Happy Holidays

I love the holidays. Getting in lots of good family time. Had a nice visit with Mom and Dad, and a delicious dinner at the Montcalm on their anniversary. The girls loved having them visit. Addison was a little cautious at first because she hasn't seen them since August, but she warmed up right away and was soon giving them big smiles and giggles. I love her laugh... Brent and Sarah are visiting from TX. Lauren, Sarah, Salma, Leila and I went to the movies to see "Enchanted" today, we all really liked it. Tonight we had dinner at the Carey's, drinks at O'Toole's with Jer and Cassie, Eli and Kristen, Brent and Sarah. They fell in love with Addison, of course. Lauren had fallen asleep on the Carey's floor so she stayed there until I got home to get her. Tomorrow, Christmas brunch in Schaghticoke at Great Grandma and Great Grandpa's, Christmas Eve dinner at the Carey's. Then Christmas morning at our own house and leaving around noonish(?) to drive to ME for more Christmas! We are going to be exhausted, but happy. Can't wait to see everyone in ME.

I know I should correct Lauren when she says a word incorrectly so she doesn't learn it the wrong way and have to unlearn it, but some of the mistakes are so darn cute I don't want to. She thinks the little pink things on her chest are called "nibbles". I thought it was cute -then she announced at a holiday party that her "nibbles hurt". I think because I sometimes complain about my "nibbles" due to breastfeeding an infant with two new teeth.

Addison's latest cold seems to be fading. June recently had a vaccine against shingles (adult form of chicken pox) which contains an active virus. She isn't supposed to be near Addison for 10 days since she hasn't had the chicken pox vaccine and it's driving her crazy. We hadn't seen much of her lately, but went over today and June had to stay across the room. I know all she wanted to do was hold Addison.

We've been trying to decide how to spell Addison's nickname. If anyone actually reads this, how about some feedback in the comments? Addie or Addy? Thanks. Of course she has many nicknames, including Addili, Goose, (from silly goose??) Goosey, Baby Girl, Pookie, Pooks, Pookie-pooks, Pookie-princess and various others but I'm thinking those won't stick when she's older.

Merry Christmas!

Sick-O

Up with Lauren most of the night. She must have some stomach bug that started at 12:40 last night. What a messy, exhausting night. It amazes me the way instinct kicks in when your kid is sick and you just do what you have to do. Tyler and I both just jumped into action and got everything cleaned up and taken care of without a word. Weird. She seems to be feeling better today. Lots of ice water and popsicles, naps and cartoons.

Someone invited me into the strange world of Facebook. My account seems to have taken on a life of it's own, inviting people to be my friends... Not sure what I think about it yet, but I'll give it a chance.

SO excited for Christmas, vacation and family time. Can't come soon enough!

Feeling a little better...

I'm feeling a little better after some more conversations with Lauren. I think she defines "unpretty" as mean like the villains in the movies. (Cruella, Ursula, etc...) I love that there's a book/story for every moral. We talked about the ugly duckling, rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and the rainbow fish... I think she's getting it.

Now we're fighting nightly dinner battles. I understand that kids tend to be picky, but I don't understand why she's deciding all of a sudden that she doesn't like things that she used to love. (Turkey, peas, chicken tacos, pizza...) I'm fighting that because if we give in she'll only eat grilled cheese sandwiches and macaroni and cheese. It's exhausting and makes dinner time miserable. She eats what I made or she doesn't eat. Also, if she eats her dinner one of these nights we're going to make gingerbread cookies as a reward. Hasn't worked yet. Still hoping...

I know I complain a lot, but I also love them both to pieces and I wouldn't trade this for anything in the world!!

Smile!

Pretty Scary...

I think it was Jill that said something about Lauren starting to ask the "hard questions". All of a sudden she's got a lot of them. Some of them have been:

"How does Santa get down the chimney if he's so big and fat?"

"Did God make people first and then they had babies?"

A few days ago we had this conversation: Lauren said something about only wanting to be friends with pretty people. She's been saying lately that she wants to be the prettiest girl in the world. I've been feeling heartbroken that my little girl sounds so shallow and wondering what we did wrong. I've been trying to explain that being pretty is not the most important thing in the world. I asked her this question: "Would you rather be friends with someone who is pretty, but always mean to you, or someone who is not pretty, but is very nice and always a good friend". She said she doesn't know what to choose and "please let me think about these questions you are asking me." She said she wants friends who are pretty and nice, not unpretty and mean. I tried to explain that they don't always go hand in hand. (This is all happening while she's on the potty and I'm blow-drying my hair getting ready for work. ) I gave her the scenario of someone with a big birthmark on her face, something she can't help. First of all Lauren wanted to know if birthmarks come off. Then she decided that she will be friends with that person if they are nice and they WANT to be pretty. I wonder what her definition of pretty is?

She's also talking a lot lately about getting married and boyfriends and yesterday she kissed one of the boys in her class. We told her it's not nice to kiss someone if they don't want to be kissed and that she can't get married until she's about 30 so why think about it now? Just be friends with everyone that you can.

This parenting stuff is HARD!!!

Also, today Lauren said she was building a super-fast, super-strong, super-heavy race car that not even Uncle Bryan or a giant could lift. :)