a blessed October...

family photo on "parade couch" at the Anoka Halloween parade - one of our favorite fall outings! J&C live right on the parade route, so we always park in their driveway, share their comfy seating, and have fun chatting the afternoon away during the 3 hour parade full of floats, marching bands, princesses, and other various celebrities all dressed up in costumes. (oh, and did I mention the candy? yeah, we usually have enough to hand out to trick-or-treaters just from the parade! Pretty sure the kids won't let us get away with that for too many more years...)

Excuse me, do you know where October went? I really don't know why it went so fast, and I really don't remember what we did. That should make this a short post, eh? See ya next month!!!

Just kidding. The month did go by really fast, though. I think part of that was because we had some beautiful fall weather and were able to get out and do a lot of things just soaking up the last bit of warmth before the white stuff flies here on the frozen tundra. We went on a great bike ride with the kids and S's parents and sister, got to spend a great weekend on the farm, and topped off the month with a fun afternoon at the Halloween parade and a great fellowship dinner with couples from church.

October wasn't all happiness and fun though, especially toward the end of the month. We were busy getting ready for dental surgery for Carsten the first week of November, S was incredibly busy at work (of which there is no end in sight yet...blurg), and we hit a raccoon (yeah, a raccoon!) with our van resulting in $1000 worth of damage, way too much time on the phone with insurance, and monkeying around with schedules and cars to get it fixed.

G notes:

• She learned how to tie her shoes!! We had been showing her how for the past couple of months, but not really pushing it. All of a sudden something clicked one day and in 5 minutes she was a pro!
• G also overcame a bathroom issue at school thanks to a little incentive. Every toilet at school except 1 is an automatic flush toilet. G would wait for that manual toilet everyday (along with a few other girls) and it was starting to take longer than the teacher wanted. We were politely informed of this, and decided to offer G an incentive. G had been wanting the giant fairy wings in the picture above ever since we spotted them at the store. I told her that every time she used the automatic flush toilet, she would get a "brave girl point," and if she got enough points, then she could have the wings for Halloween. The next day G got 2 brave girl points and has not had a problem since. She got her wings (which can take out small armies...or cousins...or neighbor friends and dogs), was extremely happy and proud of herself, and her teacher thanked us.
  
• Other kindergarten highlights: being very special person, making applesauce, playing with friends at recess, being line leader, playing a doctor in the "doctor's office" corner and looking at real x-rays, and pretty much every day that she gets to go to school is still exciting and special for her. Makes her momma and dadda so happy!
• At home I think we have finally gotten into a school routine and things have settled in here for days "with G" and days "without G." There is a lot of "school" play at home, and W is more than happy to join in and play the part of boy classmates of hers. They pretend to ride the bus, go on field trips, different things in the classroom, and of course eating lunch out of lunch boxes.

W notes:

• W finally settling into the school routine has been a relief this month. This poor boy felt like he was left in the dust, things changed all over the place, and didn't know how to act or what to feel for the month of September.
  
• He is continuing to grow out of naps...now when he does get a good nap it affects bedtime for him, and it is getting easier for him to make it to bedtime without meltdowns when he doesn't nap.
• W has started picking up S's old Calvin and Hobbes comic books and can spend 15-20 minutes quietly looking through them. Something his sister and his cousin K have done before him...can't believe he is old enough to start that!
• Still 3, still dealing with meltdowns and power struggles, but S and I have both commented that he has gotten much better this month. Hopefully it will continue to get better.
• Trying to get him interested in potty training. Read the books all the time with him, talk about it, he knows everything and how it works...but he first would say that he wasn't going to sit on the potty until he was 4. Apparently he figured that was too soon because he has now bumped it to 7. Oh help us all.

C notes:

• C had a hard month with his teeth. They were obviously hurting him and he spent a lot of time with his fingers or hands in his mouth. He also was waking up at night more, and his eating was affected too.
• Really picked up on imitating his brother and sister. Not only in actions, but in words too. He watches them constantly and always has to have, be doing, or sing/say what they are. Makes us realize what a huge influence his siblings are going to have on him...
• He has started putting 2-3 words together for phrases quite a bit this month and tries to have conversations with us. The phrases do have clear pauses between the words, which as so cute. This new jump in communication has been great. He also can ask for help clearly, will direct us to what he wants us to do, and will also come and tattle on his brother and sister - running up to us crying "bonk...ME!"
• Still is crazy for books...which is great since he developed this interested much later than G and W did. He just didn't have the patience for a long time. But now we spend a good amount of time during the day reading him (and the others) books. C also loves story-time and going to the library now too!

cutie patooties...