Around- Henry.

We check quite a lot of blogs at our house. Some of our friends are great at updating (Cowens, Kradels- thank you!). Others need a little help getting going again (we won't name names, but you know who you are). But we have a good time seeing what everyone else is doing. We try not to make comparisons, but sometimes it is hard not to.

For example, many of our friends have very creative children. Mama gets a little discouraged that I don't take June out on pirate hunts or pretend I'm a baby goat, but tries to tell herself that I have my own kind of creativity. It's a Seibert engineering kind of creativity. I spent a long time working on rigging up all the vehicles to see which one could pull the rest without falling apart.

Not bad for a guy who can't tie knots. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's marshmallow cereal day.

Then mama gets a little discouraged that the most stubborn girl in the world still isn't talking, while everyone else's kid is talking in complete sentences. (You should hear baby Tessa yell "I wanna talk" when Aunt Becky calls her. It's adorable. You'd know if Uncle Kevin ever updated his blog. Harumph.) But we know Juner must know some words because she sometimes yells "Dinosaur" when she sees a picture of a T-Rex. She also said "Hi Miss Donna" to her babysitter at mama's gym, and today ran aroud the house screaming "Chay Ta!" (or Chase Tag!) over and over. In this picture, she's pouting on the couch after mama made another awful meal consisting of NOT macaroni and cheese.

One thing mama doesn't grump about is our sleep habits. Lucky for her, I still willingly take an afternoon nap. And I still go to bed at 8pm and sleep until 7-7:30 in the morning. We actually like the fall time change because it gets us up a little earlier and we're not running out the door trying to make it to school on time every morning. For some reason lately, I've become attached to some stuffed animals. Maybe it's because June likes dolls and mama and papa think it's cute. But my top three are my ctuffed truck (which holds my baby nukies that I had to give up last year), the stuffed fish that Aunt Molly gave me, and my stuffed Curious George. I slept with my George when I was living in Wisconsin, but haven't paid much attention to it until lately. Also, check out my parked cars. Mama isn't sure how they got in my bed, but I was asleep, so she didn't bother with them.

Junie's a good sleeper too. She would sleep until 9 or 10 every day (even after the time change) if we let her. She goes to bed with some books, a flashlight because she wants to be like me, and her moving day doll, which she covers with her blankie and gives a nuk before she goes to sleep.

This afternoon, mama was pleasantly surprised when June recovered from a huge fit, and played quietly with me while mama was baking. She came into see what we were doing and I informed her we were going on an adventure.

I packed up the dump truck because we were going camping. I packed food in case we got hungry, toys and books to play with, and bath toys because the camp ground we were visiting has a bath tub. I also tied a mini shovel and pick axe to the front of the truck in case any branches fell off the trees and we needed to cut them up. (We had out trees trimmed this week, so I'm really into lawn care right now.) How's that for imagination, mama?

Mister Taylor is still working in SC, so he's coming to see us again this weekend. Mama went to the store to stock up and was very discouraged (as she always is) when it came time to pick out some encased meat. The brat selection is so limited down here, and Johnsonville brats are $6 a package! This left her feeling pretty low, so she decided she wanted to make some poppyseed rolls like Great Grandma makes. But of couse, the store doesn't carry canned poppyseed filling (or ever apricot). Add on that it is Thursday- mama's low day of the week (don't ask us why, but she's always in a funk on Thursday). She finally decided that the only thing to pull herself out of her funk was a double batch of scotcheroos. Nothing's better than peanut buttery-chocolate goodness. It's a double batch because we're anxiously awaiting the arrival of John's little brother, who is to be delivered today. (And we know two other babies who are due this week. Miss Andrea, if you're reading this, whouldn't you be walking?)

Then we all helped make a batch of banana muffins for my class tomorrow because it is my turn to bring snacks and be line leader. After all this baking, everyone was feeling better and ready for a nap.