Uptight

You know, I've had several people with bees in their bonnets over the fact that I've taken a teensy hiatus from blogging. What, a girl can't take a five month break without raising eyebrows? Anyway, my true motive behind this brilliant and diabolical plan was to weed out the "sunshine patriots." By now, only the really devoted readers are still following this blog. And by readers, I mean reader. And by reader, I mean my Grandmom. Thanks, Grandmom!

So, let's do a brief re-cap of some of the previous months' events:

Ah, the Fourth of July. My main purpose in selecting this photo is so that you can observe Lily's hair and compare it to this:

The scene of a murder. The victim: Lily's hair. The weapon: the scissors at her feet. The scene: my craft room (where the accused had secreted herself away to commit the crime). The perpetrator: well, I think that's obvious.

A little backstory about this. I think I may have mentioned earlier that Lily had attempted cutting her own hair. Three times. After these incidents, we were much more careful with the placement of the scissors. Sadly, we did not account for the imbedded homing device that Lily has for destructive objects (scissors, markers, chocolate syrup, etc.). The scissors had become sticky in one way or another (it MIGHT have been from someone's Otter Pop binge -- hard to say for sure) and had been placed in the dishwasher. Why a two-year-old would search for scissors in a dishwasher remains unclear.

Anyway, I wasn't very happy about this fourth incident. When I removed her pigtails to survey the extent of the damage, this is what came out in my hand:

And this was the aftermath:

That scalp looks nice, huh? At least there weren't any important and photographable events on the horizon, like...oh, I don't know...Logan's brother's wedding, perhaps? Oh, wait! It was three weeks away!

It's a bit difficult to tell in the photo, but Lily's bangs start pretty much at the crown of her head. They are then combed forward to cover the bald scalp lurking below. All of this is held in place by a headband and copious amounts of hairspray.

Sigh. Now, five months after the fact, things are still pretty jaggedy-looking in the front -- but much easier to camouflage.

Right before the wedding, we took a trip down to Monticello to visit my grandparents and celebrate the 24th of July. While there, Amanda and Lily took their first crack at fishing. They were getting pretty discouraged after about 30 minutes without so much as a nibble, when suddenly there was a tug on the line...

...of the guy sitting a few yards away from us. Amanda and Lily watched excitedly as his line went taut and the fish splashed and struggled. Knowing how much they wanted to catch a fish that day, this man graciously invited Amanda over to reel the fish in and keep it for her dinner.

And one of sweet Benson, just because he's so stinkin' cute!

Late summer brought the birth of a new nephew! William Beckett Heaton (we call him Beck) was born to my sister Lisa and her husband Tyson. Here we all are at his blessing in October:

And just in case you don't know what children who adore their father look like...they look like this:And finally, Halloween. Benson's and Lily's costumes might look familiar (Amanda was the cat and Lily was the mouse last year), but Amanda's costume was the envy of many this year. A few months before Halloween, I was perusing the racks at D.I. (as I often do) and stumbled across what looked like a wedding gown -- in a girl's size 5! Darling, darling, darling. A little bit of jewelry and my wedding veil completed the outfit. A cousin has already spoken for this costume when Halloween rolls around again:

*Sidenote*

As Lily was just identifying everyone in this photo, I was reminded of a funny story. Amanda determined that she was Cinderella on her wedding day, that Benson was Gus Gus, and that Lily was the cat...whose name, in the Disney movie, is Lucifer. In the weeks leading up to Halloween, both Amanda and Lily would excitedly tell people that Lily was being Lucifer for Halloween. I very much enjoyed their reactions.

In other news, we are expecting our fourth baby in May! We'll find out in a couple of weeks whether it's a boy or a girl (we're crossing our fingers for a boy, as this would simplify our living arrangements greatly). We're very excited about this impending arrival.

Won't you be excited to see what the next five months will bring! See you then (or maybe even sooner, if you're lucky)!

Recurring Dreams

I know I just barely posted about Lily's "dreams," but here's a reprise. (This just happened a few minutes ago).

Lily and Amanda had been in bed for a few minutes, but based on the noises we could hear from their room (jumping, screaming, playing, singing, banging feet on the wall, etc.) there had been no sleeping whatsoever.

We heard Lily walking downstairs making kind of a soft whimpering noise that vaguely resembled crying. When she came into view, she had the biggest grin on her face -- yet she was still fake crying. Suppressing our laughter, we asked her what was wrong. She said (smiling and "crying" at the same time.) "I have a very bad dream."

Kara and I smiled at each other with that "we both know where this is going, but we still need to ask anyway" look. So I asked Lily what happened in the dream. She lifted her nightgown, pointed to that dang freckle, and said, "It's this light brown one, right here."

We really need to see if we can do something about that dang freckle. Maybe we could tatoo an American Indian dreamcatcher just right on her shin so that freckle is covered up. That may work.

Stuff That's Been Said Around Our House

Not all of these are recent -- but they are ALL real.

Amanda:

When Lily declared herself "The Princess," Amanda's brow furrowed momentarily -- but her face suddenly brightened considerably, and then she said smugly, "Well, that must make me the queen."

In Primary singing time the other day, children were being called on to share their favorite song, which all the children would then sing. Amanda's teacher leaned over to her and whispered, "What's your favorite song, Amanda?" "' I Wanna Rock and Roll All Night and Party Every Day'," she replied nonchalantly. When Amanda was called on by the song leader, she leaned over to her teacher and whispered, "I changed my mind." She selected "I Am a Child of God" instead.

Lily:

Like most two-year-olds, Lily doesn't pronounce every word with exact correctness. We'll sometimes try to coach her by repeatedly saying the syllable she's having trouble with (i.e. "r-r-r-rock" instead of "wock"). One day she was trying to tell us something about some "owie" she had, but we didn't hear her the first time she said it. In a very exasperated tone, she stated (more clearly this time), "I have an owie on my th-th-th-flumb!" -- and held up the injured "flumb" (thumb) as proof. She was looking at us like we were absolute half-wits. If you want a good laugh, find a condescending two-year-old.

Today I caught Lily sneaking around in the pantry not long after breakfast. She had pulled a barstool over there and was rummaging around for some snack or another, I'm sure. She was caught red-handed -- there was no escaping! I confronted her: "Lily, what are you doing?" Lily, wide-eyed and very off-guard: "Nothing." Me, more pressing this time: "Lily, you are not to lie to me. What are you doing?" Lily, looking shifty and searching for a true answer that won't get her in trouble: "Um....I'm not getting into the pretzels!" Well, clearly this was also a lie. However, she said it with such great hope and her signature 'if-I-shrug-my-shoulders-and-look-really-cute-I-MIGHT-get-outta-this' look that I decided to let it go.

Benson:

Since Benson doesn't really say a lot that we can understand (he frequently carries on conversations with us like we really know what he's saying -- but it's all gibberish), I'll just relate an experience that happened a few minutes ago. Benson has a fascination with the toilet, and if I don't keep a close eye on him, he will invariably steal away for a few precious moments with his porcelain friend (this is usually short-lived; as soon as I'm aware of the rendezvous, it is quickly put to an end). Today he opted to take an old cloth diaper (the kind I use for burp cloths when the babies are little) and swish it around in the toilet water before letting it drip onto the bathroom floor. When I happened upon the scene, there was basically no water left in the toilet -- but an awful lot of water on the bathroom floor. I surprised him so much when I said his name that he slipped in the water and landed right on his big round belly. This was so upsetting to him that he immediately began making what I can only describe as a face-down toilet water angel. Yeah, THAT'LL show me, Benson.