Happy Halloween

yaaaaawwwwnnnnn

 since I've decided to participate in NaBloPoMo in November, which means a blog post a day the whole month (lucky you!), I don't feel too bad about my lack of words here.

I was lazy, didn't want to carve pumpkins, but still wanted the seeds to roast so we painted them.  Now the squirrels are busy enjoying the fruits of our labors.

 of course, my sensory seeking, dirt loving daughter LOVES scooping the goop out of pumpkins. Kept her busy a long time.

 This week we celebrated Zep, the perfect dog's 2nd birthday!

 he got a peanut butter coated ice cream cake and a big ol'bone for his birthday.

and of course Lucy sang Happy Birthday with great gusto.

5 years

Five years later ... and still loving every single ounce of this girl.

Sweet Sunny Saturday

 We recently discovered Gale Woods Farm.  Fantastic fun.  This morning we went to Saturday Morning at the Farm.  A great hands on but not overly overled family farming event.

 the kids were able to get up close and personal with many farm animals.  This was no petting zoo, this is a farm.  The kids LOVED having the freedom to hang with the animals.

 Jacob was the sheep whisperer.  He is a real friend to the animals.

 Lucy got them a little wound up.

 but she bossed them back into their places

 if it clucks like a chicken and walks like a chicken it must be a ...

 again with the animal whisperer

 Lucy loves LOVES LOVES the danger of running on top of the hay bale maze. 

 these two have a lot of fun together

Kindergarten, Bullies, Fever and Fun

Why is it that the more time I spend parenting the less I actually feel like I know how to parent?   Let me present a dilemma:  tattling.  Lucy spends a lot of time defending her actions in kindergarten (she's having loads of troubles staying out of trouble at kindergarten) by telling me and everyone else how mean the other kids are to her.  "Mom, he is always being so mean to me,  Mooooommmmm she keeps giving me mean looks all the time.  Mooooooooommmmmmmm  he bumped me first, on PURPOSE"   I have spent enough time in her class room to note that this tattling is also directed at her poor teacher, and it's not just Lucy it's quite a few of the kids, girls in particular.   

Soooo the dilemma is this:  With all the talk about bullying going around lately, and the advice about listening to your kids and having an open line of communication etc it feels like I should be open and empathic when Lucy starts bitching  tattling on her peers  BUT I also feel like wanting to encourage her to not spend so much time tattling, telling, worrying about the actions of others and spend more worrying about her own self. 

What do I do? 

In other news,  Lucy has been down with a fever and some pretty nasty mouth sores for 3 days now.  Poor little baby.  She's a real trooper though, drinking when I ask her to and taking necessary medicine.  Sadly the fevers do not seem to impact her energy level much.   I know I'd be worried sicker if she was lethargic but I'd just like to see that once ... 

In other other news.  Seems as if the woes in kindergarten have caused us to shift things at home a bit.  We are doing lots of  "attachment style" work, just to help with some regulation and it's amazing how much more fun and enjoyable our evenings and weekends have become.   Seriously, LOVE her so much ... gaaawwwwhhh.