Baby Maddie

I invite people to check out this link. You can press your mouse one time on any part of this message to get to her site or you can navigate there on the links section to the right.

Bird feeding

We've been going through the bird seed and suet like crazy. When it gets cold those birds just go crazy for the stuff. It is fun to watch them all flutter around and bicker at each other. Olivia has fun scattering sunflower seeds all over the ground.

Speaking of birds, how about them Cardinals. What a Series. Very low TV ratings though. I was just amazed. I really thought that the Tigers would do what the Red Sox did a few years ago and just beat the Cards senseless. Hopefully can hold onto the key players for another run next year.

Zach's all request blog-line

What a sweet game last eve. Cards get a big win off of excellent starting pitching from Carpenter. No runs, something like 3 hits. Great stuff. I didn't see the first 5 innings because of work but the pitcher for the Tigers made a bad mental error on a ground ball to him. Runners on first and second, one out, and Pujols sent him a little grounder. Instead of tossing it to second then first for the double play, he threw it to third. The third baseman was moving to the base and the toss was way behind him letting two runs score. The announcers later said that a double play going from pitcher to third to second hadn't been successful in a world series since 1929. They really gave him a hard time about it on the air. The play that everyone was expecting was toss it to second where the shortstop and second basemen practice that catch/throw every day to then get the guy at first.

Posting

I    Intro and disclaimer
II   MLB Cardinals/Molina
III  MLB Tigers
IV   Zachary's Telephone
V    Olivia's Rabbit

This is the introductory paragraph. Aunt Deb tells me that I was not very organized in thought in the last posting so I shall endeavor to be more lineal. Due to the nature of this medium to be easily misportrayed and misrepresented, I vow in this posting to not obfuscate facts or be vague in any way. I may or may not be successful.

Holy Smokes! Cards make the series!!! That Yadier Molina has been one of my favorite players since he came up to the bigs. Yea, Pujols and Carpenter rule the Cardinal roost but he's been making a solid mark. I was really disappointed when we lost Matheny. He was such a good defensive catcher and another coach on the field. Molina came in and started tossing the ball around and going right up to the pitchers. It would be tough for a rookie to go up to an all-star and try to either give some help or try to settle them down. My favorites are when he slings it to Pujols at first to try to tag the runner after a pitch and the way he mows down base stealers. Awesome. He couldn't bat to save his life in the beginning but he's turned it up a notch the second half of this season.

Detroit. I thought that the Twins would destroy them. Nope. It will be really tough for the Cards to win now. All the Tiger pitchers have had plenty of rest and are lined up to go. Our guys are going to pitch on fumes. Hopefully, Pujols can still carry the team or it may very well get bad. That Kenny Rogers of Detroit has been lights out so far.

Zach has had a great time with the telephone. He picks it up and shouts out, "Hi!" He pushes buttons, holds it to his ear and babbles. He smiles goofily and runs around. I just hope that he isn't calling Portugal.

Olivia owns a little yellow rabbit. It is about her best friend. She talks to it, feeds it and changes its diaper. It sleeps with her sometimes. Other times it is banished forcibly to the toy room. One time, it fell asleep with her in bed. In the morning, we found it tossed unceremoniously in the middle of the hall. Apparently it was hoggin the covers.

How about them Cards!!!!

Holy smokes what a series!

Jeff Suppan had a monster series at pitcher, Pujols did great like usual and Yadier Molina smacked what would be the game winning two run homer.

I was thinking at work today all the gloves we have for sale. That got me thinking about shoes. When Elena bought Zach his first pair of big boy shoes and put them on, he was just so proud of them. He would stomp around and grin his silly smile. Now they are older and well broken in, but he still gets excited when he sees them because he knows then he will be going out.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to church and Sunday School yesterday. Livi has been having some trouble with separation anxiety for Sunday School, so the first couple of weeks I stayed with her in her class, and then the last couple of weeks she's gone by herself. She is so excited to go, but then has such a hard time when we drop her off and I guess during much of the classtime, too. So, we're trying to decide - do we keep trying or do we just give it some time and then try again later? Zach is just starting in on the separation anxiety - although much milder. When we first started taking him there, he'd just see the toys and forget that he even has parents, but lately he's been more upset about us leaving him, although he's fine within a few minutes of us leaving. So he stayed with us in church yesterday, and I just have to say that I am so glad that our church has a cry room where you can stay and not miss the service (in a sound-proof room). So we were in there for part of the time. And then after that, we all decided to go to the pancake breakfast, and the kids were hungry and really enjoyed that after sitting through church/Sunday school.

Since it was such a nice weekend and I was feeling pretty good we decided to go to Tweite's Pumpkin Patch. We were about 1/2 a mile away from there when I remembered that the camera was still at home (about 20 miles away) of course. A good time was had by all, though. Zach cooperated and took an early enough nap that we could go for a few hours in the afternoon. It's a really cool place to visit. Mostly geared for kids, of course, so fun times. We played on the castle that's built around a barn - Olivia had a blast with that! And then they have all these pots and pans and chimes hanging from old cow feeders and then some wooden spoons and sticks for the kids to bang on the pots and pans - lots of good loud fun. Of course, both kids had to "drive" the toy tractors and trucks. Zach was having such a great time and needed to be dragged away when it was time to move on - poor kid. The highlight for all was going on the tractor and wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch where we all got to pick out some pumpkins in the field. So we trudged through the field and found 3 pumpkins for the kids - yes, even baby got one, too. And Olivia very patiently waited until today for us to carve them. I think that she asked me about 20 times from the time I brought them in the house today at 11:00am until we finally carved them up around 3:30pm. But she was pretty good about waiting, and I kept putting it off anyway, and I just couldn't anymore. Olivia really liked helping me pick out all the seeds so we can use them up later. And Zachary spent most of the time helping by playing in the kitchen sink with cups and water. I think he likes doing that just about more than anything else in the house these days.

Not much other news to report here. Livi is getting somewhat impatient to meet the new baby. I had cleaned out the bassinet and washed all the baby clothes - just in case we went in early again. Well, when she saw the bassinet in our room she wanted to go to the hospital and see the baby right away, and was quite upset that we weren't doing that! Zach knows something's up, but doesn't know just what yet. We'll keep you posted!

-posted by Elena

CARDS WIN!!!

Twins lose. Not good. Not good at all. Santana had a good game giving up only two runs through I think seven. Frank Thomas for the A's had two homers. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Cards ride the back of Pujols and Carpenter to win fairly easily.

We're expecting a new addition to the family any day now. It is getting very close.