Have I mentioned our serious dearth of pictures around here? I have hardly been taking any. But we have been up to our usual hijinks. A few fun things:
Jens is loving school, and more particularly, loving reading. He has a little stack of finished chapter books in his room that is steadily growing. Last night I went in to check on him and found him hunkered by his nightlight with a book. The apple hasn't fallen far from my tree, I guess. He has been busy building a horrendous fort in the side yard, made of scrap wood, branches, bricks, rocks--pretty much anything he can think of. It has grown considerably this week and he has spent a lot of time out there. I suppose I could take a picture this week and share it at some point. He has also turned into a soccer playing machine. His favorite position to play is right wing, and he is very good at it. He seems to really understand where he is supposed to be and what he is supposed to do, and while I would never use the word aggressive to describe him on the field, he certainly kicks the ball a lot more than he ever has in the past. His games are fun to watch, and he definitely feels good about his playing.
We are in full Halloween mode around here, which means we have all of our decorations out and Jens is creating all sorts of spooky-themed art. They also like dressing up. Here, they are making scary faces. Jens is a ghost and Sylvie is a witch. They are being helpful spooks by checking the mail for me.
Sylvie got new Halloween jammies, which she insisted on wearing all day on Friday, including on a bike ride to Jens's school, Story time at the library, and errands to Sam's and Target. She also liked reading them to people and pointing out that "Daddy's under my spell."
This weekend was full of excitement--Sylvie went to her friend's birthday party and tested out her Halloween costume. She felt very fancy! She especially liked getting to try out some make up. Mike picked her up from the party and took her straight to the Father/daughter campout, which was also a big success. What's not to like about camping out with dads? She had a lollipop for breakfast, and was liberally covered with dirt by the end, sure signs of a good time.
Since Sylvie and Mike were gone, Jens and I went on a date. We went to the movies and saw Hotel Transylvania, which Jens found very funny, then had dinner at Johnny Rocket's. Their shakes are better than I remembered, by the way. It was fun to spend time just with him. When we got home, we started reading Pippi Longstocking together, which he is finding very amusing.
One more funny little image--I went in to check on Sylvie one night last week and found her thus attired:
That is a reindeer hat she is wearing over her blanket "hair", in case you can't tell. I sometimes think her bedtime must be much more exciting then we will ever know.
