peace on earth, or at least in my kitchen

This is the closest thing I've done to Christmas cards, so hey! Merry Christmas! Enjoy gratuitous shots of my children being adorable!



They love each other!

This is where I cut out the picture of Michael trying to push William off the table.

But that's okay, William likes it:

Not posed:

Merry Christmas, everyone.

monster

Good Morning to You, Too

The last couple mornings when I walk into William's room, the first thing he's said to me is,

"Recognize!"

So naturally, I hit back with, "whoa. You better recognize!"

And he always follows up with, "Check Yo'thelf!"

And clearly the only reasonable response to that is, "hey! You check yourself!"

But then he always shoots back, "No!"

...

touche.

And I guess the point is: if anyone is keeping score, I'm pretty sure he's winning.

In Other News:

Ivy and I are headed to Michigan tomorrow for Maggie's graduate recital. laters.

Television**

A few days ago, during Christofer's three-hour break, I asked him to hang the Christmas lights outside our house. He agreed, but needed a ladder first; so he bundled Michael into the car and headed to Home Depot.

He returned, two hours later, with no ladder. Instead he had a television. A BIG television. A big fat THIN television.

"Christofer," I pointed out helpfully, "that is not a ladder."

He laughed. "Isn't it great?"

"Sure," I replied, "it's awesome. But how, exactly, is it going to help PUT LIGHTS ON MY HOUSE?"

Because I am one of those obnoxious people who, when I ask someone to do something, like it to get done. PROMPTLY.

But then that night, while Christofer was still at work, I turned on our brand new TV and watched a DVD.

actually, I watched two DVDs. It was one of those nights.

and BEHOLD. It WORKED.

The color stayed in place.

The DVD didn't skip.

The remote control controlled things remotely.

It was big. and loud. And WONDERFUL.

and I guess what I'm saying here is that after giving him such a hard time about it, I have gone and fallen in love with Christofer's stupid television--so much so that I think we're actually going to go ahead and start getting TV.

Did you know we don't have TV? It's true. We're strictly a DVD-watching family, because, when we moved 15 or 16 months ago, we decided not to get television. I wish I could say we decided against it because of our high moral ideals or our intellectual snobbery -- we eschew such bourgeois pursuits! --but ... no. Our reasons were mostly practical and financial, besides which, isn't everything good shown online anyway?*

But now, if there's a show worth watching, I want to watch it BIG. and LOUD. On my new television. That I love.

so, Thank you Christofer.

...that is all.

*until it gets canceled. Why weren't any of you watching Pushing Daisies? WHY? I hate you.

**I have now typed the word television so many times, it has lost all meaning and sounds ridiculous. Is that even the word? I don't know.

Michael and the Great Glass Elevator

this is why Michael loves the library.

Michael and Ivy (2)

my blue-eyed babies:

Michael and Ivy

computers make my head hurt

I cannot figure out what's going on today. Everytime I load a picture into blogger it becomes desaturated and flat looking.
Above is the SOOC shot. In photoshop and in my viewer it looks more like this, only without the harsh and unattractive skin variations:





















and (in my viewer) THAT picture looks like it was edited by a cracked out monkey.

will somebody PLEASE tell me how to fix this?

'and you better watch out or I might scare you, BOO!'

october

a five-person family

Ella, Shelbie, Ivy

I am having serious resizing issues.

today at the pumpkin patch

cooperation

when they get along, they really get along.

field trip

helicopter

bike

good morning

a little of this, a little of that

You may not have noticed, but posting has been kind of light around here lately. That's mostly because I am Going Through Something. No, actually, I meant I am Going through Something, with italics. I like to call it my ThirdChild Crisis. And when you are Going Through Something like that, you can't just be posting stuff on the internet, willy-nilly.

Because, Woe. It is Crisisful.

It's actually a lot like a Midlife Crisis, only without the money for a little red sports car.

In any event, everything I'm trying to write is crap. Hello and Welcome to my Crisis! I am 27! I have a lot of kids! I am sitting here at 10 p.m. waxing existential to the internet! Because my husband is out of town! And my friends are partying in Disneyland! And my parents are in Hawaii! And my kids won't sit still for a discourse on What It All Means!

But enough about that, you don't want to hear about that, you didn't come here for that. I have deleted my existential musings, and shall opt instead for an embarrassing story: an incident that I found so embarrassing at the tender age of 17, I'd even call it soul-scarring.

When I was a teenager I worked at this total dive of a Mexican restaurant. Forgive me for generalizing, but there were basically two groups of people working there at the time: girls who didn't like me, and illegals with rudimentary English.

So this one evening, I was in the kitchen having a conversation with one of the cooks; and by conversation, I mean he was asking if I liked to dance and drink and go to clubs, mainly by using elaborate hand-gestures.

I liked this cook. He was a really nice guy. And I appreciated the fact that he would try to talk to me, even though I spoke no Spanish and was horribly awkward in my attmepts to communicate. But without the subtleties of actual words, I was having a hard time figuring out just what, exactly, we were talking about. Was he being polite? Was he suggesting I needed to loosen up? Was he asking me out? I had no idea.

And so, craftily utilizing a fail-proof technique I developed for just such awkward occasions, I turned around and left.

I walked out into the dining room, and sat in the back booth with two of the other girls. I was staring at the table, trying to figure out what had just happened, when one of the girls, Katie, tapped me to get my attention.

"Hello!" she said in (condescending) amusement. "Thinking hard?"

"oh. No," I stammered in confusion. "I just ... I don't ... I think Guy maybe was ... hitting on me? I don't know. It was weird."

Katie stared at me for a minute.

And it was uncomfortable.

"I don't know," I mumbled. "Maybe he was just being nice? He's really nice. I don't know. It seemed like he was hitting on me."


The other girl was staring at the table, and Katie was still staring at me. She cleared her throat.

"He was just being nice," she told me. "He's a very friendly person."

And she stood up.

"Oh. well, Okay," I said. "uh ... thanks."

she left.

The girl still sitting at the table looked at me and shook her head. "Liz," she said, "Guy is Katie's boyfriend."

and I died.

The end.

first day of pre-school, a little late

Last Tuesday was Michael's first day of pre-school. He was very excited ... until a few nights before when he became rather nervous and started asking me if it was going to be dark.































Now, he adores everything about it.

Especially his spiderman "backy-packy."



























This is Michael and his second-cousin Louk. Louk is in his class, and Michael told me after the first day that Louk is his best friend. (Then he told me his teacher was his best friend.) (The night before that, he told me Grampy was his best friend.) (He's fickle, that one.)






























We both wish he could go to school every day.

minutiae, Illustrated

so what did you do today?

because I did this:























and bought this:







































further cementing my reputation as a sucker for hairstylists, especially when they use the word "shiny."










































which is hilarious, because even with these products languishing in my drawer, my hair usually looks like this:





















only now, I guess, it looks more like this:

















(I know, I know. but you try making a non-stupid face while taking a picture of yourself in the mirror. it is IMPOSSIBLE.)

... then end.

where did I go?

I haven't posted in a long time because I haven't taken any pictures since the last few I posted--and I haven't taken any pictures since then because my hands have been full.


And you should know I mean that literally, I have no way to hold my camera anymore.


but I did manage to take about four pictures today. Here's one:





William, 18 months

Ivy Elizabeth

s'mores

slip'n'slide