Waiting out Winter

Today is the last day of February. 

 

Halle-freakin-lujah!

 

February is my least favorite month.  The novelty of winter has worn off long ago.  It is STILL dark, it is STILL cold, it is STILL grey and ugly.  I am just done.  The only good thing about February is that it is short.  So bring on March!  Wahoo!

 

We spend a lot of time indoors in February.  Who doesn't?  We have tried to get outside as much as possible on the rare sunny days, and even made a visit to a snow-covered park a Saturday or two ago (the swings still work!).  But mostly we have been hanging out in the playroom.  Cora has been perfecting her tower-building skills.  She built a really good one the other day while Dax was at preschool and I sat nearby reviewing some documents for work.  Okay, okay, I might have helped put the triangle on top.  She was so proud of her castle that she asked me to take a picture of it.  I dutifully got the camera and told her to stand next to the castle and smile.  She quickly declared that she needed to put on her Little Mermaid dress-up outfit before the picture could be taken.  Now properly attired, she proceeded to work it like a supermodel.  Take 1:

Take 2:

Take 3:

 

I have no idea what she is doing, but it is hilarious.  It looks kind of like she is doing the hula or something in the pictures, but that is how a mermaid-princess showing off her castle is supposed to stand in the mind of my 3-year old Cora.  She rocks my socks off.

 

She wanted to take a picture of me next, modelling the lego house we had constructed earlier that day.  I am not as fancy as Cora, so I have no princess dresses or fancy poses, but nevertheless, here is our lego house, complete with doors and windows.

 

 

Sometimes when we are in the playroom, our friendly neighborhood deer herd comes over to eat some of our plants, and we don't really mind.  The kids love watching the deer, and get so excited that they sometimes yell so loud that they scare the deer away from inside the house.  Impressive.  Cora is SOSOSOSOEXCITED!  We had about 6 or 7 deer in our yard at this point. 



"Awww, dey are so cute, mom!  I wish we could pet dem!"



 I bet that the deer are almost as excited as we are for all of this snow to melt! 

See ya February, don't let the door hit you in the butt. 

Lowered Expectations

Last week I was planning on doing a post each day of Valentines week...one for each kid and one for Preston on Valentines Day.  Somehow after the post about Arden things got busy and I never got around to blogging about how much I love Dax, Cora or Preston.  Let it be known that I love them all just as much as I love Arden, but sometimes things just don't work out the way I plan. 

 

For instance, I always planned that my kids would look nice.  You know, put together.  Hair done, cute clothes, that kind of stuff.  My reality has become a little bit different. 

 

For example, last Sunday, I helped Cora get ready for church.  We picked out a beautiful dress, got her tights on, and her hair done.  I told her to run downstairs and get her shoes on, and here is what I found:

Cora had selected her snow boots to go along with her outfit.  (notice how Daxton is swimming his shark around in the background.  That is how we roll.)  It took some serious convincing (i.e. begging, threatening, bribery) to get Cora to take off her beloved boots and exchange them for boring church shoes.  

 

Speaking of boots, I am not sure what Dax is thinking with this outfit.  Dinosaur shirt...okay, that is standard Dax uniform.  I am not sure why he is wearing gym shorts in February, but they are especially nice paired with his moon boots, don't you think?  Again, I am the meanest mom EV-ER and made him put his jeans on before we went out in public.  (I seriously considered letting it go, but Preston looked at me funny.  I did let him wear his snow boots even though it wasn't snowing, so I am a NICE mom!  NICE!!). 

Here was Cora's outfit today.  T-shirt and jeans, sure.  But then she decided she HAD to put one of Arden's jumpers on over the top.  Hmmmmm....it is actually kind of cute, right?



 Almost as cute as this:

 

I was totally going to let that outfit go out in public (as my former self shudders), but luckily Arden called foul on Cora borrowing her dress without asking and made her remove it. 

 

I don't have a picture of it, but Arden is an occasional offender as well.  Last week she came down the stairs wearing a blue and purple striped shirt, a blue and purple paisley patterned skirt, and bright green leggings.  The stripes and paisley mix was bad enough, but at least they were the same color scheme.  I decided to pick my battles and asked her to go upstairs and just change her leggings.  Arden rolled her eyes at me and heaved a sigh but dutifully headed back upstairs.  I was going to just let her solve it herself, but I had visions of her coming down with her leopard print leggings on and I wasn't sure my eyes could survive beholding that combination so I followed her up and offered suggestions (which were also met with eye rolls, but eventually followed so it was a win for me).

 

Dax also tried REALLY hard to wear his new Valentines pajamas (actually, the girls' pajamas had hearts on them, but Dax's have...you guessed it...dinosaurs) to preschool.  I, the meanest mom EVER, would not let him do it.  Dax ended up sneaking his pajama tops under a regular shirt, which he promptly removed once I dropped him off.  Seriously?  We are already changing our clothes after we get to school?  I thought that was for 15-year-old girls.  Sneaky bugger.

 

I can feel it coming on.  Pretty soon I am going to find myself in the middle of Target and I will turn around and notice that Cora is wearing her skunk Halloween costume over a princess dress (with her snow boots) and Dax is wearing his pajamas with his underwear on the outside (and his snow boots).  And I will not care. 

 

When you see me, please just smile and pretend that nothing is weird. 

Valentines Week - Who Do You Love?

I love my Arden. 

 

(Here she is at two years old in a place I wouldn't mind being at right this very moment.) 

I love her so much that I was willing to go into her messy messy room this morning and do a little tidying up.  I usually don't do this since Arden is a big girl and is responsible for cleaning her own room.  HowEVer, my girl is a class A pack rat and does NOT like throwing anything away, like...ever.  Instead, she will make neat little piles (and piles and piles) of homework papers and various drawings and works of art that are soon stacked up all over her room.  So, every once in a while I take my life in my hands and go and sort thorugh the piles.  I keep the truly exceptional school papers and artwork in Arden's 1st grade binder I made for her, and (shhhhhhh, don't tell) I THROW THE REST AWAY.  She usually doesn't even notice and goes happily along creating new piles.  (If she does notice, well...somebody is in trouble.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.)

 

Anyway, today my efforts were rewarded by finding this little beauty in the middle of a pile:

For those of you who don't speak 1st grade, that last word is Skywalker.  Yeah, we have been watching the Star Wars occasionally, but I had no idea my eldest daughter's heart had been captured by the young blond Jedi knight.  Say it with me now, awwwwww!  How cute is she?  I laughed quietly to myself and then grabbed Preston from where he was working downstairs so he could laugh with me, then I tucked the little declaration of love quietly back in the middle of a now-much smaller pile.  I will have to watch her more closely next time we are watching a Star Wars movie...while also concentrating on keeping a straight face.  Its gonna be hard. 

Please please if you see Arden don't mention this post, or I have a feeling I will be in even more serious trouble that I usually am after I purge her room.  ;-)  Happy Valentines!

Snack Time - Dax style

The other day I was doing my normal routine of trying to clean up breakfast sometime before lunch when Dax came and asked me for a snack.  My boy is a bottomless pit, so he spends about 2/3 of his waking hours asking for and eating snacks.  Here is our conversation:

 

Me: "What kind of snack do you want, Dax?"  

Dax:  "Ummmmm...do you have any leaves?"

Me:  "Well...I have spinach.  Do you want a salad?"

Dax:  "No nevamind I don't want leaves.  How about carrots?"

Me: (always excited when vegetables are voluntarily eaten)  "Sure!"

Dax:  "Wait, wait, wait.  Dat's not all.  Can I have some turkey too pwease?"

Me:  "A turkey sandwich?"

Dax:  "No, just turkey.  I just want a bunch of pieces of turkey."

Me:  "Um....okaaaay."

 

I should have seen it coming.  Dax is the proud owner of about 37 zillion plastic dinosaurs.  Some are the size of bugs, some are the size of small dogs.  He usually carries them around in pairs: (1) one carnivore and (2) one herbivore for said carnivore to eat.  Today, he wanted to share his snack with his carnivore and herbivore friends of the moment.  Here is Dax, plate full of carrots and turkey:

Here is Daxton's favorite carnivore of late, his "Gween T-Wex!"  As you can see, the T-Rex is happily munching on a slice of deli turkey.

Dax also shared his carrots with his baby Stegosaurus.  I am guessing that he is just fattening up the Stegosaurus before he lets the T-Rex eat it.  Poor thing.