LOL

Pumpkin carving got a little wild tonight.  It all started when George accidentally dropped a little bit of pumpkin goo in Emma's hair.  She was not amused.  The rest of us were a little amused... especially Sophie... so we fixed her...

She doesn't actually appear to be too upset, does she?  Sophie is very comfortable being the center of attention even if getting there requires piling vast gobs of pumpkin guts on her head.

Sophie wasn't the only girl keeping us in stitches tonight.  A discussion about Halloween gravestones which always seem to read "RIP" led to talk about other modern day acronyms such as LOL and ROFL.  Emma decided aloud that TOL ought to be added to the list.  She immediately followed this assertion with an exceptionally loud burst of flatulence.  Needless to say (although I am saying it anyway), the "T" in her acronym stood for "toot."  What well mannered young ladies we are raising at this house!

"Do not take life too seriously.  You will never get out of it alive."  ~Elbert Hubbard

Fancy Flapjacks*

Over the weekend, George and the girls bought a griddle, some fancy food coloring and a big ole box of Bisquick.  Breakfast will never be the same.

 

The breakfast of clever little champions?

A good breakfast can improve your observational skills. 

"Did you see that giant squirrel, Lili?"

*British friends, these are obviously American style flapjacks, also known as pancakes.

It Is Rather Obvious.

We need more sleep at our house...  

The Birth of a Comedian

I have always been fascinated with birth order studies.  All that I have read declare that last born babies are prone to fall into the role of class clown or family comedian.  I think those behavioral researchers are on to something, by golly!

Lili LOVES to make us laugh, and she often has a completely smitten audience here at our house.  Noticing how excited I become when she addresses me as "mama," she now calls everyone at our house "mama."  This is reinforced since Sophie and Emma  laugh in response and hug her while saying, "I'm not mama.  I'm Sophie/Emma!!"

Lili has also learned that laughter is contagious.  She belly laughs ridiculously anytime we are laughing just so she can be a part of the fun.  She will often bring forth a chesty "HA HA HA!" anytime things get a bit boring and inevitably one or all of us will join her in laughter.

She has also gleaned that sweet little smoochy kisses are always positively received.  Sometimes when I am distracted or involved in a task that does not involve Lili (Imagine that!), she will climb up and hug me tightly and plant a delectable little smooch on my leg, arm or cheek.  You can be sure that she then has my undivided attention and at least a few moments of adoration.

This week we all agreed that Lili's first official word is "peek-a-boo," or at least her version of the  phrase which sounds like "Teek-ahhh!"  "Teek-ahh!" always follows the revealing of a crazily grinning face that has been hidden under a blanket or behind wee chubby hands.  It isn't any surprise that Lili's "Teek-ahhh!" is always met with a cheerful mirrored reply.

Now don't get me wrong; we still have our fair share of tears, clinging, crying and boo-hoo-drama.  This week in fact Lili has run a fever off and on, snotted on nearly everything in the house, and kept George and me up at night with her miserable nonsense.  Inevitably at about four in the morning, after we have calmed her crying, dried her tears, cleaned up the snot, gotten her a drink and settled her down quietly in our bed between us, we will hear, out of the silence, an elfin voice exclaim, "Teek-ahh!"

Oh Brother!  We have created a very cute and comical monster.

Teek-Ahhh!!

Ma-ma-ma-ma Me-me-me-me More Milkshake!

My British friends will understand the title reference. The rest of you can just go with it.

Lili is terrified by the sound that our blender makes, but she finds the end result to be wonderful and refreshing.  Baby loves chocolate-banana milkshakes made with healthy wonderfulness.  And just as importantly...

Baby knows when she's had enough, and she knows how to communicate it.

Knowing when to say when (particularly when chocolate is involved) is an important life lesson, and as usual our Lil is ahead of the game.

Chocolate Makes Everything Better

Before living in the UK, I had never had a "chocolate apple," but one autumn day while wandering the Tesco looking for something comforting to remind me of home, I came across a Chocolate Apple Kit.  It basically contained a few lollipop sticks, a large pot of milk chocolate buttons, and some festive Halloween sprinkles.  I was, of course, ON IT, using the contents but making my own rules.  I prefer to melt chocolate on the stove top in a double boiler rather than in the microwave.  My double boiler is homemade: a metal bowl that fits neatly over a small pan full of simmering water.  Easy peasy.

The apples are stabbed with lolly sticks and then dipped or rolled in the melted chocolate.  It is fabulously festive to add colorful sprinkles but not entirely necessary.  The apples then need to go into the fridge for at least an hour.  (I do love a cold apple.)

