Charlotte (age 3) and I (age a lot more than 3) were watching her favorite music video, Taylor Swift's Shake it Off. Then the Charz got the idea that if we put on a bunch of accessories, we can pretend to be "different Taylor Swifts" like how TS tries out different personas in the video. After we put on different headbands (it was mostly headbands, by the way) that made us look just like different Taylor Swifts in the eyes of my three-year-old, this conversation happened:
Charzie: We can change our names…
Me: To what?
Charzie: I can change my name to Wanda and you can be Peanut Butter Swift.
Me: Wanda and Peanut Butter Swift?
Charzie: Yes.
Me: Where did you come up with Wanda? Where did you hear that?
Charzie: God told me. This day. When we were at the store, God told me.
Me: God told you to change your name to Wanda?
Charzie: Yes.
Me: For real or are you pretending?
Charzie: God told me this day for real.
Me: OK. Wanda and Peanut Butter Swift.
Charzie. Yes. But we can change them back if we want to.
For whatever reason, and maybe this gives you a glimpse into the odd-ness of my family, Peanut Butter Swift didn't seem as strange of a name for Charlotte to choose as Wanda was. Oh, and apparently those names are Spanish, so we have to speak Spanish when we change our names.
Having gone back and read my last few posts, I noticed that I've been quite the downer! But of course, dealing with The Sick hitting all five members of this household and the things that go along with said Sick will bring just about anyone down. The kids didn't leave the house for a week and a half and I left the house once in that time. We were all going a little crazy. So today I have a couple fun videos of my kiddos to share.
Alright, my kids love to play dress-up. They dress up as superheroes, knights, Ninja Turtles, pirates, secret agent guys, bad guys, police officers, magicians, and many other things. My kids don't just dress up as these characters; they totally get into it and become the character. Anyway, today Jonas decided he wanted to be a Ghostbuster. So here is a video of Jonas as Dr. Peter Venkman:
Of course Simon had to jump in, too. This next video is from a few weeks ago before The Sick. The kids were playing with Play-Doh and Charzie kept saying she was making applesauce. She's a cute one, she is...
So I won two free tickets from a local radio station to see my very favorite band.
The station asked a trivia question on-air, I was the first one to call in with the correct answer, so I won. The concert was last night. The husband was out of town for work. Our awesome friend Caitlin watched our kids so I could go to the concert with our awesome friend Chelsea. Here is a picture Chelsea took with her phone before The Smashing Pumpkins took the stage:
You can't tell here, but Chelsea is in her 3rd trimester of pregnancy with her 1st baby. Also, you can't tell that there were at least 3 other obviously pregnant ladies at this concert. I said the Pumpkins should have had a kid shirt & onesies at their merch table. You hear that Pumpkins? Get some kid merch and your fans will eat it up. A Zero onesie would be mighty cute, ya know...
Anyway, our seats were upgraded because they "reconfigured the stage." I assume they didn't sell quite the amount of tickets they expected and moved people closer. No complaints here. Upgraded seats was just one thing that added to the awesomeness that was last night. Here are some more: a kid-free night, dinner alone at Arby's (where I didn't have to cut any food or clean anyone up or take anyone pee pee or poop), the sweetest old dude trucker mullet I've ever seen (at Arby's, it was just about waist length, pulled back in a ponytail and totally business in the front), a street parking spot (not paying $10-20 to park!), hanging out with Chelsea, seeing my favorite band, observing some "mom dancing" (just watch PBS during their telethons when they play oldies concerts and check out the middle-aged women dancing in the crowd, you'll see what I'm talking about), the fact that the best mom dancing was actually done by a young-ish dude with a sweater tied around his waist two rows ahead of us, the neat stage set-up with some crazy Death Star-looking thing that had stuff projected on it (check out images from another show here), and of course hearing some of my favorite songs played live.
The Pumpkins basically played two concerts in one. The first was all songs from their new album Oceania. I like that album much better after hearing it live. The second was songs from their heyday plus a couple covers. I'm not familiar enough with the current album to be able to name the songs they played, so I'll give you the set list from the "second concert." You can be assured that it was all awesome.
