The Great Pohnkin

Norah has been excited for weeks about carving a "pohnkin", so she was elated on Tuesday, when Jason and I told her that the time had finally come.

We googled free "pumpkin carving templates" and let Norah choose her favorite design. Then, she and Daddy headed outside to commence with the carving.

Jason explained that the first step was cleaning out the inside of the pumpkin. He unsealed the "lid", and invited Norah to "dig in" with her scoop.

After disposing of her first load of pumpkin guts, she promptly informed Jason that this was a disgusting task, much better suited for Daddies. Thankfully, he's a trooper.











It was getting chilly outside, so our daddy- daughter duo decided to bring their pumpkin carving back inside.

Norah headed to the bathtub...

Meanwhile, Daddy finished up the design she had requested.
















Needless to say, Norah loved it. She has shown everyone who's stopped by our house her "Clue's Clues Pohnkin".

As a side note, we have only seen "Blue's Clues" at most, three times, but I think she was just overjoyed to see a pumpkin template that had a kid's show motif featured on it.

Also, for the record, she knows it's really "Blue's Clues", but she insists on calling it "Clue's Clues". Haven't quite figured that one out yet...


Posing with Blue...











She's just a teensy bit crazy about her sweet Daddy. (And, come to think of it, so am I!)

We rounded out the evening by watching "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" together. I think it was my first time to ever watch it all the way through. The trick-or-treat scene where Charlie keeps getting rocks, instead of candy, made me laugh out loud. (Thanks, Beck, for giving us the head's up that it was coming on!)

Costume Reveal 2008

The wait is over! Most of our friends and family have seen the kids' '08 costumes by now, but for those of you out there who have to rely on blog updates as a window into our lives, here are the best photos I've gotten of Norah and Eli's Halloween disguises. (Which, I must add, were a TON of fun to make...maybe my favorites, so far)


Norah flip-flopped about a zillion times over what she wanted to be this year. I didn't even bother starting her costume until Eli's was 100% complete because I had figured out her wishy-washy game.

Her costume order?
N: "Momma, I wanna be a baby leopard cub."
A: "A leopard? Oh, that sounds fun!"
N: "No, Momma. A BABY leopard CUB."
Point taken

The best part is, we already had the leopard print sunglasses and matching Mary Janes!




At Trunk or Treat, a sweet, older man with the best of intentions approached Norah and asked her, "Oh! Are you Tigger?" Norah's mild-mannered response? "I am NOT a tiger. I am a BABY LEOPARD CUB". Then she turned on her heels and sauntered off without another word.

Not to be outdone, Eli was a mild mannered gorilla by day...
And an Empire State scaling "King Kong" by night! (Complete with his own "Faye Wray" Barbie)

His costume was a huge hit. Jason said by the end of the night he had almost gotten used to complete strangers coming up and taking his picture.

Best quotes of the night regarding Jason/Eli's costumes:

"Check it out! That guy's a wedding cake!"

"Look! That baby's King Kong and he's climbing the Eiffel Tower!"

"Hey mister, is that thing real!?" ("that thing" being Eli) In the kid's defense, Eli did look an awful lot like a stuffed toy from behind.

Jason lovingly referred to Eli as "his prop" all night long.


Our first-run with costumes was Sunday at our church's "Trunk or Treat". Unfortunately, TOT happened prior to the cold front, so temperatures were upwards of 85 degrees. Eli lasted about 5 minutes in his costume before I stripped him down to his diaper, for fear of heat exhaustion. (He seriously looked like he was passing out, so no matter how hard I'd worked on the costume, or how he looked, it just wasn't worth the risk of leaving him in it)

Thankfully, the cold front has since arrived, and we were able to show him off at the Central Church of Christ Trunk or Treat. (Incidentally, Central is the church where Jason and I first "met" in cradle roll Bible class, so we're always happy to go back and visit our old friends)


I even managed to get one photo with myself and the kids in their costumes.... sort of. Eli's wearing the under lining of his costume (which, coincidentally bears a striking resemblance to a storm trooper uniform). Thanks for tuning in and getting excited with me. I really love the opportunity Halloween provides, not just for my kids to get to pretend to be anything they can imagine, but also the chance/challenge it gives me to make their dreams come alive. (And, I also love that my kids have such a sweet, fun daddy who is willing to join in their fun, even if it means donning a cumbersome, ridiculous box!)

Eli was precious this year. He wasn't sure how he felt about his costume the first time I put it on him. However, as soon as I showed him his reflection in the mirror, he flashed a huge grin and immediately commenced growling at himself. It was hilarious! I'm not sure he even knew what he was supposed to be, but he knew he was ferocious, and he was proud of it!

Lego my Eggo

Norah has been on a waffle kick in the mornings, therefore, Eli has been on a waffle kick, too. (He is SO in that "I want whatever she's having" stage right now!) The funny thing is, both of my kids prefer their waffles cold. And I don't mean room temperature. I'm talking straight out of the box in the freezer. Gross, I know. But they like it, it isn't harmful, and they're eating breakfast, so I've chosen to pick my battles (this not being one of them).

Eli eats with such vigor, I thought it would be worthwhile to capture it in photos while he is still young enough for it to be considered cute, rather than rude or disgusting.

Phase One: "Did she actually give me an entire waffle? Is she nuts? Is she gonna take it away? Man, I hope not!"
















Phase Two: "Shifty Eyes" also known as, "Where's Norah?" Food occassionaly has a tendency to vanish from Eli's tray, not by his own hand, which often gives way to our next phase...














Phase Three: The double-fisted taco stuff. I'm pretty sure this technique was invented for prison movies, but the motivation and practice is similar. Stuff as much food into your pie hole as possible before some moocher (aka Norah) comes along and deprives you from your last bite. If this technique proves ineffective, move on to...














Phase Four: Attempt to inhale food through nostrils, while simultaneously chewing food with mouth.




















Phase Five: Look down at your amazingly spotless tray with pitiful dejection in an attempt to convince your caretaker that you are malnourished and in need of additional sustenance. If this fails to deliver results, try uttering the syllable, "Ah!" at close intervals while slapping palms of hands on tray, as if to say, "and you can put it right here."

The Adventures of Norah & Eli

One of Norah's new favorite pastimes is crawling down the hallway with her brother. It always begins the same way, "Come on buddy, let's go on an adventure!" Eli, thankful to be included, is always quick to follow. Their "adventures" consist of them making laps, back and forth, up and down the hall. Treacherous stuff.
(It strikes me as funny that all of their "adventures" take place in the hallway, which is undoubtedly the least exciting space in our house. Just goes to show the power of a child's imagination.)

They usually crawl at the same pace, side-by-side, but when I got out the camera, Norah decided that she needed to show off how much more adept at crawling she is, so she has a little lead in the first photo.

Eli is wearing the lining to his top-secret Halloween costume (which, I am confident you will be unable to guess, otherwise I wouldn't have posted it) and Norah is a princess (which, incidentally was her 4th runner-up request for her top-secret Halloween costume). I think Eli looks like a wee knight in shining armor, coming to the rescue of the anxious damsel in distress (she looks totally distressed, right?).

Sometimes these "adventures" run a little longer than Sir Eli would like. (And I should note that he's headed into the kitchen--aka source of the food-- so her holding him up served only to further agitate him.)

I can't wait to officially unveil their costumes. I probably get way more excited about this than anyone who reads my blog, but humor me and pretend to be excited too, ok?

They'll get to wear their costumes out (I say "out" because Norah had hers on for a total of 4 hours around the house today, already) on Sunday, so I'll try to post pictures early next week. (Now, everyone remember to pretend to be on pins and needles for me!)

The Object of His Affection

Although we hear more often that Eli favors his mommy in looks (and Norah is a carbon-copy of her dad), I know of at least one, uncanny similarity E shares with his Papa. A constant thirst for control.

The remote control, that is. It has become a bit of a game to him to spot the remote and then do his best to get it, preferably all by himself. I do not understand the lure, but I'm convinced that it is infused into the male genetic code. Norah had no interest in the remote at his age (now the telephone was a completely different story...)


He's pretty ingenious for an almost 10 month-old if you ask me. (He's pulling the book toward himself because the remote is out of reach)















Ahhhh...sweet success! Which lasted all of about 30 seconds until that mean mommy took it away and put it even further out of reach. It's ok though. Really. He likes a challenge. Completely undaunted by my deprivation tactics, he crawled off to plot his next heist.

PS--For those of the ultra-observational composition, those are fabric scraps in the lower right of the first picture, and that is my sewing pedal beneath the table in picture #2. These two clues, coupled with my lack of blogging productivity over the past week can only mean one thing---I've been productive elsewhere! Photos coming soon. (Including the debut of Norah and Eli's 2008 Halloween costumes!)

Challenges, Tags, and "Huh? It's Not Christmas!"

I've been tagged twice and challenged once, and since I've not been in much of a blogging mood this week, I figured I'd take care of them all in one, fatal swoop.

Tag #1 via Jenny:
Post the 6th picture in your 6th folder. Lucky me...mine was one of my favorites AND I'd been looking for it, everywhere! (It was out of place, so thanks, Jen for helping me find it!)

This is one day old, Eli, on his first Christmas, the day he came home from the hospital.

Sheri, Karen , Alison --tag! You're it!


Tag #2 via Caren:
Grab the nearest book.Open the book to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post the text of the next two to five sentences in your blog along with these instructions. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST. Tag five other people to do the same.

Alright, so I'm not 100% sure how to handle this challenge because technically, the closest book to me is "The Story of Little Babaji" (yes, Mom R, we're reading it...again!), which doesn't have 56 pages...well maybe it does, but they're not numbered and I'm not going to count (I'm sick, so how about a little grace?) So, in turning to a random, middle-ish page...here goes

"'Oh, please Mr. Tiger, don't eat me up and I'll give you my beautiful little Purple shoes with Crimson Soles and Crimson Linings.'

But the Tiger said, 'What use would your shoes be to me? I've got four feet, and you've only two. You haven't got enough shoes for me,'

But Little Babaji said, 'You could wear them on your ears.'"


"The Story of Little Babaji" is one of Norah's (and my) favorite library finds from this year (Once I got past the fact that about 90% of the sentences in this book begin with "And" or "But"). It is the classic story of "Little Black Sambo", as originally told by Helen Bannerman in 1899, but the names/setting have been changed to make it politically correct. The illustrations are by Fred Marcellino and they are fantastic! Norah can quote the entire book, word for word. I highly recommend it to anyone with small kiddos.

Tara, Camille, and Deminy, you're up next!


Now, for the matter of that challenge. Sheri has requested that her fellow blogging friends post some "sparklies" (bright spots in life in the midst of all the "bad news" out there). I generally try to make the Robinson County Post a pretty happy place. Since it is my journaling effort for the kids, I'd just as soon they remember more good than bad, but sometimes, I admit, the bad needs recording too. However, today's request is for sparklies, so here we go...

1. Fall is here! There is a different feeling in the air. Yes, it's cooler, but you can feel that anticipatory excitement of the upcoming holiday season, too...and anyone who knows me well knows that Christmas is my favorite time of year!

2. We're having a crock pot brisket for dinner! That means practically no work on my part, but a delicious, tender main course that Jason will love! Each summer, my crockpot gets lonely and forgotten in the cabinet, but as soon as that fall air hits, I am reminded of her tasty fares, and back out she comes, simplifying my life, and satisfying our dinnertime appetites!

3. I have really been enjoying my role as a wife and mom. After two years of the "Stay at home Mom" title, I've gotten better about actually staying at home. Some of the chores that I used to consider drudgery (cooking, loading/unloading the dishes, laundry, etc.) are less offensive than they were before--and if I'm being completely honest, I enjoy most of them, and look forward to them most of the time. I credit this change to God--who else could give me a good attitude about cleaning the toilets?

4. So many babies are on the way! (Not in Robinson County, mind you!) I can think of at least six of my friends and family who are expecting, and if that isn't a sparkly, I don't know what is. I am awed every time I consider the miracle of the creation of new life...and it's even sweeter when that new life will soon become a part of my and my children's circle. To think that the baby growing within a good friend's womb may very well be the best friend, college roomate, or even spouse of one of my own kids is a happy thought.

5. I saw my sister this week! I have missed Amanda so much since she and Trae were married this summer and have been so busy with work and newlywed life in Austin. (And with gas prices as high as they've been it's been harder to see them) However, I loaded up the kids and Mimi and we all saw AA on Monday, while enjoying the fringe benefits of the outlet mall in her backyard (literally) As an added bonus, the kids now have some warm winter clothes (thank you, Jason, for funding our mission!)

6. Speaking of gas prices...anyone notice how quickly they're falling. Sure, it's not the .97/gallon I paid once, in high school, but it's still worlds better than two weeks ago, and I'll take a price decrease, any day!

7. Gramps and I are working on yet another original, costume for Halloween, and I'm always happy when I get to be a little creative! The current project is for Eli, and if it is as cute as I am envisioning, I can't wait to unveil it! (Norah, on the other hand is being a little wishy-washy as to what she wants to be, so I'm waiting until E's is finished before I ever START hers!)

There you have it, seven sparklies. And if you've made it through this entire post and are still reading, then as a reward for your long attention span, consider yourself challenged as well. Shine on! (And keep in mind that sparkly acknowledgement doesn't have to be a one-time thing!)

Two Picnics, and One, Hungry Boy

We have been enjoying some beautiful weather for the past two weeks. Welcome, Fall! We've been waiting, anxiously!

Jason called last Wednesday to see if the kids and I were free for lunch. We jumped at the chance to see Daddy during the work-day and quickly packed our lunches to meet him.

Eli enjoyed a flower that Norah picked just for him (and by "enjoyed", I mean, attempted to consume)



Can you tell the little man was completely stoked to have some man-time with Daddy? He looked like such a big boy, sitting up on our blanket, eating his lunch like everyone else! (He had a half sandwich and cheetos, plus most of Norah's half sandwich!)










Tuesday night, our family attended "National Night Out", an annual neighborhood picnic in the park. The fire department brought out a fire engine, so we asked Norah if she'd like to have her picture taken with the truck. She was elated! Jason plopped her up on the bumper, and about 8 firefighters gathered on either side of her, while Jason backed away to take her photo...about 3 seconds elapsed before she Peter-Panned off the bumper and fled the scene. (Thus, we settled for a picture of Norah and Daddy, taken by one of the firefighters from a safe distance away)

Eli had his first taste of spaghetti last week. The look on his face pretty much says it all. ("Mmmmm...") He practically licked the plate clean. Then the next day, he managed to find a discarded (dried out), left-over noodle (feel free to nominate me for "best housekeeper of the year") and promptly attempted to eat it, before Norah anxiously retrieved it and ratted him out. (She truly relishes any chore that allows her the tiniest power over her brother)

This boy loves to eat like nothing I've ever seen. I really think he eats more than Jason and me at some sittings. Heaven, help us when he's a teenager!



Eli's obsession with Norah's play kitchen has yet to dissipate. (Please note the manly, baseball attire, to counterbalance last week's "girly" apron pictures)

Taking into account his recent surge in appetite, I am beginning to wonder if he doesn't think the play kitchen will produce some real food if only he stands there long enough.


When the play kitchen fails to provide an adequate meal, E often resorts to his favorite, food-mongering scheme. This, I refer to as "The Mini-vac Con". He has figured out which member of our household has the poorest aim when it comes to consumption, and positions himself beneath her chair, accordingly. Norah has also found this to be a convenient way to get out of eating anything she deems unsightly. (And in hopes of added brownie points, she refers this act as, "sharing with my brother".)

Eli's full. Norah's sharing. My floor's clean. Sounds pretty serendipitous to me.

From the Mouthes of Babes...

For the past few months, Norah's been working on learning "The Lord's Prayer". She pretty well has it down and says it every night at bedtime, before her own, individualized prayer.

Last week at dinner, she took a bite of bread and exclaimed, "Mommy! This is my daily bread!"

What a great reminder. I am amazed at how much she can remember, and even more astonished at how much this tiny child comprehends.

Make Way for Chef Eli!

As promised, here is the second installment of what the kids were up to last week. Eli roused from his nap not long after Norah went down for hers on "Quiche Day". (They often have the same nap schedule, but not always)

I was mid kitchen clean-up, so after feeding him, I set him down in the living room to play and resumed the task of loading the dishwasher and wiping down counter tops. It wasn't long before I heard the plastic "clanging" of pots and pans in the play kitchen (which is nestled into a corner of our real kitchen).

As if trying to make up for missing out on"Pie Crust 101", he was cooking with feverish delight. This was the first time he's ever noticed, let alone shown an interest in playing with Norah's play kitchen (and I found it mildly humorous that he chose to wait until she was tucked in bed, fast asleep to make his move)

After he'd played contentedly for a good 5 minutes and showed no signs of stopping, I decided he needed an apron--for pictures, of course. (Jason has already chastised me for this emasculating act, I should add)

He quickly figured out that the elements made noise when pots and pans were placed on them. He pretty much thought that was the coolest thing ever.
Then there was a bit of a scuffle in the kitchen. Pots and pans went flying everywhere! I love his "Oh, did I do that?" expression (I'm not sure if he was more worried that I was going to brain him for rousing his slumbering sister, or that she would brain him for playing with her kitchen if she awoke)






At any rate, he made amends by hand washing the affected pots and pans...












At which point I introduced him to one of Mommy's favorite modern conveniences...

All-in-all, I think it was a pretty educational day at the Robinson County Culinary Institute. A few more lessons, and I might just turn over all kitchen-related tasks to our offspring!

Mamma's Little Baby Loves Shortenin', Shortenin'

While Eli was napping, Norah assisted me with her first pie crust on Wednesday. Her first task ( after washing her hands) was to cut in the shortening. Although she requested to do this job, I have to admit I felt a little bit of guilt in giving it to her, since it's one that I hate. (Honestly, is there anyone out there, over the age of 6 who genuinely relishes squishing lard between their fingers?) She did a great job, and I didn't even have to go behind her and redo her work.




She thought her hands looked pretty funny, covered in goop. (And promptly asked for me to wash them after we photo documented)












The end result? Not pie, but quiche! We cleverly topped it with bacon, in hopes of baiting Daddy into eating it. (And our ingenious ploy worked like a charm...never underestimate the power of bacon where a Robinson man is involved)
Norah & Mommy's Quiche
1 pie crust (store bought or homemade)
1 small onion, diced
1 small bell pepper, diced
2 TBSP olive oil
6 eggs
diced ham
1/2 teaspoon oregano, basil, and black pepper, and Greek seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup mozzarella cheese
3/4 cup cheddar cheese

Prepare pie crust, place in pie pan. Heat oil in skillet. Saute bell pepper and onion until soft. In a medium bowl, beat eggs. Add all other ingredients, mixing well. Pour egg mixture into pie crust and bake at 375 for 45 minutes to an hour. (Until quiche is a nice, golden brown) Top with bacon, if Daddy needs a little convincing that quiche is a manly enough dish to satisfy his appetite.

Stay tuned, to find out what Eli was up to while Norah was napping!

From the Mouthes of Babes...

Last week, after a rather rambunctious bath time...
A: "Norah, you are a little pill."
N: (Menacing smile) "Mommy, am I medicine? Are you gonna eat me up?"
A: (uncontrolled laughter)

The hat, by the way, is her brother's. She found it in his dresser, decided it looked like a spy hat, and therefore deemed it good for "sneakin'". I love that she "sneaks" with her index fingers extended and her shoulders alternatively hunched up a little--not to mention her "sneaky face". To say she's a little theatrical would be a mild understatement...she may see that stage, yet!