Big Oh Well

Yesterday was a hair day. When her Thanksgiving 'do got removed, we were left with the above masterpiece. This picture will forever make me smile.

I've really been itching to try doing something to her whole head, so yesterday I gave it a whirl. Unfortunately, it turned out to be an all day event because it just wasn't working. I had to redo different parts a few times until we were left with something we could leave the house with. I wound up having to leave the back free and curly, which normally I like but in this case it wasn't my fav. So we'll give it a Big Oh Well, ride it out and try again in a week or so!

I was tempted to leave it like this and have her go urban chic for a few days....

But I was determined to finish so we wound up with something pretty cool, but it just would not stay put...

If her hair was just a liiiiitle bit longer this may have stayed in okay...

And if her hair was a little bit longer I could have figured out the back a little better...instead we got this mess!

Eventually, pig tails saved the day :)

At some point I might stop posting about all our styles, but for now I just have to get it out there. It will be fun for me to go back and see how it all started and progressed!

Harry Potter, we'll meet again...

I saw this on Facebook tonight and it totally made me laugh. If it doesn't make you laugh, do yourself a favor and go read the Harry Potter series. I'm tempted to for the fourth time. Or would it be the fifth? I can't remember. All I know is that when I do read it again, I'll surely enjoy it just as much as any other time. A comment on Facebook made me realize that the next time I read it could be alongside this little guy...

We're years off from Harry Potter, but I am so excited that he is on his way. I didn't mark the day or the time or the book, but the tide has started to turn in our house. When we're sitting on the couch together with a book in hand, his voice can announce the words on the page instead of mine. The first time this occurred was definitely a fighting back tears moment (I also cried when he sat up for three seconds at his six month pictures, so I might not be the best judge of what's tear worthy in life). Now don't get me wrong, he is just starting out so he certainly can't read whatever you put in front of him, but he can read this and other things like it:

Jan ran.
Jan ran to the van.
Jan ran to the van to get a pan.
Jan ran to the van to get a pan and a can.
Jan ran to the van to get a pan and a can for Dan.

It's a start....and I'm kind of bursting with pride and excitement over here. Discussions of muggles and hallows and half-bloods here we come! :)

Our Morning

This morning was a hair morning. After all, it is a holiday and I think from this point on holidays are going to be synonymous with fancy hair.

I got out the hair basket.

Got the clips ready.

Opened the container of hair bands.

And reached for the parting comb.

 Soon enough, we were looking at some fresh twists and a new style.

She was happy I was done.

I was happy I was done.

In the meantime, he was trying to stay entertained.

And as usual, he was attempting to evade the paparazzi.

But after a bath, he felt ready to cooperate.

His nice shirt is covered by his monster truck sweatshirt, but we tried.

We will just continue to relax until dinner time, when we visit with extended family. So much to be thankful for.

Strangers, Tales, Homonymns, Politics, Race & Green

First. In Simon's dresser there is a mini-closet. I don't know what you would really call this and I'm sure there's an adequate descriptor out there, but for the life of me I can't come up with the right singular word to help me out right now. So just picture a little space that a small (or medium) sized human can fit into. We usually store sweaters there, but more often it is used as a fun hiding spot. Also, Simon's light is controlled with a remote.

Second. A few weeks ago my sisters, niece, nephews and my own children were at my parent's house (my parents were not, ironically enough). This was right before the big election and there was a young man who came to the door. For some reason, my older sister said, "Quick, let's hide! There's someone coming to the door!" It was a spit second decision, designed to keep the kids quiet for a minute and to just plain have fun. We knew it was someone peddling for Obama or Romney and figured we'd just let him move onto the next house. The kids were all a little confused, but seemed to be having fun with us. This all sounds bizarre, which it kind of was, but it was all good, innocent fun. I promise.

This is everything you need to know to make sense of my conversation in the car with Simon today...

Simon - I'm going to take my remote and hide in my sweater closet so when the strangers come in they won't be able to see me.

Me - Why do you think a stranger is going to come into our house?

S - Because a stranger is going to come in and go upstairs and look into all of the bedrooms and I'll be hiding so they won't see me.

M - Where did you get this idea from? Why do you think someone is going to look in our rooms?

S - Because Goldilocks did it in Goldilocks and the Three Bears. She went into all of their bedrooms and she was a stranger.

M - Well, I guess you're right about Goldilocks, but that was just a story.

S - And that guy came to gramma's house and we had to hide and he was going to come in.

M - No, buddy, he was just at the door wanting to know who we were going to vote for.

S - Oh. Well who should we vote for?

M - Voting is over now. Obama won.

S - What about Obama two?

M - No, Obama was the winner. He won.

S - Oh, Obama has black skin.

M - Well, yeah, Obama has brown skin. Lots of people have brown skin, just like someone else we really love, right?

S - Yup, like Cecie!

M - We love people with every skin color, right?

S - Yeah, I even like purple and green. I really like green because I like the grass and chives and everything that's green....

And that is how we went from hiding from strangers in a cabinet (cabinet! the word just came to me!!) to discussing fairy tales to talking politics to homonyms to race and to everything green in a five minute car ride.

God, I love four year olds.

Giving Thanks!

Last year I did a post a day of all the things I was thankful for from November 1st through Thanksgiving. This year I was too lazy to be that thankful, so I'm condensing my list to just this one post. So here are the 22 things I'm most thankful for this year, one for each day of November through Thanksgiving and in no particular order:

1. Two beautiful, healthy kids. TWO. I have TWO kids now!
2. With having two kids comes the joy of not caring about having another kid. Some days I don't feel so resolved here, but (for the most part) the pain of infertility has left the building. A serious thing to be thankful for.
3. The mild fall we've been having, which has made waiting for the bus tolerable.
4. The bus. It scares me and saves me at the same time.
5. The jumperoo. Cecie has not learned how to crawl out of it yet; definitely can't say the same for the exersaucer.
6. www.chocolatehair-vanillacare.com. Who knows what Cecilia's hair would look like without it.
7. Simon's little (but physically quite large) brain. According to his teacher, right now he knows more than he is expected to know by the end of the school year. I'm thankful he isn't struggling.
8. Apple. I do like the fruit, but I'm referring to the company. I'm not thankful for how much their products cost, but I'm thankful that you at least get what you pay for!
9. New friends. I've grown closer with a lot of new people this year and I love how they each have their own interests, passions, issues, concerns, etc. They keep my life interesting.
10. Old friends. I have managed to stay pretty close with a lot of people for many, many years. I'm so blessed to still regularly see people who I met in middle school and high school and even college (since college is somehow in the distant past too already). They still keep my life interesting, but also comfortable.
11. Sisters. I have two sisters and one sister-in-law, all of whom I love dearly. One already lives too far away and another is moving too far away. The other one isn't allowed to leave me. I'm thankful for any time I get with them.
12. Our kids' grandparents...aka our parents :) They do so much for us and especially know how to make our children feel loved and special every chance they get.
13. Bryan. He went to a Fall Party in Simon's class today. Not surprisingly, he was the only dad there. While he did text me saying he was "set up" (making me laugh uncontrollably for a while), he stayed and played pin the tail on the turkey among other things. Our kids are so lucky to have him.
14. I'm thankful I can hear and see. Not everyone gets the privilege, and sometimes they get taken away. My grandma is losing those privileges and even though she's now an old woman, it seems entirely too soon. I'm thankful for her too. I'll be thankful for any bit of technology that can help her manage life with these losses.
15. Fleece footie jammies. Without this little life luxury my baby's feet would be permanently devoid of coverage.
16. Woodman's. I have a grocery store five minutes away that sells all kinds of food you can't find at the Walmart grocery store or Piggly Wiggly or even Pick N Save. Love it.
17. The Ergo baby carrier. I honestly don't know how I would accomplish anything without it (see number 5).
18. God babies. My FIFTH God child will be born next week (or sooner I suppose)! 
19. Bed time. Knock on wood, but bed time right now is about a 30 second ordeal for Cecilia and only slightly longer for Simon. I know the ease of this will go away when Cecilia is older, but now I also know that when she's even older bed time should be easy once again.
20. Slippers, scarves, sweatshirts, fireplaces, blankets, hot water, furnaces and a dog that insists on warming my side of the bed before I get in. While it's been a mild fall, that deep chill is starting to creep in at night and I am so thankful for all these things that make winter in Wisconsin manageable. 
21. Bryan. I know I mentioned him already, but only in his capacity as a father. You couldn't find me a better husband for so many reasons. My life is happy and settled and peaceful and there's very little I would change about it. All of this is directly related to everything he does for me and the way he treats me (he irritates me sometimes too, don't worry...haha).
22. Two beautiful, healthy kids. TWO. I have TWO kids now! I am so lucky to look into both of their little faces every day. They are worth mentioning twice :)

