Fall is here

It cooled off in what seems like one day. One day it was hot and the next night there was a cool chill in the air once the sun went down. Today it is raining and I'm enjoying the gloomy-ness that we don't get too often in Los Angeles. Isaiah and Noah put their slippers on in the morning and the moment they saw me put my rope on, that's when they've decided that MUST have their ropes every morning too. We go downstairs and have hot tea or smoothies as we wait for the rest of the world to wake up.

Isaiah and Halloween

Valerie passed down a fun Halloween book about a witch who moves into a house and one by one, gets rid of 10 ghosts. It's cute and sort of a mystery and helps the kids practice their numbers. I care about that, but they don't. What they like is to find the ghosts hiding in the house and Isaiah says he's scared until I ask if I should put the book away and then, no, he's fine. He asks where the book is each morning when I go get him out of his crib. He talks about the witch and the ghosts and the spiders all day. He asks to go visit the witch around the corner at a house with lots of Halloween decorations. There are a few ghosts and the "black" ghost, as Isaiah calls it, screams. Isaiah says, "Black says AHHHHH!!!!" There is another ghost who he claims says, "Isaiah, I want you." Not sure where he got that but it's cute none the less.

Martha's Vineyard

The kids love the beach. I love the fresh air but worry about them running into the water without me. I guess because I always need something to worry about. Living in LA, we really should go to the beach more than we do, which is never. We go to the beach when we are out of town. Funny.

The weather girl

So Noah, Noah, Noah. Noah likes to tell me she's hot so she can open her window in the car or hot in bed so she can be naked save for her panties. I don't buy it. Maybe sometimes, but mostly I think it's her trying to be in control of herself and struggling with the fact that she's four and mommy is in charge. She's rarely cold, always hot or itchy. Because either of these ailments allows her to change her clothes, and this is something that she's been trying to do since she was two. So yesterday after I pick her up from school we are driving over to her dance class and she tells me, "I'm hot." I nod because she's always telling me she's hot. Then she says, "I'm hot. I think we are getting close to the equator." You can't argue with that.

Good Hair

Noah's hair has been an evolution. As i notice that a whole year has passed since a birthday or holiday I notice that Noah has more hair and it's even more curly. It's beautiful and it is defiently her glory, other than her spirit. She is complimented daily about her curls. But she still asks every once in a while for it to be straight. It takes more work that I ever imaged to keep it tame - which isn't really my objective. Even if it's wild, which she loves, I want it to be "done." I want her to learn to take pride in her apperance and that your hair is something you do everyday - although I'm teaching her something I dont practice - since it's 1pm and I still haven't brused my hair.

Noah doesn't usually get spanked, but...

One of the problems I've always had with Noah is that she is sneaky and I couldn't like it less. I work so hard in hopes that she will understand how destructive and offensive it is to be sneaky. So yesterday after we get home from Marcella's house I ask the kids, as I always do, to wash their hands as soon as we get in the house. Noah comes in and tells me she washed her hands. I'm no genius, but I know she couldn't have possibly washed her hands in the 30 seconds she walked back to the bathroom. I ask her again to go wash her hands. She then walks back out and tells me she's washed her hands. I know she hasn't washed them yet, mostly because four-year-olds are not good at lying. But she's curious and asks me how I knew. I say that Im a mommy and I know everything, which I do. And she clever too and asks, "It's cause you didn't hear the water, right?" And I nod knowing full well what she's about to do next - because I am a mommy and I know everything. Sure enough she goes into the bathroom, climbs on the stool and turns the water on for a few beats and then turns it off. She's not too good at being sneaky because I am standing in the door way watching her. So I ask again, "So, you washed your hands?" And she says that yes she has, and that's when she gets the little underhanded spank right below her but check and I explain that mommy is no fool. This upsets her but later that night when I ask her why she got in trouble and she tells me, "Because I tried to fool you." Hopefully she'll get it this time.

I also wanted to include what she said over a year ago. This was also written on a piece of paper that I haven't had a chnace to enter for over a year. When Noah was a little under three she was about to do something that would land her in a heap of trouble. Her daddy tries to stop her and she assures him it's okay because when mommy finds out, "Then I'll say sorry."

Noah Grace on Sarah Palin

About a year ago Broderick told me about an experience he had with Noah will watching the news. He felt compelled to write it down because I had told him of a similar experience I had with Noah. Broderick thought it was so unbelievable that if he didn't write it down word for word then me and everyone else would think he fabricated the story, or at least exzaggerated. So this is what he wrote on the paper over a year ago. Noah was barely 3 at the time and that's how long it has taken me to get to the bottom of a stack of papers that's been sitting on my desk.

Here's the setting, Noah and Broderick are watching MSNBC and they show footage of the notorious Sarah Palin interview.

Noah, "She's going to be hard to talk to."
Daddy, "How do you know?"
Noah, "We are going to find out."

A moment, then..
Noah, "Daddy, you can't watch this everyday."