We Really Did Try

As Christmas card season drew nigh, I went in search of a family photo. One that met the bare minimum requirements of:

1. Includes all 4 family members
2. All of us looking at the camera
3. Taken within the last year

Notice how I didn't say we all needed to be smiling. Or that I wanted one where you can't see the bags under my eyes.

No luck.

Plenty of cute ones of just the girls. Or just the girls and Mike. Or just the girls and me. Or just me and one girl... You get the idea.

So a few weeks ago we went to Caretaker Farm for our CSA pick-up and I asked our friend Bridget to snap a quick shot of us together. We were at one of our favorite places and it would take two seconds. Mike and I would even hold the girls so we'd all be facing the same direction. Easy peasy, right?

You be the judge:

Maybe next year.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Jingle Bell--

"Jingle Bells, Jingle..." Zora began singing.

"... Jingle Bells, Jingle All the Way," I joined in.

"NO!
No, Daddy.  
No my want you to sing."

"OK."

Pause.   "Um.. Daddy, What is next?"

"Oh what fun it is to ride..." Noemi and I sing together.

"NO! No, Noemi, No Daddy!" No my want you to sing!"

Sigh.

Dinner Last Night

The girls get up on their stools on either side of me as I prepare to make grilled cheese sandwiches.  Noemi had already explained to me with an exasperated sigh that she didn't want "grilled cheese."  She wanted "grilled cheese sandwiches."  

I give them each a small piece of the swiss cheese.  Nodding of heads.  "My like it." "My like it."

Then a small piece of cheddar, a cheese with which they are much more familiar.  More nods. More grammatically incorrect, but oh so cute "My likes." 

"Which one would you like on your grilled cheese sandwich?"

Fingers (many of them) point to the swiss.  "This one."

Great.  Trying something semi-new.  Small victory.  We'll take it.

I make the sandwiches.  But since we had agreed on the correct name for grilled pieces of bread with cheese inside, there had been some modifications to the dinner order.

They had both decided they didn't want the bread grilled or toasted at all.  "So just sandwiches?"

"Yes."

OK.  Then Zora decides she wanted hers dressed up.  Slowly she has become our food risk-taker, though in the world of three year olds and especially our three year olds, our family wasn't even  pushing Martha Stewart out of her comfort zone.  Zora asks for ham, pickles and mayonaisse in addition to her cheese and bread.

Great. I make  the sandwiches, the girls start in on them. Zora picking up and munching the whole thing with two hands.  Noey leaving it all on her plate and deconstructing it.

After a few bites, "Daddy.  Why you give me this cheese?  My no like this cheese.  My like cheddar."

"But, Noemi, you said you wanted the swiss."

"No."

"Remember, we did the taste test and you chose this one."

"My no like it."

"Could you just try it again?"

I lift it to her mouth, she opens her mouth, the cheese moves towards her mouth.  There is the slightest possibility that the cheese actually touched her tongue, but if so, only for a split second, before her head starts shaking and then is tipped to the side with a sad expression on her face... "No... No, my like it." 

Argh.

A another small victory is vacated from the records of one Michael Evans.

Oh Daylight Savings Time...

... You used to be lovely.
An additional hour of sleep.  Magically appearing in early November.
Regardless of all the naysayers and those calling for the end of you....

However, DST, what you haven't considered is this whole thing where little kids don't understand that they are granted an extra hour of sleep.
Can you make this a little clearer in your promotional and training materials?
Perhaps a few extra slides in your powerpoint or prezi, if you're into that sort of thing.

Let me just explain how hypothetically it might play out.
Two girls.  One house.   Typically waking up at 6am.  Fine.
But 5am?... C'mon, Daylight Savings Time... Help us out.

Like Pumpkin, Like Child

Halloween 2015

Falling for Fall

Mike is not here right now to approve the title of this post, but I am sure he would give it an enthusiastic thumbs up (or at least a patronizing guffaw). If there's anyone who appreciates my corny sense of humor, it's him.