Baby to Boy

In the car tonight I recited from memory the book Dr. Seuss's ABC to Simon. For those of you who are unfamiliar....

BIG A, little a. What begins with a? Aunt Annie's alligator a...a...a.

And so on and so forth through the entire alphabet. I'm sure millions of moms and dads can too recite complete books because their children have wanted them read so many times.

But this mom got a little bit screwed up on O and Y. Slight missteps aside, after my performance was complete I wanted some props from the boy in back and you want to know what he said? "Yeah, but you messed up on a couple."

My apologies.

Bryan took Simon to Math Night at school last week. One of their projects was to put leaves on a tree and since Simon was feeling lazy about it he said, "But it's Fall so there really aren't any leaves on the trees anyways."

Hard to argue with logic.

We were at the Gap the other day and Simon said to me, "My lips are super dry. Yours are too aren't they Mom?" Come to think of it my lips were super dry. "Yeah, Buddy, my lips are really dry too." Could he tell? Was it that obvious? It all became clear when I spotted the bowl of lip gloss on the counter.

Manipulator.

He's not the first or last four year old to expect perfection from his parents or use logic as a means to an end or try to trick his parents into buying him something. He's our first four year old to do it, though, and it feels like he is growing up soooooo fast.

 

Pearls

I originally reached for my camera the other day to capture an updated hairstyle...

...but something else entirely jumped out at me.

An arm with side of fingers anyone?

And here's why her own appendages have been oh so appetizing lately...

Hello, top teeth!

There's also another bottom tooth poking through and more on top trying to emerge so I think the arm eating is going to continue for awhile. In a potentially stupid move considering what is going on in that mouth of hers, I decided to try eliminating the trusty nuk from our lives last Wednesday. So far she hasn't seemed to notice...phew.

Hair Hiatus

For the past couple of weeks Cecie has been rocking a headband in lieu of any kind of hairstyle. My hands and her locks needed a little break, but I felt motivated yesterday to try something new. I've done something similar in the past, but tried to buy some longevity by changing it up a little in the front. About a day later, it still looks almost as good as when we started so that's a serious win in my book!

While I was trying to get some pictures of the front, I got a picture of the back that actually shows how curly her hair is. Normally it's kind of hard for a photo to do it justice, but this one seemed to capture it pretty well. Almost hard to believe this is the back of a nine month old's head (if you ignore the little baby neck roll and little baby cheek of course):

And here is the view from the top:

And the best photos are always the ones that include her cute little face:

So that's that. Hair hiatus over. I'm guessing this winter might lead to more headbands, though, because those twists probably wouldn't last 5 minutes in a hat! Maybe we'll have a warm winter...which I would be okay with for many, many reasons :)

Walking and Jammies?

It's a good morning round these parts. Bryan came home around 1am after a 12 day business trip and he has the next three days with us. This morning when Simon woke up he came into our room, went right to Bryan's side of the bed, said, "I missed-ed you really much," and just laid there hugging his daddy with a grin on his face for a while. It was pretty cute.

