Highlights

Lately, the girls have been becoming better friends and playmates, something that is heartwarming to watch to say the least. Part of me would keep them this age forever...

My mother visited over the weekend of Halloween, and the kids had a wonderful time. Penelope has approached me several times asking "Nana? I-nno." Translation: "Where is Nana? I don't know." Thankfully, she's been easily consoled. The girls have been reinacting trick-or-treating at home for the weeks since. Annabella was not simply a pirate; she was a Pirate Princess. And Penelope was a little Native American. It was adorable. I'll just go ahead and say it, even though they're my kids. As a sidenote, Annabella has been fascinated to hear the news of the Somali pirates because we had all but told her that pirates lived "long ago." She pulled out her sword last night, wondering if maybe she should go help fight the bad guys who've been taking the ships.

Penelope is becoming much more talkative, and more understandable. She's fascinated by all ainmals, and still loves her baby dolls. She is also a phone enthusiast, and she enjoys saying "A,B's." Oh, and she loves her incentives for going potty like a big girl (ie: M&M's).

Annabella is enjoying writing and spelling words--specifically the names of her loved ones on various artwork she creates. She had an extra-wonderful day at ballet this week--it was Princess Week. She went to class in costume and was greeted by her teacher all dressed up. She loved wearing her tutu and wings from Grammy.

Jake is diligently plugging away at an exhausting semester. Being a fulltime employee/grad student/daddy/hubby has been a bit more taxing than he anticipated. Only two-and-a-half weeks to go till a whole happy holiday month off.

And I am growing! We're 28 weeks into this babymaking endeavor, and this little man is getting large enough to make me uncomfortable. I have a feeling these next two months are going to fly by with the distractions of the holidays. And that's fine. I don't anticipate those last couple weeks will go quite as quickly, but I think that will be good. I feel like I've hardly had time to completely digest that this little boy is coming. I can only imagine the more children one has, the pregnancies must just race by faster and faster, hardly giving you time to sit down and drink enough water...

It's naptime around here, so I'm going to tuck in some tired troops. Enjoy a quick glimpse...