School Picture Day

It's really hard to get my mind around the fact that school picture day, at least at Belmont Nursery School, is absolutely no different than it was when I was young. Ashton came home with a paper order form a few weeks ago and I was supposed to circle the package I wanted and return the form with a check. (They also still send home those Scholastic Book Club brochures, the ones printed on that newspapery-like stuff with muted colors and blurred ink. Classic!)

So portrait packages were anywhere from $25 - $35 and a variety of sizes: 4x6, 5x7, 8x10 and wallets. WALLETS! The only people interested in those would have to be grandparents. At any time, I can open my iPhone and look at 963 different pictures of Ashton, edit them if I want, apply cool tones, post them online and/or print them myself. Can you imagine if every one of those photos was a little piece of paper I physically carried around? I mean, there's simply no room! My wallet is far too full of receipts ;)

Where was I. Oh, besides the wallets, I was not to receive any electronic file. No jpgs of any kind! No online proofing. No option of picking a background, choosing my favorite photo out of several, or retouching. Not that 3 year olds need to be airbrushed but frankly, it doesn't hurt. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't "fixed" drool, boogers, food and scratches in several pictures posted on this very blog.

Luckily, none of this mattered and Ashton came home today with his packet of perfect prints :) I took out my iPhone, snapped a picture of his picture, and hereby present you with Ashton Nill, age 3, in a nice cardigan/button down combo.

While this may be his first official school portrait, it is not his first official smirk. Studying his face, I thought to myself I've seen that look somewhere...

Anyone? No?

All in all, I consider this first-school-picture-business a success. I of course had ordered the platinum package so it's a good thing it came out well. I have his class picture, an 8x10, a couple 5x7's, 4x6's and 48 wallets or some ridiculous number. Let me know if you want one.

October Catch-up

Here's the thing about blogs. They only work if you have something to post about, right? And when you are in a routine as deep as ours has been since back-to-school, it's hard to see anything extraordinary enough to document. I thought I might have an entry last week, and a real page turner at that: the last in my PYO series (pumpkins!) but then I was too tired and we didn't go. So I haven't been around much lately but I don't want cobwebs to grow all over this blog now do I. Better write something. I figured a nice list of what has been going on would be, well, nice.

1. Alex turned 7 months yesterday. The update since 6 months is what you would expect: more sitting, more laughing, more smiling, more rolls. He truly plays now and shows a lot of emotions. He is mesmerized by music, and I really don't play it enough. The nights after dinner where I put on a song and Ashton and I dance around - he stares at me like I'm an alien coming down from the mother ship. And then smiles and waves his arms. I wish there was time for me to take him to a little music class. I wish there was time for a lot of things :-/ Anyway, his two bottom teeth have poked through, not so much where I can get a picture but you can definitely feel them. In true baby fashion, he always has something in his mouth (or is trying to get something in there).

He was doing great with sleep, only up once per night (or twice) for a few weeks but then last night he was up 4 times so who the hell knows. Overall, he's still doing great, I'm still pumping at work, and Ashton still calls him "All-yex".

2. Ashton also still has two speeds: zero or a hundred and twenty. Papa sent him a new bike:

Which he loves. So between that, his balance bike, and his scooter, he's hard to catch, but we are outside every day, soaking up the last of the warm weather and daylight.

Preschool is going really well, potty training is NOT. That's another story for another time, but the toilet battles have resulted in

a) smeared poop (sorry, yes it's totally gross)
b) all the toilet paper unrolled into a heap on the floor
c) a toilet that now runs, probably due to Ashton's perpetual flushing (necessary or not)
d) a small fortune spent in potty "prizes", that he gets both when he tries and is successful

Honestly, poop runs my life. Between getting Ashton's into the potty and getting Alex's out in general (recall the prunes), I spend way too much time with it, cleaning it, or encouraging it.

3. Ashton really talks a lot. He uses about a hundred words when ten would do, and he repeats himself over and over if I don't immediately respond.

Ashton: "I want Daaaaaaaddy."
[silence from me]
"I want DAAAAAAADDY!!"
"I wannnnnnnnnnnnt Daaaaaaaaddy."
"Where's Daddy? I wannnnnnt himmmmm."
"I WANT DADDY!!"

Now mind you, there's no reason at all why he wants Jason. He can never tell me why he does, he just DOES. Little scamp. So finally after all this whining, I ask: "Why?"

"I just do."
"But why do you want him?"
"Because I wannnnnt him."
"Is he better than I am?"
"Yeaaaaaah. He is."

Between that and the poop, what more could I want.

He does say funny things though - the other day my phone beeped with a text message. Ashton came running in the room and held it out for me: "Mommy! You've got something!"
"I do?"
"Yeah! Something good! Call them!"

or the time that he came running (always running) and was gesturing wildly, frantically saying "The mop Mommy! Look at the mop in here!" and pointed and pointed and then showed me: a moth. I said "Wow!" and corrected him: "That's a MOTH."
"Moff."
"No, MOTH."
"Ok mommy, yeah! Look at this moff right here!"

4. Now that fall's gorgeous colors are in full swing, I like to take the boys down to walk the fresh pond loop. Ashton scooters and it's just so beautiful:

I'm starting to think about Christmas cards. If you get one from me with a unicorn on it, it's because that was easier to get a picture of than both boys smiling and looking at the camera at the same time.

5. What we have coming up: School picture day is Monday, then Ashton is star of the week, then Halloween, my birthday, and lots of little house projects that will resume now that Jason's work schedule is less busy (notice I didn't say slow, that is absolutely never the case haha). But we are hosting Thanksgiving and that's a good deadline for making over my poor dining room. It is in desperate need of window treatments, paint, a light fixture, decorations...no one likes a dry turkey, so to speak. I haven't done one thing in there since we moved in nearly two years ago *gasp!*. Dining room, it's your turn. Now I just need to tell Jason how much it will cost ;)

Happy Friday!

Alex joins the church

Last Sunday, Alex followed in Ashton's footsteps and was welcomed into the Catholic faith. While it was important to us that he be baptized, this does not mean we go to church. The idea of Ashton sitting still in a quiet, reverent environment for an hour is enough to send me to the liquor store. Frankly, I fretted about it all week. Would he yell "MOMMY! Why he putting water on Allyex HEAD?" from across the pews? Would he try and rip pages out of the Psalm books? Turns out, he was totally into it and with a little help from Grandpa, completely and utterly behaved himself. But guess who didn't? Yep, Alex. He fussed the entire time, twisted in my arms, cried and was generally a pill. The 1:30 pm ceremony was past his nap so by the end, he was toast and the only baby of the 6 to lose his cool. As in, wail his head off. So this was the nicest picture we got (with Grandma and Grandpa):

Alex wore the same outfit that Ashton wore, which is the same outfit that Jason wore! As well as Uncle Chris and cousin Owen, so it's a wonderful tradition. Grandma did the honors and got him dressed.

The hat and the shoes were laughably small so we skipped those, attempted a family photo (this is truly the only one where Ashton wasn't making a fish-face),

And were off to the church, St Patrick's in Watertown which is just down the street. We've never set foot in there but luckily it didn't matter ;) The priest was great, he knocked the ceremony out in 30 minutes flat with 6 babies to baptize. He asked that no pictures be taken except during the actual christening. Poppy was there to photograph, Kari and Ben were the godparents, and we got our token memories :)

So, as one of God's newest children, all of Alex's sins have been washed away. Not that he had any :)