House of Estrogen

Beep, Beep!

By the time the older girls were two, they were already completely enamored with a cartoon character. Elise was a Sesame Street junkie, so it was a no-brainer that her second birthday party would have an Elmo theme. Nina was all about Dora the Explorer when she was two, so her planned and then postponed and then planned again and then canceled second birthday party would have been a Dora party. The nurses in the hospital where she was being treated were the beneficiaries of a lovely Dora cake.

As Addison's birthday rolled around, I was at a loss for a party theme. The child refuses to watch TV, and her favorite book is about a dratted caterpillar. I was not in the mood for a caterpillar party. She loves school buses though, so the school bus themed birthday party idea was born.

We had a school bus cake.

Entertainment was provided by a school bus pop-up tent.

 

 

She was sporting a tres chic personalized school bus t-shirt.

 

 And Elise gave her a school bus toy.

 

 

This gift had nothing to do with school buses, but it is an awesome ride-on. The little caster wheels move in any direction, so you can do 360's on this bad boy.

 

Addie's favorite gift of the night came from Nina. Nina selected this jack-in-the-box about a month ago, adamant that Addie would love it. She was right. I had to pry it out of Addie's chubby little paws tonight, so she didn't take it to bed with her.

 

 

This party may have been lacking the usual Elmo, Pooh, Barney, or Dora paraphernalia, but I believe the school bus party was a huge success. Beep, Beep! 

Letter to Addison, Two Years

Dear Addison,

You turned two yesterday. TWO! How can you possibly be TWO?  You will be my baby forever, but two just sounds so much more grown-up than the pre-two ages that are referenced by months. Now I'll be forced to count your age in years. That's tough on a mama. The difference between 22 months and 23 months seems trivial. The difference between 23 months and TWO seems monumental.

You are a spunky, independent, strong-willed little turkey. Of course, part of that just goes with the territory of being two. You are very good at being two. The stomping feet and full blown tantrums are all a part of your basic communication skills right now.

You've learned how to make yourself heard over the roar of your older sisters though. At the dinner table, you have discovered that saying "All Done." or pushing your plate away is often met with "Just a minute" or "I'll help you in a second" or absolutely no response at all. To solve that problem, you now stand up on your chair when you are done. As much as it drives me crazy, I have to admit, it is pretty clever. You instantly have someone rushing to your side to help you down from the table with that little trick.

Your verbal skills are coming along slowly but surely. Your sentences are rarely longer than two words - "More, please.", "Sissy hug.", "Daddy, sit.", or "Poops, potty.", but your language development is inching along. On the subject of potty training, we had absolutely no intention of potty training this early. I've always been of the belief that the earlier potty training is started, the longer it takes. I think you are going to force it on us though. You are asking to sit on it regularly now, and making a deposit at least half the time. You get furious if we try to put a diaper on you without letting you sit on the potty first. I suppose we'll tackle potty training after the holidays since you seem to be training yourself with or without us!

 

You had your first haircut last weekend. Your father had been threatening for months to take you to get it cut if I didn't, so I finally gave in. I know your curls won't last, so I didn't want anyone to touch them. You won't wear hair clips though, and I couldn't in good conscience let you go around with your hair in your eyes much longer.

Before picture:

During:

 

After:

You are still a daddy's girl. His injured knee has troubled you, so you point at it several times per day, declaring "Boo boo!" I'm sure he appreciates the reminder. In an attempt to fight the boredom that comes along with a knee injury, your dad has grown a goatee. You tell him "ouch!" when he kisses you. Good girl... mama has coached you well!

You are definitely a creature of habit. Maybe you get that from your grandfather who went to Starbuck's every day so consistently at 10 a.m. that you could set your watch by him. You go to bed every night at 6:30 and wake up promptly at 7:00.  On the rare occassion when we keep you up past 6:30, it throws your entire schedule out of whack.

When you walk down the hall at daycare, you feel compelled to shut every open door, every time, every day... no matter how much of a hurry I might be in. It is like the world might cease to exist right that very moment if a door is left open. MUST SHUT DOORS... MUST SAVE THE WORLD.  Your reading selections in the evening consist of two different books and one puzzle. Every. Night. If that caterpillar book that you love so dearly were ever to accidentally land in the fire place, I can't say that I would miss it.

