Andy at 35 weeks

Taken August 31 (which was a Monday. Oops. Saturday was full of mishaps, and I totally forgot about it on Sunday).



This was a tricky one, with Mister Wiggly. I tried several different things--inside, outside, sitting, tummy.









Escape!

Today

Catching up continues slowly. I'm having a hard time getting anything done because Andy requires constant supervision, whether to keep him away from the computer cords or to keep Kate from whacking him on the head. He follows her around like a little shadow. I think it's endearing. Kate, not so much.

We haven't been able to really enjoy the season, being cooped up inside with various illnesses. Kate's on day nine of an antibiotic for ear infections (we had one really bad day when I thought she might have the flu, but that apparently was not the case). Her hearing seems to be affected, and we're constantly getting her attention and repeating ourselves. On top of everything Doug has nearly lost his voice (thankfully his only symptom, though it's certainly a difficult one, what with him being a teacher and all). So Doug can't talk and Kate can't hear--you can imagine the ensuing comedy of errors.

Today is the first anniversary of Doug's dad's passing. Doug wore his boots.

Togetherness

The plan: get a picture of Kate and Andy together, looking like they're both happy about it, on a nice overcast day (no harsh shadows), when the grass is dry.

Out of this I hope to get not just one usable photo, but three.

Sound possible?

I have this vision for the wall above my computer desk, involving three square photos in a row (because, you know, things look better in threes). This adds an additional complication--I have to get three photos in which Kate and Andy's faces are close enough together that they can be cropped into a square.

When my overcast, dry-grass day finally materialized (August 28), I was home alone with the kids, (and Kate's purple shirt that had originally been part of my vision was in the laundry) but I decided to seize the moment. Assembled kids, blanket, camera, and bribed Kate with the promise of a cookie if she cooperated.



Kate is impressed by Andy's prodigious amounts of drool.





I'm quite sure that Kate is too young to be making this expression.



Andy yakked on the blanket (hugely) so we tried it without the blanket, but he didn't like the prickly grass.




Further attempts quickly deteriorated.



Can't you just feel the love?



Tipping... tipping... Aaaaaaagh!

I did get three that I'm planning to use. Not quite what I hoped for, but they'll work.

I think I'm going to get them printed 14"x14" mounted on foam board, at WHCC. (That's White House Custom Color.) I started an account with them years ago, but never got around to sending in my test files. I finally got that taken care of and got them back a few days ago, and was quite alarmed to see how far off my monitor apparently is. The prints are much redder than what I see on my screen. I need to get a new monitor anyway (mine has a case of the intermittent fuzzies, though it's been clear for several days now), but I guess I'll be looking into calibration devices, too. So now I'm second-guessing my color editing. I have no idea what these really look like.

Dancing Animals

I've mentioned this book that my sister Barb got for us: Easy Crafts for Kids (Great for School, Home and Parties). There's some fun stuff in here, with varying degrees of difficulty. Hardly anything that a four-year-old can create completely by herself.



Kate had been eyeing these dancing animals for quite a while. "Look! We can make a dancing dog! And a dancing crocodile! And put them in a box!" I kept putting her off with "maybe later"s, until one day she asked for some cardboard and a marker, and got busy drawing her own.



"I will draw it on the cardboard and then you cut it out," she said. She drew the pieces separately. Kate knows all about this sort of thing from our foam animals, but I don't think she had ever tried to do it herself before. You can see she wasn't quite clear on some of the proportions, or exactly how the parts fit together, but she wasn't letting that stop her.



After I had all the pieces cut out, Kate painted them.



I had some wire that I donated to the cause.



They don't really "dance" that much (perhaps a thinner gauge wire would work better?) but they're cute, and Kate had fun making them. She's getting to be very artistic. I have lots of creations of hers to post.

Andy at 34 weeks

Taken August 22.



Outside again, with so many other interesting things to look at besides Mom's camera!





Awww!

Noodles!

Chuseok has come and gone, along with Canadian Thanksgiving (so what's with us Americans having our harvest holiday at the end of November, anyway?). We've never actually done anything for chuseok. Usually I don't know when it is till it's past. This time I did know, but we still didn't do anything.

We did, however, go out for Korean food for my home-from-mission-day on August 18th. Doug had jap chae and I had naeng myun. Love those cold noodles on a hot day. Yum.






Kate is nowhere close to figuring out chopsticks, but she always has to have her own pair anyway.

Andy at 33 weeks

Taken August 15.







Many moods--always cute!

The view from Autumn

I was doing pretty well with the getting-caught-up-on-the-blog thing, but then I fell off the wagon again. I'm still about two months behind. I'm working on another crochet project that I want to finish while's it's still in season, so I've been head-down in that for a while. Kate and I have been sick, too, which doesn't help.

Autumn is upon us. I've been enjoying the vibrant colors from our dining room window, and marveling at how the lighting somehow makes even the cars in the parking lot look richer. Colorful, but soggy. It's been raining a lot lately, but on Tuesday it cleared up long enough for things to dry out a bit, and the neighbor kids were all playing outside.



Kate runs over with a handful of leaves to dump on my head. Much hilarity ensues. (The other girls helped me pick everything out of my hair afterward.)



Andy, inside with Dad, watches the fun through the back door. See how far behind I am? Yep, he's standing now.

We're getting used to Doug's new schedule (busy, teaching four classes). He's tired but he and Andy have, thus far, managed to avoid coming down with this cough. Knock on wood.

Cracker Boy

Andy sure is enjoying Big People Food. He likes pretty much everything we give him, and asks for more. Sometimes he reminds us of a little bird, flapping with his mouth open.

These were taken August 11.






And eating O's.




Kate hardly every put anything in her mouth, and didn't even figure out how to feed herself till after her first birthday. (She picked the Unburied Treasure, but never actually got it into her mouth.) Andy is much more the typical baby--everything goes in the mouth. He keeps us on our toes!

Andy at 32 weeks

Taken August 8.



Tummy pics outside! How exciting!






Grass is fascinating.



Compare Kate at 32 weeks.