Dress Christmas-y

Before church on Sunday, I told the big kids to get dressed in a Christmas-y way since it was Christmas music Sunday.  Ella came up with a Christmas sweater and giant green and red bow over a purple sparkly dress and blue pants which is overall a pretty good effort. I might have gone with fewer colors but then again, I'm not 8. Dash picked.... track pants and a giant squid t-shirt and seemed utterly flummoxed by my opinion that it wasn't very Christmas-y. Probably for Christmas Eve services, I will pick out the outfits. While I still can.

Train house

Another "Mama, take a picture" moment from Max. A train house. In the middle of the kitchen. Of course.

Take my picture, Mama

Around age 2, each of my kids has reached the "take my picture, mama" phase.

Birthday fairy

Ella was very excited to help set up the table for Dash's (6th!!!) birthday morning.  She was dubious about my idea for Pokemon flowers but her execution was fabulous.

Sherman

Without really being aware of it, I apparently call Max "Bucko" quite frequently.  As in "Here, Bucko, come here and eat your waffle!"  or "Hey, Bucko, come put on your shoes."

Tonight Dashiell came to me and very seriously said "Mom, you call Max Bucko a lot but there is a very bad character in the Lego catalog named Bucko so I don't think we should call Max that anymore."  And then he showed me the picture of the bad guy who is, in fact, named Bucko.

Then Dashiell continued and said, with total sincerity "I think instead of Bucko, we should call him Sherman."

I managed not to laugh and agreed to change Max's nickname from Bucko to Sherman.

Then bedtime was upon us and I called out "Hey, Bucko, it's time for books!"  Max came running but so did Dashiell who admonished me. "MOM, it's Sherman, not Bucko."

So I said "All right, Sherman, time for books!"  and then as I tucked Max in, I said "I love you, Sherman!  Sleep tight, Sherman."

Max lifted his sleepy head up and said "I NOT Sherman.  I Max"

Kitchen obstacles

I really think Max sits up at night to come up with new ways to make cooking dinner an obstacle course. Tonight: boxes awaiting recycling.

Someday

Someday (sooner rather than later, I hope, but who really knows), we will gut this old and outdated kitchen, and we'll put in fancy new things. But I also know as time passes and we get the fancy things, Max will keep growing up and my new fancy kitchen floor won't be covered in long long trains.  He might not want to hang out with me every second while I cook dinner when we get to Fancyville. Parenting emotions are never simple.

Preschool fashion

Waking out the door to school, Max stopped to rummage around the bin of hats and gloves. He pulled out this sweatband and said "I wear this today!" Right on, little dude.

First soccer practice

Dash started playing "real" soccer this season (ie a separate practice and game each week) and he could not be more excited. 

Since he and Ella both play soccer now, I am enjoying the start of season newness of a bin full of matching soccer socks, clean cleats, and functional shin guards.  I predict by the end of the season, we will still be scrambling around before games for any clean and available piece of equipment.

A follow-up

After the cauliflower love happened, Ella packed leftover farro in her lunch.  Of her own volition. With enthusiasm.  Wonders never cease with kids.  I probably didn't know the word farro until I was 30.

Sick day

Sick days are better when you get a ipad in your bed.

Third child

Third child third child-ing.

Nom nom nom

Dash went to town on a big bowl of raw shredded cauliflower last night.  He declared it "So fresh! And crunchy!" Sometimes they surprise you....

Farmer

Summer camps love to do costume days on Fridays. Not being a big costume person, I usually let them slip by, and usually the big kids don't seem all that interested anyway.  But this week, it is "dress like a farmer" day which inexplicably motivated Ella to come up with a costume.  To her dismay, her current wardrobe includes neither a red plaid shirt nor overalls (the two pieces of clothing she determined are farmer-ish). So she got creative with what she had by calling a red shirt "plaid enough" and a blue striped running dress "close enough to overalls" (and undoubtedly more comfortable in North Carolina July heat than denim anyway). Paired with a sun hat I bought her when she was 3 that she has pretty much refused to wear since, she was ready for farmer day at camp.  Love her creativity (and independence!).

Train lover

Max is a train lover. Every morning he drags us into the dining room to turn on the lights so he can play trains.

He is just starting to be able to make tracks fit together and he gets frustrated quickly when they don't fit. 

He also loves to make "long long" trains by connecting lots of cars.

And he likes to sit on the train table. Always.

Bedtime helpers

Ella: Max, I am going to get you ready for bed.  Do you want a Mohawk or a Malfoy?

Max (grinning): A Malfoy!

The sad face

Max is generally a cheerful, grinning little guy but he also has a pitiful personna that he adopts when he wants something. Usually it is more of a food that he wants, most famously hot dogs as one evening at dinner after eating one whole hot dog, he asked for another and upon being denied, he sat at the table looking pitiful and moaning "Hot. Dog. Hotttt doggg" over and over (and over again. For a good 10 minutes).  Today, his pitiful expression and plaintive pleas were focused on kettle corn we got at the beach farmer's market.  I don't love his whine, but his pitiful face is awfully adorable.

Builders

Future engineers/architects/building enthusiasts.

Teenager room

We recently moved around some rooms with the net effect of now having our downstairs guest room (on the kids level of the house, or as Dash calls it "Kid World") now having a bed and a couch in it and, crucially, no longer serving as my home office.  The kids couldn't resist the temptation to move into the clean, spare space, and after a day or so of fort building, sleeping, and playing in there, Ella told me that it looked like a teenager's room.  I have no idea where her notion of teenager rooms comes from and I suspect it gets a lot worse than this. But for now, we have our own version of a teenager's room in Kid World.

Father's Day Hike

For Father's Day, Josh wanted to take a walk in the woods.  So off we went to the Duke cross-country trail where the heat and humidity were mostly blocked by the tree canopy, and the kids discovered that running down really steep hills is awfully fun.

Style

Some Dash outfits really rock.  The flame skater shoes really complement the tutu.

Thumbs up

One of Dashiell's patented moves is the thumbs up (accompanied by the most adorable squinty eyed smile).  Max has now taken on the thumbs up habit, usually with an explicit spoken "Thumbs up, Mama!" to make sure I know he means it.

Harry Potter

We finally made it through reading book 4 of the Harry Potter series and decided to make the movie viewing part of our holiday weekend plans. Dash and Ella were totally into it.

Birthday

Max turned 2 last week and the gift combination of dinosaurs and trains made him very very happy. Rawrrr! Choo choo!

Happy place

Max's happy place is outside Dash's school in the afternoon, eating Cheerios, and counting the buses as they roll up. "Nother one! Nother one! One bus! Two bus!"

TV watching

Max's favorite TV show is Paw Patrol which fortunately his big brother and big sister quite like as well.  They love to pile up and watch together which feels like a minor miracle some days... all 3 of them still and occupied in the same room

Big boy

Somebody is so ready to be a big boy like his brother.  We hand select the biggest of the little Legos for Max to play with and he feels like a king.

Nutrigrain bars

Just when I had resolved that Max is just going to be the quintessential third kid whose entire diet consists of Nutrigrain bars (due equally to my lack of willpower when he asks for them and his refusal to eat most mealtime vegetable choices), he demanded seconds, thirds, and fourths of kale chips before the rest of the family even made it to the dinner table.  There's hope yet.

Pantry

Someone has figured out how to open the pantry.

Someone likes to get out the giant bag of Pirate Booty and bring it to us whining "Pah corn! Pah corn!"  Usually at breakfast time.

Someone pulled out the Cheerios container, opened it, and dumped half of it all over the floor while mama was cooking dinner.

Someone just sighed and didn't bother to clean it up (that someone would be mama).

Nap time on the quad

On the way over to the UNC campus today  to enjoy the beautiful weather with the kids and some friends, Josh and I were talking about what to do. Go for a walk, visit Student Stores, play tag, things the kids would enjoy.  Josh said with great nostalgia, "I remember taking a blanket and just laying down on the ground on a nice day, feeling the sun on my back while I napped."  I thought he was just reminiscing but he indeed brought along a blanket and laid down in a sunny spot.  Unfortunately for him, instead of feeling the warmth of the sun, he felt the warmth (and elbow jabbing) of three children piling on top of him.

Monkey boys

Brothers reading books in monkey pjs.  The sweetest.

Biting

We got the dreaded "Incident Report" from Max's school telling us that he had bitten one of his friends.  So we have been working on ways to talk about biting.  Which with a one-year old is about as (in)effective as you might imagine.   I have been working on a mantra with Max around biting which he has taken quite happily to saying, so now we have this conversation many times a day:

Me:  Hey, Max!  Bite food!

Max:  NO bite people!

That's right folks, bite food, no bite people.  Valuable life skill embedded there.

Speller

A few weeks ago, Ella came in second in the grade-level spelling bee. Parents are invited to attend but Ella was adamant that we not be there.  We respected her wishes but I was on edge all day wanting to know how it went.  Fortunately her teacher texted me this picture and note to let me know the good news.  The schoolwide bee is next!

The perks of remodeling

There are many headaches involved in a remodel so let's focus on the positives! Once a week, a truck shows up and sucks out the contents of the port-a-potty in the driveway.  And today, a truck came and swapped out our full dumpster for an empty one.  Fascinating and fun for all the small people.

The perks of remodeling

There are many headaches involved in a remodel so let's focus on the positives! Once a week, a truck shows up and sucks out the contents of the port-a-potty in the driveway.  And today, a truck came and swapped out our full dumpster for an empty one.  Fascinating and fun for all the small people.