Leah has also learned how to write out her name without prompts. She surprised me but looking back I think she learned it from writing out her name (tracing dots) for so many Christmas cards.

And on another random note, I asked Leah what she would think if I put Joel to bed in her room. She replied excitedly, “Mom, when he cries you can just come downstairs and give me the soother and I’ll give it to him”. I did put Joel in her room and discovered at two in the morning that Leah can sleep through excessive, loud crying. Gives me great hope for room sharing in the future.

Leah and Joel have been interacting more since he’s found new freedom in crawling. Joel looks across the room, sees something he wants, gets really excited (breathing faster and making excited noises) and then starts crawling with great anticipation. He isn’t upset yet if you take something away from him.

He puts anything and everything into his mouth. On the second picture, Joel has just the end of the string in his mouth. Joel got his second tooth a week ago Wednesday.

Leah and I have been working on some Christmas cards. This is her smile for the camera.

Joel puts these fridge magnets in his mouth a lot and then crawls all through the house. A few of them have been dropped down the stairwell.

Leah had her November presentation at preschool on Tuesday. She was very serious and made sure she followed everything the teacher was doing and saying to them. I love to watch her and her whole class perform.

Attempting to get a nice picture of Leah and Joel.

The other day, I was hanging out in the kitchen with Leah and Joel putting together some gingerbread houses. I had Joel’s chair next to me (which has been deeply coveted by Leah) but had put Joel on the floor to crawl around. Leah wanted to go in it so she asked Joel if she could. She continued this conversation, answering for both her and Joel, with Joel’s voice being very high pitched. It continued like this:
-No
-Joel, but I really want to sit in your chair.
-No, I won’t let you sit in my chair.
-Mommy, Joel won’t let me sit in his chair.
I answered saying I do not break up fictitious arguments as I lifted her up into Joel’s chair.

On Thursday he was practicing his crawling skills and ended up with his stomach on the floor. I was waiting for him to politely ask for help express his irritation on being stuck before I helped him as I was cuddling a newborn and didn’t want to disturb anyone else. I guess he realized his predicament in being stuck and figured out how to get back up on all fours and then return to sitting.

A first for me this week was being up for long periods of time in the middle of the night with a hurting child. That’s not to say my children have never kept me up at night but just not due to sickness. I’ve been so blessed by the health of our children (which I take very little responsibility for). I’m not sure if it was teeth or an upset stomach or some other random cause, all I know is that he slept much better once Tylenol was administered and that I should have given it to him five hours earlier.

I very rarely give my kids medication of any kind as they rarely are sick and I don’t like taking medication however, it didn’t even cross my mind in my weary state till much too late. I still feel like a first time parent with Joel occasionally. Sometimes in learning the hard way like this and other times in my great excitement for new milestones (e.g. new tooth). Anyways, once he was sleeping, I heard Leah was awake so I got her from her room and we went on an adventure first thing while still wearing our pajama tops. We put on some lounge pants and went off to the store for some more Tylenol as it was all gone and a snack as Leah hadn’t eaten breakfast. I was amazed at how many people were out and about at just after eight in the morning. My kids sleep in (as do I most days) which I’m very grateful for. Funny how life goes on even when your not up to see it go round.

Leah quotes:
“Is it tomorrow yet?”

When asking about who is Grandma’s mom, I explained that she had died and was no longer around. Leah said that was sad and asked why she had to die. I told her that Grandma’s mom was very, very old and was sick. Then, not sure if she knew the meaning of death, I asked her what does it mean to die and Leah responded that it meant going to the doctor.

I was going to pick up something off of Craig’s list and Leah asked if I was going to take it. I said I was going to and she replied with that wouldn’t be nice. I explained that I was going to pay her for it but Leah still wasn’t too convinced. After I returned to the car when I picked it up, Leah asked if she said yes, meaning that we could have it and she was pretty happy about that

I can’t think of any more but I’ll keep adding them as they come, because there is lots of good ones these days.

