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Note Fiona in this picture:

See especially the lower end of her pants, and the bulge therein. She has been potty training, so it’s not (as i would have been in past times) a fallen diaper. In fact, her pants are full of train engines and cars. She has been doing this over the past few days, i think as an efficient way of carrying more than she could possibly otherwise manage around the house.

Here she is unloading them, this time into a trick or treat bag:

She’s obviously pleased with her system.

fiona saw the charlie brown thanksgiving movie a couple weeks ago. we got out our halloween decorations, and our charlie brown 3 dvd set was in there. anyway, you know how they make popcorn, and toast, and fill up glasses of water for all the friends peppermint pattie invites over?

well, fi was in the kitchen, playing at the sink this morning.
‘what are you doing, honey?’ i asked

‘i’m filling up water for my friends for thanksgiving.’

sure enough, in the sink and on the counter, lots of little cups filled with water. she’s even filled up a 32 oz nalgene for me. awwwww. we have the best kids ever!

It’s no exaggeration to say that this story has put Ella to sleep hundreds of times in the past couple of years. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we’ve had streaks of 100 nights in a row when i’ve told this story at bedtime. Now, somewhat sadly, requests for the Thunderstorm Story come less often, so i figured i’d better write it down before it’s gone forever.

The story is really part story, part backrub, but the backrub part is what makes the story really work as a bedtime story. Quite often, i’ve only told the introduction and not said another word, especially when i’m tired. Here’s a typical version (with extra effects in parens), though i generally change a lot of the details seasonally according to what the weather has been like lately: (more…)

more like cross, snow, and more cross (maybe IN the snow).

first, the snow:

what else can i say. its october 12th and its snowing.

on to more exciting news…

this past weekend everyone in our family raced. on saturday we were at the autumn woods classic where i did the 10k, ella the 1k, and fi the 1/2 k. weather was perfect.

the next day, bill and malte both raced the c race at lake rebecca. weather was less than perfect. malte won his age group and brought home a gift certificate to grand performance. GO MALTE!

here is a cool movie i made of the lake rebecca race, which i just updated so that you can hear ella cheering (in addition to fugazi):

this weekend - friday night is homecoming at central high for malte, halloween party @ griggs rec center for the girls, and a women’s fire circle at our house. saturday we don’t have any plans (what???), so maybe we will carve pumpkins and decorate for halloween. sunday, the guys will be racing at boom island in minneapolis. i’m planning on doing anonther movie from that race.

ella had a special visitor last night - THE TOOTH FAIRY. ella’s two lower front teeth have both been loose for a while, with her adult teeth already coming in right behind them (we’ve been calling her ’shark girl’ with her two rows of teeth). she’s been wiggling those teeth a ton. she visited the dentist and he said the adult teeth would need the extra room, so to wiggle them all the time (or else). i usually check e’s teeth as soon as she gets off the bus - because i love to see her new teeth, and to see if maybe she lost it at school or on the bus. yesterday we had a very scary bus pick up. long story involving fi riding her trike the wrong direction down the alley and ella’s bus arriving several minutes early - everyone was fine, we were all just shook up. so we went straight home
and in my mama panic mode, i didn’t remember to check her teeth. she headed right out for her irish dance class after a snack. when bill got home, i headed for pilates class. while i was gone, e got home from class (she gets a ride with aunt molly), and was dancing around the bed showing off her new irish dance moves. little did she know, that he loose tooth had fallen out! i got home from pilates and ella smiled at me ‘where is your tooth!!!!’

she was thrilled that it had finally fallen out, that it hadn’t hurt or been bloody (her big worry), but we were all sad that it was missing. bill looked in the bedspread and found it (an amazing feat considering how tiny the tooth was). the tooth fairy visited in the night and left her a silver dollar. mom and dad gave her the ‘fairyopolis’ book as an extra special treat to celebrate the occation, since ella has such a special relationship with the fairies. next tooth shouldn’t be too far behind!