Making Merry

This post is delayed due to the wonderful stomach bug I received for my birthday. 48 hours later and I am finally feeling better. Let's just say it's hard to change a diaper when you can't even stand up without passing out.

But, onto better times...we had a great Christmas. As Terry commented several times, this is really a magical time for Sophie. Her belief in Santa, reindeer, elves, the whole kit and kaboodle is so earnest. She received "magical reindeer food" (oatmeal ground up with blue glitter; the glitter attracts Santa and his sleigh) as a party favor earlier in the month, and as instructed, spread it all over the front yard before going to bed. Seeing her try to cover as much ground as possible with her girly throw was funny.

We try hard to instill the true meaning of Christmas, and in keeping with that, before we see the tree, we first go to the Nativity to put Baby Jesus in the manger. Sophie was wondering whose turn it would be this year...I think she's got that job covered for at least a few more years. She surprised us by asking to sing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus. Emily and Michael joined in too. A parenting moment that brings a tear to your eye.

Here's her reaction seeing Lily (the elf) camped out in the tree. Lily is supposed to leave Christmas Eve, but Sophie left Santa a note asking if she could stay until New Year's Day. Nice man that he is, Santa agreed. Lily, however, hasn't moved from the tree since. I told Sophie she must be tired after all that flying back and forth....I know I am tired of coming up with new hiding spots. Can't tell you how many times it hit me at 2am that we hadn't moved her.

To say Michael liked his Tonka truck might be an understatement.

Sophie's plasma car (flatma car, as she calls it) was a big hit as well. Notice my new chair in the background. SO much nicer on my back as I sit and type this. Thank you Santa Terry!

Emily really like her drawing desk. It drove Sophie crazy that she opened one gift, and played with it for 20 minutes, perfectly content to not open anything else. And made me realize, that again, less is more.

All dressed up later in the afternoon.

Grandma and Grandpa Maier came over in the late afternoon for dinner. The Gould grandparents came over the day after Christmas. It was nice to spread out the visits, and continue the festivities for another day. Also, I think everyone got a better visit, with not so much chaos. It certainly was less chaotic for me. I actually relaxed on Christmas Day, and enjoyed being with my family. Isn't that what it's all about?

The Twelve Days of Christmas

I know you have probably gotten a lot of forwarded Christmas "stuff", but this one really is worth the time it takes to listen to it. Very funny. Thanks to my sister Peg for sending it. I think it struck a cord with me because it reminded me of my high school Choir days, and our annual Christmas Concert. For years I went to listen to my sisters, then one day, I was the one on stage, and they came up as "alumni" to sing the finale, which was ALWAYS "O Holy Night". Good times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe11OlMiz8

Whirlwind Visits

Seems like the week before Christmas was non stop, but in a good way. It was full of family, and for me, that is always the best. As happy as I am to live in Atlanta, I do miss my siblings. As many of you know from their blog, Mike and Kat are home for good. A big "Yaa" for that! They spent last week with our parents in Roswell, and we were able to see them a good bit. Right off the bat they put their jet lag aside to attend Breakfast with Santa with us.

I think Emily really wanted a bite......

Kat, Will, Mike and James

Emily and James check out the train display.

Sophie was relieved to have her own visit with Santa.

Later that week my sister Mary came down with her son Dave, who is 11. They stayed with us, which I really enjoyed. During their visit, I hosted a playdate for Mike and Kat and some of their friends. We had a great time together....there were four 2 year olds, (James, Tiller, Emily and Michael) one 4 year old, (Rollie) a 15 month old (Henry) and BebeeWheel, as Emily calls him, who is almost 4 mths. Sophie was at school so she missed all the fun. I didn't get the chance to take many pictures, but here is one that will show you the level of activity.

From bottom left: James, Emily, Tiller and Michael who is once again on the wrong side of the gate.
Mary enthralls Tiller and Emily with a book.

