The Chicken or the Egg . . . and a Pickle

We were driving home from school a few days ago and our conversation went like this:
Summer: "Mom, how do they make paper?"
Me: "Ummmmm, well, from wood. Maybe we can watch a video on the computer about it."
Summer: "How do they make wood?"
Me: (feeling a little more confident about this answer than the one before): "Wood grows in trees."
Summer: "How do they make seeds?"
Me: "Seeds grow from plants."
Summer: "Well, how did seeds come before plants if plants grow from seeds?"

Smart girl.

* * *

And on November 4, 2013, Summer wrote her first word by sounding it out:

The smiley faces were her idea.
Love my little writer.

BIG Things

BIG things have been going on around here . . .

A few weeks ago, Pyper got sick. She was congested, coughing, a rash and fever, etc. She had a hard time getting better, so we starting looking for the source of her sickness. We discovered the source of it: mold in the laundry room. Since she sleeps in the laundry room, we figured we ought to make some changes to get her better. 

So, we cleaned it out, wiped it up, cloroxed it, and then diffused some oils in the room to kill any mold we couldn't see. And in the mean time we did this:

Notice ONE, TWO, and THREE beds in ONE room.

The first night, we did our night time routine, turned the lights out, and closed the door. Everyone was tucked in and quiet. And then all of the sudden we heard Pyper yelling, "Care! Care!" 

Claire, whispering, "What Pyper?" 

"I need another binky." (Instead of a comfort blanky that she takes to bed, Pyper takes three binkies.) "Care! Care! I need another binky." 

Claire: "Shhhh, Pyper, or you'll have to go back to the laundry room."

Pyper continued to talk to the girls, and Summer chimed in, "Pyper, you don't want to go back to the laundry room, do you?" (Sounds like a scary threat to me!)

They've been like this for about two weeks now and still going to bed is tough for them. It's just too exciting. But they are getting the hang of it.

* * *

Pyper also had a BIG birthday number TWO. I realized this year that birthday number two is super fun because they are actually aware of what's going on. When she turned one, she didn't know what cake or cupcakes were. She didn't understand the concept of a gift inside wrapping paper. She couldn't even participate in the games we played in celebration.

But this year, I had to hide her gifts that came in the mail so she wouldn't open them right away, and I let her pick out a pack of six cupcakes from the store (stress free, and hardly any leftover to tempt me--and she got to carry them home from the store), and she loved our party game (this year, we just blew up balloons and had a race to pop them. She LOVED it!).

* * *

Another BIG thing around here is--wait, what's that in the background of Pip's picture??? Yes, it's our piano! Rhett painted it. I LOVE it. We started sanding it about a year and a half ago. We got one small corner done, and realized it was a HUGE project. So then we got the liquid sanding stuff, whatever that's called, and did that across the top. HUGE project again. We were originally going to just stain it to keep the wood grain, which we love, but since it was becoming such a big project, we decided to do something else. We researched Annie Sloan's chalk paint, picked the olive color, and learned how to wax it. Then we painted it green (without sanding the rest of it), did a clear coat of wax, and then a dark coat of wax to give it the wood grain look. Okay, and really, it wasn't "we," it was all Rhett. He did a great job. We love it.

Bottom left is what was sanded, top is what we had started painting, and the rest of it is the wood we were going to paint over.

The dark wax made the green go a lot darker than what it was (see top picture), plus it gave the wood grain look. And we just have to finish it by doing the last bit on top.

* * *

And the last BIG thing around here is a HAIRCUT.

(This is day-after-Sunday hair. I haven't done it yet today, but I wanted you to get the idea of length.)

I'd been thinking for a while now about Summer's hair and been feeling like she needed a change. With the shape of her face, her personality, and her spice, I thought short would fit her. When I talked to her about the idea, she was excited about it, so we did it.

I've trimmed her hair before (myself), but I took her to a salon this time. She was excited, and maybe a little nervous too. When I told the stylist how short to go and she took the first snip, my heart stopped. That was a lot of hair! What if Summer didn't like it? And as she kept snipping, Summer reached for my hand and I held it while the lady cut away. I actually got quite teary eyed. So many emotions . . . she's growing up, is this the best way to take care of her, will it look okay for her, I don't want my kid to look weird and have people treat her poorly, etc.

But I love the haircut. And she does too. She is sooooo excited about it.

We might even go a little shorter next time . . .

Halloween

Halloween is probably my least favorite holiday. No, wait. It is my least favorite holiday. Not because the kids get gobs and gobs of candy, and not because they stay up late wandering streets in the dark (of course, with Rhett or myself), and not because it's "The Devil's Holiday," but because I have to stress about COSTUMES.

In the beginning of our Halloween-life-with-kids, Rhett stepped up to the plate and made us some awesome costumes. These were usually thrift store, last minute masterpieces.

Like this one: Captain Hook, Peter Pan, and Tinkerbell.

Or this clever super-hero one:

Or this one: The Kung Fu Panda crew (Po, Master Shifu, Po's dad, and Tai Lung)

Once the girls were old enough to want to be something for Halloween, we still did thrift store costumes for them, and we were a little creative for our own--painting our skeletons onto black jump suits. (Note baby Pippy's skeleton.)

We even got to recycle our's the next year, since I was pregnant again. The girls were bumble bees that year. I made them from Joann's fabric store--probably the most stressful Halloween for me because I was relying on Rhett to pull through, but with his work, he wasn't able to, and I had to do it on my own. (Though Claire makes the costume look smashing.)

This year, every time I asked the girls what they wanted to be, it was different. So Thursday night, on Halloween Eve, I asked them one last time. Summer said, "A purple cat." "Purple cat?" I asked her. "Yeah. From Brown Bear." Ohhhh! We have a book called "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?" It goes through many animals and many colors. And she picked the purple cat from it. Cool! And doable! Even better!

So here's what our purple cat looked like: (On the front of the shirt it said, "Purple Cat, Purple Cat," and on the back it said, "What do you see?" -- and Summer wrote the word "see" because that's one of her school sight words that she knows.)

And Claire, who loooooves unicorns, wanted to be a unicorn. We made a cone, spray painted it and glittered it up, then I made a vest from some weird white, furry coat we got in a giant costume bag at a garage sale years ago. I also sprayed it purple.

And Pip, well, she got to go as Tinkerbell. No story there. Just simple and quick.

Basil wore whiskers and Tai Lung's body suit. Throughout the day she switched between a baby cheetah and a baby leopard.

I feel a little insecure about my last-minute thrifty costumes. They are nothing compared to the fancy princess and fairy costumes at the stores. And they are nothing compared to actual home-made costumes that are sewn and ironed and look store-bought. Mine are hot glued, pinned, and stapled. But Rhett kept asking if the girls were okay with what they were dressed up as. They loved it. I guess that's all that matters. And it really was a lot of fun seeing the excitement in the girls eyes as each door was opened and a giant bowl of sugar was presented to them.

On the way home from school yesterday, I told the girls they could each choose a sucker from their candy bags. And, for a moment, I was "The Best Mom Ever."

Little did they know I was going to make them eat a carrot ginger soup for dinner. Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha.