We have a little monkey living in our house and his name is Thomas. He loves to climb. And in the absence of a rock wall or a rope ladder he will climb the next best thing – me. I have become a human rock wall.

I am making my own baby food. Yes, I may be a little crazy to add one more thing to my list of things to do but it really is very easy and we usually have food left over from our organics delivery each week, so it makes sense. So far I have made a batch of plums and a batch of apples.

Of course Samuel is not eating solids yet. He is making do with copious litres of milk and formula. I can’t keep up with him on the milk front so we are having to supplement at daycare. Such a different experience to the one we had with Thomas. I always had a surplus of breast milk in the freezer and I even found a huge unopened can of formula in the cupboard the other day that we never needed (about $30 worth). Instead Samuel sucks it down like his life depends on it.

I am starting on the baby food making early in the hope that I will have a freezer stacked with food that can last him at least a couple of weeks after he starts on solids. Although the way this kid is eating I may have trouble keeping up with that too.

Thomas is very musical. He loves listening to music, singing, dancing and playing guitar. When this drum was found as part of a playroom clean up, it became the instrument of choice for a few days. Of course we can’t find the drumsticks. They were put away somewhere following a rampant toddler with drumsticks flailing incident. Now we can’t remember where they are and the poor kid has to use chopsticks. I guess that’s the price he’s paying for his bad behaviour a year or so ago. I hope he’s learned his lesson – most of all to make sure he asks where his parents are putting his toys when they are taken away.

Samuel in mid-roll. I hesitate to say that this one will be an early mover (because I said that with Thomas and it was months of trying before he got it) but he certainly does like to go places. And he has already fallen off the couch. Oh, and did you hear that I am nominated for Mother of the Year?

It’s rare that I am able to get a photo of Thomas sleeping – it’s usually too dark. I just couldn’t resist turning on the hall light to capture this peaceful moment. Yes, I risked the chance that he would wake up, but it was worth it. He looks so sweet and innocent that I can almost forget about the piles of toys and books that littered the room – a little project he undertook while he was supposed to be going to sleep.

His new room will have no toys, just books a dresser, a bed, a nightlight and a baby monitor. No playing allowed. Bwahahahahaha.

Of course he still likes to read by the nightlight…

Mr Potato Head courtesy of Uncle Ben and Auntie Emma, Pirate add on from Mum — artwork by Thomas. If you look closely you’ll see that everything is positioned perfectly just so that the parrot on top has a “tree” to sit in. This is no haphazard sculpture – there’s a strategy behind it.

It’s October which means a trip to the Pumpkin patch. Thanks to a little organization from or daycare provider, we were earlier this year. Definitely the way to go. Fewer people, (much) less mud and pumpkins that are not yet rotting. We had a great time flinging pumpkins with a slingshot, climbing a hay bale pyramid and making our way through a couple of mini mazes. The kids had a great time together and the parents secretly enjoyed it to.

This is my children of the corn shot – Thomas and his friend Evan running through the mini corn maze.

Of course I also had to take a photo or two in the flower farm. I had meant to take some home but a sudden downpour right before we decided to leave sucked the motivation to pick my own flowers. I did manage to get this beautiful photo before the heavens opened, however. I just adore sunflowers. Until they die and people leave them as crusty brown stems in their front yards. I don’t like that.

And to finish the busy day, I took the boys to a mini party held by our friends Laurie and Tim. Kei stayed at home to finish painting Thomas’ room while I caught up with old friends and marvelled at how we have progressed from a group of five couples with four pregnant bellies to five families with a combined total of 9 children. In about 3 and a half years. Yes, our get togethers are certainly more noisy but it is so much fun to see the kids playing together – in this case wrestling. Thomas always seemed to end up on the bottom of the pile – under a girl. In fairness though, Ava is very feisty.

Look at those chubby little baby legs. Don’t you just want to eat them?

Oh, I guess the hands are more tasty.

Geez, for someone who hates spiders I sure do like taking photos of their webs. This is a close up of a web after a little bit of rain. I think it’s really beautiful – probably more so because it’s almost unrecognizable as a spider web. Here’s the wide shot.

And another web thrown in for good measure. More beautiful because there’s no creepy spider actually sitting on it. Yes – I have a phobia.