Growing Grays: Leaves and Pumpkins

Ahhh - Fall! We celebrated the new season this weekend with a lovely dinner of roasted vegetables, grilled chicken, apples and raspberry rhubarb pie with my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Jon. We also raked leaves and took a walk to the local pumpkin patch. All of these seasonal activities were very exciting to the kids - Miles gets us all pumped by jumping up and down yelling "yeah! yeah! yeah!"

Miles continues to do well at swimming lessons and is getting good at the back float and is a pro going down the water slide at the pool. He is asserting more independence lately - especially when it comes to what he's wearing. Everyday he demands "comfy pants" which are either track or sweat pants. The only time he won't wear these is when all of his pairs are dirty and (gasp - the horror!) he's forced to wear jeans! He also only wants to wear t-shirts, long sleeve t-shirts and a red Nebraska Corn Huskers hooded sweatshirt. He cries if I try to get him into a sweater or collared shirt. He's going for comfort over style these days.

Hadley is also coming into her own - she has a solid grasp of the word "no" now and uses it often - even when she means 'yes.' She's at that age where she likes things a certain way too. We don't dare break up her morning granola bar and put it in a bowl. She now insists we open the wrapper just a little and give her the whole thing to munch on. If the granola bar accidentally breaks in half (which happens often) it really seems to be the end of the world at our house. Mike and I learn her preferences the hard way because although she has a good vocabulary she can't quite articulate all of her likes and dislikes yet. We're learning.

We also feel like referees a lot of the time between Hads and Miles. One is always taking the others toy or running over someones foot with the riding toys. Once Hadley gets a little older we're going to let them figure out these disputes but for now Mike and I might as well be wearing white and black stripes everyday.