Back-to-school night and other snippets

The boys start in the 3s class on Monday and last night we went to back-to-school night.

This one was much better than last year's - easy-going, warm and familiar. But I knew it would be because I know the 3s teacher and really, really like her. Miss Michelle is all the things you want a pre-school teacher to be -- and as a bonus, she is a real fixture in our neighborhood, so we see her at the Red Canoe and at community clean-ups etc.  It makes me trust her investment in this community and the kids who live in it. So I think this will be a great year for Cary and Dean!

Dean squeezes his friend Marcus.

I love the green in the boys' new school sneakers. I don't love the green it cost to buy them.

Also, lots of their friends (including Marcus) from last year came back, and -- even better -- our friends Maya and Abby will be in their class this year! Yay!

Earlier in the summer, we all got together at Koco's for dinner. The kids played and had Popsicles. Yum!

 One of the things that Miss Michelle says she will be working on with the 3-year-olds this year is "responsibility." Everyone will have rotating "jobs" in the class. That makes my heart sing, because my boys need responsibility. One REALLY needs it.

Take a look at the difference in how the boys handle their clothes when they take them off at night to get into their pajamas.

This is what Dean does when he takes off his clothes.

This is what SOMEONE ELSE does when he takes off his clothes (after being badgered to stop reading and put.on.your. pajamas. right. NOW!) Note: I'm not saying his name so as not to embarrass him in the future. See what a good Mom I am?

In other fun bits, the boys continue to crack me up with the things they say and think.

Here are a few examples:

Cary (out-of-nowhere): Mommy, if Dean was in your tummy, how could you eat?!
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Dean: Mommy, is your boss Tom?
Me: Yes.
Dean: Is he a train? Or a man?
Me: He's a man.
Dean: (looks disappointed; walks away)
{My poor son thought I got to work with Thomas the Train everyday.}
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Boys, spying Brownie Bites on the kitchen counter (leftover from a board meeting):
Dean: Mommy, can we have brownies with breakfast?!
Me: Nooooo. No brownies with breakfast.
Dean: Can we have brownies after breakfast?
Me: Noooo. No brownies after breakfast either.
Dean: Pleeeease.
Me: Nooooooo.
Cary: Pleeeeease.
Me: Noooooo.
Dean: Hey! What if I give you five bucks?!
Cary: My cousin Herb drives a brownie!!
{I cracked up at my boys "quoting" Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. They were so cute, even using the "pigeon voice" we use when we read he book, I almost gave them a brownie. Almost.}
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Overheard from their bedroom:
Cary: Nooo, Big Bad Wolf! Why are you not being nice, Big Bad Wolf?
Dean: Ummm, because I want to come in!
Cary: OK. You can come in!
Dean: OK. Thank you!
{I love that my boys reimagined a peaceful ending to the Three Little Pigs!}
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This weekend, we're going to Dylan's 3rd birthday party (Happy birthday, Dylan!), and we'll meet our new soccer friends at a kick-off-the-season Pancake Breakfast at the school. In fact, I have to go this weekend to buy shin guards for them. Shin guards!

Get prepared for lots of soccer photos to come!

Photo recap of the last several days

I've been crazy busy at work, trying to pull together a publication for a client. And Superstorm Sandy threw a monkey wrench in everything. So I haven't had time to blog.

But I wanted to make sure I'm keeping good record of what's going on in the life of the Davises. With no time to write, what's a girl to do? Post photos of course!

First of all, during Superstorm Sandy, when it rained -- HARD -- for three days straight, I tried to find lots of things to do to keep the kiddos busy.  You know how I was worried about storm preparation? Turns out this is the only storm prep anyone ever really needs.

Oh yeah!

And lest you think that we spent the three days singing songs and playing Play-Doh and baking stuff like the Partridge Family, please know that by the end of the three days inside with the Crazies, I was ready to ship them in a box to Sri Lanka. (My friend Angel's family is from there, so at least I know someone would feed them.)

Doesn't this photo look like it's from the 70s? Cary even has an Afro.

 Sara decided that she is a baby and constantly tries to wiggle in between the actual babies when we're all piled up together on the couch or on the floor. Here she is in Clair's highchair, which is her new favorite place to sit, hang out or nap.

Do you want some rice cereal and sweet potatoes, little Baby Sara?

 On Halloween, the kids did not go trick-or-treating because I am lazy (I am answering a question from Beth) and also because they still think it is really fun to hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters who come to our door. And we get a fair amount, actually, which is surprising since I am one of only two houses on the whole block that even decorates for Halloween. And by "decorate," I mean put some pumpkins on the porch.

Clair is hanging right along with them! Look at her!

I would be remiss if I didn't point out that Dean ADORES handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. He yells "Trick or Treat!" and slams candy in their bags, and then waves, "Hiiii!' Even the kids think he is adorable. Cary, on the other hand, who now knows that every piece of candy going out the door is one less piece of candy for him, sulks, pouts and scowls at the trick-or-treaters, refusing to hand over the candy he's clutching in his little hand. He still likes for them to come to the door -- nearly falls over himself running to see them -- but he is no fan of sharing the Halloween bounty. Unh-unh.

Look Mommy! We have BIG muscles!

Fun with PicFrame! (Bet you thought I forgot about that!) Kids in PJs on Halloween night, hopped up on lollipops and other goodies (well, not Clair) making Mommy and Daddy sooooo ready for them to go to bed.

The lines in Baltimore for early voting have been crazy long, but I managed to sneak out in between two work assignments and do my civic duty. It's impolite to discuss politics, I know, so I'll just say that if my vote has anything to do with it, everyone will be able to get a college education, regardless of where they came from, and all my friends will be able to marry the people they love.

Because of the storm, the kids' Fall Festival and Halloween party got pushed to Thursday and Friday. Lester took Thursday (fall fest) and I took Friday (party). At the fall fest, Lester said the boys were incorrigible and refused to do all the fun crafts. They melted down when it was time to build a scarecrow and they were so hard to deal with the whole time, he was ready for a drink by 10 a.m.

In a text message to me, when he sent this picture, he said, "While the other children were all doing crafts, YOUR children were doing this."

On Friday, at the Halloween party, as soon as Cary saw me, he wanted to go home. So he whined and cried just about the whole time. And because the party got rescheduled, only two other parents and I were able to come help out. So it was a little bit chaotic. But we managed to make a bunch of crafts (more on that later) and eat a bunch of snacks and I was the hit of the party with the kids because I sang them the "Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee" song, which includes vomiting sounds. Kids LOVE that.

I even wore a costume! See -- here I am: Lt. Uhura reporting for duty! I don't think anyone got my costume though. Do people not do Star Trek?

And about those crafts we made ....

Are my children trying to tell me something? Is this a cry for help? Do they need therapy -- at 2 and a half? Arts and Crafts always leaves me with so many questions.

:-)

Celebrating the 4th in a truly American way: Being Lazy and Eating Brownies

We had a lazy, lazy Fourth of July holiday, just hanging around the house, barely getting out of our PJs,  reading, building things with Legos and jumping around on the sofa, giggling. (Some of us older members of the Davis family did not participate in that last part...)

I figured out how to get Dean to smile. Instead of, "Say Cheese!" I say, "Say, leaf-blower!" For some reason, he thinks "leaf-blower" is a hilarious word.

Same for Cary. Except his funny word is "weedwhacker."

Beth gave the boys "Go, Dog, Go!" when she came to visit us back in February. It remains a daily favorite.

Watch out for Clair!!! (I must say that a thousand times a day.) If this baby turns out to be a prissy, dainty thing, I won't have any idea how. Not with these two ruffians constantly pummeling her.

 I also made brownies and let the boys sample them, warm from the oven, before bedtime. Sugary treats are just that -- treats -- at our house, so this was a big deal. I'm pretty sure the Fourth of July is now officially my kids' favorite holiday. Even though they have no idea what fireworks even are. 


And Clair, who had already shown she could roll from tummy to back (at night, mostly, while she is supposed to be sleeping) mastered the back-to-tummy roll, too. Here's a little video Michelle caught of her the day before the holiday. My favorite part is when the boys say, "Yayyy!"
Sibling support is so awesome!

Speaking of Clair, I took this picture of her, which reminded me of photos of myself when I was a baby.

 
So I went searching for a baby pic to see if I was right, but this one was all I could find.

Do you see a resemblance? It's a really poor quality pic of me, I know...but I can sorta see it...

I was 9 months old in this picture, so maybe I'll do this again when Clair's a little older. I'll style her hair like mine and everything. (P.S. You can't tell from the photo, but not only do I have on little gold earrings, I also have on bangles! My family is serious about the baby jewelry, so you can only imagine the reaction when I told them we'd decided not to get her ears pierced. MAMMA Mia!!)

Happy Fourth of July (a day late)!!!

Two babies, two brownies. Twice the craziness, half the patience

Since I last wrote, Cary has decided that he must wake up at 6:15, or 6:00 or even 5:45 a.m. and whine until we're worried he'll wake Dean. So then we put him in our bed for a few minutes or half-hour or so, because I don't get up until 6:30, and he either whines the whole time to get down, tries to pull everything off the nightstands or sometimes -- gloriously -- goes back to sleep!
He is totally adorable in our big bed, swallowed up by pillows, but seriously, I cannot make a habit out of this! The problem is, the alternative is getting up and getting ready for work when HE decides it's time to get up. Either way, the 14-month-old wins. How is that possible?

Also, since I last wrote, Dean has become even more of a handful than he ever was. He is willful, obstinate, defiant and angry. He throws toys when he's mad (which is a lot); he takes his anger out on Cary. He only wants to do what he wants to do at all times. And if you don't do what he wants, watch out! The other day, Lester leaned in to kiss me, and Dean pushed his face away from me as hard as he could, and then yanked my face by my chin to face him. At first, we weren't sure if what we thought happened had really happened, so Lester leaned in to kiss me again, and Dean did it again! My 14-month-old is possessive and jealous, and hits me when he's mad. Helllo...I'm in an abusive relationship!!

Also, Lester and I went to the doctor and discovered that -- Praise the Lord -- there's only one baby in there! Thank God. Seriously. Everything seems to be just fine in there, and we saw the little gummy bear waving its little nubs around. So, I guess I can no longer be in denial. There it is, in black and white, with a little frantic flicker of a heartbeat and an EDD of February 28.

Meanwhile, I've been getting snippy with folks, which is really not in my nature. I wrote a mean comment to a Baltimore Sun editorial, and posted something highly judgmental on a friend's Facebook status. The boys were so insane tonight at dinner, I had to have TWO brownies after they went to bed to chill out. Yes, this was a two-brownie night.

Will I need three brownies after February 28? Something tells me I absolutely will.