Halloween 2009

Several weeks ago, I was home sick in bed, and Zak took the girls to a Halloween store and helped them pick out their costumes. This is actually a great sociology experiment illustrating just how different Girls' behavior is with their father versus their mother. Had I taken them shopping, they'd have both chosen to be something pink, Disney, or glittery. But because Zak took them, they shopped with a totally different perspective.

Brooke was a dinosaur (ROAR!), but refused to wear the head piece after the first 3 minutes.

She and Maddie "practiced" trick or treating for a few days leading up to the big event, and Brooke learned to ROAR! on command.

Maddie was Spider Girl, and is pictured here trying to make spider webs come out of her wrists.

So, I'll admit the costume was semi-girly (with a blue glittery skirt and sleeves), but she was a super hero! That's a big step for her!

Maddie ran so fast from house to house, that I hardly got any good pictures of her trick or treating with her friends. Brooke was a tad bit apprehensive, but after seeing what happens when you say "TRICK OR TREAT!" we couldn't wipe the smile off her face.

(OMG! Candy! They gave me candy!")

Unless there was a dog at the house...she jumped and ran the first time someone answered the door with a dog. She then pointed and yelled, "There's a doggy at that house!" as if accusing them of some major crime.

Zak's mom, Grandma, came with us. This was our first Halloween in San Antonio where we weren't sweating in 80 degree weather, but instead could have used jackets (!). Zak insisted on t-shirt and flip flops, and the girls wouldn't even think about covering their costumes. It was a clear and beautiful 60 degrees with a full moon to boot!

We only lasted about an hour (down our street and two cul-de-sacs) before Maddie decided that she wanted to go home and hand out candy. She was a bit confused about who was "covering our house" while we were out. She was so into greeting the other kids and handing out candy, that when we ran out of candy, she decided to give some of hers away so she could keep at it! This was, of course, after Zak and I schooled her on "good candy vs. bad candy."

This is the first year that we didn't carve our pumpkins. We simply ran out of time on Saturday, and it's something that Maddie and Brooke really are too young for anyway. We woke up on Sunday morning to find all of our formerly intact pumpkins smashed in our street (Hey, punk teenager in the Colt McCoy costume, we know it was you! Tool!). The Girls were very sad about this since they spent the previous weekend painting them.

Does not compute

Brooke is hard at work on the computer and threw a ROYAL tantrum when I made her leave my office.

The funny thing about this pant-less picture of Brooke is that one day she'll be all, "Ugh, Mom! That computer is, like, so old. I can't believe you sat there working in your office when you could be computing/studying/listen to music/texting from these iglasses (or worse, an ichip implanted in our ibrains). You are sooooo 2009."

*rolls eyes and stomps away*

Bedtime

Ahhhh, bedtime....it's either always a very good experience or a very bad experience. Not much gray area when it comes to the hours in our house between 6:30-7:45 p.m. Here is what we do every night:

Eat Dinner--we each take turns sharing our favorite part of the day.
Bath--girls bathe together in their bathroom
Bedtime stories--first Brooke, then Maddie about 30 minutes later

Seems simple, right? Oh, but it has the possibility at each moment to cause a stream of tears and whining from who gets the red colored gummy vitamin to who gets to sit next to the faucet. It can be a perfect storm really because our rigid routine is coupled with two tired girls. Most parenting "experts" will tell you to keep routine in a child's schedule for their own sense of security in the world, but is there such thing as too much routine?

I'm getting off topic a bit....the real reason for this post is to preserve what I consider to be very intimate moments with our girls. Sometimes only Zak and I get to see this true-to-nature aspect of their personalities, but in tonight's "perfect storm" we hit the jackpot AND I got it on video.

This was shot in Maddie's room (even though it was supposed to be Brooke's story time), and because the girls were getting along very well, I decided to ask Maddie to read her very favorite book to her sister, Snug House, Bug House:




Then, Brooke wanted to read her very favorite book, but she decided to put on her silly act:



Brooke finally decides to go ahead and read her book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?



Everyone went to bed with a smile on their face.

My Little Rascal

Brooke's hair is getting LOOOONNNGGG. Her teachers at school are always coming up with hairstyles...ones that Brooke would NEVER let me attempt. The girl barely let's me comb it! Zak has always enjoyed inventing new shampoo hair styles to entertain the girls in the bathtub.

Behold the Alfalfa:

Looking for a place to crash

Apparently Maddie is ready to move out because I found this in her room today:


I showed Zak, and he said that every time he takes the girls to McDonalds, she likes to pick one up and take it home.

It's particularly funny because she has been having these long conversations with me lately about how she doesn't ever want to leave me, and that she wants to be with me FOREVER even after she "goes to college and gets married to Mason A."

I tell her that in just a few short years she won't even want to look at me, and she will want to leave and go to college far far away. And all OH MY GOD Mother, are you really wearing that to Target? She insists that this will never be the case, and doesn't even understand why she'd ever feel this way. Hormones, I tell her.

Do you think she'll want to take her Dora The Explorer sheets and her Pink Sparkle Magic Unicorn with her?

Bee Mountian

Zak and I take turns reading the Girls two books every night. Like all excellent parents, we try to find the shortest book possible to read so we're not there all night long. (Admit it....you do/did the same thing!).

Recently, part of reading her favorite "ABC" book is that I make her tell me what she sees (and occasionally if Maddie is there, she'll tell us what the letter sounds like). Brooke likes to provide details about the pictures, so last week she narrated this page:


Brooke: "A is for Apple... and there is a stem and a gwwween weaf."

Me: "Good job, what color and shape is that apple?"

Brooke: "RED CIRCLE!"

Me: "What's the next letter?"

Brooke: "B is for Brooke, and BEES, and a BEE MOUNTAIN!"

Your mama

Maddie brought home this picture from school the other day, and I asked her to tell me about it.

"It's you, Mom! I drew a picture of you because I love you so much, and think about you all the time."

Isn't she the sweetest?

I was, I must admit, a little disappointed with my extraordinarily circular face and blue nose. Also, my shoulders are much more shapely than that due to the extensive delt work I do at the gym. And, I NEVER wear horizontal stripes because every woman knows that it will make you look fat(ter), so....

At least she drew a smile on me! That makes me feel 100X better in the mothering department. I can only assume that she must occasionally see me smile!

I do also love my long eyelashes. The Latisse must be working!