Growing Up

We had a retirement celebration for Jack and Melanie yesterday. I was really struck by how much Lily is growing up. Brenna sat next to Lily and did what three-year old girls tend to do with drama and tears. She wasn't terrible by any means, but she did have a few moments. She certainly had fewer than Lily used to have.

It just reminded me of what it was like to be with Lily at a restaurant and how she is so much better now. We still have our moments of drama both home and away, but I think that we have turned a corner with Lily. The good news is that she takes the threat of punishment quite seriously now. She knows that we aren't kidding when we tell her about coming consequences.

Lily has had a great time with Grandpa and Nana's visit. She particularly likes walking the dogs. She doesn't even mind when the dogs act up and snap at her for no reason, though it does give her pause.

Noah was really crabby last night. He keeps wanting to suck on ice and to chew on his fingers. We jacked him up with some Motrin before bed, which seemed to help. I was happily surprised to find that they don't put dye in the infant's ibuprofen that Amanda got. Toddlers don't know that berry is supposed to be pink, do they?

Just Say No

Since I know a lot of parents read this blog I thought you might be interested in this article. Can't we just say no?

Back to Autumn

We had a little respite from our autumnal weather yesterday. I think we hit 64 in the sun. It was definitely a good day for Black Friday shoppers. It was also a good day for Lily to take the dogs for as many walks as she could. Jack has two dogs. One is a tiny little thing and Lily loves walking her. It also helps that she is getting into her sunset years and has slowed down quite a bit. However, she still has enough spunk to pull Lily over when she sees a squirrel that she wants to chase. Lily ended up with a slightly skinned knee.

Seeing how much Lily enjoys the dogs almost makes me want to get a dog for her. Then I remember what owning a dog entails and I am again in no rush to get one. Besides, Noah is not at a good age for us to add a dog to the house.

We'll have to get more video of Noah toddling around. He's improved quite a bit since Halloween. I think he's about ready to do a stunt like rearranging the price tags on all the beads at the craft store. That's what I did when I was around his age, I think.

Black Friday

Jack and I partook of the Black Friday festivities at Wal-Mart this morning. We got a late start and were not in the parking lot until around 5:10. It was crazy there. I managed to get the toy for Noah we wanted, but Jack was not able to get the laptop he was looking for. Of course, I didn't know that we couldn't get it until I had waited in line for about 30 minutes and was able to ask someone who worked there. He was surprisingly helpful for a Wal-Mart employee and saved me another 30 minutes in line.

We then went to Sam's Club to get a dress for Amanda and a gallon of milk. We also enjoyed the free breakfast there. I had fun chatting with the ladies who do the demos. Thanks to Lily I'm pretty tight with some of them. They all love Lily and now I have Noah to charm them as well.

I got another early release from work today. One more reason to be thankful.

Thanksgiving

We're almost ready here. Amanda has the cheesecake made. I have to make a green bean casserole, but that won't be a big deal. Jack is going to make some oyster stew. Otherwise, we're in good shape and it's just a matter of being ready to leave by noon or so.

What do you have to be thankful for? Here is a list off the top of my head:

• Psalm 111 expresses a lot of it.
• 10 years of marriage
  
• We're all healthy apart from sniffles and coughs
• We have fresh water to drink right out of a faucet
• We have a cupboard and a refridgerator full of food
• We slept in a warm house last night
• We have more stuff than we know what to do with
• We own enough copies of the Bible to get us shot on sight in Indonesia
• Stacks and stacks of books
  
• The pitter-patter of Lily's feet as she runs around upstairs
• The gentle cooing of Noah as he wakes up
• Seeing family
• Being able to pick up a small appliance and instantly speak to friends and family we can't see

Actually, bacon salt sums a good bit of it up. Not only do I enjoy eating food seasoned with it, but I think it speaks to how blessed we are. We live in a nation where people can take the time to develop a product like bacon salt.

Take some time to think about what your life looks like. Think about the hopes and fears you have. Then compare it to someone who doesn't know where his next drink, let alone his next meal is coming from.

Thanksgiving Begins

Jack and Melanie arrived late last night after a traffic-filled trip down from Pennsylvania. To me, this means that we are just about officially into Thanksgiving holiday mode. Lily is off from school today and Friday, so it will be good for Grandma and Grandpa to be able to spend some time with her.

