:: The Lovely Lock's ::: September 2013

I was having a rough morning. Being woken up at 6am by two people peering at you is a bit jarring. Lia and Dave were basically just leaning over and staring at my sleeping face before I sensed something and opened my eyes. But in my sleepy state, it was enough to make me go, ''Good golly glory- go away please!"

Breakfast is hectic. And LOUD. I remember mom would call out ''Noise pollution!" and I thought it was the silliest thing ever. Noise pollution? Now I realize that it's a nice way to say ''BE QUIET!" And I use it. All the time. Lia is uproarious in the morning's. She is jovial, full of vim and vigor and feels the need to expound on that, loudly and thoroughly. But it is enough to make a non morning person (such as myself) want to crawl with a pair of ear plugs back into bed. This morning was like one of those cartoons; the kid's were yelling, Alex was screaming, breakfast was being poured out on the table, the dishwasher was running, my head was already hurting... ai yi yi.

I made the kid's their lunches, and then raced upstairs to take a shower before anyone could stop me. I called from the top of the stairs to ask Chris if he could take Lia to school. He didn't ask why or anything but cheerfully called back, "Sure!".

Mood changing action #1

As I raced down the stairs to get dressed, and tidy up a bathroom and try to cram some breakfast down my gullet, I saw that our bed was made.

Now, if you know me, I'm not a bed maker. But since we reconfigured our room around, I decided that it took all of two seconds (literally- we just sleep under the duvet), I decided to do it. It makes our room just look more put together and seems to invite the kid's to jump on it more. :-) So I make our bed every morning now, but most of the time it doesn't get done until 10am or so. But someone had already made it. I asked Lia if she had. She hadn't. She yelled back, "Daddy did it!!"

Mood changing action #2

So my sweet husband, while I was taking a shower, had made our bed.

So I'm going to try to make this day good. Great even. Be happy for the kid's. Keep my head screwed on straight. Not take huge signs when something exasperates me. All because Chris made a bed to make my life easier. :-)

Lia, so serious, doing her homework. She is such a dedicated little person. I love how she has her hair tie around her wrist. She sometimes wears my jelly hair bands around her wrist as bracelets which I think is adorable. :-)

I gave Alex an oreo, and instead of eating it like a normal person I watched as she very carefully cracked it open. She inspected both sides and threw the side that didn't have any of the filling on the floor. (as a side note; she has no concept whatsoever that she is a mess maker. If she doesn't like something or want it, she either throws it or spits it out on the floor and saunters on her merry way). After lovingly staring at the filling filled side, she scrapes her little finger across the surface until a curl of white frosting is at her fingertip and then she pops it in her mouth, sucks carefully, and then repeats the cycle. The cookie, after being carefully wiped free of its filling, is tossed to join it's fallen other half.

Chris in the mornings. Bedhead. Coffee (lately since I've started drinking it at least!) and his phone checking into work.

Saturday morning breakfast.

Saturday morning cartoons, snuggling up as the rain fell outside.

I adore these pictures of Alex. She's so smushy and lovey, all squished up against Chris. So happy.

I gave the kid's some washable markers to draw on the window with, which was fun while it lasted. They had way more fun however washing it off. :-)

I was cleaning downstairs when it occurred to me that I hadn't heard anything from the kid's in a while. I ran up the stairs to see everything quiet, no one was in sight. Then I saw the chair bobble.

Davy has been very interested lately in the ''Olden Days'' and asks me questions all the time about what they did back then. ("How did they get around? Did they cook? What did they wear? What did they poop on? Did they have lights? Did they make fires? What's a chamber pot? Did they have horses? Do they ride cows? Did they go to the grocery store? Did they have toys? Did they have beds? Did they have televisions? What did they play with? What? What? What? Why? Why? Why?")

So I decided to take him to Wilder Ranch for one of their living history days. I'd never gone, and it was so cool. I will definitely be back. We picked a bad day to go however, when we got there it wasn't raining but throughout the two hours we were there, there would be huge random downpours where if you were standing outside you would be drenched in two seconds. It was sort of awesome. But the living history days they had all sorts of demonstrations going on. Making old fashioned ice cream, making masa tortillas, making rope, bubbles, it was really amazing and fun. Part of me wished I didn't have the kid's so I could have listened more. :-)

Getting ready to start the adventure!

I love her ''dragon tails'' :-)

The resident blacksmith

Looking at where the animals lived

Blowin' bubbles. Or in Alex's case, eating them...

An out of focus Chris pretending to be an early 18th century child... reminds me of the opening scene in Pollyanna. :-)

Discussing how people got around back then...

Mooooooooo

Learning how to make rope!

Hammering their names into leather bands for their wrists.

Making a snack with the masa tortillas. They were super good- they had nopales, refried beans, salsa and cheese there too so you could make your own little tostada thing. SO good. I want to go and get some masa now... :-) It reminded me of Annie. :-)

Waiting to run back to the car in the midst of a downpour...

Luckily, Alex had sustenance...

We didn't make it very far before we had to take shelter in the barn from the rain. The kid's didn't seem to mind the rain at all though... I swallowed my severe aversion to being wet in spots and let them get drenched... at that point though I was already all wet so it didn't matter much. :-)