This and That

I miss out on blogging about a lot of the little cute things that happen each day, because I just can't keep up with it. There have been some really cute things said and done over the past few weeks, but I can't remember them all.

Poor Olivia is sick now. She didn't even make me do the entire bedtime routine tonight. I did have to do extra songs, but I didn't have to do each of the books and listen to her read them back to me. She was up again a little bit ago, because she spit up more stuff. I had to do the songs all over again. She has a long routine that she wants to go through with me each night. It now includes asking me if she is going to get boobies someday, and if she can get earrings. She knows the answers, of course, but it's just part of keeping my attention a little longer and delaying the goodnight a little bit. She has been wanting boobies since she watched the Miss America Pageant. I told her that even if she didn't get boobies, she could wear pretty dresses and be a sweet girl.

Last weekend, I got to work on sorting and clearing out more toys. Billy took the kids to the Family Fun Center for a little bit, while I worked on sorting. I packed up 3 more trash bags full of good, new or nearly new toys to get rid of. These kids have WAY too much. I want them to appreciate what they are given and realize that it's a privilege to have what they do.

Anyway, Billy said they had a lot of fun playing. He exchanged the tickets from the games for a barrel of monkeys (the little game - not live animals) and a tattoo that he put on Parker without asking me.

Tattoo Artist

Friday, before I cut Natalie's hair short, she kept saying all day that she was having a bad hair day. She first said it when she got up and was getting ready for school. That evening, she wanted to go out with me to play around with some lighting techniques and be a little model. When we got there and I was moving some lights around and stuff, she was messing with her hair and saying that it was not a good time for her to model for me, because she was having a bad hair day. It was just interesting because it was just that one day that she mentioned her bad hair day several times. She wasn't just saying it because she's heard someone say it...she really thought it was a bad hair day and it concerned her.

Anyway, I didn't take any really good shots, because my goal was not to get her portrait but to work on some shadow techniques for black-and-white newborn and maternity shots, but she was such a good model. She changes her pose around really well, and it just comes naturally to her. I never tell her how to pose for anything. I just watch her. I hope she doesn't still want to be a model when she's bigger, but she's fun to watch now.

There were some really cute poses that I missed out on capturing because I was just trying to work on some lighting stuff. This would have been a cute one with proper lighting, but there were even better ones that also had poor lighting.

She found this hat in GiGi's dress-up stuff.

We watch a great program called Signing Time that teaches sign language. I've learned a lot from it. One afternoon last week while we were watching, Natalie said that Ninny needed to be watching Signing Time because she was losing her voice and it would be great for her to be able to communicate in sign language. Such a vocabulary on that girl! I wish I could remember some of the really surprising things she's said lately. I always think I'll remember them, but I don't.

Parker made me get up with a smile Saturday morning. I was back in bed when he got up, because my head and neck hurt. A while after I heard the kids playing around, he opened the bedroom door and crawled up into bed with me. He lay down beside me and patted my arm a minute. Then, he grabbed my hand and said, "Wake up, Mama. Daddy cook. Come on, Honey." I just smiled and giggled right away. He's too cute and super sweet. He always makes me smile...Well, when there's flour all over the floor and all over him.... He ALMOST always makes me smile.