Sweet Spot

In the morning, Marley's usually up before Amelia. He has a really hard time waiting for her to wake up. One of his first requests of the day is to go and get her. When she does awaken, he's in there in a flash smothering her with hugs and kisses. She, too, acts as if they've been separated for weeks, beaming her big, gummy grin up at him. Even if this only lasts for a short while, I'm totally loving this sweet spot we're in right now where they absolutely adore each other!

Ps. I know I've been totally lacking in the video department lately. I have a few that need editing and a few that I just haven't gotten around to posting. I'll get working on that.

Amelia's first trip to the pool

Every week Jeff and Marley meet Troy, Jada, and Miles at the Tukwila Community Center pool.  Never having taken a formal swim lesson, Jada and Marley (and now, Miles and Amelia) are learning how to swim simply by having regular opportunities to practice in a relaxed environment with plenty of support from their Daddies.  Last week, Amelia, Sarah, and I decided to join them. Sarah did a great job capturing the action for us!

Wearing the life vest helps Marley build confidence and independence

He is learning how to move forward, backward, and spin around in the water

Miles loves floating around, and the occasional dip in the water, while Jada,  at age 4, is able to swim quite well independently

Jada swims over to see what Amelia thinks of the water

We saw neither tears, nor smiles.  I guess we can count that as a success

Already Amelia is learning about the properties of water

Remember when Sarah was here...

The day after Sarah headed back to the East Coast, Marley remarked during dinner, "Remember when Sarah was here?" We went on to relive Sarah's visit, and talk about how much fun we all had, and that Sarah's favorite color is brown:) Here are some of my favorite photos from her stay.

Happy Hallo-weekend!

For weeks before Halloween, Marley insisted that he was going to be Spiderman.  I kept telling him that we would have to look and see what they had at Goodwill, and that they may not have Spiderman.  We went shopping for the kids' costumes with Sarah, and she was able to find the one and only Spiderman costume - and it was in Marley's size.   We bought that and the "strawberry", which turned out to actually be a chili pepper:)  Later, Sarah and I spotted the elephant costume in a consignment shop window for $2.  Surprisingly, Marley chose the elephant for all four of our Halloween outings. 

Two parties, two rounds of trick-or-treating, and one carnival later, I think we are finally Halloweened out. We did an embarrassingly bad job this year of photographing/videoing our Halloween experience. Sorry, Grandparents.  In fact, I'm tempted to put Amelia back into her costume and take a couple more shots.

Getting ready for round one of trick-or-treating at Admiral Junction businesses

The Elephant and the Chili Pepper

Amelia was really difficult to hold in her uni-leg costume

Hiawatha Community Center Carnival

Marley was thrilled to be invited to Reid's Halloween-Birthday Party

Super fun Halloween party with the Huson's

Double Ear Infection

Just when it seemed like things were starting to improve, we had our worst night yet on Sunday night. Marley woke up crying around midnight and pretty much stayed that way until about 7 am. Amelia's congestion was still bad enough that she couldn't suck her thumb, so she woke up every hour or so. Jeff took Monday off work and we brought Marley to the doctor - double ear infection.

He started antibiotics and began feeling better right away. His last two nights of sleep were 14 hours (!) and 12 hours long. Unfortunately Amelia didn't get the "we're sleeping now" memo, and she's been up a lot during the night. She's still a little congested, so I'm hoping when that goes away she'll go back to sucking her thumb at night.

Despite the sleep deprivation, we enjoyed a lovely sunny Seattle day today. We traveled on foot to the post office, bank, toy store, library, and grocery store.

Yes, it is. No, it's snot.

My poor babies are sick. Marley is so congested that he can't even blow his nose. Amelia is just confused and angry that she can't suck her thumb at night. So, she wakes up crying every half hour. Maybe tonight will be better...

Oct 23rd Update: Things seem to be improving. Marley is not coughing as much, though he is still producing lots of snot. He's been sleeping pretty well, too. Amelia has still been waking up throughout the night, but can be suctioned and, fairly quickly, soothed back to sleep. Both of them are in good spirits during the day.

The Pumpkin Patch = Cute

This year we decided to go up to Edmonds to Fairbank Animal Farm, and I'm SO glad we did! For $2.50, we each got a cup of animal food to feed the birds, and a gigantic helping of CUTENESS! We started off by petting the pygmy goats. Anything with pygmy in front of it's name, is automatically adorable.

Cute little boy, cute little goats

Aren't they cute?

Marley loved feeding the ducks, chickens, geese, and turkeys. He did get his finger snapped by a goose, which he will probably never forget, but he recovered:)

Chickens aren't that cute, but Sarah and Marley are, so we're still okay

Piglets - CUTE!

Bunny rabbits - SUPER CUTE!

So stinkin' cute!

Aww!  How cute!

Freakin' Adorable!!

Other cute things of note: Marley petting a fluffy little duckling and a young calf, six tiny kittens sleeping in a pile with their Mommy, a little piglet sleeping on his Mommy's back, and the incubator where you could watch chicks hatching out of their eggs.

Other things that were fun, but not necessarily cute: a giant tee pee to play in, wagons to ride, a hay tunnel to crawl through, and a mini corn maze. Oh, and we even came home with a pumpkin!