Sara is Smiling

If Elly were a superhero.

Elly walks into my office holding the end of a roll of toilet paper. The other end is still attached to the roll in the bathroom.
Elly: This is my invisible dog. He doesn't mind if I pee on him.

And speaking of invisibility:
Me: Elly, do you have pants on?
Elly: Yes.
My BS sensor goes off and I peek around the desk: No, you don't!
Elly: Yes, thems invisible pants!

The only thing worse than a dance recital...

is martial arts testing.


It didn't help that the weather was bad. We stood in the cold and wet for 3 hours. Our kids were involved..oh..let's say for a total of 10-12 minutes, but it wasn't consecutive minutes so we had to stay the whoooooole time.

And when I say stood, I mean we literally stood. The grass was too wet to sit on, and we're not familiar enough with these sorts of things to know to bring lawn chairs and blankets. Which most everyone else had.
The baby was a disaster because she wanted down to crawl around, but it was cold and wet. If I let her get wet from crawling around the grass she'd be even colder. After oh, I dunno, an hour and a half of wrestling her I decided to let her and Eloise watch a movie in the van just meters away from where I was standing. A couple minutes later someone walking by noticed them in there and got this crazed "Mommier-than-thou" attitude going. Gah. Pneumonia it is. Wouldn't want any "good" mommies out there to have a coronary because after an hour and a half I've let my miserable kids escape the chill to watch Garfield in the van. For shame.

Finally, Charlie and Max were tested on their pomse (poom-say). They learn a different routine for each belt, and they're called up 3-4 at a time to perform it in front of everyone. I think they did well.
After a lot more waiting we got to the board breaking. There's a different kick requirement for each belt. Last time it was a simple front snap kick. Max got it first try and Charlie second. This time it was an axe kick (I think) where you kick up high (I think) and break it on the down swing (I think) with your heel (I think). Charlie was soooo nervous, but got it on the first try.



Max did not get it on the first try...or the second, or third, or fourth, or fifth, or sixth.


Oh dear. He held it together until his group was dismissed and then he ran across the field and put his shirt over his head.
As it turned out, though, there were about a dozen kids who didn't break the board, and at the end they let them all try again. By that time I had Max all pumped up again, but I was sooo nervous for him.
First try unsuccessful. Second try unsuccessful. My stomach was in knots. Third try CEEERRAAACK!!!
So we left with a couple of happy yellow belters :-)

11 months

Her first kitty face! Inspired by Elly who was also in kitty face today and calling herself Cupcake.

We're pretty close to wrapping up the Baby Era in our (not-so) little family.

T-Shirt Wisdom

Sometimes what's on your shirt doesn't reflect what's in your heart.

Or I guess it could be saying Yes, I've always been this happy (which isn't all that happy)

Night Owl

Quincey was on the couch watching hockey after a marriage-testing incident where the air conditioner got dropped out the window.
Hold the window ALL THE WAY!!
It IIISSS all the way!
Some grunting. Some cussing. SMASH.

The two big kids and the baby were in bed. Then there was Eloise.
I was so pleased that she hadn't napped that day. I had visions of her going to bed at bedtime with everyone else. That is, until I found her zonked on the couch at 6:30. Attempts to wake her up were fruitless. I decided to take her up to bed.
To my absolute delight, she came bouncing downstairs at 8:30pm ready to get rolling again.
It stays light pretty late now so I decided we'd go for a walk to the park.

"Do you know why we're the only ones here, Elly? Because aaaaallllll the other kids are in bed."

"Why?"

"Because it's very late, and they're good little boys and girls!"

"I not a good girl?"

"No, sweetheart, you're not."
Ok, maybe that wasn't exactly my response :-) Thinking it doesn't do any permanent damage, though.

Elly took this one of me.


By the time we were walking to the corner store for a freezie it was dark, and I got some strange looks from the young folk who wander the neighbourhood at night.
What?? You've never seen a mom and a 3 year old in their jammies eating jumbo freezies roaming your streets at night??
It's 2011. Moms make their own rules these days. At least this one does :-)

Go the Bleep to Sleep

So we've had some particular trouble with sleep issues in the last 7 1/2 years that we've been parents, as I'm sure you other parents can relate to. I've not been shy about sharing.
Someone shared this with me today, and although I loved it, I hestitated sharing it because it uses the F word frequently.
Screw it. This sh*t is hilarious.
But here's your disclaimer:
If you are offended by the "F" word, skip this one.

It is NOT a children's book although it is designed to look that way. It is narrated by Samuel L. Jackson. Please do not share it with your children :-)
(*So the last video I embedded was removed from youtube. I've linked to another one, but it doesn't flip through the pages..just the audio)

Eyebrow Snot

Classic

Some time with my little ladies.

Working is nearly impossible when the baby isn't napping. Lovely days such as today have been few and far between so we spent most of the afternoon outside. First we had a picnic.
I had salad, Elly had a sandwich, and Quinn had dandelions.

I'm proud of her all natural organic food choices. Not even one yet and she's already forward thinking.

And hey, lookey here:

She's standing! But SHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Don't tell her!
When she notices, she very slowly lowers herself to the ground.
Silly baby!

Happy Birthday to Q

Yesterday was Quincey's birthday. We spent the day in the car. It was pretty bad. I should've known better, but I agreed to go with him to check on our displays that we had up in stores in every corner of the city.
He'd been away on business all week, and it was his birthday, and he wanted to spend the day with us.
On the bright side, it made this card I bought him so much more relatable:


Finally at home, we made pizza and had our Hello Kitty cake that Elly picked out.

Where's Max you ask? He's laying under the table in protest. He doesn't like pizza. Or Hello Kitty.
Quinny is across the table in her highchair. She couldn't be picked up for the picture without requiring a good hose down first.

Quincey doesn't like presents, but the kids insist upon it. We ended up getting him a new sprinkler hose because I ran over his with the lawnmower this week while he was gone, a bbq spatula, a book and this picture:

In the car in front of my studio before going in: "If you all co-operate and this takes less than 5 minutes I'll take you to McDonalds". We were done in record time.

Babies, animals, baby animals

Our babysitter got a new kitty and she's been bringing it over with her since it's so young.
Eloise loves the kitty.
On Friday when I came home I walked in the door and saw this:

Little kitty asleep in Elly's doll bed. Head on pillow, tucked under the covers, perfectly content to be there.

Quinn has taken an interest in our cats recently. She gets a big evil grin on her face when she comes across one in her travels. She smacks them with excitment and grabs hold of ears, tails or just handfuls of fur. They're incredibly patient with her as we sit there prying her fist open and teaching her "geeeentle...niiiiiice kitty". My grandmother would not approve. She didn't think cats and kids should mix. One of her last visits to us she kept feeding the cat his food by the spoonful like a baby.

When Quinn came nose to nose with my sister's Saint Bernard last week I admit I was nervous

They assure me he's a "gentle giant". Oh really? Even when his eyes are being gouged out by tiny curious fingers???
I picked her up before she could touch him because I'm a nervous nelly especially around dogs.
My sister's own kids, on the other hand, have clearly defined themselves as Alpha Dog. :-)
Too cute

I was there that day taking little man Tate's 1st birthday photos which turned out fabulous, if I do say so myself ;-P