his sister's keeper

matthias has become quite a little defender of his sister lately. it is so sweet. he absolutely adores her. she is getting better at being nice to him, but he even when she is not, he will follow her every move. and defend her to the death.

for example,

on new years eve, a few friends spent the night, including jason's teammate, josh. in the morning, we made a big breakfast and josh kept stealing hiba's eggs, which led to him being know as "josh, the one who steals eggs", and then later "josh, the one who steals things".

that's josh. the one ripping the other guy's head off.

hiba has not let this go. every time we go anywhere with rugby folks, hiba asks if josh will be there, and then proceeds to explain how she will protect her food or whatever she has so josh won't steal it.
well, apparently, matthias has had enough of this, and on saturday he marched up to josh, put on his meanest face, and declared to josh "you will not eat my sister's eggs! they are hers and you will leave them alone!". and then he walked off.
sunday, we had josh and mandy over for dinner, and before they got there i was giving hiba a hard time about how josh was going to steal her food. to which matthias responded, "no, he won't. i saw him yesterday and i told him that he will not steal hiba's food and he will not take things". he was so proud.

on monday at soccer practice, a little girl had the same kind of ball as hiba. the coach told everyone to sit on their ball to listen to instructions. the little girl sat down on her ball, and matthias immediately went over to her and said, "hey! that's my sister's ball! don't sit on it!". and then he realized he was wrong and sheepishly went and sat by hiba.

and the best one - the other night at dinner, hiba was being a brat. that's putting it nicely. everything we asked her to do, she did the opposite. she talked back. if we asked her to stop something, she did it one more time, while staring us down. she was shaking a chair that is on the verge of falling apart and i asked her to stop. of course she didn't. so i gave her hand a smack. she wailed. but not real tears. and then i thought, maybe she didn't understand, so i asked her if she heard me, she said yes, i asked what i said, she said stop shaking the chair. during this time, the wailing and fake tears stopped and a smirk started to appear. which, shall we say, irritated me. so just as i was about to lecture her and send her to time-out or take her dinner away, matthias whispered across the table, "pssst, hiba! make a sad face!", which prompted hiba to stick her bottom lip out, in addition to her smirk. and i have to say, it worked. it was all i could do to finish my sentence with a straight face, jason was holding in a laugh, and there was definitely no chance of any more real discipline happening. and matthias just looked so proud of himself for coming to her rescue.

weekend round-up

it seems like spring has decided to come to little rock, which was perfect timing for this weekend. this weekend was full of coming and going, and the way i look at it, there's not really and end in sight. this is just the reality of life for now.

but, it was a fun weekend, so i'm excited. and the weather was beautiful, which is always a plus.

this saturday, i officially became a soccer mom. well, that's probably not completely true because we don't have a mini-van, i didn't wear a visor, and i didn't take caprisun and orange slices - but the kids did start playing soccer.

so far, they don't have "games", as much as "practice". saturday was the first one, so i'm not sure how the whole season will work, but it was a fun start.

all dressed and ready to go!

matthias' group went first, so he was all decked out and ready to go when we left the house. and once we got there, the excitement faded. matthias is a funny boy. he is super funny and outgoing, but apparently not in a new group. so, the first two stations were spent in tears or on the verge of tears, with a lot of pouting and not a lot of participating.

warm-up went ok...

but, about halfway through, he got into it and enjoyed the end. maybe because the last two stations were a little more competitive and could have involved body-checking kids out of the way. either way, he enjoyed it by the end and has agreed to try again next week.

finally deciding to smile

hiba was up next. and she LOVED it. they basically did the same stations that matthias' group did, so she knew what to expect, and she did a great job waiting for her turn, following directions, and working hard.

soccer pose!

she was pretty awesome

rockin' the obstacle course

a little one-on-one action

team cheer!

starting this week, we are moving matthias to hiba's group, since he is huge, and will hopefully be more participatory with his sister there, and - as much as i loved being there for two hours - one hour is quite enough.

next up - rugby!


the little rock stormers are now 5-0, rocking their way through this season. the weather was perfect and the game was fun, even if the second half was a little boring since they were winning by so much. it's a rough life being a little rock fan.

this one is a ham.

