Bangs pic

What I can do on the iPad .

Christmas

We have had an absolutely wonderful Christmas! The kids are such great ages for Christmas this year. Nicholas is old enough to really understand and anticipate but still young enough to be excited and swept up in the magic. Elizabeth had no anticipation but was thrilled as it unfolded.  I was actually very proud of Nicholas for his attitude throughout the day, excited and grateful for everything he got even though it wasn't what he asked for and weren't big or dramatic presents.

For example this was the reaction for Spirograph:

From 2014 December

Christmas Eve we went to church and the kids looked adorable in their finery.

From 2014 December

From 2014 December

From 2014 December

They were even pretty good through most of church.  About an hour in (which was about an hour and a half after we got there) Elizabeth started to go a little stir crazy and so I took her in the back to let her walk for 10 minutes and of course Nicholas had to come too because he couldn't be left out.  But other than that they did a good job.  Nicholas got really into the singing and sang loudly to almost every song.  He has figured out how to read not the notes of the music but the words for the various verses and most of the tunes were familiar so he was able to follow along.

We had made a bunch of cookies that day (although not yet frosted the sugar cookies) so we put out some for Santa.  Nicholas tried to explain to Lizzie why she couldn't eat them.  She was unconvinced.

From 2014 December

From 2014 December

Christmas Day Nicholas got up at 6:15 and we did the 3 of our stockings then because it seemed cruel to make him wait for Elizabeth to wake up, we weren't going to wake her, and she was too young to understand and be upset that we'd started without her.  Then when Elizabeth woke up she did her stocking and we had breakfast (Joe made french toast) before doing the presents among the 4 of us.  We then opened presents from other relatives while talking to them on Skype.

We also took advantage of the warm weather to spend some time at a playground burning off some energy.

From 2014 December

From 2014 December

From 2014 December

Nicholas then made Grinch fruit kabobs based on ones his Aunt Shayna showed him the week before over Skype and had Joe's cousin Sarah and her boyfriend over for dinner.

From 2014 December

From 2014 December

It was a wonderful day!

And Christmas just kept going because the next day felt like Christmas again.  My parents came up and we opened more presents, played outside, finally finished decorating sugar cookies, and played a bunch of Pictionary. 

From 2014 December

From 2014 December

From 2014 December

From 2014 December

Bangs

Elizabeth needed her bangs trimmed.  There was no doubt about that.  Her hair was constantly in her face and it was to the point that she was walking around looking up to try to see through her hair.  Well, I guess in theory we could have just let it all grow out, but that would require her to leave hair clips and ties in reliably, which just doesn't happen.

But she needed probably between half an inch and an inch cut.  And I cut more like an inch and a half off.  Oops.  It has been a long time since I've had bangs or really thought about bangs and I had in my head that bangs are in the middle of the forehead.  That is where Nicholas' hair is cut and I haven't thought much about girl hair.  As soon as I cut the one side I realized they were wrong and too short, but then I had to go ahead and cut the other side that short too to make them even.  Bad.

I started to feel better when I googled and found all sorts of people who had done just as bad or worse.  And then I read that they will be even shorter when they dry and so now I'm worried about just how bad they will look in the morning.

My only consolation is that hair grows back and that even though the extra inch is really noticeable because it is bangs, it really is only an inch and so (if google answers on how quickly hair grows is to be believed) they should have grown to proper length within the next two months.  Also, she is too young to have any idea what I did.  Maybe I just won't take pictures for the next couple months and go back and delete this post and she'll never know.

I won't know just how bad this is until tomorrow when her hair is dry and I see if I can do any damage control with a hair clip.  You'll have to wait as well because I didn't take any pictures tonight.  I'm so bummed and annoyed with myself. :(

Christmas Eve

Some pictures from Christmas Eve:

From 2014 December

From 2014 December

From 2014 December

From 2014 December

From 2014 December

From 2014 December

From 2014 December

Flashback

We were watching videos of Nicholas at approximately Elizabeth's age and I just loved them.  There is one above.

And here is another one: Click here

Read to Me!

I love this picture because it so accurately captures our lives these days.  Elizabeth uses her new skills in walking to chase us around the house with a book.

From 2014 December

Seriously, how do you resist this? 

Pure Adorable

I know I'm biased, but these 2 are pretty gosh darn adorable. 

From 2014 December

From 2014 December

From 2014 December

From 2014 December

Toddler

Elizabeth has become a much more confident and capable walker over the last couple weeks.  Tonight she was almost running!  Still a little unsteady at times, but really a toddler now.

Spoon

Tonight I decided to let Elizabeth try to feed herself with a spoon.  It was half laziness and half curiosity.  And she did shockingly well.  So well, in fact, that I suspect that she must use a spoon at daycare.  Not that it was perfect:

I got this, Mommy:

From 2014 December

Hmm, is there a faster way?

