Tiny's First Haircut.

So.  Our Tiny?  Has amazing, curly hair:

Glorious toddler locks!

I've been obsessively photographing it for months now.  It's downright angelic:

Middle child:  "Why aren't you taking a picture of meeee?"

But lately we've turned the corner from "shaggy baby" to "seriously when are you going to cut it?"  And it's always in his face.  And.... SOB.... it was time:

So on Sunday we took him for his first ever haircut.

Before.

I wanted to just trim up his bangs.  Make it so it's not in his face but keep the "curlers" as my girl calls them. 

But once we did that he looked like a girl.

 Plus Matt was in the background yelling "Cut. His. Hair." at me...

 So.... I told her to just trim it around his ears a bit.

That ended badly:

Why would you give me a mullet?

Glorious Mullet of Toddler.

So I gave in and cut it all:

My heart on the floor.

And you know what?  HE'S ADORABLE:

Yes.  With one swipe of the scissors he transformed from a baby to a little man.  And No I wasn't quite ready for that.  But... actually I kindof am.  A world with only big kids and no babies sounds kindof interesting.

Everything with 3 kids is interesting.

He looks so grown up!!!!

Before vs After.  Baby vs. Man.

All 3 of the men in my life have had haircuts this week and are looking quite dapper:

And for as worried as I was about his curls never coming back... well all it took was a bath:

Short curls!

Love my Tiny!

The First Day of School. 2013.

So!  It's that time of year again.  Time for the obligatory First Day of School Post:

This year I was just as excited as last year but for completely different reasons.  My poor girl has been stuck home with me and the boys for weeks now.  And WOW was she bored.  I tried.  We did lots of fun things and went lots of fun places.  But honestly there's only so much I can do with 2 other little ones vying for my attention.  Girl needs intellectual stimulation that does not come from just me.

She insisted on posing like this.  Apparently we were doing a first day editorial shoot.

This year Preschool  is 4 days instead of 3.  And it's an hour longer and much more real.  The philosophy is that they are kindergarten trainees.  See kindergarten these days is what first grade was back when I was a kid.  So this gets them ready for that.  And let me tell you she is SO READY.  She wants to learn. She wants to be a big kid. BRING. IT. ON.

She was mildly nervous before she saw her classroom and met her teacher.  But once she did that she was fine.  No real first day jitters at all.

So the thing I was most worried about this year was this:

First day of the carline with THREE of them.

Getting everyone dressed, fed, prepared and out.  Mornings in this house are intense.  But it's not so much the addition of another kid as the fact that this year one of them is a 2 year old.  I basically need a combo of jedi mind tricks and witchcraft to get him moving in the morning.  Also someone was NOT OK with being left behind:

MINE SCHOOL.  ME SCHOOL.  WAIT ME NEEAH!  MINE SCHOOOOOL!!!!

Yeah.  Poor dude was beside himself the first day.  So to make him feel better we did this:

ROCKS WATER!

He ended up so muddy he rode home in just his underwear.  Perfect attire for a popsicle snack (ssshhh don't tell his sister):

The next day he was fine with leaving the girl at school.  Heh.  And what's extra cute is seeing him step up as a big brother now that his sister isn't around:

I think I'm going to have fun rolling with my boys this year.

And when they were reunited they had a whole conversation comparing their mornings that was basically the most adorable thing that's ever happened.

So yeah. Yay school!

this photo has nothing to do with school.  BABYSMILES ZOMG!

Balls in the air.

So!  That was a whole lot of sponsored business before disappearing for a week.  I'm sorry about that.  Not my hope for this blog.  It seems that in the juggling act that is my life right now I can't quite keep ALL of the balls in the air yet.  One goes up (blog) and some others come crashing down (knitting, housework, etc.).  Then the next week I flip them.  BUT!  At least there are balls in the air other than just KEEP ALL THE MANY CHILDREN ALIVE OMFG.  Baby steps, right?

So instead of a real, nicely themed post how about some random?

Three kids on a crazy ornate bench in a Mexican Restaurant.  RANDOM.

1.)  The kids have been watching (read: obsessed with) Jake and the Neverland Pirates lately.  So Pirate themed play is big right now - treasure! maps! swords! throwing sand at each other and claiming it's pixie dust! digging holes in the back yard!  Anyways the dude opened up my jewelry box and goes WOOOOW.  TREASURE!  NO PIRATES GET IT.  NO.  MINE HERE.  NO PIRATES GET MOMMY TREASURE.

