It's the Yittle Fings, Part Thirteen.

We had small group the other night, and after we put all the kids to bed, someone thought they heard Ali crying upstairs. I went up the stairs, and heard her having a full conversation. I opened the door and she looked at me funny and said, "I'm just talking to myself up here!"

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Thursday was my first day to do any Christmas shopping without Ali tagging along with me - Chris' Mom was coming over to keep her. At breakfast, Ali asked me where I was going while Nana was here. I told her that I was going Christmas shopping. She got an astonished look on her face and said, "You're going Christmas shopping without ME?!?! Don't go Christmas shopping without ME!!!!"

One day she'll understand how necessary that is.

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That same morning at breakfast, I was singing "Santa Claus is coming to town." She immediately got a horrified look on her face and said, "He's not coming to MY house, is he?!!?!?"

Me: "Well, yes, because he's going to bring you presents!!"

Ali: "I don't want his presents if he has to come to my house!"

Me: "Well, what if he came in the middle of the night when you were asleep and left them?"

Ali: "And he'd be gone when I woke up?"

Me: "Of course!"

Ali: "Okay. He can come. If he's gone when I wake up."

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Sometimes you teach your kids words and don't even know you've taught them. Ali was sitting on the potty trying to poop, and she told me very matter-of-factly, "I'm going to poo poo in the potty so that I can be happy and you won't be stressed anymore."

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I was putting on my makeup one day, and she pulled a tampon out of the cabinet and gave it to me and said, "Here Mommy, can you put this in your mouth?"

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She was observing her belly button one day and told me, "If I unbutton it, my legs will fall off." Obviously, someone's been teasing her. Pop.

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Chris was getting her ready for bed the other day, and she yelled out teasingly, "Daddy, you're a diaper!!!!!"

We knew exactly what she was saying in adult terms.

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Photo Dump.

Okay, this SHOULD qualify as the next installment of Orphaned Pictures of the Week, but since it’s been several weeks since I’ve done one, it’s more like Orphaned Pictures of the Month. So I’ll just call it a photo dump.

Ali and I have been doing a lot of cooking lately. Chris caught a photo of us making Brownies for Small Group:
A few more trampoline pics from Radford’s stay with us. I don’t know why I’m so obsessed with taking trampoline pics, but its true…

.maybe it was those adorable cheeks…
…and lips…

…and smiles…

Oh – and definitely the hair…






We got a real tree this year for the first time in five years – Chris did it for me. He’s seriously the best. And I LOVED the tree we got:

We picked it up and decorated it the day after Thanksgiving – we wasted no time in Christmasizing.

Oreo helped Ali string up the lights…

Chris got super-duper LED lights on sale last year – they really do make a difference!

After we got the lights on, Ali pulled her chair over to bask in the splendiferous glow:
Then we began the ornament placement.
As tradition states, Amanda came and helped us…
Chris bought Ali a small tree for her room last year – she really enjoyed decorating it.

And the tree-topper he bought her was quite fitting
…except the overall-with-no-shirt-under it look. That’s a bit odd.

Ali has, of course, loved all of our Christmas decorations – especially the Ferris Wheel:

She and I have spent some time making homemade ornaments for her little Christmas tree. I pulled out my huge box of beads from when I was into that in high school, and we started out by making a Christmas tree:

Ali was quite proud of her creation:

Then I taught her how to string beads:

It was a long, flexible needle, but she noticed partway through - “I keep getting poked!!”, so I showed her how to hold her fingers OUT to avoid needle-hand contact.

And finally, her two ornaments hanging on her tree:

Christmas rocks with a toddler around to make it magical.

It's The Yittle Fings, Part Twelve

I was walking down the stairs, carrying Ali for some reason, AND I had full hands.
Me: "Do you want to hold Mommy's phone?"
Ali: "Uh huh. I won't break it. I won't break your nose with it."

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Speaking of which, ever since I broke my nose, she's been obsessed with body parts being broken. Every time I say "ouch!", she asks me if I broke something. Also, she's been getting a lot of hangnails lately (I might need to clip them more often). So she's been saying a lot of "Mommy, can you please fix my broken thumb??"

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We were talking about Cinderella, yet again, and the sisters tearing off her pink dress. Then Ali piped up with "But the Prince didn't tear off her blue dress."

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We saw a group of about 15 asian people, and Ali said excitedly, "Look, Cara's over there!!" (one of the only Chinese people she knows)

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One one of the lovely rainy days we've had lately: "It's raining and winding!! It's winding through my hair!!"

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I went to check on her crying in bed, and she told me, "I just had to sing to kitty monkey because he was crying. I need to rock him because he is hurting."

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When I asked her what she dreamed about: "Pinkie Bear dreamed about me and I dreamed about her!"

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On the way home one day, I think she got bored. So she began telling me, "My tummy hurts, my back hurts, some parts of my eyes hurt, my leg hurts, and my arm hurts. I have boo boos all over the place."

Then, a few minutes later, "Nothing hurts anymore! All of my boo boos are gone!!

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We've been working on proper wiping techniques when using the potty. She did it right the other day, then excitedly informed me, "I did front first, then back!! That makes Jesus HAPPY!!!"

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We saw Jillian (from The Shred) on the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Ali squealed "There's Jillian!!! Look Mommy!! Jillian!!!! ......but where's Anita???" (Anita is one of the backup exercise girls.)

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Found On My Husband’s iPhone, B-Sides.

There were just too many priceless moments on Chris’ iPhone for my first post about it, so here are the rest:

For instance, he has Ali, practicing school in a desk that Chris himself very well may have sat in during Elementary school:

(Although, if he’s anything like he is now, he probably refused to sit in THAT desk due to the color combination.)

There were a TON of absolutely adorable pics on his iPhone, because Ali will ALWAYS smile better for him and his stinky-picture-takin’ phone than for me and my Canon Camera. Ugh.

I MEAN – posing on one knee with flowers behind your ear and in your hand?!?!? WHY oh WHY won’t you do that for me?

And more adorableness…

And MORE…

She would even smile at the MIRROR for him!

Not that I’m bitter or anything.

He also managed to get another priceless picture – one of her actually sleeping.

Maybe I should give HIM the good camera and let him become the family photographer.

Then again, there are still the random photos, like our neighbor’s roof being redone?

The hot water heater…

And a Taverna Plaka bellydancer…hmm. Somehow it feels different when I photograph them…

And then there are the confessional pictures. What he and Ali do while I’m not around:

There are middle-of-the-night pictures, when our neighbors were apparently having some sort of skirmish….

And truly vintage Ali-And-AJ pics:

I was surprised and flattered by the number of pictures of me – being that I’m the resident photographer, those are few and far between on my camera.

Granted, that didn’t keep me from being upside down.

He also caught Ali reading her favorite magazine:

His co-worker looking oddly…

Ali looking blessed by God:

..showing off her fingernails..

And her ever-fancier-than-Mommy-could-ever-pull-off braids by Gramamma:

And…that’s a wrap.