Dude, I have the whole house to myself. You don’t know how long I’ve waited for this opportunity. I haven’t had a chance to sit down and write (or do much of anything) in days– it has been busy as sin over here. (Aside: is that right? ‘Busy as sin’? That only sort-of makes sense.) Anyway, Eli just left for school, J for work, and Addie is asleep, because she didn’t rest at all during the designated night rest hours. I have to say, though, having older kids is good in a lot of the ways I dreamed it would be. Having a four-year-old awake is a lot less stress than having an infant awake. Addie was content to drink Capri Suns and watch ‘It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown’ in bed on repeat. For hours. While the rest of us dozed.

I had this awesome idea to write something, anything, for every single day of my life at 27. Which starts in about a week. I thought it would be a really nice exercise and hopefully something fun to look back on, and then I was like, I need to redesign the site to make it geared toward that idea. So even though I wasn’t here writing, I was working on site stuff too. Everything I’ve worked on so far just sucks, though. I don’t think you can force creativity. I have a basic layout idea, but all the details are fuzzy.

ANYWAY. How about some pictures?

First of all, one of my favorites in recent history:

Erin and her kids (Preston, Riley and Quinn) and Addie, at our local playground. This was an impromptu shot and I LOVE this final result. Can you believe we have another kid between us who was at school? Erin and I have FIVE CHILDREN if you add them up. I was telling Jason how weird it is to be getting older, because I feel so different at this age than I thought I would, or I think the average person feels. Thirty is usually the age most people are settling down. I figured when I was thirty, I’d need to start getting my adult life in order. I better get married, I’d better be where I want to be in my career, I’d better get a dog or kids. I’d better get my plans started. And for me, in reality, thirty might as well be retirement. Heh. I’m looking at this upcoming stage as a golden era. That hard stuff is over. We have money, we’re finally getting things paid off, we’re both at great stages in our careers, both my kids will be in school next year, we’re young enough to be healthy and active and old enough to appreciate that. Life is good.

… Although I guess it’s only downhill from here, then. Wah wah.

Speaking of my kids. I know you’re not tired of them. I know you want to see shots of them at–

THE LEGO STORE!

There’s one in Raleigh, and I love love love it. I love pretty much all building or discovery stores. It’s inside Crabtree Valley Mall, across from the Disney Store (which we also stopped at). The Lego store was a big hit. Both Addie and Eli made their own trio of little Lego men and got some building things. The Disney Store primarily sold princess stuff. Which was heaven for Addie, but somewhere distinctively south of that for Eli. We finally found a single display of Wall-E stuff, so he got a stuffed Wall-E and a matching cup. Addie got a princess cup, and some crazy pink monster from Lilo and Stitch that I don’t recognize. The checkout lady was nice enough to give them each their own stuff in their own Disney bag. They felt like rock stars.

And that’s it for awhile. I spoil them wayyyy too much. I really thought I would be a harder parent. Like, I still don’t put up with brattiness– and I really don’t think anyone would say I did, even behind my back, heh– but I do have a huge soft spot for buying them things. And I don’t have as much of an age limit on stuff for Addie as most moms do. I remember reading a blog entry awhile back about a mother that was furious they made press-on nails for toddlers. She was up in arms over it. What kind of a person, she wrote, would put those on her daughter? What kind of message is that? I’ll be honest: I bought the exact same nails for Addie that the woman put up a picture of. Luckily, 98% of the comments shared my attitude– what’s the real issue here? I’m not buying her baby thongs. There’s nothing innately sexual about dress-up nails that smell like strawberries and have hearts on them. I don’t care. They’re cute, they’re sparkly, they’re princess-y. If anyone is having inappropriate thoughts about my four-year-old because she’s wearing fake nails for an afternoon, trust me, the nails are not the issue. I let Addie wear lip gloss around the house for the same reason. I loved stuff like that when I was a little girl. I loved make-up and purses, everything about being a Woman. I liked my mom’s checkbook, and her compact mirrors, and her house keys. Everything. I even remember admiring the way my mom’s wallet was always full of money. I literally believed when I was Addie’s age that her wallet was bottomless, and a twenty dollar bill would magically reappear as soon as it was spent.

Tacking on to that aside: I will say, though, that’s I’m not at all a fan of Hoochie Tween Underwear, and I really really do not foresee myself changing my attitude on that in a few years. We walked through the girl’s Target section a month ago, and Addie stopped in front of the bras.

