Meet James Ensor

Au Contraire has a love affair with paint. She promised she would not make a mess. Still--to be safe Bangs put her in an apron. And funny enough, she still covered herself in paint.






I'm not sure, but I think she's thinking, "Wow. I forgot to paint the back of my hands.)



Quickly remedied:





She BEGGED for a bath. That was the M.O. before we had a washer and dryer of our very own. We painted nude!



Note to Bangs: Good job buying the washable paints!




You can't see it so well in this picture, but when her apron was removed, there was an outline of it on her white shirt with paint everywhere the apron was not.

Park Day

The weather has been lovely in Cowtown. Bangs took the kids to the park last week for the first time this year.




Number Three did not like the swings unless she was in them with Au Contraire.



Then she loved it. But AC wasn't down with it. After a few minutes she said she was done.




Number Three hated being in her carseat. She really hated almost all of the time spent at the park.



AC and Mr. X spent most of the time on the swings. Just like good ol' times back in NY.



















And we'll be heading back again today.

Three Eats Everything

Bangs: Um...Au Contraire? Did you feed chocolate cookies to Number Three?
AC: Yes. She liked them.




(What?)


(Can't you see I'm eatin' here?)
_______________________________________

Moving along to cornbread--






(Forgot to say the prayer...)



Number Three likes her veg. And fruit. And bread. And whatever anyone else is eating.

Mammal

Last night after reading the part about butchering a pig in Little House in the Big Woods with ESF, Au Contraire and Bangs had the following conversation:

B: Au Contraire, where does sausage come from?
AC: Oh! Sausage.
B: But what kind of animal does sausage come from?
AC: Sausage isn't an animal! (laughing)
B: What about ham?
AC: From ham.
B: What kind of animal does ham come from?
AC: Ham is not an animal. It's ham.
B: Okay...what about bacon?
AC: From bacon. Bacon is not an animal either.
B: Where does chicken come from?
AC: Chicken.
B: Is chicken an animal?
AC. Yes! Chicken is an animal. It's a bird. And we eat it.
B: What about hamburger? Does it come from cows?
AC: No. It comes from hamburger.
______________________________________

(a picture of a piggy just like A.C.'s)

So, apparently our little Au Contraire is still in the dark about the origin of pork products she loves. She still think that only bad people eat pigs.


(Flash back from 2007)

Our little vegetarian in the making.

She's An Angel

All of our children have been pretty serious about starting to eat "real" food; if you can call fruit-flavored puffs that dissolve on your tongue real.



She didn't quite know what to do at first, but then once she figured it out, there was no going back.




She also likes to read the paper.



Coincidentally, this the same look ESF makes when Bangs interrupts his reading.


(I doubt she's reading the comics...it's probably the Utah politics page. Ouch.)

I Am Not Your Broom

Au Contraire woke up with bruxa hair this morning. (Bruxa means witch in Portuguese.)








And, no. She did not want this hairdo photographed for posterity.

But, Mr. Xcitement did--



He said "cheese", but I think he meant something else...maybe "nose cheese"?



Or chocolate. Because that's what's always on his sweet little face.

Weekend Mischief

Mr. Xcitement got a little too excited this weekend.

List of his accomplishments:

*Friday night he ripped off a section of painted over wallpaper in the toy room. It turns out it was moldy like nobody's business and our landlords had to be called in to remove not just the wallpaper, but the layers of wallpaper, and plaster down to the bare wood.

*Scrounged a green pen. Colored all over himself, his jammies, and a few other things...

*Scrounged a blue pen and got creative on the toy room table. And a few other places.

*Drank immitation maple syrup (read: HFCS) from the bottle--not once, not twice, not even thrice, but FOUR times. He had/has the diarrhea and diaper rash to prove it.

*Got aforementioned syrup all over his best friend Puh-Buh (that's Pooh-Bear for the rest of us), and spent the day licking Puh-Buh's ears.

*Ate dried up bits of old PB&J sandwiches in lieu of better food served to him.

*Took over as ring leader of the church nursery by leading everyone in a march on the tables. (I think his teachers aren't too sad to see him go home on Sunday.)

*Oh, and before I forget--last week his and Au Contraire dumped a whole tin of ground cinnamon all over the kitchen and their toy room. But, I can't complain. Everytime I vacuum, it smells like cinnamon toast.