Conversations with a three-year-old

Ethan and I have some hilarious exchanges. He is a hoot. Here are some of my favorite examples...

This morning:
Me (after sitting Sadie down on the floor in Ethan's room): Sadie, why don't you play with Teddy for a minute while Mommy brushes her teeth? (Teddy is Ethan's teddy bear)
Ethan: Yeah. He's a nice guy.

A few days ago:
Me: Ethan, it's snowing outside!
Ethan: (big gasp) Mom, let's get the presents!! (referring to Christmas)

Monday:
Ethan, talking to Sadie: I love you, Sadie! (turning to me) Mommy, when are you going to have another baby in your tummy?
Me: You want Mommy to have another baby in her tummy?
Ethan: Yeah! Let's have another Sadie!
Me: Wouldn't that be kinda confusing, having two Sadies?
Ethan: Nah!

Our good friends Troy and Denise are coming to visit us next weekend (yay!). Ethan is super excited to see their kids, especially Josh and Becky. He has a toy garage with a little button that makes a phone ringing sound; in the last week he's started "answering" it and talking to Josh and Becky. He always ends with "Okay, see you soon Josh and Becky!"

Way back when Sadie was first born, Ethan wanted to hold her all the time. So, he'd say:
"Come to poppa!" It was hilarious and just a teeny bit creepy.

Ah, the joys of preschoolers!

Trunk or treat!

We had our ward Halloween party tonight and it was soooooooooooooo cold!!! It was like 30 degrees outside as we trolled from car to car, soliciting candy and other treats. Poor Ethan had to wear a coat over his Boba Fett costume and his little hands were like ice. But he still had a great time and got a pretty good haul of candy. One woman gave him the choice between pretzels and candy and Ethan chose pretzels. I think she was about as shocked as I was!

Here's Ethan in his awesome costume, sans helmet

Beautiful Sadie as a girlie Chewbacca (side note: Ethan dropped our camera on its lens last week in Boston, and it has since been unable to focus properly. So our pictures are blurry now. Somehow have to find money to fix that. Sigh...)

Ethan was almost more excited to hand the candy out than to receive it
Trying to stay warm in the car while passing out candy

And we still have two more Halloween parties and actual trick-or-treating to go!!

Thanks, Denise

Thanks for the props, Denise. I'm glad there is at least one soul out there who reads my drivel.

So, the seven things I am thankful for:

1. My husband. Paul is very busy with school these days, but he always tries his best to make time for me and the kids. Plus he's just cute and sweet.
2. My son. Ethan has turned into such a loving child. He adores his baby sister and is always asking to help me with her. He is good natured and full of energy.
3. My daughter. Sadie is the cutest baby anywhere. Watching her discover new things is so much fun. She looks up to her big brother so much and squeals in delight at just about everything he does.
4. My parents. I am so grateful that I've finally reached that point in life where you are able to be friends with your parents. They are so incredibly generous and loving, especially with their grandchildren. I'm so excited to see them in a few weeks!
5. Renters! I can't tell you how thankful I am for them!!!!
6. Good friends and neighbors. You know who you are and I love you!!
7. My health. It's something I take for granted most of the time, but really- I am so lucky to be healthy so I can take care of my family and enjoy life.

I will spare others the duty of continuing this, but I do love reading all of your blogs!

So it begins...

It seems winter is now officially upon us, as the first snowflakes of the season are falling here in New Hampshire. Before Halloween. UGH. I'm not sure I'm ready for this...

Boston, take two (sort of) - and other miscellany

As I mentioned before, Paul is on a break from class right now. So he decided to go on a "field trip" of sorts down to New York and then Boston to visit private equity firms and learn more about their line of work. The kids and I threw caution to the wind and joined him in Boston last night, just for the heck of it. The night went much better than I was expecting, which is always a pleasant surprise. Sadie slept pretty well, as did Ethan. Poor Paul didn't make it up from NYC until after midnight, and then had to watch the kids all morning while I went to the Boston temple. So sweet of him. It is so beautiful!! And I bought some thermal g's while I was there, 'cuz you know it's gonna get wicked cold here in a matter of weeks!

The temple took forever, and by the time I got back to the hotel we didn't have a ton of time to site-see. So we decided to go to Concord (because it was only a few miles from our hotel) and see Minute Man Park- Paul Revere, Redcoats, the beginnings of the Revolutionary War, the whole nine yards. We drove through the town of Concord to get to the Old North Bridge (site of the "shot heard round the world") and decided it is the absolute cutest, quaintest town you've ever seen in your entire life. Seriously, if I had several million dollars to plunk down on a house, it would be there.

Anyway, we got to the bridge and only had time for a few pictures before Paul had to take off for a meeting downtown. But that's okay. We're only in this whole travel thing for the sweet pictures to put on our blog.

It is also the 24th of the month, which means it's time for another installment of Sadie photos. She is seven months old!!! No idea how that happened so quickly. She also has her first tooth- bottom front, on the left. It's just barely breaking the surface but definitely there. I am kinda sad about it because I just LOVE the toothless baby grin, but I'm sure the toothy one will be just as cute.

Peek-a-boo!

Just chillin' (aren't these the cutest pants you've ever seen? Lisa Puhlman gives awesome hand-me-downs!!!)

Yeah, I suck my thumb. You got a problem with that?

This is how you'll find Sadie most of the time- happy and smiling, especially at anything and everything her big brother does

Sixth

Okay, Melanie. You asked for it- the sixth picture in the sixth folder on my computer. It's sooooooo not interesting.

