Ah, getting out in this weather is just heaven.  Today we took a walk around our street, the walk we have taken hundreds of times.  Nevertheless, there are always new surprises, smells, treasures to find and things to do.  Today we walked by the creek.  Nothing extraordinary and not even very visually pleasing; however, the kids got to work digging up dirt and throwing it in.  This went on for about 15 or 20 minutes. 

It was so fun to watch their focus and to wach them working alongside each other.  There are days I want to put Quinn in a protective cocoon – later this day Tyler ran her down in his “speed bike”.  But these are the glimpses of the relationship that could be.  

On the hard days, I really do need to remember these walks.  Some days walks seem like the same old thing, but I need to remember that it is always different and there is something magical to be found if I just open my eyes and take my time – the kids will lead me if I choose to follow.

Finally!  A cold front of some significance arrived in Texas.  This will lower temps into the 70s for us, but today when it first hit, we sat in the 50s all day.  I should almost call it a winter day.  This morning I had so much trouble deciding which fun new fall clothing item I would wear on my first autumn day!  I was like a kid on the first day of school!

Quinn took a 2 hour nap today which is unheard of in these parts.  I can only attribute it to the half hour walk in chilly, windy weather, a change into a dry diaper and clothes (there had been puddle splashing going on), and then lulling to sleep in warm, cozy clothes.  Hmmm..maybe the cold weather will mark a return of naps?

We also made a pumpkin pie today with fresh pumpkin from our pumpkin patch pumpkins and a wonderul soup, bread, and salad dinner.  It was nice.  Not all days fall so gently into place.  This one did just like a leaf falling from a tree.   I love autumn..

1. I am working on his farm rug and he watches me making the crochet chains for the river. He asks me – “is that for where the water gets deep and all mixed up?”

2. The other day I asked Tyler, “who loves you?” He responds, “Grandma Havel.” We continue this game..

“who loves you?” “Pop.”

“who loves you?” “Grandma Susie.”

“who loves you?” “GranDaddy.”

“who loves you?” “Uncle Bryan.”

“who loves you?” “Aunt Lorena.”

“who loves you?” {shrugs} “That is all the people that love me.”

I thought that was a great inventory and pretty cute at the end..

3. A long, long time ago…maybe a year and a half now, my brother and his wife would occasionally take Tyler on adventures. I remember Chucky Cheese and then to a Native American convention downtown where he watched a drum circle with great fascination. He would fuss somtimes before he went, but always came back happy and had a great time. He still talks about those two adventures with fondness today.

On the third adventure, Tyler was very emphatic that he didn’t want to go. We didn’t force him and cancelled with my brother and kind of backed off of those adventures for a while. I felt the need to respect Tyler’s feelings since he could communicate them so clearly. We have been so busy with so much going on that we hadn’t really revisited those adventures with my brother. Tyler was going through the two’s anyway and could be a handful at times.

This afternoon my brother calls asking if he could take Tyler to lunch. He sees the kids about once every two weeks or so at my Mom’s or at our house, but Tyler hasn’t gone anywhere with him by himself. I ask Tyler if he wants to and he says, “yeah!” I am clear that it will be just him and Bryan. Bryan arrives 30 minutes later and is talking up a storm to Tyler. Finally Tyler says, “let’s get in your car Uncle Bryan and I will tell you more about it..” and heads for the door! I was so excited because clearly Tyler was ready to go and looking forward to the adventure.

Many times I never know if I am making good decisions, but I feel great about this one. Instead of pushing him into a relationship or on adventures when maybe he wasn’t ready, we gave Tyler the time and space he needed to build a trusting relationship with his uncle. And seeing how he is with Bryan today I can tell that totally paid off.

We went camping this weekend and for all practical purposes – it wasn’t that great.  See I am the camper in the family and am trying to convince Chris that camping is totally awesome.  I am not there yet.  The primary reason that this weekend was less than stellar was the weather.  A dear friend this was great camping weather and today a neighbor was talking about how beautiful the weekend was, but for Chris and I..well, we weren’t impressed.

