New Year's Rockin' Eve!

Happy New Year's Eve! We've got one down, one to go and I foresee us celebrating 2009 when Santiago or San Juan ring it in - around 10 or 11 eastern time! Little kids don't sleep in {ever} and I don't want to be hurting tomorrow. we did try to get a sitter for a party down the street but no luck. So we'll just have our Pom Royales and pizza while watching football and maybe a movie. Whoo hoo!

I didn't do too hot with my one "resolution" to take a photo every day in 2008, although plenty of photos were taken. I don't usually do resolutions, per se, but I guess I could throw a few goals out there.... I read 21 books last year, so I think I'll shoot for 25 in 2009. Got to save some time for blogging and a nap here and there! I want to run a race, at least a 5K, maybe even a 10K, by the end of spring. And last I'd like to finish filling out my menu plan. Right now I have a lot of repeating (everything appears again in 5 or 6 weeks) and I'd like to add some new "regulars" to that routine. Doesn't have to be 365 different meals, just enough variety so I don't feel like I just ate the same meal. There are lots of other things I'd like to accomplish, I'll keep a running list, I'm sure.

Now for some fun... when they ask to watch a video, most 3 year old kids probably want Diego or The Wiggles (which we like much more with the new Wiggle, btw) or Sesame Street. Possibly Spiderman, if you're Millie. But Miles? He wants to watch the Foo Fighters in concert. LOUD. He was watching some songs at lunch while I fed Audrey and I kept hearing the volume creep up. Our stereo is weird, the volume number goes in reverse, so lower = louder. We usually watch TV at 38. I went in and Miles had it up to 16 and then cried when I turned it "down" to a still boomin' 25. Takes after daddy.

Here he is as a one man mosh pit to the song "Monkey Wrench":

Merry merry!

Merry Christmas! I'm trying to get Christmas posted before the end of the year. Since it's New Year's Eve Eve, I'm doing okay. I tried to explain the "eve eve" thing to Miles today and gave myself a headache. Maybe him too. But he does get that we start a new calendar on Thursday. Speaking of calendars, the Advent countdown calendar that I made was a huge deal with Miles. He reminded me every day to put the new piece on and would tell us how many days were left until Christmas. Much easier than me answering him thousands of times a day "How long til Christmas?" So yes, he was excited this year.

Mimi and PawPaw came from Memphis to celebrate Christmas this year. They made it just in time for us to go to the children's mass at 4. We got to the church at 3:20 and the main sanctuary was already packed with 1500+ people, and the overflow was filling the family center across the courtyard. That ended up being standing room only with 5-600 people as well. We were lucky to get a row close to the musicians, as that is Miles's favorite part of the service. Erin, Josh and Eileen came in soon after and sat with us. We passed the time until mass started with hymns (carols) that would be sung during the service. When it was time to stand and finally begin Miles asked, "Is it over?" Hah! Not quite. But he did great and was especially excited to see his buddy Eli sitting a few rows behind us.

We got home, ate chili and got ready for Santa! We didn't have trouble at all getting them to sleep, and as usual Miles popped out of bed at a little after 6. We called Mimi & PawPaw to tell them to come on over from the hotel but they were already waiting for us in the driveway. Didn't want to miss a minute. We let Audrey sleep and Miles started opening his presents. (See the dark window above? pre-dawn). Santa brought him a cool Little Einsteins globe, more Diego stuff and puzzles and games. Oh and his favorite, Wall*E! We've taken advantage of winter break and watched it a few times.

Audrey finally woke but besides noticing a few new toys, didn't seem all that impressed. She was ready for her breakfast. She got some fun toys, but my favorite was the ballerina bow holder that I made for her. I made one for my niece Kate and liked it so much I had to make another. So cute hanging in her room!

A cool gift that we gave to the grandparents was a webcam and a Skype setup. We set everyone up over Thanksgiving and have worked out the technical issues now. It is so fun to chat with the grandparents over the computer and see them. Definitely holds the interest of the kiddos. If you have far flung family with high speed internet, I highly recommend it. (Dad, we'll have to get you a camera since your built in isn't working!)

Hope everyone has a fantastic new year and happy 2009!

We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup.

This morning Miles helped me decorate cookies. We had lots of fun mixing up colored icing and picking what sprinkles to put on each shape. Our neighbor, Missy, gave us some cool sprinkles shaped like candy canes, snowflakes and twinkle lights, which were perfect for the shapes we made. Of course every minute Miles asked, "can I lick that?" or wanted to pour the sprinkles straight into his mouth. I finally gave in and we ate a couple of the first cookies. The sugar rush hit almost immediately and Miles was bouncing off the walls! He started pulling out all the sprinkles, colorings, cutters, whatever and asking if we were going to use it next. {"Is this one next? this one? can we use these? what about this one? oooh, let's use yellow next! can we use this next? etc. etc. etc.} Eventually he decided he'd had enough and left to go play with some new toys. So I got to make some cute cookies of my own, and even monogrammed a special one "M" for Miles.

He wanted another cookie after he ate his lunch (okay) and then again after nap (um, too close to dinner, bud). That last one was meltdown city. Lots of screaming, reaching up on the counter, clutching at my legs and finally a shouted "GIVE ME ONE NOW!!!". Um, no. But somehow he did calm down, we made it through a decent "real food" appetizer and he got a cookie. And yes, he still ate his dinner. Then wanted another....

At least he had some cool new toys to sneak away and play with. We had Christmas Round 1 *ding* on Saturday when YaYa and B came to play. They brought lots of cool stuff for the kiddos, and something fun for me, too. Miles was very concerned, though, that they brought something that he'd asked Santa for. He wanted to make sure Santa knew he already had it. I couldn't tell if his angle was so he wouldn't get a duplicate or so that Santa knew to bring something else!

We planned for all to go out to dinner, but a certain booger-bear was in no sorts to go out in public, so Wayne & I had a nice dinner at La Paz Chez Guevara. Maybe next Christmas. But thank you so much for coming to visit and have early Christmas! It was great fun for all.

Now we're waiting for the next round of visitors, Mimi & PawPaw due on Christmas Eve. Oh yeah, and that Santa guy. He's supposed to show up too. Merry Christmas to all!!

almost forgot...

at her 9 month checkup she weighed 17 pounds 2 ounces and is 26 3/4" tall. That is 16/18%iles, so she's a petite little thing, although she doesn't feel petite when I'm carrying her around all day!! Ha!

In the spirit

Happy Holidays! We're in full swing Christmas spirit. Miles is loving the advent calendar and reminds us every morning to put the next number on. He has also really enjoyed our trips to the mall, looking for Santa and trying to get more samples of the Williams-Sonoma peppermint bark. In fact, he loves the bark so much that I attempted to make some "Peppermint Candy" for us today (the WS version is $26!!). I think it turned out pretty tasty. He hasn't gotten to try it yet, we'll see what his verdict is. He also has planned for us to make gingerbread cookies and chocolate chip cookies for Santa. Good thing I rejoined the YMCA, I'm definitely going to need to pay them a visit or two.

Audrey has become somewhat of a diva in her dining habits. I've attempted to give her bottles of formula to see if she's ready to wean, but she is absolutely not interested. I don't mind still nursing her, but the occasional break for 1 three hour period in 9+months couldn't be too horrible, right? And tonight I tried giving her dinner as all finger foods: canned peas & carrots which are really soft, Cheerios and ...okay this one may be awful... turkey sticks {picture vienna sausage for babies}. She can feed herself and does quite often, but tonight the princess had to be spoon fed. Must be the 4 new teeth.

Ah yes, 4 new teeth, all across the top. They seem to have come in left to right, but it was so close together that none looks oddly bigger than the any other. But she was quite the little crab and woke us up a lot during the nights. I think we're past the worst, at least for this set of chompers.

