twang.

poor ada is picking up a louisiana southern twang. it is bad. her innocent young mind is so malleable these days.

yes has turned into yea-ah. long and drawn out.

milk is now mee-ilk.

please is pah-leese.

you get the idea.

last night i told her that it has to stop. she didn't sound like the smart little girl baba and i were raising when she spoke like that.

it is only days until i get a call from her teacher saying that she is telling the other children that they don't sound smart when they talk like tha-at. i'll keep you posted.

bravery

elias loving some of ada's remaining chocolate milk at starbucks

face painting at the festival.

elias was TERRIFIED of clowns.

jumping. so brave.

up up up to the the top of the slide. so so so brave. then the camera battery died and we have no documentation of the down down down part.

we had a pretty relaxing weekend. shreveport does that to you (mostly by providing few options of things to do.) we did go and check out a little festival at the local broadmoor methodist church. it almost made me want to join. almost. they had free drinks, hotdogs, nachos, pickles, rides, bouncy rooms, you name it. we didn't spend a penny. ada even participated. (for those of you who don't know ada, she doesn't like crowds. they make her do a little funny thing with her hands and then she stares at the ground.) she bounced and slided and ate a jolly rancher and listened to teenage gospel groups. she had fun.

we landed at this little ditty simply because everything else we tried to do failed. hobby store, closed. pumpkin patch, closed. river front park, closed (ok-- closed due to flooding!) stores in shreveport are mostly closed on sundays so their employees can worship. that is what the signs say at least. how can such seemingly holy city have such a large crime rate? we are still trying to put together all the pieces.

love

yesterday i fell even more in love with my children. the sun-filled cool air came back to shreveport and we couldn't spend even a second inside. we all loved it. our day went something like this. play, picnic, play, picnic, play, picnic.

a rubber made container filled with sand= hours (ok, at least 30 minutes) of entertainment.

focused.

teamwork.

scary.
parktime.

my heart is melting.

little reza.

where is that kid that keeps swiping the chocolates?

there he is!

chocolates.

can i have more please?

the chocolatier.

all those chocolates make you a little thirsty.

i should mention that after elias ate pieces of about four acorns, ada asked me to crack one open to see what was inside. maggots. my poor vegetarian son has tasted his first meat.

fresh air

the air in shreveport smells fresh lately. i like it. it is cool and breezy. sunny and bright. it makes me happy. i can breathe ever so deep and feel autumn. i never liked fall as much as i do now (with kids). halloween and thanksgiving inspired days, filled with gathering pumpkins, making ghosts and goblins out of tissues, strolling through playgrounds, and running to starbucks for kids hot chocolates. mostly whipped cream.

can you tell i had a great day. this is a taste of what we did- just me and the kids (reza is taking the oral boards! big deal- wish him luck!)

-fall walk

-gathered worms and roly polies

-cut the yard

-purchased too-cool glow in the dark skeleton pj's which were worn all day!

-ate grilled cheese with pickles at julianne's bakery

-played in the gardens and streams at norton's art gallery

-made sand pancakes and sand pies

-took a trip to the local outdoor store

-ate cheese pizza and drank pumpkin beer at pieworks (only one of us had beer)

-bathed

-night night

shreveport's not all bad. any takers? we have room...

happy birthday auntie m

WE LOVE YOU! HAPPY 30TH!

busy

it was a cool, drizzly weekend here in louisiana. i am about done with the drizzle. it went from being 94 degrees thursday to being in the 50's all weekend. i like the cooler weather, all we need are pretty fall leaves, apple trees, pumpkin patches and fuzzy fleece jackets. i am not sure it will happen. pretty sure it won't.

getting ready for a disney princess parade at the louisiana boardwalk on saturday

wendy (from peter pan of course) came and gave ada a special heart-shaped locket during a performance. ada was shocked the entire time. she didn't even crack a smile. and she cried when it ended.

now that elias is walking he rarely sits down. the only way to keep him still for a little bit is a good fall. if anyone was wondering why his face is several shades of black and blue, this is a very small example of how it happens. oh yeah, and if you put pants on a walking baby that are too tight, it makes it really hard for them to stand back up. we are still learning here.

ps i tried to upload a few videos but they didn't work. i'll try again later.

little lias

poor guy. in a single day i can't count on one hand how many people tell me he looks like a linebacker. the other day someone asked me if my husband was short and husky too. really, short and husky? he is a baby. granted he is as wide and he is tall. we are just waiting for the growth spurt!

scrub a dub dub

Check out these guns!

fun in the tub! bathtime is rarely a dull moment.

monsters, inc.

Everyone could use one of these little guys!

Ada rides the pony at her school's Fall Festival.

New found freedom on two feet.

Love.

Fancy hair!

i woke up last night (well, 3am) to hear loud crashes and bangs coming from somewhere close to our room. terrified i flew out of bed to find out what was going on. that is when i saw it. ada, lights on, chucking each and every one of her toys out of her room and into the hallway. toys meaning two large piggy banks filled with change, an alarm clock, a small drum set, her camera, even her beloved jewelry box! i calmly asked her what she could possibly be doing and she told me all of her toys turn into monsters when her lights are off and she needs them out of her room. so, i gathered all of her toys and made heaps in the hallway and living room and tucked her back in. and she actually went back to sleep.

did i mention that reza did not hear any of this. it must be nice to be in dreamland.

ada has been keeping me on my toes lately. call it "being three" but she is testy, and testing me. i won't say any more about it. she is increasingly more independent though, which can be a good thing. she spends up to an hour a day making her hair super gorgeous by decorating it with every barrette she owns. she has also stopped biting her fingernails and claims to have stopped picking her nose too! princesses do not do these things. when i asked her yesterday to take her fingers out of her nose she replied "mommy, i don't pick my nose anymore, i just get the boogers out. look at this one."

elias kind of gets the shaft in these posts. he has finally decided that walking is just as fast as crawling and is now walking everywhere. he has now mastered going down stairs too! he loves to chase his sister and to chase birdies. he smiles the entire time he is on two feet. i can't believe he is almost eleven months! here are some fairly uneventful clips of mr. lias this week.