Late Summer and Fall, 2012

It has been too long since we've put something up. Vacation in Pennsylvania was fun, Adam really enjoyed being with his cousins and still asks for Marshall and Alex occasionally.  I've put up some pictures, which look fine here, though our camera was set on 640x480 for the whole vacation, so on a bigger screen they look awful.  If any of you have some pictures from the trip you'd like to send us, we'd be glad to have them. 


We also had a nice visit in You Nork - seeing many of you, Megan, Heather and Dan, and other family.  Adam enjoyed Powers Farm and Bounce it Out with Alex, donuts and cider in Binghamton, and being spoiled by family.  He didn't even mind falling into the creek with me.  Anyhow, it was worth the drive, Adam and Evan were great in the long car ride, Evan only whined when he was hungry and when we pulled into Bloomington; Adam was good too.  Hopefully something comes out of the interview I did in Albany. 

The kiddos are good.  At Evan's 9 month appointment he was about 19 lbs, about 2 lbs lighter than Adam at that age.  Evan was an inch and a half shorter too.  So he's a bit smaller than Adam, pretty consistently ~25th percentile, whereas Adam was ~50th.  Evan did crawl earlier than Adam and is looking to walk earlier too.

We're trying to teach Adam the alphabet.  He doesn't have the patience he needs for it, but we've got flash cards with pictures to help.  He wants to read because we told him that when he can read, he can play our board games with us.  I don't know why he has such a fetish for board game pieces, but if it motivates him to read, fine by me.  He loves to make forts out of the pillows downstairs and decided at the county fair that he doesn't like horses.   

Evan is starting to walk.  He can take a few steps before falling and can stand for quite a while without holding onto anything.  He's verbally responsive to us, has clear wants, and gets frustrated trying to communicate them with us.  He rejected baby food months ago, and now just eats table food and uses a sippy cup for all but formula.  When we went apple picking, he got a hold of one, and literally ate it to the core with his tiny teeth. 

Lauren is doing really well with her fancy shmancy workouts in the morning.  She tries to do it five times a week, and is successful thus far.  She's ready to move on, we both are, but otherwise we're fine.  Aaron & Lauren surprised me for my 30th birthday.  Aaron came down without telling me, and stayed for several days.  Also, Aaron and my father got us a TV for my birthday, so we have something a bit larger than our 21" screen we've had for ~5 years. 

The weather here has cooled down, and we've started getting a fair amount of rain.  Too late to help the farmers, but probably helps the municipal water supply.  Anyhow, enjoy the pictures!