The last dandelion.

Sheamus is such a face melter. And he really doesn't even try. He has no ulterior motives, and is so very thoughtful...he's kinda like a Winnie the Pooh movie personified. For example, yesterday we went to the park to take our minds off a particularly serious "brain injury" of his. After his brain "healed", he played a little in the grass and a few minutes later brought me what he described as the "last dandelion of the season." It was sweet enough in itself to offer to me, but then before we blew it out together, he wished for "mom for a new camera"...and that's when the total face meltdown was complete. (This can only be something he has overheard and remembered how much i long for) Where did this kid come from?

team Boo ♥'s you

breakfast of champions.

...all mornings should begin in dress up.

Last night's conversaysh with my boy:

me: "Hey you sweet boy, you smell like....a hotdog!!"

Sheamus: "no silly, Daddy is just cooking a hotdog!"

me: "oh duh, i guess you're right ;)"

Sheamus: "mom, wanna know what your smell like?" then coyly whispers in my ear ..."beautiful"

(melted)

team Boo ♥'s you


i know this is getting lame, but if you are down with teamBoo vote here :)

won't you be my neighbor?

we have new neighbors. we had extra birthday cake...a seemingly perfect recipe for making a friend, right? After all, I could always hide behind my daughter's adorably friendly personality (and wouldn't even have to make a stitch of conversation) just incase they were nut-jobs. 

They weren't. 

In fact they trumped our leftover cake with a freshly made caramel apple for us to take home ('oh no, you shouldn't have....OKAY!') Thankfully (cause that apple was goo-oooood) that was before Elyott asked the very un-pregnant female if she had a baby in her tummy (simultaneously taking the liberty to give it a few pats) I spewed out some nervous laughter, and babbled something about her being in pajamas blah blah blegh! My social skills, or lack thereof, did not bail me out of this introduction to say the least.  

Now who's the nut-job?

(to top it off: i can't remember if i explained the content of this note either...)

Sweet Elyott...overflowing with charm, but still working on tact :)

*UPdate- the neighbor WAS expecting, but didn't know yet!!  HA...how's that for a sixth sense ;)

crapper's delight

What is it with kids and expressing their sentiments while on the pot?  Or, if you can't relate, what is with my kid expressing her sentiments while on the pot?? Aside from finding out women occasionally poop during labor (wait, what!), it is the one of the weirdest most unexpected things of becoming a mother.  Once a day, elyott reaches her moment of clarity and/or is "lovestruck" where momentarily all is right with the world. Bear with me here folks...

-Elyott: (yelling from bathroom across the house) "Hey mom, can people make poop even when they don't have to?"
-Mom: "Not usually"
-Elyott: "huh, well i can! ...(pause)....i guess that just makes me a magical kid!!" (so true my dear:)

-Once on an outing, elyott had an emergency call of nature, and wanted me in the tiny stall with her of course.  Feeling sick and grouchy, she asked me ot do something funny to cheer her up. Ummmmm....naturally I chose a broadway kick while singing in my jazziest Liza Minnelli-ish voice "I'VE GOT BULLET PROOF LEGS, I'VE GOT BULLET PROOF LEGS" which she thought was mildly funny but mostly weird (as usual). Then a moment of silence...."i love you mom" then insisted i give her a kiss (still on the toilet, mind you) and with one final push grunted "this day is just SO magical!"

I like to think that instead of pure confusion mixed with disgust, the lady in the stall next to us was rather just smiling at the extra close bond between a mother and daughter...(sigh)

*(also, never talk to me while i'm in the bathroom)

.....and sorry so many of my posts mention poop. It's fine, don't worry about it.

OBsessed

Go ahead and take a wild guess at what Sheamus is watching at this moment.  what? you don't know (aaand you don't care!?) Well, here's a teensy hint anyway...

you've got to love how a two year old thinks ;)

true colors.

There was a time where I imagined that bedtime would be a sweet moment where parent and child would lie in their fort telling make believe stories and whispering their hopes and dreams. So sweet. so magical. so.....unrealistic. Closer to the truth: I am lucky to get through the bedtime ritual without my kids milking the crap out of all of their stall tactics for an hour and a half before i finally duck tape them to the bed. Don't get me wrong, it always starts off with stories and kisses, but after the 17th time Adam or I have to walk downstairs to put them back in bed it is not so cute.

A few nights ago, in such a situation, I was putting Sheamus back down in his room when a hear a quiet Elyott voice calling me from her room over an hour after she should have already been asleep. Frustrated, I open the door to ask her why she was still awake.  She quickly flashed the book she had been looking at (a "fancy" dress up girl book) and so genuinely requested that she get to dress "exactly like the girl in the picture" for school the next day (we all remember making the "body-less outfit" on the floor of our room).  I looked closer at the book as she shyly held up this photo:

"Okay, we'll find something just like that in the morning" I said. To which she very serious and timidly pointed down to the floor, where I then saw this:

I absolutely laughed my face off. 

As a child Adam actually convinced his OLDER brother that they had distant black relatives in their ancestral line and that they, in fact, were 1/16th black. Perhaps Elyott overheard this rumor and is just trying to reconnect with her roots.  Black or not, this moment was pure amazingness for me.

"I want to be cute just like her! They have that makeup that you can use to make your skin brown like that" she quickly began innocently negotiating.  I didn't have the heart to tell heart at that moment that her school doesn't allow children to wear fake afro wigs while wearing, what racist folks used to refer to as, "minstrel paint" to class (although i suppose i had just heartlessly gone into hysterics at her choice of identity for the next morning, but i couldn't have helped that). 

So I concluded that despite all the protests, the light switching, the sneaking, the whining, the wiggling, the resisting brushing their teeth, the potty breaks, the bedtime drinks, the monster sightings, and all of our trips up and down the stairs.....that that night can be fondly remembered after all ;)

team boo ♥'s you

dressing on the side...

Wheee! Grrr! Ahhh!  The sound of gloriousness coming from my basement. Yet also the sound of trauma when Elyott is forcing Sheamus to be Snow White.  My kids have come to discover the positive-attention-getter of the decade: the kid in public dress up. We have so many costumes at our house it's retarded.  They love nothing more than pretending to be whatever crazy they can conjure up that day.  


Currently Sheamus is 100% obsessed with being "Mr. Incredible"...a costume he cherishes for its built in "boneths" (aka. muscles) as he calls them ("look at all my boneths mom!"). He wears this everywhere....to bed, to the gym, to my brother's high school graduation, to swim lessons in 95 degree heat (bless his superhero heart), to the store, etc.  At church he just carries it around like a dirty blanket. It is so awesome.  You gotta admire the dedication.  

Elyott, on the other hand, changes costumes about....4-6 times a day at least?  My favorite is when she pees her pants in like three of them in one day. The two of them get along great, and I'm proud of Sheamus for staying strong and not letting Elyott dress him according to her preference (Well, for the most part. He has been talked into a pink carebear). As for the costume for tomorrow?? my vote: the "ariel meets mexican prostitute"...one of Elyott's best ;)