Birthdays and Bath time

For Caroline's 3rd birthday she wanted a mermaid - her cousins had gotten some mermaids from the dollar store which, though cheap, were a HUGE hit. Unfortunately, because they were cheap, they fell apart quickly so I knew we'd have to find her mermaid at a slightly nicer location. It so happened that Joe and I took an excursion one morning while the kids were at school and/or Mother Goose Time, Kari generously offered to watch Ethan, and we headed to Toys R Us in Colorado Springs.  We found lots of Christmas stuff and THE PERFECT mermaid. So awesome! Slightly larger than  a Barbie, real hair, silicone flipper that's very realistic (you know, if mermaids were real), and it swims when you put her in water! It takes batteries, which baffles me a bit that someone thought batteries in a water toy would work out, but they claim the battery case is completely waterproof, so we'll see. IF NOTHING ELSE, she has a silicone flipper and real hair and that's dang cool. 

Can you see in Amelia's eyes that she's in love? Caroline couldn't take her eyes away from her new doll long enough for a picture. 

I may have caused problems, though, since then Amelia has been asking for a mermaid for Christmas and Caroline wants a BLONDE mermaid for Christmas… they do sell one, and seen swimming so photoshoppedly here… We may just have a girls-day excursion to the Springs after the holidays :)

Like most kids, our kids love baths - not to get clean, just to play around in. I thought Kellan (the mermaid) would be PERFECT to extend bath time - after all, she's made for the water! Caroline disagrees, though, and she doesn't like to get her doll's hair wet. Oh well, she still takes 30+ minute baths, and by the time she gets out she's all prune-y. She told me "My fingers are all crumpled." I thought that was a good descriptions! "That's because the bath is crumply." …well, maybe not the best explanation, but hey, she's a 3-year-old…. 

Who dresses herself ADORABLY…sometimes. Infrequently enough that I take pictures of it, I guess!

You're getting' so big! *tear!*

.

PS Remember her first haircut I didn't like so much? I figured rather than sped $10 or $15 to get  haircut I don't like I could give her a perfectly bad haircut at home… but turns out I love it! I think she looks adorable with layers. 

This will not tell you anything about last month.

I've been awful about posting, but it's not because things are awful - quite the opposite. I've been having such a good time being a lazy bum I haven't even had time to feel guilty about being an awful blogger! The truth is, I've been pretty bad about just about EVERYTHING… except watching Scandal and The Office on Netflix with Joe, and I am REALLY good at doing that. It's gone from being a guilty pleasure, trying to sneak in an episode or two after kids go to bed, to an all-out date-night where we purposely put to kids to bed early, pop some popcorn and scoop some ice cream and snuggle under the blankets… And THAT is good.

Instead of catching up about Thanksgiving and such, I'll take my scrapbooking advice and start with NOW.

We went out to see Frozen, and the clip of Elsa singing "Let it Go" is on youtube, so we watch that every day, multiple times a day. Patrick cracks me up because he tries to make himself sound really awesome when he sings by sliding his voice from high notes to low - "let it GOooooooooeeeeew, let it GOooooooooeeeew, can't hold it back any-Mooooooaaar" You just can't pimp out a Disney princess singing, but it's funny to hear him try.

Patrick got some boxing practice gloves - one set of gloves, one set of pads to hit that another person wears. Instead of hitting the pads the kids just act like it's two sets of gloves, though, so he and Eli were boxing with those. Patrick was coming after Eli and instead of fighting back Eli just ran away. Patrick stopped him and said, "Don't run away, just box me. That's the thing about boxing: remembering to box."

Eli gives great hugs. MAN, that kid can hug. He didn't snuggle much as a baby so even 4 years later I'm still taken off guard when he goes in for a hug and doesn't let go. I've heard when a kid hugs you, you should let them let go first because you never know how much they might need that hug. Well, if that's the case, I'm still giving Eli his bedtime hug from last night.

Eli tries to fool us that he is the smartest kid EVER. We got a Highlights seek-and-find calendar, so 12 months'-worth of hidden pictures, and every single one he'd challenge me to find things first. Not so hard, but as soon as I'd point to one he's said, "I already noticed that." So I would challenge HIM to find one and he'd say, "I already know where that is. It's…..riiiiiiight……it's……riiiiiiight……." and he'd drag his finder over the entire page looking for it. As soon as I got tired of that and pointed it out he'd say, "MO-om, I already noticed that!" I think he means he already knew that, but he would say knowed, which of course isn't a word, but "knowed" and "noticed" sound very similar and I never corrected noticed since it's not made-up. Now it's pretty common any time he tries to fool us into thinking he already knew something, to hear that he has "already noticed it."

Caroline still sings to herself, and I still love to listen in. She sings a lot of Frozen, along with my other kids, but she particularly likes to sing "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus. Can't say I approve of "crazy" as a lifestyle choice, but that girl sure has some pipes… unlike Caroline, who sings it the highest possible notes she can hit (and plenty that she can't). Maybe Caroline is a bit crazy like Miley anyway - today she waltzed out of her room in what she declared "fully dressed" - cowboy boots, tights, and a glittery shirt with a ruffled bottom - she was convinced it was a dress so she refused to wear pants, even though it covered 0% of her bum. I could see some starlet out shopping in that…

Ethan's a terror. No spot is safe in my home, even the safe spots - he'll find a way to destroy it, and try to destroy himself in the process! I swear he's a hired hit man, and the job is himself - he will find a way to do himself in, just give him some time. He escaped from my house one day, unnoticed, and was returned to me by a neighbor. I felt AWFUL!! I've never had an escaper in my mothering experience, so I was unprepared. More diligence! So it was a bigger surprise when he managed to escape over Thanksgiving when there were 4 adults in the house! My mom happened to be heading house to house and rescued him from down the sidewalk a ways. Hey, if he can escape with 4 adults, it's no wonder he got away from 1.

We tried to wean Ethan off the bottle. All the other kids have been pretty content to take whatever we give them, so long as they can get a drink, but Ethan has his own ideas.  We completely took the bottle away and had sippy cups at the ready - the first day was rough, the second day was rougher, the third day seemed like we were on the up-swing into him accepting his new life… but the third NIGHT he woke up and cried inconsolably for 1-1/2 hours, from 1 a.m. - 2:30 a.m. We finally plugged him up with a bottle, and it took him quite a while for him to forgive us enough to even LOOK at those sippy cups again. We may end up with a 2-year old who happily totes his bottles to playdates, the park, and potty-training, but I figure there are worse things in the world. I only figure that because I'm his mom; I DISTINCTLY remember judging another mother who had a toddler with a bottle at church. When the tables are turned, I am much more forgiving (you're welcome, Self)!

About the adults: Joe was working diligently on our basement bathroom until Thanksgiving break, and since then we've been diligently ignoring it. One of these days I'll get around to the Bold and the Beautiful: Part Whatever, but today is not that day. Tomorrow doesn't look good either.

Joe turned 30! It wasn't a huge celebration, though I got him a particularly awesome Honey Badger card.

So that was awesome. Joe shopped for and cooked his own delicious birthday dinner and dessert (he chose strawberry shortcake. This would never be my choice because it does not have any chocolate) and we ate with Kari & Jonathan & their kids, then the next night they babysat for us and we went out to Catching Fire. This was also my birthday celebration of sorts, since my day fell on Sunday and Joe's not home and Sundays suck… but at least we hit the movies, right?

And then you've already heard about me and popcorn and netflix, so now you know everything! I mean, noticed everything!