True Story: Halloween Kovar Kids

You probably haven't noticed this, but I love to take pictures of my kids for holidays.
Okay, so it's obvious.

But taking pictures of an autistic child, a toddler and a baby -  all in the same place, at the same time, not melting down, not hungry, not tired and actually willing to smile - is challenging.  Very challenging.  So challenging at the stages they were all in this October that I was 100% positive that it would not work out on the day of Halloween.  Surely on Halloween, we could anticipate meltdowns from all three due to anticipation, over-sugaring and overstimulation.

(Yes, my prediction was correct as evidenced on the 31st.)

I am so glad that I can take decent pictures of them, because if I had to rely on studios, we would not have many pictures with them all together in the frame.  You will notice in posts-to-follow that we failed to obtain a single picture of all three costumes together.  Not even a bad picture.  They would not get together in the same frame with those costumes on.  Period.

This year, I decided we had a two week window to get Halloween pictures done.  For two weeks I kept the boys' Halloween shirts and Macie's Halloween dress and headband downstairs on the counter.  There they sat, ready to grab and throw on the kids when the miraculous alignment of picture-perfect happiness would occur.  I straightened my bed every morning, and cleared off the neighboring night stands, so that my scene would be set.  (Really, these are things I should do every morning... but I don't.)

The first week gave me nothing.  I thought about putting the outfits away.  One morning I came downstairs without making the bed, and didn't go back up and do it when Macie took her first nap either.  In fact, I thought about crawling back in bed instead.  Did I mention the autistic child, the toddler and the baby?  Some of my days are so challenging that it takes me a couple to recover.

And then it finally happened.  Charlie had a great day at school and did his homework quickly.  Ephram actually took a nap that morning so he was not experiencing his afternoon cranks.  And Macie woke up from her nap just as their snack was starting.  So I nursed her during their snack and then grabbed the outfits and put them on.  Even the discovery of Ephram's dirty diaper did not stop us.  I had to bribe Charlie with a dollar.  (Usually it is Ephram that takes the bribing, but he ran away before I'd even got his pants on and went to my room where he started self-posing this time.)  They gave me 23 full minutes of photo-taking bliss - yes this is my bliss.  Then Macie let me know that we were done.  Five minutes later she was peacefully sleeping in her swing.  Success.

And that is the true story of how I got these precious pictures.  So, next time you look at pictures of my kids and think, "Wow, they look so happy.  They're always smiling."  Just know that I may have worked hard to make that happen.  I may have waited them out.  It may (probably) be set-up.

Just being real.  Because blogs are so often un-real perfect presentations of our imperfect lives.

Here are my littles, ready for Halloween, six days early.
(And Boone, too.)

The Wanderer Returns

We have this cat named Ziggy. He is the latest in a long line of cats we have owned in our 11 years in Washington. There's the original - Tiger - which we inherited from Andy's childhood. He is definitely the best and the longest lasting. But then there is Ziggy. Undoubtedly the next best cat we've ever had. Ziggy is almost one and a half years old. And he's still very frisky.


A couple of weeks ago we happened upon some bad luck. Ziggy went out at night, as he always does. (Trying to keep him in is a little bit like suicide.) But, he never came back. we waited an extra hour for him, called him, looked for him... and still no Ziggy. He'd done this before, so we decided to go to bed. (We were really tired.) Always before, he has been at the door in the morning when I wake up. The next morning I woke up at 4am. No Ziggy. And for two weeks and one day - no Ziggy. He is microchipped and we'd heard nothing, so we gave up hope after about a week.


Last night, Charlie and I were headed downstairs so that I could start making stir fry. About halfway down the stairs, I heard this really long and familiar meow. It sounded exactly like Ziggy. I'm lucky that I maintained my balance as I ran down the rest of the stairs and to the back door. There he was. Happy as a clam, but hungry. Not as hungry as he should be after two weeks - which tells me that someone else was caring for my little cat. Not a scratch or dent was on his body, although he was a bit dirty!


Charlie and I did a happy dance and called Andy, who was on his way home from work. We were so happy to have our wanderer back. Now hopefully we can continue to survive the incessant begging he is already doing to go back out. Not for a few days Ziggy, at least!