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. :)

HO, HO, HO

Lauren had a great weekend. She had her first sleep over at our house. We went to the Festival of Trees with Jill, Jon and Linnea, which was lots of fun. Linnea, Lauren and Addison had their photo taken on Santa's lap. Addison was fine, she was very curious and grabbed Santa's shirt and stared into his face. Then Linnea came back to our house, they played, we had dinner and then got dressed up for the Sugar Plum Ball, a dress up party for kids and their parents. They had a blast. Danced the night away (for an hour and a half), had cookies and punch and even participated in a contest. Lauren was so confident, she volunteered for everything, even a High School Musical Trivia contest during which I'm sure she wouldn't know a single answer (we discouraged her from doing that one). But they did a Santa impersonation contest, basically lining up all the kids (35 or so?) in a line and having them say "ho, ho, ho" into the microphone. Lauren was second to last in line, and after a lot of nearly identical answers Lauren came out with this incredibly deep voiced Santa impersonation that got a lot of laughs. She made in into the next round, and the next, and she won! It was funny to hear such a deep voice coming out of such a little girl. She is so confident, I love that about her. She tries my patience, but I think her confidence and persistence is going to pay off for her as an adult. I think her teenage years will be rough, though...

Then the next morning they went to Grandma June's house for a cookie decorating photo op for the Post Star. A reporter for the Food page heard about June's cookie talents and asked to take pictures of her making cookies with her grandchildren. They should be in Wednesday's Post Star. I'll be sure to buy extra copies for family.

Addison had a 3 night sleep through the night stretch, but the last week or so she hasn't been sleeping well. I have to get her back into the habit of falling asleep on her own. It's hard...

Back to work and school tomorrow...

Sleep!

Last night was one of the best nights ever! Lately Addison has not been sleeping well, I think because of the tooth coming in. She hasn't been able to sleep unless someone was holding her, which makes it very hard to get anything done or to get any sleep myself. She was the same way at school and at June's on Saturday. Then last night I put her to bed in her crib (rare) and she fell asleep around 9 and I went to bed at 10. I was amazed to wake up at 4 o'clock when she started making noises. Then I brought her into my bed and she slept until 5:30. Had a great day at school and slept in her crib there, too! Small pleasures...

Also, I don't like it when Mom's brag endlessly about their kids, but permit me to brag about Lauren a little. Last year's teacher commented that Lauren was very good at thinking of words that began with a certain letter. This year a paper came home with a note from her current teacher saying " As usual, Lauren was able to come up with MANY T words, some abstract ideas, too, like together - she drew kids playing together. " The pictures she drew are of: a table, a triangle, a tic-tac-toe board, a tomato, kids playing together and Daddy (Tyler) thinking about chocolate chips and watching TV. :) Strangers are always commenting on how smart she is and how she sounds older than she is. She's not shy at all, either. Tyler had his end of the year banquet for volleyball at Uno's and we went. Tyler was playing guitar and singing a parody song he wrote, and Lauren insisted on performing, too. She didn't have a musical instrument she could play, so she stood next to him and did a little interpretive dance. It was so cute. And during the slide show she danced and sang "I like to move it, move it" and "Baby where you get your body from..." She loves the "bollyball girls" and wants to be one someday. I've never seen Tyler smile wider than he did when she said that. She also asks when Mommy and Daddy will go somewhere so one of the girls can babysit her. She has her own Jr. Spartan Volleyball shirt that the JV coach had made for her - she's very proud. (I am, too, can you tell?)

Boy, being a parent is HARD! It's just so much work and you never get a break or any time to yourself. Just going to the bathroom by myself with the door closed is a privilege. (I sometimes stay in there much longer than necessary just for a little peace and quiet!) It's still very rewarding, though, and the little things make it all worth it.

Day off

Lazy day... Addison loves to bang on the keyboard. Here is her latest masterpiece:

BG`BN MMMMMMMMMankl00000000000000000000000000000000iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiluNM NNHGN8 GH GGHGH GHNM GN MGNMJ JNM MJNM \ BVCV SBV D KLJK 67 GHGGH KHJ\,./..

Neither of my girls sleeps very much lately. Lauren can't stand it when other people are sleeping, either, and is constantly waking people up... They play nicely together in the playpen, though, it's cute.

Also, Addison thinks Lauren is hysterical. Lauren can uaually get a laugh by jumping up and down and making silly faces/noises, but Addy thinks the funniest thing in the world is to watch Lauren brush her teeth. She cracks up every time! It's a great sound...