Our Thanksgiving weekend, documented by Kelsie

Kids these days. Kelsie typed her list for Santa this weekend. On the real computer. Our computer, not a play toy computer. Unfortunately she also discovered computer games, so we're already fighting for computer time. And she taught herself to use the digital camera this weekend, which turned out to be a nice way to document the weekend. Here is a random collection of photos from the holiday weekend, mostly by Kelsie.

We started off by making Turkey Cookies. If you look closely you can see some of the cookies are shaped like turkeys (i.e., hand cut-outs). Turns out the turkeys take a really long time to make, so we opted to finish the batch with randomly decorated cookies.



Kelsie's first picture attempt:


Mommy stepped in to catch Brian in all his cookie-eating glory:




Mommy and Dylan comparing tongues. Mine wins the purple prize, thanks to the red wine:


Speaking of purple tongues ...


Mmmmmmm ... turkey ....


Uncle Jaime. (our across-the-street neighbor and friend from Shreveport)


Oh, LSU. How the mighty have fallen. We still proudly use our koozies, though.


She wanted a picture of his foot. So here you have it.


Daddy's gangsta pose.


Self portrait.


Happy Baby D. (A rare smile for the weekend, considering he was sick and teething this weekend.)


Ansel (the cat) and Dylan having a confrontation. This one ended poorly -- Dylan got bit (bitten?).


Kelsie said she didn't use this stuffed animal anymore and it reminded her of Bodhi so she wanted him to have it. She set it next to him while he was napping.


It's torture having to wait for that pizza:


And in closing, here is our precious daughter showing me a boo-boo on her middle finger:


This is a drastically edited version of her photos. I deleted over 100, and kept a handful of others that probably aren't worth posting here. She took individual pictures of every stuffed animal in the house. Kind of fun to see the world through her eyes, though. Maybe she has a future as a photographer.

And more Kelsie-isms

* "I have a favor to ask you: I don't need any help reading this book. I read the whole thing yesterday. That's my favor to ask."

* "It's my bottom, but I call it my butt because that's funnier."

* "Our house is an enchanted house. I'm very impressed."

* "I'm thankful for when Dylan gives me hugs."

* "I need to earn some more money. So I'm going to take some money out of my bank and put it in my wallet."

* "Mommy, if you write me a letter I'll give you some of my money. Then you can go to the store and buy me some of that Scooby Doo cheese."

Knock on wood

I hope I'm not jinxing us by saying this, but I cannot believe we haven't had to take Dylan to the emergency room yet. He hurts himself ALL THE TIME. Last night he threw himself over the side of the couch (we're still not sure if it was intentional) and went head first onto a wooden stool. Wound up with a big goose egg on his forehead and a nasty bruise on his shoulder.

Last weekend at the kids museum he fell as we were entering the museum and hit his head pretty hard on the ticket desk. Then a few minutes later he fell face-first off a step and got a bloody nose. A staff member even commented on how much he was getting hurt. Slightly embarrassing.

And his incident report folder at school is the size of an encyclopedia. He recently got 3 incident reports in 2 days. That's gotta be a record.

Here are a couple of his bloody noses. And if you look closely enough at the museum picture of him using the computer mouse as a phone, you can see some remnants of that bloody nose. (is it weird that I am documenting all of this?)



Are all boys like this? He has no fear. Good thing he's tough.

Kids Museum

We took the kids to a children's museum in Florham Park, NJ, to burn off some of their Halloween candy energy.

Pretend news room. You can't really see it, but the TV above her is showing her "reporting."


Hard at work on the computer:


Dylan, on the other hand, has only been exposed to our laptop and has never seen a mouse. He thought it was a phone:


Brian is so proud. Dylan did NOT want to take that tutu off.


Harley family:


And in a severe lapse of judgment, we thought that painting the fence would be a fun family activity. We underestimated the Dylan factor.

Halloween, part 2

Kelsie's school had a cute Halloween party. Then we went to Hoboken where they have a Halloween parade that anyone can march in (having been to Mardi Gras, Kelsie was underwhelmed) and all the stores and restaurants pass out candy for trick or treaters. Also trick or treated at some of the gazillion dollar brownstone houses to see how the other half lives (for the record, they sit on their stoops sipping wine and passing out candy with their doors and windows open so we can peek in and gawk at their amazing 3-story homes).

The mini-parade in the school:


Don't. Touch. My. Cookie.


Making her treat bag:


We changed Dylan from Superman into a cow. The Superman outfit kept riding up his legs, and we still don't know what happened to the cape. When you ask him what the cow says, he proudly answers "MEOW!" In fairness, he thinks every animal says meow.

Halloween, part 1

We sent the kids off to school in their costumes this morning. Kelsie announced months ago that she was going to be Snow White. For Dylan, well, Superman just seemed fitting. He has already outgrown the outfit, though, so he may have a wardrobe change before our Halloween parade and trick-or-treating this afternoon.




Dylan had his own interpretation of Superman:


This is at the Hoboken Fall Festival last weekend. It's a pretty good visual of the differences between the two kids. Kelsie is being incredibly meticulous to make sure every speck of pumpkin is covered with paint. Dylan, on the other hand, is barely aware of his pumpkin because he's too busy painting himself, the paint cups, the ground, Kelsie's hair, and of course, Mommy. Notice how he's gripping the paint brush by the bristles.


These have nothing to do with Halloween, but I just thought they were cute pics of our little streaker.


Showing off his cookie face:

The kid's got talent

The other night after Dylan was done eating he threw the remainder of his food, as usual.



That's his pizza in my wine glass.

The kid can aim. And he can throw pretty far. And hard. And he tackles his big sister. And he's fast. And he can already balance on one foot (Kelsie still can't do that!). Odds are good that he'll be an athlete.

As a mom I don't want to point out my kids' ... ummmm ... areas for improvement, so I'll put it this way -- Kelsie's strength is her intelligence rather than physical coordination. So does Dylan's physical ability mean he's gonna be dumb??

UPDATE: A couple days after this pizza-in-the-wine incident, Dylan threw his biscuit into my coffee cup while we were eating breakfast. This may not be a fluke.

More Kelsie-isms

A while back I posted a list of funny things Kelsie has said. She's been on a roll lately so it's time for more Kelsie-isms.

* ME: "Kelsie, are you finished eating?"
KELSIE: "Does it look like I'm finished?"

* "I want you to put some music on so I can rock out."

* "My tummy feels a little rumbly." (right after she threw up)

* "WHAT?! Are you kiddin' me?" (she says this a lot, even in response to very normal statements like, "it's time for dinner")

* "Dylan was like, 'it's time to do some throwing!' That's what he was like."

* "That puppy is JUST. ADORABLE." (with an expressive hand motion that spilled her milk all over the table)

* "I'm glad Dylan's school is closed today so I don't have to be alone with you all the time."

* "I'm never going to get married. I'm going to stay with you. But I might marry Joshua."

* "Ahhhhh BOOTY! Ahhhhh BOOTY" (she's in the other room repeating this to herself and absolutely cracking herself up)

* "I'm not a dog because I wear slippers when I'm inside and dogs don't wear slippers." (can't argue with that logic)

So inappropriate

In the bath last night, Kelsie put the cup over Dylan's privates and said "Look! I caught a fish!"

How do you keep a straight face with that?

Getting what you deserve

ME: Kelsie, what was the best part of your day today?

KELSIE: When we were throwing the stuffed animals at school.

ME: Are you allowed to throw stuffed animals at school?

KELSIE: Miss Jocelyn wasn't looking so it's okay.

ME: What was the worst part of your day?

KELSIE: When the stuffed animals got taken away.


Separately, Dylan has started misbehaving purposely so he can discipline himself. He screams so he can put his finger to his mouth and say shhhhhh. So we hear a lot of "AAAAAAHHHHHHH! Shhhhhhhhh. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! Shhhhhhhh." He also slaps himself in the head so he can point his finger and say "NOT NICE!" (which sounds more like "nah nie"). He used to hit other kids at school, so I guess this is an improvement.

I knew I was old when ...

I took Kelsie to a birthday party recently, which just happened to take place right before the LSU-Auburn game. So naturally, we were decked out in our LSU outfits. When we walked into the Little Gym, the young guy on staff commented on what a big game we had coming up, asked about going to LSU and that led into a conversation about how fun it is to go to LSU football games. Then he said, "back in your younger days, huh?"

Ouch.

All I could do was blink at him. He kept smiling, completely unaware that he had just given me my "I knew I was old when" moment that I'd be reflecting on for the rest of my life. I looked up to check the lighting to see if perhaps I was standing under harsh lights that accentuated my wrinkles, but since that didn't do anything to rebuild my confidence, I just walked away and promptly found a mom I knew to warn her about that horrible person behind the counter.

On a separate note, here's a photo from that party that pretty much sums up our life: Kelsie bouncing around in her own little world (probably telling the other kids how they should bounce), Dylan trying to swan dive off the edge, and me lunging in a panicky attempt to catch him.



The scene changes, but our roles always remain the same (Brian and I are interchangeable in the role of diving to save Dylan).

Pretty typical meal

This is pretty much what happens at meal time at our house:



Notice the hairdo. We use spaghetti sauce instead of hairspray for our styling needs.



These are two different meals. We just find it more efficient to strip him down before meals and rinse him off after. Hence all the naked baby pictures on this blog.

Lots of pictures

We just got back from a great trip to Seaside, Florida for Ted & Nicole's wedding. Even though Hurricane Ike was nowhere near us, it still made the waves and water level too high for us to even attempt going to the beach. But we had access to a couple pools, good bars/restaurants and great friends to keep us occupied.

Here are a bunch of pictures from the trip.

Kelsie at a bar. I promise she wasn't drinking.



(and yes, that is an LSU cheerleader dress. I swear that was her choice.)

Brian, Russ and the groom at that same bar, shortly before the wedding:


Dylan playing peekaboo:



At the wedding and reception: