beware the emoticon

Well.

November just flew by! :)

(Ummmm, I'm not sure when I became such an avid user* of emoticons, but somehow I am. They can convey such emotion! A wink, a smile, a frown, a kiss, etc. I used to hate them, but now I love them. I'm changing so much as I get older that the next thing you know, I'll want to own a minivan!) (Please don't be offended by that all you minivan driving friends of mine.)

Anyway, here's what we've been up to.

I learned how to french braid my daughters hair! :D
Now I can add it into my vast hair repertoire. It sits alongside the ponytail and... and... that's it.

As the room parent of Alexis' class, I have had lots of opportunities to be in her classroom lately, mostly for parties. And the conclusion I've come to is that I don't generally care for most other people's kids. Horrible, but true. I like my kids a whole lot, and my most of my friends kids (now some of you are wondering which of your kids I don't like...), and my nieces and nephews, but beyond that I'm somewhat indifferent. I think it has something to do with the fact that most of them don't seem to find me funny. (And if I can't make kids laugh, what does that say about my sense of humor?) :'(

Speaking of nieces and nephews, over Thanksgiving my brother and his cute little family came to town. Their daughter is only three months younger than Ryan, and my kids LOVE her. It was so fun for all of us to have her around. And fortunately she's a fast learner because if she weren't Ryan may have accidentally killed her with all his crazy antics. :O

Isn't she cute? Except that it's REALLY crazy for me to see my brother in a miniature, girl version. She looks a lot like him, is what I'm saying.

Speaking of Ryan's crazy antics, I'm not exaggerating when I say he's insane. He is insane. He's constantly climbing on stuff, pulling stuff down, tearing stuff, banging on stuff, and wrecking stuff in anyway possible. :( It's truly amazing he hasn't somehow figured out how to burn our house down, though he is still young, he might get there eventually.

Tonight Tyler and I left the house for about 20 minutes. When I came home Alexis informed me of the earth shattering news that Ryan had been causing trouble. Later Jeremy showed me the following picture and said, "Did Alexis tell you what Ryan did?"
He explained to me that he found Ryan in the bathroom sink (his new favorite hang out) fully dressed, with the water running full speed, and the sink filling up quickly. My obvious question was, "And where were you?" I can ask him that because I also ask myself that question everyday. (Where were you, Lisa, when Ryan was dipping gigantic wads of toilet paper in the toilet?)

"At the computer." He was at the computer!!

Seriously, if you've been to my house you know the computer is approximately 6 feet away from the bathroom, and I'm not even exaggerating. So, in the most lovingly and light-hearted way possible I said, "Jeremy, I suggest you start listening more."

"But," he argued "water is like white noise. It just drowns itself out."

"Maybe," I said, "But when water is running and there is a one-year-old in the house, especially a one-year-old like Ryan, the sound of water running should actually sound more like a really loud alarm going off in your head."

But he's really cute, and really funny, so he's got that going for him. (I meant Ryan, but this also applies to Jeremy.)
See:

And see:
(He likes to make funny faces at meal time to distract us from the fact that he's not eating anything. I'm pretty sure he learned that trick from Alexis.) :P

And speaking of pictures (were we speaking of that?), Tyler hates having his picture taken these days. :(
It's basically the worst thing we could ever ask him to do and he pouts and tries to ruin the picture. Fortunately he's five and we're still a little more clever than him and we can make him laugh most of the time.

But did I tell you we took family pictures at the end of October? Here's a math problem, you solve for x where x=Jeremy's mood.

(Tyler hates to have his picture taken)+(Ryan can't stand/sit still)+(we drove 2 hours to our destination)+(we put a lot of time and effort into planning it)= x

That shouldn't take you too long to figure out. But despite all that, I think they turned out nicely and I'll share them soon. In the meantime here's a blurry family picture from this weekend to hold you over.

And this post is another one of those random, crazy sounding ones that I'll read 2 years from now and wish I hadn't sounded so dumb. But it's almost 10 pm, which is my new bedtime (oh man, I can practically see the minivan coming around the corner...), so I don't have time to change anything. ;)


*If you are an emoticon hater like my former self, don't worry, my excessive use of them in this post was just for fun and I won't do it again--I usually restrict my emoticon usage to texts. And even then, I only use the smiley face. :)

no tricks, just treats

The kids got so much candy yesterday that if I gave it all to Ryan he could literally eat his weight in candy. But you know, then he'd probably throw up and I just had my carpets cleaned, so I won't let him.
Jeremy started his current job last year, the day after Halloween, so we missed out on his company's parade/trick-or-treating fun. We were excited to go this year because I haven't been to his office since he started there and it was nice to finally see where my husband spends most of his day. That's also where most of the kids candy came from this year. There was really no need to go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood after that, but they wouldn't let us get away with not going.

Alexis wanted to be a princess, so I made her a fancy dress. She felt so beautiful in it that it made the work I put into it that much more worth it to me.

Tyler was a skeleton. He had his heart set on that for several months. I always think it's funny to see what kids choose to be. I have no idea why he wanted to be a skeleton so badly, but he had a specific look in mind and wouldn't settle for anything else. Fortunately we found what he wanted in the local classifieds for $5, because I procrastinated (as usual) and all the stores were sold out of skeleton costumes.

And Ryan was a pumpkin, a costume I made for Tyler when he was 2. He was very cute with the extra padding and his funny little run/walk. He had no interest in trick-or-treating, but he did love being outside and playing with any ball he found.
Also, while he is incredibly cute, the question I ask myself daily is, "Will I survive this child?" He is unlike any other toddler I've had. He is 100% constant motion and trouble. If there is trouble to be found, he will find it. He never stops moving and really doesn't sleep well, which means I really don't sleep well, which means I'm tired before I even get up and spend the day chasing him around. He also doesn't talk, which both my previous kids had down by this age. He screeches and screams, grunts and growls, and pulls on my legs when he wants something. He's also become a picky eater and rarely eats dinner. He hates vegetables, but does love fruit, fortunately. He's been extra clingy lately--if I'm holding another child, or even talking to someone else, he comes and whines at my legs until I pick him up. If I dare take a shower while he's awake you better believe I'll be paying for it with a huge mess to clean up.

But on top of all that, he is still the cutest little boy. He keeps my life interesting and I can't imagine what it would be like without him, nor would I want it that way. Plus, he's finally started giving me kisses when I ask for them. With his mouth WIDE open. And we all know there's nothing better than baby kisses, they make life worth living.