I'm Buzz!

Tuesday night was our church's Pumpkin Carving Party, complete with kids in costume and their little parade. Each child got to walk across the stage and tell everybody who they had come dressed as. When it came to Arran's turn he bounded on to the stage and confidently stated his name when he was asked, then with equal enthusiasm and energy he told 'Uncle David' that he was Buzz Lightyear when it was quite apparent to all that he was, in fact, dressed as Woody. As everybody laughed he suddenly looked a little sheepish and embarrassed, bless him.

What the majority of people didn't realize was that all day he had excitedly been planning on dressing as Buzz, that had been his intention all along. However, at the last minute, his cousin had turned up without a costume and was upset. We offered to let him wear Arran's Woody costume (which we had brought with us as plan b, in case Bryttain decided she didn't want to be Tinkerbell after all), but he just became more upset, crying that he wanted to be Buzz. Without any hesitation Arran said

"That's OK, he can be Buzz and I'll be Woody".

In that moment I don't think I could have been any prouder of him. He gav up his costume without having to be asked, without any complaining or second thoughts. He's always been like that...even at a young age if another child would take a toy he was playing with, instead of crying or throwing a fit he would just say "That's OK" and find something else. Now he's not perfect, after a day of his little sister continually taking from him, he does have his limits and will eventually have a meltdown, but it takes a lot.

So his apparent confusion was totally excusable and understandable, once you know the background. He was Buzz at heart, but had sacrificed for his friend and appeared to be Woody. If only we were all a little more willing to sacrifice so easily and cheerfully.

Brtyttain was the perfect little Tinkerbell, complete with spunky attitude (no surprise there).

Here is the very cool grey/green pumpkin that our neighbour Joanne grew and gave to us, that they helped Daddy carve.

It's official!

This evening Asia took her first steps!

We've been expecting it for a few weeks now, she's seemed so close, barely holding our hands to walk around and even standing for a few moments here and there. She is ten months and three weeks old, the youngest of our three to take her first steps...but that has been her since birth; she's done everything earlier than her brother and sister. She sees them doing their thing and wants to join in the fun. She has no care or concern for her poor mother who wants her to be a baby for as long as possible. Fortunately her cuddles and kisses that she has now started to initiate, instead of us initiating, help me a little. It's so fun to see her making decisions for herself and following through.

I am so proud of her, my precious baby.

Free JJHeller album download

She came and sang at our church a few years back and we bought the album she was promoting back then. It took me a couple of listens, but I thoroughly enjoyed her music and the simple, clean tone of her voice, the lyrics that challenged and inspired. Anyway, she's offering a free download of her new album until November 1st in an attempt to get her music into the hands of more people. I haven't listened to it yet, but I have downloaded it and am looking forward to hearing more from her and thought I'd share with anyone else who might be interested.

Hopefully the link below should work and you can download and help promote it too, and even make a donation if you enjoy it!


ADD THIS BANNER CODE TO YOUR PROFILE/SITE/BLOG!

Fun and laughter

This is my baby! I love her to bits and am so enjoying how her little personality has been developing. She is at the stage where she loves to play games; games of crawling chase, or being pounced on and tickled. She just squeals with delight and giggles uncontrollably and she has that sense of anticipation now too. You can see it as her eyes get wide and her grin starts, revealing all those little teeth...I could just eat her up! I think it's the best sound in the world, children's laughter, there's nothing contrived or fake in any way about it, it's just real and honest and contagious and makes me feel happy.

It still amazes me that for such a long time I really didn't want to have children, that I really didn't 'get' that they were little people, not just a baby or child. I didn't have a clue. I'm so glad that I changed. It's hard work sometimes, but they have made my life so much fuller and richer than I ever could have known or expected. The sacrifices that we have to make are more than made up for.

I love them unconditionally and always will.

Priceless!

This is one of those shots that you could try to plan for, for hours, days, weeks, months...and still miss it. It was a blessed timing moment, that just happened as I was about to take the shot. I love the expressions on all of their faces (even the dog in background is caught up in the moment) and how they are all leaning in. Of course, I'm not exactly sure what caused this response, it may have been an amazing trick shot, or the planes coming really close, but in all honesty, I don't care! I love this photo! It captures what I wanted this time to be about.

This is Fleet Week, so we drove down to Fort Baker. We had a great view, we were before and under the Golden Gate Bridge, to watch the Navy Ships come in (which we missed) and the Blue Angels, doing their displays. In England they're called the Red Devils, I find it kind of amusing that they're called the exact opposite here.

