My Monday

Today was just another day.
Norah and I dropped Toby off at preschool and then went to the library. I discovered a new book by Sharon Creech called "The Unfinished Angel." She is one of my favorite authors for kids, and this story seems to fit her usual style. Norah had fun picking out books and movies at the library. She is especially excited about a movie that had Bert and Ernie on the cover. I don't remember the name of it, but you can't go wrong with Sesame Street!
In the evening we went to a friend's house for dinner. On the way (it was dark) Toby pointed out a water tower (he's always finding them). I asked if he could see the tower because it was lit up and he said "No, I saw it with my carrot eyes!"
For the second night in a row Toby climbed into his bed and fell asleep while I was reading to Norah. He has even left his bedtime snack uneaten on the dresser next to the bed. I guess we're tiring him out. I know I'm tired!

I forgot to mention this on Thanksgiving, but Norah was as cute as ever with her antics. We took a couple of videos: in one she's talking on the phone (to no one) and in the other she climbed into her high chair to sit at the table and eat dessert all by herself. Toby, meanwhile, zonked out in a chair in the living room.

My Sunday

While BJ is overseas at a conference I'm here at home where it's business as usual.
This morning we went to church. Then the kids played in the sandbox.
We came home and ate a lunch of leftovers and soup. Norah spilled her soup all over the floor.
Then Toby colored while Norah took a nap. I watched some football, halfheartedly.
We played checkers and memory. We re-arranged Toby's room. (Norah was really excited to wash things -- a good thing, too, because his room was really dusty!) We took some pictures and Toby gave a tour to BJ (via the camera).
We made pizza and calzones for dinner.
I got kicked in the head while trying to watch the evening news. Toby was trying to wrestle me.
I gave the kids a bath.
Toby put himself to bed. Norah and I sang "Baa Baa Black Sheep" for a bedtime song.
The end.

My Silly Turkey Day Run

I went to the Mystic YMCA on Thursday morning to do a 3 mile run with a bunch of other people. That pretty much sums it up. I have no pictures because I ran all by myself (not whining about that, by the way). My headphones didn't work (pretty ironic considering my last post was about how I love running to music) so I eavesdropped on all the other runners instead.
It felt good to get out an run and then head home to indulge in the day's feast. Next year I'm going to do a run on Thanksgiving (location: pending) and I'm going to include the whole family, no matter how early we have to go.
Although I do have to admit that next year (if I run the Turkey Trot here) we're just showing up, not paying $15. I have yet to figure out what that fee was for, since the brown t-shirt I got couldn't have cost more than $3.

My Playlist

I went on a great jog this morning, and the thing that made it fun was the music I listened to on my ipod. To get motivated for running as it's getting colder I've put Christmas music on my shuffle. For my last mile I ran to an old version of Bebo Norman's "Joy to the World," then the Black Eyed Peas' "Let's Get it Started," followed by the Bare Naked Ladies' "God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen" with Sarah McLachlan. This is why I enjoy jogging: I can get outside and listen to a completely random mix of songs that keep my feet moving and make me want to go farther and listen longer.
While BJ and I were at the 5K race in September we saw one of his former students, a mom of two who was also running her first race. She said she enjoyed running because it got her away from her kids. It was a good break for her. While I agree with this sentiment I also enjoy running because I get to actually listen to songs that I like. I can hear the words and think about them. Not that there's much to think about with the lyrics to a song like "Let's Get it Started," but you know what I mean. I also have Collective Soul songs (what do you think about this line: "Jesus didn't speak English but I do think I understand the rhyme and the reason of a goody-good gentleman"), and a lot of Snow Patrol and Coldplay. I like experimenting with what I listen to on a run, and if you have any suggestions of songs you like to work out to then send them my way.
And now I have to go because Toby just brought me the door knob to our attic door. "It just came off" was his excuse. (We live in an old house. It's possible; in fact, it's happened before.) Since BJ's upstairs in his office working I hope, for his sake, he's not locked up there now.

My Favorite Fall Mornings

Today we're sipping coffee, listening to NPR, and watching the kids make something out of nothing (well, they have a cardboard box and some tape). The sun is shining in on us, I hear the heat kicking on, and there are remains of color on the trees peeking in through the windows. These are my favorite types of mornings. Thursdays tend to be a pajama morning at our house since it's the morning after BJ has finished teaching for the week and before he dives into paper writing and other school work. Thursdays are also my favorite edition of the New York Times because both of my favorite columns run: Gail Collins' opinion and Michelle Slatalla's "wife/mother/worker/spy." If I only get to read the paper one morning a week I'd pick Thursdays over any other day just to read those two pieces, which are far cleverer than anything I'd ever write. So maybe you should close this blog and go read their articles instead.

