Whew. A lot going on in Linden's world these days. She popped her first tooth a few weeks ago and is very interested in flashing it to anyone who will admire it. We call her the Saber Tooth Baby. It is a very very cute tooth and we look forward to the arrival of its pearly white companions.

She has also figured out how to maneuver herself around a room. It isn't crawling exactly, but she gets places and fast. She can crawl, but she always goes backwards. When she wants to go forwards, she rolls and twists and wiggles until she gets where she wants to go.

Linden continues to be sweet and charming all the darn time. She is such an easy baby, gentle and happy. We are all so smitten with her. Eli loves her so much and is always bringing her toys and giving her hugs and kisses. He is still a great big brother and we're really proud of him for it.

Eli is also a sweet kid. He is SO smart we hardly know what to do with him. He talks nonstop. Really. Nonstop. We are experiencing some of what some of our friends referred to as "three, the new two". He is showing some willfulness and desire to assert himself. he gets really frustrated and acts out when he doesn't get his own way. It is all to be expected but hard to take sometimes. We're all working through it together and he is such a neat kid between the episodes of yuckiness that it balances out. His new favorite phrase is "Mommy, I love you all the way up to the rocketships and back." Heartbreaker, that one.

Speaking of Matt and Erin, Linden's baptism was a beautiful event. It was a lovely day in November. She and Eli both behaved beautifully and thanks to her great Godparents, we had a really nice party at our house afterwards.

Linden also had a great Christmas. She got a lot of clothes, much needed clothes. Her Godparents, Erin and Matt gave her this awesome hat. And they also gave her... PINK JOHN DEERE COWGIRL BOOTS. Did you hear me? PINK. JOHN DEERE. COWGIRL. BOOTS. They're a little big yet, but she'll grow into them. Now if only I can find a pair for myself...

We had a big old Christmas at Casa YoSim. Eli got a lot of great gifts, a tool set, a guitar (!), a great car track racing set and lots of costumes. I had a great time making many of the costumes, an apron, a superhero cape, a doctor's coat. He also got a set of stick-on mustaches, a gold wig, a feather boa and a cat face. He has had a great time with all of his gifts but I have to admit, the costumes have given the rest of us the most laughs.

I love this picture. This hallway in our house is so amazing, wide and long like a bowling alley. Last week, in an attempt to create more play space and to reduce the echo, we put down a couple of rugs and a toy bench in the hall. It looks great, but I miss this clean open feeling.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree!

Our new house is beautifully shady and surrounded by lovely trees. Unfortunately, this means a lot of leaves in the fall. Eli, continuing in his love for "helping", likes to rake leaves with daddy. They have a great system for packing the leaf bags. After a bag starts to get full, Daddy puts Eli in the bag to stomp down the leaves. It is great fun for everyone involved.

And another ridiculous conversation form last night...

Eli: (coming out of his room after bedtime, looking very sleepy but clearly awake) Mommy, there's an elephant in my room.
Me: excuse me?
E: There's an elephant in my room and he's bothering me. A pretend elephant.
M: That's terrible. Say to him, "Mr Elephant, you are being very rude. Please leave my room. I'm trying to sleep."
E: Elephant, you're rude. Go away. (totally without a trace of humor or irony)
M: See, there he goes.
E: Thank you Mommy. (goes back to bed)
E: (ten minutes later opens door briefly then closes it again.)
M: (going in his room) Eli, is everything okay?
E: (very sleepy) No Mommy, there was a pretend giraffe in here and I had to let him out.

Take a ride with me on Eli's train of thought. This was an actual conversation we had in the car today.

Eli: Mommy, woodchips are not our friends.
Me: Um, what?
E: Woodchips are NOT our friends.
M: Ummmm, okay. Why?
E: Because they aren't people. They don't have bodies. So they can't be friends.
M: Oh. Okay.
E: And they don't have feet. So they don't wear socks.
M: Socks?
E: Yeah. I wear socks so my feet don't get cold. And if I don't wear them, my feet get very very cold.
M: Yes. Very true.
E: And if I don't wear clothes, I am very very VERY cold.
M: Also true.
E: And if you don't wear clothes, Mommy, then you go to bed.
M: Excuse me?
E: Yes. You take off your clothes and put them in the dirty laundry then you put on your pjs and go to bed.
M: Um. Yeah.
E: But woodchips don't wear pjs either.

No kidding, we really had this conversation.

