4

Better late than never.

My baby boy turned four at the end of July. FOUR! I missed doing his birthday post because we were traveling on the big day, one of four trips we took last month. It's been a busy July, and things haven't slowed down for August, but I'll tell you more about it in my next post. For now, a very late birthday post, just in case August ever looks back at these and wonders why Mom forgot to wish him a happy fourth birthday.

Little boy...what can I say about you. You have enriched our lives so much. Your independence and confidence amazes me. You "know" things even if you don't know things. You have a hunger to learn, and when you set your mind to achieving something, you will see it through until you're satisfied. You have already taught yourself how to write and are a confident speller. Your most recent letter reads DEOL AUGUST HABTPY (Dear August, Happy Birthday).

You seem to be following in your sister's footsteps when it comes to music. Thanks to her, you've learned how to play several songs including Silent Night, House of Gold, and Chopsticks, and you took it upon yourself to learn March from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. (Thank you Little Einstein's)

You are quite the ham, and are learning the art of making jokes, though, like your spelling, your jokes don't always make sense. Lock-lock jokes are among your favorites, and the punch line is always "Yes."

We laugh every time.

 Sweet boy, what a blessing you are. Though you are four, going on 24, you are and always will be my baby.

I love you so much.

xo

Mom

Life According to Gus

:: Can you take off my seat belt? [Referring to his belted pants]

:: Gus: I spy something blue it's Daddy?
    Me: Is it Daddy?
   Gus: Yes! Yea!! Good job!!
:: Audrie: I spy something silly.
   Gus [starts dancing]: Is it me?

:: This is the one last time bite. [His version of "one more bite"]

:: After taking a sip of his first ever Cherry Limeade...
 
   Gus: Mommy, this burns my throat! Here you try...
           [I take a sip]
   Gus: See how it burns my throat?
           [I take another sip]
   Gus: NO! Only one drink!

::  While using the bathroom...
 
     Gus: Mommy, I'm a dump truck.
      Me: How are you a dump truck?
     Gus: See, I dump water out of my penis, and dirt out of my bottom. :/

:: I'm going to measure my foot. [Steps on scale] My foot is 40.

:: Momma, close your eyes. I've got a surprise for you. [Leads me into his bedroom.]
   Just one second...
   Just two one seconds...
   It's going to be really great for you....
   and open!
  [Shows me a train which he proceeds to wreck]

:: Look at that bird, Momma! It's a Lockingbird!

This boy...he certainly keeps us on our toes, and entertained.

xo

nessa dee

Halloween 2015

I was asked quite recently when I was going to post on my blog, to which I responded, "What blog?"

The other replied, "The blog you've been writing for six years..."

Me: "I have a blog??"

I looked it up, and apparently, this is my long since forgotten blog. Who knew I had a blog?

Okay, seriously, I have not forgotten that I have a blog. In fact, I think about this little blog quite often, and with those thoughts comes an enormous pang of guilt... when I think about all of our adventures we've taken, all of the projects I've been working on, and all of the growing that my kids keep doing despite my best efforts to keep them little, and I've missed journaling them. Yes, I have evidence of these moments in the form of pictures and videos and artwork, but my blog held the stories that accompany those events. But all of those adventures combined with day to day life plus illustration jobs times homeschooling divided by three kids multiplied by the square root of...well you get the idea. I've been a little busy lately.

So what's a girl to do when an extremely long update post is necessary, and the thought of writing said post is so overwhelming it's migraine inducing? She says, forget it, and instead posts a bunch of Halloween pics.

I present to you, scenes from Halloween 2015 featuring a spider web, a ninja, and characters from Fantastic Mr. Fox:

How's that for a comeback?

xo

nessa dee

3

On Wednesday, my youngest, my beautiful baby boy turned three. My strong-willed, funny, boisterous little boy is no longer considered a baby, has moved from the toddler stage, and has stepped through the door of preschool-dom [though, I still and will forever refer to him as the baby.]

People often ask if he was supposed to be born in August, inquiring as to why he was christened as such, but that was never the intention. His actual due date was today, July 31, so to say that I hoped he would be born in August would mean that I hoped that my pregnancy would last longer than the time frame assigned to my gestating child, and anyone knows that a woman, pregnant with her third child, struggling to walk, sit, eat, sleep, breathe with a ridiculously large beach ball protruding from her midsection does not wish to extend this relationship beyond that assigned date, especially not in the middle of summer, in Texas where temperatures were climbing to 110 degrees. No, I did not hope he would be born in August. In fact, I hoped he would show his face in mid July, and as the days passed with no sign of labor, I started to panic. My husband says I went crazy. I blame it on end-of-pregnancy hormones, but I thought if he were to be born in August, people might confuse his name for his birth month, not know his name, blah, blah, blah, [I don't remember all of my wailing rants], but I actually thought if my August were to be born in August, it would ruin his life. So, yes, I went crazy. It was August's fault.

And as the story goes, on July 28th, I set out to have a baby. I walked 3 miles in scorching weather, ran [waddled] up and down my stairs what felt like 100 times [probably 10], I ate shrimp, Mexican food, spicy food, spicy Mexican shrimp food, did jumping jacks, maybe cried a bit, and absolutely begged this baby to show his face. He arrived the next day, and my baby August was born in July.

On Wednesday, my beautiful baby boy turned three. I watched him smirk as he ate a birthday breakfast donut, I smiled as he admired his birthday chalkboard drawing of a turkey, bear, and giraffe as per his request, I laughed out loud when I discovered our kitchen floor covered in sprinkles and heard August yell, "Surprise! Trixie can eat them all!" and I tried to relish every part of that day.

