Devin’s first football season came to an end this month and — as in many school sports — the end of the season included a fall banquet for the 7th graders. During the banquet, Devin’s name was announced and he prepared to receive his certificate from the coaches. His little sister, Lainey, was so excited to see him up there that she jumped off her seat and ran up to the front of the room to smile and squeal in delight at her brother getting his award. Devin was a little embarrassed to have a fan up there with him, but when he got down on one knee to give her a hug, the whole room went, “Awwwww”. Sibling love.
My friend, Nicci, and her husband, Dan, visited us this month. We have been friends for almost 20 years. I was so scared to change schools when I started 7th grade, but on the first day I met Nicci, and we’ve been friends ever since. This is Nicci, Lainey and Tristan in front of our fireplace… right before Tristan laughed so hard that he rolled off the side.
Raking the leaves in our yard was a family affair. This is our first fall in the new house, and we loved all the pretty trees our yard boasts in the summer — but holy cow! I am not kidding, we could swim in the amount of leaves we have now. We had to snap a few pictures cause we have never had this caliber of a leaf pile before.
Wouldn’t you know it, the cutest pic was snapped by 8 year-old Wesley. Maybe he has a future as a photographer…
Carving pumpkins was especially fun, but even more fun once our toddlers and their toddler cousins started battling a gigantic spider…
I took Lainey and Tristan on a walk to the creek near our house. Besides for claiming ownership of the fish she didn’t see in the creek (“Come to me, my fish!”), Lainey told Tristan to stop eating rocks and held his hand as they sat on the creek bed next to the bridge.
Awwwww. It’s moments like these that make me forget all about the potty training, food thrown everywhere, house never clean days of caring for babies and toddlers. And for the record, I’ll take all the moments, but these are my favorite to photograph. (Can’t be photographing the state my house gets in with these two running around. I’ve got to perpetuate the illusion that I’m keeping up with Martha Stewart and Betty Crocker.)
Today, Lainey’s Halloween costume came in the mail. (After a dope move in which I accidentally shipped my kids’ costumes to our old house in another city. Luckily, the new owners are super nice and express mailed me my sort-of but not really lost package.) I tried to get my daughter to be a princess or a butterfly or some kind of sweet little thing. She’s my only girl after all, and princess dresses abound at our house, but she would have none of it. All things creepy fascinate her these days. “Lainey’s a scary witch!” she screamed, and almost ran away without the finishing touch — her pointed hat.
In fact, she was so busy telling me how scary she was and getting into her scary character, that she growled, ran up to me, and bit me in the arm. Immediately, she was placed in a scary time out. “I’m not naughty, Mom. I’m not naughty,” she informed me from her time out perch. “I’m scary.”
“We need to take the scary costume off, Lainey,” I told her. “You don’t want to wreck it before Halloween.”
“No! I’m a scary witch! I’m a scary witch!”
(In the middle of all this, Tristan decided he needed to put something on, too, and grabbed the nearest sparkly headband.)
She became even more determined when her dad came home for lunch and told her she was a nice witch (and wondered why our son was wearing a jeweled hair decoration). A nice witch? How infuriating. “I’m NOT a nice witch! I’M A SCARY WITCH!”
Lainey was scary and she wanted the world to know. I was never going to get this kid to take her costume off. “Come on, Lainey. It’s not time for scary yet. You can be a scary witch again on Halloween.”
“The monsters want my witch costume,” she matter-of-factly referred to the creatures she believes live in our heating ducts to convince me it would be unwise to make her change.
And… what do you say to that??? I was just put in checkmate by a two year-old.
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