Little Boy Mohawk

I've been cutting my boys' hair since their first haircuts as toddlers. It's pretty easy really, just get yourself a good pair of clippers. They knew a haircut was coming up as we were in serious shaggy hair territory with rediculous bedhead results. My older boy asked for a mohawk. Sure, why not. My youngest decided he needed one too. I don't think he knew what one was. I made sure to show him a a picture first. He was all for it - "Cool!"

Pre-haircut shaggy mess!

Post haircut - cool mohawk!

I used a #1 clipper for the sides and a #7 for the middle.  Gel keeps it centered in.  My oldest didn't want his quite this short, so we did a #2 on the sides and a #8 for the middle.  He was also being photo shy, so no pics of that one!

With shades to be super-cool!
 

New Quilts in our house

My Mom is the gifter of quilts in our home. This year for my son's 5th birthday she made this super-cute froggie quilt. He loves it. I love the bright colors. It is fantastic for a little boy's room

A few days later another super-cute quilt arrived in the mail. This time for our 2 year old daughter who had recently moved into a big girl bed. It is a pattern of Dick and Jane fabrics.  As you can see our daughter was not so accommodating in allowing me to photograph her on her quilt.  She does love it and I do too.

Green Works Giveaway Winner

Drum roll Please: badadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadaddum! And the random number generator picked #1! Yay Silvia!
(If I were more talented at this blogging thing, I would have figured out how to pick up that image and put it on this post, but I'm not - if someone knows how, please educate me!)
 

Co-Sleeping, the good, the bad and the ugly

Co-sleeping with our daughter started off great.  When she was a new-born, her bassinet was placed right beside our bed.  When she woke during the night to nurse, I reached over, picked her up and nursed her.  When she was finished back into the bassinet she went.  If she fussed, I just had to place one of my hands on her chest to let her know I was there, and back to sleep she went.

When she grew out of the bassinet, her crib took its place in our room and we continued happily with the same sleeping arrangement.

She is now 2.  She has her own big girl bed in her own room.  She loves this bed, and she loves being close to me too.  Every night she goes down to sleep quite happily in her own bed.  

But sometime during the night, she finds her way into our bed.  My husband who is a night owl and goes to bed much later than I more often than not, finds this.  And instead of fighting for his spot, goes to sleep in her bed (gotta love the game of musical beds).  This is also why she has a twin on the floor, rather than a toddler bed.

Now here's the kicker.  You would think that this would make everything happy in toddler land.  She gets to snuggle with Mama.  Daddy and Mommy still get a full night of sleep.  Wrong!  First, she considers our bed to be hers.  You would not believe how much space she takes up!  She often ends up sleeping on me in some manner of sorts, that I'm uncomfortable, or on the edge of the bed.  If I dare move, she wakes up and goes to instant loud protest (which we really don't want).  

Now, here's where my poor husband really deserves a medal.  In the morning, she gets up, goes into her room to pick out her clothes and as soon as she realises Daddy is in her bed she says as loud and demanding as possible, "Hey!  That's my bed! You get out!".  He's tried to reason with her, but there is no reasoning with toddlers.  The line of, "Well, you were in my bed" doesn't go over very well.  As far as she is concerned Daddy doesn't have a bed.  Her bed is her bed and our bed is really Mama and her bed.  She's as much said that Daddy's bed is gone and she doesn't know where it went.  

You may wonder why we just don't move her back into her own bed?  Truthfully, I usually don't wake up when she crawls in with me.  And her being the third child and knowing how difficult it can be to move a sleeping child without waking them up, it's easier just to play musical beds sometimes.  Our two older children do sleep in their own beds (our oldest 100% of the time) and our middle child most of the time, though he has been known to crawl in around 5am for that last hour to cuddle (BTW - if we knew then what we know now, we would have a King Size rather than a Queen, Queens were not made for this many people!).  I know that this won't last forever - my other children being living proof of it! There are glimmers of hope, nights when my husband comes to bed and his side is empty, nights where she sleeps through the whole night in her own room (we really lavish the praise on for that!).  There have been nights where I do the reverse and when she calls for me at 2:30 am, crawl into her bed instead, letting my husband have a good night's sleep in the big bed.  But this is our life most of the time, for now.

Princess Shoes

 These are my daughter's good shoes.  She was delighted with them at Christmastime. 
On Sunday mornings I say to her, "Let's get dressed for church".  She immediately opens up her closet door (because she knows that is where her dresses are kept) and says, "I wear princess dress!" and picks something pretty.  And every Sunday morning after I say, "Let's put on your pretty shoes".  She now replies, "No!, I no like pretty shoes!  I wear princess shoes!" And picks up her sneakers.  In her mind her sneakers go with her 'princess dress' because they have Tinkerbell on them and Tinkerbell is a princess too.

Getting Pictures of the Kids - a Parent's Easter Journey

Last year I got a really nice picture of the 3 kids on Easter Sunday. They were all dressed up for church anyway.  And they were great about it.  The picture was so good, I put it on a mug for my grandmother.  This year I thought I would do the same thing.  Kids are dressed up, I put my quilt down and set them up for a picture.  This is what happened.  I always try to take as many pictures as I can because with three, you have to be ready for THE shot. 

Take 1 - blurry and the girl dives over her brother in giggles

Take 2 - blurry, no good faces on them anyway

Take 3 - almost, but the oldest has his tongue sticking out

Take 4 - better, but now my oldest is buggy eyed

Take 5 - now he's closed his eyes to compensate for the buggy eyed previous shot

Take 6 - now the two boys have their eyes closed

Take 7 - girl is losing interest and is blocking #2 child

Take 9 - We're losing interest from 2/3 here

Take 10 - not great, but the best so far

Take 11 - more of the same, but a little bit better

Take 12 - we're losing them again and we're out of time, off to church we go.  I have a brilliant idea that unless I figure out how to transpose heads or fix expressions in Photoshop I'll have to go with plan B when we get home.  Plan B is to get individual shots of the kids to create side by side pictures instead.

I start with my oldest.  2 shots and he's done, one from the front angle...

And one from the top.

Then comes my 2nd born - again, he's ready to go, nice smile

Very sweet

Lookin' Good

Still good.

And from the top - a little blurry

Getting there

That's the one!

And one extra.

Now it's the girl's turn. - Shot 1, she actually sits on the blanket, but won't look at me, just wants to play with the Easter Eggs

Then she's up, playing with the blinds

She teases me by saying she'll come back to the blanket

And she's off

On the blanket but refusing to sit

She'd rather check out the Easter Eggs

Still won't look at me

Gone to see what her brothers are up to

Too Noisy!  She tells them

And closes the doors - this is the picture she posed for

After more of the same running around and chasing and then rolling on the blanket, she consents to sit on the blanket once more, still not looking at me

playing with her tights

Still playing with her tights, but at least she's looking at me now

The best I can get and still not great - but at least she's sitting, looking somewhat happy, ponytails still in, tights still on - after this those ponytails were out, and comfy clothes were on instead.
Photos with a 2 year old!
A little side note about the Easter Dress.  My sis in law bought this for her last year to grow into.  It's so perfect for Easter.  When I showed it to her that morning, she said, "Yes, my dress!  I princess!" She was all over it.  Oddly enough, she refuses to wear her pretty Mary Janes style shoes anymore, she has to have her Tinkerbell sneakers on because Tinkerbell is a princess too.  She's definitely becoming a girly girl with her own sense of style.