November '09

Um, so yeah, I do realize that the last thing I posted was titled October '09, and that the title of this post is November '09, which implies that it has been a month since I posted. However, I didn't actually post the aforementioned October post until November 20th, and being that it is only December 8th and I am writing about November, I'd say that puts me ahead of the game now, doesn't it?

The biggest news of November is that we have grass!! Yes, our landlord agreed to sod and sprinkler our yard, and we are now the proud owners of a backyard that has 100% grass, as opposed to the 0% grass yard we used to have. Alex loves to run around outside and now I can keep him contained while he does it. He loves to play soccer with Murphy (who is a pretty good defender, I must say) and shoot hoops.

A few weeks ago, the leaves fell off our trees, and A totally took advantage.

It's been a little cold lately, so we haven't been outside quite as much. A usually ends up inside doing puzzles, playing with assorted train paraphernalia, or insisting I read to him. I had intended to list his "favorites" of the month like I had done in past posts, but I haven't kept track of them like I wanted to, and to try to recall everything he's done over the past month in the next couple of minutes is a little more than I feel like taking on right now...sorry.

I will say that, in general, he is super fun and talks almost non-stop most days. He tells a lot of stories, usually involving trains of some sort. He obsesses over things he sees out the car window - in October, it was pumpkins, and in November, it was large vehicles of any kind. His favorites are diggers (excavators, bulldozers, backhoes, he knows them all), school buses, and fire trucks. If we pass by a digger, he will point it out, and then he will ask, "Where'd the digger go?" He will then insist that I "find another digger!!" This month, it seems that anything Christmas-related will be the flavor.

He's gotten to be pretty bossy, and we had a couple weeks this month where I was pretty sure the bodysnatchers had shown up and replaced my sweet two year old with a bratty and disrespectin' teenager. His response to most of my requests was, "No way!!" to which I was all, "No you di-in't!!" He spent many two and a half minute increments in time out last month, and when he wasn't actually in time out, he was being threatened with it.

Of course, we celebrated Thanksgiving this month by making the 14 hour drive to Peoria, but I'll save that story for another day so I can publish this post before November '10. I think that about covers it for now.