New Pictures

There is a fabulous photographer on my Dallas Moms Board. Not only is she great with kids she is really cheap. A 15 minute session (I'm pretty sure that was even too long for our munchkins), 10 digital images = steal of a deal. I hate having to order prints through a photographer. We can barely afford a session. But that's another story...

Hannah had a melt down as soon as we tried to get her to sit next to Ashton and Mallie on the ground so she spent the rest of the time climbing up and down stairs in front of an apartment building. The photographer kept her camera ready every minute so the 3 times Hannah smiled were captured.

Ashton hamming it up. He called this his picture shirt and would do anything we asked.

Mallie wondering why she's floating in midair. Babies are hard before they're sitting up.

Love this one.

She was yelling to hear her echo and then would dance around to it.

I think Mallie looks most like her daddy. She's got those Jacobson eyes.

Hannah was in this picture for .2 seconds.

First "official" family of 5 picture.

My favorite picture of Hannah to date. This captures her toddlerhood perfectly. She has started to chew on her fingers all.the.time in exactly this position. Her eyes are still full of tears and this is just sooo her. I love it.

And this is what they did for 10 minutes of the 15 minute session. I'm officially over trying to get them to look and smile at the camera when we take real pictures. I love that someone captured who they are at this point of time. This is what I want to remember... and maybe a part of me wants this documented so when Hannah has her own emotional toddler I have proof that she was no angel.

Meet Blue Man

Blue Man joined our family about 5 months ago. We got him at a random stop to McDonalds to let the kids play and Ashton LOVES this little guy. Oh sure he loves all of his trains, balls, hot wheels etc but Blue Man who is a cheap piece of plastic roughly the size of my thumb has stolen the Bug's heart.

Today while I was telling Ashton to put his shoes on so we could go to the grocery store we went through our normal routine. He comes up to me holding 5 or 6 toys and I tell him he can take 1. Then he says something like "how about these 3?" we compromise and I usually let him take 2 small toys in the car.

Today when I was unbuckling him he tried to take Blue Man and a truck into the store. I told him just one. Naturally, he chose Blue Man. I mean who wouldn't love this strange looking half shark man with paint chipping off of it? We shop for 20 minutes. Super easy with only 1 kid in tow.

So as I'm buckling Ashton back into the carseat it dawns on me that Blue Man is nowhere to be seen. I check the car. I go to the cart return and check our cart. I look in the parking lot. Nothing. I decided it would be far too devestating to lose him. I unbuckle Ashton and we go back in the store and spend 15 minutes walking up and down every aisle looking for Blue Man. Ashton thought it was a game where he got to run up and down the aisles until on our way out I stopped and asked customer service if anyone had turned it in. Let's not even talk about the look on the ladies face when I tried to describe what went missing. But it didn't matter nothing had been turned in. In the car I told Ashton about what happened to Blue Man. He was gone. Forever. Lost. Never coming back. And then the crying started. He cried the whole drive home meanwhile I'm trying to think of ways to track down an old McDonald's toy. Maybe someone on my local Moms Board had that toy around. Maybe a friend on facebook. Ebay... something.

We get home David asks why Ashton is crying so I told him we lost the beloved Blue Man. Ashton starts searching my diaper bag desperate to find Blue Man's car b/c surely if his car is in there Blue Man will be close by. David immediately looks at Ashton looks at me and says, "Did you check his pockets?" While I was in the middle of my sentence saying "Those pants don't have..." Ashton grabbed the front of his leg and got a huge grin on his face. "I've got him!" I could have sworn those pants didn't have pockets.

It's no wonder Ashton and I both didn't think to check his cool windbreaker pants because well... I don't check pockets when things are lost. Anyone remember this post (click here) about the airplane tickets that went missing?

Oh what a day. Glad to have you back Blue Man.

A Story in Pictures

(Okay, maybe with a little commentary... by yours truly)

Mallie was just as happy as can be. Rarely does she get to play on the floor.

This is why. Undoubtedly someone comes over and wants to play.

One more joins the fun. And Mallie does look like she's enjoying herself.

From the look on her face I think she knows something doesn't feel quite right.

And Hannah usually has that sly grin on her face before someone gets whacked.

I got the picture and managed to rescue Mallie from the hit. And Hannah has the place to herself.

Until big brother decided she could use a lesson on sharing.

Somedays my biggest accomplishment is saving Mallie from the wrath of her sister. Sad but true.

The value of an extra 30 minutes of sleep

Everyone remember that little paragraph of the value of time? It goes something like "to realize the value of a milisecond ask the silver medalist". Do you all know what I'm talking about or was I the only one who got that email forwarded on to me a half a dozen times?
I'm going to forward on a new email that includes "to realize the value of 30 minutes ask a sleep deprived mom".

(Don't judge my homeless looking children this is what I wake up to in the morning. See the couch crusted in food?)

Let me explain how mornings work over here. Be warned that you may scratch your heads and think you need to advise me to stop procreating. And in response I will scratch my head and think "silly you, you could have atleast 30 minutes of extra sleep!"

When the older two wake up in the morning I(on Saturdays insert David's name here) plop them on the couch with their respective cups of milk and turn on the longest commercial free show I can find. About 20 minutes later Ashton yells down the hallway "more milk PLEASE!". I roll out of bed put some more milk in both of their cups put on a new show and then put some semblance of breakfast in their laps. This morning it was a bowl full full of honeynut cheerios, without the milk (I'm not that crazy), and little veggie sausages. Then I return to bed. 20 sometimes 30 minutes later Ashton will yell down the hallway, "More Thomas" or Elmo or whatever they were watching that has now ended. 90% of the time this is where I get up and stay up but on that blessed 10% of the time I can go back to bed for the third time and get another 20 minutes of sleep.

Those extra 30 minutes of sleep are glorious. I can fall back asleep instantly. The only downside is that when I come out for the day I have to clean up crushed cereal and bits of sausage from all over the carpet and couch. But a price I gladly pay over and over again.

This morning I came out to find Ashton's face covered in chocolate. I have to admit I was kind of proud that he had ventured into the unknown. Our kids are not the kind that can trash the house in the 2 mins while I leave the room. Hannah's not a "true" toddler in the getting into things sense. I'm convinced I didn't have to baby proof a thing because this girl pretty much follows me (or Ashton) around and is simply content with just having some company. Ashton is at the point where I think he's afraid to get into things because he knows better. But this morning he found a piece of chocolate bliss on the counter. Chocolate is the one thing this boy cannot refuse. I knew he didn't have the dexterity to unwrap it so I'm pretty sure he ate half of the foil and threw the other half in the garbage... I checked. See am I earning some credibility back as a decent mother?

While I may not win mother of the year... I'm pretty sure I'll win smartest mother of the year for taking advantage of a time that I have two kids that are pretty content watching Elmo for an hour. This probably wont last for long and I'm not ashamed I'll take advantage of every minute of it.

6 weeks today

and we've got smiles! She's actually been dropping smiles for a couple weeks now... she's our earliest smiler so far. And I'm smiling too because she's sleeping. Hooray!

Roommates

We decided Mallie needed out of our room. Which meant these two were to become roommates. Not such a big deal you would think, except Hannah is the lightest sleeper on the planet. Honestly, you turn the door knob to walk in the room and she sits up. Ashton thank goodness is a heavy sleeper but he also snores and talks in his sleep. Not a great combination but they'll learn. We also weaned Hannah off her binky. She started throwing it out of her crib and waited for us to go in and get it for her - so on Sat night we just didn't go in. She cried a lot that night but that was the only time she seemed even remotely upset about the change. Turns out this little ball of emotions is pretty adaptable!
And my favorite change that has taken place the last week or so is that these two have become playmates! It seems I've been waiting for these moments since the day I found out I was pregnant with Hannah. The best part is I know as Hannah starts to talk more they're just going to play better and better. This makes it so worth while having kids close together.

And this is a video of Hannah. She loves shoes. Literally we take her out of her crib and she walks with her blankey to the shoe basket. Here's her with her new shoes that she is crazy about!