Fall fun

Brian has spent a lot of time cleaning up leaves for the past few weeks! But I think the worst is over. Of course Will and Ben didn't mind, as you can see.

OK, here are the Christmas lists...

By popular demand I'm posting Christmas lists for the kids here on the blog - I hope this isn't tacky or anything! LOL

Here are some thoughts I had for Will. I saw a Leap Frog toy that goes on your refrigerator called the Word Whammer (I think). It has three spaces for letters and all the letters of the alphabet are magnets, so you can spell simple words. I think it would be a great way to learn his phonics, because he REFUSES to watch the Leap Frog video. Won't even look at it!
Any kind of play-doh set that lets you create food would be fun for Will. He's always making me do hot dogs and hamburgers and whatnot.
Here's a list of Thomas trains that Will does have:

Die-Cast: Thomas, Percy, Gordon, Molly, James, James and the Bees, Murdoch, Bertie, Bill and Ben, Ned, the caboose, Jack, and the troublesome trucks. We have the roundhouse and the take-along set that has the washing shed.

Wooden: Thomas, caboose, Bill, Murdoch, Neville, the troublesome trucks, the recycling cars, and the breakdown train. We have the figure-8 track set with the water tower.

He really likes the Duplo lego Thomas sets. We have the one with Thomas and Tidmouth Sheds, but not any of the other ones.

There's a feature-length Thomas movie out there somewhere that we don't have - they advertise it in the back of his Thomas books so he really wants it. I think it's called the Magic Railroad or something. We got Will the Cars movie and we're going to save it for a Christmas present, so any Cars toys would go over well I'm sure. He's kind of obsessed with the tow truck. He also likes toy dinosaurs and animals - those little plastic ones. He's always trying to get me to buy them at the grocery store. He likes lizards too.

As far as Ben goes, it's really difficult to pick something out. He's not really doing much yet, so most of his toys are little shiny, sparkly, or crinkly things. He really likes crinkly - it's his favorite sound. I can't keep him off the disposable wipes packages. He LOVES books - Peek-a-Who is his favorite. Any litte colorful board books would be great - we don't really have any with textures in them. He needs clothes and he's in a 9 month size now, so probably by Christmas 12 month clothes would fit well.
We don't have many of the Little People things - we have the schoolbus and the farm. I think he would like any of those sets and he could also grow into them. We have the Incrediblock and the Peek a Blocks train, so any other Peek a Blocks toy would be cool.

So that's about it - please don't take this as a request for presents from someone who wouldn't normally be getting the kids one!! This is strictly informational for anyone who was going to get them something anyway. I told Will I was making a list for Santa when he asked me what I was doing. :) Here are some gratuitous pictures to make up for the lists:

A visit with Grandma and Grandad

We took a trip to Georgia this weekend to visit with grandma and grandad and to see great-grandma too. It's always so nice to stay in Steve and Cindy's house - it's very peaceful and everyone sleeps well there. Ben ate like a little piglet there, which was awesome! He's still having problems with the skin under the helmet getting irritated and breaking out, so sometimes he's in the helmet and sometimes he's not these days.

Ben thought grandad was a real hoot! Will had a lot of fun with him too; grandad has lots of cool things like an electric train and a drumset. Will is really obsessed with grandad's train. He pretends to call him on the phone and asks him if he's playing with it. Before we left we told Will we were going to see grandma and grandad and Will says "See grandma and grandad and Katrina and TRAIN!".

Grandma is good for all kinds of hugs and kisses, so Ben was a happy camper. He's the snuggliest little baby you ever met. Will hated cuddling and mostly still does - Ben will pretty much sit with you all day. Grandma also makes yummmmy scalloped potatoes that Ben seemed to enjoy gumming, as well as baclk eyed peas. He got to taste all kinds of new things this weekend.

We had a nice visit with Ma too. Will didn't want to leave! Ma has saved a lot of really cool old toys like original Legos (the really small ones) and real metal Tonka trucks. Will usually naps at 1 and when we tried to get him to leave at 2:30 or so he was laying down on his belly on the carpet trying to stay awake so he could play with the tonka trucks some more.

Happy Halloween!

We had a blast last night. Once we got past the first couple of houses Will started saying "Want more!" and we had to bribe him to get him to come back home without a tantrum. Ben rode along in the wagon and had a lot of fun playing with his "lightsaber" (glowstick). He was an angel as usual and didn't fuss a bit. Although he has discovered his voice and has started going "Ahhhh" REALLY loudly. He's basically yelling. There's no more rolling over in bed and catching a few extra minutes of sleep once he's awake - he just starts yelling and I rush to get him before he wakes Will up. He's not upset though. Usually he's smiling while he's doing it.

We decorated the house for Halloween - you can kind of see in this picture. But you can't see the carved pumpkins on the porch or the spooky ghost hanging from the flagpole. Will "helped" Daddy carve the pumpkins this year, which mostly consisted of him trying to grab the knife and stirring the pumpkins seeds around with the big spoon.