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

Preview: Elizabeth's First Birthday

From 2014 November

Halloween

From 2014 October

From 2014 October

Inspired by the cape Grandma Kathleen made him last year and a mask he has, Nicholas decided he wanted to be Batman this year.  So I bought him a Batman T-shirt at Target for $5 and we were good to go.  I felt guilty when he started saying, "But, Mommy, I want us to make a costume together, like we did last year," but since he couldn't come up with another idea of something he wanted to be and I have no idea how I would find the time to do that, I insisted that he stick with Batman. And for reasons of convenience, little sister followed the theme.

From 2014 October

Nicholas' school does a Halloween parade for only the kindergarteners and they go to the nursing home next door in their costumes to sing songs to the residents, so that was the beginning of his Halloween festivities.  We then let him take the bus home so he could go with us to Elizabeth's daycare early for a little Halloween party and early trick-or-treating around her babysitter's neighborhood.  I think this was their favorite part of the day.

From 2014 October

From 2014 October

We came home, had some dinner, and went out for more trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.  But first Elizabeth needed a costume change.  Her Supergirl costume wasn't really warm enough at 4, but was certainly not going to cut it after dark.  Luckily Nicholas' horse costume from his first Halloween just fit her (even though he wore it when he was 5 months old!) so I was able to return the warm costume option I had bought for her and recycle this one.

From 2014 October

Nicholas did a pretty good job, but he mostly just wanted to go to the street where he picks up the bus to see the girls he takes the bus with.  We did see them and do a couple houses with them, but then they were heading to their grandparents' neighborhood.  Elizabeth had an interest in picking out candy and chewing on the packages but what she got really excited about was when there were dogs visible inside people's doors.  One dog escaped as its owner was giving out candy and started running in circles around the street and Elizabeth was in heaven.  "Dog dog dog dog dog!!!!!!!!!!!!"

We were only out about 30-40 minutes before Elizabeth started melting down, so I took her home to bed.  Joe and Nicholas stayed out but after only another 10 minutes or so Nicholas decided he was done and came home.  I think he had a lot more fun during the day when there were other kids to go around with.

These last pictures are ones I took the week before after the pumpkin festival I took the kids to at a different elementary school, but I had intentionally put Elizabeth in a Halloween outfit and they fit the theme.  There aren't as many pictures of Nicholas because after humoring me for a couple he decided to climb up into a tree.

From 2014 October

From 2014 October

From 2014 October

From 2014 October

And this last one is just so Elizabeth. She just took off, crawling through the leaves across the yard.

From 2014 October