and i cannot lie

this morning, i was trying to get ready (and the boys were, of course, following me around like shadows).  there is always a running commentary.


"mommy, is that you mascara?"

"mommy, i can hold you mascara?"

"mommy, makeup is not for boys.  it's for glurls!"

"...mommy, you a glurl?"

"mommy, desmond hit me!  he hit me with two hands!"


and today, when i was getting dressed, desmond made another observation.

"mommy, is that you big bum?"


yes. yes it is.

thank you for that.

unrelated picture

i hope you're having a pleasant weekend.

quick one

i have some (a lot of) laundry to fold and i'm hearing raucous cackling from the boys' bedroom so my time is limited.  but i wanted to pop in and post a picture of triumph.

the art of the tease has always eluded me (on so many levels...), and although i discovered the concept of french braiding my bangs quite a while ago, i've never been able to master it.  so yesterday my friend portia was kind enough to give me and leanne a mini tutorial on these two techniques.  and like any good student, i put my new skills into practice today.

1.  i know i look super uncomfortable.  (and also like i am 13 years old) silas hates this face.  he was going through a bunch of pictures the other day and said, "why do you always make that face??"  it's my "fake smiling is awkward and makes my eyes squinty but my 'normal' face looks angry so here's an uncomfortable compromise" face.  and yes, looking at it makes me cringe a little.

2.  it's difficult to tease and style your hair when some of your layers are too short to cover the teased portion.  but i was not to be deterred.

3.  bobby pin count: 7

4.  that is not spit up on my shirt.  it is the dirty mirror that i cleaned 2 days ago.

5.  one of the reasons (aside from my apparently unabashed narcissism) that i post so many hair pictures is that there isn't a ton of help/ideas out there for hair this short/growing pixie cuts.  scanning through pictures of styles i've attempted helps me when i'm in an "i hate my hair" rut, so maybe someone else will one day find them useful.

6.  the raucous cackling has turned to crying, so that's my cue to sign off.  peace and love.

alone on a saturday night

and what else is there to do but blog?  (since i'm currently banning myself from watching any more episodes of Dollhouse...i get creeped out very easily.)

1.  i think i'm in love.  you know that amazing triple chocolate ghirardelli brownie mix that comes in a 6 pack at costco?  we call them crack brownies.  i have been unable to replicate them.  they are amazing...i bought myself some small ramekins specifically for those brownies.  i keep the batter in the fridge and pop a ramekin of it in the oven whenever i feel like it.  which is usually at least twice a day.

2.  speaking of love, yesterday was silas' and my 5 year wedding anniversary.  we celebrated with deliciously authentic (to me) indian food, complete with bellydancing.  (meaning there was a very talented belly dancer at the restaurant.  neither silas nor i did any belly dancing.  i just felt the need to clarify that.  i mean, we would have joined in, but i forgot my sequined bra and he left his coin skirt in the car.)

3.  bobby pins.  every day.

apparently my default is "brooding face"

4.  today was what i would call an excellent hair day.  observe what a little effort can do:

air dried

after enlisting the help of some beach spray and a diffuser + curling iron.  then slept on it.

the problem is, since i've gotten my hair cut, i haven't been able to style it the same way twice.  meaning, i don't have a chance in hell of getting it to look like this again.

bummer.

4.  sometimes this happens instead.

photobomber tesla...this is a really attractive picture of both of us

i'm just not really sure what to do with that.  with long hair, you can always throw it in a ponytail.  with short hair...point me to the nearest hat store.

5.  less than a month until masterchef starts!!  

6.  so, when i'm reading my friends' blogs, i'll often check the sidebar and read some of their friends' blogs.  (because i'm nosy like that.)

sometimes i'll see someone out and about (in public) and think, "how do i know you?" and then, thankfully before i engage the person in what is bound to be awkward conversation, i remember that i'm recognizing her from her blog.  and that she has no idea who i am, even though i know her and her kids' names and where she and her husband met.

it makes me feel like such a creeper.

reading about other people's lives is just so interesting...

