Portraits

We (read "I") wanted to get a good picture for our Christmas card this year, and after a marital disagreement ensuing from our last family photo shoot, I decided it would be just the kids this year. So, I took the kids to get their pictures taken the Friday before Christmas when everyone else and their brother was getting photos taken.

The kids did great. I didn't even have to tell them about the cookies I brought until the shoot was almost over. And I did have to pull out the lollipops when I took almost an HOUR looking through all 85 pictures and deciding what I liked... But, other than the sugar high, it was a beautiful success. Nothing we couldn't cure by a trip to the nearby mall where I let them run wild at the mall playground for an hour before we headed home (in another one of our recently typical snowstorms).

Here are some of my favorite shots, and believe me, it was hard to choose from 85!

Isn't this one hilarious? I can just see her say, "Seriously mom?"

This was after the photographer said, "Show me your muscles!!"

So, this last one is the one that ended up on most of the Christmas cards. I love it because it just looks like both of them how they are every day. I could just eat them up right there on the screen.

Copycat

Noah has been mimicking Dylan's every move for several months now, but it's really getting out of control sometimes. Mostly it's language. If he is paying attention and she is telling us something important, or answering a question, he repeats it. It's almost like there is a tape recorder that we record what she says and then distort it and speed it up just a little when we play it back. No sentence is too long for him to repeat. Yes, the longer it is, the more it gets slurred together and comes out as mush, but he always says it with similar emphasis and enthusiasm.

For example:
Dylan (excitedly): I want another cookie please. Lots of sprinkles!
Noah (yelled with enthusiasm): Noddercookiepeeaselossprinkles!

Stay awake!

I think I'll start a list of things I'm not proud of that I find myself doing with/to my kids. Otherwise known as,

Things I never thought I'd do as a parent:
- Let them eat three bananas each at one sitting - I mean, is that bad? Still undecided on that one.
- Let them eat food off the floor (not everywhere, but well it's a sliding scale...)
- Worry about my kids as much as I do - the worst kind of worry yet!
- Let a not-yet-two-year-old have a lollipop (I blame the older sister)
- Do anything I can to keep them from falling asleep in the car if I have to run an errand before we go home for naps (imagine tickling, throwing food at them, "Don't go to sleep yet Noah!")

Who can help with the list? Please leave your own additions to the list in the comments section.

Creative Movement

Dylan has been taking Creative Movement (it's like pre-pre-ballet) from the Hyde Park School of Dance this fall. She has learned a lot and seems to have an incredibly enjoyable time. She loves her teacher Miss Allison and especially enjoys "Talk Time" when they get to tell something, show something they brought, or do a dance for the rest of the class. Dylan always chooses to show a dance. Usually it's a butterfly dance (think running around in circles flapping arms), but last week she did break out a bunny dance (so she told me). Parents are not allowed in, except for on visiting day, which was a couple of weeks ago. These pics are from that day.

Here is a taste of ballet class:

Dancers sitting in a circle, pointing and flexing toes (Dylan is on the far right if you didn't notice the blond curls...)

Doing their "fast ballet walks" with hands on hips around the room. Dylan is loving this one!

Pointing toes, getting ready for her turn to gallop across the room!

I wasn't sure whether we should continue doing it this winter or not - I mean it does cost money, and it's cold and snowy and hard to get out of the house sometimes. But these pictures say it all - she really does love it and I think it's probably pretty good for her to listen to the teacher and follow directions in a way that uses her body. I asked her if she wants to keep doing it, and the answer was yes, so we'll go with that for now.

X-ray, Wash it out, Stitches

Dylan got stitches 10 days ago. She stepped up onto a balloon next to the heater in our living room and slipped off - catching herself on the heater - and slicing open her hand. I called Jason to come home from parent-teacher conferences (sorry J) to stay with Noah - there was no way in hell I was taking both kids with me to the ER at 4pm with Dylan bleeding everywhere (not to mention Noah was still sleeping, so I would have had to wake him up). Long story short, we were there 7.5 hours - from 4pm until 11:30pm. It was lots and lots and lots and lots of waiting.

But now to the real point of my post. It's been so fascinating watching/listening to Dylan process this experience. It was very traumatic for her in the ER. She was on a hospital bed laying there for 7.5 hours!! Yes, I was there, and thank you Paul Gottlieb Nipkow - we watched an insane amount of PBS kids Sprout TV. But what did she want to do the whole time she wasn't occupied with Angelina Ballerina? She wanted to hear stories. Stories of me getting hurt as a child. And when I ran out of stories (that was pretty quickly...if you know how good I am at remembering things) I was supposed to make them up! Using all my real family as a child, in my real life, but totally fabricated stories. Essentially, she wanted ME to get hurt standing on a balloon by the heater - or some other equally freakish accident.

