at long last...

So, here's the rest of my favs from this session. Thanks for your patience, Mel. Hope you think they were worth the wait!

And nothing against the yummy little bundle of Murdoch who happens to be absent from this next photo, but this is my all-time favorite for today:
Definitely going on my website! Thanks again, guys!

how true it is .... you buy them the toys and all they want to play with is the box.

So, the people who sold us our house left this giant exercise ball in the basement. It's not really a treasure as it's mostly flat but the kids were thrilled to pieces to find it when we moved in. We let them keep it around for no particular reason except that we just couldn't face the screaming we know would ensue if it disappeared. It's got just enough air in it to bounce if they are both on it at the same time. Let's demonstrate how to play together:

Ahhhh, how sweet they are. Then, when your pain-in-the-butt sister decides to pull the ball out from under you:


But he's no dummy. She forgets he catches on fast and can return the favor:



Then he walks in front of you just as mom takes the photo:
At least we can be blessed by the fact that they play so well together. And he's finally old enough that the torture comes from both sides!

Melissa & Kevin - sneak peek

Mel, this is the one I finished for the directory - he was so alert that I just had to use it!

And for the rest of you who haven't met this little blessing yet, just a short few months ago he was hiding in here:

More to come very soon, I promise!

Ode to Josiah

So, recently overheard during a call to Poison Control:

PC Operator: Poison Control, may I help you?

Me: Hopefully. I just discovered my 15-month old son has been chewing on an ant trap.

PC Operator: How is he acting?

Me: Pretty much normally. The only reason I'm concerned is that he brought the trap to me and there was slobber all over the outer casing. I have no idea if he actually sucked on it to get the stuff out or if he was just chewing on the outside.

PC Operator: Usually those traps have a food-based product to attract the ants, and only a small amount of actual poison in them. Do you know what kind of trap it was?

Me: No, we were at our church and he got it out of the kitchen. I don't know what brand they are, but they are the round kind with the flat square base. I've washed his mouth out and his hands and scraped his tongue but I just wanted to be sure that if he did get any of the stuff out that he'd be okay.

PC Operator: Well, from our database and your description of the trap, I think he'll be fine. That particular kind only use about 1% poison to the 99% peanut butter product so even if he did ingest any he should be fine. If he vomits once or twice he should still be okay (Me thinking: WHAT??) and usually the effects either manifest or pass within 2 hours of contact. But feel free to call us back if any symptoms persist after that time.

Me: Okay.

Yep, that was our morning. See if I let him play by himself again any time soon. At least it was my kid . . . if it was someone else's kid they might have gotten upset that the church had those traps out. Needless to say we won't be using that type of ant-killing product anymore at the church . . . and it's getting so cold here that most vermin are dying for the winter anyways.

Kev says this is just the sort of thing I get to look forward to now that I have a boy. Gennie got into her own set of troubles but nothing like this. It still astounds me that I actually have a son. On my mom's side, he's the first male child in more than 70 years. My mom's dad was an only child; mom's mom had one brother (hence the 70 years thing); mom has 2 other sisters; one is not married, one has 3 girls, and mom had 2 girls. Apparently boys just weren't in the cards. When Kev and I came home from the ultrasound and told my mom and dad that we were having a boy, mom just about fell down the garage stairs in her hurry to hug us. Now, even 15 months after he arrived, I still expect to take off his diaper during a change and find that nope, just kidding, it's a girl! (He'll love that when he's older -- I should put this post in his baby book.)

That reminds me of another "overheard conversation," in the hospital room on the day he was born:

Gennie: I can help you change his drawers. Wait, what is that?

Me: That's where his belly button will be. That nasty black thing will fall off and when it's all healed up his belly button will be there instead.

Gennie: No, I mean THAT!!

Me: Oh, um, well, that's his boy parts.

Gennie: Oh. When does that fall off?

preschool year 2

So, I thought she did a way better job this year than last. We started talking about preschool photos really early so we wouldn't have the complete breakdown that we did last year when she refused to be consoled until I told the photog lady that I, too, am a photog and could I just click the button so she'll stop crying? Still not sure what caused that ridiculous meltdown. This year I couldn't stick around like I did last time because I had Josiah in the car, but little did she know that since there was no waiting in line I did peek back in and make sure she was okay. She just climbed up there and posed like a pro . . . snap, snap, snap . . . and she was back to playing with her friends. The group photo was a kick in that she was peeking down the line at her friend and not looking at the camera, and it turned out that her friend had her eyes closed at the time -- not their best work. I'm kinda wondering what the photog was thinking by printing that photo as the final hand-out one . . . with 22 kids to work with you'd think she'd have taken a bunch of shots . . . could that have been the best one, really? Oh well, I'm just glad I didn't bid the job this year. I had planned on it but I'm kinda moving away from doing big set-ups like that . . . I'm still more than willing to do it occasionally but I like the closeness of single-client sessions better. You get to know the people much better, and they get to know me.

Sorry the photo quality is kinda bad - it's a scan of one of the prints. But don't worry -- I'll be sending out fall portraits of both kids with our Christmas cards this year.

a tale as old as time

So, I got a new stove. Those of you who are here know the story but for the fam who haven't heard, here it goes. In reality, you all know the story:

-Boy comes home from work in a bad mood.

-Girl misreads him, thinks it's her fault, and keeps pestering him to find out what's wrong.

-Boy gets madder and refuses to speak to Girl.

-Girl, fed up with Boy's crap, takes a saucepan and slams it down on their glass-top stove.

-Stove shatters.

-Boy gets over himself and has a good laugh over the random, almost-never-seen temper tantrum of Girl.

-Girl calls repair place and finds out that stove-top can't be replaced.

-Girl has the "privilege" of buying a new stove.

See, it's an age-old story, right? The stove came with the purchase of the house so it's not like it was a huge loss, except that I had other things I wanted to spend business money on. Kev's only comment about the whole thing was "You were in a kitchen filled with unbreakable counter tops and a stainless sink - and you decide to attack the Glass-Topped Stove?!?!" Yeah, maybe not my best moment.

But out of it all I got this beautiful new stove:

I love it. It matches our fridge and eventually we'd like to switch all the appliances out to stainless steel and black . . . I just thought I'd do my part to move that plan along. :) And using the old one for several months now has proven to us that the glass-top thing is really overrated. It didn't heat evenly, was a pain to scrub when something boiled over and the oven had to be used carefully so the glass didn't get a thermal crack in it. Not a fan.

Now when Kev starts smarting off I just have to say, "Don't make me get my pot!" Wonder how long that will work.....

A nod to the Great Pumpkin

So, here's our halloween. We went out t-or-t-ing with Kellhofers then went back to their house for chili-cheese fries and cookie decorating. May I present Cinderella:

And Charlie Brown:

Yes, I put together his outfit that afternoon. I was planning something else entirely but couldn't find all the parts for it . . . I need a Target!!! . . . and since I was sick the whole week before halloween I just didn't get it together in time. So he and I made a run to Wally World while Gennie was at school and we got the stuff for Charlie Brown. And yes, the black squiggle doesn't meet on the sides but at least he had a costume, right? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Our usual suspects . . . with Avah the pirate and Ethan the cow:

Josiah wasn't impressed with the whole trick or treating thing . . . at the first place when the man opened the screen to hand out the candy Josiah screamed like a banchee and refused to get down so we took turns carrying him the rest of the way:

And the cookies. They always taste better when they sit on the counter overnight and then, providing that the dog doesn't climb up and steal them in the night, you eat them the next day. Gennie decorated a pumpkin and a ghost:

And all the candy corn you can eat . . . which is my favorite part, along with the roasted pumpkin seeds . . . that I still have to roast. I should get on that.