December

A recapitulation...

The winter roses that grow in our back yard...

Dylan in his red and green garb that he selected especially for the Kindergarten Holiday Concert....

He sang boldly about candy canes and jingling bells with gusto and pizzazz   It was hard to find his little face in the sea of Kindergartners, so this photo in front of the tree will have to suffice.

Amelia and Dylan dressed up for twin day at school.  This is the first year they have attended school together and we thought it was pretty cool that they decided to be twins with each other.  

Amelia was so committed to the idea of being twins with her brother that she even tried to wear a pair of jeans to match Dylan's, but she just couldn't do it.  We decided that navy blue yoga pants were close enough.

The Skinners gave us tickets to Childsplay for Christmas so we took Amelia and Dylan to "Jingle Bells Batman Smells." Dylan is showing off his Junie B. Jones glasses that they made at intermission.

I have to admit that Amelia feels a little left out of the bathtub boys club.  Yet, she admits that her brothers splash and toot way too much for her to even consider bathing with them.  And lately, Simon has been notorious for expelling other bodily substances into the tub that even grosses out Dylan.  Sooo....the bathtub boys club is likely coming to an end.
(We may start bathing Simon on the back porch with a hose when the weather warms up.)

(OK...not really.)

Simon and play dough...

Trimming the tree!  I don't think I have ever posted pictures of this yearly event...
And, these are pretty much the only pictures I have of Christmas festivities this year.  It was that busy.  

But here is evidence that we did, indeed, celebrate Christmas in 2012.

Lost tooth

It has begun once again.  We've had a lull with visits from the tooth fairy as Amelia has pretty much lost all of the teeth that she can lose, save a molar or two that won't come out for a couple of years.  Dylan has been waiting and waiting because Amelia was barely five when she lost her first tooth and he is nearly six and a half.

So it is not surprising that he was ecstatic at his last visit to the dentist when it was announced that his two bottom teeth were loose.

A month or so later as he bit into an apple, the first tooth fell.  Since then the other one has come out and his first adult tooth is edging its way into his mouth.  

It's all very exciting.

Simon didn't want to be left out of the fun, so he asked Daddy to take a picture of his teeth as well.

Dylan is officially approaching the messed-up-grill, dangling-tooth, and plenty-of-space-for-drinking-straws era of his life.  And there's nothing like it.

Halloween 2012

Halloween was a blur this year with too many busy days and nights preceding it and not enough time to even carve a pumpkin, let alone pick up some candy until the day of.  This is not how I usually operate.  We managed to get costumes this year, which we do about every other year or so.  The in between years we recycle whatever we have lying around.  And the only reason we had new costumes is because I planned way ahead and ordered them on line.

Evan and I were Waldo and Wenda from the Where's Waldo books (in case you haven't yet figured that out by the picture below).  I loved the Waldo books when I was younger and I still do, although I seem to no longer possess the patience to actually find Waldo.

And,  I did not know that Waldo even had a girlfriend named Wenda.  Or maybe she's his sister?  I really don't know.

Nonetheless, I spent the evening explaining who I was and politely laughing every time someone came up to me and said, "I found you!"  The first time I didn't quite get it as I was wrestling a two-year-old back in his stroller.  I blinked a couple of times after the guy said it and then looked down at my shirt and said, "Oh yeah.  You found me."

Totally forgot I was even wearing a costume.

Amelia is still Mario Bros. obsessed, so she was Toad.  She got a lot of compliments on her costume, especially her rather large and noticeable Toad hat.

Dylan was Optimus Prime for one party and a red Power Ranger for another as he had two costumes this year.  Fancy pants.

Simon made a return appearance as a ninja because the costume is like pajamas and it's the only thing I can get him to wear.  He'll likely be a ninja next year as well.  And maybe even the next one.

 Duane and Phillis' neighborhood puts on a little carnival each year complete with bounce houses, snow cones and pony rides.  Here's Toad, er, Amelia taking a ride.

Pumpkin carving happened the night before Halloween this year.  We just ran out of time and I meant to take a picture of all the finished products, but neglected to do so.  We carved two of the three pumpkins and didn't get to the third one on which Amelia had drawn, what else? but Toad.  Evan and I were having logistical and artistic problems trying to figure out how to actually carve it, so I decided to just paint it while she was at school the next day.  It actually turned out pretty well and then we donated it to our neighbor who made pumpkin bread for us that was absolutely delicious.  

I am thinking we'll just run out of time every year and give a pumpkin to our neighbor if that bread is the end result.  

Amelia lost interest in the carving shenanigans after she sketched Toad on her pumpkin.  So we decided to take a picture of her wall decals that she arranged a year or so ago because, she informed me, "We need to take a picture of this so that I'll always remember it, even though I am never changing it and I am never moving."  

 This was actually Halloween night when the rather muscular red Power Ranger made his appearance. 

You can tell that I took the picture after trick or treating as Simon has samples of his Halloween candy all over his mouth and Dylan is barefoot. Amelia had already taken her hat off and Dylan was about to get into the bathtub when I realized that I didn't even take a picture of the three of them, so Amelia put her hat on a bit askance and Dylan put his costume back on and ran down the hall for the photo.  

I didn't ask him if he had anything on under it (he probably did).

On to the next holiday!

Indiana trip

Amelia loves all of her many cousins, and she has quite a few.  

But the one thing she laments once in a while is that there are so many boys.  "Boy-trapped" is what she calls it.  Thank heaven for Abby and Brooklyn who live in Arizona and provide abundant relief from this situation. 

And then there's Kassie, who lives across the country, who isn't a girly-girl and who loves animals, Wild Kratts, and Pokemon as much as Amelia does.  

Kassie is a year and a few months younger than Amelia and they are two peas in a pod.  Kassie was baptized in October and Amelia and I went to visit her and her family in Indianapolis for the occasion.

Here are Tommy, Kassie and Amelia at a park.  Amelia didn't have to miss her brothers too much as Tommy filled the younger brother role just fine.  He's five months younger than Dylan and just as spunky.

There were costumes at the nature center next to the park.  Below are animals native to the area: a spotted salamander, a fox and a cardinal.

Kassie also wore the possum costume for a time as she couldn't decide which she liked better.  Amelia was definitely committed to the fox because,  "A fox is clever and tricky," she says. 

Amelia did miss Simon but she got in her taking-care-of-a-two-year-old digs by helping her little cousin Samantha here and there.  

The giant climbing apparatus...

The girls after the baptism...we kept laughing and they couldn't quite look at the camera at the same time. 

 the whole group who came to celebrate... 

We stayed for and extended weekend and by the end I told Lee and Katherine that according to Ben Franklin, "fish and visitors stink in three days."  The sleep over every night in Kassie's room and the displaced little people began to take a toll.  

We were starting to stink. 

Everyone was a bit tired by the end and so after going to church in Indy (where I was quickly spotted as Lee's sister because I am apparently a female version of him...or rather he is a male version of me because I was born first) we headed home.

Six

Our kindergartner claims to be the second oldest in his class.  Sometimes he says he's the third oldest, and sometimes he says he's the 100th oldest.  

Dylan tends to exaggerate, elaborate, or fabricate much of what he initially tells us.  

He eventually comes clean.

And, Dylan turned six in September.

He was especially excited to receive a "fragile" train as one of his gifts.  These are supposed to be for kids five and older, according to Dylan (the box says eight and up), which means "Simon, no touchy."  

But you can imagine how well that goes over.

He also opened a Power Rangers Gigazord...I think that's what it is called. And his expression aptly conveys his response to the gift. 

We threw a totally insane birthday bash at the end of the month for Dylan, complete with bouncing water slip n' slide mayhem in the front yard.  It made a muddy mess of our grass, and the party guests, but they had a riotous blast.

The wet bounce house made up for the Power Rangers pinata, which was a complete flop.  Dylan hit it once and it broke off the rope still in tact.  Then, after some quick re-rigging by Evan (bless him!), it lasted a couple more hits and then exploded.  So all of maybe two kids got to hit it.  The dumb thing only held two pounds of candy and I had extra on hand, but some kids still didn't get very much.  We were pulling out taffy from last Christmas that I meant to throw away and all sorts of  random candy to make sure that everyone got something. I considered handing out gummy vitamins, because who can really tell the difference? But we were out. 

Ugh. Lesson learned: purchase a giant, durable, pinata next time, regardless of the theme, or skip it all together. 

I can't believe this kid is six.  

He has become a funny, wiggly, bright and creative boy.

Evan and I couldn't ask for a better Dylan.

Gutter Days

On a relatively recent September morning, Simon and I returned from dropping off Amelia and Dylan at school.  It happened to be a rainy morning and I didn't close the garage immediately after we pulled in, so Simon, still clad in his pajamas (complete with sagging diaper from the night before) decided it was a good time to play in the gutter.

(I should probably mention that I was likewise still dressed in my pajamas, but I think the school personnel as well as my neighbors have grown accustomed to seeing me in plaid pajama bottoms and a t-shirt well into the morning. I drop the kids off, pull in the recycle bin, wash my windows and water the plants all in pajamas.  And of course this is all in my front yard.  I usually try to make it a point to shower and change by the time I pick the kids up in the afternoon.  I mean, what kind of slob do you think I am?)

It wasn't quite as humid that morning as it often is after monsoon rain, so I decided that since it wasn't likely that I'd sweat through every layer I was wearing in 30 seconds, I would tolerate standing out front with my two-year-old who needed to explore the gutter.

The abundance of rain this year has increased the mosquito population like crazy.  Simon's left leg in the above picture is polka dotted with swollen bites.  We are all polka dotted, in fact, despite my attempted vigilance at spraying down every kid before they leave the house. 

Mosquitoes or not, Simon thought the splashing and running was worth the risk.

And it took a good twenty minutes to sweat through every layer.  Ample time for gutter play, I say.