Art

What do you do with a semi-sick kid and her brother when you're trapped in the house for another day and they have begun a pushing war over the sketchbook you have out for them to draw on?

You get out the roll of paper and do up the coffee table.

You let 'em eat markers. Hey, they're non-toxic!

You admire their handiwork. This one belongs to the boy.

This one is Sadie, with a little help from Mama to warm her up.

Sadie's bee (left) and ant (right):

A mouse. A pink and yellow mouse:

All the planets in our solar system and a whole bunch of other planets too:

Notice the rings around Saturn. And another one too.

Sadie's own fairy done all by herself:

Yes, those are booboos.

No, I have no idea why.

Yes, she's a nut.

They did eventually get covered up by a shirt drawn on top of them.

Mama, I drawed a shirt over the booboos. Fairies have booboos so I drawed them first!

My kid's a realist.

But, most of all, you let your kids enjoy the fun of a giant piece (or 3) of paper to do with what they wish.

Autumnal Afternoon

Here is something we did last week.

No autumn would be complete without the requisite leaf in the wax paper art project.

Add to that some Witch's Hats made of crescent roll dough and cheese. Shape them into a hat shape and add cheese.

Bake 'em up. Voila! They're tasty.

I imagine they would be tasty with chocolate too. Just add some chips in the hollow before baking instead of cheese.

But then I imagine everything would be tasty with chocolate.

Sadie has asked for them at least once a day since.

Maybe we should try pilgrim hats?

And here is the ironed leaf-wax-paper-crayon picture Sadie made.

I actually think they look quite pretty when the light comes through. Don't you?

Greetings from Pukeville

Sadie's been not feeling well today. I can't tell whether it's sick or food poisoning, but her tummy is rejecting food.

I'll be back tomorrow.

P.S. Is there some sort of unwritten rule that kids and cats have to run to the part of the house most heavily carpeted and furniture-laden when they have to throw up?

One puke = cleaning of couch, coffee table, papers, carpet, quilt & pillow.

Random Household Tip #1

You know when you have a stinky water bottle or tupperware container or whatever sometimes?

If you put a effervescent denture cleaning tablet in the container filled with water and let it sit it takes the smell away.

Works on metal, plastic & glass like a charm.

And what do the pictures have to do with Random Household Tip #1?
Absolutely nothing. Just thought you'd like 'em.

Two in One Day

I just had to say, since I am trapped under a (non) sleeping toddler and have nothing better to do, that the one nice thing about a (non) sleeping toddler who has to spend time on you in order to (non) sleep is that you get to see all the things that he does in his sleep that you would normally be (blissfully, probably) unaware of.

I just moved him off of me a little. No need to wake up, Silas, your legs are still in my lap! And when I did he smiled in his sleep and whispered Hi!

No, it doesn't make up for the fact that he is A WORSE SLEEPER THAN HIS SISTER, it wasn't that cute. But I'm seeing the silver lining here. Sue me.

Piñatas

Sadie is pining for a piñata. And last week she finally got her first swing at one.

She really enjoyed it. But the whole racing for the candy part was a little scary for her.

Remember that? All those kids pushing and yelling and scrambling?

It was never my favorite part either.

But the swinging? That she could get behind!

Now she's got her mind set on a unicorn piñata she's seen around town.

And a unicorn pillow pet.

And a unicorn shirt.

I'm sensing a theme here, no?

Jack O' Lanterns

We can't let Halloween go by without sharing our pumpkins. We carved, in accordance with Sadie's wishes, a scary, a scared and a silly pumpkin.

At first the messiest kid in the world said she was scared of pulling out the goop. My child?

Have I told you about how Sadie loves to be dirty? I, not one obsessed with cleanliness, can hardly believe how she revels in filth.

But I digress.

She realized real quick that pumpkin goop was fun.

Brother ate soup. And watched.

Because I knew I was going to spend the whole time trying to pull goop out of his mouth if he wasn't occupied.

And food is his #1 occupation.

She painted one too. Reminder: Glitter paint does not, I repeat not, stick to pumpkins well. Be prepared for glitter paint flakes to be decorating your floor for days after it dries. Then put it in the yard.

And here they are. Scary, Scared, and Silly.

Snack Time

It's not the best picture ever taken, but I just love it.

All's well that ends...

Sadie was watching a movie tonight with Dada. I was in getting Brother to sleep and when I came back to the living room it was over. Here's the exchange that followed:

Sadie: Mama, I watched the whole movie!

Me: Lucky you! Was the movie good?

S: Yes!

M: How did it end?

She thinks for a minute, and I'm expecting an answer such as They All Lived Happily Ever After or He Got the Girl. But instead she says:

Well, the screen turned black. Oh! and then there were white letters on the screen that were moving.

Well played, Sadie. Well played.

Upon Finding Out That Grownups Can Do What They Want

Today Dada turned on the TV to record something. Our TV is never on during the day, only after dinner when Sadie is allowed to choose something to watch while she has dessert.

So she says, Dada! You can't turn the TV on!

He said he wasn't watching something but recording The Simpsons. And then I dropped the bombshell: No, we don't watch TV during the day. But we could if we wanted to.

