A day with them

We've got this hand-me-down book of unknown orign that we just discovered and read for the first time last night. Its about a monkey and his sister trying to earn money to buy a t-shirt and hat. The sister monkey says "If you had five peas and I took away three and gave you back two, how many peas would you have?"

And Logan, without missing a beat, pushed his extended fingers in my face and said "Four."
--

With Logan splashing happily in his tub as Dad kept an eye on him, I took to getting Megan ready for bed. She's really developed a thing for books lately. She has a few she prefers. She'll search them out, then toddle over to the nearest grown-up. She holds the book out to you with both arms outstreched as she says "Buh. Up." (Or "Read me this book. Pick me up.")

"Meg, do you want to read a book?" I asked her. She giggled. She clapped and she ran, yes ran, to a set of books she had been dragging around earlier. She rifled through. She frowned. She toddled to another set of tossed aside reading materials. She pilfered. She clapped. She came back and handed me the American Doll catalog that had arrived in the mail the other day. She climbed onto my lap, turned herself around and clapped again.

"Doll buh!" she said over and over until I gave in and began flipping through the pages with her.
--

We took the kids and the grandparents apple and pumpkin picking today. It was Megan's second time, technically speaking, but since she spent most of her first one asleep in the front carrier I'm not sure we can truly count last year's. Logan, however, keenly remembers apple picking. The moment he saw the outer reaches of the orchard he began to clap and cheer. He located the carts quickly and he plowed ahead to the nearest tree.

Meg was just delighted to have a place where she could walk and walk and walk and walk. She made her way up and down the rows of trees with an adult close enough behind to redirect if need be, but far enough back to give her the illusion of freedom.

It was a rather interesting trip. As much as Megan loves a doll to cuddle, she loves a ball to throw. Lately we've taken to saying that Miss Meg is a real honest-to-goodness girlie-girl who is in touch with her inner-tomboy. She's not met a ball she can't throw, a bat she can't figure out how to swing, an object she won't attempt to climb, a doll she doesn't want to hug and mother, or an item (even a plastic cup) she can't walk in her toy stroller.

As you might imagine, an apple orchard and a pumpkin patch can be amazing places full of colorful "balls" to a wide-eyed one-year old. Megan especially liked the apple balls. She carried one around for a while before doing what she does with most items - pulling it to her mouth. For a girl still stuck with just two teeth she did fairly well with that apple. She got pieces of it off and she smiled wide as she mashed it down to a pulp. Meg likes Winesaps.

She found the pumpkin patch to be irrestible. So many big orange balls to pick! Logan quickly located one. Then another. And another. We had to put our foot down with four pumpkins - one large, three small. He sighed, resigned to forgo yet another pick. He happily darted back to the check-out booths where he took great care to trip over his own two feet and land full-out in a very dry, very dusty, very dirty making dirt. He stood - covered head to do in red clay-ish soil.

"Don't worry. I'm ok," he said. His smile seemed to magnify the complete layer of dirt that now coated his legs and his torso, not to mention his arms and face covered with a noticable layer of dust. "I'm just a little dirty."