From 2014 December

Num num num num num

From 2014 December

What?

From 2014 December

Books

Have we mentioned that our kids love books?

From 2014 November

Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent Thanksgiving at home this year and although it was a little weird to be alone, it was certainly nice not to deal with packing or crazy sleeping arrangements or (worst of all) Thanksgiving traffic!  All the more so since it was snowing on Wednesday afternoon when we would have been in said traffic.  And although we didn't get everything done we had hoped to this weekend (most notably, no Christmas decorations are up), we are on top of the laundry and grocery shopping and the Christmas cards are mostly done, so we are starting the week in a pretty good place.

We spent the first half of Thanksgiving out in the snow.  Joe did most of the shoveling (with a little help from me and Nicholas) and the kids and I built a snowman.  Okay, Nicholas and I built a snowman and we tried to keep Elizabeth from getting too upset long enough for us to finish.

As you can see, she was somewhat interested in the snow

From 2014 November

From 2014 November

but was done with the whole thing sooner than Nicholas was ready to go in.

From 2014 November

We then made a shockingly successful Thanksgiving dinner, the kids impressed us with their willingness to eat everything, and then went to a friend/colleague's house for dessert.

From 2014 November

I'm not really sure where the rest of the weekend went.  We ran some errands, we worked on Christmas cards, we did dishes and dishes and more dishes, we ate pie, we read A LOT.  A couple things from the weekend:

Elizabeth suddenly went from walking 5 or 6 steps between people to walking all over the house.  She was quite literally doing laps in the circle around the kitchen and hallway.  She also now stands herself up and walks somewhere rather than crawling there.  She still isn't walking everywhere and falls quite a bit, but she is now actually really walking.  We are going to need to get in the habit of keeping the bedroom and bathroom doors shut.

Nicholas spent almost 2 hours today working on a Christmas present for his teacher.  As I was telling Joe about this I was worrying that I hope she likes it because he worked really hard and is so excited to give it to her.  And then I had the realization that she is a kindergarten teacher and so 1) will appreciate that he worked so hard on it and 2) even if she dumps it in the trash when she gets home, she will never let on to him that she doesn't love it.

Me and my kiddos just hanging around the house this weekend:

From 2014 November

From 2014 November

Stories

A couple random stories about Elizabeth from the last few days:

Suddenly in the last couple days she has decided that she wants to have books read to her instead of looking through them herself.  Or, well, that isn't quite accurate.  It is more like she wants to have you flip through them with her.  For weeks now she has entertained herself by pulling the books off one by one and looking through them.  But now she takes a book off the shelf and brings it over to you.  This is not as easy as it sounds since she isn't confident enough to walk over and crawling while carrying a book is tricky.  So she does a combination of crawling while pushing the book along the floor and holding the book in one hand while doing this half-crawling/half-sitting kind of thing.  She then climbs up on your lap if you're on the floor or raises her hands to be picked up if you are on the chair.  It is endearing, but confusing since she doesn't actually let you read more than half of the words on any page (and these are board books with not even a full sentence on most pages).  She then squirms down, goes back to the bookshelf for another one, and repeats the whole process.  And again.  And again.  And again.  And if you are foolish enough to clean up the books after reading all 35 of them, that is apparently an invitation to start over again.

Last night she was up in the middle of the night and after fussing a little for 10 minutes or so got really upset.  So I went in figuring I needed to feed her.  I didn't bother trying to give her a pacifier since that has been met in the last couple weeks by her taking it from me and throwing it, thereby losing it in the dark room.  But something was different when I picked her up and I couldn't figure out what was up with her.  Normally if she is crying and I pick her up, she is happy, but she was just looking at me with these big sad eyes.  And when I sat down with her in the rocking chair, she did not act eager to eat but just kept looking sad.  So I didn't feed her but sat there talking with her.  And then I noticed that she kept pulling on my hands and looking at them.  And I have no idea how the idea suddenly occurred to me but I suddenly wondered if she was looking for a pacifier hiding.  So we stood up and I picked up the pacifier from her crib and she took grabbed it out of my hand.  And instead of throwing it across the room and screaming, she promptly stuffed it in her mouth and leaned towards the crib.  And back to sleep she went.  I guess all the fussing was that she was up and couldn't find the pacifier in her crib and was having trouble going back to sleep without it.  If only there was a way to attach the pacifier to her hand so this wasn't a problem.  Oh wait, that is called sucking your thumb, but she has never had any interest in it.

Elizabeth's Birthday

Elizabeth's birthday was pretty low-key, but perfect for her and us at this stage.  Joe's parents came up, which made it feel more like a special occasion.

The big thing we did for her birthday was go out to a buffet for lunch.  I know, who goes to a buffet for a 1-year old's birthday?  Aren't zoos or bouncy houses the standards?  But this little girl loves food and loves to try all different kinds of foods so it seemed like something she would enjoy.  And she did!

