Booty...Loot... Treats!

Liam carefully sorts, counts and catalogs his loot. He has a real thing for the candy sticks with superhero images on the box. When he discovered that John and I like KitKats, he tried to offer them to us over and over...


Maddie also organizes her booty carefully. She set aside bags of candy for each of her teachers and one for the guys at John's work. Maddie is always generous in her abundance.


And then there's Isabella. She cares not about sorting or counting. She's trying to figure out how to get the absolute most candy possible into her mouth.


"Whoa! Now WHAT is THIS?"

Trick or Treat!

Just so you know, they are (from left to right) Jackson as Jack-Jack (from The Incredibles), Liam as Dash (from The Incredibles), Maddie as Violet (from The Incredibles) and Isabella as a black cat.

We gave our kids the award for "Most Polite Beggars" in the neighborhood. They said "Trick or Treat!" at each door. Maddie thanked each person sincerely, without any reminding or prodding from John or I. Liam ended each beggar encounter with "Have a Happy Halloween!" Isabella didn't say thank you, walked all over everyone's yards instead of the sidewalk or driveway, and kept whining that her legs were tired. Oh well. Two out of three ain't bad.


Jackson did not particularly care for trick-or-treating. It was cold. He kept eating his mask and when the wind blew directly in his face, he sucked in his breath like a dog with its head out the window. He didn't cry or fuss at all, though. He just gave up and went to sleep until we got back home.


Jackson: "Fine. If you guys are going to take thousands of pictures of me and not give me any of that candy, I'm eating Bella."

Halloween Morning...

Isabella gets to wear her costume to school today. She is so thrilled about this costume.


Liam and Maddie are not allowed to wear their costumes to school today (which didn't stop from Maddie from wearing a mask and Liam wearing a wig anyhow). Instead, they left their costumes laid out on Liam's bed so they made sure all their costume parts were ready. You know, superheroes have to be ready at a moment's notice... 

Not your ordinary anniversary...

Candlelight dinner... soft music... exchanging romantic greeting cards...

No. These are the anniversary celebrations of normal people. Then, there's us.


We spent our anniversary at the costume shop, trying to figure out what last minute costume we were going to throw together to wear to a Halloween party. This is not new, though. Since we got married on October 28 and we're a bit... dramatic, our anniversary celebrations are always intertwined with Halloween.


Overheard during our Halloween preparations:

Johnny: "Honey, will you do my eyeliner?"
Kat: "Should I spray my hair black, or is it black enough?"
Johnny: "Man, this black lipstick is terrible!"
Kat: "My left hand is lazy - will you paint my nails?"


Grandma Dot was kind enough to drive in to see the kids and babysit while we went out. We really had fun...

Dimples!

Scroll down to see a few new posts...

What Would Jeremy Do?

I have officially become that person. The person that rates experiences in her life as whether or not they are "bloggable." Truly, I am very in the moment, but then afterward, I think... hmmm... I should totally put that on the blog! It's a shame, really, that I am counting on my children to do and say funny things to compensate for recent my lack of wittiness. The good news is... it paid off!

*warning - religious subtext in story*

I was driving all four children to Toys 'R Us to pick out a birthday party about 1 hour before said party was scheduled to begin. I had already given the laundry list of demands: you must stay with me. we are buying something for M (birthday girl) and nothing else. do not ask if I will buy you something. you can look at other things as long as I can see you and you can see me. don't whine, cry, scream or throw a fit.

Out of the clear blue sky, Isabella says: "Jesus watches over little Jeremy." (our next door neighbor who is 6 months older than Bella and about the same size)

I laughed to myself. I didn't really have a good response. She continued: "but, he is still really mean to me because yesterday he was throwing the ball at my head when I asked him not to."

I thought a moment, and couldn't resist the opportunity to point out the irony. I said, "Isn't it strange that some people talk about Jesus, but then they don't do the kinds of nice things that Jesus did?"

Maddie had been listening and piped in. "I know why, Mom."

Kat: "Why, Maddie?"

Maddie: "Well, Jesus did so many nice things and people killed him. So maybe little Jeremy does mean things so that people won't want to kill him."

