The last month or so

We've been pretty busy over the last month or so. Too busy to post anything - that's my story anyway. We were supposed to spend our spare moments this Fall checking off everything on the To Do List that we didn't get to over the summer (which was everything and then some). So far this Fall we haven't checked off very many things but we have added some more. I see a pattern forming here. Part of the reason is that within days of turning three Seth turned into a hideous, monstrous beast of a child and I began taking "me" time whenever possible just to keep my sanity. He isn't quite as horrible these days, but I've formed something of a habit and am finding it hard to give it up - mostly knitting. In the last few weeks I've knitted myself a hat and scarf plus a hat for a friend's little girl and one for Seth. Here's the girly earflap hat (which looks much cuter on her) and my little munchkin modeling the "Regular Guy Beanie" pattern I got online. It's actually an adult pattern but something mysterious happened with my gauge and so now the plan is to make matching hats. Or, um, that was the plan all along.

What else have we been up to? I was blessed with the flu last week, hopefully for the only time this season. I've also been learning how to take my couponing skills up a level. We now get five papers every Sunday and I follow the sales at Fred Meyer and Albertsons to get the good deals. So far we've stocked up on oatmeal, granola bars, bottled juice, soup, cereal, pasta and lots of other stuff. Getting groceries for 50--75% off (and sometimes even free) is worth the extra effort to me, but hopefully it starts taking up less time as I get better at it. Between sickness and being gone from the house so much we haven't spent much time focusing on Montessori lately. Seth's lost interest in the sensorial materials that have been out for a while and I haven't set up anything new yet. He has been picking up other things though - he knows just about all of his letters and sounds and is getting better about identifying colors correctly instead of just saying the first color that comes to mind. I do find it interesting that after a year or more his favorites remain the same - I guess orange and W will always have a special place in his heart. We have noticed a big jump in his imagination and creativity. Following a little slower behind is his motivation to use them, but we encourage it where we can. This was Joel's attempt to show Seth what can be done with playdoh besides asking Mommy to make balls and sticks and then tearing everything into little bitty pieces. Seth was amazed at Daddy's artistic prowess and told him "good job" countless times. Here is Seth naming off everything in Daddy's playdoh train. In case it isn't clear to you, we have a yellow engine, green Herbie car, pink dinosaur, blue Herbie car, black Daddy's car and red Lightning McQueen. He also counted them off by numbers, but since he likes everything to come out even at 10 he often purposely skips some of the middle numbers. I can't blame him though, I always adjust the stereo volume in increments of two.

Benjamin is growing up frighteningly fast. He's turning into such a little boy, crawling at lightning speeds and getting into absolutely everything at all times. He's in constant motion, either following Seth or being chased. We've had to watch Seth even closer because he's begun instigating trouble where his brother is concerned, opening up doors to let him crawl into the room with the litter box, the bathrooms and even the outside doors on occasion. Here's a pic of our youngest troublemaker - but how can you stay upset when he looks at you with those pretty blues? And they go so well with his sweet potato orange nose.