 
 
Most of all, you are a sweet, fun, cute, funny little person learning to navigate your way in this big crazy world. Your hugs, kisses, and giggles make me smile even on my most challenging days.

I love you. Happy second birthday!

Love,

Mama
  

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I love trimming the tree... playing Christmas music, pulling out memory after memory in the ornament box, and even the heartache of the occassional broken ornament. I love the kids' homemade ornaments, the souvenir ornaments from vacations, the sentimental ones from my childhood, the fancy, gorgeous glass ornaments from my father, even just the plain ol' red glass balls. Despite all the stress of the holidays around me, I find a little peace in pulling all these treasures out of the ornament box and decorating the tree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
  

Classic Photo

Two Christmas T-shirts: $20

Red Patent Boots: $11

Polka-dot Dress and Leggings: $24

Flash Drive with Photo on it: $12

Look on Santa's Face: Priceless

Yes... I'm THAT mom who forced my child to get in the Santa picture. Unfortunately, that meant being in the picture myself too. I'm sure Addie will need therapy for this at some point, but I assure you she did recover from this cruel and unusual punishment as soon as we were away from the scary man with the long white beard.

If you want to check out our previous years' Santa photos, click here.

Elfed!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Come Clean, Who Put the Hex on Us?

Apparently J.C.'s leg was just the beginning in what is turning out to be a string of bad luck, or a hex. To the amateur Harry Potter out there practicing spells on my family, I'm asking kindly that you BACK OFF!

Yesterday afternoon, Nina was supposed to attend a birthday party at one of those bounce-till-you-get-kicked-in-the-head-and-have-a-concussion inflatable places. This particular one is open to the public during parties, so I took Elise and Addison with me to wear them out before bed. Actually, given that J.C.'s crutches render him utterly useless with the toddler, I didn't have much choice in the matter. I had to take the whole crew with me. Addie had delayed her afternoon nap by about 2 hours, so I had to wake a peacefully sleeping baby to go (it pains me to even type that). We were running our usual 10 minutes late, and when I arrived at the shopping center where said bounce house place is supposed to be, I couldn't find it. I had a coupon in my pocket to use for Elise and Addie's admissions, so I pulled out my trusty coupon and called the number. When the phone was answered, I couldn't hear what the woman said over the background noise of the kids bouncing, but I asked where they were located. Her answer was the name of a mall about five minutes down the road. That seemed like an odd location for an inflatable party place, but I asked where the best place to park was, and she said the food court. I never go to this particular mall. I can find Gymboree and P.F. Chang's, but that's about it. After getting stuck in traffic, then circling the parking lot several times looking for a spot, I finally parked near what I hoped was the food court. As luck (or the hex) would have it, we were at the opposite end of the mall. We checked the mall directory looking for the location of the inflatable place, but it wasn't listed. I thought perhaps it had just recently moved, so we hiked down to the other end of the mall near the food court in hopes of finding it. With no sign of it, I pulled out my trusty coupon, and once again called the number printed on the coupon. Over the roar of background noise, I again couldn't hear how she answered the phone, so I asked specifically if this was the number of the party place. She said, "This is T-Mobile at the mall."

Sigh.

What were the odds that of all the many inflatable party places we've been to, this party was at the one that I didn't know how to find? What were the odds that the one I don't know how to find has the WRONG phone number printed on their own coupons? What were the odds that the incorrect phone number belonged to an equally loud business establishment just down the road? Really?  Am I on candid camera or something?

At this point, the party was half over. By the time we tracked all the way back through the mall to the car, got stuck in traffic again, and tried to find the inflatable place whose location was still unknown, we were likely to arrive just in time to say good-bye. I had to figure out a way to save face. I looked downstairs, saw Build-A-Bear, and asked Nina if she would be OK going to Build-A-Bear and just inviting the birthday party friend over for a playdate later in the week. She reluctantly agreed, so I was off the hook for finding the inflatable place but just put myself $50 in the hole for bears. It was worth the fifty bucks though not to continue on that hopeless crusade.

