Elliot's My Sister?!

Dottie doesn't get the difference between a brother and a sister. I even had her chanting the other day: "A brother is a boy, a sister is a girl." Despite my attempt to indoctrinate her, she still says: "Elliot's my sister! And I'm his brother!" Geez Louise. I know she'll eventually figure it out, just like she did when she used to confuse "Dottie" with "Doggy." She'd go around saying, "I'm doggy!"
By the way, that is a headband on Elliot's head. Dottie puts things on his head all the time. The thing is, he doesn't even care. Maybe he should have been a girl; he's certainly better at keeping things in his hair than Dottie is.

Another favorite of Dottie's, the hat.


Dottie jump-roping with my phone cord. These are the things she does for fun when Elliot's taking a nap.

Joy School Halloween Party

Yesterday was Dottie's Joy School Halloween Party. It was a much-anticipated event, because Dottie knew she could wear her witch costume. It was a nice short party; it only lasted an hour. They sang two Halloween songs, iced cookies (and ate them), and made two crafts. I just love Halloween. I love it so much, I left my kids in their costumes all day long. They went to a doctor's appointment and the mall in their costumes.

The kids singing their Halloween songs.

Making their spiders.

Elliot is impossible! He kept on rolling over or trying to grab the camera as I took this picture. Crazy kid. I'll get a better shot when it's actually Halloween.

My happy little witch.

Oh, the media

I try not to get political on the blog, because I don't want to offend people one way or the other. I think as long as people are voting, that's great. Vote for who you feel is the right candidate.
However, I have noticed, in this presidential race, a definite media preference. The following story confirms this belief for me.
Two nights ago, I was watching ABC news with Dottie. The story changed to the presidential race, how each candidate was doing, the latest scandal, etc. Now, I noticed that there was more negative press about McCain and Palin, and more positive press about Obama. Not only that, there was considerable more airtime on Obama. I wouldn't think a three-year-old would notice. Dottie turns to me and says, "Mommy, we're watching Obama." Now, I don't talk about politics to Dottie. She might hear me and Joe talk about politics occasionally, but the fact that she picked up from the news Obama's name and not McCain's is proof to me that there is a media bias.
Now me telling you this has nothing to do with what candidate is the best, but rather, it shows how there is unfair media coverage. Dottie says she likes Obama; she thinks he's fun. A three-year-old is persuaded to like Obama more than McCain. Isn't there something wrong with this picture?

The Pumpkin Farm

Last Friday, we went to a pumpkin farm with another group similar to Joy School. I think the other kids had a good time. My children, on the other hand, were extremely out of hand. This picture is probably the peak of Dottie's happiness at the pumpkin farm, for she knew that once she had her pumpkin, she could leave.

I like this one. Dottie, and the little boy, Aaron, showing their misery.

These are pictures of the whole group. They're all about equally as bad, so I figured I'd post them all. I especially like Serenity (the one mommy in the picture). She has three young kids, and they were also struggling that day. Her face says it all: "is this even worth it?" We were having similar sentiments that day.

I'm sorry; I should have a better attitude. I mean, like I said, for some kids, it was awesome. But I could only get Dottie to get out of the stroller to touch this hog, and then to see the horse. She did like the hog. He was enormous. She said his hair was "rough," which it was.

This is where the big meltdown happened. Dottie is with her best bud, Amelia, who loves horses. The horse turned around and whinnied, and Dottie thought he was trying to eat her. So she cried and cried. See how she's wringing her hands? Then, when we left the horse, she started crying that she wanted to see him again. It was probably a bad idea to go at all; both kids were up until 9 pm the night before because they went to Daddy's concert.

On a happier note, this was our first time dressing up Elliot in his huge winter coat. I don't know why, but I just think babies look so dang cute in these coats. I especially like seeing Elliot try to crawl. He can hardly move he's so bundled.

So have you noticed I changed things up with the background of my blog? I don't know how I feel about it. What do you think? Is it me?

