The Christmas that went basically un-photographed

Hasn't it been a terribly busy year? For Christmas this year John and I decided to really keep things as simple as we could.  Apparently that simplicity extended to taking pictures of our festivities.  Here I sit on December 26th with only a handful of Christmas photos.  Despite the lack of photographic evidence, we did have a very nice holiday.  We are looking forward to some time off with John's family in Minnesota.

Here's Amelia, opening her gifts...

And Ava with her second favorite present a $2.99 microphone that amplifies.  Without batteries!  We downloaded "The Best of Both Worlds" by Hannah Montana (or is it Miley Sirus?) and we now know all.the.words.  (BTW - her first favorite gift was a real digital camera from Grandma Jo and Papa Ray)

Here the girls 'help' me make dessert for my extended family gathering Christmas evening. Chocolate Brownie Pudding.... It's divine!  

Amelia napping in Grandma Jo's bed. Doesn't it look like she's lounging on the beach with her hands behind her head like that?

If one is good, two are better?

Glue

John likes to say that I am the glue that holds the family together.  It is a sentiment that I find flattering most of the time. It is nice to be appreciated.  But there are times it is difficult to be the person who keeps track of...everything...  

This week has been a particularly busy one for me at work.  John has more than stepped in doing extra duty with the pick up and drop off of the girls, staffing Amelia at night (with success!), planning meals and so forth.  I am so grateful to call him the glue. 

Ava started her school break this week. Grandma Marilyn was supposed to be here for a few days, but the weather kept her away. So Wednesday John took Ava with him to work, then gave up his hair appointment so our ragamuffin could get hers cut.  Sitting at work, in the middle of a busy, stressful day this cell phone picture came across my email....

My heart is full!  

Nice Touches

Goodness is Amelia up in Ava's business.  Sometimes I'd say that Ava eggs her on, but much of the time it is Amelia running right at her sister.  At child care they talk about 'nice touches,' at home we often say (and sign) 'gentle.'  Amelia gets it.  Ava tolerates it.  So tonight when she climbed on the chair and started yanking at Ava's hair I barked 'nice touches.'  Here's how she responded.

Cabin Fever

It is so cold and the days are so short for our outside girls...  Weeks like this make us all long for warm days where we return home from school and work to a couple of hours of daylight and playing outside with neighborhood friends.  

Last weekend when John was retrieving the Christmas decorations from our basement storage Amelia spied the Dora big wheel.  So along with the Christmas decorations, the Dora big wheel emerged from the basement.  John adjusted the seat for short stuff, but now the battle is on for who gets the big wheel to paddle around the house and try to burn off some energy on these cold, dark, winter evenings.

Suddenly Winter

It's been a quiet extended weekend here.  Amelia spiked a little fever Friday morning and Sunday brought the first snow of the season. Amelia's fever doesn't appear to be anything serious and the snow isn't terribly consequential. We did manage to buy a Christmas tree and started bringing our decorations up from the basement. Tonight the lights are on the tree, but most of our ornaments are still in their boxes.  

However, we do have another opportunity to prove that Amelia is securing her spot in the Moorlach gene pool.  In a tradition that began long before I joined this family, setting up the Christmas tree = Chicken in a Bisket crackers topped with canned Easy Cheese.  Wash it down with a little bit of egg nog and you've got yourself a tradition! It is a good thing that particular food (and calorie!) combination only comes once a year.

Being merely five is no excuse for not pulling your weight. Ava and her friend Jessica spent several hours outside this afternoon shoveling her driveway and our sidewalks. Ava went to bed without complaint at 7:00pm tonight!

And this is Amelia's contribution to decorating our Christmas tree....

Sand Between Our Toes

Eight years (and two days) ago John and I stood on the beach on Trunk Bay in the US Virgin Islands and got married.  

Tuesday John sent me these flowers to mark the day...  Today they were the center piece for our Thanksgiving meal. 

Today Amelia set up to help her daddy cook our Thanksgiving feast.

Our kids cuddled up to watch a movie....

We got some time with Meghan and Lane - time that is becoming all too rare.

Somehow thankful seems way to small a word to describe how I feel about this family.

Who needs toys?

When Dad's finally home after being gone a couple of days?

And Mom leaves empty laundry baskets laying around!

Securing her place in the Moorlach gene pool!

I made Mounds Bars today. I dare say they are John's favorite cookie, but Amelia took her appreciation of the Mounds Bar to a whole new level!

Parenting is a two person job...

John is traveling for work the next couple of days - both of us travel for work occasionally.  Time away, even for work, can be nice.  It breaks up the routine, you get some rare alone time, you get to experience new things...  

