best not scare her right away

I noticed tonight that Elliott's preschool letter requests a photo of him for the class bulletin board, so I went through the pictures I've taken of him this month, trying to find one that captures his essential Elliott-ness. (This phrase works so much better with his real name, incidentally, when it does not suddenly make him sound like a famous law enforcement agent.) I found lots, but decided most of them probably would make the teacher a little nervous.

You get three guesses which kid is my rule-follower and which one is my mischief-maker, and the first two guesses don't count.

I finally chose this next one, which felt like a fair compromise between Elliott in his native state and the cute posed photos everyone else will probably provide. (In the very next shot he's obviously about to throw the rock.)

I had a full day of hanging out solo with the kids today, and dude. Little humans are exhausting. My kids aren't even particularly challenging on the spectrum of children's behaviors, but there's just so much managing. And so much talking. Me talking, them talking. SO MUCH TALKING. We went to a hot rod show out at the fairgrounds, which was pretty great but of course between the three of us I think someone commented on every vehicle there. Then we went to eat at McDonald's where it was like hostage negotiations trying to get anyone to finish their food already so we could take our toys and leave. Then to the grocery where both kids insisted upon having a miniature cart to push. I told them before we went in that there would be no running, no fighting, and NO RAMMING SO HELP ME, but then I had to micromanage them through the entire store because they kept "forgetting" the rules. By the time we got home no one was even being particularly bratty and I was all "EVERYONE TO YOUR ROOMS, MAMA IS AN INTROVERT AND NEEDS TO HEAR NO VOICES FOR THE NEXT TWENTY MINUTES." It was totally worth it for the day we had but DAMN.

This was my very favorite exchange of the day, for no particular reason other than it just struck me as so funny and so perfectly illustrative of their personalities. As we were leaving the fairgrounds, we drove past a property with horses.

Nico:  Look, horses! What are they doing?

Me:  Eating grass, probably.

Nico:  Or looking at rocks.

Elliott:  (with fist raised dramatically in the air) Ride! Da! Horsies!!