Now let me just take a moment to put in a word for my creativity. I think I'm pretty creative...I mean I wouldn't have majored in Graphic Design if I didn't...right? But golly-gee-willikers. After 20 minutes of telling made-up get hurt stories, I was plum out of ideas. But she wanted to do this for 7 hours! It was incredible how she would never get tired of hearing the same story-line over and over again. And if it didn't resemble her situation enough, she would tell me how the plot should go. "First you have to get an x-ray, then you have to wash it out, then you get stitches." See, that was exactly what we were doing.

Fast forward 10 days. Today we got out her stitches at the pediatrician's office. It wasn't too terrible for the 20 minutes we were in there. But the anticipation was brutal. We had several meltdowns just thinking about it all. So, once again, her typical kid coping mechanism - telling stories - putting me as the hurt one - and she is more in control.

If any parent out there hasn't read Playful Parenting by Lawrence J. Cohen, I highly reccomend it. It talks about just this. Children go through experiences that they need to "play out" later. So while I was cringing as we played doctor for the 10th day straight...I understood why. You got something good there Dr. Cohen.

Trick-or-treat!

My kids are old! They got really into the trick-or-treating last night and it was so fun!! They both got sick of their costumes by the end ("This is itching me!!!"), but with no naps, they really did awesome, holding out until almost 8:30. We came down to trick-or-treat in Champaign because we were going to the Illinois vs. Iowa football game on Saturday. So, we went around in their neighborhood.

Dylan and Noah examine the candy loot.

Riding from house to house, snacking on candy. Grandpa Clark is pulling them in their neighborhood.


My little bumblebee flitting around for more candy!

Dylan was our "social butterfly." She would literally enter into conversation with everyone we talked to/got candy from. It was HILARIOUS. She even made a thank you card to give to the person who gave her the best candy (totally her idea). Hah!

Tom Moore, my parents' next-door neighbor, gives Dylan some chocolate!


Noah and Dylan get candy bags from Grandma Cindy!

The family Halloween shot. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the fun!

Beatitude lesson for the day

Dylan was making up rhymes while eating lunch today (a usual scene at our table..).
We were eating carrots. I came up with parrot to rhyme with carrot. Then it was her turn.

Dylan: Harrot rhymes with carrot!
Me: What's harrot?
Dylan: You know, harrot the earth?
Me: Ohhhhhhh...The meek shall inherit the earth!
Dylan: Yeah!

Of course.

Belly Contest

Last night Dylan and Noah made up their first game together. It was called Belly Contest. Here's how you play:

1. Dylan chants, "Let's have a belly contest!"
2. Dylan lifts up her shirt, exposing her belly.
3. Dylan encourages, "Noah, lift up your shirt! Lift up your shirt!"
4. Noah lifts up his shirt, exposing his belly.
5. They rub bellies together, laughing hysterically.
6. Hugging ensues.

Everyone wins.

"Backyard" by Dylan S. Rhodes

"Backyard" by Dylan S. Rhodes

We were testing out the idea of studying backyards in our hope to incorporate the Project Approach at home. I'm reading this awesome book, Teach Your Child to Love Learning which I HIGHLY recommend for any parent who wants to get a little more intentional (yet still be organic) about learning at home. It's a super easy to follow, functional book. I'm still trying to figure out what our first project should be...and I'm pretty convinced we're going with "trees," but like I said, we were testing to see if backyards was a good idea. Above is Dylan's initial drawing of what a backyard looks like to her. She was very detailed with it, and as the book suggests, we used a felt-tip black pen and we labeled all the pieces of the drawing after she was finished. I am enamored with the drawing and my favorite part is the picnic blanket with the little grape tomatoes in the bowl. Click on the picture and you can see an enlarged version if it's too small to make out what everything is.

when i grow up...

I want to be a firefighter.

Or so we pretended today. My friend Megan set up a visit to the Evergreen Park Firehouse this afternoon for our playgroup. What a blast the kiddos had - and us adults learned a thing or too as well.

Here are a few highlights:

Ruby (Megan's daughter) and Noah sitting in the classroom at the firehouse, listening to Fireman Ed.

Noah gets his first look at all the fire trucks.

The overall highlight of Noah's visit. The dress-up. Here he casually turns for a candid.

This is the picture I was really hoping for when I saw those dress-up firefighter outfits laying there on the floor. Wow, this is one happy-photographer-who-likes-posey-pictures moment.

Noah did NOT want to take the firefighter outfit off. This is to show how thrilled he was with the whole thing - even that hot sticky smelly mask (and I didn't tell you it was 85degrees and humid out during all of this...)