August Huxley, you might have listened to me once, showing up when I insanely beckoned you to arrive in July, but you have been forming your own path ever since. You are extremely independent, and I love that about you, but things might be a little easier if you would take your mom's advice once in a while. You love to say "I can do it myself!" and most times you can. You've loved music since you were a wee babe, and that love of music has evolved into a love of singing and dancing. You are quite the dancer. You love, love, love to be read to and I have no doubt you will be reading on your own fairly soon because you are a determined little boy who can "do it [yourself]." You make us laugh out loud every day.

I love you sweet boy!

xo 

Mom

Life According to Gus

:: "Momma, my nose is falling off."  [he had a runny nose]

:: Pointing to his butt, "Say hi to my friend."
   Me: "Uh...hi?"
   Gus, with his butt facing me: "Do you want to go to the beach tomorrow day?"

:: Checking on Gus who was supposed to be napping.
   Me: "August, where's your shirt?"
   Gus: "It flew away. It's really dirty."
   Me: "Why is your shirt dirty?"
   Gus: "Uuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh..."
   Me: "Do you want to get up?"
   Gus: "Uh, yeah."  [gets new shirt out of his drawer] "Here's my shirt. It's really pretty."

:: I'm doing the hiccups, Momma!

:: I want to wear this hat for Finn. [translation: I want Finn to wear this hat.]

:: Gus: "Momma, smell this [Fortune Cookie] What's it smell like?"
   Me: "Smells like a cookie."
   Gus: "No, it smells like a spaceship."

:: [While covered with soap in the shower] "Something feels spicy."
   Me: "Something feels spicy?"
   Gus: " Yeah, on my butt."
   Me: "Uh, okay."

:: Gus: "Momma, come look at my cars."
   Me, looking at a collection of cars he placed on the floor: "Wow!"
   Gus: "That was very nice for you to see."

:: [Upon seeing me unload his bike from the car, he questioned]  When we get home, can I ride my bike right in here and I be a happy boy?"

:: Me: "Hey kids, what do y'all want to do tonight?"
   Gus: "We need to drink chocolate milk, eat Pop Tarts and eat donuts and ring the bell."

:: Gus: 'Momma, you need to get Finn a spanking."
   Me: "Why does Finn need a spanking?"
   Gus: "Because he not let me play his bideo games."

:: Me: "August, do you want to go make a sand castle?"
   Gus: "No, I want to build a hole, and put my head in it."

:: [Lifting his shirt to reveal his stomach] "Look at my abs!"

:: Me: "August, when I say no, that means you don't do it."
   Gus: "When I say yes, that means I do it."

This little boy will be 3 years old next week. He certainly keeps me on my toes, but he's quite hilarious...and we love it!

xo

nessa dee

The World According to Gus

The following statements are observations straight from the mouth of Gus.


- "Momma, your teeth are wronging."

- "Momma, don't make me go to prekool, and don't make me come home cause it makes my tongue go up and down. "(How Gus described having the hiccups)

- Running to the door one morning, he looked out the window and asked, "Where'd the moon go, Momma? Is it hiding in the dark?" I melted.

- Heman's montra: "By the power of preschool!"

- After putting on a pair of boots, "Look! I'm a cowboy horse like PaPa Jack!"

- Me: "August, that was some pretty singing!"                                                                                    
  Gus: "You're welcome, Momma."

- At a roller skating rink: "Momma, I need car shoes!"

- Hiding under a towel: "Look, Momma! I'm upside down! I go up, and then I go down!"

- "Is it upside down, or upside up?"

- Gus: "Is Trixie (our dog) a grill or a boy?
  Me: "She's a girl."
  Gus: "Where's her earrings?"

Honestly, I don't know why this child is such a ham.

xo

nessa dee

Run Gus Run

I love when I plop down to snap some shots from his perspective, this little boy runs straight for me with a huge grin on his face.

<3 p="">

xo

nessa dee

Christmas Pictures 2014

Cloudy with heavy drizzle and fog....not the ideal weather conditions for an out door photo shoot. I have a knack for scheduling my photo shoots on the most inopportune days. In this case, though, I actually checked the weather [I usually don't] mainly because Monday's blustery cold front caught me off-guard. Thursday, though partly cloudy, would be pleasantly warm compared to the other days, and I was relying on that weather report [as much as you can rely on a weather report] to hold true. But, as fate would have it, the heavens opened up and saturated my plans. I called my mom to get the weather report in her area [the location of the shoot], and it hadn't yet started to drizzle. A ray of sunshine in an otherwise gloomy forecast. Instead of taking a much needed shower, I herded my children into the car and sped to Taylor to beat the rain [within the speed limit, of course].

I still had to get my children ready.

When they were dressed to perfection, we jumped in the car to head to the downtown area, and we were met with, not the expected drizzle and gloom, but bright, smile inducing sunshine. I'm pretty sure I heard a chorus of angels singing at that moment.

I've written many times about the challenges of trying to get good pictures of three children together whose age differences mean drastic differences in height as well as the ability to cooperate. Getting all three to look at the camera and smile at the same time is near impossible, especially when you have one who loves to talk, another who likes to make silly faces, and a third who just wants to pick up rocks, or run away, or start an impromptu game of tag in an alleyway. But what I find when I scroll through the hundreds of pictures I've snapped is that the ones I favor most are not the ones that are perfectly posed. I love the candid shots that capture what happened in between the times of trying to get that "perfect shot." Hidden among the "in between shots" are the twinkling smiles, the familiar expressions, and the wonderful moments that, if you just keep clicking, you might be lucky enough to catch. 

xo

nessa dee