I realize 12 days isn't much...there's the military, divorce, death, etc. that could keep families apart for much longer so I tried not to complain too much (maybe unsuccessfully?), but it's really nice to have him back! First order of business this morning was to fix a (very) leaky faucet. Welcome home, right?

Anyway, this morning while Bryan was being a plumber (thank God for a husband with many skills), I decided to try getting footage of Cecie strolling behind her zebra walker, something she's become fairly adept at in the past few days. And in a stroke of luck, Simon came in the scene to argue about his pants. This video makes me happy :)

Big day

It's a big day, folks.

I'm sure you think I'm going to try to be cute and say it's a big day because of something unrelated to the election, but...it really is a big day because of the election.

To be perfectly honest, I'm not going to be too torn up about the results no matter which direction they go. There are things about both candidates that I like and dislike so I assume I will be emotionally calm later on this evening...but I am very interested to see what happens!

I am perhaps even more interested to find out what California says about labeling Genetically Modified Organisms. I absolutely think that GMOs should be labeled as such and even though this vote won't affect us here in Wisconsin necessarily, if it passes it would be step in the right direction. I find it fascinating that all those GMO makers are spending so much money to fight against the labeling of their own products...hmmmmm. I'm not even necessarily saying GMOs are bad, but I want to know explicitly what I am feeding my family. Even if you think GMOs are the bees knees (an opinion of which you are entitled) I still think you have the right to know when you're eating them.

Also, I'm interested to see what MN votes in regards to the gay rights issue. I hope they vote NO because I think that means YES, we love the gays! There are probably other states with other important things going on, but these are the only ones I know about :)

Okay, okay. Enough politics! Onto cuter and more lovable things...

This cute and lovable thing tried to break out of her pack and play today. From her armpits up she was over the side rail and her little feet were pushing against the walls trying to climb up and out. I don't think she could have accomplished it no matter how much effort she put forth, but the fact that she was putting forth the effort is quite unnerving. Simon never even thought about climbing out of his crib or pack and play until he was already in a big boy bed. Here she is at 9 months old and actively pursuing escape. I could cry for a few reasons...the biggest being if she learns how to crawl out of everything how will I ever go to the bathroom?!

Instagram!

I've had the instagram app for a while now, but I haven't really jumped on the band wagon until very recently. Now I'm a little obsessed with it so be prepared for frequent instagram photo dumps in the future :)

This first picture is for Peggy, Tiffany and Danielle. They were here on Saturday and were all a little aghast that we A) didn't have a single AA or AAA battery in the house, and B) didn't have a designated place for batteries anyways. Well, friends, my mother in law gave me this handy dandy battery organizer for my birthday and so today we went out, bought batteries and filled it up. Plus, we designated a jar for used batteries to be recycled (something I should have been doing a long time ago I suppose). Any normally functioning adult should have an assigned spot for their batteries, so now I am one step closer to becoming one...

The other day Simon found an old date book that had maps in the back. He was so serious playing with this item and kept referring to it to find his way. At one point I heard something about looking for "badwater." There is something so pure about a child's imaginary world, and saying I love being witness to it doesn't quite say enough...

Simon has never been a puzzle kid. In the past, he'd take one look at all the pieces, say it was too hard and walk away. So much for being determined, I thought. Enter Angry Birds. He got an Angry Birds puzzle from the Dollar Store and suddenly he's a puzzle kid...

{On a separate note, we went to the Dollar Store tonight and a man brought an item up to his wife and asked if they should get it...she asked how much it was. I'm not kidding.}

Last night I went to check on him before going to sleep and this was the scene I found; it might just be the cutest thing I have ever seen. This kid is so damn easy to love...

Nine months (one more thing...)

I forgot I took a video of her a day or two before she turned nine months that I wanted to share. Her signature cackle starts around 30 or 40 seconds...

Nine Months

The last week or two Cecilia has been a little bit of a handful...she's getting her top two teeth in and has been fighting a cold complete with a cough and gallons of boogers pouring out of her nose. This made her a little crank pot. It seemed like she felt her life wasn't complete at any given moment unless she was b----ing about something, so b---- she did. I couldn't blame her really, but I was very (VERY) grateful that she napped a lot through all of this. I'm pleased to report that she is now back to her normal self. She is still a little booger face, but she is a generally happy little booger face again.

So she entered her 9th month with a smile....

Speaking of smiles, she's still pretty stingy with them. There's a new Walmart that opened up by my house and we went to check it out. There was a barbershop quartet that serenaded her with a lullaby and she literally just stared at them with this stone cold look on her face. My friend said, "it's like she's thinking I could do that in my sleep." Yeah, you're going to have to try harder than a song to get her to crack a smile for you. She's been like this since the beginning. She will smile for people she knows well, but best of luck to you if she doesn't. You're most likely to get a scowl or at best a blank stare. This is the first real personality trait I can find in her and I wonder how (or if) it will translate as an older child and adult.

We're still a ways out from first steps, but she is definitely getting more balanced on her feet. She used to tumble backwards if she held onto a toy with both hands while standing at the table, but now that doesn't seem to be a problem and she'll even let go completely and balance on her own for a few seconds every so often. She can maneuver around table corners, get back down to the floor from a stand and walk from thing to thing as long as they are close enough together. She still crashes sometimes, but they are getting fewer and farther between thank goodness!

She is getting more and more consistent with naps and can tolerate life if she only takes one a day, which gives us a little more freedom in the morning. I can usually count on at least one 2 hour nap during the day, so hopefully that continues on indefinitely. Mama likes nap time.

She's seems to be over being spoon fed; when I try to feed her anything with a spoon she just doesn't seem to care about it, but if I put the same thing on her tray she will try to get every last morsel into her mouth. I am going to make a concerted effort to start giving her three meals a day to help her start transitioning into eating like a normal person. I was supposed to start with breakfast today, but my kitchen was really cold so snuggling up with a bottle by the fire seemed like much more fun. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe...

When I go get her in the morning or after a nap she is always standing in the same corner. Usually she's pretty angry at this point, but she stops crying immediately upon seeing me. When we walk downstairs I hold her on my left hip so her right arm is behind me and her left arm is sticking out straight ahead, leading the way. Just seems like something she'll stop doing one day so I thought it was worth mentioning.

I remember when I posted her 7 month update I said she was waving hi and bye-bye, which was true. She would take her little hand and open and close it. She did that for about a week and then stopped cold, making me feel like a liar. She has, however, remembered how to do it and now waves her whole arm. She will also do "so big" if I'm holding her hands, but if I let go she just looks at me and smiles (maybe it's like an Ouija board and I don't think I'm moving her arms, but the vibrations in my pulse are? ha).

Her new favorite thing to play is "empty this thing." She loves to take our little toy basket and remove every item, then maybe put a couple back so that she can remove them once again. The way she sits on her knees to play that game makes me want to cry a little. This is such a big kid thing to do and such a big kid way to sit.

I think she has gotten cuter some how in the past month, though I don't know how that could be. I just look at her little face and sometimes can't believe how beautiful she is. I wonder if her birth mother thinks she's as stunning as I do? An interesting thought to me.

Nine months. It's been nine amazing months and she has completed me in a way I will never be able to express to her or anyone else. It still kills me when people say how lucky she is because they have it so terribly backwards! Seriously, look at that face and tell me Bryan and I aren't the lucky ones.

{9 month stats: 29.5 inches long - 97.8th percentile; 20 pounds, 2 ounces - 77.8th percentile}

two babies

I have a friend who I text with regularly, but see rarely. Her little guy is about 2 and a half weeks younger than C, so it's been fun to watch them grow up together. But like I said, we don't see them in person very often so to say "watch" is not totally accurate. I thought it would be fun to get the babies together in person, so she came over for a bit and they did their thing. These two were pretty darn cute together and very interested in each other...okay, really Cecie was interested in chewing on a toy in Hughie's personal bubble and he was interested in the camera :)