Big Brother, Little Sister

One of the best things about being a big brother and only being 19 months older than my sister is that..... well, I don't know what the best things are. But I know I love my Sissie. And I really love that she is starting to smile a lot and that she likes to play with toys. I like to throw balls and sometimes I throw balls at Sissie. I get in trouble when I throw things at Sissie.

I like to give Sissie kisses on her cheek. I think she likes it too. But I have to be gentle or I get in trouble...

Pretty blue eyes...

I make her smile. And she makes me laugh...

The Clean Up Crew

A few weeks ago, Daddy and Mommy took me and Sissie to the Discovery Center. It was so much fun. The Discovery Center has dinosaur bones, a little kids kitchen, and so much more. The Center even has a whole room of toys for really little people like me.

They even had baby sized brooms for me to sweep. . . .

I found a really big tunnel and, of course, I immediately crawled right through it.

I had lots of fun playing with the construction toys and with the "jeep."

I used the crane to pick up pretend "dirt" and move it to other places

Here is a very serious picture -- I was very focused on picking up and moving the "dirt!"

Daddy says that sometimes I make him laugh. Here is one of those times. The other day, I found Sissy's hat on the floor and put it. It was pink with lots of fuzzies on it. Daddy laughed and he laughed and he laughed. Then he laughed some more.

Doesn't my smile make you laugh?......

The Last of the Perfect Fall Days????

Our special guest author today is "Sissie" -- my little 7 month old sister Lena.

Hi everyone! I know you haven't seen or heard too much from me yet. I've been biding my time, waiting for the perfect opportunity. And this was it. Monday and Tuesday of this week were perfect days. It was beautiful outside, the leaves were soooooo pretty, and I got to spend time with Auntie Rachel, Mommy, and Daddy. On Tuesday, it was sooo pretty that Mommy took us to the park twice. The first time, Daddy came too and he took some pictures of me, Graham Henry and Cousin Nate playing in the leaves. Don't I look soooooo happy?

Then we rode around in the wagon. Graham Henry kept giving me hugs. He gives good hugs, but sometimes I get upset if he hugs me too hard. Cousin Nate was all smiles tooo...

Auntie Rachel is a lot of fun. She holds me and reads to me and sings to me. I like hanging out with her. She smiles at me. I like smiles.

Graham Henry thought it would be funny to put leaves on top of Nate. Nate thought it was funny too and he tried to pick up leaves and throw them at Graham. Cousin Nate doesn't really know how to throw yet, though.

There were sooooo many leaves. There were leaves everywhere. And Graham Henry and Auntie Rachel and Daddy made sure that we had plenty of leaves to play with.

Like I told you, Graham Henry gives me lots of hugs. I know he is trying to be sweet, and he is usually very gentle, but sometimes his hugs make me cry. Like this picture.

Graham Henry is such a cheeseball. Here he is posing for a picture and saying cheese. But he is smiling so big his eyes are almost closed. He makes me laugh.

Daddy took Cousin Nate and Graham Henry for a few more pictures in front of a tree that had lots of orange leaves. Here are a couple of pictures of Nate and Graham in front of the tree.... Mommy wouldn't let me stay in the wagon because Graham Henry was making me cry.

The weather has turned cold this week and it is supposed to be cold for a long time. Since I was born at the end of March, I really don't know what cold is. I know that it means I have to wear lots of clothes and that my hat will probably be pulled down over my eyes a lot, and I know that makes me cry. And I know that probably means that Tuesday's fun in the park was the last of the perfect fall days. Too bad. But maybe winter will be fun too. And we can always look forward to spring. I hope you had fun reading my story. Bye-bye!

The Great Spider is on Parade

Here's Daddy again. He wants to talk about my Spider parade.

In the last post, I told you that I'm a big Halloween fan. The following pictures help explain why. Graham and his preschool class paraded in their costumes on Thursday morning and Graham showed off his spider costume. He is quite a parader.

Here is a picture of Graham the spider and the rest of the paraders. Graham was too interested in looking at the other costumes and wouldn't look at the camera.

Here is a close-up view of the parader....

What does Graham have in his bag? Any suckers?

Bird and the pumpkin came to watch the spider and the rest of the parade....

In the last post, we talked about the Trunk and Treat -- Graham dressed up as a spider for the Trunk and Treat. He really liked this car because the candy was suckers. He wanted to pick up the suckers off the ground and he didn't see the hand sticking out of the trunk. It made him jump when the hand grabbed at the suckers in Graham's hand.

Graham had his face painted at the fall festival at the Trunk and Treat. He wanted a spider because he was dressed as a spider. He sat really still and the lady did a great job with the face paint.

One of the "trunks" was a decorated motorcycle. Graham was fascinated by the skeleton toy -- when he pulled on the toy, the skeleton would "chatter." He pulled the skeleton over and over again and we had to finally pull him away from the motorcycle. I hope this isn't a sign...

Graham played some of the carnival games at the Trunk and Treat's fall festival. One of the games was "bowling" with a pumpkin stuffed animal and Graham picked some funny glasses as his prize. And he wanted his picture taken with his glasses on.

Graham tried to trade his spider hat for one of the hats on the decorated pumpkins -- but the hat wouldn't fit.

Happy Halloween everyone!

My Favorite Pumpkin

Daddy will be today's guest author. He wants to talk about his favorite pumpkin -- I call her Sissie.

Graham's dad here -- Halloween is one of my favorite times and has been ever since I was little. I liked to wear costumes, play tricks (mostly on my sisters), and as most people who know me know well, to get free candy. It was the one time of year that my mom (Mimi as she is now known) would let me eat candy, although we had to ration it out to last a month or so.

As I "grew up," I continued to enjoy Halloween and all the craziness that surrounds it.

Now that I am a parent, Halloween continues to be one of my favorite times of year, and my favorite little pumpkin only reinforces that for me. Lena dressed up as a pumpkin this year. And while she is still tiny, and she can't trick or treat, her smile has me hooked. She's my favorite little girl and my favorite pumpkin. . . enjoy the pictures!

The pictures are from our Church's Trunk and Treat last Saturday. Cousin Nate joined us at the Trunk and Treat and I got a couple of great pictures of Nate in his skeleton costume.

Here are two more pictures of my favorite pumpkin.

Have a happy and safe Halloween!

The Bear and the Hat

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Big Cedar on the lake (Table Rock) to celebrate Doll's birthday. They had some pretty pumpkins and some hay bales outside, so Daddy decided to take a few pictures of me for "fall." The restaurant had a couple of really cool stuffed bears that still have all of their fur and teeth. Here is a picture of me and the bear -- and I put my hand in his mouth. Although he didn't hurt me, he's still scary.

Great-Grandad came to Big Cedar for Doll's birthday lunch too. He let me borrow his hat. Don't I look cool in Great-Granddad's hat?

More Goblin (Harrison) Fun

At Great-Granddad's football game, I got to sit with Uncle Phil and Nate. We had so much fun. I didn't want to sit with Daddy, so when he was holding me I would squirm and yell, "down." The football players thought I was trying to call out a play...
Before the football game ceremonies, I threw a football with Granddad in the parking lot. That was before I ate my hamburger too. The football is Daddy's -- he said cheerleaders used to throw the footballs in the stands in high school and PaPa caught one and gave it to Daddy after his game.

It was also senior day at Harrison High School for the football players, band, and cheerleaders. I wanted to be a part of Senior day so Great-Granddad held me in front of all the seniors.

Here is a picture of Sissie with Aunt Nancy. Sissie was dressed up in her abominable snowman outfit.

I had lots of fun in Harrison. I hope I get to go back real soon!