Baseball and Cookies

Jackson Playing Baseball

In Which Jackson Gathers Loot

Saturday night was our ward Halloween party. Grant was the hit of the night with his chicken costume. I have to admit I thought he was pretty cute myself. It ended with trunk-or-treating. Jackson really got the hang of it this year. He managed to get away from Brian and made the rounds a couple of times.

Grant’s vocabulary includes: “deeze” for cheese; “eh oo” for thank you; “eese” for please; “all” for ball; mama; “oot all” for football. He says a version of Jackson and Dada but we can’t remember how he says them.

Grant loves it when Brian comes home. He squeals and runs to the door. Today I told him that dad was on his way home, and he kept asking me to open the garage door so he could see him. Unfortunately he had to wait 5 more minutes.

Jackson has started to make up songs. He just says random things that don’t have anything to do with each other. He also dances around, but it’s more like an Indian dance that takes up the whole room.

On this farm he had a chicken . . .

Day at the Beach

In Which Jackson Crashes and Grant Quacks

Grant has been trying to make animal sounds. He has a toy duck and he says, “ack,” a gorilla, “ah ah,” a dog, “ar ar,” and with any growling animal he makes a funny noise in the back of his throat.

Friday and Saturday, Avenue Photo (our photo business) was able to do a fundraiser for MOMs Club. Brian took pictures of 12 different families over the 2 days. It was pretty tiring, but it went really well. A friend watched the boys, so I enjoyed a little break although I was working.

Brian had the opportunity to meet with John D’Agata. He’s one of the biggest new names in nonfiction writing in the U.S. He’s the author of a collection of essays called Halls of Fame. Brian got to meet him for lunch, hear a lecture and a reading.

Today I was brave and let both little boys help make sugar cookies. Jackson rolled out the dough, and he and Grant used the cookie cutters. Jackson also helped put sprinkles on them as a finishing touch. They seemed to have a good time and it wasn’t too big of a mess.

Saturday we had a beautiful afternoon. We all went outside and raked for a while (though today you can’t tell we even did any work because the leaves are falling so fast). Then we decided to have a picnic. We got a pizza and headed to the park. Jackson is pretty comfortable on the majority of playground equipment. I didn’t actually see it happen, but apparently Jackson was at the top of a slide and tumbled backwards down the metal stairs—about ten steps. He was pretty shaken up, but appeared to be fine. He said his chin hurt where he had a little scratch.

It’s funny when Jackson mimics grown-up phrases. While playing Go Fish last week, he said, “This is a good game, I noticed.” On the way home from church this afternoon, he said, “I suppose we can have breakfast.”

Football in the Kitchen