Copying What They See

One of the things that always catches me off guard with the kids is their ability to mimic the adult activity they are surrounded by to near perfection. Unfortunately, sometimes that comes back to huant when they release a choice phrase at and inopportune moment or come running after you with your own camera equipment. HRH is getting better since she has stopped including her finger in every shot and covering the flash.



Of course the other problem is that sometimes I can't duck out of line when someone is pointing a camera at me. I guess I don't have to put the pictures up, but hey, proof I'm alive.

The Best Day of the Year

While there are many holidays that could certainly vie for the title of best day of the year in my kids view, I would imagine that Halloween comes up on top.  It isn't quite as special as Christmas or your birthday, but you get to dress up in a costume and get candy from strangers.  Plus there is the build up to the day itself with decorations and gourds of various types.



HRH was a witch as you could probably guess.  This is a marked improvement over the pink princess from last year.  Ed was originally going to be a lion, but he was really scared of his costume.  We managed to squeeze him into it briefly, but it wasn't something that he was very comfortable with, so off it went.  Fortunately, we had a pumpkin costume that was approximately his size that he didn't mind going out in public wearing.  If that didn't work out he was going as a two year old.



We madie through a full hour of trick or treating until having had quite enough.  HRH still had enough energy leftover afterward to being on the candy dish.

A Respite in the Weather

While the midwest has been getting destroyed by a huge weather system, the northeast has been reaping the benefits of some unseasonably warm weather.  Do not get me wrong, I cannot wait until the snow starts flying around here, but I will take sunny skies and upper 60's pretty much whenever I can get it.  The kids were so excited about the weather they were literally dancing for joy.



One of the advantages of the playing outside this time of year is the garden is no longer off limits.  Plus, instead of all those bothersome plants the only thing in there now is dirt.  If my kids have found something better than dirt in their lives, I'm not certain what it could be.



As some noted I recently celebrated not dying for another year, which was nice.  The missus got me all kind of lovely things and the kids got balloons.

Hiking Mt. Watatic

As midterm exams have rolled around for the missus, I figured that this weekend would be devoted to me and kids entertaining each other.  What I forgot to factor in is that she cannot sit still for that long, so on Saturday we headed over to Mt. Watatic.  The trail guide we have for the area noted that this was one of the most frequented hiking trails in the state and it was not an exaggeration.  However, we weren't looking for a wilderness experience, we wanted to get the kids to nap.



As much as he would beg to differ Ed is not quite up to mountain climbing yet, so he was stuck on my back.  The problem is that I only go so fast, especially uphill, and often that speed is too slow to allow for much other than quiet contemplation.  Ed doesn't much go for the quiet, contemplative life, so I get to sing going uphill.  Ed likes Dropkick Murphys, NOFX, and Old MacDonald.



Upon hitting the top we consumed the massive amount of stores that we have to drag up for this very purpose.  I have to say that the view from the top of the mountain was actually really nice.  You can sneak peaks of some of the larger peaks to the north and west.  There is also a view of the surprisingly close Boston skyline.  I often forget that we are only about 40 straight line miles from the city.

You recall that again when you are hiking in the area though and get to see what some people think is good attire for going hiking in the woods.  I can understand going out in sneakers and jeans, I've done it a number of times myself.  I haven't ever actually going out hiking in evening clothes.  I wonder what the people from the city think when they find a tick later on.

Looking for Thumbbuddy to Love

HRH is a thumb sucker, has always been a thumb sucker, quite likely was in utero.  Now that we are getting older, the thumb needs to go.  Unfortunately, it is her primary means of comforting herself.  The missus has tried to teach her to console herself in a more mature fashion.  I would tell her my preferred method (Irish Whisky), but I don't think that would appropriate or legal.

One day whilst doing "homework" the missus found the Thumbbuddy to Love site which markets small thumb puppets that come accompanied with a storybook.  What the heck, it wasn't too expensive and it might be something that works, so we ordered it up.  Above you can see our new friend Ballerina Sue who was our new best friend for at least half an hour before HRH realized that she couldn't suck her thumb with the silly puppet on there.  So the battle ensues, we'll see if Sue can help out or not.



All Ed knows is that we were talking about ballerinas and dancing.   When the camera came out, he had to get his performance on the record too.

There were many other adventures today involving goats, apples, pigs, and bunnies.  Alas, they were undocumented, but I assure you, they were awesome.

Visitor From Beyond

Today we were joined by the specials guest stars Mark and Matthew.  The was particularly exciting as we were guaranteed to have someone to play with when we, inevitably, wound up at the playground.  In all fairness I had come up with a number of different things we could do to entertain our guests ranging from going to the apple orchard to cleaning the bathroom.  Surprisingly, they elected to go the playground which means that the bathroom still needs tending to, but that's for later.



The various forms of transportation were explored while we are there.   House guests are always appreciated, especially when they are still excited at the prospect of pushing Ed around in the car.   Even, though there was a grisly trike accident, there were no major injuries.



This is one of the only times when all three of them were still at the same time.  It was after two hours of flat out running and scrambling, but it didn't last for long.



It has been interesting how going to the playground with the kids has really allowed me to peg exactly how they will interact with other kids.  At one point a girl came in with her sister and mom with a black dress, with pink lace trimming.  The lace was embroidered with black spider webs and the whole outfit was completed with pink "Disney Princess" boots.  When I saw her come in, I told her mom that HRH was going to be very impressed with that get up.  Not a minute later, HRH runs up to the girl, "I love your dress, let's play!"

Knitting in the Woods

Today we are continuing with our guest photographers series.  Below you can see Ed as shot by HRH and HRH as shot by Ed.  They did have a little assistance on keeping fingers out of the shot, but that is just because I have to clean the lens otherwise.





The whole point of this trip was to wander out in the woods and try to find animals.  That, of course, is never, ever going to happen with these two as they possess the stealth of a herd of elephants moving throw the woods.  Not that it made all the much difference as we only made it about 300 yards into the woods before they plopped down and started knitting with forest products.  I haven't any idea where the idea of knitting entered into HRH head as no one in her life knits, but she does it all the time.  Maybe when she is old enough to have pointed metal in her life she can learn to do it for real.

Running Free

Most girls that are HRH's age are dressing up as some sort of princess for the Halloween.  I actually know this because I got to go to a four year old's birthday party yesterday as a parental chaperone.  As an aside, don't you think that there should be alcohol at a birthday party for anyone of legal age that would like some?  I do too.  Anyway, most young girls want to be a princess on Halloween, but not my daughter, she wants to be one every single day.



Not that she always acts like a princess, far from it really.  Both the kids are good at scaling various bits of playground equipment though.





The biggest adventure that has happened lately though is the big hiking adventure that was undertaken by HRH and the missus.  Below is the photojournal of the event as taken by the ladies.  I would assume that the shots prominently featuring the photographers thumb were taken by HRH, but I'm not entirely sure that is the case with all of them.

Hard Days Work

A quick technical note on some of the photography that is used in the rants on the site.  You may notice that certain pictures of the children are blurry and have ghosting around the image.  Some shots it kind of looks like slow shutter speed, but the one used today was shot in hard, direct sunlight and there is still some blur.  This is because I use the HDR function on my phone because I think the images are slightly better looking as the stock images tend to be a little too contrasty.  The phone actually takes three images and assembles them into a composite to increase the dynamic range of the picture.

All of this leads me to the picture today.  The image has a reported shutter speed of 1/300 of a second.  We now have photographic evidence that Ed cannot sit still for a tiny fraction of a second at the playground, though the dozer he was working with did alright.  However, after pushing the dozer around the wood chip section of the playground for 45 minutes, Ed was rather stationary as the evening wore on.