7.  i can't remember if i posted this picture already (and i'm not about to go check), but these two little men with their bandaid-ed bellies make me smile.

have a happy weekend.

bobbin' around

the other day silas was going through the thousands of pictures on our external hard drive and i was hovering over his shoulder getting weepy-eyed at pictures of my babies when i saw this.

oh yes.  it was long once.  (this pictures is from 2ish years ago, i'd wager.)

after seeing that mane i sunk into hair depression for a few days.

but then i decided to pull myself up by my bootstraps (what??) and focus on the things i could control.

so that's why i'm currently sprawled on my bed, half-dressed and with a shower cap over my coconut oil-drenched tresses, scouring the internet for cute pictures to inspire me and my short hair.

it's working.  i feel tons better already.  check this out.

here

adorable, right??  (and also, how do people manage to wear scarves naturally?**)

bobs are familiar territory for me.  i know they look cute on me (let's be modest here) and they're reasonably versatile so i'm excited to get to that stage.  i think what's bugging me the most about my hair is the lack of shape/style.  it's just growing willy nilly.

and i just will not tolerate willy nilliness.

now for the question of the day.

mullet love

is my hair long enough to shape into a cute bob, or do i need to grow it for a couple more months?




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**for your entertainment, a replay of silas' reaction last time i tried to be fashionable and wear a scarf in public:

me:  so, i'm trying to figure out if i should wear my hair up or down with this scarf.  what do you think?

silas:  ...

me:  i'm also trying to figure out a way to tie it so it doesn't look like i'm being strangled to death.

silas:  i was wondering if that was the look you were going for.

pixie cut--four month update

yes.  it has been four months.  four glorious months filled with sunshine and fun and pretty hair.

ahem.

(NOT)

but for documentation purposes, here are the pictures.

 original haircut, Dec 2012

and taken just this morning in my bathroom, 4 months and 5 days later...

nothing like awkward grow-out hair and pms bloat and breakouts (that are thankfully blurred over due to the quality of the ipad camera) to make you feel like a superstar.

i keep going back and forth on the whole "power through the ugly stages and just grow it out" vs. "trim frequently to shape it" debate.  my mini-goal right now is just to get it to a normal-looking bob, with my hair hopefully all close to the same length.  once i'm there, i should be able to just let it grow.

we shall see.

pipe cleaners and pom poms

today, for the first time in a long time, we did a little impromptu preschool.

pipe cleaner twisted around a marker

we started off trying to weave pipe cleaners through a cooling rack.  (inspiration here)  i demonstrated it a few times (the boys promptly pulled them out) and then let them have a go.

that lasted approximately two minutes.  it was a little beyond them.

moving on then.  

next i brought out the pom poms and lidded container.  they spent some time putting them in the hole, and used the cardboard tube as a chute to make it a little more fun.

i had an idea and got the cookie sheet (which fits conveniently underneath the cooling rack--excellent crumb catcher when you're cutting homemade bread, fyi).  we dropped the small pom poms through the slats and took turns poking the big ones down.  

my next brilliant idea was a slide.  (this was a good day for me, friends--after coming off of a medication that had me feeling like a complete zombie for most of last week, i felt amazing today)*.  

that orange blur is a ball sliding down.

also, at what age do i have to stop dressing them alike?

we took turns holding the tube (and by "took turns" i mean i held it 90% of the time) and sticking pom poms down it.  they popped out the other end, slid nicely down the nonstick surface of the cookie sheet, and fell through (or were poked through) the slats of the rack.  this one was a hit.

after desmond went down for his nap tesla and i had about 20 more minutes to play.  we spent it doing this color matching game using, once again, the pipe cleaners and pom poms.

tesla had a script for us as we played.

tesla: say, tesla, what color do you want?

me: tesla, what color do you want?

tesla: um...green.

(i hand it to him)

tesla: (gives it back to me) say, there. 

me: there.

tesla: mommy, what color do you want?

me: um...blue.

tesla:  you want red?

me: sure. red.

tesla: big one or small one?

me: small one.

tesla: you want big one?

me: sure. big one.

talk about leading questions.

*yes, these simple activities are me at my creative peak.  be impressed.

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i hope your week is starting off well.  oh, and happy april fool's day.  i'm not on facebook anymore so i missed all the fake pregnancy announcements and completely forgot about this venerated holiday.  but if you pranked someone today, i hope you got 'em good.

those boys

are so dang cute sometimes.

 desmond with the giant bear he found at the library

tesla combing his hair...that lip!

they make me pretty happy.