Little Miss H'ism

Today Little Miss H  looked at me and said "Watch this mom," and then stuck her finger up her nose as far as it would go.  Then with a look of distress on her face she went, "Uh, uh, uh."  I told her to take her finger out her nose if she didn't like it.  She removed her finger from her nose (eyes watering) and then said, "Hey mom, you try it."  I politely put the tip of my finger in my nose to show her at least I was trying it, when she said, "You're not saying, "Uh, uh, uh."  Head shake.

She has reached a super cute stage of her development right now and has started role playing with her toys.  She handed me one of soft toys the other day and said, "I'll be the mommy and you be the sweetie."  Then in this really high pitched voiced wiggled her stuffed cat at me and said, "Hello sweetie, now go clean your room."

Little Miss H'ism

Little Miss H accidentally stepped on her plush cougar toy while playing today.  She stopped her play, completely concerned, held her stuffed animal up and said, "Kitty, are you okay kitty?"  Then she replied to herself, "Meiow, Meiow."  Then she sighed in relief, tucked her toy under her arm and walked away.

Summer Fun with the Cousins

We spent a few great days at Bear Lake with my brother and his family this summer.  The Tazling pretty much taught herself how to swim, and she and Maeve were so excited we spent the majority of the time in the pool.  One morning everyone kitted up and went ATVing.  This is one activity I can't do with my family because the vibrations and rough ground mess too much with my back, so I sat on the deck overlooking the water and read a book while everyone else went out and played in the mountains.

Poser

The Tazling has suddenly decided not to be camera shy anymore and wants her picture taken constantly.  We were hanging out before school the other day when she told me to get my camera and take some pictures of her posing.  I figured what the hell.  Cute little five year old.  And then, she whipped these out of nowhere.....What the...WHAT?!?!  I like the bottom two.

 

 

 

Zombie Makeup

My little neighbour kid wanted to be a zombie for his family Halloween party on Friday night.  His mom asked me if I wouldn't mind doing his makeup for him.  Not having done a zombie before I figured it would be a fun way to play around and figure out some new techniques.  It took me about an hour to do some pretty basic stuff using Elmers glue, a tissue, sand, charcoal and fake blood.  I was just about to apply the fake blood to the kids face when I read the warning on the bottle which stated not to use it around the eyes and mouth.  Well there went my whole stinking plan.  Not about to be thwarted, I pulled out the good old corn syrup, some red food colouring and a drop of black food colouring and mixed up a batch of my own fake blood.  I couldn't even tell the difference between the store bought and the stuff I made. It was fun playing around and figuring stuff out again.  I also learned how badly I want to learn how to do airbrush makeup.  Maybe someday.

The entire time I was doing this makeup, Little Miss H was screaming.  She did NOT want me to turn her friend into a zombie.  She was having a full meltdown and kept screaming, "NOOOOOOOO, don't make him into a zombie, make him into a bunny!"  It was so funny, and so sad all at the same time.  Eventually Mack had to take her outside and try and calm her down.

Here's how the kiddo turned out.

 

About an hour later I popped over to his house to chat to his mom, and he had washed it all off.  He didn't like the way it felt.  At least I had fun doing it.

Little Miss H'ism

Every day we walk the Tazling to her school bus stop and see her safely on the bus.  I usually give her hugs and kisses and then wave and say something like, "Bye Pumpkin have a good day."  Today however before I even had a chance to say anything, the little miss (still dressed in her mismatched pajamas and mismatched shoes), threw her little arm in the air, gave a huge wave and yelled, "Good-bye sweetheart, goooood-byyeee sweetheart."  Then she turned around and headed for home. 

1000 Sugars

Cupcakes in the car always seem like a good idea in theory.  For some reason I keep thinking the peace and quiet will out weigh the clean up.  And then this happens.  It is a pretty darn adorable mess though, isn't it?

Mom, Mom, Take my Picture!

Bitter Sweet

It has been a fun filled, energetic, painful, tiring and sometimes overwhelming summer for us.  Some of the projects on our house were completed, some started and many just ignored, but thats the way it goes and I'm not complaining.  We took one trip to Disneyland with the girls to celebrate my munchkin's 5th birthday and acquired a couple of bunnies too.  We've laughed, we've cried, we've thrown royal tantrums (kids and adults included), but mostly we've grown closer as a family and are figuring out each individuals needs vs. wants. 