Continuing in the fine tradition of York-Simmons children, Linden had a great check up at the pediatrician on Friday. She is 18 lbs, 10 oz, 27.25 inches. She is 95% percentile in both. Way to grow, baby girl!

Want one?

Some friends of ours gave us a hand-me-down Incredible Hulk costume. It had been through two of their boys and, now that Eli has it, it just may have met its match. He loves that costume and wears it all the time, occasionally adding a hat, mask or scarf to jazz it up. He doesn't know who the Hulk is, he just calls himself "SuperEli!"

Here is a day in the life of SuperEli, three-year-old superhero.

Off to save the day!!

First stop, mow the lawn...

Then, a hoola-hoop break.

Sweep the steps...

Then back to the life of a normal preschooler.

Tonight's conversation:
Eli (sounding stern, padding into my room in his pj's): Mommy.
Me: Yes, sweetheart.
Eli: Mommy, I am almost out of soap in my bathroom.
Me: Okay. I'll fill it later.
Eli (pointing a little scolding finger at me, with wrinkled brow): Yes. You do that. As soon as you finish getting ready for bed. Fill my soap so that I can have clean hands, Mommy. Fill my soap. Don't forget. (pads back out of room)
Me, to Kevin: I think I just got schooled by a three-year-old.

Baby Linden was a butterfly for Halloween (yes, another craft!). At the last minute, Eli found an old, hand-me-down Hulk costume and decided to go trick-or-treating in that, with a purple Zorro mask, green rainboots and a John Deer cap. So much for the robot!

Strawberry baby!

One of Eli's favorite rainy day activities is to play with shaving cream. He likes to mush and swirl it. Recently, we've been helping him write letters in it. he's getting really good at recognizing letters and can get almost all the whole alphabet.

Recently, Eli has gotten really excited about helping with household chores. His helping isn't always so helpful but I'm trying to be encouraging and so I get him to participate in any way that he can. Here are some shots from laundry day.

Baby Linden takes a rest from all the hard work in a pile of clean clothes.

and after the food comes... the bath! She's graduated to the famous duck tub. Here she is, a tub in a tub.

Shortly after the retreat, Linden started eating solid foods. The photos speak for themselves. She, like her brother, has taken to eating with great gusto. She's now eating applesauce, pears, bananas, sweet potatoes and, of course, rice cereal. She eats a TON.

This makes dinnertime a whole new adventure. The two kids sit across the table from each other and make faces and laugh. We love that they entertain each other. It is really very funny!

One fun event at the retreat was a costume parade for the kids. Luckily, Eli and I had been working on his Halloween costume (again, with the crafts!).

We took a plan old cardboard box...

covered it with heavy-duty aluminum foil, computer buttons and glitter...

and made a robot! An EliBot, to be exact.
Eli loved his costume and wore it a LOT in the weeks leading up to Halloween.
He was super cute in it!

Several weeks ago, shortly after Eli's birthday, the YoSims packed up and went to the mountains. We went with our church on a retreat. It was a great time for all. I don't have pictures, but Eli got a bit part in the Friday evening entertainment, when a kids performer did a rendition of Mighty Casey at Bat. Eli got to pretend he was hitting a baseball then ran around the bases. It was very funny but not a bad stage debut. Linden didn't sleep much that weekend, but she was really good toehrwise. Both kids traveled really well and we all had a great time.



Linden out on the dock.


Kevin and Eli are out in a canoe.

And... we're back!

We've had a fun few weeks here at the Rumpus. Since I mentioned it in my last post, I'll talk a little bout my latest crafting adventures. For some reason, this fall I've been particularly prolific (craft-lific?). Maybe it is the new house, maybe it is the baby, but I've really had a good time with some of my projects. When appropriate, I've included Eli in the adventures. Here's a bit of what I've been doing:
These are the curtains in Eli's bedroom. This house has 10 foot ceilings and big old windows. This room was painted like this when we got here and the colors are perfect for Eli but a little on the strange side. this all added up to hard-to-cover windows. I found some great fabric for them.



Poor Linden didn't have a dresser and all of her clothes were in baskets on the floor. this was working fine until her clothes started to get bigger. I ran out of room! Then I found this dresser on the curb near our house. It was sturdy and clean though kind of ugly. A quick paint job and voila! Linden has a dresser! For the record, this is not the room the dresser lives in.

Eli and I decorated for Halloween. We made paper pumpkins and bats and glued clothespins on them. Then we clipped them to a string in the front window. Spoooooky!