October update!

I always think that when Mia goes out of town I'll catch up on stuff, like blogging and cleaning and organizing and stuff around the house, but then when she comes home I realize I have gotten none of those things done. I see now that it isn't Mia who actually prevents me from doing these things; in fact she is at the age now where she can be quite helpful and fun to have around. She keeps it noisy and energizing to say the least. Her little sister now, is the one who is a work preventer. She wants to be held or carried always still, so she just lives on my back in the Ergo. Also, Mia takes nice long naps (well they are getting shorter now, but she has always slept between 2.5-4 hours in the afternoon!) but again, Eleanor is a barely there napper... she gets up around 8 or 8:30, sleeps for MAYBE two hours in the afternoon, then is up until we go to bed around 10:30 or 11. Can you believe it? At 9 months old. I am so spoiled with how much Mia has always slept, I just don't know what to do with a baby who is always awake!

I had some really funny stories to share, but of course now that I have a second on the computer to write I can't remember them. I should start writing stuff down...

I've been talking to Mia a lot about not touching her face and washing her hands all the time because of how ravaged our area is right now with flu, but I think she has it a little bit confused. We were in the car and she said, "Hey mom I washed my face!" (with water from her drink) "Can I touch it now?" she'll ask. Or Rex was holding her and she asks, "mom, is my face clean?" "um, yes I think so" I reply... "Oh good I can touch Rex's face now!" as she proceeds to give him a "good hard squeeze and good hard kiss" she calls it. When she goes to her dad's she gets to play with her cousins, one of whom she is madly in love with, KJ. He is 7 months older than her, and the exact same size, and they just look like crazy little twins when they are together. I told her that this time when she goes to visit to be very careful around KJ and not touch her eyes or nose or mouth without washing her hands because he goes to school and I don't want her to get sick because so many kids at school have been sick. When I told her she was going to see her dad, she said, "Can you call him and tell KJ not to come?" I thought she just had it backward and so I said, "yes dear of course KJ will be there." "No! She said, I don't want him to come because I don't want to get him sick!" That is true love guys. Seriously. That she would sacrifice seeing the love of her life, that they have already planned (I'm not kidding) their wedding, and what they are going to wear (she a beautiful dress and he beautiful clothes with a flower) and where they are going to live (on Grandpa's farm), and I have even been invited to throw flowers!, so that she wouldn't risk getting him sick, well who knew 3 year olds could be so self sacrificing!

This just doesn't look comfortable, but it is how she ends up every day after our walk. Between nap time and when Rex gets home (between about 4:30 and 6:30) we are so bored and have nothing to do (now that we are dinner sharing and I don't have to cook!) so we go for walks. Miles and miles we walk, for usually an hour to an hour and a half, up and down the street of our neighborhood. Eleanor looks at stuff and clicks her tongue (her new trick) and I answer and hours worth of Mia's questions, and we count things and spell things and just "bisit with each other" as she calls it when we have time to just hang out and talk. It is quite nice.
I talk a lot about all this healthy eating we do, drinking raw milk, making yogurt, soaking and sprouting beans before we use them, all sort of stuff my family especially thinks I'm crazy for, but don't let me get ya' fooled. I still feed my kids corndogs sometimes, and Eleanor can eat a whole one by herself!
Oh, and now we have this to deal with. We really really really really need baby gates. Sorry its goes sideways, hope you don't strain your neck watching it!

An after and during picture of our front door. I forgot to take a before picture, but imagine all of that raggedy white paint was chipped and peeling dark brown stain, and the trim around the door was chipped and peeling navy blue paint, and horrible gold lights and horrible ugly door. Here is what we have now though. We think the brightness of the red takes your eyes away from the ugliness of the rest of the house. Ah, so many more projects to come!

And finally, you would think after this summer's gardening fiasco that I would have given up, but no! I know that everything in my garden and flower beds died, but I made lots of mistakes, not watering regularly, planting things that were pretty but not suited for our direct Texas blazing sun. Not to mention the fact that we had the second hottest summer in recorded Austin history (for realz, like 6 more days over 100 and we would have tied the record!) and everybody's everything was cooked, even our neighbor's beautiful yard that they have professionally cared for is all dead, so I'm not taking it as a personal failure, and I'm trying again. These sprouts are some different lettuces, and some cilantro, and I'm gonna plant some garlic. Not going overboard, just some things to play with. Ok, well I think I've taken up enough of your time dear readers, I'll post more next time Eleanor sleeps until 11 am and Mia is out of town : )