Getting chilly around here

The weather has set its pattern for the darker months - cold, damp-to-soggy, and all around bleakness. I actually like this type of weather in small doses. Perfect for knitting in front of the (gas) fire, hot chocolate excuses, and without all that blinding sunshine my house looks less dusty. But it is making the boys suffer from cabin fever already. J wants to be out there digging and running and jumping and tricycle riding - drawing letters just doesn't cut it for him. We try indoor dancing and how-many-can-you-run laps around the living room/kitchen/hall circle, but that gets old quicker, and unfortunately Mom can be really unreasonable about long distance couch bouncing. D doesn't mind as much, he's content to follow J around and copy him (shirt off? me too! hopping on one foot? me too! crying because he can't eat Halloween candy for breakfast? me too!) but that can be dangerous for him. If he gets too close or bumps some important J project, D is liable to be punched. We're working on that, but it would be a lot easier to work on it if the sun was shining!

D has started daycare for real this week, after visiting multiple times over the last couple weeks. Three days a week, same as J, and overall it is going as well as can be expected for such a big change in his days. He is very sad when being left, and cries when Roni shows up to pick him up, but phone calls during the day have assured us that he's playing and eating and napping with everyone else in a generally happy manner. Roni picks the two of them up earlier than when it was just J. We'd both like to have him home longer before starting daycare, but Roni has no other options if he is going to go to job fairs and interviews, and we really need Roni to have a job!

Belated Halloween pics for the grandmas:

Halloween was only one day when I was a kid

So, in the important question, "Am I the kind of parent who steals Halloween candy from her own children?" the answer has come down to a resounding Yes. In fact, I will even steal the best candies - the Reese's cups and the peanut M&Ms and the Almond Joys. I figure I have to steal now before they get old enough that they are counting, categorizing, rating, and hiding the candy and all that they offer poor Mom is the awful black licorice.

Why do they even have candy, this far from Halloween is the other question. Roni decided to take them to the Zoo's Pumpkin Prowl Sunday night, which turned out to be a preview of the real event for little kids - I guess to have the practice wearing costume without screaming, which D definitely needs. They got a bag full of andy, some beanie-baby bears, and little LED flashlights amoung other loot. D was slow to catch on that if he got out of the stroller, people would give him candy for that minimal amount of effort, but he did figure it out eventually. J, on the other hand, remembers last year, so he had Roni and I help him practice saying trick-or-treat before they left so he wouldn't mess up and risk losing any candy.

D was a caterpillar (cause we have the costume from last year) and J was a fireman - just don't look inside the reflective yellow jacket because I don't think real firemen's coats have floral linings.

Getting into the Halloween spirit

We went out this afternoon to meet up with cousins to explore the corn maze and pick out pumpkins, which is becoming an annual tradition, complete with picture taking on giant pumpkins.

My favorite part is always the corn maze, which is designed to be the state of Washington. We entered on the Idaho border and had to find our way out at Neah Bay. Cousin Todd wanted to hit I-90 and hightail it west, but we let the kids pick the directions at each intersection and ended up spending a lot of time exploring the rural parts of Eastern and Central Washington.

It was a grand adventure until we somehow lost Todd and A and then J face planted into a major puddle. He recovered well, after the screaming died down, and we explained that he couldn't strip off for the remainder of the maze. Mud from toes to his hair. It was a very dramatic splash.

We spent some time in the barn maze as well. Less muddy and with a slide that they thought was so great they had to go around twice.Then we began the great pumpkin search. I have strict pumpkin criteria - they must be round, smallish, and deserving of the label "cute." Also, J must be able to lift them. J participated enthusiastically, but D was more interested in his apple and rather angry that the pumpkins got to ride in the stroller instead of him.