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This is a two-part post about the Andrew/Sylvia relationship as I saw it this morning:

Part I – The good

Andrew and Sylvia are so cute together!  They wake up and rush for their vitamins.  They dole them out for each other, and then they leap about exclaiming in mutual glee what they want for breakfast.  Sylvia carefully watches Andrew and mimics his expressions and his moves. Except when he’s mimicking her.  After breakfast this morning, they crawled into Andrew’s bed.  She snuggled down under the comforter next to him, and he read her a couple chapters of Frog and Toad.  I leaned on the door frame and took in the beauty and comfort of their relationship.  The way Sylvia adores Andrew.  The joy he gets from her company.  It’s such a wonder and a gift that they have each other.

Part II – The not-so-good

Moments after stumbling out of bed and greeting each other, the conflict begins.  Sylvia wants a purple spoon with her breakfast.  One of the COVETED purple spoons.  Andrew says that both the purple spoons should stay in the drawer until they can use them together (he already has an orange spoon).  Sylv persists.  Andrew holds the silverware drawer closed with his body.  Sylvia pulls hard on to open it.  Voices are raised.  Sylvia shrieks.  The kids have been awake for about 4 minutes, and I’m threatening to get rid of both purple spoons if there is any more conflict over the stupid purple spoons.  Andrew demures.  Sylvia gets the purple spoon <Note to self: Andrew gets the purple spoon next.>
The kids sit down at breakfast and begin laughing and giggling about a thumbs up/thumbs down game they’re playing.  Suddenly, they’re not on the same page.  Andrew’s giving something a thumbs down.  Sylvie isn’t happy.  Andrew begins frowning, grunting, and saying, “No.  NO. NO!”  Sylvia starts to yell something.  “Yes!!!”  “NOOOO!”  “YESSSSS!!!!”  Just when I’m about to end breakfast and have them take turns eating since they obviously can’t seem to do it together, they work it out, and it’s on to the next thing.

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Is it any wonder that I sometimes feel a little dizzy?

October slipped by.  Our tree in our front yard turned the most amazing golden color this year.  When the sun shone through the leaves, I was mesmerized.  I don’t think that there could be a more beautiful site.  The kids liked it too, and I made up a story for them about how Bryan and I take our extra money and make it into gold and store it in the tree just so that for a few glorious days in the fall we can see what happens when leaves turn into papery thin pieces of gold.

Below, you’ll see some pictures of some late-October outings we took.

This is a pile of nuts that Sylvia found and stuffed into my pockets while we went for a walk:

Silly girl on the trail.

And there’s Andrew back when he had curls…

The kids and I were hiking at Kagonza State Park.  We’d gone the night before to attend a night-time walk with the trail lit by jack-o-lanterns.  However as we were walking in, Andrew (who was running) tripped and scraped up his elbow.  It was game over, and we all piled back into the car and headed home.  So the next morning, I thought we’d try again.

Sylvia’s red mark on her nose is from where she fell down the front porch steps and landed on her face.  No permanent damage done.

Andrew pretends to chop down a sapling.  Note that Sylvie has Poodle stuffed down her pants:)

Here’s a different day…our last outing to the apple orchard.

Sylvia wore swim suits every day all summer.  As the weather turned cold, she still wore them but added warmer items like a hat and mittens.  Then she started wearing clothes on top of the swimming suits.  When Bryan packed all the suits up and put them in the basement a few weeks ago, there amazingly wasn’t a whisper of complaint!

Sorry this picture is rotated funny.  Here it is corrected.   I love when the two of them are sitting together on the front step, enjoying each other’s company.  Plus, just look at Andrew’s curls!

Some painting…

Alivia lost her first tooth!

Enjoying some Culver’s left-overs

Here we’re taking a trip to Schuster’s Playtime Farm near Cambridge with Jessica and Celia.

Two girls enjoying the fences.  Sylvia is so non-phased by large livestock that (as her mother) it’s almost disturbing.

Hello, chicken!

Bye bye October!

A couple weeks ago, Andrew and Sylvia turned a quiet afternoon into a self-hair cutting extravaganza.

It was after school on a wet day, and Andrew and Sylvia wanted to watch a show.  I had some photography phone calls to make, so I agreed.  They also wanted to do some art projects, so I helped them get paper and crayons and paper.  And then I sat down at the kitchen table to work and make calls.

Andrew came in a couple times to get snacks.

And then I didn’t see them for a while.

The quiet had a funny sound to it, so I went into the living room to check on them.

And then I screamed.

I slapped my hands to either side of my face as if I was trying to hold my head together.

Lying on the floor was about four cups of Andrew’s curls.  And both Andrew and Sylvia had their scissors up to their heads and were looking at me wide-eyed in mid-cut.

Sylvia dropped her scissors from her trimming and clapped her hands over her ears.

I kept my hands holding my head together as I surveyed the scene, muttering something like, “Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, whatwereyouTHINKING???  OK OK OK OK Ok ok ok ok WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?!?”

Sylvia is looking at me with shock and alarm, and Andrew is looking at me, with his very shorn head, with confidence and righteousness.  No contriteness there.

I considered making him go around for a few days with the haircut he gave himself, but knowing him, he would think that was great.  And even if the kids at school thought he looked funny, he probably wouldn’t care.  And then perhaps I’d be stuck with him wearing this ridiculous mullet-type cut.  So I sadly sat him down and finished the job.

Here he is a few days later.

Really, there’s nothing wrong with his short cut.  It’s just a short boy cut.  But oh, his curls!  And the humanity of it all!

I told him that in the future if he wants his hair cut, HE NEEDS TO ASK FIRST.  I’m curious when and if we’ll see his lovely curls again.

Sylvia’s cut was less dramatic, so for the first day or so afterward, I didn’t even really notice it.  But then I realized that all her curls on the right side of her head had been lopped off.  She didn’t shear it off close to the scalp (thank heavens), but she’s got a whole area of her head with hair about an inch long.

For a little pop-culture reference, Sylvia’s ‘do actually reminds me a little of Rhiana…

She’s oh, so trendy!

Oh well.  It’s just hair and it grows back.  And now that the trauma is in the past, I’ve mostly recovered.

And the scissors?  They’ve been removed from circulation!