The baby gate is up now full time as Joel is getting around in good time these days. He usually naps just once a day for a couple of hours in the afternoon but will have a morning and afternoon nap if he falls asleep earlier. He is also starting to babble away, mostly saying ba, ba, ba. Joel is growing up quickly these days and I’m reveling in his achievements.

At the end of every month, Leah’s preschool invites parents to a small presentation so the teachers and kids can share a little of what they have learned that month. Leah has done great during the presentations, doing the actions and participating and following directions to a tee. She rushed over, passing a few kids in line so she could put her feet on the performance line.

Leah was invited to a princess party so we decided to dress her up a bit. Morgan put ‘blobs’ in her hair after her bath the night before.

I felt a bit like a pageant mom. I’m so not a girly girl but Leah loves all things girly. She loves rings, sparkly shoes, make up and all things pretty.

Cinderella came too.

Morgan spends time with Joel in his office so I can have some time to get things done. A few activities they do together include spinning on the second office chair.

I guess sitting on the floor playing with toys wasn’t exciting enough.

Morgan and Leah carve their pumpkins together every year. Morgan let Leah use a sharp knife for the first time but she was quite hesitant.

She had a lot of fun helping though. After Morgan was done carving his, he cut it up to cook it to make the pumpkin ready for pie.

Joel has been up like this for a little bit now and in this past weekend, he has been moving purposefully across the room. He keeps his one foot still under him most of the time so then he can return to sitting up. When he is up on all fours in the crawling position, he ends up on his stomach once he gets tired, which happens pretty quick.

He loves his food and is eating about three baby food cubes at every meal.

On October 27, Joel’s first tooth popped up. He is going down to bed at 8:30ish and getting up around 5 am to eat and then back to sleep until 8ish. He is eating breakfeast, lunch and dinner with us. Joel is still a happy, laid back babe most of the time. Leah is awesome with him and will sing patty cake or other songs to keep him happy for me if I need a few more minutes is he is fussy.
Leah is loving preschool and cubbies, her church preschool program. She is learning a lot. Leah is very much a mother hen with Joel and when her friends come over. She likes to correct and instruct everyone.

Leah would not sit on the tractor this year but at least Joel was happy to comply. The picture of Leah is from last year. I don’t think it moved an inch.

The hayride dropped us off at the corn maze where we let Leah lead us through to the pumpkin patch.

Leah enjoyed the hunt for the perfect pumpkin.

The field was hard to walk through, so Leah hitched a ride and smelled the sunflowers.

Just like last year, Leah would pick up a pumpkin to check it out and then proclaim that is was dirty. This year we could easily explain to her that it grew in the dirt and we could clean it off, unlike last year, where she just kept trying to pick up other pumpkins that looked clean regardless of what we told her.

Leah decided on a nice, little pumpkin. Morgan also picked out a larger one to take home as well.

After the hayride back, we had a picnic lunch where Joel had a short nap on the picnic table.

I was trying to go over the activities with her and she was really tired from all of the excitement of the week and I had bad visions of what homework time might look like in a few years. Life is very full of new activities for Leah right now along with the regular play dates and such and I need to remember and intentionally plan downtime for our family, especially as she gets used to the new routine.

This morning after researching a new car seat for Leah, feeding everyone breakfast, putting a roast in the crock pot and bathing and dressing the kids, we were finally ready to run some errands. Just before we left, I paused amidst the mental list of things to pack and the physical list of places to go and items to buy and reflected. I pulled out the camera, delaying the trip I had carefully planned and embraced the time.

I’m unbelievably thankful for my kids. Sometimes I let them drive me to my wit’s end and I require some time to myself before I can come back to being the patient, attentive mother I strive to be. But, for the most part, especially when proper sleep has been attained and they have been fed recently, I look at them with awe and wonder and consider myself extremely thankful that they are mine.