To prove that we are still alive, and that I am paying way more attention to my camera than my blog, I give you: The Apple Orchard (or, My Husband is Crazy Awesome)

Before they get lost in his increasingly accurate and expanding vocabulary, I want to write down my two favorite Creep-isms of the moment.

First, there is Macaroni Pizza. While it may be glaringly obvious to the majority of the populous, it took our sleep deprived and vitamin deficient brains most of the summer to figure out why on earth the Creep would request "Macaroni Pizza" on a regular basis. I assumed that he had heard about it from a friend, or that it was the natural marriage of his two favorite foods. The EP valiantly made him both macaroni and pizza only to be met with absolute bemusement on the part of the Creep when the EP asked if he really wanted the macaroni on the pizza. The Creep said "no, thank you, I will eat it like this." and the mystery deepened. His Noni called me up while he was spending the day at her house just to ask if she should really put macaroni on his pizza.

It was only when I took him to get a slice at a local pizza joint did all of the pieces finally come together. The Creep pointed to the slice that he wanted and said "I want the one with macaroni on it," and I got him his slice of Pepperoni Pizza. We still call it Macaroni Pizza though, and hopefully always will.

My other absolute favorite thing to listen to him say is his rocket ship countdown, which goes a little something like this (always skipping #8 on the way up but not on the way back down):

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...admission!"

The Twerp has entered her Helpful Phase. At dinner time each of us will have a collection of mismatched shoes on our laps as she makes the trek back and forth to the front porch bringing us ever more and more shoes. She brings us shoes that I swear I have never seen before. Between bites of food we nod like idiots and thank her for bringing us flip flops and tennis shoes, wingtips and fuzzy bunny slippers and she grins like a maniac with a job well done.

She is also obsessed with telephones of all kinds. Thanks to her, our cordless phones are always 100% charged since she cannot tolerate them anywhere except on the charger. She will screech like a banshee and go running across the room at the mere sight of a family member accidentally setting the phone down on the arm of the couch. She has actually crawled up onto and across the dining room table to pick up a phone sitting in front of me to then hand it to me with all the admonishment of an overzealous hall monitor.

But there is a dark side to the Helpful Phase which we shall call the Unhelpful Phase (give me a break, I can't be witty all the time).

There is a bin in the kitchen where we keep clean rags that has become the go-to place for keys, tupperware, small toys, diaper ointment and...shoes (of course). It is frickin' adorable. Therefore the following video is slightly understandable in that the EP did not know that she had switched up her modus operandi. What you need to keep in mind as you are watching it is that a) the clean rag bin is to the left of the dishwasher and b) what she is transporting into the kitchen is a stack of my quilting fabrics.

Within two weeks of this:



Came this:



...because we don't mess around with our meal ticket.

First Day of School:




First Encounter with Bubble Wrap: