what we wore on wednesday

 ^^ today's post was a little more spur of the moment than usual, but the light in lolo's room was so soft and white and then kids were being darling playing on the bed. and not to be that mom...but sometimes i have to be that mom and when the kids are this cute, it's an outfit post kind of day.

^^ i don't know why he's not wearing a shirt? he's currently trying to negotiate climbing into "the big bed." but on team eliasen, we don't get into big beds without going potty first. cruz is really into sports, so we talk about 'team eliasen' a lot.

^^ made it to the big bed! this guy can do a great lion naptime. naps, prayers, even a gentle, "i know, lion. i know." does a mama proud.

^^ i haven't worn this shirt for a year; so happy to have in back in rotation!

^^ the last time london wore this shirt someone thought she was a boy, so i thought that this time, she'd wear a giant bow to compensate.

^^ cruz is so ready for christmas this year. we've been reading the christmas story every night and going for a walk around the neighborhood to look at the lights. he remembers christmas from last year and totally gets it. tonight was the annual "pickle tree" lighting up at westmont and if you know westmont, the pickle tree lighting is the most westmont-y event imaginable. there were no tears while meeting santa, and once cruz got a lick of his first candy cane, he was ready to party. (to get cruz into his christmas jams, i had to bribe him with a cookie. ain't no shame in my game.)

happy wednesday!

instavember

a little snapshot of what we were up to in november... at least according to instagram...

^^ this november was one of the most glorious months we've had in the last ten years. seriously. the weather was dreamy-- never too hot and it got just cold enough that we could pretend it was fall. it even rained! (clearly we aren't too experienced with rain-- my neighborhood grocery store was kind enough to remind us that rain = wet). almost every night my instagram feed was filled with sunset shots. it would have been cliche, but the sunsets were just that amazing. (i actually just realized that we might have fantastic weather every november but last november i don't think i ever got out of bed because #thekatemiddletons)

^^ these cuties are becoming more and more like siblings. london loves to watch cruz and the littlest things he does her crack up. he's learning that he likes to make her laugh, and he's been sweet about bringing her a toy or keeping an eye on her if i step out of the room. i keep telling them, "you two are best friends!" and i hope it will start rubbing in. (what? you don't brainwash your kids?)

^^ age three is... a mixed bag. to borrow a phrase, when it's good, it's very very good (and when it's bad it's very very bad). the good is watching cruz's creative spirit develop. we're creating and building and pretending all day long. his capacity for abstract thought and reasoning continues to astound and challenge me.

^^ we had some growing pains with our little lolo. being a work-from-home mama is so good and equally, so hard. sometimes you end up with that face while you're on the phone with a client. it can be empowering to know that i'm helping to support my family while being their primary caregiver. on those days, i'm all about #leanin. and then sometimes the mama guilt and the awesome-lady-business guilt battle each other hard and on those days i text my fellow work-from-home friend anna angsty texts that usually end with #LeantheFIn. i'm not proud of it, but there it is. london also came down with a nasty cold and cough that ended up being pretty scary one night. we thought we might need to take her into urgent care because she couldn't really breathe, but a couple of sessions in a hot steamy bathroom cleared her lungs nicely. we took that second picture soon after she started breathing again, and she was immediately back to her sparkly self.

^^ you know i'm an open book about areas in which i struggle as a mom/wife/lady, so let me just take a minute to share an area in which i think i excel. i know my kids. i am such a good mom to them. this month has been a gentle reminder that one of my primary jobs as their mom is to delight in them. i've taken that to heart and with everything that is in me, i delight in my kiddos. with all of it's challenges, november turned out to be a pretty sweet month.

this way to butterflies.

as part of intentionally parenting with wild freedom, i am trying to say yes. yes to extra trick-or-treating. yes to hanging out with our neighbors. yes to spur of the moment play dates. on saturday my friend ashley texted me saying that she and her son were headed over to the butterfly preserve and would we want to join them? yes. we actually didn't end up overlapping at the preserve for more than a few minutes because of naptimes and trying to wrangle two children into clothes, but i am so glad we said yes!

it was closest to perfect you could imagine. my little boy walked up every steep hill on his own, scrambled over big logs, and took off running in the woods like the best little adverturer you could dream of. we kept choosing to wander down paths that took us deeper and deeper into the woods, stopping to find butterflies and listen to the wind stir the eucalyptus trees. it was warm with just an undercurrent of cool ocean breeze. i stretched my arms wide wide wide because God is so good and His creation so beautiful and He made my children to be so precious and i just can't dare keep that kind of praise to myself. 

instatober

here's what we were up to in october... at least according to instagram...
xoxo/becca

^^ lolo and i took a bunch of selfies. after our first all-nighter//embracing fall style//wearing chevron  (cruz: why is everyone wearing pointy stripes?)

^^ in things that can't possibly have happened news, cruz turned three in october. this year he really got it and loved his birthday. we spent about a week singing "happy birthday" and practicing blowing out candles and then he rocked it at the party. (ps: would you like a post on how to plan your child's birthday without pinterest? wild and free, baby)

^^ soccer player. ballerina. curious george. come back soon, halloween!

^^ i've stepped it up in the arts & crafts department. we've been painting, "chalking," and decorating pumpkins with glitter. it's been so fun to watch cruz draw with purpose-- a road for his cars, the sun and moon, our family (we all have very heavy eyebrows in his pictures and also in real life).

^^ cruz is equal parts tovi (awesome ball skills) and me (great satisfaction in completing paperwork)

^^ babies helping me with work

^^ who's the cutest sitting in a bumbo? london rae, that's who.

halloween just got a little bit cooler

listen, i've just never been a halloween person. i grew up in the pacific northwest where our halloweens consistently occurred in the rain. there's an awesome costume under all this rain gear kind of affairs. then we moved out near uc santa barbara where halloween gets taken to the next level, but not in a good way. our local grocery store piles pallets of cheap beer in the aisles in the few days before halloween weekend and students stream through our neighborhood in costumes both small (and tight and risque) and scary. it's gotten better over the years, but it felt yucky and dark and turned me off of halloween for a long time.

but this year we took the kids trick or treating and it all turned around.

tovi has been planning matching costumes for him and cruz for a looong time. wanna see??

curious george and the man with the yellow hat!! can you even??
we started trick or treating at ghost village road in montecito. the costumes were cute and creative. we felt like celebrities because everywhere we went someone would yell, "hey, it's the man with the yellow hat!" and tween girls would coo, "look at that george. he is sooooo cuuuuute!" the first time someone recognized cruz as george you would have thought he'd burst open with the pride of it all.

after about an hour, cruz and london got tired and hot and full enough of candy and ice cream (um, yes. ice cream trick or treating for the win!), so we headed home. we still wanted to go out in our neighborhood, so we convinced cruz to go on a walk with us to look at jack-o-lanterns. and we happened to bring his candy bucket just in case.
i don't know if our first trip out had served as a practice run or if the evening light made him more comfortable, but trick or treating around the neighborhood was the stuff dreams are made of. cruz was so bold walking up to each door for candy. he wouldn't say trick or treat, but he did say thank you, which i like even better. it was dusk and there was just something magical in the air. the neighborhood felt so safe and so friendly. we chatted with neighbors and rang doorbells of people we had never talked to before. all around us you could hear people laughing and calling out "see you later!" and "happy halloween!" our neighborhood felt like a community. we went to bed with happy hearts and tummies full of candy we stole from cruz's bucket. i think i could like this holiday.