Pumpkins! Or Lack Thereof...

We have a great "pumpkin patch" across the street from our neighborhood, although it's not really a patch, per se. It's actually just a farm with a bunch of trailers that they fill with pumpkins, gourds, and squash. I love it because it's close and because it operates on the honor system, and it's not all that often that you can simultaneously shop for large gourds and have your faith in your humanity restored.

Graydon first: highly skeptical

Yesterday we took our little pumpkins over there to get the obligatory "kids with pumpkins" pictures. It was a good plan, in theory, but in practice there were no pumpkins left except for one trailer full of mini pumpkins. Apparently there was a large demand for ginormous squash this year, but small was so last year.

He warmed up to it pretty quickly, decorating trends notwithstanding

We finally "persuaded" Ads to sit up there, by pretty much flinging her in the cart next to her brother.

Not ones to be daunted by mere failure, we plopped the kids in the trailers on top of the mini pumpkins...no doubt that was very comfortable... and tried to snap a few shots to prove that we are as appreciative of fall as any other Pinterest crazed parents out there.

It was not really that successful, either in terms of pumpkin buying (nil) or good pictures obtained (also nil). 

Oh well. There's always the local grocery store?

Don't even think about it, Mom!

Catching Up

So prior to my last post, the one with THE NEWS, about little E3, my blogging had fallen off a cliff into oblivion. But be ye not offended, dear reader, because my blog is not the only thing that I neglected shamefully for the last three months.

 A short and non-exhaustive list of other things I failed to do:

1) Clean my house
2) Clean clothes
3)Cook food
4)Buy food
5) Enjoy food
6) Parent with energy
7) Parent with lethargy
8) Parent in any meaningful way other than switching movies or ineffectually shouting at my children to stop wrestling


I could go on, but you get the idea. The first trimester is not kind to me, ergo, I am kind to no one. Fortunately other people are still kind to me, and thank God for my in-laws who took my children home with them and did no less than 11 loads of my laundry one weekend and basically helped me make it through the part of pregnancy where I was a shambling, retching wreck.

And thank God for my husband who picked up the slack and made sure that our children did occasionally get to eat hot meals that didn't originate in individual packaging. I couldn't enter the kitchen , much less open the fridge, without retching for quite a long span of time, so I think we can basically credit Tim for the fact that my children don't have rickets or kwashiahor or pellagra at this point. Just to really add a fun twist to pregnancy, we also embarked on this journey while Tim was still a trauma chief  (why? what were we thinking?), so he got to be on call every fourth night and still do most of the work around here.

The good new is that things could really only improve around here, and so they have.

Tim is off trauma and has no more call for the rest of his time at Mayo. My mind still boggles at that and I cannot really truly believe that my husband is actually going to be home every night for the first time in years. I keep waiting for the punchline of the joke.

"Story Time" :-)

We went on a vacation together, by ourselves, for the first time since Addie was born. It was surreal and glorious. We spent six days in the Pacific Northwest and not even a typhoon, a federal government shutdown, and a UTI that would not die could ruin the trip.  I was thrilling company, as I slept for roughly 15 hours every day, but fortunately Tim was patient and relaxed about our schedule. And I think that vacation was a big reason for the return of my energy and actual enjoyment of life. 

Ruby Beach, Olympic Penisula, Washington

Addie is a total "threenager" with all the drama and joys that brings. She's great conversation now and she makes us laugh regularly with her enthusiasm and her creativity. She also makes me dread the next decade or so when she gets into a snit about something and doors are slammed and creative insults are hurled my way. She has always been strong willed, and I think she'll remain that way for the foreseeable future, but she now tempers her strong personality with frequent moments of sweetness and heart melting affection.

Sneaking away to check out the water fountain

Graydon is obsessed with bears and wakes up talking about bears and how they roar and that they poop in the woods and sometimes they chase people. His other obsession is collecting as many toy cars as he can hold in his pudgy hands and then lining up the cars on something interesting. A stuffed animal, my leg, a big package of paper towels. It's like toddler performance art around here all the time. 

He wanted a peach. So he pulled a chair over and climbed up on the counter to get one. God help us.

E3 is 16 weeks old tomorrow and is starting to show. I have an anterior placenta this time, which means that my placenta is attached to the front of my uterus and is thus between me and the baby. It's unfortunate because that means that I can't feel E3 yet and I could always feel (and see!) Ads and G man super early on, at around 14 weeks. This time, not so much, and the midwives warn me not to expect to feel anything until around or after 20 weeks. But that is ok and I think by the time I finally do feel the baby move, I will be more than ready to rejoice over a new bond with the little person.

Here is what I should insert a "belly pic" but I don't have one right now. And I cannot be asked to take one pre 7 AM, so I think that will have to wait for next time. :-)