We have a lot to be thankful for this year and I'll get into that more tomorrow. We are immediately thankful that Bill and Tiffany are hosting Thanksgiving and that we don't have to prepare too much for the meal.

Mr. Bassman

I'm still fighting the lingering effects of the cold I had last week. One of those effects is that my voice is much lower than usual. For me, it's a fun change from my normal squeaky NE Ohio sound. I've been trying to have some fun with it by playing P.A. Announcer ("now batting...the first baseman..."), singing Barry White songs, and old spirituals. Amanda, on the other hand, is not as amused by my rendition of "Old Man River." Apparently, she's not alone.

Lily enjoys typing on my Blackberry. Since she took so long with her bath tonight we didn't have time for any games. The three of us were sitting on the snuggler together and Lily was typing on my blackberry. This is what she ended up typing (with help):

What is 9 + 9?
It equals 18.
What is 3 + 3?
It equals 6.
I love mom. Please stop. Singing.

Amanda and I thought that was very funny. Well, more Amanda than me actually. It freaks Lily out a little bit when my voice doesn't sound right. I also think it freaks her out when someone can't stay on the right pitch. I'm glad she has more of her mommy's ear for music than her daddy's.

By the way, we've got Noah to start addressing me as "Dah" now. It's a step in the right direction.

Change Someone Else Needs

We had some time after dinner today, so I got the idea of rolling the change in our overflowing change urn. By the way, if you use Coinstar at the grocery store I will only charge you 5% to roll your change instead of the 7% they charge.

At any rate, as we did this we naturally discussed what we would do with the money. Normally we do something like go out to dinner with it. Surprisingly, it occurred to me that we should give an animal to someone through World Vision, Heifer International, or Samaritan's Purse. Having read this blog a few weeks ago probably helped.

We ended up with a little over $74 in change. For $75 we could give a goat to someone. We asked Lily to look in her "give" envelope to see what she had (she breaks her small allowance into give, save, and spend buckets). She had $1, which is just what we needed. At first she was hesitant to give the money because she wanted to give it at church. She decided it was a good idea when I put it to her in terms of milk. I said, "You know how in the morning we open up the refrigerator and get you a glass of milk?" She did. I then explained, "Well, this goat will make it so that someone who doesn't have milk can have some." That made things connect for her.

At one point in our discussion she said that she thought we were going to buy a llama for us to keep. We got a good chuckle out of that. We had to explain that we don't have anywhere we could put a llama. She then thought we could go to the hardware store and get some wood. Her plan was for me to build a pen for our new llama. She's very creative.

Incidentally, $35/month will feed, clothe, shelter, and educate an orphan in Uganda through World Vision. The $75 we scraped together from our loose change jar was enough to provide fresh dairy to a family. Check out the gift catalog with World Vision and see if there is a way that you might be able to help. In case you're wondering what happens to donations to this organization you can read reports on it here and here.

I apologize if this post makes it seem like we are tooting our horns. I just thought it was newsworthy and I like to get the word out about real ways we can more or less directly help those who were not fortunate enough to be born in one of the richest nations in the world. My rule of thumb for wealth is that if you do not drink the same water you pee in then you are pretty rich by the world's standards.

Yes we can!

Nap Time

Amanda took Lily out for a bike ride today as we are enjoying some nice fall weather (sunny and in the 50s). I stayed home to take advantage of Noah's nap time and get a little homework done. My Hebrew professor is out of town so we do not have class tomorrow. Rather than have three people come in for a proctored exam, he sent one home with us. As far as I know, it was still to be closed-book and we did it on the honor system (at least that's how I did it).

Noah started to wake up as I was reviewing my work. I figured he could make a little noise for a few minutes. He let out a few quick yells here and there, but then got quiet. I came into his room to get him and this is what I found:



He has learned that napping is a great way to kill time. That's my boy!

He has made a few other little noises, but he isn't serious about getting up yet. I'm not about to go after him.

Profiles in Courage

Lily's Sunday School talked about the story of Queen Esther. They discussed times when they had to show courage. Lily told about a time when the light bulb in her night light burned out and she had to get through the night without it.

I don't mean to trivialize this at all because this was a big deal to Lily. I just thought it was a funny story. It's not quite like the threat of execution if the king isn't in a good mood, but it still took a lot of courage for her.

Buckeyes

In anticipation of the Ohio State-Michigan game, I made my semi-annual batch of buckeyes. Technically, if I put an FDA-approved label on them I could call them "low-sugar" because I use 25% less sugar than the recipe calls for. They're still very sweet. This year I dipped them in Ghiradelli 60% cocoa bittersweet chocolate instead of the regular Nestle's semisweet. The contrast is great.

Not much to report on here. Noah is walking more, but he is about 50-50 on crawling and walking. He still communicates with pointing and grunting. It sounds like he is trying to say some things, but it still isn't quite happening. We're starting to tell him that he has to say what he wants rather than us guessing. We feel like maybe he doesn't have much motivation to talk if we interpret his grunts and pointings for him.

He does like to read. The problem is that one can only read Teletubbies Love to Jump so many times. Amanda has made him dig more deeply into the bookshelf for other titles. He just loves the sheer repetition of just about any book. The problem is that he doesn't have the patience for slightly more interesting titles.

We're looking forward to watching the game at the McKenzies. More specifically, I'm looking forward to watching the game, Amanda and Tiffany are looking forward to possibly going out, Lily and Brenna are looking forward to seeing each other, and Noah doesn't realize that he is expected to nap through much of it.

Getting Out

Amanda and I had a nice long date last night. We left the house around 4:00 and enjoyed looking through the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. The way they do it is pretty clever with a wand that plays prerecorded bits at the various stages of the exhibit. You type in the number, hit play, and listen as you look at the exhibit. It took us a little over an hour to see the exhibit and then we hit the streets of Raleigh to get some dinner. We ended up at a cajun restaurant which was tasty.

We made it back to the museum in plenty of time for a lecture about the scrolls. We got to see Emmanuel Tov give a lecture about text-criticism, which is his specialty. It was interesting, but we didn't stay for all of the Q & A since we wanted to get dessert. We ended up stopping at the Cheesecake Factory and brought it home. No time for Bed, Bath, & Beyond.

Amanda commented later that she missed the daily interaction with Lily about her day. Still, it was good to get out for a long date. I don't think she missed spending the evening with Noah as the days can get pretty long. He is generally really good, but it is good to get a break.

My Turn

Lily made it back to school yesterday. She still has a cough, but she isn't throwing up anymore. On the other hand, I went to bed early last night as I have some kind of cold. I feel better today, but I'm clearly not at my best yet.

I need to get it together by 4:00 PM today since we have tickets to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. I've been looking forward to this for weeks and I don't plan on missing it. Fortunately today is my regular day to work from home, so I can enjoy the comfort of home without spreading germs around the office.

Change We Need

Something has to give here. Lily missed school yesterday too. She was all set to go to school and then threw up on the kitchen floor. Amanda is getting a little stir-crazy with the kids all day. The good news is that, although she did nap, Lily did not act particularly sick all day.

It's pretty chilly this morning by North Carolina standards. It's going to take some serious bundling to get Lily and Noah out there to the bus stop in our sub-30s weather. It won't quite be Christmas Story, but it will be more bundling than usual.

Sick Day

Lily stayed home from school yesterday. Her temperature was 98.5 first-thing in the morning measured in her armpit, so we added a couple of degrees. She has this awful barking cough that sounds like her chest is really congested. She also threw up after dinner last night. Fortunately, it was in the kitchen.

One of her friends had something similar and it took a few days for it to run its course. We'll see how it goes today, but we're not optimistic about her going to school.

Meanwhile, Noah seems to be cutting molars on both sides. He isn't eating very well lately, which is always a sign of trouble for him.

It may be a long day for Amanda today since I have class tonight. Fortunately, Lily was really good yesterday. She might not have had the energy to be difficult. I hope that she will be just as good today.

Autumn

I finally got around to raking leaves yesterday. I missed the first run of the city vacuum, but they will be around later. I try to wait until my pear tree is mostly done dropping its leaves so I don't have to rake more than one time.

I did this yesterday morning while Amanda was preparing for the tea party. At first I was going to take Noah, Lily, and Brenna out to Wal Mart or some other errand, but then I realized it was a perfect day for raking leaves -- 50 degrees, sunny, and not too windy. I brought Noah out so he could enjoy this. He really liked it when I put him in a short pile of leaves. He kept grabbing handfuls of leaves and throwing them back down. He loved it.

I figured he would like a big pile even more, so when it was time to rake that pile I put him in the big pile out in the street. I was wrong about that though. He didn't enjoy it as much. Nor did he like having leaves raked over him like I thought he might. We'll see how it goes next year. I am sorry that I didn't get a photo of him standing in the leaf pile though.

The tea party was a success. In fact, one of the girls was crying when it was time to go home.

Later in the day Lily was outside playing with the neighborhood kids. There is one boy who is a couple of years younger than Lily (I think) named Michael. He's a good kid, but apparently he got a little rough with Lily and hit her with a stick. His parents made him apologize. I learned about all of this when Lily came in to the house completely out of breath and coughing. She sprinted as hard as she could to get away from Michael.

It seems like she is getting sick. She got up around 9:00 last night and needed some mommy snuggle time. We gave her some Motrin and put her back to bed. We'll see how it goes today, but she may miss school.

As for the title of this post, it seems like autumn is here in full force. It was 65 when I went out jogging Saturday morning, but only 38 this morning. It's supposed to be in the 20s Wednesday morning. Personally, I think a little crisp weather makes it feel more seasonal.

Chocolate Chip Pancas

Amanda slept in a little bit this morning after a late night of babysitting. I placated the kids with some chocolate chip pancakes. Noah of course ate like a little champ. Here is the aftermath.

I think he still has some chocolate on one of his eyelids...

No More Drips

We really like living in Cary, but there is one minor drawback. I don't know all the chemistry of it (to my embarrassment), but whatever they use to treat the water slowly dissolves the rubber used in washers and toilet flappers. Because of this we've had a slow leak from one of the bolts coming out of one of our toilet tanks. I picked up the replacement kit about a week ago, but never got around to doing it.

This morning I finally conquered the drip. Getting the old corroded one off took about a quart of WD-40 and a lot of work. Now begins the paranoia of wondering if it is going to leak. I'm funny that way with plumbing work.

We have Brenna spending the night tonight while her parents make her room pink instead of purple. I wonder how long it will be before she decides that purple is her favorite color instead? Either way, I think she is going to have pink for a long while now...

Lily is hosting a tea party tomorrow for some of her kindergarten friends. This was kind of sprung on Amanda while Lily was talking to a friend on the phone. I've explained to Amanda that this is what you get when you make tea parties look so effortless to Lily. We're going to keep it simple though, so it should be a pretty easy affair for Amanda. Easy except for the aftermath of having 3 sugar-crazed 5 year-old girls in the house, that is. The party is during Noah's nap time, but once he wakes up we're out of here. We may have to go to a firing range or something similarly masculine.

Taking My Cues

Lily is getting better at what I would call "freestyle prayer." In fact, she doesn't use the canned prayers at night anymore. Last night she wanted to start and have me finish. When she was done with her part she said, "And now my daddy will continue."

I couldn't help but smile.

Also, after we got back home from the bus and were ready to go in the house this afternoon she wanted to "collapse" her umbrella. She's a vocabulary sponge that Lily.

So It Begins

Lily got a really cute ladybug raincoat and boots a few years ago. She also got the matching umbrella, but that has long since bit the dust. Lily used to love wearing the ladybug set any time it rained.

It's raining today and I told her that she should wear her ladybug raincoat today. She has decided that it is too babyish for her and she won't wear it. She also won't wear Dora the Explorer shoes for the same reason. I tried to convince her that she could be a trendsetter since she is pretty popular. She wasn't buying it.

I guess it's a good thing for her to be outgrowing some of these little girl things as she gets used to school culture. We are not going to give in to all the fashion nonsense though. At least, we don't plan to.

Prepping for the Weekend

It's nice not to have too crazy of a weekend planned. Amanda is babysitting for Lily's dance teacher on Saturday evening and I'm going to watch Brenna while her parents get her bedroom painted pink. We may go to church on Saturday since there is going to be a big rush on Sunday. We have Josh Hamilton and his wife telling their stories this weekend, so it promises to be a bit crazy.

It's nice to be mostly done with the semester and not have too much planned for this weekend. Hopefully it will be at least somewhat restful. Oh, and I get to work from home today too. I'm very glad for that.

Being a Boy

I previously lamented Noah's status as a "sweet little boy". He is that and it is OK. However, he is still a boy. I know that there are those who believe that gender roles are merely societal constructs, but my kids tell me otherwise. Lily has always been one to be a nurturer with her baby dolls. Noah doesn't really show any interest in Lily's dolls other than to try to chew on them and smack them around.

