An old college friend/bridesmaid sent out news that she had her second baby yesterday. I'm very happy for them, but I was shocked because I didn't even know she was expecting again. I think that's the first time that I've ever gotten a birth announcement without knowing there was even a pregnancy!

There's nothing like having the air conditioning going on the first day of fall, huh? It was hot and windy all day. Accalia and Cole spent most of the afternoon playing outside with the neighbor girls. They're both actually still awake with me, but I know we'll all crash once we get to bed.

Lately Cole has become more and more interested in doing mazes and connect the dots and other puzzles on paper. He's never been very interested in this sort of thing, and it's interesting to watch where his interests go compared with where Accalia was at this age. Accalia has always been more of a paper/crafty type girl while Cole has always leaned toward activities that let him use his hands to mold and move dirt or sand or action figures. I wonder what Ella will be like. She tries to do a little bit of everything, thanks to being able to see the various interests of her older siblings.

Speaking of Ella, lately it's been rough going with her being patient and remaining in a constant good mood as if usually the case. What I love about these rough patches with kids is that you know there's going to be some amazing change once you come out on the other side. Maybe it's walking or expanding the vocabulary or sleeping through the night or being able to climb the stairs without help. I wonder what it will be with Ella. Right now I think she gets most frustrated with her little fingers not being able to do exactly what she wants them to do. She loves to sit and play with legos just like Cole, but she'll start to scream or cry as soon as she can't get the legos to fit together perfectly the first time.

Nights haven't been too fun either. She's been very restless and has been nursing a lot during the night. It's all leading up to something good, though.

When I spoke with my mom today, she mentioned that she and Dad want to come to our house for Thanksgiving. Cool! Thanksgiving has turned into our holiday to just stay at home, not worry about travel and just enjoy ourselves with tons of food, parades, football and early morning shopping for deals - this last one for Cory, at least. We're all excited about having my parents come and join us, though. I'm not sure how much we'll see them before Thanksgiving, especially since we won't even be traveling any place until after mid October because of Accalia's soccer games.

Okay, gotta get ready for bed. Accalia's up in bed, but Cole is playing with his action figures now that I've cleaned up the office and there's actually floor space for him to do that again.