Fireman Ed lets the kids see inside a Firefighter's Ambulance. Wow...


Now for Dylan's highlight: sitting in the firefighter's recliners watching their gigantic TV. Seriously - see how everyone else is standing up - note my two sloths making a home in the easy chairs. Fireman Ed tells about how this is their favorite room...my kids concur.

We also got to go inside a fire engine. Learning moment: Fire engines are the trucks that carry the hoses. Fire trucks are the ones with the ladders (no hoses). Thanks Fireman Ed.

NOW.

I can be a bit spontaneous sometimes. Not in the buy a ticket to Europe on a whim kind of way, but in the I've made up my mind in the last 20 seconds about this and I need to do it...NOW. Call it a craving for instant gratification.

This is why I never spend less than $100 when I go to Target. Why I buy three bags of Brach's Mellowcreme Pumpkins at Walgreens on August 29th. And why I never make advance appointments for haircuts. I delay, put off, don't think about it...and then when I want it...I want it now.

I am this way with my own hair, and now my children's hair. So Dylan has a new haircut...this was after I asked my sister on the phone (about 20 minutes before the scissors were cutting off the first lock) - do you think I should cut Dylan's hair? Then I proceeded to convince myself that it should be done (while not really giving you a chance to say your opinion much...sorry Lara). And then I drove straight to a hair salon in Hyde Park and called them like a stalker from outside the salon, reading their phone number off the front door. No appointments. Drive to next salon, call them... Me:When do you have any appointments in the now-ish future? Them: How about 4:00 (it was 3:15). Me: How about now? Them: Ok, come on in.

And so Miss Rita cut her hair, did a marvelous job and I love it. Even though when I paid on the way out...they said "How old is HE?" hmmmm...and I never thought I'd be "that mom" who cut their daughter's hair boy-short. C'est la vie.

Oh yeah, and I bribed her with a lollipop. No shame.

What kind of mom am I?

I never know which kind of mom to be...the one that gives you good healthy food on your plate every night and makes you try at least one bite of everything on your plate before you can get down OR the one that gives you good healthy food on your plate every night and trusts that eventually you'll taste, enjoy and learn to love a variety of foods so to not pressure you to eat.

All I really want out of the deal is for my children to try many different foods, develop a healthy wide ranging palette and get the nutrition they need from a variety of foods - fruits and vegetables included. I know I can't really complain about the way my kids eat - and I'm not - I do understand that I have it really good in how much they'll try new things and how much they love certain fruits and veggies. BUT, what kind of mom am I? I can't decide what is better for them - to make them try everything I have made? I mean, I did slave over five different food groups on purpose - for their essential growth, right? So then why should I watch two of them go untouched, just to be tossed down the garbage disposal (or if I was really green, in the compost...more on that later in life). So, lately the rule has been you have to at least TRY one bite of everything on your plate. I also hate the idea that you have never even tried something but you just choose not to eat it because you don't like how it looks...that doesn't fly in my book.

BUT, I also want my kids to have a healthy association with food. And to be able to make their own choices about what their body finds healthy and satisfying (as long as it really is healthy!...disclaimer!...I want to be in control!). So, I like the idea of them saying, "No, I'm full, I don't want to try that." or "No, I'm not going try that tonight." And I hate hate HATE the idea of them having bad memories of sitting at the table for 3 hours because they refuse to try the green beans. That luckily hasn't happened yet - not even close. But she has sat for 10 minutes. And that is long for a 3 year old to think about eating one green bean.

Goat riding

We visited Steven Rhodes in Iowa last week - and thus we got to visit his goats. He has them to chew/mow his grass. It was a highlight for the kids, even though Dylan walked away with about 20 mosquito bites (and we were only outside for about 20 minutes!).

Here are some pics...

Someone (who's name starts with an S) thought it would be a great idea if Dylan rode the goat.

Falling off the goat...

Noah and I chillin with the mosquitos. Noah looks hot.

Daddy and Noah exploring the grounds.

A slice of our summer

Finally I'm getting a moment to blog! We've been around the midwest visiting family in Champaign and Iowa for the last week and a half. When did this summer get so busy? Let's just get right to it. I'll not talk much, but instead let the pictures do the talking and show you what we've been up to the last month or so.

Noah feeding a bite to his sister. She clearly enjoyed it.

Noah's summer obsession: "ball-ball" The last few days he has literally asked us to play ball every waking moment of the day - either carrying around a baseball glove and bat/ball or a basketball.

These pictures start a series where we are visiting the Japanese garden near our house - it's really cool and Jason discovered it recently while on a walk with the kids. It dates back to the World's Columbian Exposition here in Chicago. Everything from the World's Columbian Exposition has been demolished except the old Palace of Fine Arts, which is now the Museum of Science and Industry and this Japanese garden. Come visit us and we'll take you there!