Noooo, Sadie says, laughing.

Grownups can watch TV whenever they want, I said. When you're grownup you will be able to watch TV whenever you want.

Really? Sadie looks at me incredulously.

Yep.

Her face lit up.

I think she was remembering how grownups can have as much dessert as they want too.

NaBloPoMo

So, I'm trying it.

NaBloPoMo

All you have to do is post something on your blog every day, for the whole month of November.

Remember the days when I used to post a lot more? Yeah, then I added another kid.

Sometimes I have a great idea for a post: it's timely, has great pictures and I am all excited.

Then reality hits. Reality where I have to lug out the camera, plug it in, download the pictures, edit them, upload to blogger, then start typing.

And all of this has to be done in 40 minute intervals between Brother's wakings. Or 20 minutes. Or while holding him.

Our kids may be cute, but they don't sleep worth a damn.

So, as you are all too aware, it doesn't happen as often as I would like.

But here I am, going to try. There may not be a lot of pictures, but there will be something.

Every day.

Wee Folk

Look what I found in the garden on Halloween.

A gnome.

Who, shockingly, left that hat on for the entire time.

And a fairy. A camera-shy fairy.

I've heard that fairies are often camera shy.

They seemed to be having a good time out there.

Enjoying the mild and dry weather.

Which we were all grateful for.

They were very excited to go trick or treating.

The gnome enjoyed putting the candy in his bucket and then taking it out of his bucket, never once trying to eat it.

The fairy enjoyed taking it out of her bucket and putting it in her tummy. But you know fairies...they have quite a sweet tooth.

Pumpkins

What autumn wouldn't be complete without a trip to the pumpkin patch?

On a lovely Sunday last week we packed us up and drove an amazingly short distance to this lovely little place to get some pumpkins.

We got a real horse drawn hay ride out to the patch. Where we set to work finding that perfect pumpkin for each of us.

And a ladybug. Which was infinitely more exciting than choosing a pumpkin. For a while, at least:

And, yes, those are pearls you see peeking out of her sweater. Sadie enjoys nothing better than being Fancy. Only fancy clothes need apply every morning when we are dressing. So of course we wear pearls to the pumpkin patch!

This one thought sitting amongst a field of pumpkins was a blast:

And he even chose one.

But I think the most excited person may have been Dada. He wandered far and wide, searching for the perfect pumpkin.

And he came back with three!

Sadie led us to safety out of the corn maze. Thank Heavens!

And apple cider, apple cider donuts and fresh-baked cookies were on the menu. Sy had his first chocolate chip cookie.

Sadie had her 334th chocolate chip cookie.

And not to worry, they both ate every crumb.

Apples to Apples

We were out in the yard the other day. Enjoying our fall. 'Cause this year we are having a lovely autumn. It's great.

We had been pumpkin picking and apple buying and everyone was chomping down on an apple.

Silas in particular loves apples.

If he sees an apple he starts pointing and fake crying until you hand it over. And, of course, since he has no molars it is my job to eat off the peel.

Which makes him go ballistic: You're eating my apple! I can't believe you're eating MY APPLE! he yells.

Or at least that's what I think he yells. It's more like little angry fists that clench and a red face with Aaaaah. Then I give him his bitten apple and he gets to work on the middle.

Then, of course, I have to repeat on the other side of the apple. You can imagine how that goes.

So, he we are, with our apple. This apple has been in the dirt, leaves and muck. And whenever I take it back to try to clean it guess who flips out? Yep.

So when I hear a little splash as I am taking pictures of Sadie I am not surprised to see he is throwing it repeatedly into the dog's outside water bowl. See the water on his face?

And after my first reaction of "yuck" I thought: Well, at least that's now a clean apple!

Well, if the possibility of dog spit on your apple doesn't negate any washing off of dirt and grime, it's clean.

And he didn't seem to mind. So I ran with it.

If you knew the number of things in my house that have recently had a swim in the dog water bowl you probably would think twice before coming over.

Or asking to borrow my toothbrush.

And, sheesh, the begging I had to do to get this one to sit for some pictures! She either made crazy faces or chomped her apple the whole time, as she is entirely too busy to sit around and look at Mama.

The only way I could get her to look at me was to say I was going to go take pictures of Silas like it was no big deal.

For once sibling rivalry works in my favor!

Look at that face.

This picture is entitled:

What Sadie's Face Would Look Like if She Were A T-Rex. It really is. She told me.

And here she is. Right after I told her she was a nincompoop. She likes that word.

Happy Autumn!

Up and Around

Silas has eschewed crawling in favor of walking. It was a multi-month process.
He had to test the waters and, I suppose, get fast enough to make it worth his while. It was just this past week that I thought, Hey, I don't think you've crawled all day long.

He's up.

He's down.

And he's still working on running. Which means I'll have to start chasing.

And although I was looking forward to his walking, I'm alright with holding off on running for a bit.

Friends

We said goodbye to a couple of good friends today who have the audacity to move to Wisconsin. The nerve!

And we got a picture of all of us. Well, minus one kid who was too tired to sit and another who is out of town.

Aren't they a good-lookin' bunch?

Summer, I'm going to miss you.

We all will.