POP!

What an awesome picture! Nicholas is popping a water balloon and Stuart captured the shot beautifully. The balloon has popped but the water is still in the shape of the balloon. Cool!

Rake It Up Again!

Every fall we have to rake the back yard of all the leaves that have fallen from various trees. Not that we mind the leaves. We really don't care about the leaves in the yard. But if we don't rake up the leaves then some magical force takes over and every single leaf is drawn into the pool and that's no fun to have to clean up.

Today I decided it was time to do a little raking. I got out the rake and Nicholas got out his kid-sized rake to help me. He did help for a little while but then he decided it was more fun to jump into the leaf pile than to rake it up. It didn't help that we just happened to have made a small leaf pile at the base of one of his slides! He enjoyed sliding down into the leaves and then throwing them all around. Of course, then he wanted me to rake them back into a pile so he could do it all over again!

Making "Soup"

Nicholas was washing his hands at the kitchen sink and decided to play with the bubbly water that ended up in a bowl that was in the sink. He added more soap to make it more bubbly. He told Daddy that he was making soup for lunch for him. He used a spoon to stir it up. He especially loved using the spray attachment to add more water to his soup. He found a packet of soy sauce and a packet of duck sauce left over from some Chinese food take out and added them to his soup. I let him finish off a bottle of red food coloring which only had a few drops left in it.

Nicholas just loves mixing up random things like this to make these weird concoctions! I've got to admit, it's a little fun helping him find unusual ingredients to add to it.

Planting a Little Fall Color

I just love pansies in the fall. They are so pretty and they need very little maintanence to look great all through the winter and into the spring. I found some great pansies on sale at Calloway's last weekend. They are grown in their own biodegradable pot so there is no wasted plastic pots to get thrown away. Nicholas enjoyed telling me all about the roots that were growing out of the little pots. He loves gardening work so he was happy when I asked him to help me plant them. He ended up planting most of the flat all by himself.

Big Brother Teaches

It is so wonderful to watch Nicholas with Rachel. Although he is often a bit too exuberant around her, he does so out of love and excitement for his little sister. Today, I had Rachel in a bouncey seat. Nicholas said that she needed some music to listen to and asked if he could turn it on for her. Then he went and got some of his "Touch and Feel" books from when he was a baby. He made up words as he read them to her and then helped her to touch the parts of the book with different textures like fur, tulle, vinyl, rubber, etc. He even told her that she was doing a great job. He really seemed proud of his little sister and said, "Wow! She's already learning about rough and smooth!" Of course, Rachel had no idea what was going on but she did enjoy staring at Nicholas while he talked to her. What a cute pair they are together!





Ok, take a look at this picture of Nicholas leaning over to give Rachel a kiss on the cheek. You can even click on the picture to make it bigger.



Her hair actually does look a little red here, doesn't it? It's odd because if you move the hair away from her head and just look at the individual strands of hair, they don't look red. At least to me, they look brown. But sometimes, like in this picture, she looks like a little red head. Either way, she's a cutie!