Upon leaving the mall, we were a van full of hungry people. Since we didn't have the bum-knee-no-Asian-food-eating family member with us, we decided to hit Pei Wei for dinner. We pulled up to find a line out the door. That would never do. Poor Addie was about to collapse from hunger, so last night got added to the growing list of fast food meals for the week. We pulled into Chick-Fil-A's drive-through, and I called J.C. to get his order. It included a milkshake, so I got a second for the girls to split. When we arrived home, I opened the car door, and the car interior light came on. That is when I discovered that an entire large oreo cookie milkshake had flipped out of the cupholder and spilled out all over the car. Nice.

Tonight, as I sat down to download some pictures from my camera to post on the blog, my camera is blinking "CF Err", and I'm unable to download any pictures using the card reader. That was like the cherry on top of that oreo milkshake rolling around on the floor of my car.

I'm serious about the hex thing. It has got to STOP.

What's in Drawer Number Four?

SURPRISE!

The girls tracked out of school on Friday, and we had planned a short trip to the Great Wolf Lodge. Just for fun, we decided to make the trip a surprise. When Addie and Nina woke up from naps Sunday afternoon, we told the girls we had some errands to run. When we hopped in the car, we surprised them with the news that we were going on a trip without revealing the destination. We kept them guessing the whole drive with clues every half hour or so. They loved guessing, and we loved that they never figured it out! Elise finally read the sign as we pulled into the parking lot!

 

  

The lighting in the waterpark left me with mostly horrible pictures, but a few were salvagable. The big girls were both tall enough to go on any of the slides, so that was great. They tried them all, even the Howlin' Tornado! That ride is insane... you ride on this big four-person raft and get dropped into a huge 6-story funnel where you swish back and forth in the funnel, 30 feet up the sides of it. J.C. and the girls even braved it at night when it was pitch black! Addie loved the wave pool and the toddler play area where she would have been perfectly happy spending the entire day going from jet ski to jet ski pushing off other toddlers and bullying her way on to them!

This was our second trip to a Great Wolf Lodge but our first trip to the one in Concord, NC. We were extremely impressed with the caliber of the lifeguards. I don't think I've been to any other pool or waterpark with lifeguards on par with these. They were almost militant in the way they guarded, and I mean that in a good way. When Nina fell and got hurt going up some stairs, they had a first aider there within seconds. With being outnumbered in the child to parent ratio, it was reassuring to feel really confident in the lifeguards as our extra eyes.

 

Trips like this make me really appreciate our year-round school schedule. It is so nice to be able to take advantage of the low crowds and low prices at places like this on weekdays during the traditional school year. We never waited in line for any attraction and often felt like we had the place to ourselves. I love this picture of Elise all alone as the 1,000 gallon bucket of water dumped on her!

 

Our room was a Kid Cabin Suite which had a cute little log cabin in it with a set of bunk beds and one daybed.

Addie has never slept in a regular bed, but it sounded so appealing to put all of them in the cabin together, so we pushed some pillows and chairs up against one of the beds to box her in there with hopes that she would sleep. Yeah, Right. This picture was taken about 9:30 (3 hours after her usual bed time). There was very little sleeping that night, for any of us. J.C. finally bolted out of bed about 5 a.m., threw the pack n' play together and tossed her in there. She was silent the rest of the morning. If only he had thought of that hours earlier! The next night, she went straight into the pack n' play.

Both evenings, the big girls went to storytime in the lobby in their PJ's. Nina was asked to be the helper one night which she loved.

 

We all really enjoyed ourselves. It was a quick getaway but just long enough. We were waterlogged and over-chlorinated by the time check-out rolled around. As with any trip, being off our usual schedule and routine led to a few meltdowns (myself included), but overall, it was a wonderful trip. The girls were thrilled with the surprise, so I'm glad we planned it that way. Tomorrow, it is back to the real world.

 

Halloween Weekend - Everything Else

This post is just a hodge-podge of the rest of our busy weekend.

First, the requisite Halloween attire for the end of the week. Nina, of course, chose to accessorize hers a bit!

