Picture Perfect

It's that time of year, time for baking cookies, building snowmen, wrapping gifts, and getting pictures taken. Ah yes, the ever anticipated event of getting your kids all dressed up and then taking them to get their photos taken. All the while threatening them with their lives if they get wrinkled or rumpled or mess up their hair.

When Eva was a baby I loved getting her picture taken. I would get her all dolled up and we would traipse off to the mall. The most difficult part was deciding what to order as one picture was cuter than the last. Then Quinn was born, and Eva was 2. Ok, things got a little trickier, but not too bad. Eva was still very accommodating and Quinn was too little to do much.

Life has certainly progressed. I'm sorry to say, but pictures are no longer easy, and certainly not fun. Of course these days the stress starts days, often weeks before the blessed event. I have to decide on outfits. Formal? Dressy? Casual? Somewhere in between? Should they match? Color coordinated? Should there be a theme? This is where John loses interest and tells me I'm crazy. This does not usually help.

This year I actually had a fairly easy time finding the right outfits - coordinating, but no theme. We even made it to Sears without any serious mishaps. Eva was an angel, and Dexter slept through almost the whole thing. Then there's Quinn. Now, in his defense, he's only 19 months. That's a hard age to simultaneously stand still, look at one thing, and smile.

The photographer was EXTREMELY patient with us. It took us well over an hour (we were scheduled for 15 minutes). The result? We have the most beautiful picture of all three looking straight at the camera and smiling (well, Dex isn't smiling, but he looks quite content). You can't even tell that Quinn was smiling for exactly the one quarter of a second and then promptly flung himself over backwards and started to scream. Doesn't matter though, I have a fantastic picture this year for Christmas cards :)

And Baby Makes ... 5

Well, it's been awhile. I know one of my last posts was how I was starting to feel pregnant - I am most definitely not feeling pregnant anymore! If anyone missed my blog, just count yourselves lucky that you missed the end of my pregnancy. I'll just say I wasn't in such a pleasant mood and spare you all the moody, hormonal, painful details.

On a much brighter note, we now have another beautiful baby boy. Dexter Elliot was born on November 2. I really thought that having another baby would be really really difficult. So far, everything has been great. Yes, we're back to midnite feedings and explosive diapers and searching under the couch/bed or inside Quinn's shoes (a very popular hiding spot :) for binkys. But, it still hasn't been so much of a change. I guess I'm just really used to having my living room filled with swings, bouncy seats, toys, books, blankets, burp cloths and all other sorts of kid and baby paraphernalia.

Both Eva and Quinn have been really great. Eva pretends everything is her baby. One afternoon while I was cleaning up in our bedroom, I looked inside the bassinet and saw a large butternut squash wrapped up in a blanket:

Me: Eva, what's this?
Eva: It's my baby.
Me: What's your baby's name?
Eva: Mooooom....it's my babynut.
Me: Ahh, of course. It's your babynut. Well, do you think your babynut would rather sleep in the kitchen with the other vegetables, I mean babies.
Eva: No. He has to sleep in his bed. (Pause) Mom, you're too loud, you'll wake my babynut.

Babynut went everywhere with Eva for about a week. Then John cooked her. I guess that's the reality of having a baby vegetable.

Well, this post is kinda short, but it's lunch time at my house. I truly believe lunch time to be the worst time of day. Who thought of having a meal so close after snack time (so no one's hungry) and so near to nap time (so everyone's whiny). I promise to start updating this much more regularly, so check back. Also, if you prefer the picture book style of checking in on our lives check our website : secularpickle.spoon.cx