We're Still Breathing

It's been what, almost two months since my last post? That sounds about right.

If you follow me on twitter, you may have read:

According to my 2yo, I'm wrong about everything, always, even if I give her exactly what she asked. She lets me know with screams.
— Alisha Abner (@weesherweesh) November 14, 2013

I feel like most of my day is spent having small tyrants yell at me. When one makes behavior progress, another gets worse. But I guess that's just the way these things go.

Photo by Emily B Photography

These little things aren't tyrants 100% of the time, though. The other day 4-year-old Jonas "walked" at least a quarter mile of the walk home from school dancing like Jamiroquai. Seriously, when I asked him who he was being (suspecting his answer but not wanting to influence it), he said, "Jamiroquai." Lately he's been singing "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" by the Backstreet Boys, "Volcano" by The Presidents of the United States of America (this is his favorite to sing while sitting on the potty), "The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)" by Ylvis, and "Talk on Indolence" by The Avett Brothers (who he calls "Ado Brothers"). The kid has said for a couple years now that he has music in his bones. I've started playing rhythm/pattern games with him on his drums.

Jonas in his favorite sweater. Photo by Emily B Photography

Simon has a best buddy at school. He and his auntie have been to our house twice now. Everyday I ask Simon who he played with at recess, and the answer is always this friend. When I ask him what they played, 95% of the time it's Spider-Man (and there's often a game or two of "Chase the Girls" as well). I took this picture of them at their friend's birthday party. It makes me happy. Both boys have a framed copy now.

Best Buddies

Charzie, oh Charzie! This one is so incredibly smart, so incredibly adorable and so incredibly manipulative! She is an absolute joy one moment and will drive me to the brink of insanity the next. We had to take pretty much all of her toys out of her room to keep her from getting up to play during nap time. It is vital that I get her into bed for nap before 1:00pm, otherwise legendary battles ensue. She doesn't have to be asleep by 1:00, just in bed. But this girl completely melts my heart when she does things to make me happy. She will say, "Are you happy, Mommy? I want to help you and make you happy!" then she will give me a bite of what she's eating or clean up or whatever she can think to do.

Photo by Emily B Photography

Let's see, what has happened in the last couple months? Well, Halloween happened...

Boo-tiful Ghost, Swamp Creature & Skeleton

I made/adapted the kids' costumes. Jonas' make-up irritated his eyes and we had to go with a partially painted face with a bandit-type mask for actual Halloween since we had family portraits scheduled for a couple days later. The kids had fun with Halloween, but I sort of lost my love for my favorite holiday. The weather was dreary, we didn't really do anything all that special and the kids misbehaved pretty badly. But Chase & I had a pretty great couple costume (even if no one got it)...

Vampire Weekend at Bernie's

In case you need it explained, Vampire Weekend is a hipster-y band. Weekend at Bernie's is a movie from 1989 where a couple guys have a party at Bernie's house only Bernie is dead and they pretend that he is alive and partying with them. (There are sequels.)

Let's see, what else? I'll be discontinuing my job as our church's administrator, but I do hope to start doing the occasional freelance cake and/or invitation designs. I was on the ball and already designed and ordered our Christmas cards for this year; I just received an email that they've been shipped! And now you're probably pretty much caught up. So here are a few more pics from our session with Emily B Photography:

Accurate depiction of what it's like wrangling our kids for a nice pic

Check out Charzie's face

Sword sticks

Sword sticks

Okay, I guess by a few more pics I really meant a bunch more. Oh well!