Parker

Pumpkin Patch

 

Ever since they started selling pumpkins at Central Market, Parker has been asking about going to the "Pumpkin River" to get a pumpkin.  (Neither Keith nor I had any memory of the river, but sure enough, the pumpkin patch is right on a river/pond)

 

So, the sun came out Saturday afternoon & we headed over to Snohomish for a few pumpkins.

 

Here's the closest we've gotten to a family photo in months...no, our kids don't have faces, is that a problem?

 

We got to ride the green tractor two times, which Parker found pretty darn exciting.

 

Parker pretty much picked out the very first pumpkin he saw.  This is promising for future Christmas Tree trips.

 

They've added a little pump where you can wash off your newly-purchased pumpkins in nasty-dirty water.  I'm not sure the pumpkins were any cleaner, but Parker had fun with the pump.

 

Cecily wanted to take this pumpkin home and was extremely annoyed when she couldn't pick it up herself.

Fancy Sweater

 

Call me biased, but these two really are too cute.

 

I tried to get a shot of Parker standing against his ruler to get his height, but he had a hard time understanding "no, stand up straight & tall...but not on your tippee toes"

Mama's Lipstick

Parker found my lipstick & wanted to try it out.

 

 

So maybe he had a little help, at least I wiped it all off after we were done.  Cecily wanted some too, but mostly she wanted to eat it.

Parker's Bike

"Parker, I want a RIDE!"

 

 

"Yay! Whee!"

 

"Hey, why'd we stop?"

 

14 Months

 

Our little girl is 14 months!

 

Last weekend, Cecily got her 2nd tooth, and she started walking for real.  In the past week, she's gone from only taking a few steps, to pretty much sauntering (awkwardly) across the room.

 

Gravity, however, continues to be her nemesis, so she falls pretty frequently...even when she's just standing at a stop.  You know how some kids learn to walk, but continue to crawl because it's faster?  Yeah, not Cecily.  She doesn't care how many face-plants it takes, she's figuring this thing out. (She did not get that persistence from her Mama, I'll tell you that)

 

Cecily is starting to learn a few signs.  It is AMAZING to have her able to communicate with more than just screaming & pointing.  She loves being understood, her little face lights up & she does a little dance when she realizes that you understand her.

 

Her most recent sign is the sign for hand washing, which has led to an obsession with washing her hands.  Yesterday, I took her to Home Depot and while we were waiting for our paint, we wandered down the plumbing aisle.  She kept screaming, doing the sign for "wash" and then pointing to the sinks.  You try explaining to a 14-month old what a display sink is.  It didn't go over well.

 

Cecily continues to be totally expressive.  I've never seen a kid with so many facial expressions.  This is one girl who is not afraid of her emotions.

 

Although her sleeping comes & goes, the current pattern seems to be waking up at 1am and 5am, and then sleeping until 8 or so in the morning.  She's mostly given up her morning nap, but not enough that I don't try for it every time we spend the morning at home.

 

I stopped nursing her a few weeks ago when she spent the night at Grandma's.  It wasn't really a big deal, she'd been telling me for several weeks that she preferred the sippy cup, I was just hesitant to give up the last baby-part of our baby.  However, in the last week or so, she's decided that she's not quite done with nursing, so now she's nursing once or twice a day; usually at night, but you never know when she'll decide she wants it.  I'm not sure how much she's getting, but there does seem to be some amount of milk left.

 

Cecily is climbing, and crawling, and walking all over everything.  This girl is not afraid of anything, and she's learning new skills every day.

 

Cecily is continuing to be very verbal.  Mostly she just babbles, but she says "Mama" all the time, and I have very distinctly heard her say "ball" and something that closely resembles "doggie".  It's just a matter of time before I have two little talkers in the house.  ...I'm not sure my nerves are ready for that.

 

Cecily LOVES music, and she will dance whenever she hears anything.  It's not a very graceful dance, it looks a little bit like she might sprain something, but it's adorable anyway.

 

We love this little girl!

Okay, we'll keep him.

Parker has been embracing his "terrible threes" with both arms.

 

But, every once in a while, you get a moment like this:

 

 

It should be mentioned, this was completely unprompted, he wanted to make a movie and I fully expected him to sing "Twinkle Twinkle"