Dylan loves to bring bread and feed the ducks there.


What you can't see is that I am yelling "hold on to her!" while I take this picture.

Queen of the world!

Mommy/daughter cuddles while we have a snack in the garden.

Chewing on grass.

Guess where they learned that from? (it's hard to see in this pic, but they all have grass in their teeth)


"Happy and Blessed" - putting on a Beatitude Attitude show for us on 4th of July (on Grandma and Grandpa Karen and Warren's deck).

Playing frisbee golf in G&G's backyard.

Dylan and Auntie Susie were out on the backyard picking flowers .


"Noah - can you do surprise face?"


Laundry hamper FUN! Dylan figure out how to get in here by herself, and of course, monkey see, monkey do.

The Beatitude Attitude

I really have to post about this - it's outrageously cute and hilarious (at least for me and my mom). My mom wrote (yes WROTE all the songs, dialogue, etc.) and directed a children's musical for her church in champaign called The Beatitude Attitude. It was an amazing performance (May 11th, 2008) and Dylan was thrilled to be there to be in the audience. WELL, fast forward more than two months. We now have the DVD of the performance, and we watch it at least 4 times/week. She LOVES it. No, that is a gross understatement. She is insanely obsessed with it. I can't fully describe how much she is nuts for this thing, but here is my attempt. First of all, she sings her own soundtrack of the musical pretty much all day long (for several weeks now). She busts out with microphone (usually a drumstick, traintrack or baseball bat) and all, and does a very convincing rendition of "Remember What Jesus Said" or "Poor in Spirit" (all with motions and dancing...). It's hysterical and of course adorable. She talks incessantly about the characters, acting like they are celebrities. And most hilarious/cute of all, she quotes the dialogue to me randomly in normal conversation. Here are two examples of the direct quotes from the show she has repeated to me:

"Mom, don't expect me to be your best friend." (as we are walking back to the park from a potty break...ummm...OK!)

(as we are shopping downtown) "Mom, you're not exactly rolling in the dough." Yes, Dylan, you are right on that one.

quick sleep update

I haven't blogged in awhile about my sleep issues with Noah. So, here is a quick update. We are on night 4 tonight of "cry it out with reassurance by daddy." Mommy stays out of the whole bedtime routine and daddy gets the pleasure of one on one time with Noah reading stories, prayers, etc. and then he goes in his crib. He is thrilled let me tell you (that was sarcastic...hard to get that over the internet), but it is getting better and I feel remarkably good about letting my child cry and scream alone in his crib. I am usually quite content on the far side of the other camp - cosleeping, breastfeeding, babywearing - really most things attachment parenting. But when your kid is almost 17 months old and you haven't had a full night of sleep (he still wakes up 3-5 or more times/night) in that long (or more since you don't sleep that well at the end of pregnancy)...well then you take a one way ticket to the "cry it out" camp and you don't look back. At least that's what I'm trying to do here. I still have moments (like the first night when Jason came out and said he was asleep finally - after an hour - standing up, head laying on the side of the crib rail) - where I want to abort and snuggle and nurse and be that mom that I "am." But NO...we must go through this for I will be a better mom when I can finally say, "Wow, that was a good night's sleep." Ahhh, the mouth-watering craving I have for sleep.

Sibling Harmony

Just wanted to post quickly about how much our kids are love love loving each other these days. I think the sharing a room is a huge part of that, and they really are just playing better, hugging more, and talking to one another. Noah mimics everything Dylan does, which at this point does not annoy her whatsoever. Glory be...

Here's a cuddle moment caught on camera:

Go Cubs Go

I think I mentioned that Noah is saying "Go Cubs Go" now. Here is a video to prove it.




And here's Dylan SINGING "Go Cubs Go." Wonder who she learned it from...

we live in the state of Illinois...

Dylan: "Jesus lives in a state called Paris."

Me: "Jesus lives everywhere - and in our hearts!"

Dylan: "Yes, but he lives in Paris too."

beach day!!!

We went to the beach today in Ogden Dunes, IN for our playgroup. Our dear friends, the Cunninghams have friends who live ON the beach, and we played in their backyard and in their backyard - is the beach! Here's a photo essay of our time there. Yay summer!

Dylan is thrilled with the take-your-breath-away-cold water.

Baby Noah, Baby Case and Baby Charlotte all hang in the baby pool.

Noah is not amused with the blowing sand in his face.

Drawing pictures in the sand.

Pleased as punch that he got a big kid lunch plate too!

My little sun goddess on the slide in the backyard.