It may seem counterintuitive to have the words Rambo and Micah in the same post. . . but just wait till you see these pictures! 😉 Like his big sister, Micah loved apple picking too, but he experienced the orchard in a totally different way than “Mara Apple Picker” did.

When we first arrived at the orchard, Micah picked two apples right away.

Then he began eating. The whole my-parents-never-feed-me-anything style of eating, with one apple in each hand, alternating bites. I was amused because I hadn’t really expected him to eat the apples in the midst of the excitement of picking them.

Micah is going through a major “baseball bat-sword-lightsaber” stage, where he can transform anything he finds into one of those objects.

At the apple orchard, he found a wealth of sticks and branches which doubled as all these things!

One of the first things Micah did when we got to the orchard was find a huge stick and an apple. He handed me the apple, saying, “Bat! Hit ball!” Apparently I was the pitcher.

Here he is waiting for the pitch:

He kept swinging the bat, even when I wasn’t pitching, and a man passing by said, “Careful with your bat! Don’t clock Mommy!” (I think I need to use that line around the house, because everything is a “bat” and “ball” these days!)

Then he found another stick, which he used alternately as a sword and as a gun–although at one point he pretended to push an imaginary button and he said ‘turn on,’ which makes me think it may also have lightsaber features. Here’s the Rambo sequence. 😉 Of course, you have to use your imagination just a little . . .

In the next collage, you can see Micah carrying the basket of apples over his shoulder. He loved to carry the basket. “Go work!” he kept saying. And much to his sister’s chagrin, he also loved to empty the apple basket–either by completely dumping it out on the ground or by taking the apples one by one and placing them in the other basket.  The apples he found never quite met with Mara’s approval–you can see him looking intensely at a dirt-covered apple, as Mara is calling, “Mom, he has an apple with poop on it!” (It wasn’t poop, but it was pretty nasty.)

Micah and Mara would duck under the tree branches and “disappear” into the next row of trees. In the picture Micah is saying that he’ll “come right back.” It was so exciting for them to run down the paths between the apple trees. How I wished I could let them run as long and as far as they wanted to go! But I was limited with Carissa, the double stroller, the baskets of apples, I kept having to call them back to me. . . Another day, we will go just to explore–and maybe not even pick apples!

The kids saw the tractor taking people on a hayride, but I’m not willing to shell out $18 just for the hayride! (When we lived in Indiana, we went on hayrides for free at friends’ farms. We can go back in the summer, when hayrides are complimentary if you’re picking produce farther away.)

Micah loved exploring all of it. Everything–even a simple blade of grass–was exciting! And predictably, he would pluck two blades of grass–one for me, one for him–saying “Fight, mommy! Fight!” (Anything and everything can be a sword.)

Always, I find him doing things for laughs–like sitting in the apple basket!

(Thankfully, it was empty!)

The orchard provided endless fun for this city kid!

The next day before breakfast Micah said, “Someday. Go farm! Pick apples!”

My heart was touched. He loved it.

So I was telling Daniel what Micah said over the phone, and Micah looked up at me with his sweet little smile and repeated, “Someday. Someday, Mommy.”

I hope it’s someday soon.

On Columbus Day the kids and I went apple picking and visited “Pumpkinland.” It’s been two years since we’ve been there. Last time, of course, was “pre-Carissa,” and Micah was not even five months old. In fact, he had just come off the apnea/brady monitor a few weeks before.

Last time we went with Aunt Darla, who was a high school senior and now is a sophomore in college. So when I told the kids we were going, Mara said, “With Aunt Darla?!” and for some reason, Micah insisted, no, it was with Aunt Mary. Neither was true, but I suppose both aunts will be happy to read that they were thought of and the kids wanted you to come too!

So. . . indulge me in a little trip down memory lane. . . Don’t cry, Darla dear. 😉

It’s hard to believe they were ever that small. (Just two years ago!) Oh, and take a look of the picture of Micah crying on the haybale! It was deja vu–Carissa did the exact same thing!

I’ll be posting pictures from this week very soon!

I always shop the clearance sales. Last year I found these “Big Sister,” “Big Brother,” and “Little Sister” shirts at ToysRUs, and I couldn’t resist.

I’m always a little nervous, shopping a year ahead, hoping the clothes will actually fit when the next year rolls around. While Micah’s shirt is a bit big (he will be able to wear it again next summer), both of the girls’ shirts are getting snug.

This past weekend Mara was getting dressed, and she told me, “Mommy, we haven’t worn our matching pink shirts for awhile!”

Realizing that the shirts are sleeveless (and it is already October–unbelievable!), I said, “Why don’t we wear them today? It might be the last chance we have this year!”

So of course, there were pictures.

In the first picture, Micah is “shooting” Carissa. . . No, I didn’t teach him to do this.–Must be a boy thing.

The girls shared some special “sisters” moments. . . I think they will be sweet little friends very soon! Carissa adores Mara, and Mara loves her role as Big Sister.

Carissa’s expression in the picture of Mara dog-piling Micah is just priceless!

And randomly, the two girls looked up at Micah, standing there in his “I’m the Big Brother” shirt, at the very moment that he looked quite proud to be the big brother.

I love my three littles. 🙂

And looking at these pictures, I’m going to say Micah was right this weekend, when I was grooming our Westie, and Micah said he needed a haircut too!

[Click on the collage to view pictures in a separate window. Then click again to view larger.]

Toddlers and preschoolers are learning all about their world.

And they have no discretion.

A dangerous combination, leading to so many potentially embarrassing–but definitely memorable–quotes.

Back in August, we were watching our friends (Chris & Melissa’s) two boys, when Melissa was pregnant with Caroline.

Their son Corban ended up wearing one of Mara’s pull-ups, when we ran out of diapers in his size. When they left, Mara was concerned that he was still wearing “her” pull-up. I told her it was fine for him to keep it. “But. . . pull-ups are underwear,” Mara remarked, looking puzzled. [We’ve tried to distinguish pull-ups from diapers–you know, you try NOT to wet your pull-ups, just like underwear. But I guess her little mind carried the “logic” too far.]

“If he borrowed my underwear, he would give it back,” she reasoned.

Daniel said we’ll have to remind them of these conversations when they’re about 16. 😉

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Then there are those dreaded “where-do-babies-come-from” type conversations that you hope your three-year-old will never insist that you answer fully.

Mara wanted to know where Micah came out my tummy.

Thank goodness, I had a c-section with him! I told her the doctor cut my tummy open with a knife and took Micah out.

And thank goodness, she was shocked enough by the pain I must have endured under that knife, that she didn’t think to ask where she came out.

But then she asked, “How does the baby get in mommy’s tummy?”

Daniel said something to the effect that God puts the baby in Mommy’s tummy.

She looked intrigued. A little skeptical, but willing to give us the benefit of the doubt, as she said very deliberately, “I want to be there next time to see God put the baby in mommy’s tummy!”