Thanksgiving

Hooray for Turkey day! This Thanksgiving we stayed close to home and had our dinner at Uncle Bob and Aunt Lisa's house. My folks, Brendon and his girlfriend Claudia came down from Phoenix and have been staying with us too. For most of the afternoon Patrick and I were able to socialize because my cousin Melissa did a fabulous job of being the baby tender, she even set up a special kids table for the two of them!

Deceit

OK I have a confession to make. I really thought that I would not be one of those parents but here I am, only 20 months into this adventure, and alas I am one of those people. I have used, now mind you only once or twice, the power of deceit to get my way with my daughter. I recognize that it will likely not be the last time but I tell you what I feel pretty terrible about it and may just have to buy Evie an extra doll or something for Christmas to assuage my guilt (Oh my gawd that’s why our parents bought us such nice things for Christmas every year… it was because of the lies!)

Most nights in recent memory Evie has gone to bed without incident, i.e., no crying. In the past week however she has been on the verge, a whimper here and there, and so I have tried to come up with ways to ease her into bed. One trick I have found that works really well is to put her in bed and then ask her if she wants anything… give her a little sense of control over the whole situation. For quite awhile this was an easy solution, she would ask for a teddy bear one night, a book the next or maybe an extra blanket. Then last week it escalated to a request for crackers.

Crackers may seem pretty innocuous to you but the problem is that I have to leave the room and come back for crackers. Not to mention the fact that then I would have to stand there while she sucked on her cracker to make sure she has eaten it so I don’t worry that she might choke (ok so that is a little paranoid). Leaving the room that first time to get the cracker works out OK, she just lays down and waits for me to come back. But leaving after the cracker ends in either a total meltdown or a request escalation to milk or cheese or cookies.

So here is where the deceit comes in…. now when she asks for a cracker and lays down I say OK, leave, and then DON’T COME BACK. The worst part about it is that she just lays down and falls asleep, lonely in her crib sure that eventually… I …will… come …with…. a …cracker. I leave and immediately worry that I am being cruel to my child. How can I possibly live with such lies and duplicity! Needless to say I did this two nights in a row and haven’t been able to use this tactic since…. it is just too terrible.

At the desert museum

Monique, Gerry, Vivian and Dylan left on Thursday. It was sure great to have them stay with us! We may not have been able to orchestrate a baby portrait shoot but we did manage to get some cute photos of them in their matching outfits while at the desert museum....

More pics

Even with the two toddlers we have been busy! Baths were taken, All Souls Parades were attended and even a garden was built!!

Adventures in photography

As a parent life is rarely dull, and when it is you get very nervous because chances are trouble is afoot. Ever since Evie became a biped it has been difficult to corral her, but we have managed OK. Add another toddler to the equation and all semblance of control is decidedly lost. You would think that I would know this already having witnessed Evie with her friends on many occasions. Or, perhaps, I am just an eternal optimist. Whatever the case my naïveté was the source of the most ridiculous almost photo shoot I have ever witnessed.

It all began a few days ago when Vivian and I had the idea to get Evie and Dylan matching outfits and take them to Sears to get portraits taken. I had these great romantic ideas of the two of them sitting on a fake pony, donning big smiles and having a grand old time. With these visions in mind we took them to Old Navy yesterday and immediately found them the cutest little outfits. (mostly on sale even!) The first critical step in the process was easily accomplished surely set the stage for what would be a fabulous photo shoot….

Take one. With their new outfits on we confidently strode into the portrait studio and waited for the photographer to work her magic. When the photographer’s first request was to sit two 19 month olds back to back with no props it became clear that we would have to rely on our own artifice to get the babes even to sit still, let alone take a picture. Oh how we tried. Genevieve would sit down on the cross like told only to have Dylan run from the studio. Then we would get Dylan back in the studio sitting pretty only to have Evie decide that she had experienced enough, proclaim “all done” and leave the room. We tried a fake rock, which both Evie and Dylan enjoyed, but like hell they were going to sit on it together. Then we did a fake rock and a red block… which would have resulted in funny pictures anyway… but that didn’t do it either. After about 15 minutes of trying it became clear that we needed to send out for reinforcements.

Take two. With Evie on my back I ran out of the Sears and into the mall to buy some lollipops. The only candy store nearby was a See’s so I had to buy them vanilla chocolate pops. Then on my way back to Sears I saw a toy store so thinking I would hedge my bets I bought a car for Dylan and a doll for Evie. Complimenting myself for my thoroughness, and cursing myself for enforcing gender stereotypes, I rushed back to the portrait studio. Lollipops in hand we sat them down on the white photo sheet again. The lollipops did the trick for about 10 seconds at which point they both stood up and started roaming around again, but this time their cute little faces were enhanced by white drool. Giving them their toys didn’t help much either… a 1.5 year old just doesn’t get the concept of you do this and I’ll give you that. Bribery is clearly an unrefined skill in both of them. Fifteen minutes and three-fourths of a lollipop later we were all exhausted, admitted defeat and went home.

Mommy myth number 453: Photographing two toddlers together is an easy and fun way to preserve cherished memories.

Dirt versus Dirty

Its a full house these days. Patrick's dad, step-mom, sister and nephew are visiting us for the week and man are we having fun! Of course the principal form of entertainment is watching the kids play. We discovered pretty quickly that Dylan and Evie are two very different birds. Evie is all about dirt and Dylan is all about letting you know when something is dirty.

On their first day together Evie was in the backyard filling up a cup of dirt (pretty normal routine for her) while Dylan played with his trucks. After a bit it was time to come inside for a snack, so Evie picked up her dirt cup and headed for the house. Dylan caught her trying to sneak the dirt in the house... pointed at the cup, said "dirt"and wouldn't let her inside.


Then on Saturday Vivian and I went out to get massages and left the kids with Patrick, Monique and Gerry. When we get home Gerry shows me a video of Evie wallowing in a mud pit that Patrick made for her. The next video is of Patrick trying to get Dylan to even put his finger in the mud. The whole time Dylan is giving Patrick this look like "why would anyone want to do such a thing?"

More tales to come as the week goes on...

Vote or COLOR?

Before dawn, which isn't saying much given the season, the whole family woke up to head to the polls... I know being in Arizona our vote for Obama probably did not mean much on a grander scale, but heck if it wasn't important to us. Patrick, Evie and I showed up at the polls at 6:04 am to quite the line... over 1/2 hour, which of course started to irritate my passenger. The line, however, turned out not to be nearly so irritating as mommy "coloring," aka filling in my ballot, and not letting Evie color too. As I filled out my ballot Evie kept shouting "COLOR... MOMMY.... COLOR" Ignoring the snickers around me I quickly filled out my ballot and then hastily vacated the voting place. For her mildly good behavior we rewarded our baby girl with a banana and milk at Starbucks while we drank our free coffee... All told it was an awesome and (given the result) inspiring election day!

Dirt and Halloween

Evie's second Halloween was a whole lot of fun! It actually started last Saturday with a neighborhood park party (and mini parade) with treats and a pumpkin raffle (which was really more like a pumpkin pick out... every kid went home with one :) As you can see Evie is a dragon this year, complete with sparkles on her shoes so everyone knows she is a girl dragon.



Last weekend was fun of course but the main event was last night! My parents came down from Phoenix for the festivities and mom and I took Evie trick or treating while Patrick and Dad held down the fort. Evie managed to make it all the way around the block (with some help from Nana and Mom... we made our dragon "fly" occasionally). When we arrived back at home Papa and Dad were hanging out on the front porch, drinking some adult juice and passing out candy. While we were out trick or treating they both decided to get into costumes... Dad was a devil and Patrick apparently was a pirate... with a georgetown shirt and elephant on his shoulder....


Evie thought trick or treating was pretty cool but much more interesting to her was a chance to get out into the front yard and explore some new dirt. Both last weekend and last night she was far more interested in soils than sweets. We kept having to urge her down the street because, it being Arizona after all, every new house had a different sort of rock or sand in the front yard. I think next year I am going to dress her as a farmer so when she gets covered in dirt it will just enhance her costume!