Halloween

Fact. Facebook has been the ruination of my blog. I totally take it for granted that most people who read or used to read it are friends of mine there. I know it's not true but I completely convince myself that it is and allow myself to be lazy and not post here. I hate it and it makes me sad. Oh well.

Anyway, to those of you who haven't seen these on facebook - the Halloween costumes!! You may remember Miss A wearing this same costume at 2. Miss A needed some direction with her costume this year so I suggested a Ninja. She was all on board and ordering me to "Buy the costume!!" already. Mysteriously, a short while before Halloween she announced to me that she no longer wanted to be a Ninja. When I asked her why she told me she would be embarrassed. It didn't seem to matter how much prompting I did she wouldn't tell me what had changed her mind. My guess is that when one of her peers asked her what she was dressing up as they replied in one of many ways, such as "Girls don't dress up as Ninja's." "That's weird." "What's a Ninja?" which then made her reject the costume.

I explained that I'd given her time to think about what she wanted to be before I bought her costume and that I wasn't buying another costume. I refuse to be a parent who has to come up with fifteen different costumes before Halloween because their child keeps changing their mind. I asked her if she knew much about how cool Ninja's were. She asked me to tell her about them. I relayed the tiny amount of information I had and showed her this video I found.



As you can imagine, this clinched it for her. Unfortunately, I could find toy Nunchucks so I had to settle for Katana Blades. She ended up embracing her inner Ninja which made me glad and Miss B was just happy to get "Tweets!!"







Incidentally, this video is also very cool. I'd kill for that kind of flexibility.

Easter. Which I Realize was a Week Ago

Wow. I really suck at posting these days. I don't know. I think the brain damage from fatigue has finally set in. It's almost embarrassing having conversations with people right now. Here's a sample of part of a conversation I had recently.


ME: Oh yeah, I love Joss Wedon. Did you read that comic he did?

HIM: You mean the Buffy comic?

ME: No, um. It was really good. Oh, what was it called? It was futuristic and it was about another slayer.

HIM: (blank stare)

ME: (grasping) Um... wow... I can't remember what it was called. But um, you'd like it.


So, yeah. That was pretty uncomfortable. What's worse is that it was with a client at work. Worse still he's in the comic book industry... Anyway, this is what I was talking about, if you care.

I digress, I meant to tell you about Easter, not my brain damage.

It was kind of a blur actually. We traveled to Grandma J's house. The girls both slept crappy both nights and I was exhausted. I knew I was tired because I was actually kind of irritable and snappy with everyone, and usually I'm not like that, even when I am tired. That kind of ruined the weekend for me honestly. I was happy to get home and not sleep in my own bed. Ha!

My favorite part of the whole weekend were the pictures I took of Miss A while we played outside for a while. Outside pictures just turn out so much better than inside photos do.







And here are a couple of the baby which were taken inside. Oh yeah, I'm in one of them too.

Simplicity

Another theme from Total Mom Haircut.

I don't think it gets much simpler than this.

More Photos from The 3 Year Old

I am highly amused and often impressed by the photos Miss A has been taking with her camera. Maybe it's because as parents we are always desperately looking for some clue about what they might grow up to be. I always find myself wishing for artistic jobs. Dancer! Singer! Photographer!

Here are some of her recent photos.

I like the composition in these ones.







This one is a reusable grocery bag. I always find it interesting to see what she deems worthy of taking a picture of.



I love this one. The way Baby B's eyes stand out is neat.





She took her camera to preschool for show and tell and this was one of her photos.



And this is only two of the many, many, many pictures she took of the television. Peter asked me if we should be concerned about the number of photos of the TV because, perhaps that might indicate the importance of it to her. Being in denial I said "No, of course not."

Two of her current favorite shows.

George Shrinks



Charlotte's Web

The Perspective of a Three Year Old

I mentioned that we were giving Miss A this camera for her birthday. Score 10 points for mom and dad because she LOVES it. Like, really loves it.

So here are some of the photos she has taken.

I have a feeling there will be a lot of pictures of our bums.



The picture quality is not excellent but seems to be further hindered by moving, being to close to the subject or facing a sunny window. As seen in this photo. I think she was also dancing while she took this one.



I'm thinking that her sister is going to appear in her photos often. I like the last one especially because her eyes stand out more than anything else.





P.S. What is it about the postpartum period that makes me feel like my heels have been bashed in with a hammer when I try to walk. I remember this happening with A too. Especially when I would get out of bed to feed the baby. Has anyone else experienced this? Is it the calcium being depleted from my body or what?

Different

Yesterday we went to have some pictures taken. Maternity photos. You know the ones I mean. They are sweet, artsy photos of the belly and it's family. We did them when I was pregnant with Miss A and they are quite lovely. The end result a three picture collage hangs in her bedroom.

This time it was decidedly more... difficult. I had visions of how wonderful it would be to have photos of the three of us and the belly. I was kicking myself afterwards for not preparing myself for what actually did happen. Because, after all, I know my child. It wasn't that long ago that we had this experience.

So yeah, Miss A was SO not interested in getting her picture taken despite every persuasion we could think of including putting stickers on the 'baby'. We managed to get two (TWO!) shots with her in them. And who knows if they'll be any good. We also took some with just Peter and I because, well, at least we were cooperating.

I'm sure they will be fine but I couldn't help being a bit disappointed. I hate it when situations arise and I find myself wishing that A could just be - different. (Like maybe, not climbing all over the photography props instead of posing with us for a few photos for pete's sake!!!) If only I could have just had Lynanne come over to take a few shots. I'm sure she would have been able to work miracles!

And then later when we were curled up on the couch together I felt guilty for ever wishing she was different. She wouldn't be her if she just posed nicely for the pictures. She'd be a totally different kid. And I love her, spunk and all.

Working the System

Isn't it funny how things just evolve? I mean, at one point, things are going along all fine and dandy and then all of a sudden you find yourself somewhere completely different and you think "How did I get here?"

For instance just a couple of months ago Miss A was consistently sleeping through the night. On the rare occasions she did wake up I could easily rock her a bit and put her back to bed. In these past couple of months things have gradually shifted. One particular night, she kept waking up and I was repeatedly going in to comfort her, finally I decided to leave her for a bit thinking she'd fall asleep as she always had before. Instead she climbed out of the crib. This was a turning point. Obviously, there would be no more waiting for her to fall asleep again. If I wouldn't come and get her out of bed she'd just do it herself.

What has evolved is the following. If she cries in the night (which is happening more and more frequently) I promptly go to her, whereas before I would wait her out and she'd usually drift off again quickly. What I found was that rocking with her a bit wasn't working. She seemed to not settle back down if I removed her from bed. What I resorted to one night was giving her a bottle and then going back to bed. To my surprise this worked like a charm and it could be done with little interruption to my own sleep.

The downfall? It would seem that I have been getting up almost like clockwork at 3 am to give her a bottle. I'm finding this to be a problem. I don't mind doing that sort of thing every once in a while, as a treat, to help calm her down and get her back to sleep. What I feel is happening is that she's working me. That she's waking up in the night and instead of just rolling over and going back to sleep she knows that if she cries out I'll make her a bottle and she could really go for a bottle right now.

Maybe this doesn't seem like a big deal. I think it is. I miss the girl who slept through the night. I miss my sleep. I am fully aware that my nights of half decent sleep are numbered and I'd really like to take advantage of them while I can. So what can I do? I'm trying to come up with a game plan. Feel free to give suggestions. I would also take words of encouragement.

And now, a mish mash of photos to amuse you.