On Friday Dave and I went to the Cyclorama, while Mary stayed home to cook and watch Michael and Emily. I was very impressed. Not only did she manage to prepare all the chicken (and it was pounded to Dottie specs) and whip up homemade foccacia, but she took them outside for a walk, fed them lunch, and had them down for nap at 1:06. She gets bonus points because she let them ride their trikes up and down the sidewalk. That can be dicey with the two on one ratio, combined with the attention span of 2 year olds. Now that's a sitter for you!

Christmas post and pictures to come, too late to start that tonight.....

Scaling New Heights

Last week I ended up making about 20 loaves of pumpkin bread; enough for the preschool and kindergarden teachers and other staff, plus our neighbors. I was able to do most of it during nap time, but one batch I did make first thing in the morning. I set Michael and Emily up with some stickers and one marker each at the kitchen table to keep them busy. They both love "art"; especially Emily. She will sit for 40 minutes and sticker a page. Michael enjoys it too, but is not as adept as Emily, as you can see by these pictures:





Her fine motor skills are pretty amazing (in my own unbiased opinion, of course), she has no trouble peeling the backs off of the stickers, and placing them exactly where she wants them. She is also capable of cutting, as I found out the other day. She disappeared, and when I found her in Sophie's room, she was gleefully sitting at the table, going to town on a picture Sophie had drawn. She did a nice job cutting a border all around it. Oh, and her large motor skills are fine as well. About 30 minutes after I put the 3 of them to bed, I was upstairs, and there was Emily, standing in her doorway watching me with a big smile on her face. Apparently, scaling her crib rail poses no problem. (At least it happened at 7:30 pm, and not at 3am, like when Sophie climbed out for the first time, came running and crying down the hall, and scared the you know what out of us.) When I walked her back into her room, she went right to the bookshelf, chose a book and walked back over to her crib. She said "read book in there, mommy". Guess she will be another late night reader....I chose her middle name well!

Git er Done

Sunday was action packed at our house. We didn't make it to Mass as Sophie had been up sick the night before. Sunday morning she was feeling much better, but no need to expose all the other kids in PSR to her stomach bug. Terry and I tackled the front lawn while the kids helped. This was Michael and Emily's first true exposure to jumping in the leaves; he loved it, she wasn't thrilled about getting "duh-tee".




After playing in the leaves and on their bikes, they were ready for a well deserved popsicle. Yes, that's right, a popsicle in December. Because this week we are in a "heat wave" and the temps are in the mid to upper 70's. Totally crazy. But don't worry, Mary is flying down next week, so it will surely snow, as it always does when she attempts to travel in December.

To get all the leaves out, a bath was in order. Michael and Emily napped after that, while Sophie, Terry and I decorated the tree. Again, kind of strange decorating your Christmas tree with the windows open and shorts on.

Since the kids were bathed and the tree was up, how about getting the picture done for the Christmas card? Sure, it's all in a day's work! Michael and Emily were enthralled by the tree, so much so that it is off limits unless one of us in in there with them. Hopefully, the novelty will wear off, and they will get over having to touch every single ornament...or maybe not. But it is neat seeing their reaction to it.

The picture taking session went well, it only took about 15 minutes and I was able to get a decent shot. This is not it, by the way, but one of our many "out takes". By this point, Sophie was done sitting still while I said things like, "Oh wait, just one more, Michael/Emily turned their head/moved/blinked." She's lucky she didn't have to sit through one of Tom Maier Sr's marathon photo sessions; didn't they last all Thanksgiving Night??

The great thing is that very evening I downloaded the photos, cropped and edited them. Terry and Sophie chose from the two best ones. Then I designed the card and ordered it online. Now that is getting it done!

Everyone has one, I guess

An obsession, that is. All three of my children are deep in the throes of obsession right now, each with something a bit different.

For Emily, it's her "gasses". A hand me down from big sister, but she doesn't seem to mind. She also doesn't mind wearing them upside down.



