Is anyone still out there?

I'm back.

I wasn't planning to take a week-long break, but once I started it was really hard to get back into the swing of things. So I decided to give myself a little blog-vacation, for a full week, and then hopefully I would be ready to start up again. And it worked! I have a lot to say. (I'm sure that comes as a surprise to, well, NONE of you.)

First--Hebs is finally starting to crawl, yay hooray! (Actually, it's still creeping, but let's not quibble over terms. It is forward motion on his tummy, that's all that matters.) At ten-and-a-half months, I was starting to become a wee bit concerned. (Truthfully, I would have been more than a wee bit concerned if Hebs was my first child. Or if we didn't have a physical therapist coming to the house every other week for Gee.) Hebs has been quite happy to just roll and roll around the floor to get where he wants. But on Tuesday night he was lying on the floor, surrounded by bright, shiny toys, and (as you might expect) all he really wanted was a piece of cardboard. He flipped over to his stomach to try to reach it, but he wasn't quite close enough. So then he dug his little toes into the carpet, lifted himself up with his arms, and sort of snaked-shimmied forward.

And voila! Hebs crawls. I cheered, he got the cardboard, everyone was pleased. It was a good night.

Gee is still working on walking. He loves doing his "standing/walking trick", and he is getting braver about where he does it (the pavement outside, the wooden or tile floors, the grass). He hasn't beat his best record yet (across the living room), but he sure is putting the time into it.

Em and Zee are alternately best friends and worst enemies, which seems exactly right, given their ages. They love to play and have amazing imaginations--one morning I overheard the following conversation:

Em: (sung to a made-up tune) I live in a rainbow rock castle...
Zee: (sung to a different, but still made-up, tune) I live in a golden rock castle...
Em: (still singing) But everything is not right!
Zee: (still singing, the song becoming lower and more serious) Because our castles need to be upgraded!

And which point I burst out laughing, and that ended the song because they wanted to know what was so funny.

Right now I am listening to Zee playing outside with some neighborhood friends. Gee, Hebs, and Em are taking naps. (Em's nap is a punishment for ignoring my request that she just go to the bathroom already. And then ten minutes later she had an accident. Lovely. This has been an ongoing battle.) Mixed in with the sounds of kindergarteners playing is the clank of poles and the hammer of stakes being driven into the sod of the park across the street. Tomorrow is the Harvest Moon Hurrah, the fall festival put on by our city. It is one of my favorite city activities--I love the fall, as I've already mentioned. There will be pony rides, hay mazes, pumpkin bowling, hay rides, face-painting, music, dancing, a melodrama (in which my talented husband Bradley will be providing the live piano music!), performances by Peter Breinholt and a juggling storyteller...I am so excited! I've even invited some of my closest friends over for a BBQ dinner in between activities. It's going to be a lovely day!