Toddlers

I think my favorite age so far has been between 12 and 18 months. Kids that age are just so dang cute and they don't yet have the attitude that just gets right under my skin. Usually they're walking and they pretty much understand most of what you say to them, so they aren't quite so high maintenance. This is the time when my kids start engaging in conversation as well - mimicking our inflections and the sounds we make. Peter likes to just babble at us and is pretty content just to have us acknowledge that he's talking, even if we have no idea what he's saying.


Peter has also discovered books and will spend long stretches of time just sitting and looking at the stories that we read him at night. His favorites so far are the Sandra Boynton books. The other day he found one that he hadn't seen before because it was on a different bookshelf and he came running to show it to me so we could read it.



I'm sure their cuteness factor at this point is a huge part of the reason so many siblings are about two years apart. They just make you want to have another one....

Happy King's Day!

That at least sounds a little better than a late Happy New Year... King's Day was the big party day of the Christmas season when I was living in Spain. Traditionally, this is the day when the Three Kings (or Three Wise Men) found the Christ Child and presented him with their gifts. Therefore, it is the day designated for gift-giving rather than Christmas Day, which is celebrated in a more religious fashion. And, if you start counting on December 25th - today is actually the 12th day of Christmas - so don't take all those decorations down yet!

Anyway, it has now been one year since I started this blog and I decided I was more than overdue for a little face lift as well as an update on the family picture. We finally had a family portrait taken back in September - and I've decided that I much prefer the informal photo sessions with my dad to any sort of studio experience.

January 2008

All the kids have grown so much since the last photo that was posted. Leah is now five and asks me everyday if today is the day she gets to start school (apparently I wasn't specific enough in saying she couldn't go to school until she was five). Lincoln is three and therefore, that is his favorite number. Peter just turned one and is turning into quite a chatterbox - now if only we knew what he was saying...

September 2008

We are looking forward to a fun and adventurous new year and hope you are all doing the same.
Here's to 2009!!

A Merry Christmas to All!

Our Christmas this year turned out to be rather anticlimactic. This was the first year that we've stayed at home with our little family to celebrate Christmas day on our own rather than with grandparents and extended family. We carried over a few beloved traditions from our childhood and came up with some new ones as well. The one thing we hadn't planned on was the kids getting sick.

Leah came down with some kind of bug on Christmas Eve - we could tell she wasn't feeling well when she told Lincoln he could open the present to both of them from their Grandma Marynel. Of course, she was still determined to wait up to see Santa Claus. Eventually everyone was moved to their beds and Santa was able to make an appearance and we were able to sleep in until almost 8 Christmas morning! In fact, we finally went in to wake Lincoln up and he wanted to go back to sleep until we reminded him that Santa had come...

Then he took up his post near the tree to watch the presents and impatiently wait for the rest of us to finish breakfast. Lincoln managed to make it through opening the presents before he started running a fever as well, so he and Leah ended up lounging in front of their new videos while Peter played with everyone's toys.He was very excited - although you could sort of tell that he wasn't sure why he was so excited, at least until we started opening presents. Here he is trying out the new easel while wearing Lincoln's new bike helmet. He had the run of the place until he succumbed to the bug just before bedtime. Luckily, it seems to just be a 24-hour variety bug and we are hoping everyone will be feeling better by the time we head out to Grandma's house.

Gingerbread Houses

One of my favorite Christmas activities growing up was decorating the gingerbread house - my mom would make a big one that we all helped to dress up in Necco wafers, M&Ms, gumdrops, lifesavers and whatever else my mom felt like using that year. Then, on the day after Christmas we were allowed to attack it with butter knives and chisel off the pieces we wanted to eat.

This year I finally felt like I had the energy to help my kids start this same tradition. And then Leah started begging for a birthday party with her friends - so I thought we'd just have a gingerbread decorating party and call it good. First we waited for one of her good friends to get back from Hawaii, then we made gingerbread dough and bought candy and assembled the houses. And here are the results:Not bad for a bunch of 3-6 year olds!

You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

This year, we put up our Christmas tree the first Saturday in December - we put it up on a table so it was out of Peter-reach and told the kids they it was just for looking, not touching... but apparently it was just too tempting. After several upsets and a couple of broken ornaments (not sure what I was thinking there), I turned into Mommy Grinch and put the tree in the garage - a week later.

On Sunday, we decided to try again. This time we had the kids do ALL the work - hoping it will give them a sense of ownership and save the tree from another visit to "Santa's Workshop".

Did you know it is a rule that you have to wear reindeer antlers while you decorate a Christmas tree?

So far, it seems to have worked. We should be able to last the few days until Christmas, right?