Here is Eleanor waiting patiently in her car seat in the mudroom while I got the boys ready to go out and play in the snow yesterday morning. Yes, that is correct, our first snow of the season was on October 16th this year, which pretty much just makes me want to cry. I was only starting to accept the fact that fall had arrived, so I am most definitely not prepared for winter.

The concept of "Winter" is more daunting this year than most (and that is really saying something for me) for several reasons. First, getting everyone dressed in appropriate outdoor attire for winter extends the time I need to leave the house from a manageable 20 minutes to a borderline-ridiculous 35 to 40 minutes. Why so long? Boots and Gloves, nuff said. Since we actually need to be on time for things like preschool, I can only imagine that the lower the temperature gets the higher my stress level will be. Second, despite the fact that it has been in the 20s in the mornings this week and (did I mention this already?)it SNOWED, Fraser still insists on wearing shorts and a t-shirt to go outside. Now yes, when there was snow on the ground I laid down the law and forced him to wear pants, but some days I just don't have the energy to wage that war. I am planning to simply put his shorts in the attic where he can't find them, but I'm not sure I am ready yet for the hours-long screaming fit of "I WANT MY SUNDAY SHORTS!!" Oh, and don't ask me why he calls his jean shorts "Sunday shorts," I have absolutely no idea. Finally, third, Eleanor still has a cold (Hammie has one too, but it doesn't seem to bother him as much) and she is just so sad and boogery. I am not not not looking forward to a winter of sick-baby, particularly in light of the intense paranoia the media has given me about...yes, you guessed it....swine flu.

Other than her cold Eleanor is doing very well. She had her 2 month checkup on October 2nd and she weighed 11.13 pounds and was 24 inches long. Her head circumference is 40 cm, which puts her completely off the head size chart. Nice to know she is now officially one of my children. Although her head size makes her very much like her brothers, she seems much more easy going than I remember either of them being. I often wonder if this is because she is a girl (and then maybe I will finally have an answer when people ask me if having a girl is different from having the boys) or because she is the third child. She could scream constantly and demand total attention, but I think she must realize that other diapers must be changed, meals must be served, and fights must be broken up, so she might as well just hang out and smile happily (which she does).

Fraser is particularly enjoying the roll of big brother where Eleanor is concerned. He likes to sit and talk to her about his day while she is on the changing table or the bouncy seat. The other day I was vacuuming and Eleanor was in the bouncy seat. Fraser was apparently concerned that Eleanor would be afraid of the vacuum because he sat next to her the whole time saying things like "The vacuum is loud, but that's okay. It's loud because it has a big engine." Freaking adorable.

Hammie has begun to say a lot more words, some of which I can understand and some I can't. My favorite right now is "breakfast" which comes out "Bee-Ba." His favorite phrase right now is "Oh Man!" He says this about 75 times a day and applies it in such situations as when he has to wait for his food, he sees something is broken or not put away, or I tell him to stop body-slamming the cat. Amazingly, it is cute pretty much every time he says it. Interestingly, he still does not like to say "yes" but he has figured out that saying "no" when he means yes and then screaming hysterically when we act as though he meant "no" isn't very effective. So he has started saying "Sure" when he means yes. Better than "no" I guess. Far less cute in my view is that when we discuss animals noises ("What does a cow say? What does a horse say?") Hammie insists that a cow says "Moo"but all other animals say "vroom vroom." Let's not think too deeply on that one.

Well, since Andy is currently at the doctor's office with the boys getting their flu shots (thanks honey!) I should probably try to do something productive like fold one of the 25 loads of laundry or try to clean up the kitchen from breakfast. On the other hand, I could just stay out here by the wood stove mudroom, enjoying the 95 degree weather only present in this part of the house and pretending, however briefly, that I live on the beach in Mexico. Did I mention that it snowed already here?