Mornings

The kids cling to Mike while he walks out the door each morning and then run to a window to wave goodbye.  It feels like full on trauma for these two each morning, having to say goodbye. 

I'll just let these pictures speak for themselves, but clearly sometimes it is hard to be a toddler and sometimes it is hard to be a mom. 

Lots of bumps and bruises

Both Lucy and Reid are very tactile children.  They like to manipulate everything.  But Reid, along with touching everything, is also very kinesthetic.  He likes to move and climb and run and fall.  Since he started walking he has not one day been without a bruise or cut on his forehead.  Not one day.  The latest bump was particular traumatic as it pulled the skin and fat apart between in eyes and created a great big hole through his nose. It was beyond my ability to stay composed over, but luckily Mike was home and a couple of his friends here are doctors, so they brilliantly took care of Reid. Reid was smiling almost immediately after.  He is tough.  He bumps and recovers in seconds time.  And a photographic nod to the final day of curls...    

Halloween 2013

If you are counting, this is costume #3 for Lucy.  Thankful for a dress up box to match Lucy's swiftly changing desires. 

Joy School Party {Doctor Lucy}

Pet doctor, that is. 

Ballerina

Just a few minutes before leaving for her preschool Halloween party, Lucy informed me that she couldn't be a vetrenarian because people would get confused and think she was a doctor.  I offered to bobby pin little stuffed dogs all over her but she passionately declined.  So we started pulling stuff out of her dress-up box and ended up deciding on a ballerina. She was pretty pleased with the outcome.  When we pulled up and all the girls were wearing fancy princess dressed, I felt so sad that Lucy would be disappointed with her pulled together clothes, but she didn't notice.  One of the things I love about Lucy is she doesn't get too concerned about what others are doing around her. Like on hat day, when I totally forgot to bring her funny hat, and I wrapped streamers I found in the car around her head, she love it. 

Snow Season

And the cold has begun.  The fall was perfectly lovely but seemed all too short.  Now it is jackets and gloves cold.  Lucy seems to barely notice a temperature shift and Mike even had to have a very serious conversation with me about putting socks on our cute girl even if she doesn't complain about the cold. I dread washing and matching all those tiny socks more than I dread pushing through the snow during the winter. But socks it is.

Denver Botanic Gardens

We had the most lovely day at the Botanic Gardens downtown.  It was probably my favorite city adventure with kids so far.  The paths were wide enough for two strollers, equalling moms that can talk, with lots of smaller dirt paths, equalling kids that can explore and feel independent. I think Lucy is in her element when she gets to feel like she decides where to go and how long to linger on something. And Reid was perfectly content watching everything from a stroller until we got to the children's garden where he soak up his own opportunity to feel independent.