tiny dancer

(pre)School's out for summer

Preschool ended last week with Graduation, and since I believe we discussed last time how I feel about calling the end of preschool "graduation," we'll move ahead to where I talk about what a great job William did.


After a bumpy arrival William marched up with his class and sat on his seat and performed the entire program beautifully.


He sang the songs, and did the actions.


"If all the raindrops were lemondrops and gumdrops:"






































(such a William face, here:)







































William's teachers loved him. (We were late one morning and I told Miss Heather it was because he pitched a tantrum. She was incredulous. "I can't imagine him having a temper at all," said she, "he is so sweet and polite all the time!" )



Truthfully, William is so sweet and so polite. This year he has been brave and smart and kind. I am proud of everything he is doing (except for getting long and turning into a kid, that kind of breaks my heart).








































Good work, bubbs.



I couldn't possibly love you more.

baby Gray

(I took these back in December, and just barely finished going through them.) (I am great, and not at all delinquent.)

christmas spirit

Yesterday was the school sing at Michael's elementary. He was extremely excited for us to come watch him perform. He talked about it all week long, and reminded me repeatedly when to be there.

For someone so excited, he looked awfully serious. (He also looked awfully handsome.) (Although please note, I did talk him out of wearing this full three-piece suit. "But I am supposed to look handsome," he told me.)

Nothing like watching a bunch of 5-year-olds sing Feliz Navidad with homemade maracas to warm my grinchy heart.

grandma

hey, remember when this used to be a picture blog?
that was awesome.

everything you need to know about self-esteem, you could learn from William

"Mom! MOM! Today at preschool, I JUMPED, jumped high on my KNEES and went down the SLIDE, it was so funny, Mom."



"sounds funny."



"Yep. Yep, it was. And I jumped like this, and slid down on my knees, and EVERYONE was in the room, they all saw. it was SO FUNNY."



"and everyone laughed?"



"No. I think they were all sick."

he's not going to love this story one day

Months ago, after I tucked Michael into bed one night he told me, "When I grow up, I'm going to get married in the temple and have babies."

"Yes," I replied, "I think that's a good idea."

"I think I'll marry you, Mom," he said, and smiled his most charming smile. it made me sad, for moment, all that beautiful transient love, but I smiled, too.

"You can't marry me!" I exclaimed. "I'm already married to Daddy. You'll have to marry someone else."

"Oh," he said. He thought very seriously for a moment. "Maybe I'll marry Ivy," he suggested.

"No, that won't work either. Ivy is your sister. You can't marry your sister."

He looked at me. "Abby?" he tried. "Maddie?"

"No, sorry. They're already part of your family. You marry someone who's not part of your family and you start a new family. Then you get to have two families." I thought for a moment and added, "Three, if you have good in-laws."

He brushed past that. "Then WHO am I going to marry, Mom?" he asked in exasperation.

"Well...I guess you could marry Katelyn, or Maddie from sunbeams, or Mia, or Mara--she likes you. But probably you'll marry someone you don't even know yet, someone you won't meet for a long time."

He thought about that for a minute, then nodded and sighed.

"I guess I'll marry Mara," he said.

and that was the end of that.


kind of.

Because I did what I think many people would do in this situation: I told Mara's mom about the conversation the next time I saw her.


And she told Mara about the conversation.


And Mara was delighted.


Yesterday, Mara came to play at our house for the first time in months. She was a little shy at first, but soon they were running around like usual. They ran upstairs and I could hear them jumping off the beds and laughing. A little while later, Mara came creeping down to find me.


"Hi, Mara," I said. "What are you guys doing upstairs?"


She smiled, a secretive, excited smile. "We were getting married," she told me.


"Oh, really?" I replied.

"Not really married, just pretend married," she said. "And then we twirled around and around until we were dizzy and fell down." She laughed and demonstrated the falling down, laying on the floor in ecstasy, an enormous grin on her face. "It was so wonderful."


Oh, the effect this boy has on us ladies.

storytime

after we clean up the toys, Michael and William go sit on the couch in our darkening family room, whispering to each other and giggling. "Come sit with us, Mom," Michael calls after a moment. "I'll tell you a funny story."

"Me, too," adds William. "I'll tell a story, too."
So I settle down between them to listen.

Michael's Story: I went to bed and I heard something outside my window and it was morning. It was a bird singing. So I went outside and the bird was eating a COOKIE. And while the bird was looking at something else I sneaked over very quietly and I took the cookie and I ate it, and the bird looked back but she thought I was eating a grape and she didn't know I ate her cookie...

(Me: I feel sad for the bird. I bet she was sad that her cookie was all gone.)

...so then I came inside and I sat on the couch and I thought 'what Jesus would like to do' and I felt in my heart, and I hurried and made more cookies and took it outside and then we were all Happily Ever After.

William's Story: We're driving in the car and Mom is trying to give me a granola bar, but then it's too messy so instead she gives me a mango. Two mangos. Then she gives me lots of mangos and a cookie and I eat them all gone in my tummy, they are so delicious. the end. BEEP BEEP.

all three

studio time

After my friend Natalie finished her new studio, she very generously invited me over to play with it:
(she also took this picture of me from behind. I suspect she picked up my camera and thought, "I wonder if this thing actually works?" before taking a test click.)





she even let me shoot with her camera, since mine is a wreck and really ought to be retired.



I have a serious case of camera envy now.
also, a serious bias towards black and whites with a lot of gray. I don't know if you've noticed.
let's talk about how handsome Michael is for a second.

and now, for all the people who tell me I never put pictures of Ivy on my blog:

take that.
much more from this shoot later.

Thank you, Natalie!

confession

sometimes Chris and I wake Ivy up in the middle of the night just to play with her.

crushing my writer's block with an iron fist, OH YES

I've been trying to think of something to post about for two days, and have come to the AMAZING and TOTALLY ORIGINAL conclusion that it is easier to write when life is stupid than when life is super awesome. and the last two weeks of November were really super awesome, so what did that leave me to write about? NOTHING.

lucky for you, Ivy spiked a temperature yesterday, I woke up this morning feeling decidedly less-awesome-than-before, and my kids have already heard me swear twice today. so. yay! we can now return to our previously scheduled complaining posting.

my camera and I are in a fight. We have been in a fight for about a month now, and everytime I mention it to someone they ask me who's winning, only it's not that kind of fight. It's the kind of preteen-girl-hissy-fight that has no winners, only an endless supply of pain and evil. This is why I took no pictures of our Thanksgiving. I did, however, take pictures of some of my relatives who were around, and while only half of them turned out the way they should (YOU ARE STUPID, CAMERA) look how pretty some of them are:

definition

So tonight I looked up the word nemesis. (Because sometimes I get suspicious that words don't mean exactly what I think they mean) (and tonight was one of those times)

nemesis:

1. something that a person cannot conquer, achieve, etc.
2. an opponent or rival who a person cannot best or overcome
3. an agent or act of retribution or punishment.


huh.
well.

I guess this means I have a nemesis.

and his name is William.

because William is kicking my ass.

and my dad is pretty sure I had it coming.




we will now return to our previously scheduled non-posting.

in case you missed it

legs

one day chums

yesterday I went to lunch with my friend Caro, who is in town briefly:


we have been friends for 12 years.

12 YEARS.

that might be my longest relationship ever.

(excepting family, of course.)

Caro is an art-historian nursing student, who sometimes moonlights writing video game copy. She once wrote me an email where she was like, "There's a romance writers convention in town, so I decided to go. (You wouldn't believe how many saucy grandma's there are out there.)" And by the end of her email, I had basically concluded that my life would never be complete if I didn't attend at least one romance writers convention.

such is her power. and now I bet you wish you knew her, too.

belated

I've been putting off writing about Michael's fourth birthday because I don't know what to say.

should I be funny? should I be serious? should I go ahead and make everyone gag with the force of my maternal love?

what should I say?

I still don't know.

but Michael, I love you.

and someday you won't love me nearly as much as you do now. (probably someday soon.)

You will find me irritating and embarrassing.

deeply disappointing.

and that's okay. (although it might break my heart a little bit. for awhile.)



but I will always love you, just the same, just as much as I did four years ago when they put you on my chest, this crying, bloody, tiny little bundle.

happy (very late) birthday.