Lily got a magic princess wand for her birthday. It's pretty neat in that you can rotate the top and it makes different sounds depending on the princess. Lily wants to use it to transform us into something else. Noah wields it like a club. He also found a broken taper candle in a drawer and started smacking things with that too.

I can't wait until we can start having fires in the fireplace. The boy has the instincts to beat off predators. I'm teaching him about hunting and gathering. Now he just has to learn how to keep the family warm and we're all good.

Diet of Worms

This tasted really, really good.

Finding our Marbles

I got to enjoy a Federal Reserve holiday today for Veterans Day (thanks Dad, E, Jack, and any other vets out there!). We decided that we should do something together as a family since Lily was off school too. I had my normal early start on a Tuesday morning with my small group at church, but was back home by 8:00 for breakfast. I made some french toast which we topped with a combination of homemade bittersweet hot fudge and white chocolate. Everyone enjoyed it thoroughly, though it led to quite a sugar rush and eventual crash for me.

We then loaded the kids up and went to Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh. Lily had a voucher for when we went for the Kindergarten Kickoff. It ended up costing us $15 for tickets for Amanda, Noah, and me, but it was worth it. They had a great time with all the stuff there. The ground floor is really like a glorified mall play area, complete with pirate ship. However, the upstairs has some pretty educational stuff. Noah had fun with some of the things too.

We then stopped at Pizza Hut to pick up lunch. Lily had a coupon for a free personal pan pizza that she got as a reward for being read to at least 5 times/week for a month. This is not a big deal for us since she reads "sections" almost every night. It's nice when you get a prize for something you already do.

Noah got down for a late nap at 2:00 and then Amanda and Lily took a bike ride to Lake Crabtree while I did some homework and napped. Lily will be ready to lose the training wheels by next spring. Noah took a good long nap. I then made a cake that I meant to make in time for October 31. It will be fun either way though.

I had a good class tonight. It's nice to be done with my paper, my paper presentation, and all my quizzes for one of my classes. I just have to be ready for the final on 12/9. Amanda says that the kids were good tonight. Now it's back to the regular week.

All in all, it was a great day off. These midweek days off are tough to recover from though.

Lunch Rules

You may recall that we initially had much resistance from Lily regarding the purchase of lunch at school. Now we seem to have turned that around 180 degrees. We now have to limit the days that she buys her lunch to two/week.

The lunches are not too expensive at $1.75/day. We figure that it is worth it if Lily actually eats what she buys. The problem is that she spends so much time talking that she forgets to eat. Nevertheless, she now prefers to buy. Since this is kind of an expensive option, Amanda has sought a middle ground. You see, Lily isn't content with a sandwich like many kids. In fact, we've had problems finding anything that she will consistently eat.

Amanda has come up with what we hope to be a solution. She made a big batch of cornbread sausage muffins that Lily really likes. She also made a bunch of "pigs in a blanket." The traditional way of doing this is to take Pillsbury crescent rolls and wrap them around hot dogs. However, this doesn't really save us much money since we have to buy the crescent rolls. Amanda found some recipes online for the dough. We split one three ways last night and found that the dough tastes kind of like a soft pretzel. They're pretty good.

Now we are armed with a freezer full of pigs in a blanket and sausage cornbread muffins. Hopefully this will get Lily at least through November if not through December as well.

Lily is certainly a young lady of discerning taste.

The Walker

I would call Noah an official walker now. He still crawls a fair amount, but he will also walk without coaxing. He isn't great at it yet, but he's getting there. The day is soon coming (maybe even today) when I take him out in the afternoon for a time-killer and I let him slowly walk around a store. He even will pull his hand away when you try to hold his to help his balance. He seems motivated to get it now.

He still doesn't talk intelligibly yet. He does a lot of pointing and makes a lot of spirited sounds, but he doesn't really say words. If you guess what he wants he will smile and thrash his legs and hands around for joy though.

Yesterday was gorgeous in the afternoon and Lily took advantage of it by playing with her friends. It's always nice when Noah's nap time turns into real quiet time at our house. It certainly helps with my studies.

Poor Attitude

And I bet you think this is going to be about Lily, right? I'm afraid that it is about Noah. Amanda is having some Lily flashbacks with him today. He has been especially whiny and clingy, but she has things she needs to get done. It's hard to write emails and call people when you have a whiny 16 month-old tugging at you constantly.

