Sayings We Heard From Joey's Room Last Night

Long after we put Joey to bed last night, we heard the following from within his room:

"Mine. My book. Mine."

And a while later,

"Oh no! What happened?!"

And later still, a little more adamently,

"NO! MY cookie!"

Is this the case of a multiple personality, or is it just a youngster finding his voice? Only time will tell...

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In the meantime, here are more of our favorite pictures from our autumn nature walk:

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On another note, Jon and I just embarked on a marathon viewing (over the course of several nights) of the "Lord of the Ring" series, and when Joey woke up in the morning, I couldn't help wondering whether he reminded me more of a hobbit (based on his appearance, including his chubby, bare feet) or of Smiegel (based on his gravely "Scary Joey" voice that he uses to make us laugh and on his all-too-frequent use of the word "mine.").

Autumn Pictures

We have so much to be thankful for. Above all, we're grateful to be a family! Shortly before Thanksgiving last year, our good friend Caroline took these pictures for us. I think they capture some really fun family moments. In fact, the whole time we were doing this, we never mentioned the word "picture"--we didn't want to jinx the boys' smiles--instead we just told them we were going on a nature walk and that Caroline wanted to tag along! I realized that I'd never posted any of these pictures on the blog, but as I was looking through them today, I found so many "favorites" that I decided to post a few each day this week. Enjoy!

Joey the Brave

Joey's middle name could have been Brave. Or Reckless. We couldn't decide, so we settled on Porter.

Yesterday I took him out in the deep snow, and he had no fear. He didn't mind falling, face first, again and again. The only thing that bothered him was me trying to steady him. He wouldn't have any of that!

Today I took him out in the deep water (a.k.a. swimming pool), and, again, he had no fear. He didn't mind falling over again and again. The only thing that bothered him was me trying to steady him. The only time he let me steady him was when he took that one extra step into the water, to where it was so deep that his feet floated up under him. The whole time we were in the pool, he just walked and walked. And several times he walked straight down the slope into the deep (4-feet) water, taking a baby step at a time, holding his little chin up and blowing bubbles when necessary, until the water practically submerged him and he lost his footing. Only then would he accept my help.

I sure love that brave little guy.