For Michael, it's his "caas". Thanks to Aunt Pat and Uncle Tom, he now has a dozen. And you can't just carry one around, you must carry the entire plastic case as well.

And for Sophie, it's Lily, her elf.

Lily returned the morning after Thanksgiving, and has been busy hiding all over the house. Finding her each morning makes getting up for school so much easier. Lily is running out of new and original places to hide however, so any suggestions would be welcome!

Last but certainly not least, is making noise. Always a favorite with these two.

Surviving Santa

I had some returns to make last Friday at North Point Mall. I knew Santa was there, but wasn't sure how the line would be, or if I really wanted to do the picture without Sophie. I did dress them festively (is that a word?) in case the opportunity for a photo presented itself. Michael had woken Emily up that morning at 5am, and they were cranky. The car ride put them to sleep, and since I had a magazine handy we hung out in the car for about 30 minutes while they napped.

Our returns and subsequent shopping went well, as did a quick stop in the food court for lunch. After that we went to the play structure, conveniently located right behind Santa. They played while I kept an eye on the line. When it was only 4 people long, we made our move. They were in a great mood, so I was curious to see how they would do. Here they are, awaiting their turn:

When it was our turn, Michael commenced frowning and refused to even look at Santa. He did climb up in his lap and sat for the picture, although he never made eye contact. Emily wanted nothing to do with him, same as Sophie when she was that age. After I pried her arms from around my neck, and convinced her to sit on his knee, the photographer got her to smile. Here's what we ended up with:


One day they'll thank me, you think?

You're Stalling.....

I remember my mother using that phrase all the time when we were kids; and tonight it came back to haunt me.

As I was getting Michael ready for bed, he kept pushing the clean diaper away and was telling me, "go pa-tee, go pa-tee". I hesitated, as he has never done anything on the potty, and really, I just wanted to get everyone in pj's and in bed, and be done for the night. But....you never know when they might actually go. So I let him down; he looked up at me and said, "Ma-chel jump" as he hopped around the room. I reminded him that he was down to use the potty, and he ran over to it and sat down. He took a quick look down, said "psssssssss" then looked up at me and said "all done, yay ma-chel!" He hopped up, looked proudly in the potty and began clapping for himself. Sophie looked at me and said "Mom, that is one crazy kid!" I told her that might be so, but we should at least applaud his effort. So we did. He beamed, very proud of himself.

Who knows, maybe one day soon he will actually produce....at least he knows what it is supposed to sound like!

My turkeys

We had a lovely Thanksgiving in Peachtree City. Pam outdid herself with dinner, and I have been happily enjoying the leftovers. (Tonight I used the last of them in a Turkey Tettrazini for tomorrow night...thinking of you Joe O!) Here's Sophie "helping" Grandma with the potatoes.....

Pam and Gerry have a dog named Dave, and while he is well behaved, he is no match for two toddlers. He seemed fine in his cage, and Michael and Emily really enjoyed that view of him. Don't feel too sorry for him; I think he may have eaten his weight in goldfish crackers. Here they are with Great Grandma Yoko, taking a peek.

Terry and Emily relaxing on the couch post-dinner.

Emily wondering if anyone would notice if she had just a bit more pie....

The Trash Bag Pill-drums

Who knew a trash bag had so many uses?? When we arrived for the Thanksgiving Feast at Kindergarten this morning, up paraded Sophie's class, decked out in their finest Hefties. It was really cute, and very clever. Mom and I both commented on how long it must have taken the teachers to get all 17 of them dressed! Here's Sophie and her friend Cary. (Interesting multiple note: Cary has a twin sister Eliza in another Kindergarten class, so her father ate with her, and her mother with Eliza. Another classmate of Sophie's is a triplet, so he had his grandfather eating with him, his parents were split between his two brothers. And another of her classmates has triplet brothers in the 2nd grade....I'm not the only crazy one!!)

