Actual Easter Egg Dying

I posted phone photos, but these are with the real camera, so you can actually see the kids' faces.  I decided to do Easter Eggs when Ellie was home sick one day.  We only had 9 eggs in the house, but the kids were good sports about only having three each to decorate.  Grant liked dipping his, so his eggs mostly turned out brown.  Spencer wandered around screeching because he knew we were doing something fun, and that he couldn't see it at all.  Traumatic to be the youngest!

Sibling Love:

Photos

I took these pictures of Ellie and Grant after I had taken Spencer's 1 year photos to have some nice updated photos of them.  (Meg had a ring around her mouth at the time, she sucks on her lips, and in the Winter that results in the red mouth ring, so she got to skip.)  Ellie is growing up!  I look at her and cannot believe it.  She will get baptized this year, and is so excited.  I am always extracting promises from her that she will love me forever and that when she is a teenager she will come home every night at 10:00 to play Uno with me instead of insisting that she stay out late with her friends.  She agrees... for now....  

Grant currently spends his time throwing toys at the wall.  When I tell him this in not okay, he tells me they are flying.  And since he actually believes they are flying, it is hard to convince him that he really needs to stop.  I have always planned on our landlords keeping our deposit (especially after Meg removed the wallpaper in the bathroom) but the way things are going, I may have to actually pay them to let us leave.

March Madness

Around the museum:

Around the house:

Ellie's Art Project Birds:

St. Patrick's and Sword Fights:

The Fire Dept. Arrives:

(The girls smelled smoke, and Ellie’s room was filled with a smoke smell, so we called them over.  Grant slept through the whole thing – poor thing – and they found nothing to account for the smoky smell.  They did, however, get to execute a million point turn to get out of my driveway.)

Still snowing:

Easter Eggs:

Playing outside:

(Spencer was sooooo excited.  I made the kids agree to each push 10 minutes in exchange for playing outside.  He screamed the entire time with pure giddiness.)

Easter Photos:

(I hadn’t bought new dresses for the girls in years.  They’ve received several beautiful dresses from Grandparents for Christmases and upcoming Baptisms, but I finally decided that wearing red velvet dresses in the summer could go on no longer!!!  I brought a gazillion dresses home from Kohls and we tried on until the girls each got to pick one.  Then we tried for photos.  Spencer was hilarious, which is why you get the time lapse effect here.)

Rarrrr:

Phone Photos from Phebruary

Okay, so I'm behind.  That's because Spring forgot to come, and so I got behind.  That is very logical.

Playing at the museum, and getting a humongous bruise in the farm room:

Sleeping... or not....

Hanging out at Costco:

Haircut:

Bus

Today I saw a bus on the way to Justin’s work.  It said “Out of Service.”  I think mothers should have signs to wear that say that:  “Out of Service.”  Yes, I am here.  Yes, my bus is empty.  Yes, it would appear that I am driving to where you need to get.  But I am currently “Out of Service.”  Please wait for the next bus.  I’m sure it will come.

Eisms

I recently bought replacement eye make-up.  I wear golds and browns so the eye shadow pack I purchased was called "Coffee".  This is better than Ellie's description.  The other day while I got ready she remarked:

"Mom, I just think your eyes look so yummy.  They look like bacon."

Wow.  Exactly the look I was going for....

"The Experts"

Recently I took Spencer for his 1 year old well-check.  When the resident walked in the room - oh the joys of a teaching hospital - even my children sighed.  We love our pediatrician.  Not only does she spend the entire visit tickling my older children, but she never asks me if I'm behaving properly as the experts expect me to do.  Cue the resident.  Cue the sigh.

This time the resident really wasn't too bad, but he did ask me if I was brushing Spencer's teeth.  (Spencer has a grand total of three teeth.)  Since I'm really well-behaved, and all, I stared at him blankly.  Then I said:  "Sometimes I hand him an old toothbrush and he sucks on it."  The resident then delivered his brush teeth regularly speech with the addition - as we all know the "experts" are always changing their huge ginormous way too bossy mind - that instead of using kid toothpaste I should use regular toothpaste so Spencer could get his daily flouride.

Needless to say, I pretty much ignored him.  Other than to notice that in my past ignoring of the experts I had been doing the right thing.  See, with the other kids I was always "strongly encouraged" to give my children flouride drops every day.  I didn't.  Instead I let them brush their own teeth with whatever toothpaste they could find.  Pretty much them brushing their own teeth means that they squeeze toothpaste everywhere, wave their toothbrush around their mouths for maybe three seconds, and then spit everywhere.  But see, I knew they were always swallowing some flouride and I figured my inattention to both rules might even out in the end.  Now the experts are recommending my lazy method!!!  (Okay, not really, but kind of.)

The point of this whole riveting story is that this morning I was brushing my teeth while Spencer sucked on his toothbrush and thinking about all the things I don't do that people say I should do.  Generally speaking I don't feel guilty about ignoring the doctor.  I've been raised too much an Andersen to feel guilt on this topic, but the other experts in my life sometimes cause me great stress.

I don't dust daily, weekly, or monthly.  In fact, I don't dust until it becomes downright embarassing or someone is coming over.  I don't vacuum my baseboards every week, or wipe down my refrigerator daily.  I was looking at a list of daily jobs that women are recommended to do in order to keep their houses in tip-top shape and I wanted to gag.  On this list, which was supposed to be the easy cleaning method, it insisted that ceiling fans only needed to be dusted once a week.  I suppose that was supposed to make me feel excited I didn't have to do it every day, but do you know what?  I just dusted my ceiling fan after living here three years and having it drop dust bunnies on visitors during one embarassing visit.  I can't imagine filling my day up with all that stuff.  Because really, WHO CARES????

Of course, the sad thing is that even though I've decided not to do these things I still carry around the guilt that comes from ignoring them, like I'm breaking some hallowed law.  And this irritates me, this makes me really mad.  Recently I was reading a friend's post about how she'd been stressed over getting her baby to sleep.  What bothered me about the post was that my friend had to feel guilt over this thing.  Why should she feel guilty for this?  Why should she feel that she wasn't doing it right?  Why couldn't she just work things out with her baby and herself without "experts" telling her she was doing it wrong?  Of course, my friend's post was about this, about how she was going to go with her baby and how her baby slept and not be upset about it anymore, but it made me mad that she ever had to be upset at all.  How dare they guilt trip her, you know what I mean?

Which brings me - finally - to my point....  Why do we listen to these experts????? Why, oh why???? And why do we let them make us feel guilty for choosing to live our lives in the way that makes us happy.  If I use nap-time to write novels and read books and nap myself instead of dusting my ceiling fan that does not make me a bad housekeeper.  And if don't make my children clean the baseboards with toothbrushes I don't really think it means they'll have a bad work ethic when they get older, because I'm pretty sure I expect them to do their homework and clean up after themselves when they're done playing.  And if I never watch my children brush their teeth, but make them do it on their own and hope they swallow enough flouride in the meantime, then that is my business, and I will not feel guilty about it!

And just in case you're seriously disturbed by my ineptitude, rest assured that while I was writing this post in my head this morning, Spencer did pour an entire container of Vinegar on the bathroom floor. So, at least it is clean, right?  You see, things always work out in the end.  Whether I am crazy, or not.