Not Even a Mouse (but maybe a rat?)

The big Christmas gift this year is going to be a pet. Yes, no kidding, I agreed to get a pet.

I'm surprised by how excited I am about it. I found a breeder online and had to apply to adopt a pair of them, and was quite taken aback by how thrilled I was when I was approved for the adoption.

We just picked up the cage and some bedding. We ordered food from the breeder (for consistency). I think we're ready.

This morning, we added Timeless Romance and Carry That Weight to our family.

Yes, they are rats.

The first thing I will be working on is teaching them to come to their names and training them to use a litter box. We'll see how good I am at it.

Love Ya

I love my sister. I like to have what she has and do what she does. Most of the time, she likes me imitating her.
I love my cousin. I watch very closely as he flips himself over the side of the jungle gym or tries to climb up the steep slide. Someday I'll be tall enough to do the same.

I love babies, both real and pretend. I love waving 'hi' and giving them wet kisses. I recently started wrapping baby dolls in blankets and rocking them (just like my sister).

I love strangers. I am very attentive to everything happening around me. When caught staring, I give a sheepish smile and hide a little. But I love the attention and cooing I generally get.

It is good to be such a happy kid

Bookish

Here it is after Thanksgiving, but I don't have the festive photos uploaded yet so instead I'm going to post a few photos from over the summer, all exhibiting a rather literary theme.

These girls love to read. S still has us read her the same book over and over until she has the entire story memorized. At the time, we always found this rather humorous, and then annoying. Now we are starting to see the benefits. She can now recount entire books for her sister, keeping them both entertained without our involvement.

Much of this is due to M's evening routine. He ensures that the girls are read to each night. More books and more stories are a reward for helpfulness and good behavior.

S's favorite is a book about dinosaurs while A prefers Tumble Bumble.

I do more story telling. It all started when on the way to school I told them the story of Stone Soup. Shortly thereafter, S asked me to "tell me another story." While making beds I recount the story of the three little pigs. While folding laundry I describe what I can remember of the story of Cinderella.

Unfortunately, I'm also running out of stories. I'd like to continue telling stories that I can turn into a lesson of some sort. Aesop's tales seem a natural fit, but I don't know many of them.

Someone from work suggested that I could also tell stories from the ancient Greeks and Romans. With that in mind, I'm sure there are innumerable ancient stories I could retell. How the world resides on the back of a turtle or how the zebra got his stripes. Now I just have to find the time to read and refresh my memory.

Halloween - a Spooky Return

What better time to return to the blogosphere than for Halloween. Among the spooks and zombies; among the princesses and heros; my two girls wandered as a kitty cat and a lady bug.

S picked out her costume herself. She even picked out the fabric. I picked out the sewing machine and had a ball putting it all together. If you look closely at the belly and the inside of the ears, you can see stitching in the shape of butterflies (S chose the stitching once I decided that I had to experiment with some of the embroidery capabilities of the machine).

On the other hand, A had no say about her costume. In fact, it took some distraction to keep her from ripping off the wings and pulling on the anteni, but for the most part the costumes stayed on.

Both girls (and mom and dad) all had a fantastic time going house to house.

Canoe Trip

We went on another canoe trip today. It was our second trip as a big family of four. I was very excited when we found the family of three swans. S fed them bread and I challenged mom and dad's balancing skills by dancing in the boat.

Just as we turned back, though, I decided I was very tired. It took a while to get comfortable since neither my nor mom's life jackets are designed for snuggling. Eventually, though, I fell deep asleep and mom laid me down at the bottom of the boat.

I guess I missed seeing the dozen turtles sunbathing on the logs. S thought it was a blast, but I needed the rest.

Once we all returned home, S and I took a "bath" in the wading pool and S just laid down for her nap. Mom and dad thought I was going to take another nap too. Boy were they wrong.

Corn Maze

For our Labor Day Sunday we went to the Corn Maze. Yesterday A was up until 11pm and I was up until almost 1am so we were both very tired. A rode in the stroller and I spent most of my time on mom or dad's hip.

It was pretty fun still, though. I kept track of where we were in the maze and dad put me in charge of finding the final route out.

But more important than the maze was getting back to the goats so I could feed them. They looked very hungry and I had to buy a fair amount of goat food to make sure they were properly tended to.
The photo is of me with my famous "funny face" and A attempting to imitate me. She's learning a lot of my tricks pretty quickly, but she still needs to work on that funny face some.

Like Sister Like Sister

Let's see, there is so much to say and I can't think of anything. Needless to say, the girls are both growing quickly. A loves imitating her sister and S loves bossing the younger around. Both will be moving into new rooms at the daycare on Tuesday which will bring about a number of changes for them.

I'm loving being a mom. At any moment, I have two beautiful children who want nothing less than to spend as much time as possible with me.