Goodbye summer, hello fall!

Okay, like, 6 weeks ago, but who's counting? (Hi Mom.) The facts that the girls are changing quickly along with the weather, and that school is demanding and the rest of the time I'm fighting clutter and playing and trying to get people to go to sleep mean I have had no time to actually write about any of these things. Then all the funny stories and milestones pile up so high, it's even harder to record them. But it's time to try.

Annie:

• Is walking, of course. We left a teetering baby with my parents when we went up to Mackinac Island in early September, and we came home to a full-fledged walking toddler. (The trip up north was wonderful, by the way. The two-night trip actually turned into a three-night trip, because who knew the ferry stopped running at 8:00?)
• Is talking. Some of her words: Mama, Dada, NeNe, Doggy, Bottle, Blankie, Milk, Book, Hat, Papa, bye-bye, uh-oh, all done (in words and signing), please (sign), more, duck (which we first heard when she stuck her head out of the door, saw the dead duck Kevin had brought home, and said "duck!"), baa, baby. Most of these are only recognizable by us, but it's still fun!
  
• Is impossible when it comes to changing her diaper. As soon as the darn thing is off, she's off and running.
  
• Loves, loves baby dolls. She feeds them, wraps them in blankets, puts them to bed, kisses them, reads books to them. It's all very serious business.
• Is done nursing, officially. As of less than a week ago. I feel like there's a lot more I could say about that, but in the end, it was pretty uneventful.

Nellie:

• Is still into princesses, weddings, Dora, and Sesame Street. And now, Mary Poppins. My mom orchestrated that, because we're going to the musical next weekend. Nellie is in love with the movie and the music, and we're finding it a lovely change from the princesses. Although we just started watching The Princess and the Frog, and that's a really fun movie!
• Wants a new baby sister named Snoopy.
• Is done napping, officially. I have declared it so. The last two times she took naps, she was up until after midnight.
• Wakes up in the night, every night, and comes in bed with us. That is getting very old. It's one of those things that was fine once, then twice, then a month later I panicked about the new trend. We're working on it...she told me that she gets lonely in bed by herself.
• Went swimming in Gull Lake with Kevin and Pam the first weekend in October. Her idea. It was freezing. She wanted to go again the last weekend in October, but we said it was too cold. She offered to wear her sweatshirt.
  
• Is so, so ready for preschool. She would love it. The child has so much energy, it's ridiculous. She never stops moving. She is "aggressively friendly," as we like to say. I think expending more mental energy would do her good.
• Wants to be Spiderman for Halloween next year.

The rest of us:

• Kevin has settled in at Woldumar. It seems like a great job for him. He's doing sales and running education programs and cutting down trees and fixing vehicles
• Many grouse, woodcock, and ducks have met their demise at Kevin's hands. No deer, yet!
• More of the same, for me. My relatively light semester has picked up, and it's crunch time.
• I spent three days at a conference in Columbus last weekend, and it went smoothly! Kevin and the girls had fun, and I slept all night long, three nights in a row. (Note that the sleep is the most noteworthy thing about my trip. Also, the ice cream. We got ice cream twice in one day.)
  
• We're already getting excited for Christmas. This is mostly because Nellie loves everything about Christmas because just about the only family video we have is of Christmas-related events--getting the Christmas tree, opening presents, etc. We took out the nativity on November 1st, and it didn't seem at all crazy. Later, we hung our coats on the coat rack (recently returned to the kitchen after a loooooong stay in the basement during remodeling the kitchen) and Nellie called it decorating for Christmas. :)
  

The biggest news? Both girls are currently sleeping in their room, together. This is the first time that has ever happened. I mean, they have slept in their room plenty of times, but they have never, ever both gone to sleep in their own room; we always had to separate them between the two rooms. It didn't help that napped-Nellie stayed up until after 10:00 every night. Anyway, I hope it starts a trend...we'll see.