Just in Time for Cold Weather...

Fall is upon us. As beautiful as the leaves are and as much as I like apple cider, I am not the least bit thrilled with the fact that we are looking at several months of being stuck inside permanently.

Just in time for cold weather...
Imagination is really developing. At least Marcus's. This is definitely a plus because it opens up a whole world of play, one that we can really use while we are confined to the indoors. Earlier this week we made a (big surprise here since it was all Marcus's idea) a train. Marcus got all the chairs set up and I added the tunnel for some added fun.

Marcus kept yelling at Will all day, "Ride choo choo, Will!" The only downfall with Marcus's imagination is that Will doesn't quite get it yet. We have had a couple arguments that have resulted from this. The other day Marcus made Will some invisible cake. Marcus kept telling Will, "Cake, Will!" but Will was utterly confused as to why Marcus was chasing him around with nothing and just kept running and screaming, "NOOOOOOO!"

Just in time for cold weather...
The kids finally got to explore their playhouse that came with our new house. Greg was hard at work raking leaves and despite my input of, "This is going to end badly," he thought this was a good idea.

I was right. Marcus was in tears. Fortunately Greg was able to convince him that leaves were fun.

Then Will was happy to join in the fun.

While they were messing around with leaves, I was trimming back all the jaggers (thorny bushes for those of you not familiar with my dialect) and other overgrown foliage that covered the path a short distance into the woods behind our house where the playhouse is hidden. The kids weren't too crazy about crossing the swinging rope bridge to get to the playhouse, but once there they seemed happy to enjoy it.

And there was a truck inside! Not too much else there to do and not all that cool when your parents are with you instead of you just hiding from them, but it was nice... for 5 minutes. Probably won't end up going back to the playhouse until spring.

Just in Time for cold weather...
I have decided we need to bike more. I took the kids by myself to the Montour Trail on Monday for a little ride. It was downhill in the direction we took and I decided to turn around after two miles because it suddenly became drastically downhill and I knew I would never make it back up that hill with two kids in tow. Then I had the joy of going uphill for two miles with the kids riding comfortably behind me. It was not helping that my bike is still out of order. I really need to get that fixed. I just have to find a bike shop, and do it soon before I lose my desire to keep biking. Even though it was a lot of work, it was also great exercise and a lot of fun. I have this wild fantasy of getting my bike fixed and leaving Greg with the kids for a couple hours so I can bike some hills and maybe even some mountain bike trails. I just know that I will be impressed with my speed and maneuverability when I don't have kids dragging me down. And I mean that nicely.

Just in time for cold weather...
I discovered an indoor playgroup thing. My mom used to go sometimes with my niece and nephew. It is once a week in a big church social hall. We went to check it out today. It was great! So relaxed and just a couple kids running around and playing with some toys. There was no structure or commitment involved - just moms and grandmas and kids having fun. It turned out that this week it was all boys there too. Next week they are doing a little fall party thing and I plan to be there. I'll probably take the kids too. Oh, and on an adoption topic, someone at the playgroup asked me what nationality my husband was. I have heard that is a common question adoptive families get so I was prepared for it even though it was the first time someone asked me. I was half tempted to say, "He's Caucasian. What nationality is your husband?" I was trying to make friends though and decided (for once) not to be snarky and just said Greg is Caucasian and we adopted our children from Guatemala. Then the woman talked about how wonderful I am for adopting and I got embarrassed because it really isn't like that and it is weird when people tell you you are wonderful. I mean, I know I am wonderful, but adopting two kids isn't why.

I think there were a couple more things I was going to write about too but I don't remember and this entry is long enough so I suppose I'll post again soon.