Autumn Happenings: by Jack

Well, since Mommy has only really had time to put pictures of our birthdays and my tonsil operation on the blog, I thought it was about time to share some of the other fun things we've been doing. Grandma and Grammy - I know you've been especially patient waiting for new pictures!

I love being a big brother and now that George is big enough to play things like hide-and-seek and wrestle with me, we have lots of fun. I'm still learning what it means to share my toys - especially the cars and trains I love to play with most. But, even so, it is pretty neat to have a little brother.

When we wake up in the morning, Mommy hugs on us and takes us out on the front porch for breakfast. I'm not much of a breakfast eater - I'd rather just have a cup of orange juice and get on with my morning. But Mommy tries to make me eat things that are good for me. George likes to eat breakfast more than I do - and he gets really crabby if he doesn't get breakfast soon after he wakes up.

Here is a picture of him at breakfast. (You can tell by the smile that this is AFTER he ate!) I think he is pretty cute (and so do most other people), but he can be awfully naughty, even with that smile. Autumn in Hawaii doesn't seem very different from any other time of year. It is a little cooler at night and we've had lots more days of rain. For about two weeks straight, we saw a beautiful rainbow every morning at breakfast. Rainbow is one of my favorite words. We always thank God for making rainbows when we see them. (Did you know Hawaii is called the rainbow state?)
Lots of times, we go to the beach. We have a few favorite beaches, but every once in a while Daddy takes us on an adventure to a new beach. These pictures are from a new one we visited. I love my firefighter boots and like to stomp in the sand with them.
George and I both love the water and even though he is little, he is never afraid to go right into the ocean!
We like to watch Daddy do crazy things like paddle board and jump off a cliff into the water!
Some days, we go into Lihue which is the main town here. I love to go to Costco and Walmart with Mommy, but it is the most fun to ride in the Home Depot car carts! George has fun, too. One time, an older man asked if we were twins! Can't he see how much bigger I am than George? Most days though, we stay at home and play with Mommy and maybe take a walk to the post office. We have lots of fun things to do and play. I let George wear my Woody hat once.
But our FAVORITE thing to do at home is to play outside. And since it has been raining a lot more, that means lots of puddles to play in!
George loves to stick his tongue out and try to catch rain drops. I try to stop him, though, when he tries to lick up the rain puddles from the driveway...gross! This week, while we were playing outside, I caught a tiny gecko in our chalk box. I tried to pick him up by his tail, but it broke off and then wiggled for a long time by itself! I love all of the animals and insects in our yard, but Georgie is scared of them. Our gecko made a good addition to our pet family. (Though we decided to let him go after a day of looking at him and not knowing what to feed him.) We have a tadpole named Mortimer that I caught in a stream. We decided to bring him home and see if he will grow into a frog. But Daddy read on the computer that bullfrog tadpoles can take up to two years to grow into a frog, so I don't think I'll get to see Mortimer become a frog. (Today we got a second, even bigger tadpole to bring home as a friend for Mortimer. His name is Wallace and he tries to jump out of the water!) I say, "Good morning Fishy!" and feed Mortimer his fish food every morning and then tell him, "Good night Fishy! See you in the morning!" before I go to bed. Some days, Mommy takes us to the library or to a play ground. I love to run and play and get all of my energy out!
George is beginning to like play grounds, too. He can't run around just yet, but he likes to sit on the slide and swing.
Another fun thing George and I like to do at home is build forts out of couch cushions and pillows. I don't like it when George knocks it down. But I like it when he plays with me and laughs when he finds me hidden inside! One day, we were playing so hard, we forgot it was time for George's nap and he fell right asleep standing up near the couch! I have a few very favorite toys. One is my set of small Thomas the Train engines. I keep them in a lunch box and carry them around with me. Now that I have my wooden train track set that Mommy and Daddy gave to me for my birthday, I don't play with these quite as much - but I still love them.
Even George loves playing with trains. We pretty much play with trains all day long. They never get boring.
Sometimes, we bring the dinosaurs out to pretend they are attacking the trains. See what I mean about how they are never boring?
Because it is fall and Mommy loves all things that are typical to fall, she bought us each a small pumpkin. This was the first time George saw a pumpkin! We've been eating pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin soup...I think Daddy, George and I are about done with pumpkins.
A favorite part of our day is bath time. George and I love the bathtub almost as much as we love the ocean. We have lots of fun toys to play with and Mommy makes it so there are lots of bubbles.
After bath time, we have a little more time to play. George has been getting in lots of trouble lately because he has figured out how to climb on everything. Once Mommy found him on top of the computer desk. He gets up on the toilet and onto the bathroom counter, too. I told you he was naughty! Since Mommy has been packing up getting ready for our move on December 9th (more on that in a later post), George has something new to climb on: boxes! He figured out how to turn light switches on and off and thought it was really funny!
One of the best parts of this month is that I got a new big brother! His name is Juan Mullo, he lives in Ecuador and he will be 16 years old on Thanksgiving! Mommy and Daddy have been teaching us about how to pray for Juan and now I can even find Ecuador on our inflatable globe! (I can also find where we live, where Grandma Barb lives, where Grammy and Papa live and where Jake and Sarah live.) We "adopted" Juan through Compassion International and we love him so much already!
We printed his picture out on a card so that I can keep it next to my bed and pray for Juan each night. Sometimes I ask to pray for Juan during the day, too. Maybe someday I'll get to meet him.

George and I love getting ready for bed. Sometimes we wrestle a little, sometimes we play with flashlights and make things with our hands, but usually we read books with Mommy and Daddy.
Our new favorite book is "The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name" by Sally Lloyd-Jones. I like to read the story of David and the giant Goliath. I try to tell George about it, too. We like to think about how Luke, Ben, Grace and Jacob are reading the same Bible all the way in North Carolina!

After prayers, we fall asleep listening to some music and dream about what we are going to do the next day! Since I had my tonsils out, I sleep much better at night with NO snoring and no waking up crying. I'm glad the doctor knew how to fix me and help me!

We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! And, I hope you enjoyed this update and that you feel like you know a little more about what George and I do during the day! We love you and miss you all!

Love,

Jack (and George, too, but he is too little to write a blog yet)