This man needs a 12 step program.

In case you can’t tell he’s using his laptop and the internet on his iphone at the same time.

Emily was excited to be driving in this car cart. All of the sudden she’s just big enough to do so much more. Both kids were in awe of all the blow up displays that Lowe’s had. 3 aisles worth. Who knew going in for a new kitchen faucet would be so exciting.

Last week we went to the park. The weather was beautiful all week and I was disappointed in myself that we hadn’t been at the park every day. But we all played hard to try and make up for it.

Brenden always looks at the rock wall and when I offer to help him climb it he moves on to something else. He’s climbed down it a little in the past, but never up it. I was watching Emily and when I looked back at him he’d climbed up. Quickly. I was so proud of him 1) because he’s never attempted it before and 2) because I’ve seen older kids with both hands need help with it.

He also climbed this for the first time:

And Emily immensely enjoyed her first time in a park swing. Love her faced turned up to the sun.

I swear she climbed in on her own. And when I saw her in there I told Brenden. While I went to get the camera, he shut her in, but she didn’t mind.

She is a very good eater. She wants to be independent and tries to take the spoon every time. She always ends up such a mess.

I don’t think to open the front door very often. I think I also avoid it because the dogs will bark at anything they see and it kind of drives me crazy. But it’s very nice to have the sunshine come in and the kids always enjoy it.

He wanted to be able to play trains by everyone else so we took the table off its stand and moved it out into the living room. No longer content to be confined to the table, he’s begun building tracks from one end of the living room to the other.

I wanted to get a picture of him watching tv because he was so intent but when he saw the camera, this is the look I got.

I won’t take naked shots of the boy, but I loved how focused he was on playing in the tub.

One night when Brenden was supposed to be asleep I walked by his room on my way to bed. I found him like this, with his book propped up on his knees reading.

Once upon a time two kids, a brother and a sister, happily played together. The brother pretended his orange whistle was a conductor’s whistle with magic sparkle that would take him to the island of Sodor. The sister chewed on whatever she could get in her mouth.

But after a time the sister was no longer content with the objects around her. And she stole the brother’s magic whistle.

The brother was furious and demanded the whislte back. The sister being smaller than the boy had no choice but to let the whistle be gently removed from her hands and mouth. She half listened as the brother told her, “Don’t ever, ever steal my whistle again. Don’t do that. It’s a no, no no!”

After the tirade that seemed as if it would never end, the little sister expressed her sincerest apologies and promised never to steal the coveted whistle again.

This year Brenden wanted to be Thomas the Tank Engine for halloween. I asked him several times and gave him a lot of choices and every time he said Thomas. I also let him pick Emily’s costume with a choice between a fairy or a lady bug. He wanted her to be a lady bug, a choice I’m pretty sure she was not happy with.

We got a very short Halloween story to read this year and Brenden was all ready to say, “Trick-or-Treat. Trick-or-Treat. Give me something good to eat” just like the little girl in the book, only with a please tacked on. He was very excited and couldn’t wait for the day he could be Thomas and Emily could be a lady bug.

This was a very exciting change from the boy who didn’t even want to put his Bob the Builder costume on last year. The boy who didn’t even want to go up to people’s doors.

We had planned on going to a city sponsored event for little kids on Friday to ease into things, but Brenden came down with an ear infection Thursday night so we skipped it.

I guess our neighborhood starts trick-or-treating much later than I would have though because there really weren’t many kids out when we were. But we made our way around the block and stopped at any house that looked inviting. Brenden didn’t manage to say anything to people but he was very brave about going up to the doors and holding out his bag. Maybe next year he’ll speak!

Emily was tired and not at all thrilled about not having her feet free. But she sure looked cute.

Getting excited to get into his costume.

Casper the friendly ghost.

Waiting for it to get dark enough to set out.

Afterwards, watching the greatness that is The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.

Brenden Sings

I have lots of things I want to write about and I hope to get that done over the weekend. But for now, here is a cute little clip of Brenden talking and singing.