No Gender Roles Here . . .

That's right. My baby boy is wearing a butterfly smock. And he's not happy about it. I don't know if the rest of you out there with baby boys have noticed, but there is a huge discrepancy in the amount of boys' clothing vs. girls' clothing at any store you go into. The ratio is usually 3 girl outfits for every 1 boy outfit. Also, baby boy clothes are usually butt-ugly. I mean, why does every retailer think I want my child plastered with footballs and soccer balls, with the inevtiable sports number somewhere, as if he were already some boneheaded jock?
I went to Babies R Us, which is supposedly the best baby store out there, with the specific purpose of finding bibs that covered EVERYTHING. Elliot has recently decided that baby food from the jar is no longer cool; he wants to feed himself. This presents a problem since there are only so many foods he is capable of eating. So now it is a complete disaster when he eats. A pear? He squishes it all over himself.
So I moseyed on over to Babies R Us, knowing that they would have covering bibs. The only covering bib was this one, the butterfly smock. When I asked one of the store workers if there was baby boy bibs like this one, she told me (very unsympathetically, by the way) that there were just more girl bibs than boys'; that's just how the shipments came in.
Now why, I ask you, would there be more girl bibs than boys'? Aren't boys supposedly more messy than girls? So Babies R Us, I'm deeply disappointed. You've also fallen into the retailers' trap of gender biases.
So I bought the butterfly smock, as you can see. Only for in-house wear. The kid has to have something. I'm tired of going through 3 outfits a day.

New Hair!

Yesterday, I decided to get my hair trimmed. Whenever you get a short haircut, it looks like crap for months on end if you don't do anything about it. So I'm back to my short, mushroom cut that I keep coming back to. I took Dottie with me while Elliot and Joe went to Borders.

While I was getting my haircut and Dottie was sitting next to me in one of the twirly chairs, I couldn't help but notice how scraggly her hair is looking these days. Her hair has some natural curl to it, so it doesn't look great when it's down and nothing's done with it.
So I asked her if she wanted her haircut. She said yes, then specified she wanted it short like mommy's. I have hesitated thus far to get her hair cut at a salon because, let's face it, she wiggles a lot. But she was so good, it was amazing! She just sat perfectly still, looking straight at the mirror the entire time. I think she was in awe with how beautiful she is. She is a very vain little girl. So here's the new hair!

Santa's Workshop . . . Again

If you've been following my blog, you'll recall that we once visited Santa's Workshop before. In fact, it was probably around the same time last year. The one difference is Elliot is no longer in my tummy, but out of it.

For those of you who are blog newcomers, let me explain the joys of Santa's Workshop. It is an amusement park in Colorado Springs mostly geared to those under the age of ten. I seriously can't see teenagers coming to Santa's Workshop for kicks. The rides are mostly kiddy rides that you find at your local carnival. However, the thing that makes them exciting is the Christmas theme. How can you not become happy at a place where you can sit on Santa's lap and where Christmas music is blaring everywhere you turn?

So me, Dottie, Elliot, Emily, and Craig visited again on Friday to share the joy once again with Dottie. These pictures are in no particular order.



I'm sorry, but I really think my baby is the cutest baby alive. Isn't he cute?

Dottie's carousel experience: she wouldn't ride on the horses! What's wrong with my kid? She insisted on sitting in the purple seat. Every ride she went on, she had to sit in the purple one.

See? Purple car.

Okay, a red one. But that's because there was no purple.

And Dottie's big head made even bigger . . .

And the treacherous candy cane slide. You go really fast on that thing! At the end, there's a rubber mat to land on, but it's not very padded. My tailbone is still feeling the pain.

Santa's train.

Elliot's best friend became the water bottle.

Santa asked Dottie: "What do you want for Christmas?" Her response: "I'm going to be a witch!" Wrong holiday, Dottie.

My sweet one was enamoured with Santa. So precious.