Colleen's pre-birthday breakfast

We went over to Colleen and Joe's house for a Pre-Birthday celebration. The kids loved playing with Bailey Dog and of course loved breakfast! Such a great morning!

Hanging with Bailey

Lillian would sneak up and then touch Bailey's tail
then RUN AWAY LAUGHING!

Watching football.

Lillian was so tired on the ride home!

Saturday Morning: Breakfast and the Zoo

On Friday Simon asked if we could go out to breakfast and see the tigers at the Zoo. Since we didn't have plans for Saturday morning Alan and I decided that was a great idea. We went to Yolk (new restaurant in a location we've been to before which is on the way to the zoo).  Everyone loved the food. Lillian said hi to every waiter, waitress, bus boy and patron that walked by.

Coloring!

Hi Everyone!

His face when I asked him to smile.

Mama: No, Simon, a real smile.
Sigh

I think she's getting tired... but still waving.

There go the sea lions.

Lillian loved the sea lions too!

Climbing.

Exploring the area and saying hi to all the people.

This is primarily Lillian walking around. She pauses to dance because the guy she is looking at is playing music on his phone. Toward the end of this I also backed up and you can see the contraption Simon climbed through. It was a bit of a maze so Alan helped Simon navigate. 

Here she is watching the turtles.

Simon's Art

Simon's class has been working on how to draw what they are picturing in their head and not just "scribble scrabbles".   They've talked a lot about how to draw people and making sure you include important parts like head, feet, fingers, etc.  So lately Simon has been wanting to practice that all the time on his whiteboard in the kitchen.  The other night he and I drew for a while together, and he made a couple of fun pictures.

First he drew "Baseball Dracleah" (I'm guessing he heard about Dracula in school?) that he had first started talking about earlier that day while watching baseball with Mama. This one he did completely by himself.

The beginnings of Baseball Dracleah

Now that Baseball Dracleah has hands, ears, and a bat (under his ear), Simon started drawing a pitcher in the background to throw to BD.

The finished masterpiece

As soon as he was done, he immediately erased it (glad I took a picture). Then he and I worked together on a new picture that he called "Sam Francisco Mean". The blue marker is from him, and the black from me. But everything I drew was reviewed by him, and had to be redone if it didn't meet his standards, so he gets full credit for this one as well.

Today with Jessie

Lillian ate a banana that she held the peal for today. The whole thing! YUM. 

Lillian, Lillian and Jenn

Jenn came over on Sunday and we went out to take some family photos. Afterward we went out to dinner. Lillian has been teething fiercely and at the same time started becoming very independent. She chews on everything and really likes to walk places. If you're holding her and walking she'll frantically sign down until you let her walk on her own. Keep a good grip on her hand because she will usually wonder over to a tree to see if there is anything over there that she shouldn't touch so she can touch it. 

Saturday Baseball Game Demo

On Saturday morning while Lillian napped we turned on the 6th game of the World Series for Simon (we got a MLB app on Xbox which lets us stream all the playoff games). We were watching it and the bases were loaded and the announcer said something about the guy on 3rd was calling the shots. Simon didn't understand and asked about it. I paused and tried to explain and realized it would be much easier with props. Luckily we had everything we needed. 

I got out his football men and the little baseball diamond placement we got for his birthday and I showed him that the guy on 3rd had to run otherwise the batter would be out. It made much more sense after we talked about how only one person could be on base at a time. 

We left the guys and diamond out for the rest of the game and below is Simon's reenactment of a home run that was so awesome that the ball went through the football goal. Pretty impressive hit.

Alan used some wine for cooking dinner on Saturday night (Sausage and tortellini soup) and he showed Simon how the cork came out. Anything Simon wants to look at Lillian also needs to check out. Simon had seen wine corks out at a restaurant and asked where they were from, since we don't drink much wine around the kids he was confused. We told him next time we opened a bottle of wine we'd show him how it worked.