From 2014 November

From 2014 November

She then took an epic nap basically all afternoon and woke up to presents and cake.

From 2014 November

Her favorite present was the stroller that her grandparents got her, which she eagerly used to walk all over the house.  And she shocked us with her skill at maneuvering.  Three-point turns!

From 2014 November

From 2014 November

I made her a doggie cake, although she didn't really seem to notice what it was.  She did enjoy eating it, however.

From 2014 November

From 2014 November

From 2014 November

Do Not Negotiate

Nicholas has become a master negotiator.  Or some might call it a master manipulator.  And sometimes (okay, most of the time) I give in, either because he makes such a good point that I can't resist or because I'm tired.  But it has gotten seriously out of hand and so I have vowed not to give in.  So far we're on day 2 of this resolution so we'll see how long it lasts. 

Tonight was a major epic meltdown that involved some very clever attempts to box me into a corner as well as some very heavy-handed "don't you want me to be happy?" types of comments.  But I held strong and left him in his bed sobbing with the threat that if he came out he would lose the freeze pop he had been promised for tomorrow night.  And he stopped crying a minute after and I haven't heard a peep in the last 20  minutes.  I'm hoping he is asleep but I'm afraid to check.  We'll see hwo this goes.

1 Year

Elizabeth is 1 year old!!!  How did that happen?! 

At 1 year old, here are some thing about Elizabeth:

• She can walk between people, but won't walk unless there is a person a few steps away who she trusts to catch her.  When she is standing at the couch and sees something she wants across the room she tends to look at it, take one hand off slowly, pause, and then go down to the floor and crawl to it.  She is clearly thinking about whether to walk over and deciding against it.
• She says the following words clearly and consistently: dog, mama, dada, hi, yay
• She approximates the following words, saying a part of the word (usually one sound) and pointing: tickle, button, cat, bottle, sock, book, tiger, all done, banana
• She loves a pacifier, but only the infant soothie ones.  We tried to introduce her to the more "big kid" pacifiers and she just takes it out, looks at it curiously, and then plays with it.
• She started sleeping through the night a few days before her first birthday.  She had been getting up either once or twice a night before then and then suddenly did 3 nights in a row.  Now that we're another 10 days out I'm willing to say that she officially sleeps through the night.  There have been 2 nights in the past 2 weeks where she woke up and insisted on eating, but 12/14 counts.
• When she is about to do something she knows she isn't supposed to, she shakes her head no.  This doesn't always stop her from doing it, however.
• When she wants something to drink, she points to her mouth.  Okay, more like sticks her finger in her mouth as though she is trying to gag herself.  She now loves a sippy cup and does a good job with it.  We tried milk a bit, which she loved, but she got bad diaper rash so we're back to water.
• She loves books.  Not as enthusiastically as she loves dogs, but they are definitely her favorite thing inside our house.  She loves to look through her books (and will sometimes bring one over to you to read to her), but it isn't just the stories or even the pictures, because she is fascinated with adult books too.  She tries to sneak into our room and goes right for the book on Joe's bedside table.  At church she wants to flip through the book of songs.  And she does a pretty good job turning the paper pages (although not one at a time) without bending or ripping them.
• She loves to make and listen to music.  She has learned how to play the little cymbals we have.  Sometimes she catches sight of the piano when we are in the basement coming or going and she insists on sitting down to play.
• She throws baby temper tantrums.  I didn't know babies could throw temper tantrums.  But when she is mad she will throw herself on the floor and kick her legs with force and scream.  Luckily she tends to give up after about a minute . . . for now.
• She is adventurous and has no fear.  When she sees something she wants, she tries to throw herself out of your arms to go get it.  She crawls down the hallway and peers under the basement door.  I have to get a picture of this one, actually, because it is heart melting.
• She loves to climb stairs.  If we set her down in the basement to take our jackets off, she makes a bee-line for the stairs and starts to climb up.  If we're going to actually use the basement as play space this winter we need to break her of this.
• She loves to eat and eats a wide range of foods. 
• She has a STRONG will and will get MAD at you.  She is generally a happy kid and pretty easygoing but when she decides she wants something and you won't let her do it or have it, watch out.  The other night she woke up and I was trying to give her a pacifier instead of feeding her.  Her response?  She took the pacifier out of my hand and threw it.  3 times!
• She has recently discovered the fun game of putting things in a container, taking them out, and putting them back in.  

Happy Birthday, Lizzie-Boo!!

From 2014 November

Ice Cream and Books

I was going through the pictures from Elizabeth's birthday weekend and two things emerged as clear trends. My kids love books and chocolate ice cream. I wonder where they get that from.

From 2014 November

From 2014 November

From 2014 November

From 2014 November

From 2014 November