October

 

 Halloween fun and more...

Rub-a-dub-dub, three kids in a tub.

Adam got them matching shirts with his new company's logo.

I may or may not have fed them In-N-Out lunch at Lowe's so that I could get my shopping done in relative peace.

 

Kiddo Updates

  A clip from one of Gus's lessons.

Gus and Lu have been taking swim lessons for several weeks now, and this month Gus swam across the big pool and leveled up! He's also been sounding/figuring out words here and there. He loves the Dragon Box app on his tablet which is gamified algebra. He's already better at it than I am. Right now he's working on getting three stars on every equation (you get a score based on how elegant your solution is) so that I'll get him the next level. Nothing like bribing your kids to do math with the promise of getting them more challenging math. He's also very into Lego Star Wars and Angry Bird Star Wars right now (but he still hasn't seen the actual Star Wars movies). He spends hours building his own Lego creations and then he explains to me all the details that he's incorporated (this is a blaster ray...the engine goes super fast...). When he's not building Star Wars scenarios from Legos, he's running around the house acting them out.

She loves this pig at our neighborhood breakfast joint and asked for a picture with it.

Luci can do a mean backfloat in swim class (she's physically capable of swimming; she's just not mentally ready to do it yet). She loves Gus's tablet and I can't believe how great they are about sharing it. Not saying they never fight over it, but they're much more reasonable than I would have predicted. Lu loves puzzles so I put some puzzle apps on there for her and she'll diligently work on one puzzle after another. She has so much focus when she's trying to figure something out. She's also super interested in the Spanish and reading apps and has been asking for more Spanish shows lately and experimenting with using Spanish words. Lately she's mentioned several times that her favorite color is purple. Gus's favorite color is red, and she has a hard time wearing red now because of that. It's unfortunate that a lot of her clothes this season are red...

Pretty sure this is his first park swing?

Greger has been trying to repeat sounds we say. Pretty early for that, but I guess when four other people are constantly talking around/for you, you have to catch up pretty quickly. He gained a LOT of crawling speed this month and between that and his uncanny ability to find things he should NOT be putting in his mouth, there's no resting when he's not strapped down or sleeping. He loves music and attempts to hum along quite often. He's a terror on the changing table--we have a bedtime candle up there and often the lighter is next to it. He will move heaven and earth to grab the lighter and then he touches it to the candle; someone's been paying attention. He gobbles up any solid food that is set before him. His fifth and sixth teeth look like they're about to break through. That's a lot of teeth for not quite eight months!

Halloween

The kids picked their costumes out in September at Costco. When I was pregnant with Greger I had this idea that I would figure out some original, Pinterest worthy, family-of-five coordinated costumes...but the reality is that Gus and Lu are pretty opinionated these days, and I wanted it to be fun for them. And Costco was easy. Few things are easy right now, so done and done. Gus actually had no idea who Wolverine was, he liked the colors and the claws. Luci zeroed in on the Pirate girl outfit immediately and did not waver in her decision even when we found frilly fairy and Frozen costumes. And why should she? Hers came with a sword! The big kids thought Greger should be a pumpkin until they saw the baby dragon costume, which earned their unanimous vote.

I was trying to get a picture in the same spot as last year with their costumes after the library parade. This is probably the best one.

The second best one.

He loves getting into character.

Sleeping dragon.

A cute random pic I took at the Library costume parade.

Speaking of things that are not easy...getting three kids five and under to take a picture with everyone standing still, keeping their eyes open, and looking at the camera.

Outtakes...

Umm, might have been the best one if I turned off the flash...

Wolverine's expression says it all.

San Francisco

 Greger got to accompany Adam and I on a business trip to San Francisco, where we stayed at the Fairmont (big kids were with Grammy). This kid is getting quite a tour of the fancy hotels in the area.

We happened to be there the same weekend the World Series was taking place. When in Rome...

 

We had an amazing view of the bay from a huge picture window in our room. So of course we had to sit the baby up on the window sill and do a little photo shoot... It looks like a Photoshopped background!

We got a sitter and were able to attend the dinner at the SF Yacht Club. We arrived to a beautiful view of the Golden Gate as the sun was setting.

And we won the centerpiece flowers from our table. Boom.