Plum tuckered out

Rachel is going through a phase.  It's an I-don't-want-to-sleep-in-my-bed phase.  She wants to sleep on the floor, or in our bed, or on the couch, or anywhere but her bed.  So far as I can tell, she is not afraid of her bed, which would be different, she just doesn't "like it."   So Kip and I went to bed last week and found this on our way up:

Sound asleep, on the stairs.  Pretty cute...but this has to stop.  Time to implement super-nanny strategies and just pick her up and put her back in her bed every time she gets out with no words or anything, just back to bed.  I think it will get things right again...I remember a friend of mine using this on her then-3-year-old (or 4?) who was up every night all night asking for things (drinks, etc.)  If I remember right, the first night of straight-to-bed he was up 27 times.  27.  Yikes.  But the next night it was down to 12.  The next night 3 or 4.  I think it took less than a week for him to stay in bed all night long.  We're hoping for similar results, though our problem is slightly different.  :)

Rachel is also in the limp-child phase, which means if I don't give her exactly what she wants, when she wants it, she goes limp and falls on the floor.  If I try to pick  her up, dead weight.  At the library, she wanted a drink at the drinking fountain on our way out.  I lifted her to drink, but she didn't want me to do that, she wanted a stool, all of which were in use at check-out stations.  I offered several solutions, like "Well, all the stools are being used.  You can go ahead and have a drink while I hold you, or you can wait until we get home and get a drink by yourself, it's not too far,  How about that?"  She screamed at the top of her lungs, so I set her on the floor, where she promptly crumbled (limp) and screamed more.  I said, "Okay, bye honey." (Usually an effective way to get them to follow when my hands are full of baby and books.)  A woman next to me looked over sympathetically and said, "Is she three?"  I smiled - she understood.  :)  Rachel did get  up and follow us and somehow she survived  until we got home to get her a drink.  So, yeah.  Rachel is three.  Enough said, I guess.

It is fall in Colorado!  And although that means flag football games in 44 degrees and raining, it also means cool nights, warm afternoons, and our maple tree, possibly my favorite tree ever.

I turns the most brilliant red in the fall - I LOVE it!  When we lived in Gypsum, we were right next to a hill (mountain?) and I loved a certain tree, because it was all alone in the middle of a bunch of evergreens.  Each season, it stood out - in the spring with new light green, in the summer with giant leaves, in the fall as it turned yellow, and in the winter, stark against the evergreens and snow.  I always meant to take pictures of it in each season and frame them on my wall.  I never did get around to it, and maybe someday if we ever live there again I will do it.  But I did snap this photo out the front door and although there is no way to show how vibrant the color is with my amateur photo, no matter where we move I can always remember my favorite little maple tree in Parker.

Hmm, I guess that was my own little Walden Pond-esque moment. 

Life in general is good and the days fly by.  Someone told me today how much she missed watching a little one (like McKinley) bustle about and get into everything.  Her youngest is 8.  My first thought was "Haha, yes, I'm sure you miss every game in the cabinet getting emptied, and every drawer, and every bucket, and toy box." But I think I get what she means.  I try to keep reminding myself lately that they will grow up quickly and and I will miss having little ones underfoot.  I hope that we are building good memories together. :)

The kids are doing great with school, even Kinley likes to get a pencil and scribble all over papers.  (or anything, really.)  Football is almost over, gymnastics and dance are moving right along, and Kip's work is winding towards "done."  They are scheduled to be complete in December, but might still be around the site for a few months tying  up all the ends.  Then onto a new adventure!  Last time we waited for quite a while before finding out his official job assignment, and when we did find out, it was after a day of fasting.  I think we will try fasting sooner this time... :)

I am busy now with an additional "project," stage managing the Parker stake production of Savior of the World.  It takes a lot of time (evenings and nights...late, late nights) but it is fun to be back in a production atmosphere, and the show is really quite inspiring.  Performances are the week after Thanksgiving, and then I might just sit in the evenings and do nothing for a while.  Just nothing.   That sounds nice.  Although after one night I'd probably start looking for something else to do, I don't seem to like down time too much.  Must be something in the gene pool...

And to finish off tonight, McKinley can say a number or words now, and one my favorites is "Num!"  (those crumbs used to be a cupcake.)  Num!