night owls

It's 8:30 on a Friday night and our household is winding down, as we do most every night around this time. I keep telling myself that it's only temporary - maybe by this time next year we'll be able to stay up until 11 p.m. (what a thought!) without feeling like we're sacrificing the next day's good mood. I will say that early mornings are very productive - a lot happens before the sun rises here at Lostview farm - mostly related to getting the babes fed and changed and entertained, or more challenging - keeping them quiet while one or two housemates enjoys the luxury of sleeping in. It's a system these days though and it works. We're still a lot of fun - just catch us before sunset for a good time.

Charis and I have spent the past couple of days doing parallel mom work here at the homestead. Owain is a stitch with his squeals and enormous smiles. When he's not giving me grief at bedtime, Ellis is a riot - especially running around naked and hyper after a bath (currently one of his favorite activities). He's actually running now - more or less - no more crawling for this mobile boy. He's fast and very excited about it. Ellis is also talking more every week - now we're up to the following vocab repertoire: hot, moo, bark, shoe - and he happily signs "more" "milk" and "eat," sometimes interchangably, but we get the picture. He's opinionated and silly, loud and sweet. Ellis LOVES to give Owain kisses and mimic O's sounds. They're funny around each other - both entertained and fascinated by the other. We anticipate a very rambunctious household in the coming months and years. We can't promise you won't banana-peel slide on a giant lego or pop-up book, but we can promise you a good time.

The photos here are a smattering of the past few weeks - some taken during a trip Chris and I took with Ellis to my family's cabin on Golden Lake in the U.P. - a beautiful fall weekend at a very special place. I'm so glad it's a part of Ellis's life now. He embraced Golden fully - lake, woods, & racing around the cabin just like his mama, aunts & uncles. Here's to teaching E to swim there next summer!

Well, I'm reaching my limit here for coherent thought, so I ought to sign off. Looking forward to the rest of fall at the farm - then the celebration and hunkering down of winter...fires, cocoa, glogg, family, festivity, skiing, walks in the snow, toasty hot tub.

Good night!