Reciting the Thanksgiving poem. The young man all the way to the left is Matthew, and Sophie has informed me that maybe she would like to marry him instead of Noah. I had to sit down for that news. However, that was a few months ago, and I haven't heard anymore about it. The last time I did Centers in their room, I checked him out, and he is a very sweet kid. Sigh, only time will tell......


We did eat our feast in the Cafeteria, but I wasn't able to take pictures of that. I had Michael on my lap, Terry had Emily on his, and Dottie was busy chatting up the parent next to her. I hadn't met him before today, but now we are BFF...thanks Mom!

Sick Day #2

I took Michael in to the pediatrician this morning because he was on day #2 of a fever, and his cough and congestion were no better. When the she listened to his chest, she was concerned she heard the "crackle" sound of pneumonia. She ordered a blood test, and a breathing treatment in the office to see if that would help. Poor guy, the breathing treatment wasn't painful, but who wants to have a plastic mask held over your face for 10 minutes? Then once that was over, the finger stick. The breathing treatment improved his chest sounds, but the white blood count was slightly high, so we were sent across the street to CHOA for a chest X ray. He did really well during it; again, it was painless, but what 2 year old wants to be held down to lie still for a minute or so? He kept looking up at me saying in his hoarse voice, "all done mama?" I got the results back tonight at about 5:30, no pneumonia, but he will have to use an inhaler 4-5 times a day for the next few days.

A big thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for agreeing to take Emily for "an hour or so" this morning. It would have been a nightmare if she had been along with us. Her visit turned into all day, as I didn't get back there to pick her up till 4:30. Luckily they have a pack and play, and she was able to nap. From what I heard, Grandpa took his nap when she did!

Sick Day

Michael and Sophie were both home sick today. Both have colds, cough and a low grade fever. Nothing horrible, but enough to take a day at home to rest. Emily seems to be impervious to all of it, she is usually the last one to succumb. She still went to preschool, Sophie and Michael waited in the car while I walked her in. We had a nice morning at home, read a lot of books, and watched a bit of TV as well. Here they both are, in the TV trance.....

Sophie and I took a nap when the twins did, which was lovely, I have to admit. Michael's cough has kept both me and him up the past few nights, so it felt good to catch up on my sleep. By the afternoon, I had given up on my chore list for the day anyway, what better way to spend it than napping?

Terry came over after work and they all went down to the basement while I made dinner. Sophie really wanted to play pool, so here they all are. It was funny watching Michael "help".

And here's Sophie giving Emily some sisterly love.

Family Dinner?

It's common knowledge that the family dinner is becoming a thing of the past, with so many families eating on the run. All the parenting "experts" tell us how important this is, and I do remember lots of lively conversations from my own family growing up. My kids are still small, so we don't have soccer or Scouts to keep us from eating together...we just have two 2 year olds and one tired 6 year old to contend with. Now that Michael and Emily are in chairs at the table, they are better at staying seated, and I even find they eat more. Sophie really does provide an example for them. So this is our new routine: all three children eat together around 5:30. I sit with them to referee and lead the scintillating conversation..ha, ha. Then after they are in bed, I enjoy a peaceful dinner with the newspaper. Here are some scenes from last night's dinner, I think it was a lovely cheese omelet, toast and fruit.



Sophie again wanted to do the dishes, so I showed her how to load the dishwasher, and put away everything before she actually got in the sink. And not even a mention of me paying her. Here she is in action:

Double Digits

Michael and Emily had their 2 year well visit yesterday, and they are now in double digits for both height and weight. At 18 ms, they were in the 5th (M) and 8th (E) percentile for weight. Yesterday Michael weighed in at 26 lbs, and Emily at 25, both in the 25th percentile. Their heights were good too, Michael is in the 49th percentile and Emily the 40th. The curious thing is that they each gained 5 lbs in the past 6 months, which doesn't seem huge to me. I guess by comparison it is. Our pediatrician was pleased, and asked if I had finally decided to start feeding them, ha, ha.