Halloween School Parade and Trick-or-Treating

Halloween at last! Simon has been talking about being a baseball player forever. Then when it was crunch time and he had to choose a costume he threw us a curve ball and decided to be a fire chief. He seemed really happy with the decision, so we went with it. In not too long baseball man will be a reality anyway! 

He went to school dressed up on Friday. They had planned a Halloween parade around the block for the PreK-5th grade, but the weather did not cooperate. Because it was snowing/sleeting in the morning they had the parade down the school hall. Not nearly as long or exciting as walking outside, but definitely much warmer and easier on everyone (especially people watching!)  Jessie, Lillian, Alan and I all went to watch the parade and then went home to get ourselves together to start trick or treating! The stores on Lincoln did trick or treating from 3-6 and we started right at 3.  There was crazy wind and a wintery mix of sleet, rain, and snow, but it was the first Halloween that Simon was into it so Alan and I were game (poor Lillian didn't have a choice, and Jessie manned the door back in the warm house). We finished with Lincoln around 4 and were ready to start trick or treating on our block be there wasn't really anyone answering the doors so we went home ourselves, planning one of us to go back out with Simon after dinner while Lillian was in bed. 

Around 5:30 when we told Simon we could go out again, he looked at the rain and wind-whipped trees and asked me, "Mom, who gets this candy if no trick or treaters come?" referring to the candy in a bucket by the door ready to hand out. I told him we kept it. Then he decided he didn't need to go out again. He'd just eat that candy tomorrow. Too smart for his own good!! He made himself in charge of the door instead. He got a chair and sat by the bucket of candy with the door open, anxiously waiting. He had a whole plan worked out: "Dad, when they come to the door I will put some candy in their bags for them, like this." 
"But Simon, sometimes people like to look and choose for themselves"
"Hmm ok... they can look in our bucket and say oh I want that one! And then I'll pick it up and give it to them.  And if they ask for something else then I'll give that to them"
"Don't you think that will be too slow if lots of kids come at once?"
"No no, I'll do it really fast!"
Sadly, no other trick or treaters came before it was bedtime... he was really disappointed about that. 

On Saturday, after lunch, we let him eat all the candy he wanted out of the bucket he trick or treated (from Lincoln, not our leftovers). It was then that I realized, he has never really had any mass market candy. He ate his first Snickers, first Kit Kat, first Twix (didn't care for that one, just ate chocolate off the outside), first Milky Way, had his first lollypop and ate his first Laffy Taffy, etc. He opened every sucking candy, took one suck and spat them out. When asked, whatever he was currently eating was his favorite so long as it wasn't a hard candy. Asked after the fact they *all* were his favorite. He made serious inroads, but since he could only eat candy at the table he got bored after a while (about half way through the stash and maybe 30 minutes in) and needed to go play. Candy was taken away at that point and no mention has been made since! :) 

Ready for school!
The megaphone has a button that made a siren noise.

Simon led off the pre-k class in the parade because he was being so well behaved that day.
Simon and Ms Roshea, Daddy in the background

On ground level, from left is Ryan, Ms Walker, Jack, Liam, Elisabeth (?) and Simon
More of his class is up on the steps.

Lucy, Ms Zairel, Maeve

Lillian loved the parade and saying hi to all the new people!

Lillian did not love her costume:

Psyching himself up to head out for some afternoon trick or treating in terrible weather

Simon the Fire Chief and Daddy.

Lillian the Puppy. Simon the Fire Chief, and Mama

One of the few not crying pictures of our puppy

One of our final stops Trick or Treating on Lincoln.
Both kids were super tired.

You know they were tired because after trick or treating they played happily together.

She just laid there for a while... too tired to get up!
It was an early bed time across the board.

Waiting for someone to come ask for candy

I think I see someone!

Daddy's lunch and Simon's lunch

Rotating through 4 different lollipops and an assortment of Skittles