More Creative Kids

I talked before about how Elora and Josh can sometimes draw so well, their works are comparable to famous artists;-)! Well, they are still as creative as ever (of course) but have been branching out from mere drawing lately.
Elora has finally taken an interest in her coloring books. Just like myself as a child, she seemed to find coloring boring and tedious up until now. But one day I suggested she try coloring things with more than one color. Then I taught her how to do stripes on a tie, and a new style was born! Check out these recent pages:









She uses blue a lot because she knows its my favorite color, and she wants me to like her pictures.
Elora has also started using the printed word a lot more.She writes her name on everything; no, she can't write other words by herself yet, but she's constantly asking me how to spell things, or how to print certain letters, for things like this:



If you can't tell, it says "The fourth of July" in that foot. I wrote the "rth" in it, and down at the bottom are my example letters for her to look at. I don't know why she wanted it to say that...but hey, at least she's writing!


Then she made this last week:



It says, "I am going to write this." And yeah, I'm the dork that told her to use the wrong spelling of the word "wright". Again, those are my letter examples at the bottom.
Then one day she decided she wanted to write a story! She couldn't find her lined paper, so she drew her own lines, then started her story! It took her about an hour to get this much done:


and then she got bored and didn't finish it. But I wrote the rest of what she was going to write, at the bottom so we wouldn't forget. Her story reads, "The Jeff gets a present to the boy. The boy (give a present to the wolf)."
Don't ask me what a "Jeff" is, but she was insistent that this is what she wanted to write.

Of course, we still see a few drawings and paintings here and there:



The figure in the left corner is Elora, who is tied down so the wind doesn't blow her away, and she has a headband and a hair tie in her hair that is blowing in the wind.


We have a painted wall with a ladder...which I think is brilliant for the use of multiple colors, but then, I am the mom.



A cool bird with eyelashes in this painting:





And of course, the traditional drawing subject of little girls everywhere: flowers under a yellow sun.



Now lets not forget Josh! He doesn't get into the drawing and painting as much as Elora does, but he still participates from time to time. He'll still cover papers in tiny little swirls and circles, claiming that he's writing his name. And the other day he produced this awesome "mixed media" piece:



Lovely, aren't they?

Important Thoughts of the Month

• No one in my family will eat the heels from a loaf of bread. We always save them for a while, thinking there might be something we'll use them for- like French bread, maybe ? Inevitably, the breadbox becomes full of bread heels which are now either hard or moldy, and the huge pile of wasted bread ends up in the trash. Oh do I feel guilty. Can't I send them to Africa or something before they go bad?

• I really want to go to a ComicCon sometime. I mean really want to go. They always have those panels where the actors from sci-fi and fantasy shows talk about stuff. It would be so cool to go see the people from LOST (Hurley!), Stargate Universe, Warehouse 13, Doctor Who , Heroes, and all the other nerdy shows I watch with Joseph. Plus, I could get my picture taken with Darth Vadar!
  

But I wouldn't bring my kids. Too many weird people :)

• Everytime I try to make healthy food, Joseph doesn't like it. Stuff like mashed sweet potatoes, or a salsa mix dinner without meat in it, tomato soup, or even if I try to include carrots or an apple in his lunch instead of cookies. No way would he eat zucchini or squash! He'll eat a little, but then push it around with his fork and leave the rest. I told him if he dies 20 years before me because of bad health, I'm going to visit his grave everyday and yell at him and tell him its is own darn fault. He insisted that I was going to die first. Ha! Not likely.

• So the rule is ,when the baby is actually sleeping well at night, that means everyone else should get up several times around 2:30 AM to get mommy for drinks, bathroom, bad dreams, etc? Okay, just checking.
  

• I am excited to have Elora and Josh see my family again for Thanksgiving, as well as for Grandma (my mom) to see how much the baby has grown. I am NOT excited about sharing a room with all my kids for three days, and trying to get them to eat, go to bed, etc, at someone elses house. Plus, Elora or Josh seem to get sick almost every time we go on a long trip. Kind of glad we'll be staying home for Christmas this year!

• Lately whenever I think about moving, I get that song from Paint Your Wagon in my head, "Where am I goin' I don't know, when will I get there I aint certain all that I know is I am on my waaaay". And I wonder if we'll actually be moving anywhere. But thats just me worrying.

• I wish the kids still took naps so I could too.
  

The Fleeting Fall

I was worried that this Fall, with Joseph's full schedule, we might not be able to do many fun Autumn things like we have in the past. Granted, we didn't make it out on many walks or mountain drives, but we were thankfully able to make it out a few times before everything started to look dead and bare.
There were a few days when Elora and Josh and I made a fun leaf pile. One time our neighbors even came out and joined us:



We did make it up the canyon one day for a little walk. I was sad we were only able to stay about half an hour because Joseph had to go to work that afternoon, but it was still a beautiful day!




Elora and Josh led the way, following a faint trail we found:



Elora was very proud of her leadership skills:



And we even found a cool small cave! We might have stayed here a little longer, but we stumbled upon the campsite of some hunters, who were still there! So we moved on so as not to bother them too much.



Daddy carried Jonah in his carrier of course, safely bundled beneath his blanket:



And Elora proudly wore her stripped Halloween tights that she got for her birthday. Hey, when else is she going to wear them..December? (Yes, this is a version of my famous photo that made it onto Pioneer Woman's site thank you very much.)



I didn't notice till later that most of my pictures captured my family, but very few of the actual leaves that we saw. Oh well, its the memories that count, right?


I took a few cool pictures of myself so posterity will know I was there too:



Then Joseph insisted he take a few too. I was dubious, because he never takes them how I want, but I handed him the camera anyway, and told him where I wanted to be in the frame. This wasn't bad (his signature "artful angle") but he forgot to tell me my jacket and shirt were hanging in such a way that I looked about 50 pounds heavier than I actually am!



So I found another location, and carefully straightened my shirt. After about 20 shots I didn't like (most of them of my backside...) he got one I liked. Yay Joseph!



Not bad for a half hour in the beautiful Autumn scenery.

Guess Who is Potty Training?

Hey! Notice anything different about me? C'mon, look a little closer....




Okay, how about now? Huh, huh? YES! I've got underwear! I'm such a big boy.

I'm not quite done learning...still one or two accidents a day (around nap time, or if I hide to go #2) but that's much better than the 7 accidents within 4 hours the first day I wore these! Mommy decided I was ready because Elora was completely done by my age, and well, mommy's friends Crystal and Heidi were doing such a good job with their boys that are my age too. Plus, I've been going potty before bath time for months now, so it was time for the next step.



And check out this high fashion.

I have Sesame Street as well as Disney heroes; my favorites are the ones with Cars! Or Incredibles, or Wall-E. You know, boy stuff. These are size 4/5T, just like Elora wore when she was potty training! Silly daddy wanted to get me 2/3T. Sheesh, doesn't he know I'm a BIG kid? I wear BIG boots, and take BIG bites, and have BIG clothes, so of course I'd wear BIG underwear. Did I mention I like things that are BIG?



And now I really am learning to be BIG! (Hopefully it doesn't take too much longer...)


ps by mommy: Yeah, the biggest problem we have is he won't go #2 in the potty anymore. Which is weird, because he was doing that in the potty months ago! I don't get it. And poopy underwear is NOT fun for mommy. He always brags that he's going to "go a BIG twisty poop" which is hillarious, but never happens!

pps- he actually had zero accidents the last two or three days, but I dont' know if I can count it because he was feeling sick and didn't eat or drink much. The weird thing was when he got me up in the night on Friday so he could go potty. He's never done that before!

Halloween Fun

The Halloween celebrations were an ongoing event at our house this October! First, Elora and I got to work making some Halloween decorations...mostly because all the neighbors had stuff in their windows, and we didn't want to be left out. Nothing too exciting, but Elora had a fun afternoon being creative with mommy. Guess which ones are mine?


We had our annual pumpkin carving; I think each year Joseph and I are getting less and less creative in our own attempts because we have to spend most of the time helping the kids. But they have a great time...even when Elora broke two carving knives in a row:



The finished creations. Mine is the cool whistling one at the top!:




Then last Tuesday, one of my neighbors was awesome enough to plan a little party for all the kids in our apartment complex. Elora had a great time, though I think Josh wasn't sure what was going on. Jonah wasn't too happy with the outfit I put him in for the occasion..probably because it was Elora's as a baby too!




Everyone looked so cool in their costumes:





So they had a costume show-off time! Here is Elora in her oh so fancy mermaid costume. (Yes, I made it with no pattern, how could you tell :)) Hey, at least the bottom turned out pretty good!




Then they each picked partners and wrapped each other up like mummies. One of the moms kind of helped of course. Again, Josh wasn't really participating in this part, but later, he walked out of the bathroom with a whole handful of tp, still hooked to the holder! Guess he thought it was his turn.



This was one of the very few times I saw Josh interacting with the other kids. It was so funny, he just randomly turned to the kid next to him, and roared at him! This was at the beginning of the roar, so the kid is kind of smiling at him in a friendly way.....




but by the end, they were like, "Okay, weird kid, don't look at him." Poor, strange child. Maybe its a defense mechanism he has when he's shy? Or maybe he had to do something tough around all these superheros and pirates, because he was dressed as a clown!




Elora really liked the hanging doughnuts and totally went at it when they said go, but Josh was kind of like, "Really? You want me to eat this with no hands? I don't think so." Once I got it down for him, he ate it just fine in the end.



The night before Halloween, there was a little carnival for all of married housing. It is kind of like the ones they have at elementary schools, but smaller, and in one room, and not nearly as exciting. At least from my perspective. Josh wouldn't sit up for a group picture, so here he is with Jonah before we left:



We got a group picture at the party. They really should've put the wall decorations lower, don't you think? And yes this is the best of the four pics we took. Blah.




Finally, it was Halloween day! We had the Trunk-or-Treat at the church as our first order of business. I guess people didn't know when it was, because they didn't have a huge turn out, and when we got there (only 1/2 hr into it) people were already packing up their candy to go! We were glad to see all the otehr kids. The little girls were all running away from the boys. They were trying to get Elora to run around with them, but she was totally oblivious. At one point, our six-year-old neighbor, Cameron, said, "Elora, you're the only girl not running away from me!" A girl after my own heart. Who cares what everyone else is doing, eat your doughnut in peace!





Josh was quite impressed with his haul, and stopped in the middle of the parkinglot to check it out:


Then on to the real trick or treating! We only went to the two neighborhoods we always visit, where our two other families from Washington live. Elora and Josh did much better than last year with saying "Trick-or-Treat", though I think Josh was still feeling shy around the people, and wondering why we didn't go inside each house.


and our little lion had a great first Halloween!