Fall in the Berkshires is, frankly, stunning. Watching the progression of green to red to orange to brown on the hillsides makes me want to pull over with the leaf-peepers and survey "our valley" as the girls call it. But as a local (albeit newly transplanted), I have to be cooler than that. And the photos never do the leaves justice anyway.

I have captured a few glimpses of these blissful fall days, when the sun still has the power to warm, but the smell of wood smoke has begun to hang in the air. (One of the first things Noemi usually says when we leave the house in the morning is, "I smell a wood fire," and I think how sweet it is for her to to grow up in a place where fall is synonymous with fireplaces and technicolor vistas. So sweet that I stop myself from telling her how horrible it is for her health. Protecting her innocence and all that.)

It's not an exaggeration to say that you can literally pick apples on every street corner in Williamstown and that even the Canada geese winging overhead refuse to poop until they've passed the town limits we are so picturesque (okay, maybe a slight exaggeration). I'll need this story (and these pictures) to keep me going through all the weeks I can't feel my toes.

October at Caretaker Farm

Picking herbs at Caretaker Farm

Yep, picking apples on the street corner

first time climbing a tree

Fall Leaves

Noemi is excited about the leaves changing colors!

Exposed!

Tonight Katy turned to me and said,

"Zora's really good at exposing the fallacy of parental control."

"You tell her not to do something and she does it anyway.  And she's like what are you going to do about it?  Put me in timeout, maybe?"


It's true.

We may be screwed.

Last weekend

snuggly collaboration

exercise & celebration outside Mommy's new office

Things I Never Imagined I'd Have to Say #38

"Please take the chicken off the window, Noemi."

At the Shore II

Just a few more shots from our week down at the Jersey Shore with Gram, Abba, Aunt Chris, Uncle Nate, Cousin Josie, and Kathy in August. Can't believe autumn is almost here!

Surfing the waves with Aunt Chris

Josie and Noey

Abba, Josie, and Zora

Building a drip castle with Kathy, Daddy, and Gram

A quick visit to the Philadelphia Zoo on the way back home:

Thanks to Abba and his spiffy camera for these shots.

At the Shore I

We just got back from a magical vacation week, mostly spent down on Long Beach Island on the Jersey shore at our good friend Kathy's place. So much playing, swimming, digging, eating, and drinking! 

Swings!

2nd Annual Noemi and Mommy Day

This year we took a road trip to see my good friend Renee and her 4-year-old daughter Eve, then stopped at Oma and Opa's house on the way home. Plenty of fun, very few clothes. 

First stop: smoothies! 

Who needs clothes if they're just going to get rained on?

Happy (Belated) Father's Day!

To all the dads, soon-to-be dads, and stand-in dads, we salute you! Especially to our very own Super Dad who does it all with laughter and love. Thank you, Mike/Daddy!

 

Um, on second thought...

Last Day of School 2015

We were very lucky that the girls ended up - almost by chance - at Pine Cobble School after our move to Williamstown. The two daycares in town were booked solid for months, but Pine Cobble welcomed Zora and Noey into the Beginners class, even though they were still a little young. They loved it from day 1!

Since Pine Cobble is an actual school (rather than a childcare center), they let out for the summer. Here are some shots of the girls dressed up for Recognition Day on the last day (thanks to Abba/Bob for the last 4). They can't wait to go back in the fall!

Pretending to be monsters

Singing "This Land is Your Land" with the other Beginners and Pre-K class

Cooling off at the picnic

Smiles

Most of these posts are rainbows and smiles.
Sure.  Why not?
Here are a few of the other moments.
Just so you get to share in all of it with us.

"My. No. Want. To. Do. It. Daddy!"

A throwback to Zora styling on a dress-yourself-day in SLC

Ahh, the tantrumy threes

Lower teeth bite marks on Zozo's cheek.  One guess as to who made them.

Sandwiched between fussy girls, Daddy tries to get in on the cranky action

The girls making their best "angry" faces while snuggling in their couch/bed