October Extras

There were October days that weren't spent in Florida or the Halloween/Simon Birthday Extravaganza.

Celebrating Sarah's 34th birthday. So much love.

We had a bonus child for a few days! Sarah's niece Catherine came to stay!

She is a busy two year old now! She painted and colored and played with Felicity while Simon napped and the girls were at school. She was our entertainment and always hoping to be a big help with Simon. When her baby brother or sister appears in December she's going to love her big sister role!

Sarah and her sister Bridget took Felicity, Simon, Catherine, and Elijah on errands one morning...four kids age four and under. That was it's own kind of adventure, especially as lunch got closer. Four hungry tiny ones are LOUD.

We also celebrated Grandma's birthday...all of her grandkids there to help blow out the candles!

Catherine did really well with us - she wasn't used to our hectic mornings and all the after school busy-ness of homework and dinner prep. But she kept up with all the commotion! And probably learned to cherish quiet in a way she'd never considered before.

When Annette and Tom came to pick up Catherine we surprised Annette with dinner out to celebrate her 30th birthday with her parents, siblings, and godparents.

Tim made the local paper for getting a flu shot. Slow news day...

Sarah and Miriam began working on the Blessed program to prepare Miriam to make her first Reconciliation in December. She goes to Catholic school and Sunday morning Religious Education at our parish. But we know the world's values don't always align with ours and she'll be facing challenges throughout her life. We want to give her a foundation in God's love that will ground her as the daughter of a King for the rest of her life. We're making sacramental prep a priority so that she's ready for the graces that are about to be poured into her life.

Let's see...Simon turned one at the end of October and finallllllllly stopped demanding to be spoon fed at every meal. The girls were all 100% done with baby food by the day they turned 10 months old. Vivian rejected the purees when she turned 8 months old. Simon was MORE THAN content to be fed every single bite of his food. But we did it! And he's a ridiculously picky eater. But slowly we'll conquer those taste buds...probably getting more than 4 teeth in his mouth should help, too. We'll find out as they pop through.

He's very, very active. Beginning to climb into his sisters beds, up and down the stairs with ease, in and out of boxes. No interest whatsoever in walking.

He took his first power wheels ride. Mommy wasn't home - this would have given her a heart attack.

And he's already being conned into pushing and pulling the girls around. 

This is just the beginning, Buddy.