Ah, so much to write about when we update so rarely! Let's see. One of C's friends got the chicken pox, and we made the mistake of telling the school about it, so when C went to school with bug bites on his neck, they sent him home early claiming that he had the Dreaded Pox. So we had to take him to a doctor, who confirmed that he did, indeed, have bug bites, and that bug bites were not contagious.

A usually refuses to eat anything from a spoon now, which makes it hard to sneak in foods like brewer's yeast and ground flaxseeds that I like to add to her cereal. However, she willingly eats many things she can feed herself, and they're cut into such tiny pieces that it takes her FORVER to finish a meal. She likes tofu and beans and green peas, and tolerates rice, but she LOVES broccoli and fruit. (We suspect she likes broccoli so much because she's rebelling against our efforts to prevent her from putting leaves and grass in her mouth.)

She doesn't care for long sleeves and long pants, and while she has adapted to crawling with long pants and socks or slippers on her feet, it takes a much greater effort so she's more likely to stay put these days. Her frustration with crawling may be why she's taken to walking with push-toys so much lately. She toddles along, using a toy for balance, and complains loudly when she is thwarted by a wall/rug/toy barrier. (She has not mastered the art of turning yet.)

One of the toys she often pushes along is a large bead-and-wire toy. She encountered a smaller version at Maia's house, and despite the different size, shape, and colors, recognized it as belonging to the same family of toys. Alas, Maia's had suction cups on the bottom, and even if it had been tall enough to function as a satisfying push-toy, the suction clubs kept it from sliding at all. A grew very angry with what she perceived as a malfunctional toy. Maybe someday she'll learn that you're supposed to push the beads along the wires....

A is also currently very frustrated with Dan's sneakers. We spend a lot of time hanging out on the porch, where we can enjoy nice weather without the threat of choking-hazard acorns, and the porch is also home to about a dozen shoes. A thinks they are toys and crawls around with them and fiddles with their closures and generally enjoys them, and we figure the exposure to all the nasty stuff on them is probably good for her developing immune system. Well, we haven't figured out just what it is that she wants Dan's shoes to do, but for the past few days she's been furious with them, so much so that today I had Dan spirit them away when she wasn't looking. I tried tying them, untying them, giving her both, taking one away, flipping them over, putting them on top of each other- to no avail. Whatever she's expecting from them just isn't happening, and she objects to this injustice very loudly.

She's equally obsessed with her swing, and she demands to go in it every time we walk past it outside, and sometimes she'll stand by the porch door pointing to it and asking to go for a ride. (She has her own word for it too, that sounds something like "een.") She likes to go super-high and she likes it when we let it go crooked, in "loop-de-loops" as C says. The only problem, besides the fact that I frankly find swing-pushing to be quite boring, is that she never wants to stop, and cries nearly every time she is removed from the beloved swing.

C is still adjusting to kindergarten. He's still not really himself- much whinier than usual on school days, maybe in part from overtiredness- but it's improving, and we're hoping a soon-to-come switch to a shorter bus ride home will help too. He continues to refuse to tell us much at all about his school days, but he is very excited about a book-writing activity they do, in which the kids draw pictures and dictate stories about the pictures to the teachers. So excited that he told us about it before he remembered that he's supposed to keep everything that happens at school secret from us, just to be contrary.

He's been on a big inventing kick lately. He's been drawing plans for "inventions" for a long time, but lately it's been several a day. Some of them are really innovative- like the device that pushes a platform up from the bottom of a swimming pool if it detects that someone has been underwater for more than 30 seconds to prevent drowning, or like the microwave accessory that stirs food while it's being microwaved so it's evenly heated- and all of them are beautifully illustrated. Most of his pictures are intended to become advertisements for the future product, so he includes prices on them, and incorporates clever marketing strategies in his art. ("I'll draw a bunch of people smiling and looking happy so people will see that they're having a great time and want to buy it!")

We're mourning the lessened sunshine, but enjoying the cooler weather. I've made a habit of brushing my hair outside, to minimize the shedding inside our house, and have come to enjoy feeling the changes in temperature every evening, noticing the position and phase of the moon if it's risen, and hearing the insects in the dark. We'll see how long I can do it into the winter.