What I love most

About Eliza:  When her brother turns everything into a race and then proudly declares "I won!"  she will finish up a bit later and proudly say "I lost!" and she's every bit as happy and excited as he is.  Also, if you tell her a knock knock joke instead of saying "Who's there?"  she sings a long drawn out "Who iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssss it?" as if she's in the other room and someone rang the doorbell.

About Isaiah:  The way he is sometimes so literal about things.  I say "Isaaaaaaiah, stop saying you're going to poo on Eliza's head. I  told you talking about poo isn't polite."  "Okay, mom.....Eliza, I'm going to pee all over your head!" followed by genuine surprise when I still give him the mom look.

About Jerel:  I explained to him the Elf on a Shelf phenomenon, and showed him some Pinterest links to explain the over-the-topness of it all.  I asked if he thought it was something we should do.  "Until someone has done a longitudinal study showing a positive correlation between Elf on a Shelf and future success or increased intelligence levels, no."

Just our regular old life

Sometimes I feel like I have nothing to blog about since our days seem like they're filled with "nothing."  I'll spare everyone my new-found perspective on parenting and just suffice it to say that kids don't need to be doing fancy things, they just need to be with people who love them.

Extravagant birthday surprise aside, this is all Jerel actually got on his birthday.  And he didn't even notice it.  Of course this was another of those ideas where I'd forgotten that my children are not 12 years old--they definitely don't color inside the lines yet, which I realize I should cherish and embrace, but the uptight follow-the-rules rigidness in me doesn't allow that.  Yet.

This picture is called Why I Don't Shower.  It's just not worth it.  10 minutes, 1 lather-rinse-skip the repeat, and my kids have taken EVERY board game and card game we own and put them all in a HUGE pile.  It took me over 2 hours to put it all away.  (I think I was supposed to make them put it away to teach them responsibility or something, but I didn't have it in me to supervise, cajole, and manipulate them for the 14 hours it would have taken.  I'm a regular mom, not a super mom!)  

I still tend to forget Isaiah can read, but then sometimes I find him doing this and I love it!  Of course I find Eliza looking just like that too, but her book is always upside down and her "reading" is not only completely unrelated to what is written on the pages, but also generally unintelligible.  Isaiah is doing super well.  If you're in the learning-to-read phase, he reads Level 1 books just fine, needs help with a handful of words on a level 2, and will only agree to take turns on a Level 3 since they're longer and he needs more help.  I'm interested to see how he does in real preschool this fall.

Cute little Liza a few Sundays ago.  The first picture is her scrunchy nose that she does  when I tell her to smile.  I thought she looked especially lovely that day, and knew I better take a picture before 30 seconds went by, by which time she would have removed the pigtails.  Also, she wore this dress last summer--I'm loving her lack of growth (for wardrobe purposes, real life consequences I feel differently about).  

Here's Isaiah with his new $400 smile (that's how much the non-covered laughing gas cost for his extraction).  If you missed the story, he fell about two years ago, see Remember Back When Zay Had Teeth for a refresher.  So he went in for his regular checkup and the dentist noticed an abscess had formed in the gums above one of his front tooth.  She said so sweetly "If you remember when we talked about all of the possible outcomes at the time of his original injury, this is the one we referred to as the 'Worst Case Scenario.'"  Since it was infected, it had to come out.  Isaiah didn't care much, but I was devastated (in a motherly not-really-devastated kind of way, with just a touch of drama and hysterics).  

The dentist showed him her telephone that connects directly to the tooth fairy, and Zay suggested she tell the tooth fairy he would like a green and blue monster truck left under his pillow.  The dr. looked at me questioningly, and I nodded my assent, and then a minute later realized I'd set the bar way too high.  Enter:  long explanation to Isaiah about how the tooth fairy brings cooler presents when you have to get your tooth pulled, but when you just lose one the regular way it's just a dollar.  Phew, just saved myself hundreds!

Anyway, the extraction appointment went fine.  He was laughing pretty much the whole time, and remembers none of it.  And the tooth fairy came through on her promise of a monster truck.  And now I'm not the only one in my house who has had teeth pulled, although I'm still ahead by 16 teeth...

I made this outfit for Eliza last year and, well, it's my favorite.  I love it!  I love the colors, I love the layers, I love the bordering-on-annoying fabric patterns, I love it all!  Anyway, the modesty police (Jerel, in our family, since I think she looks super cute in short little skirts that are totally inappropriate) said it was time for this one to go.  It looks plenty long here, but it really barely covers her diaper in the back (of course the diaper is covered by an equally adorable diaper cover, but still).  So I took her outside for a farewell photo shoot, let her wear it to church one last time, and will now be parting with it.  I can't wait for tax season to end so I can make her something new!