November Pics

In early November, Robin and Liam both had a special overnight at their Ama and Poppa's house--without Mama and Dada.  Dean and I spent that time doing one more night at our timeshare in Avon.  Something like 30 hours without kids!!  It was amazing.  Here we are in the hot tub.

And here, eating a leisurely breakfast.  We made a Dutch Baby, which is something we haven't been able to do in years, what with Robin's egg allergy.

Liam started our library's toddler storytime, Teetertots, this fall.  The session ended a little earlier in November than it has in past years, and I was a bit disappointed that Liam wouldn't get a "Thanksgiving" storytime.  However, Miss Hillary apparently likes the Thanksgiving theme, because she did it early.  This turkey felt board is something she did both years that Robin was in Teetertots, and the first time around, it's what taught me that he was ready to do some crafts.  I was so happy that Liam got to do it after all.

The haircut cape Grammy gave to the boys finally saw use in November.

This was not Liam's first haircut, but its effect was still dramatic.  Where'd this little boy come from?  what happened to my baby???!!

Robin gets very few storytimes of his own these days, as they fall on preschool days.  However, he had a day off in early November and got to meet Miss Jordan, the new librarian doing Preschool Storytime.  This new librarian (Miss Karin is now acquiring new books for the entire library) is starting to incorporate crafts after storytime is over, and they made Native American headbands.

Robin and his friend, showing off their headbands

I helped Robin's preschool class bake pumpkin bread in November.  Two dozen children baking, can we say MESSY?!  It was a lot of fun though.

Yes, they used their hands to mix

The moms baked the bread in individual loaf pans, which each kid brought home

Dishing it up for the family

He actually didn't like the bread all that much--he liked eating the batter at school much better.  Good thing it was eggless (thanks to my contribution to the ingredients) and therefore salmonella-less.  I had a fun day helping him and his class--and I think he did too

Robin got to go to a friend's 5th birthday party.  It was in a rec center, and they had a bouncy castle

They also had these neat, connecting cart thingies.  The kids loved racing around on them

.

Robin and the birthday girl

Liam has started doing some coloring while Robin does crafts!  (When I can keep him from eating the crayons, that is)

Robin has made a cognitive jump recently.  He's started to realize that he won't be a kid forever.  Back at the beginning of preschool, I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up.  He didn't seem to understand the question, and after I gave some examples, he replied "I don't know."  But in the last month or so, he seems to have realized that he will keep growing until he becomes a grown-up, he will not live with us forever because he'll have his own house, and he'll have some sort of job.  He's been placing a lot of emphasis on things that will happen when he grows up (or "gets big," as he sometimes calls it) lately.  He tells us all sorts of things he will have at his own house.  He tells us the things he will do.  His brother will live with him.  He'll be a Dada--because he's a boy, and girls will be Mamas. He'll have two kids, both a boy and a girl.  Or wait, he'll have three.  Sometimes he'll name somebody (usually an existing family member) who will be the mama.  Sometimes Liam will be his baby (not quite realizing that Liam will grow up, too.)  He'll have eighty-eighty boxes of pancake mix.  (A lot of times he tells us he'll have huge supplies of things he likes.)  It's been fun to watch him speculate about the future.

He's also starting to tell us what he wants to be when he grows up.  So far he's told us he'll be a teacher, a pirate (or a pirate teacher,) a mailman, and a zookeeper.  "Teacher" is the one that comes up most often.

He's also starting to get an inner voice.  He tells us that he can say things in his mind and nobody can hear it but him.  Sometimes we play a game, where he says things in his mind, and we try to "listen" to what he says.  Dean and I will come up with all sorts of things that he might have said, from the plausible to the bizarre.  It's fun to get a laugh out of him, and also fun to see the slightly confused look on his face if we basically get it right.  Can we really hear what he's saying in his mind?  Nooooooo.  He knows that.  But he's having fun playing with it.

I may have reported on this before, but he also tells us that he remembers things in his mind.  I like that Robinism.