Our fun backyard

So it's actually been more than a month since I posted, eh? Well, a lot has happened in that month. But now I'm back, and I have a slideshow for you. It's lots of fun in our backyard!

Who needs a good belly laugh? I got one for ya, right here...

So, I got a new laptop recently: my old one just couldn't keep up with my fabulousness. No, that's not true. It was heavy and bulky and had awful battery life, but she was a good 'ole gal. Regardless, I got a Macbook. And lo and behold, it has an integrated camera.

We knew this, but this week, we all just really "discovered" the photo booth application. And boy, do I have a couple of hammy kids! (Disregard the mommy photos at the beginning...I needed a new Facebook photo, okay!)

Yes, we all discovered the unbridled joy of PhotoBooth with iSight on my new Mac. Of course, Will seemed to love it the most...or experiment with it the most. Whichever.

Anyway, I am warning you now -- some of these are bwahahaha-ers. They're funny, I mean.

Enjoy.

Easter Weekend in KY

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Annie can't sing and other mommy rants

Hi, everyone! I've been really busy with work lately, but I wrote a post on BabyCenter today I thought a lot of my mommy visitor friends (and dads and grandparents!) might get a kick out of. It started with my rant about how Annie on Little Einsteins can't sing, and turned into a kinda funny cartoon diatribe. Check it out:
Hi, My name is Alyson, and I have a cartoon problem

The southern snowstorm

Yes, we got it. And boy, was it cool.

Will was again ridiculously excited. But the real story today is Laila. She was feeling much better today (finally!), for one. For two, during the light dusting of snow we got earlier this week, she was in school and it was gone by the time she was out. So today, was really her very first snow EVER.

That's right -- the kid was born in Louisiana, remember? So she was a bit confused and mystified. She'd of course seen representations of snow on TV, but I do think she was surprised at how COLD the white stuff really is. But she took Will's cue. He stayed out for quite a while, and I only let Laila out for a few minutes. But it was her first snow, and it was fun.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Update on Adelaide's ear infection

Meeting Barbie, originally uploaded by je ne sais quoi.

Some of you knew that we have been dealing with another ear infection drama the last week or so. I've been talking about it over on BabyCenter since ear infections are a hot topic over there. My posts on the topic, if you missed them:
http://blogs.parentcenter.babycenter.com/momformation/2008/03/03/from-the-front-lines-ear-infections-suck/
http://blogs.parentcenter.babycenter.com/momformation/2008/A03/05/ear-infections-still-suck-really-but-barbie-helps/

Anyway, I just wanted to let those of you who don't visit the BC posts I write what's going on with her. Oh, and I bought her a Barbie doll. Yep. First ever. Honestly, a day I thought would never come...but you know what? It's not about me. It's about Adelaide. Besides, with those horrible Bratz prosti-tots, Barbie is now the "good girl." And it is a butterfly Barbie. And she was sick. And I wanted to just make her smile.

Anyway, I talk about this in the second BC post. But I wanted to show you guys a photo of her checking out her "boooteeeful buh-fly" Barbie.

First snow!

First snow!, originally uploaded by je ne sais quoi.

So, today, we finally got snow. You'd never know the kid lived in Wisconsin for 18 or so months the way he acts like he's never even seen the white stuff! "It's the happiest day of MY LIFE," he proclaimed when he saw the ethereal ice crystals floating to the ground.

"What about the day your sister was born?" I asked him.

He did pause, to his credit. "Ummmm...well, that was a good day, too."

Go play, Will. Enjoy the abandon of childhood, when nothing makes you happier than a dusting of snow in the almost-Spring.

Who knew Abe's house was so delish?

I hope I've mentioned before my wonderful sitter, Angela. She's a great fit for us because not only is she an experienced sitter, she also was homeschooled, so she helps me A LOT with Will's work. Earlier this week, I gave her a project I found online where you can create "Abe Lincoln's Log Cabin" with pretzels, peanut butter, and other various and sundry kitchen items.

Anyway, she needed me to actually buy the pretzels, which was the limiting factor. I did eventually remember, however, and it ended up being a great little project. He had a blast, and we all enjoyed the bounty of peanut-buttery snacks afterwards. (What? You didn't think we'd just waste all that food, did you?)

"It was a strange, cool day," says Will

That it was, for sure.

The first rather odd thing we did today was take a trip down to the Hernando Courthouse Square to see some visiting performers from Cirque du Soleil. They're in Memphis to perform their Saltimbanco traveling show. I would love to have been able to go to it, but Ben's in the lovely, sunny resort town of Cleveland, OH this week, so no Saltimbanco for us.

But I digress. The troupe sent some stilt-walkers to Hernando to promote the show, and they were pretty cool. They clowned around, walked on stilts, tossed around a big balloon that all the kids in the group chased with single-minded intensity, and gave out clown noses.

Will had a blast with the balloon, and Adelaide thought the whole thing was quite curious. Today our sitter/nanny (I'm going to make up a new word for her, like "sanny" or something) was with us, which was GREAT because she stayed with Laila while I chased after Will, and I was able to take photos. It was much more fun that way.

After that, we decided to have a mommy and kids night out. We went to Chick-Fil-A, which is of course FINE dining when you have little people with you, then headed to Books-A-Million where we had dessert. I read Newsweek, Will took in another book, and Adelaide enjoyed the Little Mermaid book she found despite my best efforts to hide it from her view.

