First pigtail

She was so proud. Maybe by the time she's three she will have sufficient hair for two pigs!

Merry Christmas!

I insist that you have a happy holiday!

We are having a great day and wish you a Merry Christmas from Corning.

"sugar" cookies

While I went to yoga this morning, the kids stayed home with Daddy and made cookies out of their new play-doh (which was supposed to be a Christmas present ... I should learn to hide things better!) We made REAL sugar cookies yesterday and unlike me, they must have been in the mood to make more. Maybe next year we'll try out some of these cool frosting colors!

Merry Christmas eve-eve-eve! says a very serious Tess.

MMMMM!

Granddad jams

Finn loves it when I tell him he looks like granddad in these pajamas. He's even holding the paper for the full effect!!

Silent Night

The first in what will hopefully be a series of impromptu holiday recitals by our little songbird.

Art

I'm looking for a little bit if levity after hearing about sad things happening to good people and lo and behold, I stumbled upon the Sock Santa that Finn made last year in school. I think he needs his own Etsy store.

Transcript

I was typing sneakily while Finn was using the bathroom, because I really wanted to give you an idea of what we talk about every day:

Slimey and Wormey live in a house that's even bigger than ours. They don't know if the public is the right type of buildings that they need if they use cranes, so they use bucket trucks that they just SLAM onto the wet concrete foundation and stick the wood on the concrete and add grout if you want to put tile there. And they build all of the skyscrapers and hotels and Dollar Trees and houses in all of the North Carolina. The New York City. The Corning. They need cranes for all of the skyscrapers. And then on Christmas they eat cake with their family. They celebrate every day with the star on top of the tree and they make the cake and Slimey buys some and Wormey and the others make the cake. All five of them. Wormey, Slimey, their sister and their mom and dad. So that's five. Two and two make four. One and two and two make five. That's five.

bedtime

It has taken years, but we now have some nice bedtime rituals. Finn rarely takes a nap anymore so by 7:15 he is so exhausted that he sometimes asks to go to bed. We've been reading "Charlotte's Web" in the evenings but lately he's been too tired to even listen to me read.

Tess, on the other hand, wants to read books and cuddle on the sofa and say good night to the world and talk about the current phase of the moon with me, followed by fifteen minutes of songs in the rocking chair with Andrew. It is hilarious listening to her dictate what to sing to him ... translations are in parentheses.

Andrew: What would you like me to sing?
Tess: WISE MEN! [I Can't Help Falling in Love with You.]

A: What would you like next?
T: MAMA PAJAMAS. [Me & Julio Down by the Schoolyard.]

A: Ok, last song...
T: Holy Child (yawn, thumb in mouth, so very drowsy.) [Silent Night.]

Good Night.

Tree trim

We had a nice and busy holiday weekend. Ate turkey, begged for more of aunt heather's pie from cousin emily, had great family time, slept in a bit (all the way to 7am) and put up the tree! Also went to the glass museum sale and are getting geared up for the Christmas season. Please pray that our tree remains upright for the rest of the year. These kids are worse than kittens!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you all a lovely and warm holiday.

seriously

[3 pm, in car, listening to "Exile on Main Street" ... again. Per both kids' request.]
Finn: Is this four guys?
Me: Yes, it's four guys.
F: Is one of them a drummer?
Me: Yes. He's a serious drummer.
F: (quietly) I'm a serious drummer.

little mayor

We often call Finn "the little mayor" because some of his personality traits lead us to believe that he'll have a future in public service - the winning smile, the great head of hair, never meets a stranger (unless stranger is walking a dog in which case, sayonara), his ability to delegate ("Stand there on that rug; I have a few things to tell you while I go to the bathroom") and negotiate ("I only need six pieces of candy. Ok, four. Ok, three it is.")

However, I've realized before and was reminded again today while in the kitchen making soup and listening to this conversation through the window, that he probably won't get too far thanks - and thankfully - to his complete and utter inability to lie. Then again, he's only four. There's time to learn.

Daddy: You guys need to stop throwing rocks into the lawn. I mean it. Finn, did you hear me?
Finn: It was Tess's fault.
Tess: I'm so sorry, Daddy. I threw the rocks.
Finn: (sigh) I encouraged her.

Sundays

The kids love Sundays because it means a "day off" from the drudgery of everyday life in the coal mines and garment factories. We are going to be outside ALL afternoon enjoying one of our scarce almost-70 degree days.

Here is a photo of Tess in song. She loves to sing... We are still working on the words to Silent Night though as she keeps talking about the holy child in danger.

This morning Finn burst in at 7:01 saying, "can you believe we all slept in til seven-zero-zero???!!!" It was pretty great actually!

City Trip

We went down to New York City last week for a quick visit (pre-Sandy; thank goodness and also, we are sad for our friends without electricity or even worse, their homes). We had a fun if not very relaxing few days, saw lots of friends, though not as many as i had ambitiously planned to see, and of course top billing goes to Aunt Heather for watching the kids while I got m y haircut and now feel like myself for the first time since 2009.

First subway ride (appropriately, the 1 train - also my first subway experience.)

First cab ride.

Aunt Heather helping Finn with his first papaya hot dog.

Madison Square Park!

Loving the big city playground.

We stayed at Andrew's cousin's apartment, a full-service building with a PLAYROOM that had a BALL PIT! Finn said that his favorite things about NYC were, in order: The ball pit, the skyscrapers and the Lincoln Tunnel.

Brooklyn dinner parties are TOUGH WORK.

Halloween!

Our very adorable snowy owl and very happy crane with wrecking ball had a super fun Halloween! The weather wasn't great but we went to see a few neighbors, now I'd like another excuse for them to wear these costumes ASAP. Thanks to Mimi and Papa for their costume-making talent.

Last-minute crane fix with Snowy Owl.

I love the Owl's pose in the background.

Snowy Owl <3 p="p">

Happy Crane!

They look the same, but...

Me: We are all going to New York City tomorrow and we're going to see lots of friends! And we will go to parks and see the High Line.
Tess: (gasp) The High Line?! GREAT!!!!
Finn: I'm going to stay home and play trucks.

serious princess

This might be my new favorite picture, despite her quasi-sullen expression. Thanks to my friend Jennifer (mom of the little girl with the princess birthday party) for forwarding this one along.

Requisite fall photos

Leftovers

[This morning, 6:50 a.m.]

Me: What would you like for breakfast?
Tess: Oh, probably brussel sprouts.
Me: Ummm ... ok. Anything else?
Tess: No, just those.

As it turns out, we were all out of brussel sprouts so she had to settle for hot oats once again.

Brrr

Finn's 4s and 5s had a soccer game at 8:30 am. It's 26 brisk degrees out here! Good times.

Someone else's party

Last weekend the kids were invited to a birthday party of one of Finn's classmates. The theme was "princesses and pirates" and it was amazing. Also amazing was the fact that Tess borrowed this dress from the "Royal Closet," then disposed of it willingly into the "Royal Laundry" and hasn't mentioned it again since. Perhaps she's immune to princesses? Although I might take princesses over more trucks.

This photo speaks volumes about who was more excited.

In Finn's defense, he just wanted to get to the bouncy house in the backyard.

This was so adorable. Tess thought this girl (who was a friend of the birthday girl's older sister) was a real princess, and she followed her around for like an hour. And the girl was SO sweet!

Favorite.

Dinner Serenade

She takes her craft very seriously.

This was after dinner - she jumped out of her chair to sing us a song!

Toddler two's Tessie

She was more than ready to start the toddler program at Montessori today but wow! Tess is in school! As I sit here in the car waiting to pick her up it's feeling a little surreal. She gave me a hug on her way in the door and didn't look back.

Running to the front door!

Outside the classroom, she found a photo of herself at orientation.

Before leaving home, mini boden catalog in hand.

(sorry these are a little out of sequence.)

Finn wanted his photo taken too, until he didn't...

Handsome Boy

Soccer

Finn is doing the 4/5 yr olds' soccer this fall at the Y. Hopefully he will get a little more enthusiastic as the season rolls on, because I selfishly really enjoy watching little kids play soccer. Although maybe not at 8:15 on a drizzly Saturday morning.

Breakfast

Me: What would you like to eat?
Tess: Something that's great.
Me: Could you be more specific?
Tess: OATS! (arms up in victory stance, running out of the kitchen.)

She makes Mondays that much more palatable!

PreK2

Look out, world!!

Happy Birthday Granddad

Our post is one day late but we wanted to show you some photos of the fun time we had at Granddad and Granny's house last month. Hmm. Maybe some more blog posts are in order ... working really gets in the way of my social media ...

Anyway, we hope you had a terrific birthday! Tess was still laughing about the "cub in the tree story" an hour later. We love you.

Overhead in the car

Dear Jesus, please have matchbox start making toy asphalt reclaimers and pavers. Either wheels or tracks is ok. Amen. Oh. I forgot. Now. 'Cause we're on our way to Target. Amen.

Late Summer

We love this time of year. It's so mellow, the mornings are cool, and there's the anticipation of school for both of them this year as Tess is starting the toddler program in a few weeks. We also need to buy some mums.

Me: ugh, we have to get some new flowers this weekend.
Tess: I know, those purple flowers are gross.

Papa's birthday at the Fair

We spent Saturday morning at the Spencer Picnic and parade. When Papa was growing up he went to this annual event with his family so we thought it would be fun to spend his birthday there. We had a great time! The kids got way more than their full of candy and Tess ride the world's scariest roundabout!

Happy birthday Papa!

Teamwork

Since vacation ended, the kids have been getting along quite well, which almost makes up for the fact that Tess has only slept through the night twice...

This morning she spilled a cup of water on the floor, after which she uttered a halfhearted "sorry I didn't mean to," and then Finn ran to the rescue with a dishcloth and a sigh, Tess, why do you always make so much work for me?!" hmm, can't imagine where he has heard ithat before!

Great Wolf Birthday

We are almost home from our 2012 road trip and today is Finn's 4TH birthday!!

Last night we stopped in Sandusky, Ohio at the Great Wolf Lodge. We hadn't been to one but basically what you get with the room is admission to an indoor water park, which was just the ticket after a long day in the car.

Poor Finn appears to have some sort of sinus infection that we hope to have resolved at a doctors appointment this afternoon (then hopefully to the pool.)

Happy Birthday Finn! You're our favorite boy in the whole wide world.