I’m Using My "Get Out of Blog Free" Card Today.

So the last couple of weeks have been ten times more chaotic than normal weeks, BESIDES the fact that I’m leaving for New York this morning and have been completely unprepared, thanks to the current state of chaos of the rest of my life.

So, in order that I can get myself together enough to BOARD MY PLANE this morning, you’re not getting a “real” post today.

I do, however, always have a proliferation of pictures of Ali hanging around, so I will write an “indulgent” (as Simon would say) post all about my child, despite the fact that it will be like the sixth post about Ali in a week.

(I guess I’m a Mommy Blogger after all.)

So anyway, ever since AJ had pigtail braids at the Princess Party, Ali has been dying to have some of her own.

Well, okay, that’s not true. I’VE been dying to try it, and so therefore convinced Ali that she has been dying to have some of her own.

So after exciting her to the point of getting her to sit still, I attempted it.

It wasn’t easy. She wasn’t still. They weren’t pretty. But they were:

However, it didn’t take long until her stubborn curly hair had it’s way with those braids:

And then they REALLY weren’t pretty. Curly braids?!?!?! Who knew curly-headed people had SUCH problems with braidage!

But she didn’t seem to mind. In fact, braids became her new obsession.

So, after naptime that day, I decided to reboot the braids.

I pulled them tighter until her eyes were slanted back from the pressure, and that seemed to make a difference. They managed to stay mostly straight, with only slight arcs in them:

Yes, yes, I know that they look like glorified rat-tails straight from the 80’s. But every braid has to start somewhere.

In other news, we bought her winter coat, seeing as it was on sale for 40% off at Children’s Place.

(I’m pretty sure that all retail establishment schedule of clothes and sales must be dictated by their corporate offices in ANTARTICA, because they never come close to lining up with our funky Alabama seasons.)

(If you could call them seasons.)

(However, it works out nicely, because that means that coats get clearanced out before our weather drops to the point of even needing long sleeves.)

So, without further ado, Ali in her new coat TOTALLY reminds me of Lucy in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe:

Aside from the pink, of course.

I had to literally PRY her out of that coat, and hide it so that she didn’t beg to wear it every day. After all, no one wants a coat to smell like hot summer sweat before it’s even cold enough to wear it.

Finally, I mentioned yesterday that we kept Luke on Friday. They had a blast, and Ali explained to Luke the way that life worked.

They were riding side by side as such, and Ali observed the following: “Luke has a brown shirt on. I have a pink shirt on.”

Then, thoughtfully, turned to Luke and informed him, “When I was a little boy, I wore that brown shirt.”

Glad we cleared THAT up.

We took them to Buffalo Wild Wings that night, where we totally embarrassed them by teasing them about being on a date:

…but they WERE holding hands, for the record.

…and sharing accessories.

(Let’s keep this picture our little secret from Luke’s Daddy. He might never let me keep Luke again. Or speak to me ever again, for that matter.)

Well, I suppose that turned into a little bit of a blog post after all. That always seems to happen to me. I’ll be having that “Get out of Blog Free” Card back now, thankyouverymuch.

Maybe I’ll use it tomorrow, depending on how crazy of a day I have in New York!