Today however was a moment I particularly have been looking forward to and dreading all at the same time.  Today I watched my little girl climb on a big yellow school bus for her first day in Kindergarten.  She was so excited for this moment and only paused at the bus door with a, "Take one more picture mom" and then she was gone and the bus doors were closing.  I must admit, I got a rather large lump in my throat as I watched the tail lights disappear around the corner.  Little Miss H however had a full melt down because she couldn't go on the bus.  She kept yelling, "my turn, my turn."  Poor kid.  Soon enough.  We both got over ourselves pretty quickly and went shopping.

Another milestone over.  These kiddos grow up way too fast.

 

(Side note: She picked her own outfit, and then posed herself so I could take her picture.)

  

Decorating : Tardis cabinet

We had one of those eighties style kitchen desks in our kitchen. I really didn't like it, especially when it became the catch all for everything in our home that we couldn't find a place for. I decided I wanted to replace the desk with a cupboard of some sorts.  I started looking around and found a solid wood armoire in our local classifieds.  It was a really good price and it fit the space perfectly.  Unfortunately it was a tad rustic looking for our tastes.

I was just going to switch out the hardware, but when Mack asked me what color I was going to paint it, I had a little rethink.  I picked out the navy to match the rug in my living room, but it wasn't until I had the first coat of paint on the cabinet that I realized the colour and style of the cabinet were making it look ridiculously like the Tardis from Dr. Who. I kind of dug it though, so we kept it. My neighbour kindly made me a "Police call box" sign, and now in place of the disgusting kitchen desk I have my Tardis. 

The Long and the Short

Before we chopped off the munchkins hair, I needed to do one thing - straighten the hair, just to see what it looked like.  And, the munchkin sat still just long enough for me to get a few pictures.  Just look at the cuteness of that face.

 

Decorating: Hemming Curtains

We've been in the house for a year now, and I'm finally starting to get little decorating projects completed.  The biggest of those project are my lovely green striped curtains.  These curtains are an Ikea hack and I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.  There are two windows in my living room, so I bought 2 packs of the Ritva curtains, then measured, ironed and sewed green fabric stripes onto them.  The window coverings that came with the house were those metal window blinds and they were dirty and dis-gusting!  I promptly ripped those puppies out and ordered some sheers from Amazon.  Once the curtains were hung at the desired height (so I could measure and pin in the hems), I was not in the mood to take the curtains down again to sew them.  And, this is where the height of my laziness shows... I just left the curtains hanging while I ironed and sewed the hems into them.  Yay me!  Best idea I've had in a while.

Ice Skating Fun

My 9yr old nephew is totally in to ice hockey at the moment and would actually sleep in his skates if he were allowed to.  As it is, he spends as many waking hours as his parents will permit practicing his skating skills.  On one of the weekends we spent at my brother's house recently, we all decided to accompany Ethan to the open skating night at the rink.  The Tazling was a little trepidatious at first, but within 2 sec flat of getting onto the ice with her little grandma walker she was having a blast.  This is definitely an activity that we will do again very soon.

Another Little Miss H'ism

I have to write this down while it's still fresh in my memory and I'm having a good chuckle at it.

The precious ones were a little bit hyper after their bath this evening, and they were having one of their rare "I'm playing with my sister and having fun" moments.  I let them play till about 30 min after their usual bed time, when I let them know it was time to cover their nakedness and put on their pajamas.  Taz co-operated after barely any threats, but the little miss decided she was having nothing to do with anything resembling  a diaper or clothing.  She loves to run around the house exclaiming, "I'm nay-ked!"  I let her know it was time to settle down and get ready for bed when she turned around and ran into Taz's room and started jumping on the bed.  I grabbed her and lay her down on the bed to try and get her diaper on, when she lifted her legs to start kicking me.  I raised my one eyebrow at her and told her that if she kicked me I was going to smack her bum.  She pouted a bit, but lowered her legs slowly, then turned her little head to the side and yelled, "TAZSH  HEEEEEELP!!"

