Camden's first bugs, Nintendo, and Cuddles

Boys are changing with the seasons:

I'm just thinking about this week while the smell of beef stew is driving me crazy! The boys and I can't wait until it is ready to eat. It is a stew kinda day. A little cool and breezy this morning, but sunny. This is a rushed post so ignore all the typos, please. I'm tending to the boys, etc. Tonight Cliff and I have a date (time alone together at home) so I want to post about our week now while it's on my mind.

Camden has been befriending a lot of his own bugs this week. He had a moth at park day on Wedneday. The lucky moth did get away. He has had a few spiders this week as well. And the photos with the plastic, green cage had a cricket he found and then released. It's pretty awesome to see how excited he gets over finding these amazing little creatures. He understands the word gentle now too and is doing well. It is tough when he cries over their escape or release. But for now I just tell him the little bug was happy to go home and he is better. Holden found a redish worm with little legs but it doesn't look like a centipede. We're are finding lots of neat things lately!

Another change this week has been owning a Nintendo! We snagged it off of freecycle.org and it came with a few games, but no controllers. We found controllers for it at a gamer/hobby store in Des Moines. We got lucky with that and they were cheap too! That was the easy part compared to showing Holden how to play Super Mario and the Spider Man game. He is having a hard time learning the controllers. Cliff and I have both played with him a few times. We'll just keep plugging away. Probably the best way for him to learn is from another child his age. So I am going to ask a neighbor boy to come over sometime to play Nintendo with Holden, excpet he is allergic to cats so his mom may not let him come over. Hmmm.

The afternoons have been wonderful here! For the 5th or so week in a row we have been able to meet friends at a park in Des Moines. I am amazed at the cooperation from Mother Nature! Thank you!! It's also been fun to play outside in the fall breeze in the afternoons. The school kids are out playing and riding bikes and we all like to hang out. Camden and I have been walking down the street a lot too. I asked him one day if he wanted to go for a walk with the stroller and he ran to the garage saying, "I do it." I was ecstatic until I realized he wanted to push the stroller not sit in it. So he pushed it all the way down the street. The neighbor kids all wanted to come too. After checking with their parents they walked with us as well (not the parents the kids).

An unschooling friend sent us a book called, "Science in a Bag" earlier this week and we've been trying some of those experiments out. They are pretty easy and interesting. Cliff says he is going to do some of them with Holden.

Yesterday, I took down a tarp over our swing set that was a fort and moved it. So far the boys are not too interested. They helped me take it down and move it though. This morning we took down some old shelf paper in the kitchen cabinets. I am hoping to put new paper up soon. I tossed a bunch of old stuff. We got rid of some items on freecycle.org this week and made some people happy. I still have a lot of stuff to go thru.

This weekend Cliff has a long list of stuff to do around here. He has been working all week. He has two jobs right now. We'll find out today or Monday when he'll start his next job on the road. He could be going to California. First he has to go to South Dakota for orientation. They will fly him to California for the job--if that's where he goes. It is a maintenance job of some sort at a wind turbine plant. Cliff is excited! We have been talking about what we need to do around here to get the house ready to sell. It seems nothing is happening fast enough for me. The kids and I would love to go to California with him. Holden is admittedly bored here and told his friends we will be selling our house. He says our house is boring to him now. I felt bad because I think the friend he told this to was sad about this news. But this friend he told doesn't know it but he himself will be moving next year with his family.

When the boys are not outside or playing with friends they are either jumping on the bed from the hide-a-bed in the living room they like me to pull out or they are watching PBS. Lately we have been cuddling and watching some Animes. We watched "Howl's Moving Castle," " Porka Russo," and "Castle in the Sky" this week. We'll probably hit the library next week for some books to cuddle up with.

We'll be celebrating Camden's 2nd birthday on Sunday. He turns 2 on Wednesday! Hard to believe!! Camden is a lot of fun--even though he's been a cranky teething bear more than usual!

I am trying hard to enjoy life here even though I wish we were on the road and experiencing new things and places....it isn't always hard to be in the moment. Everyday is new and interesting with these changing boys and the changing leaves.