Good Big Brother

Yes, she hits him. Yes, she bites him. Yes, she climbs on him. And he gets mad.

But, he is a good big brother.

Tonight, after eating his dinner, Ian was allowed to pick a treat from the Halloween bag. Eva was not. She did not eat enough dinner. She through a terrible screaming fit. "Pop!" she shrieked as it she were being violently attacked. I took her in the bedroom to calm her down by nursing.

Ian came in with her milk cup,"I think Eva wants to finish now. I will tell her its good so she can have candy."

I said,"Try, but I don't think she will finish her dinner. It is o.k. for her not to finish her dinner, but if she doesn't, she can't have a lollipop. "

She again refused to eat her rice and drink her cow's milk and began frantically jumping and pointing at the cabinet where the candy is kept.

Ian,"Maybe tonight she can just have candy. Tomorrow she'll eat a good dinner first, but tonight she should just have candy,mom. She really wants a lollipop."

Of course, that got a big no from mama. Then, he said,"Eva come here."

I suspected he was going to share his lollipop and had to shut him down but complimented him for trying to share.

Halloween 2010

This year I actually ordered and received the Halloween costumes in August. I was ready. Ian decided to be a dinosaur and I picked a butterfly for Eva.

Friday, Ian's school had a Halloween party. I had a bad feeling that the dinosaur head would not make it home, but it was a dress up party so I sent his costume in anyway. When I picked him up from the bus, I made sure to check his bag for his costume. It was tied into a tin plastic bag.I didn't think the bag was big enough for the head and body so I opened the bag. It exploded! The tail had ripped and all the stuffing was coming out which was why it was stuffed into that bag. And, of course, the head was missing. So was his back pack. I got on the bus and looked for both, but all I found was someone else's back pack. Since I did not have the contact info for that child's parents, I figured we were out of luck until Monday unless I wanted to call the school and make things complicated.

The school called me to apologize for the costume destruction. I'm still not sure what happened. I think over-exicted kids + candy =destruction. The teacher also said that the head had indeed been left at school. I suppose I could have jumped in the car and driven to Apgu in rush hour traffic, but since Ian was not super attached to the costume I decided we'd just have to figure out something out.

Plan B: Try on the pirate costume from last year.

Plan C: Borrow friend Nathanial's clown costume from last year.

Plan D: Pray something is left at the PX.

Plan E: Get creative and make something.

Luckily, Plan B worked so Ian was a pirate again this year.

Today was a very busy day. It is my doula client's due date so I kept my phone very close to me. Rachel and I had a doula client interview this morning. Curt took the kids to a Fun Run, but it had been cancelled so they walked around Post until they found a dog show. We had Christmas card photos taken this afternoon. Eva was completely uncooperative because she refused to nap earlier. Then, we piled in the car and headed out Post. Before we even got through the gate, both kids were asleep. We stopped at a friend's house first to see if Ian would wake up. I would be disappointed if Eva had slept through Trick-or-Treating because her costume was so cute, but she wouldn't know the difference. Ian would, though, so I am glad he woke up. You can see from the pictures that it was a rough transition to wakefulness, but he made it and we had a great time Trick-or-Treating.













With a little prompting, Ian said "thank you" and "Trick-or-Treat" to almost everyone. Though Curt carried her for a lot of the festivities, she carried her own bag the whole time. She was really impressed with some of the decorations. They both chose a lollipop to eat when they got home. Ian didn't have a lollipop until probably last Halloween when he was 3, but Eva already knows what they are. I think she gets them from the baby sitter because I don't buy them. Oh well. When we got home we went through the candy and pulled out a lot of the really hard or sticky candy. We'll send that in to Curt's office. The rest will be rationed until it runs out.

Eva Rocks the Vintage

My dress. Hand-me down leggings from Rhi. Ruffle Butts Bloomers and shoes from Ian (her choice).

In Search of My Roots

I was born blonde. I think of myself as blonde. But, they truth is, that for many of us childhood blondes, staying blonde requires a lot of chemical help. It's expensive, damaging to the hair and probably not healthy to keep up with the maintenance of blonde. The reason we want to stay blonde is that our hair darkens to a non-descript, dull color that is no longer blonde but not rich enough or dark enough for brunette. I saw Chris Rock interviewed on Oprah and he asked Ali Wentworth about her natural color. She shuddered in horror when they showed a high school photograph. Same problem as me.

In order for my hair to look good, I need to highlight and straighten it which I don't do often. So, I have expensively highlighted hair pulled back in a pony tail. I'm starting to wonder what's the point of it all.

Last week or so I threatened to shave my head. As is usually the case when I threaten my hair, for the next few days, it looked really good to me. I think that is the power of denial. Then, I started thinking that shaving my head would be the best way, a fresh start, a chance to become acquainted with my natural hair color again (oh, the horrors of that thought!). Thankfully, some friends talked me out of it and after seeing another friend with a similar problem, I decided to try an alternative solution: going dark. My friend had an all-over base color and then added back in a lot of highlights. The results are much more natural that before. I decided to go dark and stay dark. I did put a few small highlights in the front, but now, I will await the emergence of my natural color (as long as I can stand it). I'll probably still have it in a pony tail a lot more than anyone over the age of 12 should, but at least I'll be saving money. Here it is:

At the Playground

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Four

Ian had a family birthday this year. It was a joint party with a relative. We made flower cupcakes from the Karen Tack cupcake book. They were a pain to make, but they turned out well despite a time crunch and lack of equipment.




I was going to make boxer dog cupcakes for Ian at my cousin's house because she and Ian share a birthday and she breeds boxers. Unfortunately, the logistics just didn't work out. So, we used the Famous Chocolate Wafers that I bought to be part of the dog architecture and Curt made the cream cake dessert as listed on the cookie box.

Communication with Eva

Eva is talking a lot. She speaks in short sentences. She uses some pronouns and the possessive. It is getting really fun.

She says,"What so funny? I funny!"

I usually drive to the bus stop and wait for the bus to arrive. The other day I put Ian on the bus and as I got back in the car, Eva pointed and said,"Pinch phone. Pinch phone."

I looked at my pink phone and I had a missed call.

Today as we were getting ready to pick up Ian I said,"We need to go get Ian. Where did he go?"

Eva said,"Ian Big bus."

Her favorite sentence is,"I do it!"

She loves to do things herself. She is very messy.

She says,"I finished."

I don't know how many words she says, but it is quite a few. She repeats words a lot. Ian was 20 months old when I got pregnant with Eva. He was still sort of a baby, but by the time she was born and he was 2.5, he was a boy. Eva is 19 months old and since I have been here before and know how quickly the change happens, I will enjoy the part of her that is still a baby.

It is funny because even though I have been through all the developmental things (through age 4 at least) with Ian, it is still so wonderful and miraculous and fresh to experience them with Eva.

Mullet

OK we didn't stop there. His hair is actually very short. I don't have any after pictures because we haven't taken pictures this past month.