Little Miss H'ism

Trying to figure out what my two year old will actually eat so that she doesn't starve herself is an all consuming job right now.  (You know how they say little ones won't starve themselves.  That is so not the case with my kids).

This morning I gave her an empty ice cream cone to see if she would munch on it for breakfast.  She got really excited and clapped her little hands, "Yay, i-keem."  Her little face changed when she realized it was just the cone, she looked at me, pointed her little finger inside the cone and said, "Mom, i-keem go in."  It was hilarious, I could just hear the sarcasm in her voice as she told me that ice-cream goes in the cone.

She's a sassy little thing I tell you.

Little Miss Maestro

The Tazling has been learning how to play the violin as part of her pre-school curriculum.  We had a meeting with her teacher today where she was able to show me what she has learned in the last 6 months.  This was definitely an awwwwwwww moment for me.

A Trip to the Mall

It has been seriously cold here lately, and when a big weather system comes through it messes with my back like you wouldn't believe.  The pain zaps my energy and I become a zombie.  What do zombies do with two super lively kids who just want to run and jump and treat your furniture like a jungle gym?  Why yes, you take them to the mall and spend daddy's hard earned money.  You also become one of those oblivious mothers who's kids are running amok and destroying all in their path.  They had fun though, just look at those smiles.

Formal

These were the only pictures in focus so there isn't a full length one of the two of us, but picture a really cute pair of bright red patent leather shoes and you'll have the whole picture.

Blue Eyeshadow

The 80's have made a comeback at our house.

(Dec 19, 2012)

The Hair Cut

Taz has the most fantastic hair.  It is thick.  It is CURLY! And, it is the most amazingly vibrant shade of auburn you have ever seen.  Pictures do not do it justice.  Wherever we go, people stop me and comment on her hair.

I let her hair grow and just do its own thing, because seriously, taming the wild beast is not always the best option.  Well, the wild beast has become a thing of the past for us.  Why?  Because the hair either had to go, or one of us was not going to survive the next wash and brush session.  Brushing the child's hair was becoming increasingly more of a chore and a cause of serious tension between the two of us than it needed to be.  She hated....hmmm, no, more like HATED getting her hair brushed because it was so curly and knotty and got so ratted at night.  I woke up one day and figured I only had two options to help my child not have serious issues about her hair when she grew up, 1) Let her hair form into dreadlocks, or 2) convince her that getting her hair cut short was what she wanted to do.  It took about a week of me telling her the only way to not have to brush her hair was to cut it short like daddy's hair.  She woke up one morning and said, "Mom, I want to cut my hair, but, only if I can have some blue in it."  Done and DONE!!

I called the neighbour and asked her to babysit Little Miss H, and took Taz to a walk-in Salon down the road.  The hair dresser in this salon took one look at the munchkins hair and refused to cut it.  What the what?!  Umm, how can you refuse?  Nope, they point blank refused to cut that hair.  So, I took her to a different salon, where the stylist looked at me like I was crazy for wanting to cut her hair and tried to talk me into just styling it a little shorter.  I told them to listen to me carefully.  I wanted her hair to be cut OFF, boyshort, pixie cut.  Still, I met opposition.  Eventually I asked if they were going to do it or not, or if I had to take my child some place else.  They agreed to do it, but all the stylists in the salon looked like they wanted to cry.  The guy who eventually cut Taz's hair told me that if he could hand pick his own kids hair, Taz's hair would be what he would pick. I told him what it was like to brush that hair while still attached to the child's head and what it felt like to do all that with a broken back.  He didn't say much after that.

This is what her hair looked like the morning we took her in:

This is what it looked like during the cut:

This is what it looked like after the cut:

And, this is what it looked like the next morning:

After all her hair had been lobbed off, the stylist asked her if she liked her new hair cut.  She thought about it for a few seconds and then said, "Yeah I like it, but its just missing a little something....Its missing some blue."  I bought a can of blue hairspray, sprayed the front curl a vivid blue and she was one happy little girl.  Best part of the whole thing?  We don't have screaming fits in the bath anymore.  She loves washing her hair now, doesn't run when I try to brush it and it has possibly saved that part of our mother/daughter relationship.

Besides, it really suites her and we still get stopped wherever we go.