Space Oddity (cover) by David Bowie
XYU
Disarm
Tonight Tonight
Bullet with Butterfly Wings
A snippet of Shock Me (cover) by KISS
A song Billy Corgan wrote for his daddy (didn't catch the name)
Zero
Cherub Rock
{encore}
Ava Adore
some dueling guitar
a bit o' Whole Lotta Love (cover) by Led Zeppelin
Muzzle
I'm well-aware that the current "Smashing Pumpkins" are pretty much Billy Corgan (the front man) and his new lackeys. But I don't care. The new lackeys are fantastic musicians and were really fun to watch. And Billy Corgan was expectedly amazing live, and entertaining as well.
Something I noticed toward the middle/end of the concert was the lack of "concert smell." You know, cigarettes + pot + booze. I've always associated that smell with concerts, at least bar or arena shows, and it seemed odd not to have it. I'm not complaining, I mean, I appreciate not feeling like I need a post-concert shower, especially getting home at 1:00 AM, but it just isn't the same.
So, yeah, home at 1:00 AM. HUGE thanks to Caitlin for staying with the kids and crashing on the couch and then slipping out early to get ready and go to work! Today the kids and I had a jammie day. Also, I've been trying to indoctrinate them with Smashing Pumpkins music & music videos. Jonas (age 3) really enjoyed the destruction at the end of Everlasting Gaze. He wants to be a drummer. All the kids really liked the Tonight Tonight video. So do I. And so should you!
Simon is three years old today! We're celebrating tomorrow with a circus party. I'll do an official Simon birthday post later, but to celebrate now here's a video taken on Chase's iPod of him (and Jonas) at the circus two weeks ago:
Simon & Jonas were both characters from the movie Beetlejuice. Never seen it or has it been a while? I found this YouTube clip that has both of their characters in it:
Here's Jonas as Betelgeuse:
The ghost with the most! Betel-Jones!
And Simon as a Sandworm:
Simon as the thing that eats Betelgeuse at the end
I sewed Simon's costume myself with the last bit of black & white striped fabric that the fabric store had, some green fabric& polyester fiberfill for the mouth, zebra print foamy paper stuff for teeth and red poms for eyes. Jonas' costume is the tux Simon wore in some weddings this summer with white duct tape and the sleeves and pants cuffs tucked under.
The boys together
Now before I show you my and Chase's costumes, you need to watch this video (or at least some of it because only one person at the party we went to got it):
Simon & Jonas love a good thrill. Here are some videos to show it...
Here's Simon at a festival a few weeks ago riding a racecar ride. It's hard to hear over the noisy ride, but Simon is screaming in delight most of the time.
And here's Jonas going down a giant slide this past Friday at a pumpkin patch play barn. His expression may not show his enjoyment, but he kept going back to the slide wanting to go down.
Here are a couple better videos. The first is the boys dancing in the kitchen earlier this evening while listening to Here Come the ABC's by They Might Be Giants. The second video is of Jonas using iChat to type to Daddy at work.
I know, I'm having a videosplosion, right? But I don't hear any complaints... So this is another video of Simon acting weird when he sees himself on the monitor...
Both of my boys are hilarious (read: heee-larious). Jonas has done this a few times now, he will whine/cry/fuss when I give him bites of veggies and immediately stop at the taste of fruit. We were attempting to capture this on video the other night, and of course, he stopped doing it the instant we started recording. BUT we got a hilarious treat from Simon (or should I say, SINON?) instead. Enjoy!
Note: Something went wrong with the original video upload, but it should be working now!
We went to Steak n Shake on Sunday. Here you see Simon taking the crayons out of the box and putting them back in and taking them out and putting them back in and...
This one is from a couple weeks ago when I took Simon for a walk. He rode a stick.
Simon playing outside yesterday morning. He found a berry and called it a ball.
You've seen those mall walkers, now check out this mall runner!
The mall arcade is a great place for a dance party...
And now for the grand finale, Jonas laughing! (It's hard to hear the first laugh over Simon's squeals, but don't worry, he laughs again.)
