Don't monster me!

Overheard:

Max: Roar!
Ava: Don't monster me Max!

Ava's Bobos

So it's no secret that my little Ava is a girly girl. She loves clothes, shoes, makeup, and definitely getting her hair done. I've never really been sure how she came up with the name 'Bobos' to describe her little pigtails, but I have to believe that someone must have commented on how cute her bows were and she somehow transformed that into bobos. Either way, it's become an everyday part of our language here at the Solar household. So, here's a little documentary of the evolution of Ava's bobos...

Bald baby Ava

One bobo (also referred to as the antenna mullet by someone who will remain unnamed)... ahem... daddy

Now two tiny bobos

The looping double bobos

And finally the full length double pigtail bobos

I also forgot to mention how crazy she is about her clippies. Everyday I ask her what color clippies she wants and she always says green! I have finally gotten her to try to match her clippies to her outfit, so sometimes she will say I want green clippies today, no pink to match my shirt! It's really pretty cute... I'll have to make a video to upload soon.

My little Olympic swimmer-in-training

Here's a quick video of Lia in the bath... she will kick and splash for literally 20 minutes if I let her :) And just for good measure, a video of Max & Ava in the bath too. Their favorite part is splashing too! Max took the video of Lia, so remember, he's still sharpening his videography skills :)

Max's family portrait

So Max just recently started drawing pictures of people. They have an uncanny resemblance to the people that Zoey (his best friend) draws. And I'm sure preschool has something to do with his new-found artistic ability. Here are a few photos daddy took of him drawing a picture of our family with his sidewalk chalk. Daddy was so proud, he ran out and bought him a canvas so he could paint our family. The last picture is of his finished masterpiece. (Daddy photoshopped in Max's explanation of his art).

Case in Point

Bathtime Success

So, having three little kids around this house, we tend to have lots of baths x3. I have decided it is impossible to give one kid a solo bath, because the others (well, not Lia) come running in taking their clothes off as they run as soon they hear the water running. So, all of our baths involve three little kids. With that being said, I've come realize that there is a lot of math involved in bathing 3 kids...

1 : The exact number of towels needed to clean up the water that mysteriously makes it's way out of the bathtub and onto the floor during bathtime.

2 : The average number of times poor baby Lia gets knocked over during each bath.

1+2 = 3 : The number of kids who almost always drink the bathwater plus the number of kids who probably don't drink the bathwater equals the number of kids who I have to watch so they don't drink the bathwater.

4 : The number of times I say, "Don't splash your sister!"

5: The number of times I say, "We don't drink the bathwater!" to which the offending kid (okay, it's Ava) replies, "Why?" to which I reply, "Because it's yucky!"

2 x 3 = 6 : The number of little bitty dirty feet that get washed during each bath.

7 : The number of times I say, "It's time to get out. Please pull the drain." before I give in and resort to, "Who wants a snack?!"

Actual Conversations, volume 1

Okay, so today I actually had the following conversations with my kids...

Max (overheard): Ava, let's go play blocks!
Mommy: Max & Ava! Before you play blocks, you guys need to clean up the toys the living room.
Max: But mommy, we're going to play in a clean room.


Ava (running naked after her bath): I'm frickin cold!

Yay! It's the first post!

Hi! I'm so excited to have finally gotten this blog started! I first got the idea to start this blog a few weeks ago. We have started potty training Ava and Josh was mentioning something about when we were potty training Max. I don't even remember potty training him and it was only a year and a half ago! So I thought, I really need to do better about documenting these kind of things. Several of my friends have family blogs and I love keeping up to date on what's going on with them by reading their blogs. So, here we are, the Solar family blog :)

We decided to call it Running in Circles for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, the main reason is because our kids just love to run in circles... Max and Ava will run in circles around Lia sitting on the floor, around Lia sitting in her high chair, around the kitchen table with their strollers, around the cul-de-sac, it doesn't matter :). I thought the name was fitting as well because, as parents to three little ones, we tend to feel like we are always running in circles as well!

So, if you're reading this blog, you most likely already know our family, but in case you don't, here's a quick introduction :)

Daddy (Josh)
Mommy (Jenny)
Max (4 1/2 years old)
Ava (2 1/2 years old)
Lia (7 1/2 months old)


And here's a family portrait we had taken in January by our favorite photographer in the whole world, Nate from The Image is Found: