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It's animal imitation time at the Team Kirby household! Yes, Isabelle is trying to be a horse about 80% of her playtime, and a dog about 15%. That other 5% will be anything from mermaid to cat, with an occasional bird thrown in to give the shoulders a workout. David is having a good time pretending to be either a cat, dog, or bear! Grrrrr!

Speaking of animals, we went out to the pumpkin patch again, and went to the petting zoo. Isabelle has been saying since the last time that "when she's a grown-up she can hold a bunny all "mybyself" without your hand on top helping, mommy." She was so excited to hold a bunny, I think she was about to explode. She did eventually sit down without her fanny wiggling, and we got a nice white bunny out for her to hold. She was so good about holding it on her lap and petting it gently, but then the bunny would want to explore, and she hasn't mastered complete bunny restraint yet, which is OK, so we would pick the bunny back up and return to Isabelle's lap. She thought this was funny. David was eager to see the animals too, but he was a little too busy, and a little annoyed by the wind that day, so his visits were shorter. They were more of: pet pet, let go to grab hat and look around at who's making all that wind, bunny scurries away...

No tractor rides that day, as it was a windy day, and the wind kept the farmers busy fixing fences, and stacking haybales. :-(

Isabelle says some of the cutest and funniest things.

When she smells a distinctive aroma, horses perhaps, she takes a big nose full and says, "I smell like horses" instead of saying what stinks or I smell horses.

She has learned to say "What?!" as it would be said in disbelief or doubt. Which is pretty funny to hear, but what makes it really funny is when she just blurts it out completely out of context. "Isabelle, did you have a good day at daycare?"
"Whaaat!"
Or, "Honey, don't forget we need to get milk this afternoon."
"OK, I'll swing by after I pick up the kids."
"Whaaat!"

She's also picked up, "No way, Jose"

The other favorite thing I hear her say is a kind of phrase anagram. Instead of "I'll do it by myself." She says "I'll my byself!" But she says it so fast and so naturally that it's hard to notice unless you really listen.

David has a few little funny things too. He's become more independent about walking by himself, so now if we're carrying him and he wants down he'll say" Mamma get down, walk like big boy." He also likes to run everywhere, but has started to learn to check with us. He'll look at us and say "Da-did run fast" and if we say it's ok, he'll hand over his zebra (you can't get up to maximum speed carrying a zebra!) and off he goes!

He has a bit of urgency in his talking now too... as though he has so much to say in his little mind that his mouth can't say it fast enough. And if you don't pay attention when he calls he says, " Mommy, mommy, moooooommmeeeee"

Oh, and both of the kids say that everything tastes like chicken. "Mommy look I ate a bubble. Tastes like chicken" "Mommy, I'm a puppy and I licked you... tastes like chicken"

We're so proud.....

Last weekend we were feeling the chill of Autumn in the air. Or maybe it was the 15 tons of pumpkins outside the supermarket. In any case, we decided it was time to head out to a pumpkin patch. We had though about going to the same place we had been last year, but we were a little bit afraid of how Isabelle would like it. Last year, they had a great time, but as you might remember, Isabelle saw a monster on a shed just as we were leaving, and that's all we talked about for the rest of the weekend.

So this year I was looking a page about all the pumpkin patches around the county, and we thought we'd try a new one. We picked Impossible Acres, which is a farm just outside town. I don't know what the name means, maybe because the farm we visit is more of a fruit stand and small event area, that couldn't possibly grow all the fruit and veggies they sell. But they know we don't really want to see all the rows and rows of tomatoes, or corn, or whatever out at the farm proper.















And boy was it a good choice! They had a nice sized pumpkin patch, and then two additional great attractions for the kids. A petting zoo with lots of little animals to hold and pet, and a tractor ride around the farm. The farm also had a few other fun things around for the kids, such as a couple of hay bale stacks for climbing on, and one which had tunnels and a sky port, for lack of a better word, which was a vertical tunnel to the top. They had a hay bale maze for children, wheelbarrows for rides to and from the pumpkin patches or just fun kid rides.