Christmas show, part III

Here we are with another edition of the preschool Christmas show. This is the first year that I knew what they were singing, because Miles was singing these songs for the last few weeks. I love the first one, so cute and perfect for a kid.



Too fun. We didn't record the Pre-K performance that followed, but the star was the girl who played the part of... the star. She was all decked out in silver, had curly pigtails and bounce bounce bounce bounced for, like, 5 minutes straight. Towards the end when they'd brought out all the shepherds, wise guys and a whole bunch of animals, you could still see the top of her head boing-boinging behind everyone. She had to have eaten 7 pixie stix before the performance.

All I want for Christmas

Since this will be his 4th Christmas, I figured it was high time to take Miles to see Santa Claus. He already has issues with weird toys and things "looking" at him, so I was a bit wary of how he would deal with Santa in real life. We'd gone to the mall this weekend and peeked at S.C., but the line was prohibitively long. I thought I'd take him Monday during the day. At breakfast I coached him on what Santa would ask him (have you been good? what do you want for Christmas?). He seemed excited, so off we went.

There was a short line and as we waited I realized I hadn't taken him to the bathroom before we left. Great. I'm envisioning us being that family that shuts down the Santa line because of a wet lap. But I didn't mention it to him and he made it through fine. Whew. Audrey was entranced by the beard, but never grabbed it. I held her (and looked at the photos) while Miles told Santa his list. It included Wall-E, more Lincoln Logs, and a Batmobile like we got some friends for a birthday party this weekend. I wouldn't be surprised if he added Grape Chapstick. He's wanted that since Aunt Megan told him that it existed. He'd like to add it to the 5 chap sticks that he has collected and carries around from room to room, offering them to you as if on a wine list: do you want cocoa butter? blue? strawberry? guess what this one is? (yes, Mimi & PawPaw, we have your chap sticks).

Poor Audrey didn't get to tell Santa anything, but I have a feeling a few front teeth will be in for the holiday. She is cutting the top center left and the one to the left of it right now (joy) and the other top front one looks close. I hope they make it in fast, because teething is messing with all of our sleeps!

Too long...

Hi-ho, Nicole the absent blogger here. Sorry it's been so long, and sorry I left such an unpleasant topic as the top posting. Oh well, life happens. In the passing 2 weeks (!) we visited our families all over the state and back. Audrey and Miles were great travelers, although a lovely portable DVD helped on Miles's side of the backseat. I'm sure he would have been fine without it, but he saw the movie box and started asking right out of the driveway. Audrey graduated to the big convertible car seat. She was just too big for the carrier seat with her big winter coat.

Uncharacteristically, I forgot to copy the pictures from my parents' cameras before heading home, so I'm missing some really fun stuff, I'm sure. We spent a couple of nights with YaYa & B and got to play with the cousins. Wayne's sister had called me earlier that week, telling me I had to read Twilight by the weekend so we could go see the movie, so of course I did (and we did). I proceeded to read all 2550 pages of the 4 book saga in about a week, and I have just finished the unpublished revision of Twilight that's on the author's website. And yes, these are young adult novels! Sometimes you just need a little escapist reading.

After that stop, we headed on to Memphis to see all of my family. The kids got to play with both of their great-grandmothers (G.G.mama & G.G. in the rollie-chair, as Miles calls them.) We also go to hang out some more with Megan & Kyle. Miles gave Megan the full Aunt-initiation after Thanksgiving dinner. She was a true sport, playing catch, reading and being tied up in ribbons for his amusement. Thanks Megan!!

Wayne & I joined Kyle & Megan and our cousin Shannon and her BF Joey at Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, a new place in East Memphis. The food was absolutely delicious. I had the pasta fagioli and Maw Maw's ravioli and sopped up every last drop with the bread. Then we hit Windjammer for some beer and Karaoke. Megan rallied the ladies for a ear shattering version of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," but sadly we left before the boys got their chance to shine. We did hear a really great performance of Kanye West's "Gold digger". It's not easy to karaoke rap without practice. Someone tried to sing Proud Mary, so we had to call Tiffany... no one does that song like she does!

