During the 12 Days of Christmas...

Maybe a new look for Kate?

Santa's Dwarf...Kate insists on calling Santa's Elves- Dwarfs.  Lately she has taken to wearing a stocking on her head and says she is one of Santa's Dwarfs.

Stupid Disney On Ice.  Kate loved it, as you can obviously see....Actually, the truth is she did like it, but she was very sick with this random virus that is making its rounds around here...She really should have been home, in bed.

Kate with Santa Then and Now

Kate at 1 1/2 finds the man in the red suit unacceptable:

Kate at 3 1/2 tolerates the man in the red suit, but not overly so.

Gobble...Gobble...Gobble...

We had a nice thanksgiving and a full house...

Kate wore her turkey hat all day and night...

The kids' table.

Playing with a stick.

This looks like trouble.

Just the Middle of November

Just some random shots during the middle of November. Boy, do we have a lot of leaves...

First Day of (Pre)School!!!

Our original plans have changed; I was fallen prey by the preschool madness. Here, it is, as I imagine everywhere now, pretty crazy when it comes to enrolling your children into preschool. You would think you were applying for an ivy league education. Hopeful parents apply as early as December for the following August's enrollment. Lines wind around the block. Apparently it is next to impossible to get your children in as 4 year olds, as that is much too late. Those slots are filled by children from the 3 year old classes. Lotteries are held for the negligent hopefuls, tears are shed, and huge application fees are spent-nonrefundable. During Kate's 3 1/2 years of life I have poo-pooed the notion that I must enroll her into a preschool when she is an infant to secure her future as a four year old and ultimately scholarly success during her lifetime. After all, I am a professional educator. I have seen first hand the "benefits" of preschool, and feel the preschool pressure to be nothing but a scare campaign, akin to McCain's desperate attempt to scare the electorate as to Obama's "questionable" associations. But, I now have egg on my face. I have always planned to send Kate a couple of days, in the morning, when she is 4 to preschool. Just to start to bridge her into formal education. I kept her calendar full with social engagements as I do believe that is the true benefit of preschool. I, however, did not take into account two things. One, that all of her friends would be going to preschool, making it harder to get the kids together. And two, how much Kate took to her little playschool at the gym every Thursday morning. She showed me that she was ready to jump in, perhaps before I was ready. Such is the natural progression, isn't it? Anyhow, our choice was not wrong. On Kate's first day of preschool, Kate jumped into it with gusto and joy that I can only hope continues throughout, at least elementary school....and then maybe medical school?

Boo!

Unfortunately, Kate had a little cold for Halloween. But that didn't stop the countless costume changes between the parties, storytimes, playschool, and trick or treating. And before you ask, Kate was not Pocohontas, as most people assumed, she was Tiger Lily, the Indian Princess from Peter Pan, of course.

Four Princesses and Tiger Lily

The State Fair and Camping

Towards the end of the month, we went to the North Carolina State Fair and to Virginia for our annual "camping" trip in the Shenandoah Mountains with the Marsicos. This year we visited Luray Caverns which was a hit with Kate and Jack.

The Blue Snow Cone

Luray Caverns

The Bottom Half Is a Reflection of the Top Half in Water

New England

Natural Splendor in Massachusetts

Towards the middle of the month we went on a tour of New England. We flew to Boston, rented a car, and drove up through Maine, stayed in the Lake District of New Hampshire, and then at the end of a natural splendor filled week, headed to Delaware for the White's Wedding. Here are some highlights:

Kate in Portsmouth

Flowers In The Fall

Havers In Maine

Kate and Mommy in New Hampshire

Havers in the White Mountains

Cousin Kate and Cousin Lucy

I Might Go as Kurt Cobain for Halloween

Lucy in Delaware

Introducing Liam Thomas Haver

October

Where do I begin? Recently I purchased a new friend, a Nikon SLR camera. I can not tell you how many days and nights this new friend has filled. However, with the advantages of this purchase there also has been some side effects: the never ending need of new computer hardware and software to play with these new pictures and the additional hours spent processing my new raw photos. So I say all of this to give reason to my procrastination as to posting the following pictures. And any of you that have worked with raw photo files knows the learning curve and computer system slow down that follows when working with such huge files. (However happily, my Christmas List now contains a new computer to help handle this new found hobby, a photography class to help me handle this new camera, and a photo processing and editing class to help me handle my new computer and software. Peter is so happy I have picked such an affordable pasttime.)

The passing of October has closed a month filled with much traveling and the end of a long year for us personally. It has been a nice month visiting friends and family and capturing the beauty of New England in the fall. Here are some snapshots from the early part of October:

Kate Blue Mouth at Ava's first birthday party

Kate and Daddy at Chapel Hill Planetarium

Pretty Red Rose

Chapel Hill

Not Quite Getting How to Look Through a Kalediscope

Pretty Yellowish Rose

WEEEEEE...

Three Men and a Little Lady

Bring Back the Ice Cream Truck

While up North, Kate experienced her first ice cream truck experience. Obnoxiously, I photoed the entire event, as I haven't seen an ice cream truck for such a long time. I guessed it might have been due to the rash of ice cream truck crimes in the 80's or 90's. I remember hearing a lot of ice cream trucks being reported as drug dealing and pedophile vehicles. This was around the same time that trick or treating became deadly. You know when people were poisoning Halloween candy and putting razor blades in apples; when kids had to start going trick or treating in the daylight. So this got me thinking, so I googled it. Much to my delight the ice cream truck business is still alive and kicking. My favorite post was Satan's Ice Cream Truck http://www.laist.com/2008/03/05/satans_ice_crea.php (you have to check out the picture with the goth kid, buying ice cream with the sound byte of the music). I also enjoyed http://icecreamtrucks.com/ revealing to me, that I can, myself, bring back the ice cream truck. Hmmmm.

BTW, might benefit this guy's business to update his homemade fashioned ice cream truck with stuck on decals and buy the real thing. (I even think he had a portable radio with ice-cream truck music blaring out the window.) It was a bit scary walking up to him. The ice cream truck union needs to elevate their standards and rise above the bad press if they are ever to enter back into the world.

"I'll take the one with the most chocolate."

"Cool. Thank you,"

"This is so crazy-ice cream from a truck?"

Satisfaction.