A Planned Absence and Nightly Rituals

Sometimes I wonder whether certain things can be hereditary, such as dietary habits.  When I was growing up I recall my father eating a bowl of cereal fairly regularly before he went to bed.  This was only odd as the man never ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast in the entire time I've known him; cereal was a bedtime food for him.

HRH is almost exactly the same way, she hardly ever eats cereal for breakfast, but always needs to have some before bed.  Her appetite doesn't seem to be greatly impacted by how much she ate for dinner either.  Tonight, by way of an example, she ate quite a bit for supper, yet still horked down magic starts like they were going out of style.

So, after the weekend lapse in coverage, it seems that we are back on a daily schedule.  That's right, you can now count on in depth coverage of the dietary habits of my kids when I can't come up with anything more interesting to write about.

Now That Was a Speedy Recovery

The life aquatic has continued on around here this week with a day of flat out rain today.  Being the clever person I am, I took off for a bike ride this morning.  All of use need to get out and run around during the day and I don't really mind going out in the rain.



Now a lot of people think that it is cute when siblings get along.  I'm sure that I will hear about how nice they look together and how cute they are, and all kinds of things like that, which is true in this picture.  This picture occurred over 1/200 of a second.  Very shortly after this 1/200 of a second they were fighting over who got to sit in which box with no one really wanting to relinquish control of the box in which they were currently seated.

Shortly after nap time HRH feeling under the weather.  The solution is to pound fluids and relax on the couch which wasn't really that appealing to Ed.  He and I went out to run some errands in town.  I vaguely remember when going out to stop at three stores didn't consume all my energy.  I honestly thought the clock was off when I saw we had only been out for just over two hours.

The weather is supposed to clear up tomorrow and HRH has made an amazing recovery, so things are looking up.

Field Tripping

Today was the makeup data for HRH first field trip with preschool.  Now, I'm not exactly sure what contest I won, but I was chosen to not only attend the festivities, but bring Ed with me.  However, dealing with my kids at the apple orchard really isn't that difficult as it provides everything children need:

1. Dirt
2. Places to Hide From Dad
3. Food Source
4. Rotten Food and/or Poop

As this would be our fourth trip to an orchard this season both kids were stoked to go again, HRH even more so as her co-conspirators would be there as well.  I won't bore anyone with the details, but I will say that there was a wagon ride in which we went through an Okra patch.  I hadn't ever seen an okra plant before and no one else on the wagon seemed to think it was nearly as exciting as I did.

Toward the end of the trip everyone gathered under the towering hay demon to be photographed.  The raven up on the arm appeared to be an actual formerly breathing bird, which I really thought added to the whole appeal.  I think the nature of the hay demon would leave a much longer lasting impression on young children if there was a speaker hidden inside.  As it was the kids weren't really that intimidated.  HRH didn't even stop eating her apple.

Turkeys Inside and Out

Ed learned a new phrase last night to great comic effect.  A few weeks ago the word, "noodle" was just as hilarious to him.  He couldn't eat his dinner from laughing so hard whenever anyone said the word.  Things won't be that funny to him again until college.



As the kids were working on their second or third breakfast this morning, it is hard to keep track, HRH ran into the kitchen yelling, "The turkeys are coming to visit!"  I wandered over to the window to try and figure out exactly what that meant in her world and it was pretty straight forward.  There were two turkeys browsing through the front yard. Of course our crack watchdogs didn't notice the birds for well over twenty minutes, but that is to be expected.



As I'm finishing up chores in the house tonight, I hear HRH milling about in the living room.  I look over to see she had dragged the bear out and was starting to tuck it in to bed on the floor.  She proceded to "read" the book to the pumpkin and bear announcing, "I'm going to sleep here" when she was finished.  I had to talk her in to going upstairs by explaining that Ed was going to get up much earlier than she was in the morning, so she could sleep in if she went to her own room.  I wish that someone would give me that kind of option.

