(Almost) Fall Days

Tomorrow is Ethan's first full day of preschool and, honestly, it could not come fast enough. Ethan is driving me CRAZY. Don't get me wrong. I love him. He says some darn funny things. And he's really flippin' cute. He's even being very cute with Eleanor lately, singing her "Baby Mine" before we put her down for a nap and giving her lots of kisses. But he can also be an absolute TERROR, and I think it will be good for both of us to have some apart time. He really just doesn't listen 99% of the time, and I find myself telling him to do (or, more likely, not do) the same thing over and over and over until I end up yelling. The yelling almost never works, gets him more riled up, and makes me feel like a bad mom. So it's really a lose lose lose situation.

It will be nice to have a chance to miss him for a couple of hours three days a week, and it will be great for him to be away from me since he is extremely clingy to me, especially lately. I'm talking running-down-the-driveway-screaming-when-I-try-to-go-for-a-run-once-Will-gets-home kind of clingy. And I almost had to take him with me to the dentist the other day. It's bad. Not sure why he prefers me so much over Will right now. I mean, I make really crappy towers compared to Will, and I don't really get into Spiderman and Green Goblin, either. Plus, I'm always yelling at him. (I guess Will has a pretty short temper with him lately, as well, so it's a wonder he likes any of us!) I'm sure a lot of his clingy behavior stems from all our talk of him going to school. We'll see how it goes. If I'm able to leave him alone at school at all tomorrow, I'll consider it a major success. Updates to come...

In other news, we've been LOVING this weather lately. It's been nice and cool in the morning and then perfect during the day, in the lower to mid-seventies. So awesome! It's nice not to sweat every time you walk outside and also fun to be able to dress Eleanor in some of her new fall wardrobe. Plus, it's much nicer drinking a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte in cool weather. Mmmmmm...Pumpkin Spice Latte.

One of our favorite family activities lately is to go for a walk after dinner. We do this mostly because Eleanor gets antsy at the end of the day but is always calm in the stroller. But it's also very fun and gives Will and I a chance to chat at the end of the day. If we have a lot of time, we will walk to the park, and Ethan will ride either his trike or his big wheel, renamed his motorcycle. He's gotten really fast! If we don't have a lot of time, then we walk around the block. I push Eleanor in the stroller, and Ethan pushes Eleanor Monkey in his stroller. The other night, it was particularly cool out, so I put a hat on Eleanor and covered her with a blanket. We started to leave but then Ethan decided that Eleanor monkey just had to have a hat and blanket, too. See picture below - too funny!

During the day, we do a lot of visits to parks in between Eleanor's naps. Oftentimes, we will bring a picnic lunch because Ethan loves to picnic. I keep a picnic blanket and some of Eleanor's toys in the car at all times just to be ready. Then, Ethan can play at the park and Eleanor and I can watch from the blanket.

Eleanor is getting very close to sitting up on her own. When she has a toy in front of her, she will sit for maybe up to 30 seconds before flopping to one side or the other (or back or forward). Another week or two and she'll be even more independent, I'm sure. It will be nice when I can put her in the Pack 'n Play with some toys while I cook dinner and she can sit up and play.

Eleanor Monkey, all bundled up.

Our other Eleanor, all snug for our walk.

Will and Ethan at the top of the big hill at the farm park last weekend.
On our picnic blanket at the park.
Shall I start him in modeling or what?
Getting more and more into the circle of neglect, aka exersaucer.

I took the kids to Millenium Park today to meet my friend Brent for lunch. Besides not being able to park at my normal street parking and having to pay $23 for less than 2 hours in the city, it was a fun trip. Ethan kept saying the rest of the day that he wanted to go back to "millenum park."

Thankfully, he didn't go into the big stream of water this time. It was too cold, and I didn't want him to get soaking wet.

Here we are in the Bean. If you can't tell, I'm standing behind our double stroller.

I ordered Eleanor two of these mesh headbands and then bought a rainbow of clips to attach to them. She's modeling one combo here.

And here is her fall hat. I ordered the hat online (wanted dark brown but they were out) for less than $2, and then found this great flower clip to attach to it.

We were given this purple knit hat, which won't fit for too much longer but is super cute and matches what will likely become Eleanor's special blankie. I clipped a purple flower to it today for when we were outside.