When I was living abroad, I longed for all of the seasonal decor and candy and crap that is so readily available here in the US, but now that I am back... well, of course, it's a different story.  I feel inundated and overwhelmed with the (poor quality, made in China) holiday merchandise in all of the stores, and I realize what a fun challenge it was to have to create our own decorations, treats...and crap.  These chocolate apples took us all back there yesterday.  We made an ordinary Sunday feel extra special by sharing a home cooked family meal: roasted chicken, mashed sweet potatoes, stuffing and green beans.  Then we indulged in our own seasonal treats...

Yes, we ALL indulged!

Sophie wants me to let you know that these apples are especially good at helping annoying, wobbly teeth find their way out.  Unfortunately it didn't work for her (and neither did all of the tooth-wiggling she did with her fingers while she was supposed to be singing with the carol choir in church yesterday)!  Nevertheless, the apples were great... even better than caramel or candy apples in my humble opinion.

Chicken Soup Two: The Unwanted Sequal

I have spent this past week looking after sick children.  Sophie was the one who started it all last weekend.  Then she shared with Lili who has been utterly miserable all week.  By yesterday it seemed as though everyone was on the mend and feeling better.  We started the day with a healthy breakfast...

These are George's most clever pancakes yet.  Yes,  Dad is great.

Once we had eaten our fill of disguised breakfast, we decided we were all up for a day out in the autumn sunshine.  Grandma's pumpkin patch beckoned...

Lili was the littlest pumpkin (by weight) in our wagon.

I know.  I just want to squeeze her too.  (And I do regularly.)

We are abundantly blessed indeed.

So after a great day out and a good dose of sunshine, we all felt refreshed and ready to take on the world, right?

Oh dear, it looks like my girls have been sharing again.  Not even an hour after returning home, Emma was tucked up in bed with a fever.  She was asleep before I even made it back with that cup of tea she requested.  I  have this sinking feeling that we might be in for a long winter.  Our immune systems have to get acclimated to Michigan living.  Bring on the chicken soup and the echinacea smoothies!

Look at Me...

...Here I am, right where I belong!  My little legs are getting stronger everyday.

I'm so good, I have to applaud myself.  Sometimes you just have to be your own cheer leader.

But wait!  Did you do something unsavory to deserve THIS look?

Popsicles and Chicken Soup

George left us early Thursday morning and headed off for a "Lads Gone Mad" weekend in Cancun with his brother and a friend, so all of the Carson girlies have been here enjoying the beautiful Michigan autumn on our own.  That George does not know what he's missing.

Back by popular demand: Everyone's favorite green, fleecy hoodie with ears

On Friday the kids had the day off school, so we went out to a petting farm in Freeland called Baby Acres where Emma and Sophie got to pet and feed all sorts of friendly farm animals.  Everything about it was excellent apart from the incident in which two pygmy goats took offense to my sheepskin lined boots.  They repeatedly headbutted my ankles and rubbed their foreheads menacingly all over the sides of my boots.  We were visiting the farm with a Mom's group, and all of the other Michigan Mommies who were standing by me laughed and said (in that unmistakable Michigan accent), "OH MY GAHSH!  That is SOOO cute!"  Yes, cute, that was exactly what I was thinking as those two beasts almost knocked me off my feet.  Totally cute.

After we fed, petted and wrestled the farm animals, we all climbed onto a hay filled wagon and were pulled by a for real Michigan farmer driving a tractor out to the pumpkin patch.  My girls had never been on a hay ride before, and they were impressed.  Out at the pumpkin patch, each kid got to pick a pumpkin to bring home.  Someone remarked to Emma, "Wow!  You picked a really good one!"

"Yeah," she said, "This one just spoke to me."

Baby's first hay ride!

After we visited the farm, we drove out to Frankenmuth, Michigan's little Bavaria, and spent the rest of the day exploring the various charming little shops and what not.  Not to be missed was the Frankenmuth Cheese Haus.  Sophia was extremely disappointed to discover that this was not actually a house made of cheese.  Never mind that.  Her spirits were lifted when we visited Bronner's, the world's largest Christmas store.  We spent about an hour in there, and I don't even think we saw a quarter of it.  The place was crazy.  Unfortunately, our three year old companion Riley was not impressed.  When we finally left he said, "I never want to go back in that store again.  It's BO'ing!!"  Ah, well, to each his own.  I, for one, WILL be going back to Bronner's one day!