“BOOOOOBS!” she gasped.

“Addie,” I warned.

“They’re little boobs!” she marveled. “Little boobs for ME!”

“No,” I said. “They’re called bras, and they’re for when you have boobs. At like eleven. So please put them back.” She had already wrangled one off the rack and was trying to fit it over her body. Some men were stocking nearby and chuckling to themselves.

“Please,” she said. “Please can I have these boobs?”

“Addie,” I said. “No. You can’t have that bra.”

“I love it,” she sighed. “I can’t wait till I’m eleven.” I kind of looked closer at what she had, and I was like, “You will never have that bra, dude.”

WHO MAKES THIS STUFF? A demi-cut bra with rhinestones for a, what, sixth-grader? The matching thong was next to it, which had ruffles above the leg holes and a sparkly heart on the crotch. I kid you not. NEVER. That is not happening. Fake nails, okay. I draw the line at stripper attire for a middle schooler.

Anyway. That had nothing to do with my point. My point was that I buy too much stuff for my kids, and even though they’re great kids and generally deserve all the good the world has to offer, they’re really caught up now in shopping and being consumers, because that’s what we’ve done together for so long. Oh, it’s Saturday? Mall time! Lunch out with the family! A toy for the ride home! It has to end somewhere. Like, we need to be able to spend time together as a family that doesn’t involve spending money on acquiring more. Eli has the worst time with this. If you tell him no, he’s not getting a toy, he’ll get extremely sulky. He doesn’t throw a fit, but he’ll mope in the corner and cry. (Elias still cries over everything. Sometimes he doesn’t even know why he’s crying– he just is, suddenly, and he’s as surprised as anyone else.)

On that note– family time without shopping–

We went to our annual community Halloween party!

A few notes:

1. That last photo– the lion baby is Jackson. The one Addie said she would kill. See how innocent and cuddly he looks? He also doesn’t hold grudges, luckily.

2. Jason didn’t think Addie should have gone as a cowgirl, but it was what she picked out. However. When she came running out in her boots, pink hat in hand, shouting: YEEEEEEHAW PARDNERS! I’M A BIG HORSE!, his opinion immediately changed. “Cowgirl,” he said, “not a horse.” He was laughing so hard. Elias was laughing too. He’s such a cute big brother; because he manages to find her really amusing without making fun of her. “YEEEEHAW!” she shouted, doing a crazy jig. “HOWDY! I’M A COWBOY COMING TO YOUR TOWN!” She was like the living embodiment of Jessie from Toy Story 2.

3. The party committee hired a magician to visit, which was a great idea. The magician was a clown, though, which didn’t go over well with a lot of children… Even one who was ironically dressed as a clown:

Eli was indifferent to the magician, Addie loved him. She has referenced how awesome the magic clown was every two hours since.

Oh! And! Jason and I went to that party together on Saturday night. It was fun. I didn’t know what to expect, and I didn’t know anyone but Jason, but it worked out well. We mostly chatted and ate finger foods. I have pretty much no shots of us in costume, because I forgot my camera. (I know. I even remembered to clear the memory card and packed extra batteries, but the camera itself was on the kitchen counter.) I’m just waiting for someone to post photos to FaceBook, or until Halloween comes. We’re both busting the costumes back out for trick-or-treating, so I’ll make sure to get good shots then.

I almost forgot– when we were getting all the vials and whatnot for Jason’s mad scientist costume, I mentioned that I don’t have extras for my Star Trek uniform. “You should get a bald cap,” he said. “WHAT?” I asked. “Yeah,” he said. “Then you can go as Jean Luc Picard.” I agreed, “I DID want to be sexy.” He laughed forever at this. I wish I’d of done it, too. Everyone who was expecting a naughty nurse would have been in for a shock.

I’ve been writing this for almost an hour, and Addie is STILL sleeping. It’s amazing. I’ll finish up so I can post, do my exercises, try and finish up some Savage Wilde (two new chapters coming tomorrow!), work on the new site theme, get a package out to the post office, and then– very nervous– have a conference with Eli’s teacher. It’s one of those mandatory ones; he isn’t in trouble. Still, though, they make me anxious. Wish me luck there. It’s at 5:30. We’re planning on doing the Moe’s Kid’s Night tonight afterward, so with any luck, I’ll be accomplished and eating a giant quesadilla by 7. That would be a perfect day.