Dress-up silliness and a cousin playdate

Sometimes our kids could care less for the camera and sometimes they're ready to ham it up.  Today just happened to be one of those ham-it-up days, so brace yourself for the ultimate in silliness.

Brandon showing off the softer side of the Incredible Hulk

Just a closer look at those mesmerizing eyes.

 

Cute sibling loving

 

Can you see it in his eyes?  He's thinking, "Mom, you better not think about showing this to my soccer team during the awards banquet celebrating me receiving a full college scholarship to Harvard."

Brandon was NOT happy when I put this on.

 

Nathan was NOT happy his sister was photobombing him.

 

Again, Brandon was upset.  That's his fuzzy head trying to take the wig off.

 

More unexpected photobombing which then led to a scuffle and a talk from Mom.

 

Finally, Mom got rid of that hideous wig, so now I can be silly!

 

Photobomb welcomed this time.

 

Can you tell someone just learned how to cross his eyes?

 

Ya'll are nuts, I'm playing down here.

 

This was also the day we had Ruby and Jonah over for a playdate and this is what they looked like just minutes before Aunt Niki came to pick them up.

Jonah was walking around saying, "This suit looks good on me" while admiring the muscles.

:)

Mini Bride and Groom

Katherine has been begging to put on my wedding dress.  Yes, the one from 11 years and 20 pounds ago.

Nathan loves to get dressed up with her.

The answer:

Uh, yeah, the answer is "I wish I was", with the obvious question being, "were you really that skinny?"

We did like the "Say Yes to the Dress" consultants and attached clothes pins to the back of the dress to make it tighter.

They are so stinking cute.

Cool George

This cat couldn't have been any better for our family.  He is not the typical cat that avoids children at all cost (that's our dog), he's a trooper.

For some reason, Katherine thought it would be fun to dress up George.

So she attached a wedding veil to his torso and it looks like a lacey skirt.

Poor George.  He's just staring out the screen door, begging to go outside.

And then precious little fuzzy wuzzy wants to play with George also.  Now George is really focused on getting outside.

Nope, brother stopping by gave her just enough time to grab a wardrobe change.

George, you are the man!  Even though you might not feel like it right now.

Buzz LightYear bride...

This is just what happens when you have an older sister that is obsessed with dressing up and weddings.
I don't ever worry about him dressing up too much, because what the camera doesn't capture is right after the click, the veil is quickly turned into a whip he chases her with. And once he gets within arms distance, he realizes that the veil doesn't do enough damage so he reaches for something bigger, like the 18" plastic Buzz LightYear figurine, and commences to bonking her on the head with it.

She does cross on over to the "other" side and plays with Monster Trucks, but usually it's directing him on where, when and how to drive them on the way to the Monster Jam show they're going to watch.

Monster trucks & Princesses

He can be such a good sport, sometimes. They were off to the ball, first, then Monster Truck Jam.


Some good old fashion dress-up and dancing fun.

Dress-up Tuesday

Every now and then I read about 'suggestions' for toddler play and I do my best to incorporate something new and different into our daily routine, at least weekly. Last week Katherine and I prepared a meal in her kitchen, packed it up with other picnic items, took a ride in the couch car, arrived at our 'cation' (short for vacation, which I'm finding out means anyplace fun), enjoyed looking at the farm animals in my room, took a dip in the pool in Nathan's room and admired the lovely sleeping accommodations in Katherine's room.

Yesterday we had our 'touchy-feely' workshop. I assembled things with different textures for us to touch, feel and talk about. Metal & plastic spoons, cotton balls, a fingernail file, her silky princess skirt, a DVD case, some strips of paper, etc. What did they feel like: soft, hard, cold, easy to break or pull apart. Last week in school she learned about her 5 senses so the cotton balls (which I use mostly for removing fingernail polish) introduced the sense of smell, they were stinky, and we talked about listening to the other items, tasting them and seeing them.

Today was another dress-up day. You may recall our last dress-up incident. I wasn't that patient this time, so it was just her dress-up time today. She got to pick out whatever she wanted to wear in my closet and try it on.

Mommy's skirt she wore to Molly's wedding...
Mommy's dress she wore to our wedding rehearsal...
(I can so see her trying on dresses for a school dance)
Mommy's juking dress she wore one time on our honeymoon...
(Why am I keeping this dress?)

And the one she settled on...
After she picked out the dress to wear for the next 15 minutes, we moved to her room and somehow ended up dancing. Although, I use that term loosely. It was more like interpretive dancing. She, wearing the blue flowery skirt turned into a tunic-style dress, and I, still in my pajamas, danced to the classical music tunes very cleverly turned into "Princess music" by Disney. Shirtless Nathan (I'm having visions of what his school dance outfit will be also) attempted to understand the overload of feminine-ness he was witnessing by sitting with his mouth wide open. Still. Speechless. It didn't take me long though to realize that his stillness was all part of the act.

Background: Katherine has a door stop that is easily removable and Nathan seems to think its fun to pull it off, put the dusty, grimy, metal spring-like object in his mouth, and chew on it. MANY, many times he has been told no, especially after realizing that it was missing for days and now the door knob has started creating an indention in the drywall.

So, Mr. quiet, who looks like he's in shock, is actually eyeing and slowly inching toward the door stop. In the middle of the 'dancing' a deep-voiced, resounding "NOOOOOO" comes from Mommy when I realize he's reaching for it. (The eyes in the back of my head are evolving to my advantage). Our venue had to change, the skirt/dress came off and it was time for bottle and nap.

That explains it!

Well, yesterday's find explained a lot: Nathan is cutting 2 teeth on the bottom. All within about 10 days, he started crawling really well, was pulling up and cut 2 teeth. What's next, "Mom, can I have the car keys?"























One other important milestone I wanted to add was this must be the age that boys start showing they're boys. At 7 months, he's just been rougher than Katherine ever was. Obviously nothing drastic yet, but certainly different.
















After watching Sleeping Beauty the other day, my little lady asked me, "Mommy, when Daddy gets home, can he be my prince?" As I attempted to not show the little tear collecting in the corner of my eye, she then followed it up with, "And then can he make all my dreams come true?" So this made me wonder, when do I have "the talk" with her. You know, the one about how fairy tales are just that. Just because the girl finds a man to marry doesn't mean the story ends with happily ever after. Oh you thought I meant THAT talk. Oh please. She's still learning how to hold a crayon correctly.























Thanks also to Uncle Willet and Aunt Josie for the purple dress-up dress. She wants to wear it every day and absolutely loves it. I'll probably have to cut it off of her one day.