Standing

Cameron has been letting go and standing on his own today. Gabby mentioned yesterday that she saw him do it too.

It happens too sporadically for me to get a photo of it yet, but as soon as I'm able to, I'll share a picture of him standing on his own.

Being my youngest, I am in no rush for him to reach all these new stages of development. I am perfectly happy for him to take his time, but he seems to have other ideas.

Superboy

Why yes, it is the dog's costume. Why do you ask?

Connor Shares His Jack-O-Lantern With Us

Connor wanted to show everyone his "pinkin" and why he thinks it's so great.

Connor & His Pumpkin

Connor has become attached to a plastic jack-o-lantern that we had amongst our Halloween decorations. From the moment we got the decorations out (the day before Halloween), he has carried that jack-o-lantern around with him everywhere. He calls it, "my punkin."

Today, Robert caught Connor chatting with his jack-o-lantern. Then Connor put a blanket over the jack-o-lantern and pulled it off again saying, "Peek-a-boo!"

He adores it, and I have no idea how he's going to take it when we pack it away with the other Halloween decorations.

Happy Halloween 2009

The kids had a great Halloween, but we didn't have very many children come trick-or-treating. We all dressed up for Halloween, even the dog and cat. My camera battery went dead before I got a photo of the cat though, so I'll have to try taking a photo of him in his costume at a later time.

The Reason For My Typos

This is what happens when I try to type on my laptop.

Patty Cake

Gabriella, Isabella and Connor all sang "Patty Cake" to Cameron because he loves it when people sing the "Patty Cake" song. (He looks a bit serious at the end, but you can hear him laughing during the singing.)

Our Clever Dog

For about a week, I've been trying to teach our dog Mercury to "shake." I try about once a day, but he's very quick to pick up on things, and a couple of days ago, he started to do it every time he was given the command. So today, I videoed him doing his new trick. (Angelica is the one telling him to "shake" and giving him his treat.)

Jack-o-lanterns

Gabriella and Isabella wanted to carve pumpkins for Halloween today. Their daddy let them draw pictures of the jack-o-lantern faces they wanted, and then he carved their drawings into the pumpkins.

Some of the pumpkin got onto their drawings making them a little messy, but I took pictures of them anyway.

Candy Corn Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had some chocolate chip cookie dough for Gabby and Bella to make cookies. Robert surprised me yesterday by buying a bag of candy corn, because until recently, there was nowhere you could buy candy corn here in our area of England. Gabby told me she wanted to make "candy corn cookies," so they each put a piece of candy corn on each of the balls of chocolate chip cookie dough today and came up with candy corn chocolate chip cookies. They cooked well, looked good and the kids loved them! It turned out to be a terrific idea for Halloween baking!

Bra

I was in the shower today, and my clothes were hanging on the inside of the bathroom door. Well, as anyone who is a mom knows, we moms rarely get to take a shower without interruptions and today was no exception.

Isabella, my four year old daughter, came into the bathroom. From the other side of the shower curtain, I could hear her talking.

"Oh! I see your underwear! And your booby-thing! But it's not a booby thing, it's a bra! I know it's a bra and not a booby-thing. Do you know how I know it's called a bra? I had a dream about seeing one, and in my dream I called it a bra. That's how I learned not to call it a booby-thing and to call it a bra." (Emphasis on the word bra is hers.)

When she left the bathroom, I allowed myself a giggle over the conversation and decided to share the new term she learned with you.

Harvest Day!

Today is Harvest Day and Gabby's school put on a production for the parents. Apparently, some fo the kids wrote poems about Harvest Day and out of all of the children, two had their poems chosen to be read during the production. Gabriella had her poem chosen, as did her friend Adam (who's been her friend since preschool). They got to read their poems out loud during the Harvest Day production.

You can read Gabby's poem on the Imaginative Minds: Writing By Children blog.

And, as a special treat, you can even see her reading it to the audience in this video clip.

No Training Wheels!

Gabby has not had a bike that fit her for a couple of years now and because of this, she never learned to ride a bike without training wheels. For her recent birthday, her daddy and I bought her a bicycle.

Today, her daddy took her to the park to learn to ride her bike without training wheels. He noticed that she was overly nervous about falling while trying to ride on the pavement, so he told her to ride on the grass. Once on the grass, she took off with no problem at all (except for figuring out how to stop).



As well as learning how to ride her bike without training wheels for the first time, she achieved her 5 meter badge in swimming at school! She is learning new things in leaps and bounds this year!

Being Silly

Cameron was being a little silly today.

"Daaahh-deeee!"

Cameron said his first really clear word today: "Daaahh-deeee!"

Giving The Moon

Today, the sun is shining and the sky is blue. On the walk to school, Gabby and Bella both noticed that the moon was still showing. My kids have always been fascinated with the moon, especially when they can see it during the day.

On the way back after dropping them off, Connor pointed out the moon to me, as if it was a new discovery. Then he reached over to his baby brother Cameron who was sitting in the storller, andhe rested his hand on Cameron's shoulder. With his other han, he reached into the air, pointing to the moon. "Look, Cameron!" he exclaimed, "See the moon!"

Of course, Cameron just smiled at his big brother for paying attention to him and never looked in the direction of the moon.

although at 9 months old, Cameron is too small to ask for the moon, at 3 years old, Connor is already trying to give his little brother the moon.

And it made me smile.

Family Theme

I was reading some mommy blogs and came across Andi's blog over at Poot & Cubby which had a recent post about her daughter's first day of school. In it, she mentioned that her daughter's school chose a theme for the school year. The theme is "Courage To Dream."

I absolutely love that theme, so I've randomly decided to make it my family's theme for the year. I'm going to have each of the children (and Robert and I) write down the things we really hope for this year, and we are going to have the courage to go for all of our hopes and dreams this year, even if it means givng each other the necessary push to do so.

Anyone else want to join us? I'll share the lists we come up with later this week.

Isabella's First Day Of School

Isabella had her first day of school today! She looked adorable in her school uniform. She was very excited about her first day at "big girl school," and her teacher told me she really enjoyed being read to more than anything else. (We read to her at home too, and she does really like hearing stories.)

Gabby was really excited to have Bella at her school too!

Connor's 3rd Birthday!

Today is Connor's 3rd birthday. The only things he asked for were a "firetruck and a bus." Robert and I got him a fireman's costume. His Nana and Grandad got him a Fireman Sam firetruck. Cameron gave hima tiny (Hot Wheels-sized) red firetruck. Gabby gave him a Hot Wheels pack that had five emergency vehicles in it (including a firetruck). Isabella gave him a set that included a fire chief's vehicle with an attached trailer. Angelica gave him a Toy Story flashlight, and Kayla gave him a little bus. He even had some gifts to open from his Grandma and Grandpa (having picked them out at the Disney Store yesterday using the money they sent him).

He adored all of his presents, and he smiled all day long. When I took him to the park for photos, he was easy to photograph, because he was in such a happy mood.

We made him a Funfetti birthday cake from Pillsbury that my mom had sent to us (along with Funfetti frosting). I even managed to get his Aunt Leaetta and Uncle Robert to sing "Happy Birthday" with us through the webcam with Skype. He kept trying to blow out the candles ahead of time.

Connor & Sportacus

Connor is a huge fan of the character Sportacus from the Lazytown tv show. He tries to do handstands (with the result of him actually just putting his hands on the floor and only lifting one leg up). He even mimics the arm movements that Sportacus does before running to someones rescue.

Today in town, a Sportacus impersonator came to entertain the children, so we went to town. Isabella hid her face in my side, too scared because of the small crowd around Sportacus. Gabriella, being six years old, could tell that he wasn't the real Sportacus. Connor wanted to see him but was feeling shy, so Robert had to hold him by Sportacus for the photo.




Connor is really pleased about having his photo taken with Sportacus. The three of them also rode on one of those kid-rides (a horse), and enjoyed that too.

Remembering Fire Safety

My 16 year old told me this morning why she was so tired:

She woke up in the middle of the night because she could smell smoke. She looked around and saw nothing and was so tired that she fell back asleep! A little bit later, her 14 yr old sister woke her up because she too had been awakened by the smell of smoke. They got up and searched their room. 14 yr old's hair striaghterner had been left on and had fallen. Carpet was melting and causing the smell.

I'm freaked because this could have been the cause of a fire in my house that would have started in my teenagers room which is also in the way of the stairs. I'm glad they found it before things started really catching fire, but I am freaked nonetheless.