 

   

Friday Night was the Fall Festival at the elementary school. It had all the usual suspects - big inflatables, games, crafts, polish sausage, pony rides, popcorn, and a cake walk. There was one new addition this year though, karaoke... really, really LOUD karaoke, like wishing you had hearing aids you could turn off loud. It was cute to see the kids Elise's age up there singing their hearts out to Hanna Montana songs, but seeing the fourth and fifth graders belting out lyrics like, "I kissed a girl just to try it. I hope my boyfriend don't mind it" or "Them good ol' boys were drinking whiskey and rye" was just a bit unsettling. 

   

  

We have attended the fall festival every year since Elise started kindergarten, but somehow we have always missed the "kiss the pig" event. The kids vote on which teachers should kiss the pig. Since Nina's kindergarten teacher was one selected for the honor, we made sure not to miss it this time. When I had heard about this in years past, I pictured a cute little pink pot bellied pig, perhaps Wilbur from Charlotte's Web. I had no idea the teachers had to kiss this humongous grey boar!  If there was ever any doubt as to why it is hard to attact people to teaching, it isn't just the money, it is the fact that they are made to KISS PIGS!  Mrs. S - you go girl! I think I would have called in sick (with swine flu, of course!)

  
 
  
Saturday morning, Elise made bagged lunches for the homeless with her Brownie troop. With all the excess of the weekend, I think this brought some needed perspective in her life. She came home wanting to round up our old coats and shoes to donate. One of her troop leaders was homeless for a time in her life, so she spoke very passionately and emotionally to the girls about what they were doing and why. I think it really resonated with Elise.

Next on the agenda was Nina's end of season soccer party. Nina really had a great time with soccer this season. I hope she'll decide to play again in the spring. Her coach was wonderful!

 

 Finally, just a couple pictures from Nina's last soccer game.

 

  
 Whew! What a weekend... lots of fun, but I'm glad its over!
 
 
  

Trick or Treat, Smell my Feet!

By all accounts, this was a near perfect Halloween. It seems like something usually goes wrong on Halloween to put a damper on the festivities. The year I was pregnant with Addie and had pelvic separation, I walked about 6 houses with the girls and then could barely move the next two days I was in so much pain. The year Elise was a mermaid, she tripped on her costume and ended up with horrible skinned knees. Invariably, something always seems to get in the way of our fun - not this year though! We started out with dinner at Five Guys - nothing like great greasy burgers and fries to walk off while Trick or Treating. The weather was perfect - around 75 degrees and pleasant. We went out with Sharpay and Gabriella from High School Musical (Elise and Nina, respectively), and a very reluctant Piggie who refused to wear her cute shoe covers, and would only tolerate her piggie head for mere seconds before it was thrown on the ground.

 

How cute is that tail?

 
 

Once Addie settled in for the ride in her stroller with a miniature pack of M&M's, she was a slightly more willing participant with the pig head.

I even got in on the action this year. Can you believe someone seriously asked me if this was my real hair that I just dyed with green and purple streaks?

We met up with Dorothy and Anakin Skywalker and off we went!

  

We have two neighbors who do fairly elaborate haunted houses. Elise walked about 6 feet into one and ran back out. At the other one, the girls went into the "fun house" section but didn't brave the scary part. You can always hear their music, the chain saw, and screams of the participants from all over the neighborhood! Here is their display for giving out candy!

 

Addie lasted longer than we expected given that we had set out to trick or treat very close to her bedtime, but as her eyelids grew heavy, I brought her home and rolled the little piggie into bed. All of our neighbors in the cul-de-sac had pulled out chairs and were having a trick-or-treat party there in the street with beer and wine a-plenty, chips and dip, pita and hummus, and their bowls of candy. I grabbed our candy stash and a Mike's, and joined them. That was a great way to spend the evening. The kids trick-or-treating could hit four houses in about four steps, and we all sat around visiting all night. I think that may become a new Halloween tradition!

The girls made it home later, sorted through their loot, and then Nina lost her second tooth! Halloween and the tooth fairy all in one night - does life get any better than that?