babyj: Fall Fun

The days have been getting shorter and colder. What's new with us? Well….

Joseph turned 18 months in early October, and he transitioned to the next toddler room at school. It took him a couple of weeks to feel at home there, but it has been a very positive change. His teachers have noticed his interest in and skills with kicking and throwing balls outside on the playground. They also tell us he really likes all the art activities they do and that he can stay engaged with the activity for 10-15 minutes, which is apparently a long time for a child his age. Interesting! We've noticed that the recurring episodes of diarrhea have gone on hiatus, and he has much less diaper rash, too. (It's the same food in all classrooms as school, so either the older kids have given him fewer GI bugs or his system has matured in some way!) He seems to have growth spurts that are noticeable if you look at the percentiles the doctor's office gives for his length and weight, but overall he was about 25th percentile at 31.5 inches tall and 23 pounds at his 18-month appointment. This fall, Joseph has become a better sleeper, and occasionally there are some nights that the parents are woken only by the cats. Wow, what a difference better sleep makes!

Lately, Jadyn is very into reading, writing, drawing, crafts, active play, dancing, gymnastics, and watching videos of all kinds. Going to the library and reading books is a huge hit in our house. Jadyn's skills have taken off and she is reading books all by herself. One day in early October she surprised us all by pulling The Giving Tree off the shelf and reading the whole thing out loud.

She also reads many books to her brother. When he is in the right mood he will sit next to her for the duration.

Other times, he prefers to page through books on his own, looking for familiar things. For awhile, he was hyper-focused on finding ducks -- he would bring us on every book we have with a duck in it and point at them emphatically and scream, "DUCK!" Then his fixation was the moon. Now he's into naming all kinds of animals, especially elephants, and all kinds of motorized vehicles, especially trucks, in our home library.

Joseph likes to play with various items from the kitchen: the beaters from the hand-held mixer, plastic storage containers, and here, you see him with a small electronic juicer. This thing can keep him busy for 10-15 minutes straight.

The kids still play in the small-sized kitchen set they have (though Jadyn would prefer to cook with Mom and Dad in the real kitchen). Sometimes they cook us a whole meal and serve it at the table for us. Other times they play hide-and-seek in the play refrigerator. Jadyn still fits inside! And Joseph loves "discovering" her there, though it's not much of a shocker, because he watches her get into position.

And what would a baby blogpost be without the requisite playing-at-the-park photos? Joseph loves swings as much as Jadyn does.

Also this fall, we bid a final farewell to Jenny's condo. Jadyn was pretty sad about new people taking ownership of what she still considers a home to her, so we visited it often during the time it was on the market. Here she is enjoying the front steps one last time on a sunny day.

With cooler weather, the kids are rediscovering toys they haven't played with in awhile, and as kids do, they come up with interesting games to play. I'm not sure where this "train" was going, but she had fun putting it together.

Halloween was great fun, and we had several dress rehearsals, some even with make-up! These photos turned out nicer than any of the ones we took on Halloween night.

We've also enjoyed the zoo this fall, and Jadyn is finally old enough to "do" pretty much the whole thing. She requests certain animals to see, and later at home, with a map, she circles all the exhibits we visited. Joseph can now name some of the animals he sees, play on the tractor in the Family Farm area, and ride on the carousel with his big sister. He tries to walk everywhere like his big sister, but a couple of hours of all that stimulation wears him out.