Forward, March!

In most notable news, a certain someone lost 3 front teeth.

I don't see how 3 big kid teeth will fit in that slot, but we've been saving our pennies for braces because we don't have dental insurance.  So I guess we'll just keep saving and pray too.

She left the tooth fairy a diagram, so that the fairy would know when you flip the gray tooth around, it was white on the other side.  And, it was quite strange, the gray tooth got more and more white as the day progressed once it was pulled out.:

I've been keeping magazines on the kitchen table for breakfast, because they were fighting over the cereal box.  If you need a good gift idea, or if someone asks "what do the kids want for their birthday?" and heaven knows you don't need MORE toys to clean up, consider a subscription to Disney magazines.  Kensington gets the Disney Jr magazine, and Amaryllis has been loving her Disney Princess one.  There are no ads in it, just lots of stories and pictures and learning activities for them to do. Thumbs up from this mom.

TEXTS ARCHIVES

It's always a treat flipping through my pictures at the end of the month when I transfer them to my computer.  Sometimes I'm slightly confused as to why I have certain picts or screenshots on there.

The harem pant.  Not to be confused with "harlem" pants for you racist people out there. 

Now.  What are your thoughts? They look OH SO comfy but the few times I have brought some home and re-tried them on, it does not end well.

I get this image flashing in my mind and I know exactly what Jake will say:

Or even worse:

Also I know myself.  And I swore up and down and sideways when I had kids that I would NEVER EVER succumb to the mom-sweatpants syndrome.

(Ok confession, maybe it was a bit of a fudge when I bought some of those wide leg palazzo pants, they feel like jammies but they have pockets so that doesn't count right?)

Anywho.  Kensington has been saying some really great prayers lately.

BLACKMAIL ARCHIVES

Funny story.  Some friends of friends of friends once removed (aka I don't know the people) had best friend couples, and the wives up and ran off together to a lesbian compound.  There are days it sounds tempting (the running away part).

Here is a text photo letting me know my husband had survived the Tough Mudder run.  They had some pretty crazy courses to run through (electro shock therapy) but we are glad he returned to us and didn't decided to run off to some weird compound.

My Thoughts on the Selfie Generation:
What do you think of those bloggers out there or Instagrammers that just post pictures of themselves all day long? I don't get it.  I just don't get it.  Who's taking the pictures?  Are you just constantly asking people "hey will you take my picture" and then posing in a nonchalant way to make it look like you didn't want your picture taken in the first place?  Narcissistic much?  Are we suppose to be looking at your boring outfit?  Comment on the perfectly placed items in the background? If you are 18 and under, of course there is some cleavage in the selfie photo; are we suppose to comment "wow you look real...errrr...healthy" ????  

I was at the hot tub the other night with some girl friends.  There were 2 (rather large. ok obese) teen girls in there taking pictures of eachother with such an obvious angle so as to maximize the cleavage in the photo.  Then they'd go through and look at their photos and be like "oh my gosh, I hate you, why did you take that picture of me. did you send it to anybody? if you send it to joejoe i'll be so mad at you. did you send it? ok fine, send it to him. you did? i hate you." even though they CLEARLY were posing and wanting the attention, and wanting the friend to post it or snapchat it.  It just made me gag a little.  A lot.

Any time I take a pict of myself I just feel WEIRD even if somebody is requesting the picture.  Like my hairdresser friend who told me to send a picture of my roots, as showcased below. This was so awkward for me to take, I kept looking behind to see if anybody walked in.  And HELLO is is it not so scary when you flip the camera to yourself, and you see your face on the screen?! Horrible! Can the iPhone developers please put a skin smoothing filter on the phone camera when it is in that reversed position? Do we look that bad in real life?

So here's a selfie of me so that you can all write comments like:

"Beautiful!"

"Stunning roots"

"Loves yous babes"

"Oh my gosh, is that your house? Love what you've done with the lockers"

  

MILESTONES

My little miss Maybelle, getting so big and trying to sit up.

Her face lights up and she reaches out her cute chubby arms whenever anybody walks past her while she's chilling in her exersaucer.  It's really cute.  And kind of sad now that I think about it.  Like, what if she's thinking "oh here comes somebody, maybe if I make a noise they'll pay attention to me and get me out of this cage".  Awww.  Now I'm sad. :(

But really, she absolutely loves her big sisters.

There are times when the older 2 girls are at school, and I just sit on the couch with her and play.  She can't even play back and doesn't say anything, just smiles and slobbers.  

But it's completely satisfying, this beautiful tiny rosy bald soft little creature.

This creature on the other hand....

I don't have the energy to tell you about her right now.

 Amaryllis wanted me to take a picture of puppy so that I could send it to Schramma.  I think it's funny after 6 yrs she still has special love for Puppy.  This was a "special" day because I let her bring puppy downstairs to play.

Wings, wings, and more wings.

My Thoughts on Parenting Little Girls
I've been trying not to stunt her confidence and creativity so I let her basically do what she wants as far as clothes and hair and imagination.  It's not worth the fight and after spending some time pondering about the best gift I could instill in my girls, I decided it was confidence.

I have a friend who is going through a rough patch, and when we talk about why we are the way we are, and what holds us back from things or what makes us go down certain paths, it all comes back to confidence.  And when does that little seed get planted? Early on, in your childhood.

 It's been on my mind a lot. Confidence.

So for now, I'll let them be wild and crazy and free and off in laa-laa land, without censoring their style or creativity.  Amaryllis has been wearing her sweaters like a side sash the past few weeks.  I kind of noticed it.  Then she started bring home pictures of herself that she drew (they write stories about themselves at school) and every picture had a blob of color drawn on her body. Like this:

 

I thought this one was kind of disturbing because I thought it was blood that she drew on the person, so I asked who it was.  She replied:

"Oh, that's me.  That is my sweater.  That's how I wear my sweaters. It's my own style."

It has taken every ounce of my self discipline not to nag at her and say

"don't do that, you'll ruin your sweater. if you don't want to wear it properly, put it in your backpack."

So. Here she is, with her own Sweater Sash Style, roasting marshmallows over her fake fire that she drew on a piece of paper, and sticks she gathered from the jungle: