October Happenings

Just a few pictures from October. Yes, a birthday. Then, pictures from a bike ride on the Cape Cod canal bikepath. Thomas goes just as fast as he can on his bike. His face, tilted forward as if to propel himself even faster, licking his lips and while his wheels are humming. Nathan, goes slow enough to check out the scenery. I kept telling him to hurry up, good job!(if he actually started to catch up) and about three-quarters of the way through, I decided to not say another word and just let him enjoy his bike ride! Isabelle's mom kept up with the speedies so I didn't have to worry about Thomas getting to far ahead. Just another picture of their differences. About biking......Nathan is now down to one training wheel!!

Finally, pictures of Halloween. The storyhour closest to Halloween, the children dress up and go over to the Hudson town hall for trick or treat walk. The last picture is of the boys with their librarians. I left the decision up to the boys as to what they would wear. For the longest time they wanted to be "twin" dinosaurs. Someone gave us two green T-rex costumes earlier this year that come out on a regular basis. But when it came right down to it, Nathan chose the police and Thomas chose to be the sheriff. Nathan carried a whistle around his neck that he blew for the traffic as we crossed the streets to get to the Town hall--very police like.

Thomas says "who matters". This is his version of who cares and doesn't matter.

Thomas loves to dress up in his Sunday clothes. Last week when the workers left on Wednesday to go to a gospel meeting in Boston, they were all dressed up. We on the other hand were not having meeting that night. Thomas went upstairs and quietly got his meeting clothes on. He was disappointed to hear we weren't going out! Then, the next day, our oldest hen died (not sure why as she was only 2.5 years) so Thomas immediately declared he was going to go get dressed up so that he could have a funeral for her. I persuaded him to put the funeral off until Sunday when we were already dressed up. So, yes, we had a funeral yesterday for red hen led by two sweet little boys.

Cutisms

Nathan was just slicing bar cheese (for his own enjoyment) and I heard him say "I'm just going to get this done and over with".

At story hour this morning, I peaked my head around the corner to watch them. They were all chanting the five little monkeys rhyme. They just finished with 5 and Debbie the librarian asked what comes next. It was only Nathan out of a whole roomful of 3 and 4 year olds who piped up with both the hand sign and the word four!

A couple of days ago, we were reading a counting book. At the end of the book, the open pages had 1 through 10 printed across them. So I had the boys count from 1 to 10 and point to the numbers. Then I had them count from 10 to 1. Thomas went first and repeatedly couldn't tell which number came next even though the printed digit was before his eyes. I didn't realize this would be so challenging as I thought they were recognizing the digits...only to find out it was more of a memory chant. Interestingly, it was Nathan who kept piping up with the right digit for Thomas. When Nathan did the counting down himself, he got all the digits except number 7 (I think it was).

Little Cousin

Thomas and Nathan's little cousin came for a few days earlier in October. Very interesting to see their reactions to this little body who played with their toys and interfered with their mother. Nathan was quite patient and interested in Benjamin. Nathan did his part to make Benjamin smile, like tickling his tummy or making silly noises. Thomas on the other hand was rather inpatient and not to friendly at times! He definitely saw Benjamin as a threat. I thought it was a good for them! We had several conversations about who was older and who was bigger. I don't mean I instigated these discussions but the boys did...they are very into (especially Nathan) who is bigger than who.

See Thomas Go!

Bike Riding

We have news! Nathan is riding his bike with one training wheel and Thomas had me take his training wheels off (one off on Wed. and the other off Thurs) this week! Thomas is now tall enough to touch his feet to the ground when he loses his balance. Nathan is still about 2 inches too short so that when he goes to put his foot down, the entire bike tips and then gravity takes over. Pretty exciting to see Thomas biking! This is no easy feat on our driveway....gravel and slopes make the going tough.

Playing with Joey

The first picture is of the V8 dudes! The boys are becoming nice friends with Joey who is one year older. They see Joey every Sunday morning.

I asked the boys what they were going to get for my birthday. Nathan told me he is getting me flowers. I asked where he was going to get them....he told me the neighbors.

Thomas has taken a real interest in the chickens the last few days. He calls himself Farmer Tom. He feeds them, checks their water, looks for eggs but he lets me do the cleaning.

We were just fooling around and Nathan asked me if I wanted a sandwich-knuckle.

Apple Picking in September

We found a beautiful day in September to pick apples!

The other day, we were playing hide and seek in the house. Thomas was the hider and Nathan and I were the seekers. We found Thomas, quiet as a mouse, sitting on the step stool in the kitchen with a hand towel wrapped around his head. Was he hiding? He thought so!

We had squash last night and Thomas informed me that he didn't like it. When I asked him what he didn't like about it, he told me he didn't like the flavor. I did not supply that word for him! All on his own.

We had some company around our table the other day. We were getting Nathan to name everybody. He was sitting on our minister's lap. His name is Dan. Dan, leaned forward and asked who he was....Nathan said "plain ole Dan". We all laughed and Nathan looked like he didn't know whether to be embarrassed or to laugh along with us.