Lots of backlog to catch up

I have plenty to post but no time. I will leave you with this image of Chavie, who got in to her friend Carter's lipstick last night.

The request was for "a piece of watermelon as big as my head"

Happy Goodnight

I suppose it all makes sense

Underwear companies do plenty of marketing, to both men and women. There is the Victoria's Secret lingerie fashion show, shown at prime time, the Times Square underwear billboard (I guess that was a while ago, but still), lots of print ads, etc. I think fancy underwear is supposed to give us that "special" feeling, like knowing we've got something going on that no one else is aware of. So, really, I should not be shocked when Maddox tells me that he can only tackle certain difficulties in his life while wearing his Star Wars underwear. I just need to buy more of it.

Memorial Day

We had a great Memorial Day weekend and hit all the important summer markers: a cookout, a parade, a swim in our neighbor's pool, bikerides, playgrounds, watermelon and slush.

Kids in their Looooooooovely Hats

I don't know where Chava picks up all the idioms she does. I think she is stealthfully listening to the grownups all the time and trying to work the lingo she hears into her everyday conversations as much as possible. In any case, she is constantly cracking me up.

Last night she decided that she needed a Lovely Hat for her bath, so she created one and got Maddox to participate as well. They wore them for a good twenty minutes.

She told me yesterday that "My outfit is not complete until I have my jewelry on." This would actually be more funny if I didn't constantly find her rifling through the jewelry I have on my dresser and wearing it around the house. When I hid it up higher, I found her stacking stools (by the time I had arrived, she had three piled up on top of each other) to access the forbidden. When she is denied, she is quick to show her displeasure.

Okay, Mom, I've gotten my payback. Now remove the evil curse you put on my daughter.

Chava is three. Well, three and a half, if you want to put a fine point on it. So please explain to me just exactly how it is that she is a clothes horse. A clothes fiend. A prima donna when it comes to her clothes. Or, as Al puts it, "Man, she is just totally bonkers around her clothes."

Getting dressed in the morning often evolves over the course of an hour. First she has to pick things out (and if we veto something [like a tanktop on a 40 degree day], woe is us). Then she has to try it on. Then she has to improve upon it by changing some of the elements. Then she has to pick out accessories. And, of course, shoes (shut up, Mom, I can hear you laughing from here).

Last night both kids slept all night without a peep and stayed in their room until their alarm clock started playing music at 6:30. This was four nights of sleep, so Maddox earned a new Star Wars lego set and Chava earned some stick on earrings that had been torturing her on top of my dresser for weeks. She built her whole outfit around those earrings - a pink cotton dress with ruffles and a bow, off white tights, flip flops (yes, her favorite shoes are flip flops right now and she just pulls down the tights in between her toes to get the flip flops on) and a very pretty Irish knit cardigan. Then she spent what was left of the morning twirling around the house sing-songing "I'm so BEAUUUUUUUUU---tiful."

What a long, hard day it's been

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Al picks Maddox and his friend Sam up early from school so they can go to tennis lessons, offered through the Rec. Department. They have special racquets and balls that I guess are geared to teach young kids to play - the balls are kind of sponge-like. Maddox likes it, but he is pretty uncoordinated. Luckily, he does not seem to notice that Sam is kicking his ass most of the time. On Tuesdays, after a short break, we go to soccer practice. So, by the time we finished eating our pizza last night, he was pooped... and so was everyone else (me included).

Al fresco dining

Woo hoo! Spring at last!

Party Girl all Pooped Out

Chava was in fine form this weekend. She woke up in a snit on Saturday morning and had multiple tantrums throughout the day and then refused to nap, guaranteeing that the night would be a disaster. It was. Maddox was in bed, washed and brushed, while Chava was still having a tantrum about getting out of the car. Sunday wasn't much different, except we drove out to Framingham in the late afternoon. Chava fell asleep .2 seconds after we pulled out of the driveway.

Can you call it a hiatus if you didn't really plan to come back?

My mom guilted me in to posting again. Otherwise I have to provide lengthy updates on the phone about Maddox's pooping (it's fine, and actually he's absolutely the MOST chatty while he sits on the toilet) or Chava's desire to be Boozchi Baby all the time (I don't know how to spell Boozchi, but I like this spelling I just came up with, and want to emphasize that SHE picked that name) by putting on her footy p.j.s and making us hold her and carry her and feed her, or the fact that I am having difficulty coaching soccer because my damn 5 year olds spend the entire practice whining about being "STAAAAARVing" and then running around with pretzel sticks in their hands/mouths. No shit. At Saturday's game I had to clean popcorn off the shirts of all the kids before they started to play.

Aren't you glad I'm back?

Weekend

First off, Maddox got "Free To Be You and Me" for his birthday (thanks, Jill!) and he loves, loves LOVES "William Wants a Doll." Everytime he hears it he runs over to the CD player to get as close as possible.















We've been going to this great playground in Arlington which has a two story slide, with two chutes. Chava's freshly washed hair had some static issues.














I should look at this picture when I feel like I am going to rip my eyeballs out.

Birthday Extravaganza

We started on Sunday with the birthday party.... 15 kids and assorted adults. Al lead the group in tie-dying t-shirts, we ate donuts off string, smacked a pinata, ate pizza and cupcakes, and then the kids destroyed our living room.







































Chava was none too happy on the actual 3rd, and who knows why. As Al would say, probably because a butterfly flapped its wings in China.



















But we helped cheer her up with the good old Eckhouse tradition of waffles with ice cream for breakfast.














That was yesterday. Last night Maddox slept in his new Superman pajamas and woke up early to play with his Indiana Jones Legos. Thanks, Grammy and Bob!

October 31st

Before



















After

What's in a name?

My kids are definitely Eckhouses.

Sunday

We decided Sunday was a good day to let the kids handle raw meet and sharp knives. Also to carve their first pumpkin. Somehow I feel a little sad that they kept asking us to "turn it back on" after we had lit a candle inside and turned off all the lights...

BIG NEWS

Last night the kids figured out how to simulate farting in the bathtub. It was a looooooooong bath.

Random Assortment

Chava has developed a real interest in her dolls. The one with the red hat is "Dolly" (although she names every doll/animal that) and she takes her everywhere. She reads to her periodically and gets upset if Dolly can't see the pictures. Listening to Chava "read" books is a real treat. It goes something like this:
"The girl went there. She went there. And then she came back. Because she was good. So she went there and came back. The end."














But it's still pretty cute.





























The other morning, Chava stripped down to her birthday suit in the kitchen and then complained that she was "COOOOOOOOLD." So Al offered to tuck her in to his sweater until I could get some clothes for her. I think she would have happily stayed there all day.



















In big news, Maddox has mastered zippers! Here, he zipped himself and then helped out his sister.

Maddox, Chava and I made apple-honey cupcakes from the Joan Nathan kids' cookbook we have - they brought them in to their respective classrooms to share on Wednesday.

Chava is her own person

This is what she picked out to wear to Maddox's soccer game last weekend. She would have liked to have worn a tank top, but I exerted some small modicum of parental authority since it was like 58 degrees.

I'm still here.

The blog took a hit while I attended to... well, life. But fall is here (even though it's 86 degrees today with 74% humidity) and I'd like to introduce the first Weisz family soccer player: