October raptures

Okay, maybe we're not quite rapturous. We're rather earth-bound--that is, house-bound--at the moment, while we continue to wait for our car to get fixed. (The final cost is almost as much as the car is worth, so we're grateful our insurance is letting us get it fix rather than totalling it out. We do *not* want to look for a new car just yet . . . )

In other news, Andrew's class went to campus on Friday to visit the art museum and the natural history museum. Their visit also included a guest lecture from none-other than Poppy. The kids were super excited that he gave them each a sample of pyrite (fool's gold).

I spent a lot of time this week watching friends' kids. We regularly watch a neighbor boy three days a week during the hour his parents are both at class, and this week we watched one of Evelyn's friends in the mornings before kindergarten. They had a lot of fun together, but I have to admit I'm glad we don't do this every day. (As a case in point, one day this little girl wandered around the house in a ninja costume repeating, "I am the Master of the World!" I won't be surprised if someday she is: she's a very determined little girl. Kind of like this one.)

We've also been slowly getting ready for Halloween. Last Saturday, we walked to Jo-Ann's to pick up some Halloween decorations, including window stickers that Evelyn has rearranged almost every day this week. We also picked up some candy-melt Halloween molds and made marshmallow Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. (Not without some trauma. Andrew wanted to carry the bag back from Jo-Ann's, but didn't tell me he was having problems until things started to spill out of the bag. I took the bag from him, but it wasn't until Monday when we went to use one of the molds that we discovered it was missing. After back-tracking half-way through our route, we discovered the missing mold (still laying on someone's front yard) a good three or four houses before the point where Andrew told me he needed help with the bag. Let's just say I wasn't especially happy about having to go look for the mold.)

Pumpkins took over our garden this year, grown from scratch with seeds the kids got at a primary activity. (Seriously, I think we wound up with nearly a dozen pumpkins.) The kids decided we needed to decorate them, and I decided that paint was less messy than knives . . .

 

 The final works of "art." (Incidentally, the pumpkins and squash seen here were all grown in our garden. We still have a few pumpkins yet to pick.)

 

This has been a big week for Oliver. He's started walking! He's taken up to half a dozen steps at a time, though unfortunately, never for the camera. (Believe me, I've tried.)

He's also decided that he loves to sit on his rocking chair. And stand in it, which doesn't always end well.

  Sometimes he gets stuck, too.

In very random places. I was making dinner and heard him cry. This isn't terribly unusual because he tends to cry a lot when I'm doing something that doesn't involve him. But when I turned around, this is what I found: he'd managed to climb into the drawer and then couldn't get out.

He had his first oreo this week, too. I think he liked it, though he looks very introspective in these pictures. But there was nothing left of the cookie when we got him out of his chair, except for what was smeared all across his face and hands.

Now I'm off to enjoy the last session of General conference. So far, I think my favorite talks were Elder Holland's and Elder Uchtdorf's (yesterday) and President Monson's (today.) What about you?