And I was all wait... are you trying to say that the pirates won't get my treasure because you're going to protect it for me?

YES.  MINE 'TECT IT.  NO PIRATES.

This btw is why it's awesome to be a mom to a boy.  The first time my daughter found my jewelry box she asked me how long until she would get everything.  Yeah.

2.)  The dude is now potty trained.  Which.  Not going to blog about b/c NO.  However I will say this:  The whole "boys are so much harder than girls" thing is BULLSHIT.  I don't know if that's a lie boy moms told to make themselves feel superior but yeah... not the truth at all.  I think this - as for ANYTHING - in parenting depends on the kid.  I will say, though, potty training a boy I learned... some.... new things.  Like the importance of aim.

between no longer wearing a diaper and his new chucks The Dude's coolness is complete

3.)  I was chatting w my daughter about the wedding we're going to this weekend I told her that Aunt Lori Beth would be there. Her response:

"Yay yay yay!!!! Wait a minute. Is she going to be in our posse?"
"Wait what?"
"You know, mommy, a posse. The people who roll with us?"

I told her that LB would most definitely be in our posse.

wondering if our whole posse will have to wear flowers on our noses?

4.)  So the dude and I have this thing where when I'm tucking him in at night he puts his hand over my mouth and I kiss it.  Well lately he's been rubbing his hands together after I kiss them.  Just a bit of toddler crazy, right?  Well then last night I didn't kiss his hand.  I was in a hurry and it was a step and I had laundry to fold and... yeah.  So he's all KISS MINE HAND MOMMY.  KISS IT.  Freaking out and getting all upset and throwing a temper tantrum.  So I take a deep breath, collect all of the patience I have left for the day, and go back in to kiss his hand.  He rubs his hands together and says this:

MINE KEEP IT MOMMY KISS.  

I... wow.  See he's hit the two's lately.  Hard.  In the face.  But moments like this make me realize that two can be pretty damn awesome if you let it be.

5.)  The little guy discovered both his hands and his feet.  Obviously this is the most fun ever:

I have a picture of him using his hands but this one has BABYSMILESOMFG.

Also he's starting to lose that newborn look even while sleeping.  I'm not sure my heart is ready for that yet:

Milk. Coma.

6.)  I went to target this morning and I swear everyone there was pregnant.  All I could think was HAAHAAHAAAA!!! SUCKERS!  Obviously I am responding to not being pregnant anymore with both grace and dignity.

7.) Anyone have any idea how to make a My Little Pony Halloween costume?  Specifically Twilight Sparkle?  Because I got nothing...

Nothing except mad pony hairstyling skilz.

WALKING!

So.  Those of you who follow me on twitter know a whole bunch of business has been going down.  Car Shopping!  Hair dye!  Wine!  But before I get to all of that nonsense this is happening:

The Dude so distracted by his buddy that he didn't realize that he was standing.  On his own.

It all started last week at Wade Oval Wed.  He took a few tentative kindof more flinging than walking steps between Matt and my mom:


We worked so hard for those few steps:



And then... that was it.  All week I've been coaxing him.  Trying to eek a few more steps out of him.  And he hasn't really been interested.  Did it for attention but not really as a means for getting from point A to point B.  Until today.  Today something clicked into place and he finally decided that walking was a superior means of transportation:


By the time Matt got home he was able to walk the entire length of our living room.  Twice:


I think he's officially a toddler now!!!  Seems like just yesterday his sister was taking her first steps (she looks so young in that post!)   And just because this is such a video heavy post here's a link to The Dude's favorite video.  Really.

Yay walking!!!

Edited to add:  The crazy pj's outfit he is wearing in the last video was picked out by his sister.  Because of course it was.

Proof I love my Husband.

So big Christmas wrapup post coming... along with some fun knitting stuff.  But all of that got put on hold because today the Steelers are in the playoffs.  Which meant that today the kids are wearing the new gear they got for Christmas.  Which means that I had to try to take a picture of them in their adorable matching outfits.  As I've mentioned before, my daughter does not usually wear matching outfits.

It went exactly as well as you would think it would:




My kids are crazy.


I"m glad I didn't fight the battle of the hair tie with my daughter.  Crazy hair is the least of our problems here:


Although it's certainly not helping anything.

I did catch a couple of cute smiles.



And a few shots where neither of them looks deranged:


Nothing amazing but good enough to print for Matt's desk at work.


I am not in any of the photographs because I do not wear Steelers gear unless they are in the Super Bowl.

Go Browns! (and Steelers too, I guess)

Wordless Wednesday - Leaves!