I'll work on getting better  on updates with the New Year, along with all the traditional resolutions like eat better, sleep more ordinary hours, be more patient, get some chickens, and win the lottery.

Cotton is pretty funny these days.  She says thank you for everything, but it sounds like kee-koo.  And she's got a little dance that goes wiggle-wiggle-wiggle--ahhhhhh-chooo!  Her reactions to nearly everything are either, "Hey!" or "Whoa!".  And her baby mullet is still rocking, with one lock of hair aspiring to be a rat-tail.

Christmas went over pretty well, with the kids enjoying time with some of their cousins, and Seph recovering from the lack of a puppy faster than I'd expected.  There was much Pokemon, and the kids deemed it good.

"If you don't hold still, I will poke your eyeball with these scissors."

"Don't play with broken glass." (If you've been here awhile, you'll know that's a repeat!)

"Stop ramming your head into things."

"Let Cotton have the knife!"

"Don't stick your hand in your butt and then eat ice cream."

And, in a moment I'm not proud of, in the middle of a Costco:
"If you don't stop twitching, I'm going to kick your ass."

I did think I was about to lose my mind, though. And it didn't have anywhere near the scary effect I'd hoped since he then asked, "What does 'kick my ass' mean?"

After a pleasant Turkey Thursday, we were subjected to a completely nausea-inducing Iron Bowl. Look! We have an offense! And a defense! Wait--there it goes, no...it's back! Ugh. Gone. No, we've got 'em! And on and on like that. Ending with an extremely poor example of a 2 minute drill. Chance took it extremely well, which means I don't have another hole in the door to label. I left for two quarters to bring Seph and a friend to a park, and I still felt seasick.

Overall, it was a great holiday. Chance smoked the turkey, and I only made the food I wanted (except for the marshmallow sweet potatoes, which I made anyway). Seph made the green beans, Rone made the cranberry sauce (hello can opener!) and we all had a pleasant meal. I'd thought of getting out china, but decided that with a 2yo at the table that could just wait a couple more years.

I even got to finish a book I'd been reading, which is a good thing. Especially since it was a book Chance wanted to read, and I'd borrowed it from the library--he seemed to think I was reading too slowly. Which, my mom is thinking right now, is crazy! I'd like to see him read a 300 page book in under a week with the number of interruptions I'm working with.

Today Seph had a friend over and I took them to McKinney Falls State Park, which I love. It's got a waterfall, and a rock shelter that was used by Indians long ago, and a nature walk with a 500 year old bald cypress to visit. 500!

And then we got our Christmas lights up. Yes, somehow, I became 'those' people today. I know. But I couldn't think of anything else for the kids to do, so I told them to go test the lights. I meant for them just to get tested, but nothing else would do short of getting them up, so we've got about half up.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

Video is over in the videos section, for whatever reason, xanga won't let me put it here. Cotton enjoyed her attention, and her cake.

We're recovering from a hectic October by kicking off a busy November.

Today Seph danced with her Scottish Country Dance group, and it went very well. The weather didn't cooperate, but the dancers had an audience, and their first big performance as a group was pretty exciting. I was so proud of Seph! She'd been uncertain if she wanted to participate, and I'm so glad that she decided to go ahead with it. Yesterday I got to visit the festival in nicer weather, with just Seph, and we had a great time walking around.

The Campfire candy sale started, so Seph also did that this weekend, with friends and a couple parents out at the game on Saturday. They wandered among the tailgaters, selling candy and enjoying themselves.

Halloween was a gigantic shin-dig of a weekend. Starting with Nanna getting here the week before! That's always a help, because Nanna is ready to get lights up ( what? you don't have lights? are you a heathen?) and get things started. This visit she went above and beyond and not only gave Chance and I our shed back by organizing it, but also built me a garden bed out front to grow veggies in! Yay Nanna! She was also a big help to me in getting the kids to the big homeschoolers Boo Bash downtown--I would have had a hard time keeping up with Team Pirate without her help!

Our friends had a big Halloween Eve party, and we dressed up and headed over for supper and running around with friends. Then on Halloween, we had friends over for pizza before we took the kids around the neighborhood for Trick or Treating. Cotton was a hoot--always last, walking up completely quiet. Then, when someone handed her candy, she'd say, "Tenkyuu Mommy!" And as we turned to head down the driveway--"BYE BYE!" as loudly as possible. And last, "S'fun!" as she contemplated her candy. Every house, "Tenkyuu Mommy! BYEBYE! s'fun!" She was hysterical.

Also recently we've had trips to the Botanical Gardens and the Capitol. And we've been to McKinney Falls a bit, playing in the stream, and for classes with our Campfire crew. Seph went on fall campout with friends from Campfire and had a lot of fun. We went to the rock show (more interesting than it sounds) and built birdfeeders. Nanna helped build a fort out of our playscape, and the kids love it.

Cotton turns two next week. Two! She spent most of the summer in a terrible phase, so hopefully she's gotten the Terrible Twos out of her system, and will focus on being charming.

I'm thinking of getting Poltergeist for the kids to watch, because it seems like a great way to scare the bejeebers out of them. I don't know what bejeebers are, but it would be good to get rid of them, right? And not just a way to make sure they hate clowns, as people should?

Rone has always been a lawyer looking for loopholes. It's just getting more elaborate as time goes on. The accompanying gestures that go with his tried and true phrases, "Do you remember that you said..." "You promised if I did this.." add to the hilarity. Or the frustration. One of those.

