We made our annual pilgrimage to the pumpkin patch. This year Grandma Cori was able to come with us, so the girls all watched the pig races while the boys played in the popcorn bin, jumping pillow, and cow tractor.
Faith is crawling on all fours now and, as you can see, gets herself in lots of tight spots.She has discovered the power of crying and is thrilled to death when her screams- which, by the way, sound like someone is pulling her fingernails out one by one- bring mom or dad to her room at 4AM.
We are OK with the "crying it out" thing, but three hours is a lot to bear. Usually she is happy as a clam though, and has smiles for everyone around her.
Tanner has four fangs. Seriously, the kid looks like a vampire right now. He has learned to say, "I love you" and when you ask him, "Do you know how much Mommy loves you?" he answers with an adorable, "I knooooooooow!". I wish I could record it and put it on the blog so I could listen to it when he is 16 and I want to kill him for staying out all night without phoning.
Jake loves his school. He comes home talking about new yoga poses he's learned, explaining what "cadence" and "tempo" are, and showing us his new football moves. He's exhausted at the end of each day, which makes bedtime much easier. He's asleep before his head hits the pillow on school nights. Weekends continue to be a different story...
There are lots of days when Brian and I (as a coping mechanism) remind each other that this trying period won't last forever, and too often we find ourselves yearning for the years ahead when they are all a bit older and (hopefully) easier. But there have been a lot more moments in recent weeks when we crank up the iPod and embrace the chaos, knowing all too well that this won't last forever.
Faith is crawling.Not in the traditional sense of the word- on hands and knees, chugging forward gracefully.No, Faith crawls like an inch worm. She is quite a sight to see.She starts on all fours, pitches her upper body forward, lands on her chest, rolls to her head, then pulls her knees up and starts all over again. As ungainly and uncomfortable as it looks, she moves quickly from one room to another, much to the delight of her two brothers who watch her and squeal, "Mom! Look! Look at Faithy!" or, in Tanner's case, "BABY!! Mama, BABY!!" They are both so obviously proud of their little sister.
Jake caught his first fish this morning! We set out at the crack of dawn (after the Mickey D's, of course) and went to Quinn's Pond in Boise. This is a little pond right in the middle of town, literally about 10 minutes from our house. The State of Idaho Fish & Game has a family fishing program and there are little stocked ponds all over the state so little trips like this are really easy and fun.
Jake knew that we were going last night. The plan was to leave early this morning and sneak out before Mom, Tanner and Faith woke up. To that end, Jake woke me up at 1:30 AM, asking if it was time to go fishing yet. He couldn't go back to sleep and spent the rest of the night in our bed. He was wide awake again at 5:00 AM asking if it was time to go yet. I managed to hold him off until 5:45 AM before I got up with him so Marisa could try to get a little more sleep and we set off at o' dark thirty. It was still pitch black when we got to the pond, at which point it was explained to me by Jake that it was my fault it wasn't light yet and that it was so cold outside. We came back home (again, not that far away) and got some mittens for him and set back out.
It was a beautiful morning, crisp and clear, about 40 degrees out. We sat on the dock and fished for about an hour before Mr. Attention Span had had enough and then we came back home. It was a really low impact trip, maybe we'll head back tomorrow!
