First Haircuts!

Oh no you didn't!

Oh yes I did!

Mr. Scruffy

Mr. Scruffy didn't appreciate the cape at all until it was pointed out that Mater and Lightning McQueen were on it, then he let it stay. Grudgingly. He chose a car to sit in, of course. I distracted him with views of the pictures in my camera.

Making a ponytail.

Sniiip!

I almost missed this part. Good thing the stylist asked if I was ready!

Ka-chop!

There go all of those luscious curls! *sniffle* I almost cried, but then I decided that it's just hair and if I really missed it, it was OK since it can all grow back again. Lookit me being all adult!

Wow!

Suddenly you can see his face!

Who IS this?!

He looks just like his cousins, Max and Axl. Probably Daniel, too.

So ready to be outta there!

He was so ready to get down, he wouldn't even let me get a good final shot. Stinker!

And then it was Emma's turn. She was a lot more sanguine about the cape and seemed to enjoy watching in the mirror.

Mirror, mirror on the wall.

"What is that lady doin' to mah hair?!"

A little off the bottom.

A little off the top.

At this point Emma decided she needed to switch from the hippo seat to the snail seat and nothing we could do would change her mind. Fortunately, they're professionals, so we all we just slid over and everyone was happy. Both of the twins were remarkably mellow throughout the whole process with very little head twisting or wriggling.

Look at those curls!

One day, if she gains more volume, we might just try cutting it in layers to see if it will all curl. Eeee!

Time for a fancy 'do.

Eric reads to Emma to keep her in the chair. New 'do is almost complete!

Then, suddenly, it was all over. Painless and pretty.

It is a pretty serious change, to look at Logan now. We'll probably keep doing double-takes when we look at him, for awhile!

"Got mah cell phone. Gonna call mah boyz."

Emma sits, enthralled with a book and her pretty new hairdo.

Surprised?

Not everyone likes snow

We had another snow day (although since it happened on a weekend, no schools were closed this time) and since I finally had snow boots for the twins, clearly an outing in the snow was required.

Did you know that it takes about twenty minutes to dress a pair of twins in snowsuits, coats, gloves (one refused), hats and boots? Yup. And then you have to say a little prayer to the Powers That Be that neither twin decides, once they are fully dressed, that they suddenly need a diaper change.

So, 20 minutes after my fantastic! idea to take them outside into the snow to mess around for a bit, I popped them onto the deck. The snow came up to their knees. They stood there and stared.

Dis stuff iz code.

They were stuck. I had to kick a pathway in the snow for them, in order to get them down into the yard. Then they stopped and stared again. Then, overloaded by hats, gloves, boots, snowsuits and coats, they fell over one by one, like toddler sized dominoes.

Seriously unhappy snow covered, dominoes.

"Hep me!"

Logan refused to wear gloves, so of course, he started screaming about his cold-pained hands.

"Aaaaaaiieeeeeee!"

Yes, I photographed them screaming in the snow. Why? Because after 20 minutes of wrestling toddlers into snowsuits I'd better get something out of this than just soggy, screamy toddlers!

Now that it's been a few days and the snow is melting, the twins like it a lot better. Puddles are clearly meant to be jumped in. Puddles are fun.

Snow isn't. At least, not yet.

Maybe next year.

The Great Mouse Invasion: 2009

Yes, it's begun again.

Winter has finally struck. It got very very cold

This is the back deck after the first day of snowfall.

So much snow it built up on the trellis!

and the mice have decided to migrate indoors. Into my boiler room/pantry in the basement. Then, just for grins, they decide to scamper around inside the heating ducts on their way to the kitchen and take a sniff around.

Unfortunately for them, there are cats in the house.

Domino receives credit for the capture this year. I was reading with Kaboom on my lap and heard a great deal of scampering in the kitchen; not wanting to get up (and with a cat on my lap, I couldn't), I ignored it until I finished my book. Then I went off to find out what Domino was up to. Kaboom, however, had other plans and stole Domino's new toy.

That doesn't look...comfortable.

I find it odd that the scaredy cat is the better mouser and the more aggressive one will defer to him until he saw an opportunity to steal his mouse back from Kaboom.

Domino (white cat) makes his plans for mouse retrieval. Kaboom (black cat) double dog dares him to take it.

I also learned that it's apparently difficult to growl and hiss with a mouthful of mouse. I didn't know that until this episode.

In the end, I called for Eric to come and take the mouse (still alive) away from Domino who was in danger of losing it in the front entryway amongst all of our shoes. Did you know that water glasses and paper work just as well for mouse removal aids as they do for spider removal aids?

Yes, yes they do.

Eric tossed the mouse outside into the 2 foot plus drifts in our front yard and that was they end of that.

The question I keep coming back to in my mind is not: "Why do we have mice?". The question should be "Why don't we have MORE mice?" It's crumb central* around here with the Twin Food Flingers. We should have entire ARMIES of mice.

Where are they? I don't think the 17 I caught in the yard this summer made a serious dent in the local mouse population and the two we caught inside in traps, can't have been it. I guess I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Well, it could be worse. They could be [stage whisper] cockroaches.

[Shudder!]






* How often is "normal" for floor sweeping? Once a day? Once every other day? Once an hour? Cuz this floor could be swept hourly and still I'd be catching crumbs and that just ain't right.