A Moms life

little miss...

I could come up with many ways to finish that sentence, but the first that comes to mind is little miss pouty. This girl, she is quite a handful these days. One minute, the most charming little girl ever and the next minute she is Veruka Salt, the bratty girl in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Todd and Eli were sitting on the porch the other day and I tried to get Zoe to sit with them to snap a few pictures of the three of them. Zoe was being a bit dramatic and pouty so I zoomed in on her and was quite happy with all her little personalities that I captured in a minute.

Here is the charming Zoe, the one that says adorable things like "can we go to Toys for us". While at Toys for us, she can be heard saying "but I have wanted that toy for my whole life". This is the face that daddy saw when he showed her a picture of a playhouse and she said "I am gonna have have that for my birthday". It is this face that has sent all the other house projects to the end of the list so that daddy can build that playhouse.

Then we have this face. This is the face I see the most often and it goes along with a grunting sound. It is slightly different than the top picture in that it has an underlying smile. As mad as she is trying to be, she just can't keep the serious face. She knows the pouty lip will get us every time and uses it as much as possible.

Then we have this face. This is the one that shows that she is clearly 3 going on 13 and we are going to have our hands full with her.

Since this post is about Zoe, I will share a picture that makes me very proud. After a while of her having no interest in learning to ride her bike, she finally decided that she was ready. Todd took her over to the park one day and off she went. I love watching her go around in circles. She is so proud of herself and watching her almost makes up for the 99% of the times when she is little miss sassy.

One..

 
The quote about days with little ones going on forever and years flying by quickly could not feel any more true right now. I am still in shock that my little guy turned one today..where did this past year go? I looked at Ari this morning and it seemed so grown up, not the little baby I keep thinking he is. It is so hard for me to put into words what this little guy means to me. I always envisioned myself with two kids. When I found out I was pregnant with Eli & Zoe, I was thrilled and had a vision what life would be like with them. When I found out I was pregnant the third time I was petrified, it was not necessarily in our master plan. I could barely manage life with two crazy toddlers, how could I handle a third. When I was pregnant with Ari, I read quite a few articles and essays about how special number three was to families when it was a surprise. I don't think I really got it until I held this little guy for the first time one year ago and then it was so clear. 

His smile lights up his whole face and everyone around him. He is such a little flirt and when someone says he is cute, he buries his head in me like he is shy, then flashes that smile of his. He rocks along with music and sings along with the cutest little voice. He crawls like crazy and is so proud of himself when he pulls up on something. He worships Eli and Zoe and is always on the lookout for them. He is quite a little clown and loves to make them laugh. He was the missing piece of our little family puzzle and I can't remember life without him. He melts my heart every single day.

We let him dig into the cupcake and he LOVED it. He looked like the incredible hulk when he was done with green frosting everywhere.

While trying to get some birthday pictures of Ari this morning I handed the camera over to Eli and could not be happier with this picture that he captured.

Happy First Birthday Ari!

Look..it's Scooby Bear or Yogi Doo

OK..so I did something crazy yesterday. I ventured to the mall with my 3 kids. This is not something I consider fun or a very good idea, but I was trying to be a good mommy. We did the whole play in the germ infested play area and eat some ice cream. That was just the lead up to the main event. Eli's favorite character of all time was making an appearance at the mall as part of a safety show so we were there. The theme music started, the anticipation grew and out he came..

Who is that you ask. He kind of looks like a mix of these 2 characters don't you think?

  

It is supposed to be Scooby Doo. I get it times are tough. Companies need to save money and if you can get two characters out of one costume, why not. They could have at least velcroed on some spots on. To an unsuspecting 3 year old, you could probably pass this dog/bear costume off as either Scooby or Yogi, but to an almost 6 year old who lives and breathes Scooby Doo..nope, not going to work. Lucky for the person in the costume, he did have the Scooby voice down. So while I was quite amused by this poor excuse for Scooby Doo, Eli was happy to spend a little time with him and get a picture.

Zoe on the other hand, clung to my leg the whole time and just kept asking where the rest of the "gang" was, you know the gang..Shaggy, Freddy, Velma and Daphne.

I can't believe I have never talked about this families obsession with Scooby Doo. By this family I mean Todd & Eli and I guess Zoe too since she wants to be just like Eli. We have more Scooby Doo DVD's than I care to count and there is an endless supply of Scooby Doo books that Eli enjoys reading. Todd gets VERY excited when he finds a new series of Scooby Doo shows and movies on Netflix. And let me tell you there are A LOT. We (meaning they) could watch Scooby Doo day after day and never have to see the same episode more than once. But that is not the case, there are a few they have probably watched at least 50 times. At least once a month we have a family discussion about our family being the whole gang for Halloween. As it stands now, and is subject to change, Todd will be Shaggy, Eli will be Freddy, Zoe will be Velma or Tinkerbell, Ari will be Scrappy Doo, I will be Daphne and of course Mackey will be Scooby.

Thanks for the memories Scooby.

I'm gonna stomp...

That face..how could you not love it. This girl has been cracking us up lately with her antics. We were in the backyard one day and she was mad about something and she is stomping through the backyard with her lips all pouty saying "I'm gonna stomp".

That was the same day that we had the following conversation:
Me talking to Eli & Zoe: "You can't have a treat until your room is clean, Zoe is your room clean?"
Zoe asks Eli: "Eli, is my room clean"
Eli: "No"
Zoe: "Well then go clean it". Let me tell you, she sounded like she was 16 when that came out of her mouth. It was very hard not to laugh and envision what the future will be like at casa Zoe.