lit, warm, and dry = the best trick-or-treating!  I can't wait to chow down on some of their chocolate loot :-)

New words

Jude's latest words...

Hot.
As in I say "Jude, this food is hot; hot food Jude".  And Jude replies "Hot, Hot, 'Ot!"


Uh-Oh.
Expressed as a mimic of his brother whenever he says this, which is fairly frequently.


And he is REALLY good at signing more when he is begging for a piece of whatever food you are eating :-)

Happy Halloween!

"ROAR!"

says our little dinosaur!

 

Have a Great Halloween!

Fall Break Week

Highlights from our mini-vacation to see family last week.
And all of this done with wicked colds all all-around, lots of snot and coughing.

Celebrated Tam's birthday early with my mom's family.  

 

There were cars and cake!

A game of flinging ants

Fun outside with cousins in the sandbox 

Jude keeping up with the big kids at Lake Shore Park.

Fed the ducks and peacocks...Jude had no fear of these birds 

(though the older kids weren't too sure about it)

Attempts at fall family photos...mostly failed.  

How do I get 2 kids to look at the camera at the same time?

Stopped for pizza and visiting Pap-pap Jim

Discovered grasshoppers, stones for jumping, and a caboose

Enjoying the fall weather with trucks and flinging of leaves

Visiting with Great-Grandmas

A day at the Pittsburgh zoo and aquarium decorated for Halloween

A final bonfire and a night full of stars

A short whirlwind tour, but we loved every minute spent with all of our family!

Hope to get the rest of the photos edited and up by next weekend.

Little sleeping in our house

Jude has decided not to sleep at night.
He's still napping once or twice during the day.
And he goes down to bed fairly easily after our usual  routine.

Then he wakes up at 12:30
And 2:30
And 3:30
And 4:30...

I've changed the diaper (just a bit damp). I've made sure he has extra blankets to stay warm. I've sung songs, I've left music on and I've tried white noise. I've tried no light or night-light or even full light.  I've tried toothy-medicine and I've tried baby Tylenol. We've tried letting him cry it out, which he will stubbornly do for an hour.  Usually, our last resort is to snuggle him up with us, but he kicks...a lot.

We are going to drop in to the doctor's tomorrow to make sure it isn't any hanging on infection from the most recent bout of colds in our house.

However, We are not sure what to try next!

Anyways...be warned, family we are about to visit...you may be hearing Jude quite a bit in the night. 

Halloween is coming!

 Last week, we dragged up the two totes full of Halloween decorations.   While Jude was taking his nap, Tamlin helped me sort through all the stuff.   He loved checking everything out and deciding where it should go in the downstairs rooms.

I thought he might have been worried or scared by some of the creepy things we have...like the plastic skeleton.  Tamlin thought it was cool, once he figured out how to untangle him.  

We also have a motion-sensor-activated skull that lights up and speaks your fortune.  Tam remembered "Skully" from last year and wasn't afraid of him either.  Skully only awake sometimes, because the we found out that Tam's laughter is loud enough to cause him to start talking (even from a different room).

Our other motion-sensor-activated spooky mask did scare both the boys.  Eventually, it went back into the basement because neither boy would walk past him without someone holding their hands.

Spiders are dangling from the lights...

Bats are flying around...

Eyes are peaking out from the walls...

Little bugs are creeping all over the mantel...


When Jude woke up from his nap, he got to check all this creepiness out :-)

It took some sweet talking to get him to walk over the skeleton grill on the floor.  He had to touch it several times to make sure it wasn't real.

The bats too, needed to be investigated...Jude stared at that bat for a long time before becoming brave enough to touch it.

Once the decorations were up...

The stored costumes came out...

ARRGH!

There was a ghoul loose in the house!

Tam LOVED trying on the various masks and jumping out at Brian and me.  

He also loved being surprised by Daddy in the mask.

BOO!

 Okay...How creepy is this?

I mean the mask is creepy by itself...but on a nearly 4 year old?

I think the creepiness factor is multiplied ...

BRRRRrrrr....shivers....

Oh, and Tamlin thought the mask was hilarious!

He laughed like a maniac when he wore it, when he saw his photo with it on, and 

when Brian wore it and jumped out at him.

 I think the best is that when I would ask Tam if something was scary, he would answer..."That's not real, mom."   Oh, and we dug out our copy of Nightmare before Christmas.  I warned Tamlin that it was a scary movie.  He disagreed:  "Mom, that was the wrong movie.  That's not scary at all."  What a trooper.

No photo Wednesday...

Work and sewing has got my free time monopolized currently.  However, here are few fails and wins from this past week.


FAIL

• Tamlin's got a cold and insisted on sleeping with me.  This meant he slept and I got kicked all night by a restless 3.5 year old.
• Saw a mouse in the kitchen.   Mouse traps have been engaged.
• Jude's fourth tooth has just popped out of his gum.  There has been much chewing, wailing, and baby pain-killer medicine involved.
• Thought I had lost my USB stick somewhere between lecture hall and my office.  Contained my upcoming exam.  Eventually found it under my office desk
• Problems with family miles away arise, and I have little power to help except to provide an ear to listen and encouraging words.
• Tamlin's latest retort to the question "What are you doing" is "Nothing." Thought this started in the teen years, not at 4 years old.

WIN

• Jude discovered how to slide down slides on his own.  You should see the huge grin on his face at this accomplishment.
• Have not seen spiders in the house this season yet.  My personal experiment on controlling spider evolution is working...only the hidden ones survive my wrath.
• Scared the bejeebus out of the kids with motion-activated Halloween decoration.  Hilarious to see them run away.  Awesome to see them come back (slowly) to investigate.
• Tamlin watched Harry Potter with us and enjoyed it, especially flying broomsticks.  I'm so glad we can watch movies together now that aren't just animated trains or cars.
• Jude has (2x now) found matching cars in the bucket o' cars without anyone's help.  Brilliant kiddo.
• Three dinosaur tails, two sets of wings, one head-piece all done.  One more dinosaur costume to go.
• Even after several fails, Tamlin curls up with me and says, "Mom, I really love you" and my heart melts.

I guess the score is even for now :-)

Humor for the weekend...

Science Humor:

  Cysteine Chapel

 I love this man's videos of nature!

 

 Chemistry and Sci-Fi humor = Mega Score

 

 Musical Humor

Unicorn Humor