Everything else checked out well, and the only shot they needed was for the flu. Emily was pretty funny about that, when it was over and she was done crying, she looked up at the tech and said, "Mien, boo boo, no!" which I translated to mean, "That %^&*^* man gave me a boo boo and I do NOT like it!" She repeated that phrase several times yesterday, and even today.

Funny incident of the day: I had placed an unopened box of tissues in their room on the bookcase, I had thought it was out of their reach. I left them for a few moments, and when I came back in, they were sitting on the floor, surrounded by tissues. Emily was having a fine time pulling them out, and Michael would hold them up to his nose, say "a choo" then throw them to the floor. As I approached the room, Michael saw me and the look on my face, and ran and hid behind the rocker. Emily gave me a glance, and went right on pulling them out of the box. Then she held one out to me and said "ti-shoe mommy?" Yeah, I'm in for it with her.

And so it begins....

Today Sophie and I made a run to our new Target, just 5 minutes away, and chock full of brand new "stuff". We had some things to return, and were hoping to get her more pants for school and new pj's. Getting the right size for her is proving to be a challenge, so I decided to bite the bullet and have her try things on, something we rarely have to do. As you can imagine, this can be quite painful.

While I was looking through the pants for her size, she wandered over to look at the dresses. She came running back to me, excited about a dress she wanted for Christmas. We had unsuccessfully tried on 3 that morning that I had picked up at Kohls. They were variations on black velvet/blackwatch plaid, very cute, very traditional, and would match the hand me down of Sophie's that Emily will wear this year. Here is the dress she loved, just had to get, can I try it on and if it fits, can I PUULLLLEASE get it Mom? A bit different from what I had in mind....kind of Santa-ish, kind of Christmas-tacky-ish.....not even taffeta or velvet, for goodness sake....but (gasp) polyester!

Once in the dressing room, it was the first thing she tried on, and she loved it. It fits, it's SOOOO comfortable, can I wear it to PSR tomorrow? This is the first time she has been that excited about an article of clothing, and a dress no less. Envisioning the lack of arguments on Christmas Eve and Day, and seeing the look on her face, I agreed that we should get it. But no, we won't be wearing it to Mass tomorrow, I think it's a bit early for that.

Guess my little girl is coming into her own....no more Talbot's-style plaid for her, give her a fake fur collar and cuffs, and she is all set. Big sigh......

Halloweinies

Halloween was a lot of fun. I worked in Sophie's classroom in the morning and lucked out with getting the Cookie Decorating/Bingo Center. I lost count of how many times I had to remind them not to lick their spreaders and put them back in the icing container. The Bingo game was a hit as well, who knew 5 and 6 year olds were so competitive? I continue to be impressed with her teacher; she weaved the holiday into all their lessons, getting around the "no Halloween during school" mandate.

Later that afternoon, Terry and Sophie carved the pumpkins while Michael and Emily and I had a nap. They did a great job.



Michael has become obsessed with the pumpkin, and once it had a candle in it, it was even more of a draw. He kept saying, "punkin, hot, ooooohh".

Sophie's costume was Cinderella, and she could have used a white shirt underneath it to keep the sleeves up, but she only wanted to wear an undershirt. I think she looked a little bit like a Cinderella barmaid, as the sleeves kept falling down. Luckily it cooled off, and we stopped by the house for a sweater after about 20 minutes. Michael and Emily enjoyed their stroller ride and visiting with the neighbors. One of our neighbors does a great job transforming his front yard into a graveyard. Tombstones, hanging skeletons, blue lights, tiki torches and a smoke machine all set the mood. Here's Sophie braving the ghosts to get her candy, and Michael and Emily's reaction to it all.


We made it to more houses this year than ever before, and after coming home to peruse the loot, Sophie was ready for bed. She was asleep by 8:15, and Things 1 and 2 followed soon after. By 9 the steady stream of trick or treaters had stopped.