Need some gas?

When I was little we used to take these epic bike rides from our house to a restaurant (D'lights anyone? I don't know if I'm even spelling that correctly but it was such a long time ago I don't have much memory of the spelling). Our whole family would ride a mile or two (seemed like ten!), eat dinner, maybe get ice cream, and then ride back home. It was so much fun. Sometimes after dinner when riding up a big hill we'd get tired and Dad would come up beside us and "give us some gas", meaning he would ride alongside us and push us up the hill. My dad was so strong, he could totally beat up your dad! :) Anyway, now that Maggie's riding her big kid bike (with training wheels, but still) we've been taking lots of bike rides and having lots of fun doing it. My favorite part is when she asks for gas and I get to push her up a hill. Maybe one day she'll remember me as being really strong! The other day we were riding bikes at Radnor Lake with Maggie's friend Caleb and they got pretty far ahead of us. I couldn't hear what they were saying but I saw Maggie hop off her bike and run ahead to Caleb and then push him up the hill. I asked her later what she was doing and she said, "That hill was so big so I decided to give him some gas!" I'm glad she's spreading that "gas" concept around the world!

Here's Maggie and Caleb in our backyard. For some reason they wanted to ride the slide in each others' laps. Pretty funny.

Fall

(Here's Finn with his Uncle Jim, visiting for a few days last month.)
So I know it's been several weeks since my last post, as my sister Lindsay keeps reminding me, and I'm sorry about that. I just haven't felt like blogging lately. Here's the news from our family:
We've been sick.
We've been sick again
Some of us are still sick.
Sickness is not fun.

There you have it! See why I haven't had much to say lately?

We're having a fantastic fall so far, spending as much time as possible outside. My parents won't believe me but it turns out I LOVE raking leaves. It's nice to look and see what progress you've made, plus it's good exercise! We went to the PumpkinFest in downtown Franklin on Halloween and had a great time. There were some dancers performing an Irish dance and ever since Maggie has been treating us to her own interpretation of Irish dancing. She also got her face painted with the Very Hungry Caterpillar since she was going to see a production of that book later in the day with her Mimi and Poppy. We ran into about a million people we knew which was lots of fun, and we were glad to see her friend Cole and his parents, Marc and Elise (the couple responsible for introducing me and Grant).
Finn had lots of fun, too.
He actually did wake up later that night for his first trick-or-treating experience. He didn't get any candy but I still think he had a good time.
Maggie had been asking for a doctor costume since the minute Halloween was over last year. At least a month before Halloween this year we had bought her a cute doctor costume.
On Halloween morning as we were getting her dressed she decided that the pants didn't feel right, and she would be unable to wear them. I tried everything I could think of to make them feel right but in the end she just couldn't get past it so I put her in a leotard and tutu and decided she would be a ballerina for Halloween.

She went trick-or-treating that night and had a great time but the most fun she had was later, back at the house, handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters. As soon as she heard a knock at the door she bolted over and handed out exactly one piece per kid (I don't know who told her to be so stingy!). Grant and I had decided ahead of time that we'd let her stay up late and eat as much candy as she wanted (within reason) with the expectation that we'd throw it out the next day. Honestly, I thought that would be better than having it lying around for weeks and weeks. She had LOTS of fun until she threw up. Then we decided that she'd had enough and cut her off. Aren't we great parents? At least it was only a tiny little throw up.

Finn is doing great as usual. He pretty much charms the pants off anyone he meets. He'll check a new person out for a minute and then give them the sweetest, biggest smile and just keep grinning as long as he has their attention. When I go in to get him from a nap I just pick him up and squeeze him and he squeezes me back. We just feel so lucky to have him, both for everything he went through in his first weeks, and also just because he is the best baby ever.
I'll leave you with a quick Maggie story. We saw an armored truck the other day so I told Maggie all about it. Here is our conversation immediately following the explanation:
Maggie: So you're saying that truck is full of money?
Courtney: Yes.
M: And the person in there just drives around all day in a truck full of money and goes into different shops and restaurants?
C: Pretty much.
M: That's actually the greatest job I've ever heard of.
(This is verbatim our conversation - I actually pulled over to write it down.)