And now we're back home, trying to get switched over to Christmas mode. Not that it's very hard! Miles has been practicing his song for the Christmas performance, so look for that next week. We have the tree up, but not decorated yet... soon I hope!

Also to note, today is Audrey's 9 month birthday. She's such a big girl now! Her top two front teeth are micrometers from breaking the gum, and she is able to get around quite well with her army crawl, pulling herself around by her arms. She'll throw in a roll once in a while too. It helps that we have hardwood floors. Here's her 9 month shot with the bear. I gave up trying to take this weekly ages ago!

Safe Kids

Since a lot of you have kids I wanted to share this blog post about keeping kids safe from the "bad guys".

The Diaper Diaries - Keeping the Kiddos Safe

In the post she mentions another website, The Power of Parents, which has a handbook with age appropriate advice for talking to your kid about safety.

Another important website to bookmark is Family Watchdog. Everyone should check their address and register for updates about who might be moving in down the street.

Not a fun post, but something we all need to know.

Drop the {hot glue} gun and step away from the treats

Gratuitous Audrey & Miles picture.

Here we have naptime, Miles style. In mommy & daddy's bed, with brown bears and his dogs. I actually started out in there too, but didn't last very long. If he weren't asleep, there is no way Chelsea (on the right) would be on that bed. He thinks it's all a big game to chase her around the house and make her jump up from wherever she is. He has lots of fun nick names for her. Some he picked up from us - Chelsea-wellsea, Miss "C" - but he's added several of his own pop culture references too. He calls her The Big Bad Wolf, Swiper the Fox & Bad Dog Chelsea. She has earned her "bad dog" name lately, eating raw "G" cookies off the counter, climbing onto the breakfast nook bench to clean an abandoned plate, even knocking the table over in her quest for crumbs. Sneaky dog.

Take note of Miles's artful arrangement of the Little People Nativity on our headboard. And the USA map behind my nightstand? That was removed from his wall because he "doesn't like California." Not sure where that one came from!

I actually finished my crafty project from last week! Well, almost, I need to come up with a jazzy Dec 25th marker, but I have a month to do that. It's a cookie sheet with magnets to mark the days until Christmas. I had never done any paper scrapping before, so I had lots of fun with the paper & stickers, using the hot glue gun and my new fave, Mod Podge!! Miles saw me working on this and is all set for playing with the pieces once we decorate.

the Turkey

Here's Miles's Turkey... a countdown to Thanksgiving. We're writing something he's thankful for on each feather until Thanksgiving Day. So far we have some gems like chapstick, owls, ice cream and Christmas that he's thankful for. With a few leading questions, we've also got several family members, friends and pets. At least this year he's planning on celebrating Thanksgiving. Last year he blew straight from Halloween to Christmas!

We started planning what to get for daddy for Christmas. Sorry to spoil anything, Wayne, but the list so far is windows, a cave, a bear and a tuba. He said he would teach daddy how to play.

Speaking of holiday fun, YaYa told us about TCM's family classics series running in December. Not too many that Miles will get into, but maybe the Herbie marathon on Dec. 28 will be fun. If not there's always the classic kids Christmas shows on ABC Family. I'm sure Miles will watch a few of those this year.

Audrey is inching closer to crawling. She'll do a little army crawl and draw herself toward something if it is REALLY exciting. But not much has qualified there. She's also about to cut her two front teeth, so that has made for some cranky bedtimes recently. Hope they cut through soon!

I'm off to enjoy some quiet time since both kids are asleep and Wayne's down the street at the first neighborhood (?) poker game. What shall I do? Clean (no), cook (probably not), TV (eh) read (hmmm) or attempt to be crafty. (Ding ding winner!!) We'll see how my attempt at this turns out....

