Ten on Tuesday.

1. We went to the Apple Farm on Saturday. The annual trek. OK, it's not exactly a trek, since it's like 20 minutes from home.

2. It's very hard to take pictures of your daughter while holding your son (even in a sling) who pulls the camera strap just as you're about to get your shot. Oh well. Little girl + apples = proof we were there.

3. More proof, thanks to Matt! It's always more fun to go apple-picking with friends. Unfortunately it was a mad rush to get family pictures because of wiggly kids, so I got pics of my family and Matt+Shelly got pics of their family, but we don't have pics of each other's families. Bummer. So you'll have to go there to see them.4. Do you know what I realized I LOVE about these photos when I was editing them? The interlaced hands of my children. Ah, sweet kids.

4. The apple crisp recipe I use. And we did make one on Sunday, and I did finish it. Yes, that yummy.

5. If I bring home just one more "green" book from the library I think Ron may look into having my library card privileges revoked.

6. Think Alla and I need to make these little ghosties.

7. Yoga class starts tomorrow night. It is very hard to find a yoga class that starts after your baby goes to bed. Even when said baby goes to bed at the early hour of 6:30.

8. Said baby has just woken up from his morning nap and is upstairs making all sorts of funny-cute baby sounds.

9. Little girl is at preschool this morning. I cannot wait to see what she brings home in her folder. It's like being a kid in school again myself. I get all giddy to see what notices are stuffed into her folder, book orders being tops on my list. OK, I am enjoying seeing her school work, too. Last week she brought home a whole page of A's that she had traced. ETA: She brought home a note stating that her school had a case of head lice reported. Perfect. I'm sure this is just the first of many of this kind of notice in her school years.

10. Had Fisher's six-month appointment yesterday. The little guy is 29.5 inches and 19 pounds, 3 ounces.

Half-Birthday.

Happy Half-Birthday, Fish! Now don't go getting any older. Somehow you're halfway to, well, we all know what you're halfway to, without Mama having to mention it and go into hysterics. Just, like I said, please don't go getting any bigger. I like you on my hip, I like you immobile, I like you just the way you are, baby.At six months, you are eating every three hours. And getting hungry for more, particularly at lunchtime. Don't worry, buddy, we won't make you wait any longer for f-o-o-d.

You are riding along with your sister for Mama's runs, and today got to go for your first one by yourself in the BOB. You couldn't stop looking up at me through the little window.

You are very vocal. We're pretty sure Da-da will eventually be your first word.

You mostly take two naps.

You've been sleeping through the night for almost two weeks now, 6:30pm-6:30am. We love you.

You're in 6-12 month and 12 month clothes.

You can scoot all over and backwards.

You like that xylophone. The saucer, so-so. The highchair, about five minutes. The crib with some toys, a little longer.

Sitting up means a whole new perspective, and new things to grab. Like grass. Mmmmmmm.

You loooooooooooooooooooove your lovey. If we ever lost that thing...oh! I shudder to think.

And we love you. Happy Six Months, Buddy! Happy Birthday!

Twenty-six weeks.

Fish, you have lived exactly twenty-six weeks with us, exactly half a year. You have brightened our lives each and every one of those days.

My favorite time of day is laying with you in the morning in those lazy precious minutes before the day starts, when you are happiest, when we both gaze out the window to get a feel for what the day will hold, when you are just content to lay with Mama, snuggle Mama, let me breathe you in.

Exactly twenty-six weeks ago I was recovering from your birth, I had newborn, brand-new you in a bassinet beside me and I just couldn't have been luckier.

Exactly twenty-six weeks later you can sit up, albeit with a pillow behind you for Mama's assurance.Exactly twenty-six weeks later I feel even luckier if that is possible, because I have spent nearly every minute of these twenty-six weeks with you, watching you grow, imploring you to grow just a little slower, yes, but seeing it happen too quickly anyway.

Exactly twenty-six weeks later I love you immeasurably more, and will love you even more tomorrow. Amazing that that could be so, but it absolutely is.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Whew. One of those days when you really don't think the day will ever end. Read: when you really don't think the little girl's bedtime will ever come.

2. I am hopelessly hooked on the new 90210. I know, I know.

3. For dinner tonight we had zucchini fries using a recipe from a new food-for-kids blog I discovered, Tiny Morsels. Scroll down for the recipe.

4. Sara just sent me a cool website where you can find out how many people in the U.S. have your exact first + last name. I'm one of four, Ron is one of three, and I think it's incredibly cool that Alla and Fisher are the only ones in the entire country with their exact names.

5. I was walking through the mall on Sunday and saw a girl looking at earrings and thought to myself, When was the last time I shopped for earrings? This is kind of neither here nor there, because I have a gorgeous pair of earrings that Ron gave me my first Mother's Day that I wear nearly everday and I love. Just an interesting thought.

6. I am proud to say that I am just starting my September Real Simple and have yet to crack the October one. Love that.

7. Fisher is so ready for a sippy cup, as he grabs at my cup and makes a clicking noise with his tongue everytime it's filled with water. He loves to drink water from my cup.

8. I desperately need a new computer. Any ideas?

9. We had our second annual block party on Saturday afternoon, despite the first hour and a half being under a downpour. So, the firetruck this year wasn't quite the main attraction spraying the kiddos with water, but that's okay, they had a blast anyway.

10. I'll leave you with photos of the late afternoon and evening. Mostly the kids made up their own games, like playing school in our garage with the easel chalkboard, running the street with sparklers leftover from the Fourth, and stopping for homemade ice cream when their bellies rumbled hungry. We love our neighborhood. It's seriously wonderful.

Off to preschool.

She did it. Up and went off to preschool and barely signed 'see ya later' to me. She was pretty proud of herself today. Don't know how she got that big. Might be the new shoes. Well, 'new' is a relative term. I bought them in June, they were too big, so now, three months later, they are still new to her.

Best part of her day might have been that the Back to School Fairy (There are a lot of fairies! The MnM Fairy, the Fairy Godmother, Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather, and The Back to School Fairy - Wow!) came while she was away at her first day, and left her a nice little gift of new watercolors and watercolor paper.

She said to me while she immiedately painted away, The Back to School Fairy gave me the wonderfullest present! This is my favorite thing ever!

We love you, little girl.

Ten on Tuesday: The Sunday Edition.

1. Sunday was a beautiful day to walk to the park. Ronald is so Brad Pitt with his baby accessory hanging out of his back pocket.2. Fisher in his first-ever BOB walk.3. Alla being pulled in the wagon. Looking oh so cool, like a preschooler.4. We went to swing.5. And slide.
And yell at Daddy to slide down, too.
6. And see glorious Minnesota September skies. 7. But really we went to fly a new kite. Daddy is a huge kite-lover.

8. Really, I think there's not a lot that's better than flying a kite on a breezy Sunday afternoon at the park. 9. Well, maybe a wonderful husband is better. Unless you're three.
10. And if you want to make your own super wonderful kite just like ours on a nice breezy day, go here, gather up the supplies you probably already have, and in 20 minutes or less you will have yourself some equally fine kite-flying fun.

'Round here.

We started our day like this. Like always. Snuggles in Mama's bed. Lay there 'til we think Fisher's diaper just won't be able to snuggle with us any longer before we start our day. Breakfast is after diaper-changing, and the rule I'm trying to implement around here is Once you have your breakfast don't ask Mama for anything else until she's eaten or else she will be grumpy.The kid still loves his lovey. Desperately. Give him the lovey, he inserts fingers, starts hugging that Monkey blanket.
Little girl vignettes. That little girl starts preschool on Tuesday. She got to meet her teacher yesterday. Miss Mary, please be wonderful to my daughter.

Alla loves to gaze at her garden. I'm starting to wonder how long said garden has left.
We are looking forward to homemade Pizza Friday.

I'm still shedding like crazy.

He has an incredible smile.

We had moo-moos for snack this morning (smoothies for those of you not in the know). Today: strawberry-banana-pineapple yum. She finished the whole thing sitting out there in her Diego chair before Carter + Canton came to hula hoop for a bit.Someone grew two-and-a-half inches since her birthday. Someone's pants don't really fit anyore. Wonder how long we have on those shoes, too, that are going on a year old. And still kickin', I might add, so I will be buying another pair in the next size up when the time comes. Great shoes. We're glad it's Friday. Alla's going to be super excited when she wakes up tomorrow and it's the weekend (movie morning!) and Dada doesn't have to go to work.

The state fair MONSTER post.

OK, here we go. Since you were all waiting all weekend, I know, to find out what we saw and, more importantly, what we ate! Susan, this is really for you.

We got to hit up the fair on Labor Day again with our friends Craig + Nicole and their two boys, Carter + Canton, who are all absolutely the most wonderful friends. We are so lucky.

The fair seems to work best EARLY. So we got up at 6:30, fed and changed Fisher, and headed out the door. Arriving early guarantees you free parking on the streets outside the fair. Here they are at 7:30 am walking toward the main entrance. So excited.The grown-ups' favorite part: the coffee. Craig introduced me to breves. Um, yum. A latte but replace the milk with half and half. Perfect way to start off the eating frenzy. The kids were content with their bags of mini-donuts.We were content with their i.d. wristbands:)Listen, Fisher was like the easiest baby. We didn't hear a peep unless it was a happy peep. Not a fuss until he got the hiccups. We didn't even realize until LUNCHTIME that we hadn't even changed him once. Bad parents.

The fair is about everything being on a stick, including boulders apparently. How many years do we have of this, the kids just wanting to pet the animals. Seriously cheap dates.
The fair is also about stuffing your face with the filthiest fattiest food you can find. But we had heard about the peaches, so we stuffed our faces with those. And apples, and frozen apple cider. That is one big peach she's got there.

See, he was just along for the ride. So were the three-year-olds.
Carter is simply the sweetest, putting his arm around Alla to get her to see what he sees. The whole fair must just be an absolute wonderland to a child.
She just wanted ice cream. Nevermind that what she got was raspberry whip from Dole. She just told herself it was strawberry.

Fish and Nicole enjoying the music, or enjoying Dancing Canton. The end of the day, hasn't her face grown a bit long?

Him, when we got back to the car. That poor lovey still smelled like all things State Fair this morning: sweet-sweet cotton candy, everything fried, sweat, hot, dirt. As if he enjoyed any of that himself!

She did cheer up but we saw much more of that long face later in the day, and that's why both kids were in bed by 7. She won this ducky on the midway:) She was not the big fan of rides this year, didn't even want to go down the giant slide with her mama. She's entered a cautious phase, I'm afraid, so that means for sure she didn't want anything to do with the Ferris Wheel that the Francisco-Osterhaus clan went on. I did manage to shove her onto the SkyRide, but there are no pics from our view up there because she would not let me unwrap one single arm from around her lest she fall out or something.

OK, so the round-up of Fair Foods Consumed 2008, that I can remember, between the eight of us. Well, between the seven of us. Fisher didn't exactly get his first-hand.

Mini-donuts

Coffee

fried meatball on a stick

giant pretzel

apple

peach

frozen pressed apple cider

chocolate-covered key lime pie on a stick

corndogs

gyros

fish taco

deep fried Snicker

Dole whip raspberry cone

Sweet Martha's cookies

lemonades

cotton candy

I think that's it? Nicole?