A Fun Guy with Fungi

I was looking forward to fall and it has arrived. The weather has been wet and cold and windy. Such soggy weather has produced some awesome mushrooms. Reuben hunted up a couple beauties the other day at the park.

In this picture I almost got Reuben to smile in my general direction by telling him I was going to throw him a ball.

Here's Miriam enjoying General Conference.

2 Months

Miriam turned two months old last week. She's proved herself to be an amazingly sweet and easy going baby. She's a keenly aware and observant little person. I feel surprised whenever I remember how young she still is.

She smiles easily and laughs and coos anytime she gets attention. On several occasions, I've been talking to Reuben only to look across the room and see Miriam beaming up sweetly trying to catch my eye.

Here she is hanging out on the basketball court while Reuben and I shoot baskets. You can see she's figured out how to suck on her fists which she seems to enjoy.

And here she is crying because her Mom keeps dressing her like a boy. We were low on laundry and after a few blow outs all I had on hand were Reuben's hand me downs. Sad day.

Speaking of Reuben, nursery has taught him to say "MINE!" and hoard his toys. To see it at home is kind of funny. He'll show Miri a toy then exclaim mine! and run away to barricade his cache behind pillows or the couch. He's constantly preparing for a show down. It makes me wonder what he's been doing in there. I think it's a little ironic that church has endowed him with an emphatic attitude of possessive materialism. We're going to have to work on that...

Here he is climbing on a statue at the zoo.

And here's a picture I found on my phone. I guess Reuben must have made it. I commend him on his selection of location.

Garden Raider

Lately when I turn my back on the garden I find my green peppers picked and looking like this. What back yard animal is responsible for such carnage?

If you guessed Reuben, you're right. He picks them all by himself.

He kind of reminds me of this guy.

By the way, my peppers have grown surprisingly well. I had no idea peppers grew so easily.

Pigging out on Figs

Figs are in season so I'm happy. There's not much that I enjoy more than fresh figs. I've tried to introduce Reuben to the small black fruit but he wasn't impressed.

Me: Reuben this is a fig. It's yum. Try it.

Reuben (carefully examining it): No.

Me: It's yum. Fig.

Reuben: No. oink oink

Me: What?

Reuben (pointing): Pig oink oink

Me: Not pig Reuben, Ffffig. Fig.

Reuben: oink oink oink

Now every time Reuben spies me eating a fig he points up at me and starts oinking. It makes me feel kind of self conscious.

Thursday was a very important day in Reuben's life. He figured out how to snap duplos together. He built this fairly impressive duplo tower car all by himself. I was savoring the moment, feeling proud of Reuben's brilliance. Then he dumped out the duplos and spent the next twenty minutes running around the house with the duplo bucket on his head.

Aaron's had to work some very late nights this week. Bath time on my own was a little unnerving at first but now we've got it down. The nice thing about having Aaron gone several nights a week is that it makes the nights he can get home to see the kids seem really easy.

Here's Miriam hanging out watching the action.

Here's Reuben filling up a bucket with water that he will try to pour on Miriam.

Loosing Sleep

Lately I've been unable to resist taking pictures of my kids sleeping. I like having some hard evidence on hand to prove that they do occasionally succumb to their exhaustion.




There is a reason there's only a picture of Miriam. Reuben has decided he's invincible and doesn't need to sleep. The scary thing is I'm starting to believe he may be right. He can stay very grumpily awake for forrrreverr.

The boy is currently sitting in his crib and singing an angry song about me. It goes:

Mama Mama up up! All done!
Mamaaaa Mama Manama
Meow meow mama meow
Mama Grrrrrrrr! Roarrrrrrr meow
Mama
Mama mammmmaaaa

I put him down for a nap more than 30 minutes ago. We spent all morning running around the park. He went to bed after 9 last night, was up before 7 and had no nap yesterday. How is he still going? I think he might be a mutant. I want to steal his magic powers.

The Usual

Nothing too exciting going on. Work and kids are keeping both me and Aaron busy. So here are some pictures.

Here's a sequence of pictures of Miriam smiling. When she smiles she's so happy she can hardly contain it. She smiles with her whole body, wiggling and kicking her legs.

And here's Reuben waiting for his dad to come home and take him on a bike ride. He hunts the house til he finds his "bike hat" then "dada's bike hat" then pleads for a "bike ride. bike ride. bike ride. Pleeease." The kid wears that helmet for hours in the vain hope that it will summon his father back from the office.

Reuben walking around everywhere in a helmet makes me look like I'm a really over protective parent. Sadly the helmet makes him so top heavy, I swear, he runs his head into everything - the table, Miriam's swing, the banister, me. At least he's protected and I'm getting my money's worth on the helmet purchase.

Goat Kisser

I'm feeling pretty good about today. I was brave and took Reuben AND Miriam to the zoo. I'm proud to say we all enjoyed ourselves. Reuben was thrilled to get out of the house and see the animals. Ialso enjoyed the outside world. Miriam was her usual sweet and easy going self.

It did take some juggling. We were in the farm animal section and a goat stuck its head out the fence. Reuben ran over gave the goat a hard look, then tried to stick his hand in its mouth. The goat lightly nipped him - which I think he deserved for trying to stick his hand down its throat. Reuben's response? He became determined to kiss the goat on the mouth. I tried to stop him but he wouldn't quit so I dragged him away to see the cow across the way. A minute later I looked down and discovered Reuben had disappeared. I looked back to see him planting a big wet smooch on the goat's mouth. What goes on in that kid's head?

And here's a picture of Miriam with her butterflies. She's cute.