Festivities

Happy Halloween! We've been enjoying the dramatic fall weather. The crisp air has turned all the leaves to brilliant colors. A strong cold storm blew in yesterday and gave us some snow. It also took most of the leaves off the trees. Winter is fast approaching.

Here is a little bit of what we've been up to. 

Reuben showing off his glow in the dark spider shirt that he got from Oma.

Reuben and Miriam making ghost houses (like ginger bread houses but with dark chocolate icing) with supplies from Grammy.

 Miriam diligently picking off all the sprinkles and eating them.

 We went to boo at the zoo at the Baltimore Zoo with some friends. I got lost in Baltimore. That city is crazy. I had a couple times when I looked around and thought wow, this looks just like The Wire (the tv show) then I thought oh no! this looks just like The Wire! (If you haven't watched The Wire it's a TV show that takes place in Baltimore that can be a little scary) Thanks a lot to my gps directions for taking me on the scenic route through the city. While seeing crumbling and burned out row houses was kind of disturbing, I did like passing my MICA, the art college.

Anyway, back to Boo at the Zoo.
 This is classic Miri. If there are two ways to get to a place, a smooth evenly paved sidewalk vs a treacherous ditch of rocks, Miri will always Always choose the treacherous rocks. Then fall down two minutes into it. Then scream at you til you pick her up. Then yell at you for putting her on the smooth sidewalk. Then walk back into the rocks. Then fall down. Then repeat.

The child has nothing if not will power.

After a little trick or treating at the zoo we saw the animals. Here's a donkey angling for Miri's lollipop.

 Miriam didn't give in, despite the donkey's best attempts to win her over.

 Reuben had fun climbing on the saddles.

 Here's Reuben petting a goat with his friends who are triplets.

 Boo at the zoo was Friday. Saturday we went to the Smithsonian. My kids love the discovery room at the natural history museum. Miri had fun with a shell necklace she found and kept on for about 30 minutes. There were some serious tears when I made her leave it behind.

 Here's Reuben contentedly examining a box of beetles with a magnifying glass.

 Miriam makes me laugh. She wanted to draw and talk on the phone while she drew.

And here's the finale. We went to our church's family Halloween carnival and Reuben WON the cake walk. When we told him he won there was a look of pure triumph on his face. It was awesome. I wish I'd gotten a picture.

He picked out his cake himself. And since it was his cake I let him do what he wanted with it which was this:

 and this.

I was happy he shared with his sister.

 Funny story: The lady who made the cake stopped me while Reuben carried the cake ahead. She warned me that there were gobstoppers on top of the cake and they might be choking hazards for my little kids. I thanked her and went to confiscate the dangerous candy off the cake. But when I got to where Reuben and Miriam were huddled over their prize, there were no gobstoppers to be found and everyone was still breathing. Happy Day.

For the party, Reuben went as "NOTHING! I am Reuben." and Miriam went as the known universe. Her dress is navy blue with silver stars and she had a silver star necklace. Aaron was anti-matter (he couldn't get off work and wasn't there) aka The Invisible Man.

Battle of Ball's Bluff

On Saturday we attended the reenactment of The Battle of Ball's Bluff. If you are interested you can read more about it here

It was an amazing spectacle. I expected to only see a final charge, but the action went for a while with troop movement on all sides and multiple advances and retreats. It was fascinating to see what I've read about come to life in a very real way. 

Miriam was on my back in a back pack. Whenever the cannons were shot (which was pretty often) she'd kick her legs and yell Boom! Boom! then jabber away about it. Reuben was a little less certain about what was going on and demanded Aaron keep him on his shoulders to make sure no one got him. 

Reuben watching the Confederate troops assemble before the fight

Miriam in front of the union cannon line before the battle

Union line trying to hold the left ridge of the bluff

After the battle, they let spectators go onto the battlefield and talk to the re-enactors. Reuben demanded to talk to "the cannon men." His line of questioning went something like this:
How do you make the cannon go?
What do you press to turn it on?
What do you put in it?
How do you cut leaves?
Where are the ants from?

I think the joy of getting all his questions answered went to his head. The cannon guy did a wonderful job answering right up until the leaf question.

Confederates after the battle. The re-enactors were serious about authenticity. Even after the battle ended they tried to keep true to the period. I know this kid probably wished he was texting on his phone but instead I saw him pull out paper and a nub of a pencil to start writing a letter.

All the guys we talked to were really friendly and did a wonderful job explaining their outfits, weapons, views on history and so on. I was in heaven. It was a lot of fun.

Union troops after the battle

This guy was great. He was super friendly and let the kids touch his uniform, try to lift his sword, wear his hat etc. 

Here's Aaron and some young confederates teaching Reuben how to load a gun with powder.

 After the event we enjoyed walking in the perfect weather and beautiful countryside.

Reuben identified some artillery wagons from about 300 yards away and wanted to go check them out. Miriam and Reuben had fun climbing all over them and dancing on top. 

 It reminded me of this picture. A year ago in November we were at Antietam. They've sure grown up.

Next year in September we are going to Antietam for the 150th anniversary. There's going to be a reenactment held at that time which I really hope we can attend.

Blessing For the Day

An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.  - Henry David Thoreau

 When I dragged everyone out the door for our morning walk, I was doubting myself. The rain was pouring down. It was chill and grey. I was grumpy. The kids were grumpy.

A mile later the clouds thinned, then opened, and this appeared:

 Miriam spotted it for us. 

