Let us give thanks....

I've been meaning to get back to this...

A while back, in my Six Random Things post, I mentioned that I had a humongous curl in the middle of my forehead. Here's a picture Dennis snapped that day....

What's the significance, you ask? Well, I'll tell ya....

My mother used to recite this poem to me as a kid, and it has always stuck in my head. I never knew until a couple of years back that it was by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. They say he composed it while holding his second daughter in his arms. It goes like this...

There was a little girl,

Who had a little curl,

Right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good,

She was very good indeed,

But when she was bad, she was horrid.

Quite appropriate, wouldn't you say??! Hah!

What fun!

This afternoon we made a visit to the WGBY Book Fair at Barnes & Noble. I'd seen it advertised a few times while watching Lidia, and was so excited that Curious George was going to be making an appearance. I was really excited to go, not only because of my own fondness for him, but for Matthew's, too. You see, he has this thing for monkeys, and is familiar with Curious George from the various books he has.

Curious George was scheduled to appear at 2:30, so we arrived at B&N with about 5 minutes to spare. We walked back to the Children's area, assuming that's where he'd be. Much to our surprise, he was already seated at the front of a group of about 50 kids and adults, with a woman beside him reading a story....the end of a story, at that. I don't know what happened. Maybe WordGirl, who was scheduled to appear at 2:00, got a flat tire on the way or something and George had to step in to calm the masses. In any event, we made it just in time to get in line to get up close and personal. I wasn't sure how Matthew would react, seeing a life sized version of him. But, as soon as he spied him over the crowd, he got a huge smile on his face.

Here are a couple of pics from their interaction....

After we took our turn, we did a little shopping. As part of the Book Fair, a portion of our purchase would be donated to support WGBY. Can't beat that. We picked up a stuffed Curious George dressed as a firefighter (as in Matthew's favorite Curious George story - Curious George and the Firefighters), which he LOVED. We also grabbed a few Christmas favorites - can't wait to read these to him!

As we headed home, the sun was already setting, and the sky was just gorgeous. Here's a shot I snapped as we cruised down 91...not bad for being taken from a moving vehicle!

Hope you all had a great weekend, too!

Uh-oh....

Ummm....yeeaaaahhhhh....can you say BABY GATE?!

Fall Cleanup

Well, today we tackled the leaves in our yard. We have massive trees everywhere, so our yard just gets clobbered with leaves. Fortunately, Dennis rented a giant leaf blower, which was such fun to play with. With all the rain we had yesterday, the leaves were pretty heavy, so even the limited raking we had to do was a little tougher than usual.

Matthew supervised much of the operation from his perch in his activity center. He yelled DaDaDa over and over again, and just laughed and laughed.

Once we got down to the last pile in the back, we decided to let Matthew experience playing in the leaves for the first time. He loved it - he bounced around and laid down in them - and he didn't even try to eat any! Check him out...

I couldn't resist picking him up and jumping in with him!

He really seemed to enjoy getting dirty!

Here's the pile out on the tree belt. Dennis will call a landscaper tomorrow to come pick them up. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't get too windy between now and then!

I myself am going to make some calls, too, to see if we can rent a couple of these...

or maybe a couple of these....

Boys and fire trucks

After a crazy week, I'm finally getting around to posting some pics from last weekend. On Saturday, Poppy's group was giving "tours" of the quint truck for Fire Safety Week. Naturally, we just had to bring Matthew down for a visit. He had a blast, as you can see....

After saying goodbye to Poppy, we took Matthew for his first trip to The White Hut. It can get pretty crazy busy in there, but we happened to go at just the right time. We got a spot at the counter, and Matthew had a perfect vantage point to watch the excitement at the grill.

Although he didn't get to have a cheeseburg with fried onions and french fries with malt vinegar like Mommy and Daddy, he did enjoy some delectable Puffs. Won't be long before he'll be calling out his own order....

Historic....

I'm on pins and needles....

We've created a monster.....

Seems our son has become somewhat of a political news junkie.....

Trick or Treat!

We had a great Halloween. James and Ella came over to trick or treat in our neighborhood, and Chris, Allison, Nanna and Poppy came over, too. Matthew was a trooper - he kept his hat on the whole time we trick or treated. He gave lots of big smiles to his neighborhood friends, and got quite talkative toward the end.

Here are some pictures from the evening - enjoy!