Pumpkins and birthdays…

"I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion."
-Henry David Thoreau

A house can be full of toys, and a simple box will become the highlight of the living room.  It’s a good thing that the box came along, James made up a sign for the word “helicopter” (he puts his index finger up and turns it in circles like the helicopter blades) and since he’s come up with the sign he has been showing it to us non-stop in hopes we will fly the remote control helicopter around the house.

The box, if you were curious, contained a new table that we bought for the kids.  After James sufficiently destroyed everything that was left after the table was taken out, they enjoyed eating at the table and playing on the chairs.

Saturday was an eventful day.  After gymnastics, which Ashlyn is doing great at by the way, we went to Baby Ben’s 1st birthday.  The kids spent most of their time running around the house, hanging on Nina’s leg, playing with the grandpa’s, and stuffing their faces with sugary treats.  There was no nap that day, but it was worth it.  Happy birthday Ben!

And because one birthday wasn’t enough, we went to another one in the afternoon.  This was a costume party, so the Flinn’s dressed in costumes picked out by Ashlyn.  This year, as mentioned in a previous post, she chose a Star Wars theme.  She went as Leia, James was Yoda, I was a Jedi, and then there was Darth Mommy.  A couple of interesting things happened at the party.  First, James started saying “Ashlyn” for the first time.  And second, Ashlyn showed us how protective she is of her baby brother.  Another kid there took a toy from James and Ashlyn quickly scolded the child with a “Don’t take toys from my baby Brother!”.  She’s a good sister.

Halloween is less than a week away so it was time to decorate and carve the pumpkins.  It was a shock of course when the kids turned a peaceful pumpkin painting activity into something that ended with a trip straight to the bath.  I had to carry James in front of me the whole way to make sure he didn’t touch anything. 

Halloween is only days a way, bring on the candy so we can try to hide it before we have two sugar crazed children destroying our home!

Books and pumpkins…

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.”
-Emilie Buchwald

I realize I keep going back to this, but it’s our blog and I can write what I want to.  And what I want to write about is how well the kids continue to get along.  They play very well together; what one does the other will do, even when doing things they aren’t supposed to, like crawling on the table in the living room or spreading toys all over the carpet.

As a child, reading was on of my greatest pleasures.  It still is to this day, and we really want to instill the children with same the love for books.  That’s not an easy thing to do in the digital age, with big TV’s on the wall and at least seven devices capable of playing games or videos in the living room area alone.  So it’s nice to see James more interested in books than TV.  The pictures below were all taken within the past week, and it’s not uncommon to see James walking around the house with a book in hand looking for a parent.  If you are the one he finds he will make you sit down, crawl in your lap, shove a book in your hand, and give you the sign for “help”.  As long as he wants to read, there will never be a lack for waiting laps.

Here are some pictures of James with food and drink.  He’s a sneaky little guy, he will grab any food he can get his hands on and run off somewhere to devour it.  But when caught, he’s always willing to share.  He’ll share with Ashlyn, us, grandparents, pets, and ants.  What a nice boy.  Well, he squishes the ants afterwards, so maybe he’s just a regular boy.

When I mentioned to someone at work that we had to, by law, go to the pumpkin patch this weekend for pictures and the yearly choosing of the pumpkin, they looked at me like I was crazy.  I was then informed there is no such law, but why take the risk?  Not only are we able to sleep at night knowing we are law abiding citizens, but we get to have fun watching the kids crawl over pumpkins and bales of hay.  We picked up a beauty of a pumpkin this year and both the kids selected their own smaller pumpkin.  It should be interesting to see how they all turn out.

Helicopters and elephants…

"There are really two times when the circus means something to people. Once when they are children and see it through their own eyes and again when they have the opportunity to see it through their children's eyes."
-Art Buchwald

After a birthday party it can be natural for young children to hold on to their toys and get upset if their siblings play with them.  This has not held true with Ashlyn, she’s shared all her toys with James and even pulled him in to her imaginative play sessions.  For his part James has a great time playing with his big sister; he really looks up to her and tries to copy everything that she does.  I only hope we did a good job with her so it will rub off on James.

I know it will not come as a shock to anyone reading this when I say that Heather and I are geeks.  That’s ok though, because geek’s are cool now, right?  That’s what my other geek friends tell me anyway, so it must be true.  We want our kids to grow up just as cool as we are and so far they both seem to find Star Wars more interesting than kids cartoons.  Ashlyn likes the original Star Wars better than the newer movies, and this brings a Chewbacca sized tear to my eyes.

James is growing like a weed, both in size and in behavior.  He’s learning every day and is starting to work on puzzles and books.  He’s not doing either one of them very well at this point, but he’s starting to learn the concepts.  We still can’t teach him to stop chasing the cats though.  Some things are just too fun to stop.

Mom learned of a local community event at the Fire House and on Saturday we packed up the kiddos and took them over to see what we could see.  We weren’t sure what to expect, but it turned out to have a lot of fun things for the kids to do.  Ashlyn really liked the mobile command center.  James was able to leverage his current fascination with helicopters to sit in one and then see it take off.  It was great for the kids to meet some local heroes, and we’ll definitely be back next year.

Sunday was a special day for Ashlyn as Nina and Papa came over to take her to the circus.  We weren’t sure how well things would go; the last trip to the circus resulted in us leaving at intermission.  This trip was different and by all accounts Ashlyn had an incredible time.  The only time she cried was at the end when the show was over.  She got to ride on a school bus, an elephant, and a pony.  Nina and Papa spoiled her (and James) with noise and light making machines, and I can’t thank them enough for that.  Our house was relatively quiet this afternoon, and that quiet is completely gone with the new toys.  Thank you VERY much Nina and Papa.