October FOUR

I wanted trees. Now we have leaves... lots and lots of tiny leaves.

In our backyard at any given moment you'll see a chipmunk or two, sometimes begging with his white belly sticking out by our back French doors. They are finicky little fellows, leaving the unsalted peanuts for the giant squirrels and a humongous blue jay. They much prefer the trail mix I get from Target, especially the almonds and cashews. Gray said when we move he's going to leave a trail so they follow us to our new home. I'm already envisioning myself coming back here to feed them.


Noah is the first one up every morning, around six, and I crumple out of bed a little after to hang out with him before he gets on the bus. It's dark dark out and I open the blinds and put away dishes and sweep. After he leaves I'll get out my laptop and wait for the others to wake and get breakfast. Carter gets on the bus an hour and a half  later - he'll say goodbye and Ivy will yell "Kiss!" and he'll run to find her and smooch her on the cheek and then dash out as the bus drives down our road. Every morning.

Gray heads out fifteen minutes after that (and after we tussle about wearing socksshoesjacketsnackwhere'syourbackpack?) and I watch him through the window and he waves and I wave and then he piddles around and then waves and I wave back, again and again. Then I throw some nuts on the deck and visit with my little friends as they stuff their chubby faces. They are much too fast for my camera, so far.

I'll tell Ivy to put on some pants and today she declared that she didn't want to wear pants. "I just want to wear legs." We run errands and snuggle a lot, and lately she will even pretend to be back in my belly, under a blanket on my lap and everything. Or she'll beg me to have another baby, and I'll tell her I'm sorry but that's not going to happen. I still feel like we missed our window to give her a baby sister or brother to play with, but then I just think about something else...

This week I've been knitting and watching all the Listen To Your Mother shows or a movie or I take my chair outside while Ivy digs or climbs trees or puts water in little bowls to feed the acorns and fills cups with dandelions.

When everyone gets home I hear a lot of... "Mom where is... (something they want to play with but didn't make it in the move- a castle, car, board game)" and I'll say "Get a box from the basement. Make a new one!" They don't ask as much anymore. Then I send them outside.

Gray has the most homework, and he reads aloud while I make dinner or knit. After that we kind of just chill and straighten up from the day, and sign all the school papers and fliers and fundraisers and sign ups from three different schools, and get ready for tomorrow. I start my day because of them, and it finally comes to a slow and sleepy stop because of them.

October, here we are.

I used to take photos of my kids on the first of every month, now it's on the fourth. Four for four. (Here's October 2010 & 2011.) You can see all past monthly photos here.