(News update: Dora is still very cool, but lemme tell you, she's all about "THE MERMAID!!!" now. So much so, in fact, that having Little Mermaid panties is actually counterproductive to potty training because she simply doesn't want to take them off to potty. *sigh*)

Anyway, we all had dessert, the kids got MORE books (it's my weakness, not a bad one in the scheme of things, I guess -- my mom was ALWAYS giving in to me when I asked for a new book, and I turned out okay...right? RIGHT?) and then we came home. After reading the ENTIRE Mermaid book, Adelaide went to sleep and Will and I geared up for our "date" -- a brand new Mythbusters and, right after it ended, a lunar eclipse.

Mythbusters was great -- it was all about McGyver -- and we loved it. After it was off we rushed outside to get a look at the eclipse.

As we sat out on the back porch, cuddled together in a blanket as the cold wind whipped around us, Will ruminated on the coolness of the eclipse.

"Too bad Adelaide isn't awake to see this," he said.

"Well, she wouldn't really understand anyway," I said. "We can tell her about it when she's older, thought."

"Like when she's 5?"

"Sure honey, when she's 5."

He paused for a moment, then turned to look at me.

"You need to write this date down so we remember," he says.

"Tell you what," I said. "I'll blog about it tonight. That way we can have it on there and find it whenever we want."

"That's a good idea..." he agreed, turning back to the sky and muttering mean things to the clouds that obscured his view of the copper moon.

So here I am, sharing our day with you all, just like I promised Will. And of course, I have the photos from Cirque on the square.

Let's go fly a kite!

Will got a new kite a few days ago, and we decided that instead of cursing the high winds because we can't get anything done outside, we'd take advantage of them and go fly a kite. Will's very proud of his "three-dimensional wingspan attached space shuttle." Anyway, after a crash course (pun intended) on kite aviation, we walked over to some empty lots in our neighborhood and let 'er fly.

I'm also trying out one of the lenses I got from Ben's parents' friends generous Nikon-tastic gift: a manual 50mm f/1.4. I LOVE this lens, and I'm really happy with the amazing speed and the great colors from it. I also used a filter with these, though I can't remember off the top of my head which it is. Anyway, I'm getting better with my manual settings, and I love this lens. So, with that...

A rose by any other name would NOT be this cute

Seriously. I mean, it oughta be criminal to be this cute. Yeah, I'm her mom, but I think this is one of the best photos of her in a while. She had her Valentine's day party at school today, and they sent the kids home with roses (wrapped in tissue paper) for their moms. Well, Adelaide was NOT about to give her rose up. Ohhhh, no. It wasn't leaving her hand. After we got home, we decided to go out back, and I grabbed my camera. (Will is playing at a friend's house right now.) Anyway, this is one of the shots I got, and I am still working on editing the others. But this, to me, is a Valentine's Day keeper. (And the photo's not bad, either.)

Be my valentine

This weekend, we went back up to KY. My sister was coming in from Frankfort, and my grandmother is turning 80. So we all gathered back at my parents' house and had a lovely little family weekend. The kids got to play together and exchange (early) Valentine's gifts, and we got a little getaway from all the stuff that needs to get done at home! The weather was uncharacteristically beautiful for February -- low 60's and sunny with a light breeze -- and the kids had a blast gathering leaves and jumping in them together. I love this photo of the three cousins after a major leaf-leaping event. Aren't they sweet?

Sticker mania!

Stickers have been the craft du jour at our house lately, thanks to the fact that brother and sister both find endless entertainment value in the little adhesive pictures. It started with homeschooling, actually -- I bought stickers to put on Will's work, and Adelaide would steal them and litter the house with "Great Job!" and "Best Ever!" stickers. Not that those little accolades weren't nice to find every now and again in places like the laundry room (where heaven knows, I could use pep talks sometimes!), I decided to go out and get her some of her own.

So I grabbed the cheapo Wal-Mart book of "groovy retro" stickers, and we all sat down together one afternoon to enjoy the bounty of gaudy, colorful adhesive fun. Of course, when Adelaide decided that these would do better as body art than on lowly copy paper, we all ended up a little groovier. Sorry for the lower-res photos -- my camera battery was charging, and this was an opportunity I couldn't miss, so the iPhone had to do double duty. But they're not too bad for phone photos, eh?

Bad blogger! Bad!

I'm sorry everyone. I have not, as you might have assumed, been abducted by aliens, taken a vow of computer celibacy, or simply forgotten how to log into my blogger account. I have just (wait for it...wait for it....)

been busy.

I know, I know -- how long does it really take to jot down a quick, "Hello from planet Alyson" blog every now and then? Yes, chastise me for my absenteeism. Please. I'm waiting. I can take it.

(sound of me expectantly cringing. no, that doesn't make a sound. just go with me on this one, okay?)

Anyway, I could give you the rundown, but really, it would be boring. In fact, if we'd done anything really exciting, I would have blogged it. It's just been work, homeschooling, family time, house upkeep...the boring everyday stuff you really don't want to hear about.

But as a peace offering, I extend this olive branch of photography. It's not much, but I hope it shows my sincere thanks that you even checked back after almost a month to read this. And I promise, I won't be so long away again if I can help it.