 Reuben found the biggest Tulip Poplar leaf I have ever seen in my life. That thing was larger than my head.

 By the end, the world was wet and golden and the air crisp and clear and we were all a little happier. 

This is random, but I sketched Miriam sleeping while I waited for some work files to transfer last night.

She Takes Care of Herself

The past weekend our little family spent Saturday morning helping out at an eagle project. We cleaned up an elementary school playground and helped paint a map of the US, some four square and hop scotch squares, and an alphabet on the black top.

Reuben did a great job helping Aaron paint Arizona.

After I took this picture, Aaron and I had one of those, wait-a-minute,-where-is-Miriam?!?  I-thought-you-had-her! moments. We found her happily pushing her toy stroller a good hundred yards away from her family. I brought her back, kicking and screaming. She's an independent little soul.

Rain and Shine

Miriam  has been really sick the last couple days. Even when she feels awful, she still likes hats.

We told Reuben to smile as big as he could and this was the result.

Saw this on our morning walk a few days ago. Two minutes later the clouds closed up and we got drenched. It rained so hard we all had to change clothes even though we were wearing rain coats. I still think it was worth taking the time to enjoy this massive rainbow.

Man Eater

I was telling Reuben a story at bed time tonight. It went like this.

Once there was a shark who lived in the ocean. He felt hungry so he decided to go look for some little fish to eat. When he got to the place where the little fish lived, they were ALL gone. The shark was sad because he had nothing to eat. Then he noticed a big boat. In the boat were people. They had used their big nets to catch all of the little fish and they had not left any fish for the shark to eat. The shark was so sad because he knew if he did not eat soon he would feel soo hungry.

REUBEN - and die.

Me - um. okay. yeah. He'd die if he didn't eat soon.

Me - So the shark thought I need to eat something!

Reuben - or he would die!

Me - Right. or he would die.
So the shark thought of what he should do. He remembered that he had seen other ocean animals eat other things so he decided he would try it. He saw a bag bunch of green sea weed and he remembered that the manatees loved chewing on sea weed so he decided he would try it.

So the shark opened his big mouth wide and ...

Reuben - (urgently interjecting) And a person fell out of the boat and the shark ate him!

Me - uh....

Reuben - and the shark said yum! And he wasn't hungry anymore.

Problem solved. By Reuben.

Special Collections Library

Miriam has decided the funnest thing in the world is climbing dining room chairs. Trying to avoid a broken bone, I shoved all of the chairs tightly under the table. Problem solved.
Problem solved til Miriam climbed under the table and wedged herself up onto a chair. There she screamed angrily and flopped around til she pushed/rocked  the chair far enough from the table to pop up. I took her off the chair, put her back on the safe ground, and pushed the chair back in. She was back up in under a minute. It was impressive. Here's a picture of her in the process with Reuben cheering her on.

Success. Once at the table she flipped through MY book. My book is the Smithsonian Natural History reference book which I only allow Reuben to look at on the table after a clean hand inspection. No food or drink or suspicious behavior allowed.  If I guard something, it becomes irresistably attractive.
She and Reuben sat and books while I made dinner.  This is what happiness looks like to me. Miriam. Reuben. The Smithsonian Natural History book. <3

Panda-monium

There's that saying, a good compromise means no one is happy. Today both Reuben and Miriam wanted to ride in the big green swing at the park. Each of them became irate when they saw the other might get a turn. So I stuck them in the swing together. 

This was the result. 

It was a win, since they stopped fighting with each other, but a loss since their mutual antipathy was immediately channeled towards me. Nothing like a common enemy to make good friends. 

Miriam is a cute, red shoed panda. 

September is gone already?

 Hello friends. It's been a while.
Aaron and I both got hit with big work projects this month and it's been a struggle to keep our heads above water. The last two weeks have been especially challenging. Both Aaron and I were working well past midnight and up around 6 several days in a row.  How are the kids handling their zombie parents? Like this:

( If you didn't notice, Miri's snuggled up in the blanket.)

The hurricane passed, but the rain has been constant. Rainy days have been a boon to Reuben and Miriam's block tower building skills. We've had some pretty cool construction projects popping up. On our daily walks we've noticed an incredible variety and size of mushrooms appearing. They are everywhere and so beautiful.

In other developments, Miriam now knows her nose. (Say that five times fast) 

She's started talking about everything. She now says thank you, please, all done, gone, Reuben, dragon, kitty, moo, walk, outside swing car, walk, rock and a whole lot more. She has also figured out how to shriek like a stabbed nazgul. It's a horrible sound but she's found it effective against her brother. We're working on that. 

Reuben is doing well too. He's taken up map making. Whenever he draws he tells me he's drawing a map and then shows me where everyone lives and what is where. He's convinced we live in Africa (where lions live) and refuses to settle for the North American continent.

 Miriam can climb into any chair any where. She also loves her red shoes and screams in rage when we try to take them off for things like bedtime or bath time.

 Reuben and Miriam in Reuben's words "play a fun game" where Reuben pushes her on our neighbor's broken plastic car as fast as he can and she holds on for dear life. So far they both think it's hilarious and no one has been injured though I forsee an emergency room visit if it continues. Since it belongs to the neighbor I feel like I can't throw it away but I did kind of hide it in a very dense stand of bushes...

 Since it's October we carved a pumpkin to keep the ghosts away. Reuben wanted the pumpkin to have a mad face.

 We live next to a Catholic church. Miriam has decided she is in love with Mary. She demands to stop in front of this statue every time we pass and points and chats with it. Silly kid.