Fall is fun!

I knew it had been a long time...look at the date of the last post: Sept 6. Well, It's been a busy month for us around the Malden Territories. Mommy has us on this roaring fall schedule--well relative to our summer calendar it's busy, but we love it. Mondays are MOPS days which is boring meetings for mommy, but we get to go to our church classrooms and have a great time. I don't get to be with Gavin on these days so there have been a few tears at goodbye time lately, but I have a great time w/ all my nearly 2 year old pals. Our classroom is often dark when mom comes to pick me up b/c turning off the lights is wild fun (not tall enough to turn them back on yet...I'm sure that will be just as raucous!). Gavin was bumped up to the 4 year old class for MOPS days and he loves that; he gets to make more crafts and play games---super fun. This past MOPS meeting was especially cool for Gavin b/c he got to go see a firetruck. Someone thought I was too small...hmm. Anyway, he liked that and of course asked questions that mommy couldn't answer b/c she's not a firefighter.

Tuesday is an off day which these days means lots of playing in the yard. The weather is splendid and our yard is even more fun than previously because daddy (with some help from Peepaw and Uncle Daniel) made us a CLUBHOUSE!!!! It is high in the branches of our holly bush and it has a cool railing (great for driving cars on) and steps to climb to get up there. It's fantastic! Even Lady Mac likes to chase us up there. Fun. Daddy also made us a seesaw. It's pretty fun to sit and go up & down w/ Gavin on the other end, but what we really like to do is walk up from one end, balance in the middle and then run down the other side. That gives mommy little heart flutters (especially when I do it), but she just needs to get used to that. We also have a balance beam that is a little advanced for me, but Gavin loves to walk across it. It's a regular outdoor wonderland; I guess we should start charging admission :).

Wednesday is WOW (Women of the Word) Bible study day at our church. Me and Gav get to play in the same class and we love it! We see a lot of the same friends we see at Sunday church and MOPS so it's a good time together.

Thursday is CBS (Community Bible Study) day. We get to walk to this one b/c it's only 2 blocks away (at a different church than ours)! Gav and I are in separate classes for this one, too. Gavin LOVES going to CBS. He's learning memory verses and doing all sorts of cool cool crafts. He has the best time. I really like my teacher, but my class is full of kids that are smaller than me and not as many cool toys as my classes at our church and so ... I tend to get in trouble. Well, c'mon, I like to climb and do rough and tumble things and my classmates just don't get into that stuff. I can't figure out why they don't like being mowed down by my big burly self. Hhh. Oh well, I'm getting there. Each week my teacher gets better and better at keeping me occupied (it's pretty much self-preservation). :)

Friday is another off day. We like to go to the library (if we remember) or we run the errands we've been putting off all weekend. I looove the library, but I'm not real keen on that rule about being quiet. What the...?? Libraries are hilarious fun: what with the rug with letters and numbers, all those cool books, and studious strangers to be met (bugged). I know why kids grow up thinking libraries are boring tho...all this about being quiet. Harrumph!

Speaking of letters and numbers: there are only a few letters that I have trouble identifying. And I let mom & dad in on a secret this weekend: I can already count to 10 by myself!! They were so shocked and proud; I might just have to surprise them with more things like that :). All this and I am still in the point and name phase of talking. I've put a couple of words together, but mostly I just like to point at stuff and try to say what it is. Guess that's why they were so surprised that I can count. Oh, I love to sing too, not really getting words out per se, but it's pretty clear when I'm singing even if the lyrics are garbled.

I still like to eat with a fork and spoon (rather than fingers). I don't like bread. I love black beans. I like fruit and most veggies. I am good at reading regular books but tend to tear up board books. Gavin and I are sleeping in the same room at night now; it's fun. I love trains. I love cars. Daddy getting home is the highlight of my dad; he is so great! I rarely walk; I run mostly. I finally don't make a bee-line for the street every time I walk out the front door; I'm getting really good at following Gavin and it keeps me pretty safe. I really like looking through our photo book of family friends; I am getting better at remembering people even when we don't see them a lot. I am still a really cheerful, friendly and happy kid...a bit more mischievous as the months go by, but it's all in good fun :).

Well, that's it for now, I guess. It's pretty tough to get much more in one update...I'll just have to write more later.

~Elliot