Its funny how little routines crop up around those occasional evenings John is away.  Ava has been counting the days to drive through McDonalds dinner (a rare treat) all week, knowing John was leaving on Wednesday.  She made herself a little nest and asked to sleep on our floor - just like a night a week or so ago when John was away for a quick overnight.  

But most importantly she wanted to take a picture to send to her dad to tell him how much we love him and how much we miss him when he's gone...

I eat you up I love you so....

Is there anything yummier than a freshly washed baby in warm footie jams?

Up Past Her Bedtime...

Friday nights are typically pretty low key around our house, but last night our family joined my baby brother Jay for his final project at the Department for the Blind.  Jay cooked and served us a seven course meal - and it was delicious! With all the excitement of the evening it took us a little bit longer than usual to get Amelia settled down when we returned home.  

Ava asked if she could stay up for awhile and watch the Food Network.  Even though we were hovering around her usual bedtime at the end of a long week we agreed.  

A few minutes later....

Why won't some of that easy sleep fairy dust rub off on her baby sister?

Down Dog

I took Monday off and our office was closed today for Veterans Day, so I have had the rare opportunity to spend the past couple of week days at home where I've restored some order, cooked some nice crock pot meals and taken some classes at the gym that are offered at times I am usually at work.  Monday I went to Spinning and today I went to yoga.  When Ava overheard me telling John about yoga, she reminded me that she used to take yoga at her child care...

Ava modeling downward facing dog and Amelia not to be out done.... (By the way, both look more natural in that pose than I did at class today)

Ava moved on to turtle pose.... Amelia likes the down dog....

Inspiration?

Or something else altogether...

I bought this magazine because I am in awe that Faith Hill can look like this at 41, having had three children.  Amelia is knocking on the door of 20 months.  The first year - year and a half after she was born was full of fits and starts for me in terms of exercise.  I wasn't completely sedentary, but I was not at all consistent.  I injured my ankle training for the Dam to Dam - an injury that was probably exacerbated by trying to do too much running, too fast.

In August we re-committed to exercising consistently.  John and I take turns during the week getting up at 5am to go to the gym before work.  We both take full advantage of time on the weekends to hit the gym or go for longer runs. I am proud of the results.  I am knocking on the door of my pre-pregnancy weight (can't really call it baby weight any more - she's walking, talking and eating solid food!) and I feel stronger and healthier.  I am proud to say that every week I work out at least four days.  

Yet seeing this magazine cover doesn't really make me feel like celebrating that success, it makes me want to reach for the leftover Halloween candy and settle in for the winter because it is just.not.right!

Ava's Perfect Day

Ava didn't have school Thursday or Friday this week due to school conferences. While she seems to enjoy aftercare on school days, she really doesn't enjoy going on days where there is no school.  So her dad struck a deal.... Go to child care Thursday and Friday you can come to work with me.  

The deal was made and Friday John and Ava set off for his office, where she quickly built a nest on the floor with her blankets, Mousie, Two and her portable DVD player.

Lunch at Palmer's Deli and then off to see Madagascar II.

Lucky, lucky girl!

Cooking School

Proving that it is never too soon to learn to cook, Amelia got a start on her culinary education by helping her dad whip up an omelet for breakfast this morning.

PS Edited to add my new, favorite blog link.  This woman is cooking using her crock pot every day in 2008.  It is full of awesome ideas.  We have recently dusted off our crock pot and have been using it more and more.  It is so nice to have dinner basically ready to go when we get home from work and clean up is a breeze.  

Trick or Treat?!

Tonight was Beggar's Night, that uniquely Iowa phenomenon that sends kids door to door the night before Halloween for reasons that I am certain are vaguely paranoid. The kids were sky-high with anticipation, especially Ava.  It was a beautiful night and the kids burned off some energy and donned some cowboy hats in preparation for trick or treat time.

Ava and her friend Eli...

We started our trick or treating adventure at Papa Ray and Grandma Jo's house with our ghost (in the costume Ava so very proudly made with her Grandma Jo) and our lady-bug...

With Papa Ray and Grandma Jo...

We paid a quick visit to Grandma Jane and the rest of the night passed in a sugar induced haze. We've closed up shop, started bathtime and packed up the leftover candy to share with our colleagues at the office tomorrow.  

Happy Halloween!

Who Needs Cake?

John's birthday was Monday and we celebrated Sunday with a family dinner. I cooked meatloaf, jalapeno cheddar cheese grits and green beans, but John, being John, took charge of dessert.  On the face it seems a bit unfair that he would be in charge of his own birthday dessert, but he loves to cook and is frankly ambivalent about cake.  So John made creme brulee, much to the delight of his family that gathered to celebrate his day.

