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Company!

Yesterday I watched our neighbor Jack for an hour or so, and for the first time he and Eva were both old enough to actually play together--without needing me to mediate/translate. You should have heard the giggles in our kitchen.

Mmmmmm!

The other day I gave Sully a whole pear to gnaw on--they were soft, and I thought it might feel good on his poor swollen teething gums. He ate almost the entire thing! And after every bite he'd say "Mmmmmmm!" really loudly. (So cute.)

Look what Sully can do!

He's much happier about it than he looks here, trust me. Our little climber.

And also: Mom Talk about the Sully Bug.

Cheap entertainment at the supermarket:

Mama and Daddy's shades.

I hope you all had a fun weekend. We had some last minute plan changes, and we ended up with a cozy weekend at home. Much needed, and much enjoyed! Happy Monday, all...

American Gothic, Jr.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Packing up her bag for school...

Mmmm. Sand.

Story Time!

Used to be, Sully couldn't even sit still for a single page...now he'll sit through whole books! Sometimes. Once in a while.

...if he doesn't have something better going on.

Corn Maze!

Yesterday our little family tackled, and defeated, a corn maze. It took us awhile, and we're pretty sure we cheated just a little bit (maybe? or not? it may have been a narrow maze path, or it could have been just a regular corn row...who can tell, really?), but we finally found ourselves at the exit. And I had plenty of opportunities to make jokes about being "corn-fused," so I consider the adventure a huge success.

Anyone else ever conquered a corn maze?

Our Artwork Cat

Eva's becoming quite the artist lately (she tells me she's an Artwork Kitty), which is so fun for me because up to now I've barely been able to convince her to even pick up a crayon. Her favorite medium seems to be watercolors, and she often asks to borrow a small set of colors I have which Mike gave me years ago (Thanks Mike!). My paints are way better quality than her sad set (Which I think I actually acquired second-hand before I had children and tucked it away for my future kiddos.) (Ahem: Pack rat.) (Seriously. Who saves watercolors? You can get them for like a buck, can't you?), so she has much more fun painting when she's using my watercolors. It's amazing what a difference it makes to have good quality supplies.

Since she's been showing such an interest in painting, yesterday while she was at school I bought her a new decent quality set of paints (Thank you, Michael's coupon!), and set them out on the table with a fresh pad of paper as a surprise for when she came home.

As soon as she spied them on the table, she wriggled out of her gigantic backpack, sat down, and got right to work painting...and pretty much did nothing else but paint for the rest of the day. Right up until bedtime.

I think it was a good surprise.

(Interestingly, since we've come through to the other side of her "phase" this summer, her drawings have suddenly evolved from random wobbly shapes and colors and lines to very clear images of people [especially our family] and houses and animals, etc. That has really reaffirmed for us that she was definitely going through a big developmental shift this summer, which is reassuring. Plus, it's awesome to watch. Up there, she's painting a picture of yours truly. See the likeness?)