Today was a very exciting day: Emma Rose had her first (and second, third, and fourth) piece of gum, and it did not get stuck in or on anything. It was great! The gum even helped to keep her thumb out of her mouth.

Before naps, John, the girls and I went outside to put the last of the cedar trees in the ground. We'll Anabelle and I mostly supervised again, and John and Emma Rose did the real work. Anabelle had her first ride in the little red wagon, and the girls had their first ride together in it, too.

This afternoon, we got in the car about 10 minutes after I gave her a piece of gum. She said to me, "Mommy, I have to tell you something berry (she's not quite 100% on the 'v' sound yet) sad." After I asked to hear all about it, she said with a very disappointed look on her face, "I swallowed my gum." I turned to face the front to keep her from seeing my stifled laugh. Then she said with a much happier face, "Can I have another piece now?" She loves the gum and prefers the minty kind to the Big Red. She could only keep in a piece of Big Red for about 3 minutes, and I think that's because Daddy told her it would be too spicy and she wouldn't like it. She accepted the challenge, but decided against chewing the gum.

We also went to Berry Patch Farms to get a pumpkin. There were a few animals to see, popcorn and apple cider, and a good size pumpkin patch. We even had a little hay ride to get the pumpkins. Once we made it to the pumpkin patch and I snapped as many pictures as I could, Emma Rose started doing the pee-pee dance. We had to cut the pumpkin choosing short and dashed back to the hay ride.

We made it to the bathrooms only to find the lady's bathroom was occupied. Emma Rose saw an open door and ran in to the men's bathroom. She had her pants pulled down faster than I could say "DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!" I managed to hold her above the potty and no germs were transferred. Whew.

Emma Rose had her face painted with a little black cat. She sat very still and was delighted to see the picture in the mirror. We had a cup of apple cider and watched two pigs yelp for dinner and a little baby calf run around like a puppy. After that, we piled in the car and headed home.

The evening was topped off with dessert with our neighbors. Lisa and Jeremy and their three kids came over, and after getting all sugared up, the kids played and ran around the house a little. Anabelle really enjoyed seeing all the big kids play and got a little frustrated that she can't run around like they did. BUT did she try to walk?! No.

Anabelle is saying more and more words. She's saying shark, sock, ear, bye-bye, and is really trying pretty hard to get some other words out, too. She has said turtle a couple more times. She really loved having a little apple cider at the pumpkin patch and is eating like a horse again. Her belly is definitely a Carpenter belly!