Catching up

Well, so much for my "more to come" promise from last post. I should learn not to make promises too often. ;-)

We are doing well, but still adjusting. We enjoyed my parents' visit for a few weeks of September and learned that they will be returning to the Philippines in January to serve as the MTC (Missionary Training Center) Presidents there. I think all of us Beck kids are both excited for them and sad to have them so far away for 2 years.

We're enjoying our neighborhood, house, and yard. Brian built a raised bed for gardening and Cameron helped him a bit. He had to dig up some sod to make room for it, and found that the ground was very hard. He soaked the ground to make it easier, and then the kids filled up the bed and Cam had a mud bath.

Cameron is doing well, generally. But to be honest, he's had a hard time recently. Just very volatile and defiant, difficulty sleeping (which is unusual for him), and wetting his pants. Poor kid. After discussing things with my Mom a few weeks ago, she pointed out to me that he's got to be just overwhelmed with all the changes he's undergone in the past few months. Leaving his friends, moving to a new house, starting school (!), new ward, trying to make friends, and then we signed him up for soccer and a little painting class on top of that. Yeah, whoa. I realized this too late. But I didn't pull him out of those because he truly is enjoying them now, especially painting. He does like school, but frets about tattle-telling and "getting his card turned." He's learning a lot--he's beginning to read words and write them on his own by sounding them out. Fun to see when that happens to your child! He still has a big love for art. He doesn't play with his TOYS that often, but is ALWAYS making something out of paper or occasionally other things. Here are just a few. I'm serious that I could fill up a book with all the stuff he's made. And he just comes up with this stuff on his own. I'm thinking the Halloween Fairy will trade his candy for some more construction paper and TAPE OF HIS OWN.

This is his "mouse" (he's holding it) and its "mouse hole"

robot

suitcase!

drawn inside are the things he packed: underwear, shirt, pants, and...

 candy.

Liesel is doing well and is still a very loving and affectionate little girl. She's always got a ready smile and anytime someone is sad or hurt, she'll say, "I'm sorry" and give them a hug and a kiss. The other night when Brian put her to bed she said in her little Liesel voice, "I give you a big kiss and you give me a big kiss!" She is just so stinkin' adorable. Whenever Brian or I am making something in the kitchen you better count on her asking, "Can I heeelp you? Can I heelp youu?" over and over until you answer her. She really likes to be part of the cooking and baking. She has made fast friends with a little girl in our ward, and loves to play with her whenever we can arrange it. I'm glad she's got at least one friend because we weren't able to find a preschool here; everything was FULL. Hopefully next year we'll find something affordable (man, we miss our First Pres Co-op Preschool in Boulder).

Makes us happy to see this sometimes. We were at the national zoo.

As for me, I'm getting used to how things work around here--the traffic (oh, the TRAFFIC and scary driving!), food prices ($4 for milk and $3.39 for a dozen eggs!), how the school does things, doctors, library, etc. All that logistics stuff. Our ward (church congregation) has a weekly playgroup which has been great and also a breakfast club and temple swap (trade babysitting while Moms go to the temple 20 minutes away) that alternates Wednesdays. There's also a book club that is organized by a woman in our ward (but it's not a church group) and we met just once so far. We read "Outliers" by Malcom Gladwell and this month we're reading "The Glass Castle" by Jannette Walls.

We did go to the White House and did the self-tour with my Dad while they were here visiting and Mom graciously offered to stay at home with sick Ivy. They don't allow you to bring pretty much anything (no purses, no strollers, no bag of any kind and definitely no camera), so I don't have photographs of that day. I was a little surprised that it was so quick. We probably spent 10 minutes inside one small corner of the White House. Cameron was a little interested--he said he liked how the rooms were called after their color "The Blue Room" and the "Green Room" and we actually saw President Obama's black and white Portuguese Water Dog, Bo, just after coming inside! And they have like 50 guards--1 or 2 with guns and lots of suited guys watching people. And you went through 3 different security checkpoints to get in. After the White House, we walked down to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum and watched the IMAX movie "Hubble" in 3D (about the Hubble Space telescope) which was amazing!

In other news, we just learned that a big, big storm (the afters of Hurricane Sandy) is headed our way beginning "early Sunday" and peaking Tuesday and lasting until after Halloween! Federal forecasters are calling it "Frankenstorm." I don't know if that's to be cute for Halloween or because it's gonna be a monster... probably the latter. They say it might be worse than the Perfect Storm of '91! You know, the one they made a MOVIE out of...?! Aaah! I don't actually remember that storm (we were living on the east coast in '91), but I think my parents do remember. It's supposed to be real bad. Getting some flashlights and restocking some supplies in case of power outage is on our to-do for the weekend, that's for sure.

Okay, that's probably long enough for you! I have lots of pictures I want to share, so I will post hopefully post again soon.
Remind me. ;-)

Singing Happy Birthday to Ivy! Happy Number 1!

My little Sunshine! We all just adore this baby!