This morning I am delaying the inevitable topic of the month: we spent a good deal of time raking leaves this week (not my favorite fall activity), and it's not encouraging to see how many leaves are still covering our yard. But Toby's been a big help this year (a little more than last year). I know I whine a lot about raking leaves, but it's like whining about getting out the door and going on a run. I'll be doing it either way, and I'd much rather rake a half an acre of leaves with a four year old than write a term paper on realism-imitating counterfactuals or something on human rights.** I value these mornings more than almost any other time during the week and I just thought I'd share them with you. Now I'm off to crack open the NYT and check out a better column than this one. (However, neither of them have adorable pictures of children, so keep coming back if you want to see them.)

**These are papers that BJ has to finish in the next two weeks before he heads to Spain to present on "institutional accounts of correlative duties" at a human rights conference. I'm so glad he's getting his PhD instead of me, aren't you? :)

My Might

Toby's favorite thing when we cook a whole chicken is to break the wishbone with someone. Lately it seems we've been cooking a chicken a week and he gets pretty excited when he sees what we're cooking. He says: Is that a whole chicken? "Yes." Can I do the wishbone? (Usually this conversation takes place before the chicken is even in the oven.)
We just broke the wishbone from a chicken we had on Tuesday. I got the bigger piece. If this had happened a few weeks ago Toby would have crumpled to the floor and cried. But today he says "You won because I used all my might and you used all your might." I'm not debating the accuracy of that statement (truly, I try to let him win), but it did get me thinking when do I use all my might? And, more extrinsically, what use does a four year old have for the word might?

My Good Days

Good days are usually measured by what we can get done. When we can run multiple errands without the children breaking down or do several loads of laundry without leaving one in the washer overnight by mistake... you get the idea.
But on other good days I get to take a step back and see how my kids are growing and getting along and just bask in the fact that I am doing what I love.
Yesterday was a good day from the latter category. Honestly, I didn't even get out of my sweats (gotta love the new trend to wear yoga pants everywhere), but I took the kids to the Aquarium and we had one of the best visits since we started going there in January.
We got rock star parking--a good sign of things to come--and cruised right in. We went right to Toby's favorite exhibit, where he gets to touch sting rays. There were no other guests at the pool, so Toby could maneuver around the whole thing to get the best spot. While we were standing there with our hands in the water two rays and a small shark just swam by and rubbed up against our hands. So all three of us got to touch them! Norah was a little overwhelmed, but when we were leaving the tent she said "Bye!" to all the rays and sharks. Toby, as always, said it was his favorite part of the day.
We went inside and had the place to ourselves. We took our time through the exhibits and I didn't have to worry about losing the kids. We went to the Discovery lab area where Toby held a sea star, several crabs, and even got the volunteer to bring up a horseshoe crab for us to touch. So cool!
As we cruised around the place it was so fun to watch both kids enjoy all the colorful fish and other sea life. Outside we watched a little bit of the beluga whale feeding and then moved on to the sea lion and penguin areas. All five female sea lions were actively swimming and playing, which is something I haven't seen in all my visits there (except when we see the sea lion show, which we skipped this time). The humongous male sea lion was sun bathing in his enclosure so we got to see him close up, another first. Almost all of the penguins were out of the water and it was so cute to hear Norah try to say penguin. We also saw turtles, frogs, and fish along the boardwalk between the main building and the penguin exhibit.
I have to admit, I had low expectations for both the aquarium and my kids for this visit, mostly because it's the off season and because I wasn't sure how long the kids would last. I was pleasantly surprised on both accounts, and we ended up having a very good day.

My Phobias

You already know how I feel about spiders, clowns, and gorillas (and monkeys).
I am so glad I was nowhere near Denver this Halloween.
I read about this through a blog that I follow: See here.

(Sorry, if I knew how to put the video in this post I would. There's a video of it on youtube, too.)

My Tired Tiger

More photos to come from Halloween, but I just loved this one. Norah just snuggled into my shoulder as we were leaving the last house. I think she knew it was her bedtime!

My Son and Symmetrical Pirates

I just want to highlight an interesting thing Toby did during one of his quiet times. He played in his room for about an hour and then came out to tell me that his pirates were having a battle. He asked me to take a picture of their battle. Check out the mummies (which he calls "mommies") on the left. He arranged all these toys all by himself, and I've got to say that I'm pretty proud of the symmetry I see there. (That's the former math teacher in me!)

My Cowgirl

Norah loves taking baths. I pulled these pink cowboy boots out of the attic and she immediately wanted to try them on. They're a little too tight but made for some adorable pictures!

My Cool Tree

OK, it's not my tree, but we found it while picking apples at the local farm. Half of the tree is growing green apples and the other half is red. How cool is that?

My October Pictures

I've skipped September's photos and gone straight to October's crop for the slideshow. Enjoy!