Growing, changing, cleaning

We are god-awful bloggers. The school year's start always knocks us back on our asses for a bit, but then suddenly around weeks 2-3 or so, we look around and feel like, hey, we're actually in a routine of sorts here, which gets us motivated to start at things yet again. For instance, this weekend, we "real cleaned" our whole house (as opposed to fake cleaning where we just pick up and wash a couple of toilets--we're talking the full royal treatment of dusting, vacuuming, picking up, laundry and even re-caulking the bathtub! Woo hoo!). It felt--oddly good. And hey, what else is there to do, really, on a rainy fall afternoon?

Oh, I love saying that...fall afternoon...the phrase just makes me feel gooey inside.

I am such a New England girl, as is S. I heart fall with all its New England magnificence--the apples, the last-of-the-season crops and canning and freezing the harvest, the leaves, the crisp weather, the sweaters. Oh me oh my. Wrap me up in a warm sweater on a sunny, crisp day, point me to some maple trees blazing orange, and put a cup of warm apple cider in my hand and I'm yours.

Though fall is the season where everything prepares for dying, for hibernating, for hunkering down, we're ready to do TTC #2 imminently. Flo finally showed (wasn't sure she would show up on time after last month), and I was cleared to try another transfer with our last remaining two embryos. To say I feel some pressure is an understatement. But...I am trying to keep my cool. I feel great right now. Of course, it's day 2, so naturally I would. As the transfer date nears, assuming all goes well with body, I'm sure I'll be much less cool.

Other thoughts drifting through my mind include: H1N1 vaccine? Anyone getting it? Anyone getting it for their kiddos? We are fairly certain that Theo will not be getting one, and are not sure of ourselves. Luckily for us, he is the only baby at his babysitter's house, but he does go into S.'s school a fair amount. Hmm..what to do, what to do...

Then there's Theo's inevitable bloom into a baby-toddler. Not quite a toddler yet, though toddling is his preferred method of transportation. His first haircut happened last weekend (his cute curls of summer were starting to turn into a rat tail). He babbles and does his version of talking non-stop, is signing away, and out of the blue learned to shake his head "yes." No idea where that one came from!

I wouldn't dream of leaving you without any pics of our burgeoning baby-toddler, so below, Theo on haircut day (free chop courtesy of Meme, S.'s mom and Theo's beloved grandmother. She cut all her kids hair and continues to give free haircuts to anyone who asks!). It was a traumatizing day for us, we won't lie...

Theo pre-cut. Cute whisps, but they get scraggly.

Figuring out the comb.

Mid-cut. We kept him still with crackers.

The final result! Such a big boy, it broke our hearts for a while.