This is from our trip to the Naval Museum down in Southeast DC back in February. This was back when we were trying to fit in as much DC siteseeing as we could before Sadie was born and we moved away. I really liked this museum, as did Ethan.


Man, what did I ever do with only one kid???

Vermont's Finest

The highlight of our trip was the Ben & Jerry's factory in Waterbury, VT. Can I just say how much I LOVE Ben & Jerry's ice cream? Mmmm... it is so good. Anyway, the tour itself was okay, nothing super spectacular. It was pretty short- started with a video about how the company got started, then we went to an enclosed walkway-type thing where we could see the factory floor below (they were making Coffee Heath Bar Crunch yesterday). They wouldn't let us take pictures of that part. Boo. Then we went to the tasting room where we got free samples (well, I guess not really free because the tour itself cost $3). Our sample was Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. Yummy. The weirdest part was that they didn't give you a spoon- so you just had to suck the ice cream out of this tiny little paper cup. Their rationale was that they're trying to cut down on plastic waste. Whatever. Paul and I both went back for seconds because they had a bunch left over and no one else was taking them. The other people in our tour group were all a bunch of old retirees, so they must have been watching their carbs or something. Not us, baby. Then we went to look at all the cool stuff they had in the gift shop (B&J lip balm, anyone?) but only bought four $.35 postcards because we're cheap. A shock, I know.

Now on to the pictures:

Look at those two stinkin' cute kids!

I LOVE the expression on Sadie's face in this picture

Sadie and me on the campaign trail

Ethan admires all the famous flavors

Who knew there was once an ice cream flavor named Ethan?

Paul is considering stealing this thing- just look at his wee beady eyes

Ben & Jerry's Flavor Graveyard (i.e. "The Stones")

We also visited a "graveyard" outside the Ben & Jerry's factory that includes all of the retired flavors. Oddest flavor? Tie between pear and one with Jack Daniels.

Ethan had so much fun that he now asks us to visit the stones (i.e. headstones in the graveyard). We're trying to explain to him that not all graveyards contain ice cream flavors.

Howard Dean Territory

Paul had his last final yesterday morning, so we decided to make a trip up to the Ben & Jerry's factory in Waterbury, VT to celebrate. On the way we made a couple of pit stops- first to the Joseph Smith birthplace in Sharon, VT (pictures in the previous post). It's a small memorial but they have cabins and you can camp there, which is kinda cool. It was also pouring rain and cold, so we didn't stay too long.

Next up was Montpelier, a thriving metropolis and capital city of Vermont. Actually, it felt like a teeny little town no bigger than Hanover/West Leb. But the capitol building is really pretty!

This is just a sign we saw on the highway driving through Vermont. I thought it was hilarious so we stopped to take a picture. 'Cause that's how we roll.

After we toured the Ben & Jerry's factory, we went up the street to the Cold Hollow Cider Mill, which is one of the larger apple mills in the area. We got some cider donuts, which were AWESOME. And the hot cider was really yummy too.


Just across the river from Hanover in White River Junction, VT is the King Arthur Flour Company. Obviously, they make flour. But they also have a baker's store (in which I could have spent HOURS shopping) and offer baking classes. We stopped by last night on the way home and Ethan wanted to sit in the throne next to the armored guy. He was very upset when he realized his sword didn't detach.

Joseph Smith Memorial

Celebrate the greatness of your school by burning down a small piece of it

Dartmouth Homecoming = Ivy League Trash Talking + Massive Bonfire

We went to Dartmouth Night tonight- the first night of Homecoming weekend. Basically it's just a parade through downtown Hanover, when all the old graduating classes wear their green sweaters and throw candy at the bystanders. Ethan made a pretty good haul- Halloween's coming early this year! And it's almost all men, since Dartmouth didn't start admitting women until the 1970's. How's that for Ivy League?

At the end of the parade processional, the incoming freshman all march up Main Street and onto the Green, which is the central field area in the middle of campus. At the center of the Green is a ginormous tower of wood, with a big "12" at the top (for the class of 2012- wow that makes me feel old), and all the freshmen make a circle around it. After a bunch of lame, boring speeches trashing other schools in New Haven, CT and Cambridge, MA, they finally declare that Dartmouth WILL defeat the Crusaders of Holy Cross tomorrow!!! Not bloody likely, given that Dartmouth is currently 0-3. Anyway, once the speeches are over, they start pouring massive amounts of gasoline on this wooden tower, and after singing the Dartmouth alma mater, they torch the thing. At which point the entire freshman class starts running laps around the blazing bonfire. Wow. It was all very "Lord of the Flies"-esque. Apparently they're supposed to run 112 laps, but of course no one ever does. After just a few minutes it was a freaking inferno and there were red-hot embers flying everywhere. Ethan was covering his ears the entire time because it was too loud, so we decided to ditch out and head back to the car. But not before catching some of the action on film.

At the parade, in downtown Hanover

Ethan thought the marching bands were too loud and scary. He is such a weiner.It was really dark, but you can kind of see the tower, pre-ignition.

Here is the mass of over-privileged freshmen running around a tower of flamesI'm not sure why I look so scared in this picture. But doesn't Sadie look stylin' in her cute little coat??Burn baby, burn!

Holy Crap, New England is Beautiful

Between an Excel modeling class and financial accounting review session, I hooked up with the family for a quick hike in Vermont. Hope you'll indulge us with excessive pictures - both in size and quantity. We hike up to an observation tower and, with fall in full swing here, it was absolutely stunning.