Today, I was trying to get across a point of etiquette regarding sleepovers. Specifically the conversation went as I relate below.

Me: "When you get hurt you don't need to scream your head off. Instead of yelling, you can just ask Miss Amy for an ice pack, or a medical adhesive strip (name omitted so the Feds don't come get me to see if I'm some sort of paid shill), or whatever you need. That's all."

Rone: "Ok."

Me: "Because, the yelling, it's so loud. And it surprises, and sometimes scares other people. So if you could just try to speak more normally, that would be good."

Rone: "Ok."

He walks out of the room, and comes back with:

"Except for if I'm on fire, right? I can yell then."

Sure. Of course you can. Yell your lawyering little head off, loophole boy!

Well, there weren't any mirrors, but there was a lot of smoke. Turns out that big hunk of dry ice is a pretty good party game after all. Nobody got hurt, and everyone thought it was pretty cool. Rone had a lot of fun, and really liked his volcano cake.

We also made volcanoes with dough pressed around small water bottles, then filled with vinegar/baking soda. This was a big hit with the kids, especially with food coloring added.

Maybe next party we'll have 'bubbles', and I'll get them to wash my car. Or 'construction' and they can build me a chicken coop!

It's birthday party weekend, and I'm sure you're all wondering what sort of party Rone decided to go with. This year he's gone traditional, with a VolcanoBarbecueHalloween Party. You remember your first one of those, right? How everyone loved it so? And talked about how Granny's first VolcanoBarbecueHalloween Party had been way back when people didn't realize how big it would become?

So meat is smoking as I type, and all of our Halloween decorations are up, except the lights which I decided to do tomorrow because it's been RAINING ALL DAY! Can you believe it? And tomorrow I'm going to give close to twenty kids a bunch of baking soda and vinegar (with some dry ice for good measure), and call it a party.

Rone is six! 6! Kind of amazing.

Cotton is enjoying football with Daddy. She, more than the rest of us, appreciates a good chance to yell with other people. She is unable to parse the phrase 'War Eagle!' though, and if someone says it to her, she yells 'Wiggle!' and starts shimmying. She plays with the MagnaDoodles and blocks every day, and is rocking a pretty serious BabyMullet. She has forgotten how to say 'thank you', and now only says 'welcome'. It goes like this:

Chance: Say, 'Thank you, Mommy'
Cotton: 'Weckome!'
Chance: No, say 'Thank you'.
Cotton: "Weckome Doddy!'

She also says, "Tah-dah!" "Coming!" if you call her, and has started saying her own name. Mostly, though, she says, "I did it!" All day long she does things, and then hollers that she's done them. I'm thinking of taking that up myself: "I did the DISHES!" " I washed some CLOTHES" "I brought you all where you were supposed to be!" "I opened the WINE!"

This was our first real full week of everything. There are a couple of things the kids still want to add in (fencing and ice skating) (I'd like spaceship driving, myself). Seph started theater class, and Rone is still working his way through his math book in pursuit of the goal of bowling. I like his simple wishes--Seph's are much more complicated. And often involve being a pop star. A pop star who doesn't have to go onstage or anything. That's tricky.

Auburn won today, which is a good thing. The kids are getting used to the idea that Chance is home, yet not really available, on Saturdays. They knew this was coming, but in practice it's different. And there's more yelling. The snacks that go along with football are so much better than ordinary snacks (Funyuns!) that they feel it's a good trade.

In the spring, Seph started talking on the phone to her friends. She's been talking on the phone since she could talk, but calling her own friends didn't start until last spring. Then this week, she met a girl in a class, and they exchanged phone numbers. They spoke every night, with Seph hiding herself so Rone wouldn't listen in. Then on Friday, she came downstairs and told me, "So, I told her about Skype, so her dad downloaded it, and then I could Skype her. Now I don't have to use the phone." So, she's gotten strangers to download programs onto their computers. I'm not sure, but I think this is cool, so long as she doesn't use her power for evil.

Rone made me a sandwich today. It was a four hour process. He wanted to make me one after watching me eat one. Explaining to him that I did not, in fact, need another sandwich right away was more trying than you'd think. Then he asked me every ten minutes if I was hungry. The making of the sandwich, with the preposterous choice of knives (no, you don't need a hatchet to cut cheese!), and the only barely avoided addition of blue cheese crumbles (yikes!), and the incredibly odd assortment of leftovers and condiments, was an adventure.

I remain glad that he asked me if I wanted ketchup on my Surprise Sandwich.

And here's Cotton. She likes yogurt. And anything else I might be eating:

At the park with friends:

When Dollies Go Wrong:

Poor baby!

I wouldn't give her a bottle of bloody mary mix. I am SO mean.

Aren't they cute? Rone's hair is at it's awesome phase, in case the pictures aren't clear.

Seph started her theater class today, and is right now talking to a new friend on the phone. We've kind of gotten into a schedule, and so far so good. We even get places by 10am! Sometimes.

With football season upon us, Staying Out From Between Daddy and the TV has been added to our curriculum. Hopefully they all prove gifted in this area.

Rone's been interested in science lately, and wanting to do experiments. This is 'How Do You Make Raisins?'

This is 'How Many Animal Robots Can I Make While Cotton Naps?'

And at the park and a petting zoo: