Trying on Halloween Costumes, etc.

The time is going by way to fast, in my humble opinion. Our little bird is almost 11 weeks old and our big girl will be 4 in 2 months!!! Good grief! We keep pretty busy around here.

Vivien is enjoying school so much. She has a BFF in class, even though we go over and over how she needs to be best friends with all of the children. I was wondering if it was a bit one-sided, because Vivien talks about this little girl all of the time. Last year, Vivien was not part of the girl clique in her class so I had to wonder if the other child this year shared her affection. That is, until the day I dropped her off to school and the other girl nearly tackled her with hugs and love when we arrived. Vivien didn't even say goodbye to us that day. Ha ha. Oh well, it's nice to see that she is a normal child and that she isn't always the outcast. That can certainly hurt a mama's heart, but I've learned that everything is a phase and she will figure it all out.

Jim and I have been devouring parenting books on dealing with a strong-willed child. Vivien has been a fighter since birth and we are so thankful because her perseverance saved her life. But she wears us out sometimes with her stubbornness! We're learning new ways of coping with her demands and control issues, which makes things a lot more tolerable around here! Of course, we know that same strong will help mold her into a successful woman and we look forward to that.

Around the house, I've been making my own dishwasher detergent and more recently, laundry detergent. The dishwasher detergent has gone really well. I haven't tried the laundry detergent (it has to sit overnight), so we'll see how that goes. I asked Jim if I could put up a clothes line in the backyard to sun my diapers since Silas is a stainer, and he said he had to draw the line somewhere. Oh well, it was worth a shot. Back to hanging diapers all over the swingset!

Last night, Jim and Silas had a photo shoot with a local photographer who is working on his portfolio. I can't wait to see how the pics turned out of my handsome men. I'll share when I am able.

Onto the pictorial!!!

Vivien has opted to be a princess for Halloween. I bought this costume on eBay. I can only afford a generic princess costume, and was terrified that she would be disappointed that it wasn't a Disney princess costume. She was happy with it, though.

Silas is the frog prince. She kissed him, but I couldn't get the picture fast enough....

.....so we tried to stage it. She's an amazing actress, don't you think?

Happy little frog! I hope it's cooler on Halloween, because this costume is very warm.

He's so cute I can't stand it. I just want to eat his cheeks all day.

We went to the mall with some friends on Friday. Vivien is enjoying her lunch with Yossarian. About a minute after that, he climbed over to her seat and she got weirded out so she had to come over and stand on top of me.

Vivien and Alice were looking every direction but the camera as I was calling their names. I think they were still miffed because earlier we busted them sneaking out of the play area at Willowbend to go over to those annoying coin-operated machines. One of the girls (whose name I will not divulge, but rhymes with mivien) was irritating us to no end about going to play on those coin-operated nuisances. We kept telling them that we would in a little bit and to go play. There was some disturbing activity going on in the play area that distracted Melody and me (yes, that is grammatically correct). Next thing we knew, we couldn't see our girls. We panicked and then both thought to look up at the coin-operated nuisances, and there they were sitting in one of the cars looking back at us as if they knew they were totally busted. Little turkeys. It did freak me out a bit because Vivien NEVER leaves me. She is normally scared to go three feet from me and always comes back to check in multiple times when she plays on playgrounds.

To the layperson, this picture may look like an older sister "reading" a story to her little brother. However, if you have ever spent more than a day in our household, you know that she was, in fact, singing this story to her brother. This is the book that Mrs. Brandy brought to Vivien when Silas was born. And here, she is delivering it in song to her brother (who is obviously pleased...and relaxed apparently).

Silas sure loves pretty blondes...