Fortunately, I'm working from home today. I took him for a short walk up and down our street (he's getting better at shoulder riding). I put him down for a second upstairs, but he got all whiny again. Now I have him in the basement with me and I put up the baby gate. He can stand at the baby gate all morning and whine if he wants. I don't mind. Right now he is playing with whatever he can find.

I just hope he doesn't try to eat any dead cockroaches...

More Mannerisms

As I was putting Lily to bed last night I discovered that her normal Bible wasn't under her bed. I sent her to look for it. She couldn't find it with her normal "thorough" search and came back into the bedroom. She stood near the dresser side of her bed, crossed her left arm across her middle and stroked her chin with her hand and said, "that's unusual."

It's always fun to see yourself in the kids, at least when it is one of your innocuous traits. When she starts to use biting sarcasm it won't be as cute.

Visiting Daddy

Amanda brought the kids to the bank on Monday for lunch and a mid-day distraction. Here is a photo I took of them:


They loved spinning on my desk chair. At one point I spun Noah by himself. When I finished his little eyes made these quick circles as he got over being dizzy. I wish that I could have captured it on video because it had to be seen to be fully understood. It looked like something from a cartoon.

At any rate, they were a big hit at the office. Lily was glad to see what the Bank looks like. It had been a couple of years since she visited.

Parent-Teacher Conference

Amanda went for the conference with Ms Snoots today. Lily is doing very well, as we expected. She is not doing incredibly well, but she is either at or above expectations with everything. She does well socially. She really enjoys "reading" and she does like to write. One of her favorite games at home is to practice writing her letters. She asks us how to spell words and then she writes out the letters. This is good stuff for her.

The goal is for her to be able to read a very basic book by mid-year. Lily has shown a little bit of reluctance to read things on her own. I think it's that she doesn't like to do anything unless she can already do it. Lily doesn't deal so well with adversity sometimes.

Amanda asked about her relationship with Jada at school. Turns out that Jada is the boss at school. We're not quite sure what to make of that. It's good that Lily doesn't try to be the boss all the time. Maybe Lily felt more comfortable with bossing her around here because she was on her home turf and Jada was out of her element. It's hard to say.

The good news is that Lily is doing well, as we expected. They have her doing more advanced work, so she isn't bored. That's all we really want to make sure of. After all, homeschooling Lily would not be a good option.

Learning to Lose

We had a really nice day yesterday. The sun was shining and it was in the low 70s. Lily and Amanda rode their bikes and I took care of a few small projects while Noah napped. Lily and I played a game of chess out on the deck while Noah finished his nap. I told her that we would stop if she had any temper tantrums.

She is doing well with knowing how the pieces move and is starting to understand how they protect each other. She is also starting to learn the relative value on the pieces so that she doesn't trade a rook for a pawn. However, she still needs a lot of help with basic strategy, but we're working on it. I checkmated her once and then we took back a few moves and kept playing. I ended up winning again eventually, but she didn't freak out.

This was a pretty big step for Lily. She really hates to lose, which I guess is not so bad. However, it doesn't take much life experience to know that losing is a part of life sometimes. Hopefully our little chess games will help her with that. Hopefully she will someday win legitimately too.

Chip Off the Old Block

I found this scene on the dining room table. This is Lily's Halloween candy. Note how it is now sorted so she knows what she has.

Amanda just made the statement that no one will believe that it wasn't me who did this.

By the way, what you can't see in the photo is the one Butterfinger bar I told her to get at one house. There has to be some benefit to taking her around, right?

Actually, just taking her out was reward enough. It would be nice get a bit of that Butterfinger bar though...

The Conference

Amanda worked at our church's big women's conference yesterday. This meant that she left the house at around 7:30 and didn't get home until around 3:00. Therefore, I was on kid duty all day.

Our day started with a trip to the Krispy Kreme. It's always good to get to the store as the variety is better than at the grocery. You get the highlights at the grocery, but you can only get pumpkin spice at the store.

Then we made a trip down to my library. I wanted to look at a book, but of course it wasn't on the shelf. We're getting there.

From there we went to Petsmart and doggie day-camp. We also hit Lifeway to browse a bit.

Finally, we went to Sam's Club for samples and some groceries. We had some eggs for lunch and then Noah went down for his nap. Lily watched her YouTube playlist while I took a quick nap and got some work done on my paper.

Overall, it was a good day. Now my only problem is that Noah doesn't know about Daylight Savings.