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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...

David has learned how to crawl out of his crib. Almost on the same day he turned 2! Luckily, we haven't had any big crashes from the other room, so he must be pretty good at it. Last night he decided to get up in the middle of the night, about 2:30, and walk into our room, saying, "Hiiii" in a not very quiet voice. Funny now, but not so much when we are trying to get a few winks.

Fortunately, he went back to bed easily enough, and slept without any further interruptions. But I don't want to wake up one of these nights to a big THUMP! And then some crying, which would wake up Isabelle, probably scared to death, followed by more crying.

So, I took the side off his crib today. He has already fallen out of bed once tonight, but I do have a couple of couch cushions next to his bed, so no harm will be done. Now we just have to wait for him to learn how big his bed is. He does have a habit of scooting into a corner of his crib though, so we might have a few nights with many interruptions until he gets that worked out.

The other fun game is trying to teach him to stay in bed when it is bedtime. So far this evening, he got up about 4 times before he stayed in bed. I know that it is fun, when you're two, to get out of bed and peek out the door, but too much of that will lead to grumpy kids in the morning.

He loves being able to get in and out of bed by himself and insists on going back and forth to get more stuffed animals to sleep with him. This morning after saying 'Hiiiiii" to the kitties he was calling "Maamaa" and came in to find me. David wakes up easily and ready to go (unlike me and Isabelle), so no more taking time to leisurely stretch before getting up, until he realizes that dancing on the bed at 6am is not as fun for Mom and Dad as it is in the afternoon.

Julie and I made cupcakes for the kids from an idea that Julie found somewhere. Bugs in dirt! What better for a two year olds birthday?!? A little ground up graham crackers, some berries, and some candy, plus a little imagination, and, well, you can see for yourself.

Today we had a picnic in the park for David. It was a pretty warm Saturday afternoon, but not as hot as it had been, only the low 90s (33 C) instead of above 100 (38C)! We had an area under a lot of trees though, and there was also a breeze, so that was nice. Unfortunately, the picnic area was abused the night before, and was not clean at all! We had to do about 30 minutes of scrubbing the picnic benches and tables to make them suitable for a gathering of family and friends. After that was taken care of, I fired up the BBQ and more people had come, and the mood was a bit lighter. (Cleaning someone else's old ketchup spills and mashed french fries kinda put us in a sour mood.)



We had most of the family there, a few friends from daycare, and a few friends from before kids. The kids pretty much just played with each other, running up and down a small hill, and playing with an assortment of new squishy balls and blowing bubbles. We were so busy though, I don't think I really got a chance to talk with anyone aside from a greeting and a few sentences. I fired up the Bar-B-Que a little later then planned, thanks to the cleaning, but soon enough I had one grill loaded up with burgers, and another with our Bar-B-Que beans, which I heard were quite good :-P I also put on some Mickey burgers. I think the kids liked them. They ate them at least. Maybe it was only the adults that liked the burger with ears motif.

You can see from the pictures that we also had animal shaped plates for the kids. And the occasional adult. And yes, we also had a lot of tradional picnic food. Everything from spinach salad to potato salad. Then came desert.....

This morning we had a little celebration for David's second birthday. I made pancakes, which he loves! As does Isabelle. So we are off to a good start of the day already. Then we grabbed a few bags and boxes for the great unveiling. And, of course, Isabelle was right there to help.

The first gift was a big truck book with lots of glossy pictures. Ohhhh....big eyes showed it was a success. David loves trucks, and he gets really excited when the garbage trucks rumble down the street early Friday mornings. We also have the occasional delivery van or even a firetruck to get him all excited. Which brings us to his next gift, a big Tonka truck! Oh Boy! (He got another one from our beloved daycare provider too, which is great because Isabelle likes to push it around too.)

As far as David was concerned, that was the only present he needed. After that, he really didn't care about all the other cool stuff he got, which included; a 6 ft (1.8 m) rubber snake, a set of building blocks, a squishy textured ball, a couple more books, some clothes from Grandma Judy and Grandpa Jimmy, and a big flourescent tiger that farts from Grandma Judy. We also got him a pink umbrella stroller just like Isabelle's, so they don't fight over who gets to push their critters to the park.

Naturally, Isabelle was very good about teaching David to share that day. And she was really good about sharing and taking turns too. We did get her a present though, a birthday cake set (kinda like this).

Isabelle... Isabelle, Isabelle, Isabelle.

She is starting to say such funny things... The other day she told us that she needed to "drink a lot of water because she was flushed..."

She also said that her stomach wasn't "actually" full.

And then today in the car she said " Mommy, remember 3 days ago when that kid wanted to ride my bike, and I was like, Hey, that's my bike... you can't ride my bike."

I am afraid of the teen years!!!!

David had his 3rd developmental assessment this month. He actually scored lower this time than the last, but not because there are developmental problems... mostly just becasue he's 2. The P/T wanted him to play with things that he thought rather belonged on the floor. He was also a little bashful with her and spend a lot of time looking at her cautiously with his finger in his mouth.

He still runs with his shoulders pinned back a little, which indicated that his truck muscles are still a little weak. And they don't think that his vocabulary is where it should be, but again, his performance was not indicative of his ability. They want to see him one more time before he turns 3 just to make sure everything is moving in the right direction. He has another hearing test at the end of the month, so we'll see if there are any problems there. I think he's perfect and just fine.




I do have to say though, I don't remember Isabelle going through the "terrible twos," but I think we're going to get them with David. He is so head-strong when he doesn't want to do something, and yells "nononononono!!!" He seems to be listening a little better and following direction a tiny (teeny-tiny) bit better. He 's also very independent. I think it's interesting that Isabelle is thought of as the leader at her daycare, but at home we see that she often follows David. It isn't that she doesn't TRY to get him to do things her way though!

Oh and David is a little tank. He already weighs in at 32lbs and is just solid. I think he's on a growth spurt too. It's hard to tell about that though because he eats like I can't believe.

A few more camping shots:

A couple of weekends ago, we went on our first camping trip. We have wanted to go camping for a while, but we just new the kids were not ready. And boy were we right! Well, sort of.

We were invited to go camping with another family we know through daycare. Since they could do it, why couldn't we? So we jumped at the chance to go camping at a wonderful Lake Tahoe campground. We loaded up the kids for the drive up the hill, which went pretty well, especially since we gave Isabelle a little Dimenhydrinate. (We started to notice that on a few trips over 15 min, Isabelle was occasionally telling us her tummy hurt, so we thought we might try a little motion sickness medication, and it seemed to work.)

All in all it was a good trip. Camping is hard work though, and even harder with kids that you have to watch every second. After a night with no one but Isabelle sleeping David and after a long hike (where both kids had a sit-in protest for walking and had to be carried) we decided to pack up and head home. We were all pretty wiped out. It turned out to be a good thing, as we had a work BBQ to attend on Saturday and the extra day gave us the rest we needed. Also, if you've been watching the news, the fires in Tahoe are causing the bears to seek food where they can find it... including busting into people's houses. After seeing one on our hike and then hearing about him mowing through a Citronella candle that someone left on a picnic table 2 camps from us, I was ready to eliminate the risk of being bear food. Yikes!!

We're thinking that next year David will be old enough to stay in the sleeping bag and we'll be able to enjoy it a little more. Isabelle was a terrific little camper!!

We didn't have much time to take too many pictures, but there are some. We'll get them up in a few days...

Some more from our trip to San Francisco, including the aquarium, the hotel room, and the beach