Birthday Bowling

For Issa's birthday, we gave her a day trip. We had envisioned a trip to the beach, but we gave her the option of choosing something else--especially since this past weekend was the set date and it might be a bit chilly at the beach. (Life has been a little nuts.) She made a call that we didn't see coming: bowling. Not just bowling, though. We had to eat there and play the arcade games.

 

We started with lunch, and Issa was just a little thrilled:

We have weird children:

After lunch, we headed for a lane. Thankfully, we had the whole alley to ourselves, so we didn't have to be too embarrassed by our terrible bowling.

Issa likes the granny approach:

Evan loves the ramp...and his hood:

Daddy is the only one with any real form:

Evan gave up on bowling and wanted to take pictures. He took this silly face picture of us:

I love this one of Daddy:

And Issa:

And cuteness himself as captured by his sister:

We can't bowl, but we did laugh a lot...a whole lot, and I think it was exactly what our girl had in mind.

The Littlest Engineers

This weekend was all just a blur of too much fun mixed with a lot of productivity. It's all too much for one post, so I plan to split it up over several. First, our children stayed up way too late all weekend because of scenes like this:

These two truly love playing together, and when they are building a fort, how do you stop them in the middle?

Eventually they both snuggled in to their fort:

I love that you can see Evan peeking out. What you are missing is the chatter and the giggles coming from inside that fort. Brad and I both just stood in the kitchen to listen, giggle, and beam. I pray that these two are always this close.

Best Little brother...

Another dance mom snapped this pic on her phone:

I know it's tiny, but she and I both thought it was too adorable; I had to share. Evan truly is the best little brother. We got to sit in the dance classes this week, and little man very contently watched for a while, and then he leaned on me and set himself up with the iPad. Not once has this little guy complained about going, and he usually says something along the lines of, "That was really good, Sissy," after class. He's adorable, and I think I will keep him.

I love my girl...

So, Issa is wicked smart and funny. The past 24 hours have produced some gems that warrant sharing.

Math homework with Issa is often a challenge. She can absolutely do the math, but her sense of logic gets in the way. Case in point, yesterday, she flew through the first page and all but the last story problem on the second without a single mistake. Then this happened:

"Mom, I can't do this last problem. It makes no sense."

"Issa, you did all the others. You can do this one."

"No, I can't. It makes no sense."

I wanted to bash my head into the table. "Issa, you are being irrational. Just. Do. The. Math."

"Mom, this makes NO SENSE. A clown had nine balloons. He gave away six. How many does he have left?"

"What is wrong with that? You can totally do that problem."

"Mom, if he was doing his job he would have no balloons left. Why does he have balloons left? The answer should be zero."

It's funny now, but yesterday I nearly lost it. She did agree to solve the problem if we agreed that he needed to know how many more children he could make happy with a balloon.


Last night, we started to tuck as always, and Issa had a moment because her stuffed animals were not right. Since she sleeps with a zoo, Brad and I knew this was going to be a process, so we decided to tuck Evan first. When we came back, she had sorted her animals by mammals, aquatics, and "Fluffer is in the middle because he is an unknown species." How can you not love a kid that whips out "unknown species."


This morning, Issa and I had a wonderful chat on the way to school about Santa's Elves and collectibles (long story), and just when I thought I couldn't be more amused by her, she started to get out of the van and bonked her head on the ceiling--just like she does every morning. Without missing a beat, she announced, "I have got to remember that I am a giant in this vehicle."

Seriously, I could not love this girl more.

Snuggley

One of my very favorite aspects of fall is that it starts to get chilly in the evenings, which means my kiddos start to get snuggley in the evenings. Last night, they asked to go put on snuggley pajamas, and we happily obliged. And then, in a moment that stole this mama's heart, they asked me to take pictures.

 

A current favorite of Issa:

 After so many pictures where she has looked incredibly grown up lately, I am cherishing this one where she dressed Kit in pajamas to match her and wanted the picture. My sweet baby girl.

And my boy:

He was too busy twisting showing off his Thomas pajamas for me to avoid the motion blur. Motion blur is just a part of him.

And with that, I managed two perfect pictures followed by lots of good snuggles. Bliss.

Literally

One of my favorite things about being a mom is noticing my kids' little quirks. My very favorite quirks always have to do with words--the cute little mispronunciations or slightly misused words. Evan still says popsicles in a way that I can't even phonetically spell but makes me melt every time I hear it. Both kids love "prentzels" for snack.

For a long time, Issa's favorite word was actually. Every conversation had an actually--even if there was no logical reason to use the word. "Actually, I loved dinner." So did everyone else, my friend.

In the past week, Issa has a new quirk--literally. I have no idea where she got the word, but it enters every conversation, usually a little incorrectly. As in, "I literally love dance." Yes, baby, we know. "I literally need to clean my room." Yes, baby, you do, but there is really no figurative interpretation of that sentence.

It was literally very cute the first million times, but for now I wish the word would figuratively retire for a while.

House Guest

We have a house guest this weekend:

Meet Sadie. Our neighbors are traveling, and we volunteered to keep this sweet girl. She is a very loving Akita puppy at about a year and a half, but she is still full of all kinds of energy and puppy snuggles. She and Viv became fast friends, and the kids are loving playing fetch and snuggle with two dogs. I think they would keep her forever, and I'm really not looking forward to when she goes home on Sunday. I see many puppy play dates in our future.

Company Update

Since I did a soccer update yesterday, it seems only fair to do a Company update today. In short, Issa is in love. Not once has she asked not to go or complain about all of the time at the studio, and I love watching her really work hard. She runs the dances at home, and if she's sitting on the floor, she is probably stretching. She has become good friends with the other dancers, and we still love the teachers and the family atmosphere at the studio. I have made good friends, and we all help each other and the other girls. We belong, and I love it.

 

Mondays, we have ballet, and this walked down the stairs:

She looked so grown up and so graceful. If I'm honest, I went to get the camera to hide the tears. How I love this dancer...

Soccer Update

We are a little over halfway through the soccer season, so I thought I would share an update about our favorite Zebra. First, a quick summary of my life:

I think that captures it.

This is Evan's game face:

Which might explain why he has not so much been a fan of games. He loves practice, but he had not wanted to actually go to the games. It seems trying to take the ball from the other team was not so much his style. He much preferred cheering and warming up.

Last night was a turning point, though, and Miss Steph was there to witness it:

It was freezing (okay, it was 56, but it was damp and felt freezing), and Evan really didn't want to play in the game. So...I bribed him with hot cocoa if he played hard:

And he did! He even asked to throw the ball in:

And take the goal kick:

And he really kicked it:

He also made his first goal! It was in the wrong net, but it's a start. He ended up really loving the game, and he never once volunteered to sub out. I guess it just clicked.

And in case you haven't had enough cuteness, his official soccer picture:

Soccer just might be his thing after all.

Shelflings

We have a bit of a running joke at our house about bookshelves. Brad started building custom bookshelves in our front room when I was pregnant with Issa. Since then, there have been intermittent bursts of productivity and near completion. They have also been redesigned many times as our life evolves.

 

For reasons to be explained in the near future, they are being redesigned yet again and will (with nearly 100% certainty) be finished this month. For the recent past, we have only had an unfinished window seat, which is about to be ripped out and replaced with a desk. However, two little shelflings moved in this weekend:

We think we will let them say even when the seat moves out.

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

As promised, we have all kinds of pumpkin patch cuteness today! We arrived mid-morning to our favorite patch, and the kiddos now know the first stop must be the measuring pumpkin:

I can't believe how tall these little people are getting:

This year, the highlight was the corn crib:

Issa jumped right in! Corn angels anyone?