Fall is Settling in Properly

Ed is going to be sadly lacking in pictures again today, though that is largely due to the fact that while HRH and I went out to pick up dinner Ed went for a walk with the missus.  Before I get too far into this post, I would like to mention that I'm writing it from the fire pit, which is pretty awesome.  Like I mention up top, fall is starting in properly right now.  It was chilly last night and we are supposed to be in the 40's and 30's this week at night.  That means we can start looking forward to snow which makes me very happy indeed.

But, as I was saying before I got distracted, HRH and I went to pick up supper tonight and we stopped off at a little roadside trail to kill time while waiting for the pizza.  The leaves have been turning for a couple of weeks now, but the high winds from the last couple of days have knocked a lot onto the ground.  After a couple exciting rounds of Pooh sticks from the bridge we were off to get the pizza.  Unfortunately, the establishment not only sold pizza but also had ice cream which was advertised by a large ice cream cone shaped sign in the parking lot.  If you think that escaped notice, you would be incorrect.



Also not eluding the notice of HRH was the people sitting in front of their fire pit as we were driving home.  The rest of the ride home was constant debate over whether there was going to be a fire tonight.  As soon as I got out of the car the missus asked if we were going to have a fire tonight, which pretty much sealed the deal.  However, everyone else has better things to do, so I'm left keeping an eye on the fire, which is really alright with me.

In Which There are No Pictures of the Children

Now, I am in no way qualified to determine whether something is truly organic, which has to do with the ingredients which compose the finished product.  However, if something is packaged in an aerosol container which doesn't really need to be in aerosol form, then the organic tag should be removed.  Seriously, how hard is it to make pancakes that you need to dispensed UNDER PRESSURE.

This post is brought to you by the fact that I went shopping this afternoon while HRH was not napping.  The really nice thing about the lack of nap is that she is comfortably asleep at 8:20 PM.  So I have that going for me.  Which is nice

Just When You Thought the Pink Dress Was Gone

I know it to be factually true that some people have to actually buy toys for their children, but I don't know that I have bought many for my kids.  You see, my kids have two sets of grandparents that have access to a community thrift store.  Being young kids new toy smell and packaging hold next to now importance, so pretty much everything has been checked over by another kid and passed on.

One of the things there seem to be in abundance are pink, princess costumes.  Now, when I was first told I was going to have a daughter, I made a solemn promise that I would bring her up right.  I would have a punk rock kid with black dresses and purple hair.  What I wound up with is HRH whose favorite color is purple and thinks that pink unicorns are the best animal in the world.  I even offered to dye her hair purple for her, but she wouldn't hear of it.

So today there were tears shed on my part when her pink princess dress ripped beyond repair  So it should come as no surprise to anyone that when the postman delivered a box from grandmother, it contained a replacement pink princess dress that was at least 40% more pink than the one I had just tossed.  And it has a dunce cap apparently.



Ed wasn't completely left out of the package.  He got some jammies that would be much more fetching if he had chest hair.

Rewards and Compost

Pretty much the moment that Her Royal Highness (HRH) woke up this morning, she wanted to put on her princess costume which she picked off the clearance rack at the toy store yesterday. It isn't technically a princess costume, it is a princess superhero costume which is apparently even better because I think that means you can fly as well. We are trying to use this idea to further a point the dentist made yesterday about the correlation between thumb sucking and orthodontist bills.

Seriously, have you ever heard of a super hero that sucks their thumb?



While HRH was sleeping Ed came outside to help me rake up leaves to top off the compost pile. I am going to complain about something I never thought was a problem before this house; I don't have enough leaves that fall on the ground in the summer. You see, I need some dry, dead type vegetable matter for the compost bin and this time of year leaves are falling all over the place. Except in my yard. I'm wondering if the neighbors would mind if I rake their yard. Probably not.

First Trip to the Dentist

Today was a big day for Dana, here first trip to the dentist.  She has actually been asking to go "visit" the dentist for a number of months now thanks to a Dora book.  Dora has a wonderful time at the dentist and even gets a cavity fixed while she is there!  I realize that kids books aren't bound by reality, but no one is ever stoked after getting a filling, that is just wrong.  Dana is kind of, sort of good about doing something with a toothbrush every night, so we were hoping for no cavities.

We went out for lunch together at a real restaurant, which, you can see, featured high class cuisine AND chocolate milk.  I've found that you can bring toddlers and pre-schoolers into most restaurants, but you should be prepared to tip well.



After lunch we headed off to the dentists office, arriving early enough for Dana to fill out the paperwork.  Unfortunately this kid has no idea what her social security number is, so I wound up stuck with documentation.  When the oral hygienist came in I fessed up to not flossing her teeth, but I did point out that we let our kids pick out their own toothpaste.  You can see the preferred brand of my first born and she must really like the flavor as I caught her drinking it straight from the tube last night.



The good news was that there weren't any cavities and hopefully having the dentist tell her to brush and floss will be more acceptable then listening to mom and dad.  The best part is that she seemed to have been alright with the experience overall, especially since the dentist gives stickers and swag.

Rainy Day Adventure

We have been really fortunate with the weather this summer. Pretty much everyday has been dry and relatively comfortable, which insures plenty of time to take the kids outside and run them to the point where they are tolerable for the rest of the day. Unfortunately into every life a little rain must fall and while we live in a house large enough to let the kids burn off some energy eventually they need to go outside or I'm going to crack. After nap time we went off in search of adventures in the woods.




I had been promising the kids we would find a salamander/newt in the woods for a couple of weeks, but they are pretty tough to find when it hasn't rained for awhile.  However, after a few hours of a light rain, Eastern Newts are pretty easy to find in the woods if you look through the leaf litter around the edges of the woods.  We found this little guy pretty early on in our adventure.  All kids like lizards and they especially like orange lizards that pee on dad's hand.

The other thing that kids like are spider webs.  Right along the side of the trail is this great funnel web the kids always like to check out and with the light rain today the web was really beautiful.





We wandered through the woods for awhile longer and I've gotten really good at identifying the point to turn around so no one wants to get carried until we are right at the end of the walk and I can happily tell them to drag it along on their own.  After all, the point is to wear them out, not wear out dad.  They had the entire rest of the day to work on that task.

Running Around

When no one has a traditional job in the house, the weekends aren't really that much different than the rest of the week, yet they still kind of serve as a firebreak from the norma routine.  Sundays are almost always kind of a lazy day, just making it up as we go along.

The kids almost never nap at the same time and Ed normally has a couple of hours of time by himself.  Today he and I went wandering through the woods picking up acorns and sticks when we heard someone sneaking up behind us.  Dana had woken up and she and Mere were following our wagon tracks.  We decided to head home so the kids and I could go the playground to give mere a break.

The playground on Sunday afternoon is always a hit or miss affair, especially during football season.  Sometimes there are bunch of kids there with moms that are trying to hide from the football game, but the weather was chilly and overcast today so there were only a couple of kids.  While Dana was off playing with some random children, Ed found a truck at the sandbox and proceded to move some serious sand.

Continuing with the Halloween Decorations

Dana has been going on and on about the approach of Halloween.  We hung the decorations up inside the house last weekend and every day she asks new fewer than three times whether or not we can go trick-or-treating.  I always tell her to get her boots on, but mere insists that we wait until the 31st.

One of the things that Dana insists on having is a scarecrow.  There was a near mutiny the other day when she saw that people had them out in front of their houses.  She couldn't understand that WE didn't have one in our front yard.  I tried to explain that we lack the necessary straw to make a scarecrow, but that problem could be easily fixed.  So, we bought straw.

Which the kids proceded to try and pull apart in the front yard.

So the straw has been hidden for the moment until the construction of the scarecrow begins.