Baby in Motion

Some babies have to move. Maddie was one of those. She was in a real hurry to get up and move. It's funny looking back at that, because she is really athletic now. She can climb trees that no one else can climb - she has a natural agility. It appears that Jackson is the same kind of baby.


The picture above is Jackson on 10/12. Needless to say, that was the last day he was allowed to sit in the seat up on the table. He sits in the seat, normal and content for a while. Then, he gets the wiggles. He starts to stiffen up and scooch down until his body is hanging off the bottom of the seat. As you can see above, not only does he scooch down, but he's begun to do a bit of a twist on to his side also.


Fast forward to today. Now, he can flip all the way over and scooch all the way down. He managed to get far enough down so his feet can touch the floor. Then, he discovered that he can push off the floor and rock the chair up and down.


Look at the intensity.


He is so proud of his accomplishment! Click below to see the video...

Sixteen Weeks Old

Sorry about the gratuitous full frontal nudity. How could I resist?


Something about this shot made me want to put it in sepia tone - that antique-ish finish. Love this one.


Now tell me. Why do most of Jackson's clothes have pockets? Because there are parents like me with a sick sense of humor who pose their children for funny pictures for blogs. 

Your weekly dimple fix...

Superhero feet? Whatever!

So, I have to blog something about a kid that is not mine. Well, he is my soon-to-be nephew, so I hope that gives me some kind of rights to stories of his cleverness. I hope this isn't plagiarism...

The subject: Logan. (My brother Kevin's fiance Jody's son. Seriously.) He's got this "business man in a 4 year-old's body" thing going on. He and Isabella get on famously. Jody and Logan recently moved in with Kevin in his place in Columbus. Kevin is now privy to the antics that before this, he could only hear about. Apparently they are having some trouble convincing him that wearing shoes is entirely necessary. He insists that if he puts on shoes and socks, his feet won't be able to see. Eventually, they insist and put the shoes on for him. Then, Logan proceeds to shuffle around the room, running his toes into walls because, obviously, his feet can't SEE! My brother Kevin, in his infinite wisdom and patience gives Logan a long explanation and justification that includes some superhero powers and something about his feet having x-ray vision. Logan is entirely unimpressed with this explanation and continues to run his feet into the wall.

Blog? I have a BLOG?

I have no good excuses for my long absence from the blog world. As each day passed, the many things I wanted to blog about and pictures I wanted to post piled up. So, I set my goal this week to put up one or two shots a week of Jackson, and then fill in the anecdotes of the other kids after that. So, keep checking for updates, and don't forget to look back as far as the middle of August (when I last really made a regular post!) And to tide you over for current photos - here's one from today...

Fifteen Weeks Old

Meet Bumbo. The bumbo seat is a cool little European thing. It's all foam and it helps support the baby's hind parts so they can learn trunk control. It looks like he doesn't like it...


...but he does! He loves to hang out in it. He also tries to climb out of it, but more on that later.


Or perhaps it's just his "seat of plotting mischevious things."

Soccer Saturday - Week Five

It is cold. My mom thinks that it's funny to put me in this flimsy camping chair with a cheap fleece blanket. It is not funny. I belong in a sling. I am no one's puppet. I will not dance on cue.


It is team picture day at soccer. Maddie and Liam are looking at the choices of what type of plaque they can get with their photo on it. This is a rare moment.


I had to shoot the picture quickly. You never know when a sincere, sweet moment will evaporate into wrestling, arguing or other non-peaceful interaction. Kind of like our foriegn policy...


The kids got medals last week at the tournament. Isabella brought hers to soccer this week because her coach wanted a team photo with all the kids wearing their medals. Isabella wore it all day, taking it off just long enough to whine about how cold it was and not play much soccer.

Fourteen Weeks Old

So, I remembered that babies usually roll over by now. And I realized that since Jackson doesn't really lay down in a crib or anything, that I'll have to intentionally lay him down on the floor to see what he can do. He is really strong. He loves to hold his head up and to roll over.


I just love this kid. How cute is he - mid-roll? I can't get enough of those dimples.


He's loving grabbing onto the blanket and scooching. He can actually scooch a few inches forward on the floor. He looks so determined!