It took Evan a minute, but then he discovered the joys of playing in corn:

We discovered he was nervous because he thought it was cooked corn, which would be quite disgusting. They soon discovered corn flopping:

I have no idea why Issa felt the need to plug her nose. This was repeated many, many times:

We finally pulled them out of the kernels and left most of the corn there. They did collect a small ziplock of corn from pockets and such when they got home, though.

Next up, getting corn off the cob for the goats. Evan was first to try his hand at the old-fashioned contraption:

Meanwhile, Issa "milked" a cow:

Issa prefers the whole body approach to removing kernels:

And she took her corn directly to the goats:

Evan passed his off to Daddy so he could milk first:

And by that point the goats were not hungry:

Evan didn't mind one bit, though, because he got to watch a goat climb the tree and walk across the bridge.

Issa could hardly wait to pick her cotton:

Evan preferred to just pick up what had blown off:

Picking cotton is prickly work, but Issa struck a pose with her treasure:

Who taught Issa this trick?

And I am in so much trouble:

Meanwhile, Evan doesn't care about pictures or posing:

I even tried when we captive on the hay ride:

After we climbed off the hayride, we started the main event--pumpkin picking. Daddy brought his knife this year, which made life so much easier:

Issa wanted a short round one:

Evan wanted a tall skinny one:

Daddy humored me with a picture--sort of:

And Issa snapped one of me:

We hauled our pumpkins to the car and then enjoyed our picnic at the patch. In short, it was a perfect fall outing, and the kids are already talking about returning next year.

A Teaser

So...I was sick yesterday. The verdict is out on whether it was viral or food poisoning, but either way my highlight was survival. I will totally make up for this lame post on Monday with pumpkin patch pictures. This is real life, folks. Sometimes it ain't pretty.

Paying It Forward

I vividly remember one of my first assignments in my doctoral program. I was asked to email scholars in my field and ask them about their career path. It was daunting. I blindly emailed "big names" and waited.

One of those scholars actually called me...on the phone...and we talked. We talked about his career and my ideas, and he offered to be a resource as I moved through the program. We corresponded a few more times, but my research went in a different direction. What I really remember was the feeling of becoming a part of something, or being so grateful that an author I had read actually wanted to talk with me--and didn't think I was a moron. It was a transition; I started to see myself as a part of the academy.

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a doctoral student who had read one of my articles. That is always a heady feeling--someone across the country actually read what I wrote and wants to use it. She had a few questions about the article and her work, and I was more than happy to answer. I received an email back that made me giggle. She was me. Completely dumbfounded I had responded and offered to be a resource as she moved through her program.

Over the past few weeks, we have been emailing. It's been fun to help her think through ideas and theory and be the cheerleader she doesn't have on her committee. It still feels a little odd to be on this side of that conversation, but I'm glad I can pay it forward--and I hope she will as well.

Small Miracles

I didn't post yesterday because I just didn't really have anything to say. It felt a little like we are in the shampoo, rinse, repeat  cycle. School, work, dance, dinner, ignore disaster of a house, bed, repeat. When I find myself here, I know I need to get out of the cycle, preferably with a unicorn. But...unicorns are scarce on Tuesdays, so I had to settle for looking for little miracles.

I was not disappointed. This morning, when I was brushing Evan's hair, which usually ends in, "St-o-o-p, M-o-o-om!" he actually said, "Thanks for brushing my hair, Mom." Unprompted. It still looked a hot mess, but at least we knew we had made an attempt. He is due for a hair cut Saturday and right now he just has cowlicks growing out of cowlicks. It makes me smile. Small miracle.

On the way to Issa's school, we slowed down a bit to check the field across the street from the school. The grass is golden, and there was pretty think low fog in the field. In the distance, we could see silhouette's of dairy cows and their calves; it truly looked like a painting. Small miracle.

One of the major blessings of this blog is that is forces me to slow down--to really see life as it unfolds. I thought I would be capturing the kids' little handprints--and I am--but I'm beginning to see so many others in these posts. And from the posts, they find their way to my heart.