Brilliant Use of My Time

Believe me, I could have made far better use of Jack's marathon nap today. Alas, I give you this.

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Nothing of note

I'd really love to have fun, insightful blog posts for you on a regular basis, but I'm just plumb out of ideas, motivation & the brain power to put thoughts into words. Really and truly, Dora the Explorer has eaten my brain. Instead, I will pummel you with pictures of the kids. Again.

I had to get some pictures of him in these overalls that I scored, (while still pregnant with him) at the thrift store. They're almost too small now.

These were taken the day of Anna's Thanksgiving feast at school. She looked so adorable in the requisite white shirt and navy skirt. Then, for the program, the kids were dressed as pilgrims, but I thought that Anna looked more like a nun. "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" was circulating on repeat through my head the whole time.

My Anna

Say good bye to the old kitchen floor. As of Monday, it's history!

Yes, posing for pictures in the bathroom. You've gotta snap pictures when you can around here. There's also darned good lighting in that bathroom.

Where The Weird Things Are

We have some strange creatures living in this house with us--and no, not bedbugs--humans and animals. First off, let me tell you about Anna:

Hey, somebody's got to be the responsible one around here

We're having a little trouble figuring out what to get her for Christmas this year. We're fairly certain that a "big girl bike" is in order, but we want her opinion on it. On Saturday, after being couped up in the house together most of the day, we decided to make a family trip to Toys R Us to get some Christmas ideas for her (Jack is all but taken care of) and also to let the kids each pick out one small toy. Kevin took Jack and I took Anna. Jack was immediately enamoured with the trucks, ambulances, fire trucks...you get the idea. I took Anna up and down every. single. aisle at Toys R Us. There was nothing that particularly "blew her skirt up". Do you want to know what item she finally decided on? An umbrella. Sigh.

Every time it rains, she says, "Mama, I really need an umbrella!". And I always say, "I know! The next time I'm at Target, I'll get you one". Well, I'm not sure if you're like me, but Target does things to my brain so that I never walk out with things that I NEED. So, months and months went by with no umbrella for Anna. Imagine how shitty I felt, when my kid chose a practical item from Toys R Us? So, I coerced her into buying a My Pretty Pony (or whatever they're called) just because I couldn't stomach the idea of her walking out of Toys R Us with only an umbrella.

Next weirdo: our cat, Molly.

Very old picture. Turns out, we just don't take as many pictures of our cats as we used to. Go figure.

Molly spends most of her time inside. While outside, she's not a hunter, but inside, she likes to "hunt" things and then bring them to our bedroom as a gift. For awhile, she "hunted" Mr. Potato Head parts, from our toy cabinet. I'd walk into our bedroom on any given day to find Mr. Potato Head's nose in the middle of our bed. I only wish that I could've seen her running down the hall the night that she gifted us with Mr. Potato Head's mustache.

Well, Mr. Potato Head is in an undisclosed location right now, so Molly has had to widen her hunt. In the middle of the night, recently, I heard her tell-tale "hunting meow" that she uses when she's on the hunt. It's sort of a caterwaul, made more strange-sounding by the fact that she's carrying an object in her mouth, as she running down the hall. I heard her come into our room and then heard "plop" as she unloaded her fresh kill on our floor. I rolled over and went back to sleep. The next morning, I awoke to find her gift to us: a Hello Kitty Pez dispenser. It's the gift that keeps on giving, the whole year through.

Last but not least, Jack:

Eating is hit or miss with him--especially at dinner. Homeboy will put away plate after plate of quinoa but may or may not eat pizza. For instance, here's how he ate the pizza that I made this week.

Little holes punched in every piece...like a mouse. I'm not even sure how he did that.

Halloween (finally!)

The kids were old pros at the whole Halloween thing this year. Anna was totally excited about Trick or Treating and I consider it a success that Jack allowed the head part of his doggie costume to stay in place for most of the night. Probably the best part of Trick or Treating was the kids using their best Trick or Treat manners--complete with Jack turning around after receiving his candy at each house, looking over his shoulder, waving and saying very loudly, "DIE!" (which translates into "Bye!"). I don't think that anyone was too offended by an adorable little puppy shouting death threats at them.