Fall Is Flying By

So I've been putting off blogging because I was hoping to have another round of great news (i.e. selling our house), but then I realized that fall is flying by, and I shouldn't miss the chance to blog about it.  

(As a side note, we do have an offer on the house, but it's another neurotic prospect who just doesn't seem to want to commit.  All we seem to attract is the weirdos, even though realtors have told us our house shows the nicest.  Fish or cut bait, dude!)

Lauren was excited to get a car from a family moving, who couldn't fit it in their truck.  Unfortunately, she's only been able to drive it once so far.  

She doesn't quite get the hang of steering and several times crashed into Kevin's car or the house, which she thought was hilarious, of course.  But next spring it should provide ample fun while I push the baby for a walk.  (At least, I hope she figures out the steering thing by then!) 


What kind of blogging mom would I be if I didn't talk about Halloween?  Halloween was a blast for the Monkess this year!  She has been so obsessed with dinosaurs as of late thanks to the new Dinosaur Train show on PBS, that she was adamant about being a dinosaur.  Our neighbor had a dragon costume that he wore last year, and it fit the bill nicely.  She periodically had to try on her "dinosaur coat" for a few minutes at least once a week throughout October.  

As Halloween arrived, she was chomping at the bit once she saw other kids start to come around.  So Kevin took her out in the bitter cold.  I wasn't sure whether she would be brave enough to do doors by herself.  But fortunately her buddy, Detton, aka Buzz Lightyear, from next door decided he'd rather go out trick-or-treating with Lauren than hand out candy.  

Eventually the two of them got brave enough to do doors by themselves.  And once they made it up and down the entire street, they couldn't get enough.  But by then all the adults were freezing.  So Lauren's fascination turned to watching for kids coming so she could hand out some candy.  

Oh, and we can't forget to mention her tattoos.  In true toddler fashion, there was no saving some for tomorrow.  Had to get those skeletons and skulls on!









This fall has been so much on the chilly side!  Combine that with the fact that I am just now starting to feel better at 16 weeks along, and that adds up to doing very little outside.  So Lauren jumps on any little chance to go play outside, even if it's just hanging out while Daddy fixes the soffit vents.  This morning, Kevin went out to rake leaves for the pick-up, so Lauren jumped on that opportunity to play, which ended up providing at least one nice picture.  There are very few pictures we get where Lauren will say cheese AND look at the camera.  Most often we get a "Cheese" but no eyeballs.

I am constantly amazed how quickly my 2-year-old is growing up.  The funniest things to me (though sometimes not so funny at the moment) are how she turns our words around on us.  Like tonight when I was tapping my toe at dinner, she said, "Please stop dat.  Stop doing dat, please.  Please just eat."  I so wanted to laugh out loud, but instead just said, "You're right.  Thank you for asking so nicely."  In some ways, I don't want her to grow up--like the way she says, "I want to watch a boovie."  I tried to change boovie to movie in her vocabulary today, but afterwards I thought, "She'll grow up too fast as it is."  I am comforted somewhat by the thought that I'm lucky to have another chance to watch a baby come into this world and go through these stages again--which I'm sure is why some women continue to have baby after baby.  But then I think about how the baby will probably have such a different personality, and will not display the same cute quirks that Lauren does.  It makes me want to follow Lauren around with a video camera all day.  But that would be ridiculous, I know.  I guess I'd better get going on a starting a journal!  (Yeah, daily planner idea--you didn't quite work.)