Angry Eyes

Sometime this summer we painted faces and when Will washed Sy's off the remnants that remained made his eyebrows look dark and angry. The kids thought it was so funny that the next day they wanted angry eyes again. So we did it.

For some reason they also needed glasses.

Very studious, angry people.

This one looks Silas might start writing experimental poetry any minute.

Puss in Boots and Kitty

In keeping with what appears to be our long-standing tradition of being a cat for Halloween, the kids wanted to be Puss in Boots and his friend, Kitty.

What could be better than being a cat and  being allowed to play with a sword all day?

Oh, right. Candy!

We made the usual circuit of the loop, which reaps more candy than we need. I'm frightened by the amount of candy they'll get when they're older and can go farther.

Then they got to eat candy and stay up late.

YiYi said, I love trick or treating! This is fun!  Except it sounded more like: I wove tick or teating!

And when all was said and done and I was washing the makeup off, Sadie said something she's never said in almost six years: I'm so tired, mama. I just want to go to sleep!
A day for the record books.

The Love Affair is Over

So Sadie says to me yesterday:
I don't want to go to school tomorrow. I'm going to refuse.
But she went this morning, no problem. She likes school, just doesn't feel like going. Remind you of anyone? Ha!

And, in other news, she has a loose tooth. Bottom right. When we figured that out yesterday I think I may have gotten a little too excited (I started dancing around and sang a tooth fairy song- yes, I think I was a little over-excited.) and she got nervous, even though she's been waiting impatiently for the day.
Then again, every friend of hers (who have all lost a tooth already), has freaked out when hit with the first loose/lost tooth. One even demanded his tooth back from the tooth fairy and put his tooth fairy booty under his pillow the next night to exchange it for his tooth.

So I guess it's normal, in an every-kid-is-insane sort of way.

Is This the Little Girl I Carried?

Oh, wait, I still carry her around. Anyway, she's in kindergarten!

She loved it, as we knew she would. Look at how excited she is.

With her friend Laila, right before we went in.

The official Oregon First Day of School Kissing of the Tree.

You knew I was kidding, right? We're not that weird out here. She's just really excited.
Excited enough to kiss a tree. We've all been there, no?

At first she was a little nervous. She coined a new word for it: Nervcited.

She didn't want to get into circle at first. Then, once she did, she blew us a kiss and grinned as we left. She can't wait to go back and didn't want to leave.

When I reminded her she gets to go every day she skipped to the car. I only hope she always likes school this much. Yeah, right. But one can hope, can't one?

I Think Sadie Wanted a Baby Sister

But, hey, she'll work with what she's got.

Birthday Boy

Silas finally figured out what it means to have a birthday and, man, he was excited.

The day before his birthday he said, When I three I get a camera!

Yep, you sure do.

And here's the birthday boy:

Dressed in his fireman costume from Sadie, and playing with his remote control car.

Sadie said, All his presents are good, but mine is the goodest!

She loves to use that word, even though we tell her it's not one.

Then we went to the county fair. Last year he went on tons of rides. But while we were in Massachusetts he had a run in with a kiddie car ride and wouldn't ride a thing. 

I not ride. The cars go too fast and I can't see Mama, he said. 

So there went the $25 ride bracelet. But we convinced him that the carousel might be fun, since an adult could ride with him. He agreed. So, after five rides we finally broke even.

Sadie went on every ride with her friend, Laila. At least twice. 

She enjoyed being fancy. 

And since it was about 100 degrees we went home tired and hot, but happy.

We cooled down with some ice cream cake. Sadie jumped the gun with the Happy Birthday song, but Yiyi liked her singing to him.

When we all started singing he got a little shy.

But he blew out his candles just fine.

The next morning he woke up and said, Today's my birthday! 

When I told him it wasn't going to be his birthday until next year, he said, Aw-ww.

Now that's he's figured it out he's joined the ranks of children who wish every day was a birthday, or Christmas, or Easter, or Halloween. Hey, you can't blame 'em, I sometimes do, too.

Treasure Cat

On our way to an Alice in Wonderland themed birthday party yesterday:

Silas as the White Rabbit, who apparently says, I'm wate, I'm wate, for a derry immomomomomo date!


And Sadie as the Treasure Cat. Wait, what's he called again? Cheshire? What's Cheshire? Treas...I mean, Cheshire Cat! But a girl one.

Interruptions

Sadie kept interrupting me while I was writing an email so I told her she had to try not to talk to me for a few minutes. She sat on the couch for about thirty seconds and then said:
Mama, my brain is full of so many words! I have to talk!

The End of an Era

I know I've been supremely bad about the blog. Terrible. Awful. Falling down on the job. And so on.
And I don't even have new pictures for you right now. I know, I know. 
You forgive me, though. 


What I do want to tell y'all is that Sy hasn't had booboos in almost four weeks. I know you probably aren't amazed by the fact that an almost three year-old has stopped nursing, but I am.
It was so easy, easier than I thought it would be. And now I am free! Free! Well, except for the whole mother to young children thing.


But as much as I like having ended the nursing chapter of my life, it went something like this:

Woohoo! He didn't nurse to sleep! Oh, that's so sad. He didn't nurse to sleep!
Lump rises in throat. 
He might never nurse to sleep again. That last time will have been the last time, and I didn't even know it.
Sob. Then suddenly happier.
Woohoo! I don't have to be the only person to put him to bed. Or only wear certain shirts to sleep. Woo! 
Lump back again. 
My sweet baby is growing up.
Lump recedes.
Wooooo!


So, yeah, I think bittersweet is the word for this situation.
And after five and a half years of nursing two children one after the other (with a month hiatus in the middle) I'm pretty proud of myself for sticking it out past those first few months of nursing problems I had with Sadie.

Breastfeeding is completely everyday and normal and boring. But it's also been an incredibly special bond between me and my babies.
So forgive me while I do a little jig of delight while wiping the tears out of my eyes.

Blobos

I Blobo-Man! Silas has been yelling for weeks as he runs around with part of our vacuum.
Which we then find a couple of days later out in the yard.

To the uninitiated this means I'm Blower-Man! 
You know, the man who walks around with the pack on his back, blowing leaves and other yard debris? There may be no greater man than this in his eyes. Of course he's also:
Poker-Man (this requires a sword)
Caggoo Man (this requires a firefighter hat)
Baggoo Man (this requires a garbage truck or can)

Yeah, he's a boy.
So, tired of picking up the vacuum tube constantly, we decided to make our own blowers.

Mmmmwwwwrrrr! Roooooaaaaawwwwwwrrr! Can you hear me? My motor loud! he likes to say.

Of course, it's only a matter of time before they realize their new toys can be used to torture you.

Bathing Beauties

This is what bath time looks like in our house these days.

Face Paint

I didn't realize you could actually run out of face paint, but we are. They love having their faces painted.

And of course I love repeating Stay still. Please hold still. If you turn your head I'll mess u-. Well, now I have to clean that off, hold on. 
No, I really do like to do it, though. Especially when they ask for something like they did the other day. What they wanted most in the world was to be painted like Ruby the cat.

I thought it was very cute. They kept showing themselves to Ruby and meowing like they expected her to sit up and be like, Wait! What the...?! How did I...?

And here they are. It was like herding cats to get that shot of them together on the chair.They also demanded bowls of water on the floor to drink. But, come to think of it, that's not an uncommon occurrence around here on any day.

Here's Silas as Laddie. That red thing on his mouth was the tongue. It took about 27 seconds for him to mess it up.

And Sadie as a masked floral superhero.

No flower is safe from her. 

Hm, maybe she's actually the masked floral villain. I'll have to ask.

Knock Knock

These kids love knock-knock jokes. And they love to make them up. The only problem is that they don't really get the whole idea behind them.

Sadie: Knock-knock.
Me: Who's there?
Sadie: Orange.
Me: Orange who?
Sadie: Orange open the door (unintelligible crazy talk) Hahahahaha!

or

Sadie: Knock-knock
Me: Who's there?
Sadie: Doggy
Me: Doggy who?
Sadie: Doggy I'll bark at you!

Silas: Knock-knock
Me: Who's there?
Silas: Monkey
Me: Monkey who?
Silas: Monkey! I have nuwana (that's a banana to you guys). Eat me! Eat me!

Yeah, somehow I don't think we'll be hitting the road with this act anytime soon.
For your viewing pleasure:

Yeah, working on a post. Here are a couple of pics to keep you happy. 

E.B.

A creme-filled chocolate egg is a good breakfast on Easter, no?

The Easter Bunny said it was okay. He said someone has to eat all the junk.

But E.B. also reminded them to eat their veggies. I think he might have kids of his own.

The Lego candy was a big hit. Food! That you can play with!
Not that it stops them when they're not Legos.

Then some last minute egg dying. We had meant to dye them earlier in the week but S & S spent all week with fevers on couches watching way too much television.
They now know what time PBS kids comes on in the morning. It took days for them to stop asking once they were well.

It's only a matter of time before they hold the thermometer up to the light bulb in order to get more, isn't it?

Here is Sy showing us how excited he is to be dying eggs. How could you not be excited?

Oh. That's how.

Nah, she really did enjoy it.
Then we retired to the backyard for some Mud Pie Kitchen time. It has its very own working faucet.
And a mixer. And lots of mud.

You know, I'm wondering if the Easter Bunny had his thinking cap on the day he ordered that one. He must have forgotten how very dirty little bunnies can get.

Stuff.

We had a snow day. A real one. With seven whole inches. And power outages (although we were spared) and closed schools (although the last day of classes where Will teaches was the day before- of course!).

Our sled made it out for its once-yearly acquaintance with the snow. And snow cones and hot cocoa were a must.

Here are Sadie and Ruby in a box. She insisted I take it.

Therefore Silas also had a box and I insisted I take this.

And today we had so much hail the ground was white. So we scooped it up and brought it inside to play with while it poured rain. And then hailed again. And again.

Did I ever mention our spring out here can really stink?