The rest of our weekend hasn't been quite as eventful.  Last night I made an appearance at a very close neighbor's fancy autumn dinner party.  I took Lili has my date since George was out of town.  Lili is still practicing her eyebrow-controlled facial expressions, and she managed to give everyone at that party her trademarked "Serious-face" frown.  Of course they were all polite and said she was "SO cute," but she looked downright cantankerous if you ask me.



This morning Sophie came downstairs crying.  She was wearing her church dress and had one foot inside a pair of tights.  "I'm so tired!"  She moaned, "I didn't sleep all night!"  When she came closer, it was obvious that home girl had a very high fever and that we would not be going to church even if it was Emma's turn to ring the bell that starts the service.  I quickly called the pastor at home so that he could recruit another helpy-helperton from the congregation to serve as bell-ringer, and we have been here tucked up with popsicles, chicken soup and Andy Griffith ever since. 

Sophie has been sleeping quite a bit.  I have been putting a good bit of energy into vacuuming up these flippin' lady bugs that are all over my house.  Don't correct me.  They are lady bugs, NOT Japanese beetles.  Little girls are not afraid of having ladybugs in their bedrooms when Dad is out of town, but Japanese beetles are another story.  They started showing up in the middle of last week, and now they are completely out of control.  I suppose this is the price we pay for living out amongst all of the nature.  Tony, our beloved 'bug man', who is slightly reminiscent of Barney Fife is coming out tomorrow afternoon to help us nip this in the bud!

George, we have obviously enjoyed our girls weekend, but we are ready for you to come back!

Storing My Nuts for the Winter

Living in the UK for the last five years, I really missed having seasons.  There was some vague semblance of seasons with leaves in October, barren trees in January and daffodils in April, but mostly we could count on it being cool-ish, grayish and rainy all year.  Each year as the summer months approached, everyone would whisper hopefully, "They say this year will be different.  The jet stream has changed and we might have sun this summer," but that was not the typical end result.  Nine months of anticipation almost always ended with three months of disappointment.

Here in Michigan we are now making up for lost time.  Here there are four distinct and proper seasons (with winter being particularly distinct, proper and LONG).  The day the calendar said it was autumn, the weather became crisp and the trees began to obediently drop their leaves.  We are now surrounded by beautiful autumn colors, and we wake up to frost.  In other words when I send my girls out to meet the bus in the morning, it is cold!!  It's like North Carolina-February cold, and I am a little bit scared.  I'm not sure if my Southern soul can stomach a Michigan winter.  According to all of the natives, the many dropped acorns predict an especially brutal winter this year.

Eeek!

So lately I have been interrogating friends, acquaintances and strangers, asking questions like, "What are snow pants, and do I wear them to the grocery store?"  Help a girl out here; I really have no idea.  I asked an employee who was vacuuming at Meijer, "Are these snow boots?... Should my kids wear these to school this winter?" The answer: "Yes" and "Yes."  I feel completely clueless.

I went shopping with a friend last week and bought my official winter coat.  She asked one of the store employees about the differences between a fleece lining and some other technical-sounding type of lining.  He replied, "I live around here, and the fleece lining is plenty warm for me."  I was, of course, skeptical...

"Yeah, but you probably grew up around here and are a lot tougher than I am when it comes to the cold."  He pointed at a rack of coats up high on the wall,

"These," he declared, "Are ridiculously warm."  Of course I bought one of those coats.  I will let you know if I'm feeling ridiculously warm in February.

If there are any cold-weather veteran Yankees out there reading my blog on the Interwebs, I would welcome any advice.  I still haven't gotten a satisfactory answer to the question, "What do I wear out to the grocery store when it's -10 degrees Fahrenheit.  Furthermore, what is up with the Ugg boots?  They are very expensive and fuzzy inside, not to mention ugly as sin.  Do I really need a pair of these?  Will they really change my life?

Stay tuned for more of my frigid fretting...

"Celebrate the Moments of Your Life"

You only turn ONE once, which is why you should celebrate the occasion at least twice!

We had a few friends join us on Friday evening, and we celebrated Lili's big event one more time.  Why not?  She is now a serious expert on the subject of cake.

It's your birthday!  Happy Birthday! It's for real though; not for play play.

So I am now the mother of a one year old, a six year old and an eight year old.  The only problem is: they keep changing their ages on me.  Just when I get used to saying, "Emma is eight," she will have gone off and become nine.  It is never ending.  Sometimes I wish childhood came with a pause button, but of course it does not.  That means, Moms and Dads, you must savor all of those little precious, golden moments.  You know, the ones like this...

Hold on to those babies while you can.  Tomorrow they won't be quite as little.