September Happenings

Well the last few weeks have brought quite a lot of excitement in this house.  Truthfully it's never a dull moment anyway!  Eowyn just seems to get bigger and more vocal all the time.  She has started with "Dada mama allala", sounds, which are just adorable, especially when she's shouting them at the top of her lunges!  She continues to amaze us with her eating - now devouring a whole 190g jar of food in one meal on a regular basis.  She still isn't fussy about what she's served, eating more or less everything we give her, including parsnip puree, broccoli and potato, spinach and rice.  Wow!  Recently I offered her a sippy cup to drink some water out of, instead of her bottle.  She loves it!  She is even able to direct it pretty accurately into her mouth and seems to know how to drink without much work!  One of her favorite times of day is still bath time, and when she's not reading a bath book she's splashing and flailing around laughing!  It's very cute to see, although Liam does get a bit annoyed with all the splashes and he tries to stop her by saying "time out"!

Bath time!

Sippy cup time

 Our weather has been a mixed bag this fall.  Last year it was so warm all September.  This year we've had some very cool days, some rain, and some lovely days.  Whenever possible we have made plans to go out to a playground and usually meet up with some friends.  Since Stirling and Drake will be starting school in November we've taken advantage of them being around in the morning to have the kids hanging out.  The are starting to work their own issues out - well at least sometimes.  Sometimes we still get the scream and the pulling of toys away from each other, but once in a while they seem to navigate the land of sharing, which is always a great sight to see.

 I would say that Liam is 90% potty trained, though we did have another accident last night (only the 2nd in 2 months!) and despite him not pooping on the potty.  Otherwise he totally gets it, and seems quite capable to hold on when he needs to.  Here he was being really goofy and pulled his undies all the way up - I told him he'd regret it when I took this picture!  Sorry Liam!  One of the great side effects of potty training has been hand washing.  We've bought some special foaming soap just for him and he's ever so eager to wash hands for all occasions.  Thankfully he's mostly able to do it himself!

 Liam's interest in dinosaurs is growing fast.  We got him a book on them, and often at night it is the book of choice.  We went to the grocery store a few weeks ago and lo and behold there were dinosaurs on display.  Liam was thrilled, and so we had to get a picture of him with his favorite dinosaur - the triceratops!

 In addition to dinosaurs we have added a few books to his repertoire to help with his expanding curiosity of the world.  We are definitely in the "why?" stage of things, and he is interested to know about a lot of things.  We have a great book about the human body, and recently he has been heard saying that his bladder has stretched out and is full of a big pee, so he has to go to the potty!

Just a couple of weekends ago we had some gorgeous warm weather, and on a whim we decided to head to the Lido.  We haven't actually ever been with the kids because usually when it's just me I think of it as being too much to handle, but on this sunday it seemed just right.  Eowyn hung out on the grass playing, and Liam's eyes nearly popped out his head when he saw the super cool kids pool.  To tell you the truth, it was so exciting that he was actually nervous to do everything!  We also had a little time on the actual beach so he could dig in the sand, and run into the water.  Despite me being under the weather it turned into a lovely Sunday morning, with a picnic lunch.

 Eowyn's doing a lot more sitting up these days, and seems to really enjoy herself when she gets out of the stroller at the playground and gets to sit on a blanket on the grass.  She's getting stronger and moving more, but at the moment it's still rolling just to one side, and scooting backwards on her belly.  That about sums it up.  But she loves to check out the toys, and especially if she gets to play what Liam is playing, like train tracks, legos, or reading a book.  Here are some play time pictures.  Balls are particularly fun these days.

Park play - a beautiful warm day

Liam introduces Eowyn to Thomas the Tank Engine!  She's engrossed!

Park play time on a cooler morning

We've had some really funny and interesting conversations with Liam this past week.  Here are a couple that I could actually remember:

Where babies come from...

Stirling left for the States yesterday and Liam had a lot of questions.  I told him her aunt is having a baby and she's going to meet the new baby.  We also talked about Carolyn being pregnant and that soon she will have a baby.  He then asked if stirlings Aunt will push a baby out? and continued to grill me with who else had a baby growing inside? does Kat? does Christina? Does Leigh?  We touched on the idea that it doesn't happen to boys, and that it takes a long time and isn't so easy.  He then asked if I had a baby inside.  I told him I already had 2 babies and so my plate was kind of full.  He asked me why.  

What exists?...

The other day we had a long conversation over lunch about what exists and doesn't exist.  It stemmed from him asking if there was a fox at Bellavista restaurant.  I said there wasn't and he said "Oliver said there is a fox there.  and a witch." They were playing a game running away from both a few weeks ago, and he was clearly just thinking about that time.  So I began to explain that sometimes we use our imagination when we play to make a game more fun, and that's what oliver was doing.  He then went through a list of things asking me if they exist - do witches exist? No. Do monsters exist? no. How about foxes - well yes they do exist, but they don't live near us they are very very shy.  And do dinosaurs exist? Not any more.  They are extinct.  I love that he's starting to really process information!

Yesterday we also had a lovely little walk and picnic with friends.  Christina, Jake, and Sam invited us and Elle and her parents to join them for a little walk in the woods.  It was great to be outside with the kids and both Eowyn and Liam had a great time.  Here's a cute picture of Sam and Liam before we got on our way.

Eowyn and mama