Cousin

Sophia and Jacob now have a cousin. Welcome Baby Matthew. We are so happy you are here, and we hope Momma is recovering well. Daddy is now third on the seniority list. Welcome to the club.

Two of my cousins have also had babies in the last little while. Actually it was their partners that did all the work, and it was difficult, last-minute-emergency kind of work - we are thinking of you and hope you are recovering well.

My cousins children are my first cousins once removed and that makes them Sophie and Jacob's (and Matthew)'s second cousins. I had to consult wikipedia to make sure of the right terminology. Sophia and Jacob and Matthew are second cousins to Liam and Rex.

We welcome and celebrate these three new miracles, and look forwarding to meeting them in person on our Christmas jaunt to Toronto, where all offspring of the Osbornes will be in the same place for the first time in a couple years, at least.

Gymnastics

Sophia has been continuing in her gymnastics classes, and for anyone who follows this blog, you will note that she has progressed considerably since the days when she was scared of the wooden bars (and understandably so - they're tricky). She can now walk on a balance beam without help (although she does take her time and is a little wobbly) and she is very happy when she is doing summersaults and running around the gym. She had her last class of the year today, and she did really well although she did have to have a little bit of a reminder to listen to the teachers. She'll be staying in this level (called cubs) for another round before she moves up to the next level, and that's just fine with us. We'll probably do swimming in January, then gymnastics again next September.

Getting into trouble

Jacob is always interested in what is going on, and his smaller stature means he can easily get in to investigate where we are not as able to reach. In some ways, this could be great, since he could reach that hard-to-get magnet under the fridge, but most of the time is is a cause for slight stress, annoyance, and, often, laughter.

Here, we see Jacob getting in to the dishwasher. This is before we bought the new dishwasher. He also likes to get in to the new dishwasher. We just have to make sure that knives and other sharp or breakable items have been removed. From the dishwasher.

He is also a great help with the dishes, as we have already seen

The dishwasher, however is not the only place he gets into trouble. Witness here his attempt to discover "the far depths of the cupboard", a mysterious and unknown area where it is fabled that wondrous and good tasting small shiny things may be found.

filling in

as usual, we are behind in the blogging. Expect a few (backdated) posts all at once. sorry.

Halloween

Sophia had a very full and exciting Halloween this year. Most of that was because her preschool did a bunch of very cool Halloween- and fall-themed activities. About a week before Halloween,, they did a field trip to a pumpkin patch about 15 minutes from the city. We all piled into a yellow schoolbus (including as many parent chaperones as there were kids) and traveled out to the valley. The bus ride was a lot of fun, but more on that later.

The view from the bank of the river


A pumpkin / squash patch, nestled in among the trees. Most of the kids were more interested in the dogs than they were in the process of growing pumpkins.


Big pile o' pumpkins, inhabited by a big pile o' kids. This is where the kids had their snack, and some were brave enough to venture into the haunted house. but not many, and they quickly removed themselves.


Each of the kids received a little kid-sized pumpkin as part of the trip. There was an enormous pile of these little pumpkins, and I figured this would take forever since each kid was given the chance to choose the best pumpkin, but Sophia just walked up and grabbed the first one she could reach. It was, of course, perfect.


until she saw this one...


Back of the bus on the ride home, sitting with a couple of her preschool pals. They giggled and sang all the way home, especially when there was a big bump that launched them a couple inches off of their seat.

On Halloween, they had a Halloween party at the preschool. Due to a school policy, the kids weren't allowed to wear their costumes (one ignorant jerk parent can make a difference) but they did have a little "concert" as well as snacks and Halloween-themed decorations that they had worked on all week. Parents were encouraged to bring treats, and as usual, Tricia went well beyond the call of duty. Here is a tray of her mummy brownie tarts, which were absolutely delicious.





getting ready for the concert.

This is a movie of the first little bit of the concert, with the kids singing a couple of the songs they have been learning in class. Note particularly the several kids frozen solid by stage fright (or apathy. not sure which)



Pumpkin carving is also a big part of Halloween, and a couple days before Halloween itself, we carved the pumpkins we got at the pumpkin patch. Sophia had definite expectations about what the pumpkins would be like, and she was not a big fan of the "goop"




Finally, a close-up shot of the costume that Tricia spent so much time and energy sewing, that Sophia was not allowed to wear to school. Whatever.