Claire Bear and her Auty Boo

The sisterly bond is growing.  Autumn always smiles when Claire walks into the room and frequently stops nursing to turn her head and see what her sister is up to.  Claire still continues to ask to hold Autumn and is actually getting quite good at it.  She is able to carry her around the room, stand her up and help her bounce, and even wrestle her gently.  Claire was especially concerned for her little sister the other day when we found a mouse in the house.  At the dinner table, while Auty was napping upstairs, Claire demanded that someone go get Auty so that the mouse wouldn't get her in her baby "cot".  Sometimes, I can even catch 10 minutes to myself while Claire plays with Autumn on the floor keeping herself and the wee one enterained and occupied.

Halloween was somewhat of a bust for us.  We weren't sure if there was trick o treating and there wasn't any in our neighborhood and we didn't have much in terms of costumes.  Add that together with the fact that it was a Monday night and Claire has a serious anxiety about people "looking at me", we decided to just skip out this year on whatever was happening around town.  It turns out some people did trick o treat, but mostly among friends and that Halloween garb here is still quite scary and devil-ish, not all too kid friendly.  We hid a few candy pumpkin chocolate balls in the house for Claire who put on her KY cheerleader outfit (wildcat blue) and we dressed Autumn up like a little lamb. 

Claire has been struggling lately (as in the past 2 years) with being "wrong" or having to be corrected.  Even if she writes a "J" backward she refuses to admit it and demands that she be able to write it the way she prefers. A few nights ago, she tried to quit a game she and Keith were playing because she knew he was right about a certain rule and didn't want to give in.  I told her she could quit, but still had to look at her Daddy and tell him that he was right and she was wrong.  A long time later (including an intermission of sobbing), she reluctantly managed a whimper along those lines.  Then, the other day she asked me where her coloring book was.  I told her it was in the drawer in the living room.  She had just been looking there and told me it wasn't there.  I told her that it was and I was certain of it, but she needed to look more closely.  She had a hissy fit saying it wasn't there even though she did not look again.  So I left the room, but Keith was on the other side.  He said he watched her from the corner of his eye and saw her quietly pull out the coloring book she of course found where I said it was and try to toss it in the corner like she found it there instead.  At the last second, she saw that Keith was there watching so she hesitated and paused for a moment.  Then she said sadly, "Daddy, I just wanted to be right...Mommy's always right!".  We have a stubborn little one dealing with a mix of emotions that come with slowly realizing life is disappointing and pride is hard to swallow.

We had a glorious family morning, though.  After a hike up the steep hayfield behind our house that climaxes with a breathtaking view of all of St. Andrews all the way to the white capped waves hitting the shore 2 miles away, we found an amazing hiking trail which was completely secluded and led to one of the best playgrounds I have ever seen.  It's obvious that both of our girls have adjusted to our non-car existence here as Claire walked 2 miles without so much as a whine of being tired and Autumn fell asleep in the hiking backpack twice today (More and more, she is falling asleep in strollers, backpacks, arms, wherever without a peep no matter the amount of stimulation surrounding her or the discomfort of her sleeping position- a girl's gotta sleep!). 

Keith continues to dive into his studies and I've begun training the University's second women's football team and helping out with a local youth ministry.  We are keeping busy and enjoying our down time.  There is a Thanksgiving meal planned for the Americans at the University, though, it is pretty late at night and will be tough on the kiddos.  We don't yet have Christmas plans, but rumor has it my best friend Lori and her Scottish husband may be visiting his folks here over the holidays and hopefully they can make some room for us in their schedule!