"Are you happy?"

We're talking a lot lately with Anna about feelings. She seems to be trying to figure out emotions beyond happy and sad, so we're checking out all kind of books from the library and I'm working with Matt on how we can model "I'm feeling ______", not necessarily the easiest thing to do :)

Anna has always been very sensitive to others' feelings and will often get upset herself if anyone around her, most notably me, is upset. She'll keep asking "Are you happy, Mommy?" until I say yes. If I respond with something other than yes ("I'm tired" or "I'm working on it" or simply "no"), then she'll sometimes bring me her blanket to try and get me to feel better. Of course now the "Are you happy?" question has turned into a bit of a game, too. Sometimes if she's asking just to be silly, I'll ask right back "Are YOU happy?" and we'll go back and forth until one of us get sick of the question :) As I write Anna is running laps upstairs and every time she passes Matt she's asking, or rather shouting, "Are you happy, Daddy?!?!"

Besides that, here are some photos of Kate and her buddy Noah. Kate spends some time on Wednesday mornings at Noah's house while Anna and I go to music class and Noah comes to our house on Friday afternoons so his mom can get some time "off".



This past Friday I put Kate in her doorway jumper and Noah in the exersaucer so they could see one another. Both kids couldn't take their eyes off each other! Kate was so funny because her body would start turning, but she'd keep her head pointed towards Noah until the last possible moment :) By the way, she loves her jumper, and Anna loves to run past Kate and yell something at her while she's running laps around the house.


On a different note, Matt and I are both a bit bummed these days that we can't really go outside to play after dinner anymore ... too dark and too cold. So we're working on adjusting to the fall/winter evening routines, which often include lots of books.

After having several days (weeks?) of cold and wet weather, we had a beautiful autumn day today. This morning we had friends (Eli and dad David) over to make applesauce, but as soon as they left and I got things somewhat cleaned up, I was outside with whoever was awake. The girls are on opposite napping schedules right now, so Kate and I hung out together outside while Anna was sleeping and then Anna and I spent all afternoon together while Kate was napping. So much fun!