Summer Pictures

I went through and manually edited tons of pictures this evening - from July/August. Once I posted them here, I noticed that all the red-eye correction I did (which took a couple of hours) is gone. This is the second time Shutterfly has done this. I'm pretty pissed. I'll go back over the next couple of days, fix them AGAIN and repost the link. For now, if you look at the pictures they'll suck because of all the red-eyes.

ETA: They are fixed now.

Instigator

We're in the mountains this weekend - Overgaard again.

Jon was attempting to change Oliver's diaper this morning, and O was having none of it. After he was cleaned, and before the new diaper went on, he started kicking and bucking, laughing his head off. I swear, his little rear got at least several inches off the ground. Natalie noticed the commotion, came over and started chanting "That's it, Oliver! Now that's the spirit!".

Other than that, we're having a nice weekend! You know you're an Arizonan when you go away on a trip and are actually glad to have cooler, cloudy/rainy weather!

"I had to get used to him"

Natalie just gave Oliver a picture she drew of them in school today. He kissed it, so she was in raptures - "Oh, you love it! Mommy, he loves his picture!". I said "Of course he does! He loves his big sister!".

She gave him a big hug and said "You are the best brother EVER!". I jokingly said "See, he's not so bad". She said "Yeah, he's not so bad. I just had to get used to him".

Update - I think I need to take her temperature. She asked him if he wanted her to share toys, he nodded yes. I thought she'd bring out some random toys. Oh no. She wheeled out her tea cart with her most special stuffed animals and told him to pick out one. Jon's going to have to come pick me up off the floor. We'll see how long this lasts!

Happy Birthday, Jon!

Today is Jon's birthday! Natalie and I made a cake - Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate cake with Perfectly Chocolate frosting - great recipe - it is on the back of the Hershey's powdered cocoa container. Natalie decorated it herself (I frosted it), and Oliver had a great time licking the frosting spoon and beater (N got one too!). His whole face was dark brown - and the wooden spoon was completely soaked from him sucking on it. :-)

Mitz and Pops came over and we had pizza, cake and ice cream. Tomorrow Mitz is going to babysit so we can go out. So it's shaping up to be a fun weekend!

I have pictures. Will try to get them up this weekend. Although I still haven't posted July's, so we'll see. Yeesh. I'm behind.

Out of the mouths of babes

One of Natalie's classmates lives one street over from us. Her parents and older brother sometimes have to scramble to meet her bus in the afternoon, so I've told them they can always call me, and I can bring Alicia home with us until they can get here.

Today, no one was there to meet Alicia (unusual, her mom would call if she anticipated a problem), so I brought her with us, and called her mom. Her older brother was running down the street as I called. Alicia and Natalie were playing in the playroom, and Natalie didn't want Alicia to go. After they left, Natalie was still disappointed, so I told her that Alicia's brother had to run all the way from the high school (a good 2 miles at least, and it's hot as hell today, and humid to boot), and needed to go home and rest - the poor kid was covered in sweat.

Natalie very matter-of-factly told me "He should have taken a taxi".

Photobombing

Oliver photobombed Natalie today! She asked me to take a picture of her and her teddy. I got out the camera, and once she started saying "Cheese", Oliver came running, saying "cheese" himself, and got in the shot just as the picture was taken. Jon and I think it's hilarious; Natalie, not so much.

Are you there God, it's me, Natalie

Had to take Natalie to get a booster she was missing today, per the school/AZ regulations. On the way there, she was pointing out clouds and assigning shapes to them. She noticed one big, fluffy cloud and asked me if that was where heaven is. I told her that it was very possible.

So then she cupped her hands around her mouth, and bellowed:

"HEY JESUS. HEY GOD. ARE YOU GUYS UP THERE ON THAT BIG, FLUFFY CLOUD?".

Waited a second, then she told me "Jesus said yes, their* are".

*She frequently uses "their" in place of "they". I really should correct that, but she has so few language mix-ups these days, that I find it endearing. She'll learn soon enough. I noticed today that she is using more grown-up phrases. She was telling me about the two doors in her classroom. I would have expected her to say "this door goes to this room", but she said "one door leads to the bathroom and the other door leads to the hall". Maybe it's not a big deal, but I thought using the phrase "leads to" was pretty grown-up!