8 months old

Lest it passes by unmarked, here are some of the exciting things that 8 month old Audrey is doing:

.: Sitting nice and tall. She can get up on her hands and knees and has scooted forward a little, but is not crawling. She still scoots backward and rolls to get around. Loves to stand holding onto her activity table or your fingers. She is brave and will let go with one hand to reach for something.

.: She can wave and clap her hands together. She can swat a ball back and forth with you for a while.

.: She's very vocal, even demanding (the fiery redhead coming through). She says lots of different sounds including yayayayaya, mamamamama, and da! And she responds (turns to you) when you say her name.

.: Although we had a few interrupted nights recently, she's generally sleeping from 6pm to 8am then takes 2 naps that are about an hour long.

.: Eating a LOT! She's likes yogurt, Cheerios, pieces of Raven's pumpkin bread, Puffs and toast. She's also gnawed on a raw carrot, shaving little pieces off with her 2 teeth. I have made most of her baby food, which includes applesauce (from our neighbor's apple tree), pears, bananas, blueberries, avocado, peas, sweet potatoes and butternut squash. It really was much easier than I thought, and my freezer is full of baggies of colorful ice cubes.

.: She loves her doggies and her brother the most! Unless it's feeding time, then she only has eyes for me.

Trick or Treat!

Miles & Audrey had a great Halloween! Miles decided to be a leopard {RAWR!}, vetoing the Handyman and Diego ideas he had. Audrey, who had no voice in her costume, was a cutie-patootie cow. We invited some friends from up and down the street to gather at our house so the kids could trick or treat together. Boy did they have fun!



We set out around 5:30 and with Daylight Savings still in effect it was a bright sunny evening. We tried to do a group shot in the wagons, but with 7 kids that wasn't going to work. Here in the top wagon are Audrey and the 2 lions, Hayes and Fenn. The boys both turn one in December. In the other wagons we had Suzanne, Cade, Miles and Morgan, all around 3 years old. After some pictures, the trail of wagons, strollers and camera wielding parents made the way to find houses ready for us.




The big kids had no trouble with the concept, running across lawns & ringing the doorbell. I think they always said trick or treat and the even remembered their thank yous. Miles would come back to me and say, "Look at all my CANDY!!" Audrey even collected a few pieces, which she nicely shared with mommy and daddy.




I brought Audrey home for bed while Wayne took Miles a little bit further down the street. When he came home he got 3 piece of candy (his age): some Nerd-Warts thing, M&Ms and a Hershey miniature. He ate his m&ms just like I do, sorted by color and quantity! The candy stash is dwindling, mostly due to parental pilfering, but he has enjoyed his one treat a day since. Hope his teeth make it. Now we're gearing up for Thanksgiving, though he has asked about a few Christmas decorations already. Patience!

Fall Frenzy

We had a dress rehearsal for Halloween today, with Miles's playgroup friends trying on all of our costumes. They had so much fun wearing them, ROAR!-ing, running around in circles, then swapping costumes and doing it again. I think they changed outfits 4 times! They even practiced trick or treating and saying thank you. Miles had the "thank you! Can I have another?" down pat. This will definitely be a playgroup activity again, even when Halloween is over. I'll have to check out the day after sales for some new (& bigger) costumes. Still not sure what Miles will be. Only one of these 3 is in the running for Friday night. I'm pulling for it, especially if it is still cold outside.

This weekend we had a lot of fall fun. Saturday we went to campus to tailgate with Wayne's partner and his family. They drove to town in their motorcoach and had another motorcoach family adjoining the tailgate. The university has all of the motorcoaches (how many times will I type that? but it is not an RV) park on the Ag Campus right next to the Gardens. How beautiful! It was a perfect spot, we got to stroll the babies through the gardens and the boys had a lawn to toss the football. And you can't beat having your own kitchen, bath and all the amenities right there. Miles loved hanging with the "big boys" and Sims, the younger son, was very obliging to his new shadow. In the photo above, Sims & Avery are teaching Miles the "tater" - baked (knuckles), mashed (high 5) and fries (fingers wiggled together). Very fun. Of course he wouldn't try any of the delicious goodies including some fabulous lamb chops. He did find the chocolate covered Oreos and managed to sneak a few.
On Sunday night we went to our last neighborhood yard party of the season. This was such a fun idea, we've really enjoyed getting to know our neighbors this summer. The last party was moved to a back yard and included pumpkin carving, a bonfire with s'mores, and all the usual treats. Miles made a new friend at this party, a boy just his age who moved in a few houses up the block. They also have a son just about Audrey's age, so I think that makes 10 new babies in the last year in less than 1/2 a mile radius from our house. Lots of fun to come from that crew!
I'll be sure to post Halloween photos as soon as I can. Happy Halloween to all!

Not to be left out

Miles is getting into Halloween this year. He's got three costume ideas and thankfully they are all things I can pull together at the house, so he can decide that day which he wants to be. He's excited about trick or treating and has told me that he will remember to say thank you when they give him candy. And, oohhhhhhh the candy. The boy has inherited my sweet tooth, for sure. The other night I had eaten a little piece of chocolate before I went in to read bedtime stories. As he sat in my lap he turned and demanded, "What do you have? Chocolate?" HA! And we got "boo'd" by some neighbors and that included candy corn. OH BOY. I think he thinks that counts as eating his vegetables.

He has also picked up on the scary aspect of the holiday. Lately he's asked us to remove things from his room - wall art, stuffed animals, books. He doesn't say it, but he thinks they're watching him. The curiosity overtakes him and he'll want to see the things again, only to beg us to take them away. Or if he know where they are, he won't walk by them because they'll see him. Ah, the imagination of a 3 year old.

His favorite thing at school is a chant that goes "jump, and jump and JUMP AND JUMP AND JUMP!" to which they bounce around the room like maniacs. It is obviously an attempt to burn energy by Ms. Elana and Ms. Michelle. I've adopted the ploy at home too. It's added to the "see how fast/how many times you can run around the house" game. This is to burn off the sugar that he's getting from all the candy (kidding, of course).

Audrey's First Haircut

I just had to. Check out the mullet she was wearing. Just smiling with her new 'do.

A nice sleek bob for the baby. And no, I didn't put a hot roller up there. It just does that!

xoxo

She takes after mom

Miss I-Can-Do-It-Myself

Yep, only 7 months in and she's already taking control. This week she decided that she could feed herself. I still beg to differ, but she's pretty opinionated on this, so we take turns putting the spoon in her mouth. This mess is courtesy of butternut squash and green beans & rice. She's also working on her pincer grasp with Cheerios and Puffs, and is pretty good at getting them to her mouth. Of course she has also discovered the fun of throwing them to the dogs, so a lot are ending up of the floor. Miles helped teach her that trick.

She's working on mobility too. She can roll herself just about anywhere and is very good at scooting herself backwards. She hasn't gone forward, nor has she propped herself on hands and knees yet, so crawling isn't imminent. She likes to stand, but can't hold on by herself for more than a couple of seconds. I wonder if she'll be one of those who skips crawling altogether?

On Saturday, YaYa & B came over for a visit and rambunctiousness ensued. Miles had a Jumpity Jump party to attend in the morning, and spent the afternoon tackling and riding his Big Wheel. On Sunday we went to Davey's 5th (!) birthday party at his Lou & Poppy's house. We were so excited that Chrissy and her new bebe Mary James came out to play. Audrey was so excited to have someone smaller than she is to play with. She actually started grabbing at MJ, cooing and smiling. They even held hands at one point. Very sweet.

Okay, I stepped away for a long while and now I'm back and have serious writers block. It's probably because Miles woke up at 5 and would not go back to sleep. He's really good, he'll just turn on his light and read books, but he throws them on the floor {BAM!} as he finishes each one, so it wakes us up. And the boy needs to sleep past 5a.m.!!! Need to figure out what is waking him up. I'm going to sneak in and turn off his night light, and maybe take him to the potty one last time. But right now I'm going to listen to this debate. Good night!