Pumpkin Patch

We headed out to the Pumpkin Patch this morning, kind of a spur of the moment event. Typically I like to dress the kids in some sort of themed outfit for the season. At least in the right seasonal colors. Not so this morning. We woke up late (8:00am) and had a late breakfast. I'm trying to phase Taede towards one nap since he's been fighting 2 naps so we needed to do something to keep him up. Hence, the unplanned trip to the Patch.

I thought about changing the kids' clothes but that would have put Truong over the edge (he just doesn't get the importance of "dressing for the moment"). Besides I can never get any good pictures of the three of them anyway. Add the craziness of the Pumpkin Patch and it's a foregone conclusion that the pictures will be destined for family viewing, not printing.

Before I post the pictures (this is after all the family blog), I have a few things to clear up:

1) Yes, that is a black-eye Taede is sporting.

2) No, it was not a parent-inflicted black-eye.

3) Nor was it a sibling-inflicted black-eye.

4) Yes, this is in addition to the noggin konk he got the other day. It's the third accident in 2 days for those of you keeping count. (Or the fourth accident if you count the tooth chip.)

5) He fell against the corner of a low lying bookcase in the kids' room. (It still gives me chills to think about how close that came his eye.) I rearranged the room so hopefully this won't happen again. As another precaution, I'm getting the corner pads too.

On to the pictures...


We had to start with the pony ride. Operative words: HAD TO. Malia would have it no other way. The only blip was when she requested her favorite pony Shiloh. We were told Shiloh no longer worked there. My first thought was: oh crap -- glue factory?! Anyway, Shiloh's destination remained unanswered and we told Malia that Shiloh went home. [[ to the glue factory! ]]


Kael gets to trot on the big horse. He's not so sure he likes this because he gets pretty tossed. But as usual, he gets caught up in the moment and forgets that he doesn't like trotting until it's too late and he almost loses a Croc.


There he goes!


Hang on tight.


What is it about little girls and their ponies?! She's in heaven.


Mai Kids.
Take 1.
Stay Taede! STAY!


Rats. He's making a break for it!!


Taede and his shiner. In certain lights, it looks very dark. This picture is not so bad. He's healing incredibly fast. It's already fading.


This is a better picture of the ouchie. I was getting funny looks...
Come on people! If I was abusing my baby do you really think I'd showcase him in public?! Sheesh.


Going through the maze. I have yet to get a nice, normal picture of Kael. Do you understand now why we're doing the school picture re-take??


"Wait up!! Wait for me!!"


This is a decent picture of the kids. If you ignore the Deer-in-the-Headlights look from Taede. He's starting to feel the one nap stupor.


Kael and Malia. The only reason I got this picture was because Kael was dying to get on. He was rushing Malia off.


Taede's face reads: "I. Am. Tired. I want. To go. Home."

School Pictures

School pictures are always a crap shoot. You send them to school looking good: clothes in perfect order, hair done up nice... with instructions to show a nice smile, don't do anything weird, not too much teeth but don't grimace either. You hope that their teacher will fix up the little things that can go wrong from the time you do the drop-off to the time it's their turn in front of the camera. Like flip down an errant collar, straighten a crooked ponytail, smooth down a cowlick. You hope that the professionals behind the camera know how to guide the kids into looking natural.

The worse part: you don't know what you're going to get until 3 weeks later. And by then it's too late to fix anything.

Luckily this year Malia had a great photo. I was worried. She started doing the Princess Smile thing with the neck and arm deal so I really wasn't sure how her's would turn out.


Pretty nice, huh?

I'm not going to post Kael's. Let's just say he's doing a re-take and we'll leave it at that. As I mentioned before, you would think (hope) that the "professionals" behind the camera would do a good job showing the kids how to smile without looking scary. Evidently, this is not the case. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the re-take.

Last bedtime check.

We always do a final bedtime check on the big kids before we retire ourselves. Making sure the room is comfortable, turn off (or on) the ceiling fan, straighten out the covers, make sure Kael's not too close to the edge of the bunk bed, fix Malia if she's done something weird like tuck herself into the pillow case, etc.

The natural order of the checking process is Kael first. He's on top so he's in the natural line of vision. For Malia, we have to duck, walk into the room and search for her.

One night a couple of weeks ago, this is what I saw:


Kael's bed. Where the...?!!


Oh.

Well, at least they are both accounted for. That's what's important, right?

I almost never see Malia actually sleeping in her bed. She's always on her pillow. And this is why she never co-slept with us. There's nothing more irritating than waking up to a foot in your face.

Looking for a good crash helmet

Or maybe a nice rubber one so he'll bounce back up when he makes another face plant.


Ouchie!!


Profile view.

This was after 15 minutes of torturous icing.

My poor little guy. He pulled down the kitchen towel and was dragging it around. I was elbow deep in making dinner so didn't take it away from him soon enough. I heard a huge thud and then crying. Oh man, I felt bad.

An hour later, as the big kids were taking a shower, he walked into a corner of my bedroom door.

[ [ THUD! ] ]

He had a toy in his mouth. There was some bleeding. Turns out he chipped a tooth. Poor guy.

But wait, there's more. This morning he was climbing on the Anywhere Chair and tipped over.

[ [ THUD! ] ]

Face planted exactly on the same spot pictured above. Exactly the same spot. It had hurt pretty bad. Now he's got a ginormous purple bruise on his forehead.

It has not been a good week for Taeder Tot. My poor poor baby. Until this weird black (and blue) cloud over Taede goes away, I'm either getting him a crash helmet or bubble wrapping him.

Bed head

OK. So maybe it's time for a haircut.

He's wearing a blue and brown football one piece -- and still I got a
"She's so cute!" comment at the donut shop this morning. I don't
bother correcting people anymore. I just say thank you.

Haircut. Maybe this week.

Or maybe not...

-- sent by iPhone