BINK!!

So, last night Zach put together a puzzle of the Chicago skyline. Carter loves to look at it so it's sitting out still put together. As I was getting some things done I heard Austin saying, "Clean it up? Clean it up?" When I turned around I found him taking apart one edge of the puzzle. Here is the dialogue that followed...

Me: "No, we're not going to clean it up right now. Please don't touch it." Said as I started to reassemble the edge Austin wanted to "clean up"

Austin: "Help you?"

Me: "No, I'll do it. Thank you. Please don't touch."

Austin: With his little pointer finger extended he reached over and touched the puzzle "BINK! Bink! Touch it mommy!" All said with a mischievous smile.

What a character!


P.S. Just as I finished this post I looked over to see Austin helping his little plastic preying mantis attack the previously mentioned puzzle edge.

Picture Post

I thought I'd post a bunch of pictures for the Grandparents. Enjoy!!

My two little fish

For some reason they like to climb in the laundry basket together.

We left Austin alone with a rice krispie treat and this is what we returned to.

One day Carter wanted "just a big piece of lettuce" instead of a salad. He got it.

I love when they play together like this.

Long overdue

So, this post has been a long time coming. Way back at the beginning of August we moved out of our apartment in Hyde Park (south of the city) and into a house on the north side of Chicago. For those of you who don't know, I hate moving. Putting everything we own into boxes just to haul them somewhere else and have to unload all of those boxes and find somewhere to put all of our stuff.... How do we have so much stuff!!! Then there's the cleaning, oh the cleaning. You think, "It won't take too long. The place will be empty. It will be a snap." and 24 hours later you're finally finished and every rag you own is dirty and you've gone through a whole Costco pack of Clorox wipes. The worst thing about this move was that the place we moved into was dirty. The fridge had spills from the previous tenants and a black film from the factory. I got to do another complete clean before I could put things away. YUCK!! Thank goodness that's all over and done with.


We love our little home. We're just renting but it's ours for now. There's a fenced in yard with a little swing set mere steps from our front door. It's so nice to have that kind of access outside. We spend a lot of time here...


There's been a lot of this going on...

*The pictures were taken earlier in the year*

Zach finished up his clerkship for Judge Easterbrook in August and started work at Kirkland and Ellis here at the beginning of September. He's been busy but it's not been bad. That's all going to change here in the next little bit as the trial date for his case gets closer.

Carter started preschool in September. He goes every day from 8:00 until 10:45. We love it. He loves going to school and doing fun things with his friends and teachers and I love having some time to run errands with only one kid. It's been so fun to have him come home and tell me about what he did at school. I think it's my favorite when he sings me the song they learned in music. I love how much he enjoys school. He's doing great!

Austin is a jabber box and a sponge. He just takes everything in and is constantly surprising me with what he knows. For example, last night as part of Family Home Evening we were playing Duck, Duck, Goose!. In the course of the game Carter got bumped and started crying. Austin had been busy running circles around us and hadn't seen Carter get hurt, only that he was crying. Austin went over to him with concerned eyes and said, "Happened? What....happened? What...happened....Carters?" (He adds an s to most names, except mommy) It was so sweet. He's never said or done that before but he's seen Zach and I do that. A total sponge!

I'm in the Primary Presidency in our new ward. Between that, chasing the boys and cleaning our house I stay pretty busy. All in all we're doing really well.

If you ever find yourself in our neck of the woods please stop by, we'd love to see you!!

Jupiter

Every night when we put the kids to bed we all scrunch onto Carter's little twin bed and look up at the planets, paper ones stuck on the ceiling with sticky tack. Zach and the boys run through them making sure to talk about each one. Sometimes there's no particular order and other times they work from the sun out. Carter's pretty good with his planets and even Austin will point his finger up at the ceiling and say Saturn or Jupiter. I get a kick out of it.

One day we were all getting our shoes on to go run errands and for some reason Zach and Carter were talking about the planets. Zach asked which planet had an eye. Carter answered Jupiter and then I hear him say, "Like this!". I turn to see him looking at me with one eye open and the other closed. "See Mom, I'm being Jupiter!" A couple of minutes later he says, "Look Mom, now I'm Saturn!" He'd put his hands on his chest and had his elbows poking out like Saturn's rings. Pretty creative!!

Thought process

I love when I get a glimpse of Carter's thought process and reasoning. Yesterday we were having a conversation about food spoiling. He wanted strawberries on his cereal but when I got them out of the fridge I realized they'd gone bad. When I told him he couldn't have them he didn't understand why, since he could clearly see that we had strawberries. He kept asking "Why?". I was trying to come up with a more visual way to explain how food spoils when I remembered bananas. Here's the conversation that followed.

Me: Carter, what happens to bananas when they get old?
C: They get brown and mushy......And then you make banana bread with them.
Me: Yes, sometimes we do. But when strawberries get old and mushy we have to throw them away.
C: But why?
Me: Because if you eat them they'll taste funny and might make your tummy hurt. How about some peaches on your cereal?
C: OK.

*A couple of minutes go by as Carter eats some cereal and peaches.

C: K. So when cookies get brown and mushy....
Me: No honey, cookies don't get brown and mushy. Only things that grow, things like strawberries, and bananas, or tomatoes; things that grow outside on plants or trees.
C: But Mom, if you take cookies outside and put them on the ground they'll get brown and mushy
Me: Well, I guess you're right. A cookie would get brown and mushy if you took it outside and put it on the ground for a while.
*As I turn and walk to the other end of the kitchen I hear Carter mumble
C: And then you can make cookie bread with them.


Apparently, when anything spoil or gets over ripe you can make bread with it. Who knew!

When I grow up.....

So, this is just a quick post of a few things that happened recently that I want to document. First is a conversation I had with Carter. Here's how it went....

C: What color is that? (Asked of me while I was painting my toe nails)

M: Clear

C: Clear?! Like water that comes out of the sink?

M: Yeah, but we don't drink this, it's just for mom's toe nails.

C: When I get big and be a mommy then I can do that.

M: You're not going to get big and be a mommy. You're going to get big and be a daddy!

C: When I get big and be a daddy and then get big and be a mommy then I will do that and do my make-up and wash my face.

That last line really made me laugh, especially the "wash my face" part. I guess it's really cool when I put a headband on and wash my face. It always surprises me where his little thought process takes him.

Next, are a couple of things about Austin. He's at such a funny stage right now. He's becoming really talkative and will mimic almost anything we say. A few of his latest words are pineapple (in Russian), airplane, Bumblebee (the Transformer), risotto, truck, octopus, tractor, bellybutton (in Russian), and clean up. Every day he says something new.

Austin also really likes music. He'll dance to anything(I find it especially funny when he dances to commercials on TV). A few days ago we were down at the little pond between the two towers of our building. Austin had been reaching in the water to get rocks and then dropping them back in the water the entire time. Towards the end he would pick up a rock and start to sing a little song and do a little dance for a bit. He would then proceed to where he felt the rock needed to go back into the water, drop it in and start the process all over again. Zach and I were rolling.

This last one is totally random. This morning when I went in to get Austin out of bed he didn't have a shirt on. I don't know how or when but sometime between the time I put him in bed last night and got him up this morning He removed his shirt. Crazy kid!

Updated

OK folks, make sure you're comfortable because there are six, count them six, new posts below this one. And yes, they all have pictures. Thankyouverymuch