playing catchup

--since we got back from all our travels this summer, we spent some time getting back into a routine. then we were settling into a new school routine, since aidan goes to school five mornings a week now.
--he loves school. they have music class, spanish class, computer time, and every wednesday they all wear a certain color. they learn a letter, number, and shape each week, and every thursday is show-and-tell with the letter of the week. he has new friends this year, because he and only a few others switched from three afternoons a week to five mornings. within the second week, he told me sophia was his girlfriend and he has to hold her hand. actually sophia told me aidan was her boyfriend. when i asked him about her he said she was his new girlfriend, but jarah, ella, and asha are still his favorite. (he didn’t say favorites…he said favorite. guess it’s an all-inclusive kind of thing!)
--last week we went on a field trip to hunt club farms. we rode on the hayride, the kids played in the massive mountain of hay, and each brought home a pumpkin. it was pretty fun. the weather was absolutely perfect. the next day was the second birthday party we’ve gone to for a classmate. (no longer just birthday parties for mommy’s friends’ kids…) it’s funny to see aidan with his classmates. they act all goofy, and have a blast. plus, he’s half a head taller than all of them!
--sierra’s more than two handfuls these days. when she’s not climbing on something, jumping off of something, or dancing in circles, then she’s taking off her clothes. in addition to enjoying being naked, she must be the one to dress herself in the morning. not just picking out her clothes…and she’ll get all dressed and then change them again…but she has to put them on herself. granted, she doesn’t do that quite right, but it’s a learning process. i let her pick out what she wears for the most part, and just have to ignore the fact that she’s wearing stripes on her shirt, flowers on her pants, and carebears on her socks. she’s still adorable, and it makes her feel good.
--she’s talking up a storm these days too. she tells me exactly what she’s thinking, and it’s rare that i don’t understand. potty training is going pretty well. she wanted to start eight months ago or something, but i wasn’t ready. i let her do it when she wanted to, but i didn’t push it at all until we got back from our long long drives this summer. didn’t want to hear “mommy, i ready to potty” every half hour on a 17hour drive!
--kids make things to send to daddy all the time. it could be a picture drawn on a restaurant placemat, something colored at school, or a craft we do together. we painted new jersey shore sea shells and mailed them. we also made frames to send…though i might be ruining a surprise for dad, since i’m not sure they’ve arrived at the ship yet. they get to talk to him every so often, and sierra usually just sings when it’s her turn. and every day they have a “kiss” from dad: a hershey kiss from daddy’s jar that they get to enjoy every day...sometimes a few a day. :)
--halloween was fun. we carved pumpkins with our neighbors kelley and roger. aidan wanted to supervise. he didn't want to get his hands dirty, but had no problem telling us what to carve...he was quite specific with roger's bat dimensions! :) ours was a spider...but of course i forgot to take a picture of them before they started to rot and fall in on themselves. oh well...next year. trick-or-treating was cool. sierra was minnie mouse and aidan was spiderman. they picked out their costumes themselves and were really excited about it. aidan did great...wasn't scared of anything. though sierra was a bit scared at times. i ended up carrying her for most of our mile-long trek around the block. still they got loads of candy...and we got several comments on their cuteness, but also on their manners. both said thank you to everyone! good babies!!