We weren't there at the right time to see the Blue Angels, I think these may have been the Canadian planes we saw, I'm not sure, but it was probably all along the same lines, right?

Fun at the pumpkin patch

Yesterday we paid our first visit of the season to a local pumpkin patch; Adobe Pumpkin Patch, here in Petaluma. We met up with the cousins and some friends and had so much fun. Between clambering up the hay bale displays, jumping on the bouncy house, looking at pumpkins and flowers, visiting the animals, eating some lunch, the castle, the teepees, ALL the pumpkins...everywhere....of every size and shape and type imaginable.

It was a beautiful day, very warm, not too hot with a slight breeze. The kids all did great together and did not want to leave, even though it was way past my kids' nap times. I love for them to get to do fun things, to get to just be kids and laugh and play, without the worries of the world that can bring us all down at times. This was one of those times where it was all about fun and being outdoors.

Outdoors Time

We went for a little family hike yesterday. That is a hike, in as much as the kids can handle hike, or a hike for them, a walk for us. It was such a beautiful day, much warmer than we'd anticipated and it was SO great to be outdoors in the fresh air.

We went back out to Shollenberger Park, but didn't do the whole loop this time - we walked out to the water and back, which was the perfect length of time to push the kids to their limits (thus ensuring good naps) without reaching their breaking points :) and we were back just in time for lunch.

Arran is such a little rascal...he insisted on wearing his super hero cape I made last year. I'm not sure what he thought he'd do with it on a hike, but he wore it the whole time and looked so silly in an adorably cute way. At one point as a breeze started up and his cape started to flutter he told me that the wind would make him fly. I love that he gets these ideas in his head and there's no stopping him.

It was nice to be able to walk and not be the one carrying the (ever heavier) baby. Normally our hikes are with other mommies and little friends, so I got to enjoy it from a different perspective.

When we reached the water, the kids were intrigued to see a couple of guys fishing. Arran has such a great attitude, he told me that he would like to go fishing someday but that if he didn't catch any fish, that would be OK, he would still have fun!

Too much busyness...

What a week!

We barely saw James all week, what with work, music practice, jury summons, night work....we only ate one of our five meals together as a family, which is very unusual for us. It made the week seem SO long.

You should see the kids and how excited they are to see him when he normally gets home from work, I'm excited (and relieved) inside! Arran and Bryttain run to him shouting 'Daddy! Daddy' huge grins on their little face, and Asia, bless her, is not far behind these days...she stops whatever she is doing, grins and crawls as fast as she can (her little bottom wiggling from side to side) to clamber up his legs saying 'Dada, Dada'. It really is so precious. On the rare occasions that I'm out and am the one returning, I get (almost) the same treatment and it can bring me close to tears.

Anyway, after a long week we then had a Saturday that was not exactly the most fun. We ended up having to kill time waiting for a tyre repair for the minivan, which took two and a half hours in the morning, after which we found out that it couldn't be repaired but that they would credit us back towards a replacement, which of course they didn't have in stock. Instead James had to go out in the afternoon for another two and a half hours at a second location. It was exasperating to say the least. We normally try to do fun family activities on Saturdays and I was disappointed that we'd done nothing fun with the kids.

We did buy Asia her first big-girl car seat though. She'd outgrown her infant one, and pretty much outgrown one we'd borrowed from friends, which was a larger infant style one, which could still be clipped in and out of the van and onto the stroller base. I'm sad not to have that feature anymore, and sad that it's another sign of her growing up, but glad that she seem much more comfortable and that we ended up finding a good deal.

Even though it was late, we decided to go for a walk downtown after dinner and get hot chocolate together. We walked across the lit up bridge, looked in shop windows, just sauntered along. It's so fun just to hear the things they want to talk about. Both Arran and Bryttain were fascinated by the 24-hour fitness center. It's one of those with all the machines in front of long windows facing out on to the street, so that anyone walking by can watch you as you exercise in all your sweaty glory. They both stared in wonder and told me that they would really like to go there someday. Probably not going to happen anytime soon, at least I'm not going to be the one using that facility and taking them with me. Huh! Exercise? What's that?

We got our hot chocolates and just hung out for a while. We do value our family time, even when it's not the most exciting ventures. It's just fun when it's all of us together.