ode to fall

We are having pretty spectacular fall weather right now. . .are you?  This is my first fall in a long time!  I was out of the country for seven years, and in Oakland, CA, for the five years before that, so I have been really enjoying it, and soaking up the beautiful and still warm days.  Winter is coming fast!

Dexter's in the grind of exams right now - tomorrow is his third exam - so Kyalo and I left the house for a bit so he could study in quiet.  A side note: school is going reasonably well for Dexter; he's rocking his exams which is great, and developing good relationships with his patients.  We only have nine weeks left in this semester; already, it feels like time is going fast. 

So while he was buried in books, Kyalo and I headed out to wander the neighborhood.  But first,  we had to take out the recycling. . .

will he always be this happy to do chores?

And here he is, actually doing it:

I love the clapping at the end; he's always so proud of his accomplishments.

Chores done, we headed down the street.  This is never a quick process because we have to stop and look at every rock, flower, garden decoration, etc.  At the end of the street there's a bit of hill and some old branches had collected there.  Jackpot!

First we inspected the big stick . . .

. . . but then quickly moved on to the branch! with all! the! leaves!

This was so fun, we needed to take it for a walk, of course.

Isn't this what everyone does of a Sunday afternoon?

I'm sorry to overload you with videos this time around.  It has been long!  This second stick walking video is a little long - I don't know how to edit videos, I'm sorry to say.  Watch what you can bear! :)

The branch came with us a pretty long way before he got distracted by other things...like more sticks and dirt.  

 eating dirt. does this mean I don't feed him enough?

 pretty tree in the 'hood

There's a house on a street behind us that has a lot of toys in its front yard.  Kyalo thinks those toys are there just for him and takes exception to the fact that I don't let him push the little mower thing around.  After about three times of me picking him up and carrying him away, he got so fed up he decided to just lie down for a bit.

 pouting

 but not for long

One more (long and shaky - I'm sorry) video.  This is in a driveway where we spend a lot of time...lots of bushes to attack (???) and things to inspect.  Now, of course, there are piles of leaves there, and that just adds to the joy!

That's been our weekend. I hope you've enjoyed this little glimpse into Kyalo's world.

California flashback

In August when we were in California we had a friend of Noelle's come take family photos of all of us.  After all, it was the first time we were ALL together.  Last summer, Dexter remained behind in Kenya, and Vera -- now 10 months -- wasn't born yet.  It was important to seize the moment.  Chances are good there will be more babies in the future (*** this is NOT an announcement; I'm talking to you, Alisa.***) so it is nice that we were able to capture things as they are now.

A few weeks ago we got our cd of 150+ pictures in the mail, and I have loved going through them.  I wanted to share them here, but thought 150 might be a tad excessive.  I've tried to narrow it down while still capturing the fun that we had that day.  Also, the new photo in my header is from that day.

This is such a fabulous picture of my dad, it seems only appropriate to start with it.

Kyalo looks a little spacy in some of his pictures, but still, I'm glad we got them!

Grandkids bring so much joy.

 I love those cheeks!

It is important to have at least one funny face shot!  Poor Vera doesn't look like she's up for it.

 lots of feet!

We pretty much didn't see these three while in CA because they were so engrossed with the iPad.

And here we all are!  Getting this many people to be looking at the camera, smiling and happy is basically impossible.  This is as good as it gets!

This is showing off Adam & Noelle's newly remodeled kitchen.  I love how Caroline and Kyalo are looking at each other.  They're besties.

 Adam & his gorgeous family!

We ended the evening with lobsters and steamers flown in from MA!  Since the lobsters are live until cooked, the kids had a good time playing with them.  I love this picture of Caroline & Campion.  You can really see their personalities shine through!

yum

And that's that!  Hope I didn't overwhelm you.  I wonder what the next family photos will look like!

field trip

Last Friday, my friend Melissa invited me to go to a Baby Sign class at a nearby zoo.  I invited my friend Jenny; she and I planned to make a day of it - pack lunches, etc.  I had thought for some reason we'd be sitting in a class room at the zoo (do zoos have classrooms?) learning sign, so wanted to be sure we got to see the animals!

Turns out, we'd be walking around the zoo, learning the signs for the various animals.  It also turns out that it was sub zero temperatures. . .or maybe just 45. Still, four hours in that felt pretty brisk.  We all had a great time - even if I didn't pay too close attention to the signs. It was a nice activity for everyone.  Plus, the cooler weather made the animals a lot more frisky, which was fun to see!

 Kyalo's bff, Ellen, appropriately bundled against the cold

 checking out the sheep

 and the jaguar

 Ellen had a good time!

Jenny & Ellen

Kyalo's favorite part of the zoo was the rocks, of course

Kyalo wants everyone to love rocks, too.

It is always nice to get out of the house so Jenny & I really maximized on it.  Since it was so cold we had to eat inside the little cafe, but a couple of cups of coffee & tea warmed us right up. 

I hope we'll get to the zoo again soon.

flashback

I have had these photos for a while, and keep meaning to post them, but time seems to get away from me.  The setting for these photos is our side driveway.  I was working on dinner and I had to send the boys outside so I could have some peace - it is harder than you would think to make a meal with a little person climbing on your legs!  But then when I looked out and saw that Dexter had taken the big ball out, it was too cute not to go snap some pictures. Dinner could wait.

 I don't know what's going on with his tongue here...so I asked Dexter about it - should we worry? His response?  "Not everything is a 'thing.'" Thanks, dear, that's helpful.

Dentists!

this is a common sighting in our house. dirt under the fingernails.  

After playing outside for a while, Dexter realized that Kyalo had made a total mess of the driveway and swept the dirt up.  But when we tried to put the broom away?

This happened:

Never get between a boy & his. . . broom?  You just never know what could happen!

It is interesting, though, because Kyalo does love the broom.  Whenever I get it he wants to "help" with the sweeping and gets sad when I put it away.  I look forward to the day when I can put sweeping on his chore chart.  Is tomorrow too soon?