First Snow!

This morning we awoke to find snow falling beautifully and steadily. The boys have been waiting for a snow for what seems like forever... well, probably since last winter! We were really excited to experience winter in our new house. We have a mostly flat yard perfect for rolling snowballs and making snow angels. The snow wasn't quite deep enough for actual snowman-making, but the kids had an absolute blast. I took Noah out in the Ergo carrier. Kai, Noah, and I went inside after about half an hour, but the big boys stayed out for probably two and a half hours! Yay, snow!

Fall 2012 Professional Photos

The big news here is that these photos were taken easily, with no tears from children, mother, or photographer. AMAZING!

 

Cutie Pie Kai

I was planning to write up my Halloween post, but my eyelids are drooping and it'll just have to wait. I did manage to open the file folder of October photos, and decided to quickly share this instead. A couple of weekends ago, Justin took Kai up to get dressed, and he came down wearing this outfit which he chose himself. It was so inexplicably adorable that I took about a dozen pictures. I'm not sure what it is about it that makes him so irresistible. The over-long hair? The out-of-season shorts paired with too-small shirt and rain boots? The pout? Whatever it is, I want to bottle it. Cutie Pie Kai.

Leaves!

We have a LOT more leaves to rake here in Pennsylvania than we did in Maryland. It's a good thing I can count leaf-raking as Alexander's PE! It's good exercise for me, too. Fortunately, not many leaves end up in the back yard, so we just have to keep up with the front yard. I think we're approaching 30 bags collected so far this season with more leaves still on the trees!

Finally, Mom let us play in the leaves!

I think we own four leaf-bearing trees.

 

Watch Out, World!

Noah is on the move! He's had a big month of development. He can now sit up fairly well on his own, only falling over occasionally. He can also crawl with his belly off the floor, although sometimes he seems to forget and reverts to the army crawl. He can also put himself into the sitting position from laying. So these days I can just set him on the floor, he'll crawl to what he wants, and sit himself back up. The better mobility seems to have tempered his fussiness a bit; he is more content to play with toys on the floor without me for a few minutes at a time. He does still spend a lot of time on my back (sometimes my front) in the Ergo carrier or on my lap, but not all his time, so I think this is a nice change for both of us. Last but certainly not the least of his recent achievements, he can pull himself to standing and even "cruise" a little! I think we've got another early walker on our hands!

Oh, Mom, I'm just sitting here drooling. No worries.

Checking out the toys.

Anything good in the top?

Shoot, I don't even need both legs!

Noah's Six Month Well Visit

The other day Noah went in for his six month well visit. I've already lost count of how many times we've been to our new pediatrician in the two short months that we've been patients there, but... well, they already know us.

Noah is doing well. He did wonderfully for his immunizations. He is doing everything that he should be, developmentally. Except sleeping, which none of my babies have done and which I am too tired to form coherent thoughts about. Instead, I will present my babies' growth statistics, which are interesting only to me. The one thing I want to note is that Noah has fallen off his growth curve already, while the other boys waited until nine months to do so. I'm slightly concerned even though logically I know I probably shouldn't be. You can see that his weight now is more similar to Jack's at age six month, even though Noah was the biggest at birth and Jack was the smallest. They're all different. He is growing. We'll see where he falls on the curve at his next checkup.

Alexander at birth/ six months: 9lbs, 4oz/ 21 lbs, 13 oz (above the 97th %)
Jack at birth/ six months:          8lbs, 8oz/ 18 lbs, 6 oz (75th %)
Kai at birth/ six months:           9lbs, 6oz/ 21 lbs, 8 oz (96th %)
Noah at birth/ six months:         9lbs, 9oz/ 18 lbs, 15 oz (75th %)

Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend we decided it was time to find our new pumpkin patch. I had been given the heads up from a local friend that one of the pumpkin patches in the area was a bit silly (wait for it), but I wasn't sure which one it was, so we chose the farm we would go to based on other factors. The boys were super excited to be at the farm, to go on the hay ride, and to be picking pumpkins! We purchased our tickets, took some photos, and boarded the hay ride. As we approached the pumpkin patch, we realized that we had, indeed, picked the silly pumpkin patch. The pumpkins had been set in a field of grass. They were not growing there. Someone had actually strewn them across this grassy field in some strange, forced mockery of an actual pumpkin patch. It was weird and unnatural. And the boys loved it. Oh, how happy Jack was not to be tripping over vines. How Alexander appreciated that the grass did not make his legs itch. So now I'm just not sure... next year will we return to this abomination? Will we embrace the farce? Or will I force the children to accept that this was NOT, in fact, a real pumpkin patch? For this year, at least, the important thing is that we have three lovely pumpkins to turn into jack-o-lanterns on Halloween weekend. We'll figure out the rest later.

Waiting for the hayride to the pumpkin patch

A rare photo of me, in desperate need of a haircut

Mommy making the boys pose for more photos while waiting for the hayride

Yep, lots of photos

Visiting the turkeys and rooster

Acting like a turkey... or something

The silliest pumpkin patch I've ever seen

The picks

This photo is interesting for so many reasons

Hi, I'm cute

And still cute

Look, another grownup!