Monday John came home to a couple of leftover ramekins of creme brulee.  Ava and Amelia pounced!  So out came the blow torch for birthday dessert...

Yes, this is Ava playing with fire using the kitchen torch to top the dessert...

Amelia is sharing....

Happy Birthday baby!

Girl Trapped

Kindergarten has brought with it a whole new vocabulary including the most recent term 'boy trapped.' You see, when you are Ava and you are say, standing in line or seated in the lunch room with boys on either side of you - you are 'boy trapped.'  As Ava was explaining this term of art to us the other day John told her that he was 'girl trapped' every day. 

Indeed he is!

John, trapped by all his girls, celebrating the night before his birthday...

Home Days

Like most busy families our week days are filled with work, school and other activities.   We cherish our weekends, or home days as Ava calls them, to try to slow the pace, recover from previous week and prepare for the one to come. 

We play in our pajamas...

We help put away groceries...

We build a fort in the living room...

We nap when and where we choose...

Cohabitation

Can you call four nights a trend? Probably not. But so far having Ava and Amelia in the same room has proven to be an excellent suggestion by our pediatrician. Four nights in a row Amelia has slept mostly through the night.  I say mostly because she did wake up on night three enough that John went in to make sure she had a binky.  But he didn't have to stay and that is significant progress.

Amelia has been routinely waking up at night since, um, birth.  All that would comfort her is one of us in the room.  This meant nights of me sitting in the rocking chair, John laying on the floor, murmuring comforting words as she settled back down.  We didn't go racing in to her room every time she woke up. In fact, a couple of weeks ago we laid in bed, listening to her crying thinking 'maybe tonight she will settle herself back down.'  After several minutes of progressively louder caterwauling, when I went into her room she had thrown her binky and her blankie over the side of her crib. And had stripped off her pajamas and thrown them overboard for good measure. We have three for three Moorlach girls with wills of pure steel!

Apparently what Amelia needed was the comfort and company of the 'loving-est person in our family...' (aka Ava).  Who knows how long this will last, but for the time being we are beginning to remember what it was like to get a full night's sleep. And for that we are grateful.

Pumpkin Farm

Saturday afternoon the weather was perfect, sunny and unseasonably warm so we set off for our annual Fall visit to Howell's to enjoy the pumpkin farm.  Along with 2/3's of the families in Central Iowa apparently.... we weren't the only people with this idea.  Even with the crowds girls had an absolute ball.  That is until Ava's finger got nipped by one of the chickens! Ava stuck her fingers through the fence in the chicken coop and one of them decided to take a little taste of our sweet girl.  John told her it was pay back for all the chicken nuggets she's eaten!

Ava climbing the long, slippery log...

Amelia on top of the hay bales...

Pumping water for the goats...

And giving them some food....

A huge tire swing...

A snack to finish the afternoon...

Wrapped around their fingers...

Clearly no mother has ever had more clever, beautiful, more talented children than me.  These girls just crack me up.

Amelia is not a very good sleeper.  At 18 + months Amelia is still waking up once or twice a night - the only thing that settles her back down is one of us in the room with her until she falls back to sleep.  By contrast, Ava falls quickly into a deep, sound sleep and stays there until morning.  Seriously, herds of elephants could charge through her room and she would snooze on.  

Dr. Williams tried to nudge us gently to the cry it out method, but it just doesn't feel right....  I can't quite get past the idea that she would wake up alone, in the dark, scared, sad, lonely (whatever it is that she's feeling) and wouldn't get a response from us when she cries out.   So Dr. Williams suggested an alternative - what about putting the girls in the room together? Amelia loves her big sister, who is conveniently a very sound sleeper. If she wakes up and sees Ava (SLEEPING!) would that be enough comfort for her to settle back down without one of us? We're going to rearrange some furniture this weekend and give it a try.

When we ran it past Ava we told her that it would be comforting for Amelia to wake up and see someone she loves so much. Ava's response, "Well, I am the loving-est person in the family."  

Tonight we were all kind of wiped from a long, busy week and I was running through the things in my head I could pull from the refrigerator or freezer to feed everyone.  I asked Ava what she was hungry for and she said "pommes frites mama."   Can you tell her father took her to a fancy French restaurant during fall break?

So pommes frites it was... in our own Ore Ida kind of way.  Hey, there were apple slices on the plate too!

Can you tell Amelia is doing 'happy feet' in this picture? No? Me either, but she was and it was adorable!