LR wins 44-10!

saturday night, we went to a friends' birthday party, followed by church on sunday morning, lunch with church friends sunday afternoon, a quick run to the grocery store, and then friends over for dinner for lasagna, settlers of catan, and wine. a great way to wrap up a great weekend.

the ultimate threat

hiba is in a stage where she loves to make threats. especially to matthias. especially when they are playing. and he usually gives in, because he is in a stage where he loves his big sister and will do almost anything to stay on her good side. 

the other night, hiba and matthias were taking a bath together, playing nicely. i was putting dishes away in the kitchen and i overheard this conversation:

matthias: *splash, splash, splash*
hiba: stop it, matthias! stop splashing me!!!
matthias: *splash, splash, splash*
hiba: MATTHIAS! i said STOP!
matthias: but it's fun!
hiba: no, it's not! if you don't stop right now, i...i...i won't be your sister anymore! i'll be your....COUSIN!!
matthias: *splash, splash, splash*
hiba: THAT'S IT! i'm not your sister! i'm your cousin! you aren't my brother!
matthias: NOOOOOOOOOO!! *wailing* NOOOOOO! be my sister! be my sister!
hiba: (calm and matter-of-factly) nope. i'm your cousin now. you should have stopped splashing.


well, you can't say she didn't warn him.

mr. matthias

i am confused as to why anyone coined the phrase "terrible twos". the twos weren't so bad, at least not for our kids. i mean sure, we had the whole separation anxiety, developing personality, getting into anything and everything phases, but all in all - not too bad.

(also, i tend to forget horrible chunks of life. sort of like child-raising p.t.s.d. so maybe it was bad and i don't remember. if that's the case, please don't remind me.)

now, with hiba, we obviously had some different issues going on. two was when we started to notice behaviors that were either increasing when they should have been decreasing or decreasing when they should have been increasing. and that all went on in the twos and threes, so it was hard to separate what was communication issues and what was the so-called terrible twos. but that was all different. i'm talking about the terrible twos that you hear about - tantrums, fussing, not sleeping, whining, always saying no, hitting, yadda, yadda, yadda.

the thing is, when your kids don't do those things at age two, you get to age three and think you are in the clear. you think, wow, i am pretty awesome. i sure know how to handle my kids and their development. my kids are so great. look at me and how great i am getting through that "terrible two" stage with flying color.

HA.

enter this guy:

don't let that innocent face fool you...

yeah. he will just blow that whole theory out of the water. this guy is tough these days. "opinionated" and "strong willed" don't really quite capture it. "independent" and "self-reliant" is putting it nicely. "pain in the butt" and "tiring" are not really the words that i would like to choose to describe him.

every. little. thing. is a fight. matthias, go put your shoes on. NOOOOOOOO!!!!! matthias, get your coat, please. *SCREAM!!!* matthias, eat this candy. I WANTED TO DO IT BY MYSELF!!!!!!! and holy cow, it is exhausting.

i have to keep reminding myself that one day this will pay off. one day, he will be a strong leader, sticking to his guns no matter what the cost. one day, he will fight for what he believes and stand up to anyone who says otherwise. one day, all of this "personality development" will be a positive thing.

but until "one day" comes, he will continue to try to wear me down with his fussing and whining and kicking and screaming and yelling and nay-saying.

well guess what, folks. joke's on him. because what he doesn't realize is that my parents had those "one day" thoughts about me as well. and too bad for matthias, that one day is here. and i'll outlast him. i'll keep on putting him in time out, keep on disciplining him, keep on refusing to listen to him scream, keep on making him apologize for his behavior, keep on making him use a big boy voice, keep on doing my darndest to channel his independence and strength into positive outlets without losing my mind. and i'll win. i have to. so that one day, by the grace of God, he'll win, too.

he knows if you've been bad or good....

last night, we drove from little rock to siloam to celebrate christmas with my family. we timed it so that we needed to stop for dinner. we decided that we'd just get something to go and eat in the car, so we gave the kids the choices - burger king, mcdonalds, and taco bell. but then i took back taco bell, because it is nasty. true story. which i explained to matthias, because he wanted tacos. i told him my tacos are awesome, but taco bell just has nasty tacos. so we went to the much higher class establishment of mcdonalds. 

once we were on the road again, we were jamming out to christmas songs. and by jamming out, i mean jason and i turned the music up in the hopes that it would distract the kids from yelling at each other. "santa clause is coming to town" came on, which immediately made everyone happy. matthias started talking about how santa is the guy who brings you presents and if you are good, he brings you good presents. if you are bad though, he brings you bad things.

me: matthias, what kind of things does santa bring you if you are bad?
matthias: nasty beer, nasty food, nasty goldfish...
hiba: yeah! maybe he will bring you the food from taco bell!!

this and that

hiba is learning to read. jason is such a good teacher to her. he is super patient and she gets so excited when she figures out new words. she gets pretty focused, as you can see.

we went to a princess birthday party a few weekends ago. hiba absolute loved it. well, maybe that is not entirely true. we did have a mini-meltdown when playing on the swing set was not part of the outdoor agenda, followed by a little bit of stress due to the idea of having tea, even if it is not real tea, because real tea is hot and she doesn't like hot things, and if it is not real tea, she doesn't want it because it is a tea party, but she doesn't like tea. so she had some water.
all in all, a fun party, hiba loved dressing up, and had a fun time.

while hiba and i were at the party, jason took thing 2 to get a haircut. his first haircut, in fact. after seeing the before and after pictures, i am thinking we should have done this awhile ago.

here's mr. crazy hair....

and here's the finished product! he is so stinkin' cute!!

jason and i enjoyed a night out at the annual rugby banquet. it's so fun to see everyone dressed up and acting semi-classy.

and jason won the team m.v.p. my husband is awesome.

we decorated the tree with the kiddos - matthias and hiba did their best to remember exactly which ornaments they each put on, which is now followed up with a detailed conversation about it each morning. "who put the angel on? who put the snowman on? who did the music? noooooooo, I did it.". i don't particularly remember which ones i put, and definitely don't remember which ones anyone else hung up, so it usually ends with matthias huffing exasperatingly at my lack of memory skills. it's a fun way to start each day.

one of the kids' favorite activities is "play sleeping". which is especially fun when they start this game at 9 a.m. on saturday mornings because they are tired, since they chose to wake up at 5:30 a.m. instead of "real sleeping".

hiba loves drawing. i'm not sure what the picture is, but she is super cute, so there ya go.

jason's youngest brother, tom, recently came back home after some time away. i made fish tacos, a huge amount of guacamole (which ended up not being too much, thanks to my guacamole eating skills), and we ate, hung out, and played settlers. it was fun to see him and great to have him back home.

jason and his "little" brothers.

and i leave you with this. gangsta hiba.

this week (or a little longer) in review

 Ozark Rugby Tournament. A whole weekend of rugby to wrap up the season.

date night with hiba - reading at the library, followed by dinner at chickfila.

hiba talking to herself in the reflection.

thanksgiving feast at preschool!

"don't take my picture, mom!".

birthday party at build-a-bear with friends from preschool.

sick day for matthias, which hiba talked me into letting her stay home for as well. it was actually a good day. they played well together when matthias was feeling well, and hiba and i had a good time together when he was sleeping.

making rolls for thanksgiving

oobleck! (cornstarch and water)

hiba's rock collection

and matthias'. i'm pretty sure it was just one big rock.

building a christmas tree and listening to christmas music.

and now, it's time for thanksgiving! time flies when you're having fun!

happy halloween!

yesterday was "super crazy day!", according to hiba. halloween definitely lived up to expectations this year, and i think even exceeded them in many cases. here are the highlights:

-hiba actually getting a costume that lived up to the picture in her head. she wanted to be "super hiba", but i am not crafty, nor do i plan ahead, so i'm pretty surprised that i pulled it off. i only pulled it off because of some last-minute, much needed help from my mother-in-law - ya know, little things like making the cape, mask, and belt. it's only 3/4 of the outfit.

super hiba!

 -trick-or-treating at preschool. the kids paraded around the building, which was super cute. matthias refused to wear most of his costume, but he is easily bribed with candy, so he stuck his hat on for a minute.

-halloween parties at pre-school. pre-school sure takes some of the pressure of when it comes to holidays. they have the party thing covered there.

-dinner and trick-or-treating with friends. we went over to john and carol's, which was so fun. utter chaos was the name of the game, but why have it any other way?

-matthias, once again, realizing the greatness that is trick-or-treating. after each house, he would ask if we were going back to john and carol's. when i told him no, he would get super excited and say "we get MORE candy?!?". each time. he was thrilled. 

matthias did eventually let me take pictures of him. he's a pretty great looking pirate. especially with his ratty, un-brushed, uncut hair. we totally did that on purpose. ya know, to add to the costume. 

i didn't get a great picture of hiba (mom fail!), because i was too focused on getting a good shot of matthias, who was too focused on refusing to wear his whole costume and/or look at the camera all at the same time. he wanted to be a pirate, but didn't want to wear his eye patch, hat, belt, or sword. hiba did love her costume (and wanted to wear it again today), but i kept getting distracted and forgot to get a good picture of her. but, you can still tell that she's pretty awesome looking.

and now, hiba announced to me this morning that it is fall again (apparently halloween is not fall) and my birthday is tomorrow, which is way more awesome than halloween. i may or may not have been feeding her that line throughout the week. :-)