You cant find me!!!!!!!!!!!

Recently Marley has learned the time honored game that children everywhere have grown up with: Hide and Go Seek. It started out really cute. She would hide, under her covers, and when we would walk in she would jump out and yell at us. Then she would count to ten by saying "one, two, ten" as fast as she could. After her abbreviated counting she would run after us , usually catching us running as fast as we could to get to a decent hiding spot. The next time it was her turn to hide she would be back under her covers. Well, wanting our child to get the most from this experience, we taught her how it was more fun to hide in different places every time, and to stay put until we found her. BIG MISTAKE! She is small enough to fit just about anywhere. This includes any cupboard, in the coffee table, in her dresser drawers, her toy boxes, under any bed and in all closets. Her hiding repotaire has grown to include about thirty hiding spots and now she does not make a peep until she is found. Now I can imagine some of you out there going, "Well hey, that doesnt sound all that bad. Let her hide a while and give yourself a break." In theory I completely agree with this philosophy, but there are some problems with this. Like i said earlier, she is JUST AbOUT small enough to fit anywhere. Small enough in fact for her to believe she can fit anywhere. This leads to episodes of her being stuck in any number of places. I have found her feet sticking out of a toy box head covered by stuffed animals and another time completely stuck between my dresser and the wall. Both places the amount of oxygen she is getting is compromised. Regardless of safety hazard though, this is definately her new favorite pasttime. (& Josh and I love it almost as much as she does. )

Josh's Hair

Josh, being the wonderfully creative freespirit that he is, has a head entirely covered with dreadlocks. I am torn on this issue. Part of me thinks they are cool and fun, and the other part of me hates them. Regardless of my opinion though, Josh is proud of this development. He hasn't brushed his hair in almost a year now. For the record, he does wash them almost every day and they really dont smell. From a sanitation standpoint, this seems to be an acceptable do. My problem with Josh hair is that people seem to be a lot quicker to judge him than when he had nondreaded hair. Oh well. He doesnt' let it get to him so neither will I.

Marley's new life calling

Marley has recently enrolled in ballet/tap dance. She is in a class with about seven other two year old girls. It really is precious. Marley's teacher doesn't seem to know what to make of her. Any time she says anything, Marley claps and cheers. This led to the comment, "Well. There's a cheerleader in every group." I'm not sure if that was an insult or not. Another time the class had joined hands and was walking in circle. Marley flung her hands free, jumped into the center of the circle and started shaking her booty for all she was worth. I certainly don't move like that. The music just spoke to her i guess. I do have to say that Marley is the best dancer in her class. She seems to remember the moves from week to week when the other kids don't seem to remember ever being in the studio before. They have a recital at christmas , they are performing Rudolph. It should be pretty cute, but we are still waiting for her solo performance to be announced.

The pumpkin patch

Today we had an event filled day at the corn maze/pumpkin patch in Millcreek, IL. It was a family operation, quaint being the operative word. Free hay rides, three different patches and a corn maze. The maze was small, but perfect for Marley's little legs. She walked the whole way, making almost all of the directional decisions. The goal was to find six different buckets hidden throughout the maze and I am proud to say the Lanier clan accomplished this feat in under twenty minutes. We got three big pumpkins and three tickets to the corn maze for thirteen dollars. I dont think the woman's math was spot on when she added our total, but we all seemed happy with the transaction. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to carve my pumpkin into some form of respectable artwork. These pictures are the results of three hours of focused carving. Josh still has to carve his, and though he does not know it yet, we are having a carving competitiion. I will keep you posted on his results...