This baby goes to 11

I'm  a little bit late, but a sick, teething, not-sleeping-very-much baby will do that to you.  It's a good thing he's cute.

Happy Halloween!

Another year of getting my offspring to knock on strangers' door and ask candy is behind us, and all that is left is for me to somehow get away with eating said candy without said offspring noticing.

Hope you had a Happy Halloween too!

Making a scary face while posing with their pumpkins

Elise's design on the left, Mattias's on the right 

Cheetahs, Bumblebees and baseball players, OH MY!

Too cute.  Both of them

He's coming to getcha!

Munching on his Halloween treats.  Aka leaves.

Wee little Pumpkins

Can I be honest?  I don't get out of my house a whole lot.  Outings are short trips to the grocery store, or the happiest place on earth (Target), and then home again.  I fit these in between naps and nursing/feeding times of my two littlest littles.  

It's my own fault... I hate to disrupt nap time.  But today I figured for my sanity, and thus the sanity of my children, we must go out on some sort of adventure.

So to the pumpkin patch we went...

A rare moment... he's looking at the camera AND smiling

Brudders!

This. Is. Awesome!

Fun in the bounce house... Lucas didn't want to leave

He went on this only about a million times

Tractor!

He was fascinated with the straw

I'm going to eat this now

Cheese!

That is a very unfortunate position the one hand of the scarecrow is in
The kids, however, are adorable

Getting him to smile is never a problem

The best I could get... at least they're both looking

So there you have it... a fun adventure, no meltdowns, and a good time was had by all.  Boy is Elise going to be ticked she missed all the fun.

A perfect 10 (months)

Yes... this really was the best picture I could get.

The Stupid People Chronicles, Vol.1

Lately I've been encountering a lot of stupid people.  Now these aren't people with below average IQ who do things that even Homer Simpson would deem, "not s-m-r-t", but people who have ticked me off in some manner or another.

This is a tale of a woman who made me want to run her over with my shopping cart because she was a Class-A Jerk. I was grocery shopping, and as I came around the corner to the aisle that held the Clearance Section (aka my favourite aisle in the whole grocery store), I noticed a back-up of people and carts.  It seemed one jack-weed had positioned her cart so nobody that was coming from my way could get to the clearance section.

She then proceeded to clear out pretty much every "good" item from the section; school supplies, diapers, pull-ups, batteries... you name it, she had it in her cart.  I think I counted over 10 packs of diapers.

By the time I came around the corner, she was done; sashaying her way towards the check-out leaving a handful of bewildered people in her wake.  They wanly smiled at me and shrugged their shoulders.  One person muttered, "she took EVERYTHING!".

My rage is two-fold; first, the blocking out of everyone else... so not cool on so many levels.  Had I arrived sooner, I like to think I would have sent her cart sailing down the aisle. Not before taking a few choice items out of it and putting them in my cart (okay, maybe not on that last part).

Second, SHE TOOK EVERYTHING.  She didn't leave anything for anybody else.  You might say, "so what, she's entitled to take it all if she wants."  Um.  No.  Because that makes you a turd.

Yes it does.

I remember one time I found some baby food in the clearance section, marked down to about 10 cents.  This was the good stuff; expensive, a well-known brand name, and organic.  I could have been a douche-canoe and taken every last package, but the human in me thought it would be nice to leave some for other people.  Because I'm decent like that.

I spent the rest of my shopping trip with visions of pelting her with all the diapers she took, but then the idea of the Stupid People Chronicles was born.  And it seems a lot healthier to write out my rage, then to act on it.

And a lot less crazy.

So congratulations, Raider of the Lost Clearance Section; you are the star of my inaugural Stupid People Chronicles!

A super-fine 9

Three!

From this...

 ... To this

Happy birthday to the best mix of crazy and sweet you will ever find in one boy.  You keep us laughing every day with your antics, and you keep me on my toes. Your pre-school teacher told me how well behaved you are in class (but you love making mischief for your Mama... hmmmmm), and that you are definitely a leader, not a follower.  May it always stay that way, and may it serve you well.

Happy Birthday... I love you, my little man!

Six

As we snuggled together on the eve before she turned 6, Elise said to me, "I wish I could stay 5... everything is perfect when you're 5."

If she only knew the greatness that awaits her; this year, next year and all the years of her life.

She will do amazing things.  She will have an amazing life.  I can feel it. 

And it all started 6 years ago today. Happy birthday to my sweet, wonderful, amazing girl.  I love you and love you.

And so it begins...

Some first day thoughts:

• Though I didn't cry, I did tear up.  I think the no-crying was mostly due to being distracted by my other two.

• When I came in the room to give her a hug good-bye, her response was a very disinterested, "okay Mom.  Fine. Bye!" I don't think she ever looked up from what she was doing.

• You'd think that would hurt my feelings, but it actually makes me feel pretty good.  Like I just might have done a good job in preparing her for stuff like this.

• She was a little ticked at only going a half day.

• When I picked her up and asked her how the day went, she told me, "it was a little too easy.  I though Kindergarten was going to be harder."  

• She was also disappointed that there was no homework.

• I need to get a friend for Mattias.  About 10 minutes after we came home from dropping Elise off, he asked me if we could go get her because he missed her.

• I'm wondering if this school stuff will affect the close relationship they have.  I really hope not... I love how they love each other.

• I am now officially old.

Nobody puts baby in the closet... except for me

The above picture is of Lucas's crib.  Cute right?  It's all matchy-matchy (thanks to my friend Nicki) right down to some lovely wall hangings.  For the full story, see the picture below:

As you can see, the crib resides in our master closet.  It's cool.  The closet is bigger than our apartment in SF.

What's great is that Lucas is behind THREE sets of doors, so the older two can make all the noise in the world and he never wakes up.  

One day he will share a room with his older brother. Who, at the moment, is having ridiculous night terrors and screams the night away.  I think it's because he doesn't want to share his room.

Well played Mattias.  Well played.