The petting zoo was the most fun for Isabelle, and I think David had the most fun on the tractor rides. Yes, rides. There's no way we could get away with just one!

Several months ago I wrote about how David likes to cook. He's less interested in pretend cooking with the play kitchen and more interested in being in the kitchen with me now. At first I thought it might be that we block off the kitchen and he likes being in there to see, up close, what goes on in there. That may still be, but few things seem to hold his interest as much as cooking.

Often, we would come to the baby gate stand hopefully and say " Hi mamma" to which I would reply, " Hi babe." One day he realized that he could shake the gate in a certain way and dislodge it. So now he comes to the gate, shakes it off the doorway and places it to the side, walks in the kitchen and says " Hi Babe... " to me. Then he gets the little wooden stepper and puts it close to wherever I am to see what I'm doing. Most often I am cooking, so he likes to talk about the fire and how you "don't touch, mm-mm, burn fingers, ouchie" Sometimes he likes to play with the various large utensils like the spatula, whisks, and spoons and pretend he's stirring.

Lately, every morning he's wanted to eat Malto-meal for breakfast. I think it's just because he wants to cook!

Three more Tahoe pictures

At the end of September we went to Tahoe for a couple of days with John's family. For the last couple of years they've rented a house for a week there some time late in the summer. Because of various reasons not worth explaining, we were only able to stay for about 2 days. The house was really cool with a nice big yard and the kids' first introduction to bunk beds!! They didn't end up sleeping in them, but Isabelle was into it, so that's good news for us getting some!

Anyway, one day we went to a park and the next day we went to a pebble beach on the Lake. The weather was really nice and because it was the end of the season we had the whole beach to ourselves. The rest of the time we just hung out with the family. The kids had a great time. They like the extra attention and the trips get easier as they get a little older and are a little bit more flexible about where they sleep and staying out of things that are not safe. It's rare that these rental places are kid proofed... But two days is just about enough for them (and us) to be away. None of us really sleep that well when we're away and the extra attention that's needed, cooking for big groups, extra activity that wears them out and all that goes along with being away from home is only good for that amount of time, unless we want to deal with melt-down.

Isabelle talked for days after about Uncle Greg. She had great fun playing hide and seek with Aunt Susie and Auntie Joan and wanted to stay at the beach "all day!" David has fun anywhere he goes and just liked running around being his busy self. He had the last of a lousy cold so he wasn't quite up to speed, but he's well- tempered so was still ok.

It is beautiful there, and when the tourist season is over it's doubly nice. Funny thing to say coming from a tourist.

More traintown images...

Isabelle and David are in a big train phase. I think it started when we went on vacation in the summer and we rode some trains. So we decided to take the kids to a place in Sonoma called Traintown!. I highly recommend it! It's not so big that you feel like you can't see it all in one trip (especially if you have to plan around a mid-day nap still...), but there's enough to do that you feel like the drive was worth it. And it's not that expensive. The only compaint I have is that they don't have much in the way of food... mostly what I call 'movie theatre food." Luckily, we always plan for these things and pack lunch.

We will look forward to going again as the kids get a little older. The kids were too small for some of the rides and maybe not too ready for some other like the old roller coaster. We really liked the train ride and the old carousel with the horses that went up and down! Here's some pictures-

So tired......




Must sleep........




Oh goodness... it's been over a month since we posted! Well, let's see. Since the last post we have put the rail back on David's bed. We kept thinking that he would figure out not to roll out of bed, but it wasn't happening. My suspicion is that he was rollling out onto the pillows below and waking up which would prompt him to come into bed with us 3 or 4 times a night. In any case, we were getting tired. Now the rail is to the lowest setting and he can get out with no problem but he doesn't roll out anymore. Now he just comes into bed with us in the morning, cuddles for 2 seconds before he's flipping and kickng and talking about how it's time to get up for milk-time or talking about trains and street sweepers. Very occasionally, he will go back to sleep. That's the good stuff...