this and that.

the girls have discovered the fun of hide-and-seek. genevieve likes hiding in the same one place over and over, or the last hiding place i used. i'm waiting for her to figure out the fun of creating something out of nothing. emmy, on the other hand, is a little cheat. she likes counting with the counter. standing at the wall with you with her eyes shut tight, but she gets bored after getting to 3 so she follows the hider to their spot. then runs back and leads the counter to the hider, shouting, "there-you-are!" CHEA.TER. it's really fun, though. they're so excited about it.

we recently started the tradition of waiting to put up christmas decorations until the day after thanksgiving. a quiet day after such a big one, digging through christmas boxes and running out for black friday shopping if we feel like it. it was really relaxing last year and i'm excited for this year. however, the lure of christmas is intoxicating this year! i was trying to stay away from the seasonal coffees, the christmas music, perusing the christmas sections at target, all of it. buttttttt i can't! i'm NOT decorating. scout's honor. that waits until the day after thanksgiving. but i'm cheating a little bit on the other things. we've been enjoying idina menzel's new holiday wishes album, surprisingly genevieve hasn't figured out that it's elsa's voice, and i had my first peppermint mocha of the season last week. i feel guilty but i'm trying to own the feeling instead. i love christmas! fall gets 3 months, why can't christmas get 1 1/2?? christmas has always been my favorite. it's one of the reasons kyle and i got married 4 days after christmas. probably why he proposed on christmas! the whole season is just magical.

genevieve has been saying really funny things lately. i think 4 is the doorway to the crazy kid imagination years. last week i was putting lotion on her skin, winter + eczema = a sad, itchy kid, and she told me that 2 of her red bumps weren't itchy because they were her boobies. "these are my boobies. they're little but when i'm a grown up they'll get really big. and then i'll have pricklies on my legs and i'll have to shave them. and it'll hurt but i won't cry because i'll be a grownup." ha! she slays me. i'm open about body parts with the girls, and it's interesting to see them register what's the same and what's different.

i booked my plane tickets for my 2nd girls trip to NC since we moved. the first one halfway counts since i came to finish packing my house and had a girls night out in the process, but this one is all about the ladies! i'm so excited! after the horror of our first few months in baltimore, things have leveled out and there's nothing really wrong about it up here, but it's very lonely. i'm very thankful for facebook and my marriage to my best friend, but girls need girl time. i miss girl time! i'm also feeling lucky because i'll be getting a little girl time with new acquaintances this weekend. friends are hard to come by as an adult. and they get harder the older your children get. and it seems i get more introverted the older i get and that's a whole new obstacle i was unfamiliar with.

i've been looking into photography classes locally recently. i hate that as a stay at home mom, my stereotypical answer is that i need something to do, but it is. i can get through the day usually with no problem. but i'm just so bored. i need something to challenge the part of my brain that makes me tick. cleaning house and being mommy gets old really fast. i love my babies and wouldn't go to work all day and leave them, i just need a little something to make me feel like an adult. like a person who is worth more than how often i clean sippy cups. we'll see if i find anything good and affordable.

thanks for hanging out through my random ramblings about life currently. sometimes it feels good to just let all those little thoughts and events out.