Methodical, periodical, torture

 Early on we achieved a Zen-like calm with a sheet around the neck and white blankey carefully snuggled underneath. It didn't last, though. Time to invest in some new clippers that don't pull. These are getting a little aged.

And bangs! A little too short, and a little too crooked. Somebody wouldn't hold still...

What did you do for Veteran's Day?

Friday, Veteran's Day, was lovely. I wish we could say we did something patriotic, but we looked at birds. Free weekday admission to Tracy Aviary cannot be squandered. I had good intentions concerning the parade in Ogden on Saturday, but it was snowing. Also I have a laundry room I'd like to be able to use again before this baby comes.

We got to be there at feeding time for the ducks. We had just finished doling out the paltry handful a quarter will buy, when an aviary employee came up with a bucket of feed and hurled the bounty into the water.

The ducks swam away as they were pelted with food, then quickly turned around and started devouring.

Our own two little birds came along, one happily gliding her wings, the other energetically flapping his.

 As usual the peacocks were roosting around and on top of the building with the restrooms, where Nathan remembered there had been a nest with baby birds in a nest made of mud when we came on my birthday.

It was sunny, and for November 11, warm. One of the last good days to get out and do something.

Like get eaten by a pelican.

Our growing girl

A couple weeks ago Clara finally graduated. No more infant seat for her. Can you tell she's a little glad? The last month or so she frequently has complained at being strapped in her car seat. But no more. Now she's glad to go in the car. At 22 months, she's finally able to see what everyone else sees in the car.

[side note: My family has big babies. So I thought I would have big babies and I bought the infant seat that's good to 30 lbs. Clara finally grew out of it, not because she's 30 lbs. (she'd be doing good to clear 22 after a big meal) but because she's hit the height limit. And she always seemed to teeny to be forward facing.]

She knows the color brown and I think the color pink. The other day she told me I was wearing a brown shirt (I was) and this morning as I pulled two cups out of the cupboard (pink and green) she declared she wanted the pink one (does pink really have to be her favorite color? It's so...predictable). Also, how does she know colors already? It seems a little early. I'm not trying to make her into a baby genius, I promise.

So she's growing up. And is throwing the tantrums to prove it. The terrible twos have begun and she says no to everything. But she also says the most hilarious things to make us like her still.

*  We've been painting the laundry room pursuant to actually being able to use it again, and I had kicked her out so the paint could dry without her making a mess. I put the collapsible step ladder across the doorway to keep her out, so she stood at the doorway looking in. She saw her doll on the floor in there, and said, "Go to jail, baby!" We have been playing jail a lot lately, thanks to brother.

*  Sometimes she will squint up her eyes and say, "Where's my glasses?", making Levi realize how much he squints when he's not wearing his glasses. He feels like she's making fun of him, while I think it's pretty perceptive of her: if you don't have your glasses on, you have to squint.

*  Last night at dinner she looked at dad, pointed at his chest, and said, "Move, sister!" Which, if not effective, certainly got his attention.

Hope you're not too bored with the stories, but I have to write them down or I'll forget them all. Pregnant brain does that.

Assorted Halloween pictures

One quarter of our household absolutely loves Halloween. The rest of us are pretty lukewarm about it. Can you guess who it is? Nathan just yesterday designated all of us permanent Halloween identities: Nathan dragon, Clara witch, mom mummy and dad vampire. I'm trying to get him psyched up for Thanksgiving so we can leave Halloween behind, but Thanksgiving isn't spooky. And for a boy who's been sleeping with a spooky pillowcase for the last three months, turkeys and cornucopias just can't compete. He hasn't yet learned the allure of all that pie.

All told in the month of October, we went to two Halloween parties, had one pizza and pumpkin night, and oh, what else? Oh, yes. We tore apart our basement. It's making nice progress, but until then, here's some Halloween pictures.

 Rules for donuts on a string really don't apply to dragons. They just breathe some fire and donuts fall into their hands.

 We bought a pumpkin carving kit this year so we could do some different things with our pumpkins. After asking for weeks to carve our pumpkins (which we got to pick from a farmer's field a few weeks ago), we finally let him. Nathan was very involved in designing the scary face for his pumpkin. It had to have two teeth in its scary mouth, and he didn't like dad's idea of a jack-o-lantern nose. He even tried to help with the execution of his design, but. Give a three year old a knife? That's scary.

 Clara chose to have a kitty on her pumpkin. That's really all the help she was, apart from needing multiple diaper changes and having a really bad diaper rash, and at one point actually pooping on the floor. She was a little scared of the completed pumpkins, especially when we lit them in the dark.

 Clara really did enjoy her costume. She loved her hat and her stripey leggings. She just didn't want pictures.

Nathan never wavered from wanting to be a dragon for Halloween this year. He begged me for weeks to make it, while I purposely didn't finish it until the last minute so it wouldn't get destroyed before any of the parties. It looks simple (and it should have been) but I spent so much time on this blasted thing, since I made it up as I went along. I think it turned out pretty well, thanks to a prodigious amount of hot glue. Definitely better than last year's costume.