It was 90 degrees Saturday.  I would never have thought making a reservation in late October to go camping that it would be that hot.  It isn’t that bad in Texas, but just isn’t great for camping.  Our tent was hot and it was very uncomfortable in the tent for sleeping. 

Then there are the slew of other reasons.  I realized I hadn’t showered in a few days, so I was already camping grimy before even camping.  The kids were very tired that night and were crankpots.  I set up the beds way to early, so the kids rolled around on them all afternoon and as a result they were quite gritty.  Being sticks and sleeping on gritty beds, well, it just ain’t that comfortable.  I do love roughing it, but you still have to be comfortable to sleep.  Oh, and somehow I didn’t shut the valve properly on Chris’ sleeping pad, so he had a uncomfortable night of sleep.  I did to being up from like 3pm to 5pm..finally around 5:30am it got cold enough that I was not feeling sticky, snuggled under the covers and slept til 7:30am.  There was a lot of poison ivy near the campsite and I was determined to keep the kids out of it – especially since I hadn’t packed a first aid kit with the poison ivy soap, etc.  (Did you know that thanks to global warming, we will see an increase in poison ivy?)

There were brighsides though – this isn’t all a whiny post.  There was a cub scout troop of like 30 boys having a campout and the theme of their campout was pirates.  Around 4pm, they all changed into pirate costumes, the hair, the painted on beards, the ragged clothes, some had earrings and many had swords.  The scout masters were captains and some had birds on their shoulders.  Later they had a big dinner and performed skits afterwards – it was the coolest thing I had ever seen!    The kids had a great time.  And I finally was able to make a successful cup of camp coffee for Chris!   

I did take notes on things that could improve our experience for next time which will be Thanksgiving at Lost Maples.  The weather will be cooler then, so that is already a positive.  We had a great time camping with out friends in the Guads, maybe we need to bring friends next time.  I saw many huge sets families and friends camping out there this weeekend.  It was neat and made me long to create a similar group for my kids as I had in my childhood.

I am still committed to being avid campers.  Getting out in nature is good for all of us and for the most part camping is a cheap getaway.  I will updated you on our camping progress after Lost Maples…

I just found the missing Chimalong (like a xylaphone) drum stick in a cabinent, on the drawer with my colanders. I am so pooped and that seriously just made my night. Those are the things after a long day that put a smile on my face. How the hell did that end up in there?!?

So we have been talking about bones with all the skeletons out for Halloween.  We have also been talking about the squishy stuff over bones.  Well the other morning we were poking our bones and squishier parts.  I showed Tyler my relaxed calf muscle telling him, “see how squishy this is!”  Tyler pokes at it and then tell me, “Mom, you need some bones in there!”

I overheard him talking on the phone to Grandma this morning..you know, I don’t get phone calls anymore.  Anyway, he was recounting all about our recent trip to the beach..

“Sometimes the water comes up to our toes and washed off the dirt”

“Sometimes there are big, big waves and if they come over you, you could drown”

“Piper, Sammy and Susan came with us.  Daddy was digging me a big hole and I sat in it.  He was moving all the sand out of the whole.”

He can recount all about our trip to the pumpkin patch last year.  He says, “there is a flatbed and a tractor and I rode on the flatbed.”  He remembers that there were, “lots of animals and hay and you could feed the animals hay through the fence, but you have to be careful so they don’t bite your fingers.”

It just blows my mind his ability not only to remember these things to such detail, but how he can spin a yarn around them already.  If you are in the mood to hear a story, Tyler has many to tell.  He loves to share his adventures with people…especially with his Grandma’s, both who listen so patiently when he does this on the phone.

It was a simple arts and crafts project.  We don’t do them often and I am trying to get in the groove to try one once a week.  Well this was a huge hit!  Quinn absolutely loves these things.  She will put the drum over her neck herself or just drag the two of them all over the house.  I  must give credit to Tyler who instructed me to put a strap on them.  Good idea Tyler!!

Dragging My Drums!

A VIDEO of us playing our drums!