Anniversary musings...

It's our 11 year wedding anniversary today. Hard to believe. Time has flown by so quickly. Jim's on call tonight and has gone back into work.
This morning, before anyone else woke up, I was peacefully laying in bed, savoring the warmth and quiet....thinking about our wedding day (something only a woman does, I'm sure). Of course, Lolo wakes up shortly thereafter (before 6am) to go potty and then wanders into our bed. The next thing I know, her little cold feet have found their way onto my belly. As she's warming up her feet, she whispers softly, "Mama, I don't have any socks on." My, my, my....things sure are different. We wouldn't have it any other way.

Our girly girl

It looks like Lolo is close to kicking her nail-biting habit. She started biting her nails like a fiend when she started preschool....probably a result of all of the stress she was feeling (poor kid). Anyway, preschool is now old hat. She's comfortable and the nail biting has about stopped. Plus, we've gave her an added incentive....if she doesn't bite her nails, I'll paint them for her. Ohhh boy!

So, today was a big day. Her nails have been looking really good and when Norah went down for her morning nap, we had a manicure and pedicure. Here's Lolo showing off the results of her hard-earned spa treatment.

A glimpse into our morning routine....

If Jim happens to leave the house at a reasonable hour in the morning, the girls and I head to the window to wave to him as he leaves the house. Norah has become the biggest daddy's girl. She waves to him, blows him kisses, toddles up to him and gives him hugs, showers him with looks of pure adoration, and even heads to the door when she hears the garage door open....when Jim's home, it's like I'm a second-class citizen. Mom-who?

Frog, crickets, and more

Here's Lolo with Julia's frog....don't call us and ask what his name is....I forgot to ask Julia before they left and it's an issue. Anyway, we did eventually make it to the petstore. Spent a lot of time looking at gerbils, hamsters, mice, lizards, fish, etc. Bought a bag of crickets. Told Lolo she was in charge of the crickets. My mistake. Why? Because our next errand was to the grocery store and Lolo wanted to bring her crickets into the store....because she was in charge of them.

Crickets and more

Since Norah was having issues yesterday, we never did make it over to PetsMart. It's on the "to do" list for today...after Norah's morning nap. I was discussing the cricket situation with Jim yesterday and Lolo was listening intently....she assured me that if we just turned the crickets over back on their tummies they would be fine, since it looked like they were having trouble turning over themselves. Oh boy. Needless to say, I cleaned things out last night after the girls went down for bed.

Out of sorts

Poor Norah. She's completely out of sorts today. She had a rough night. So bad that even Jim got up once to help her out (and he rarely does that...claims he can't hear her...usually, I have to be crying before he gets up to help.) Naps are not going well today. I can't decide if it's because she's still sick or perhaps teething or just plain out-of-sorts.

Frog-sitting

The girls and I have been taking care of Eileen and Julia's frog while they are on vacation. They brought over live crickets and mealworms (we now have live worms in our fridge). The past couple of mornings, Lolo has been very excited about feeding the frog a cricket. I, personally, have been a little less thrilled about the whole thing. Unfortunately, the crickets are dying fast and we'll be making a trip to PetsMart later today.....last night I told Jim about our cricket situation and he inquired "Do you think it's a coincidence that the crickets die after a day in our home?" (We checked on the web and they are supposed to have a 3 month lifespan). As he said "I thought your black thumb was only for plants. I didn't know it extended to animals as well."
On a more amusing note, Egon, our house cleaner, who is from Brazil, came over yesterday and saw the frog....he said "Mmmm. That's good eating, but it's too little."

And another pic....

Just because Norah makes me smile

Our little daredevil

Norah loves climbing....up the stairs, down the stairs, climbing up on furniture, etc. The standard rocking action of her rocker isn't enough for Norah these days....she's got to climb up, sit on the chair back, and then gets it rocking. Crazy kid.

Our mermaid

After Christmas, Lolo said to me in a sad voice "Mama, we didn't go on a trip." Seems she really thought we were going to Mexico over Christmas. In any event, here's our mermaid...all geared up for some fun in the sun.

Gingerbread house

We decided to try a real gingerbread house since the graham cracker variety was so disheartening. Actually, I thought it was easier to do the real thing. Lolo and I decorated it (note the remains of our christmas bbq ribs dinner around her face...yeah, in hindsight I probably should have washed her face before posing for pictures).

Post Christmas Cleanup

You should see the diaster area that our home has become. Toys everywhere. It's going to take some time to get everything where it needs to be and the toybox needs desperately to be "re-sorted". Lolo is at Jacqueline's house for a playdate. When I left her, they were having a real tea party - using real china. I about fainted. Jaqueline's home is immaculate....one of those magazine-picture-type-homes you walk in and your jaw just kind of drops because of all the lovely antiques, art, crystal,etc. I'm REALLY hoping she doesn't break anything today.
Norah is still out of sorts. We took her to the pediatrician this morning, who basically said she's just got a bad cold and yes, we've had a rough 6 weeks with her....that she's probably catching everything from Lolo (who is bringing home all sorts of great things from preschool).

No White Christmas but Still Very Merry

When we got Lolo up for church this morning, the first thing she said was "I didn't hear Santa or the reindeer!" We assured her that Santa did indeed make a stop at our house....even though we didn't hear him. After early morning mass, we came home and the girls discovered what Santa left for them (and what everyone else had sent). As Lolo said when she walked into the living room...."Oh my goodness!"And then, chaos reigned. The girls tore into their gifts. Norah was intrigued by the snorkel, mask, and fins that Santa left for Lolo. Both girls "worked" on fixing good food to eat (from a wooden play food set). And then Norah collapsed into exhaustion while Lolo plugged along....playing excitedly with everything. May everyone have a very Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday Jesus

Christmas Eve Dinner

From dinner tonight....notice that Lolo dressed up in witch pieces from her "Wizard of Oz" collection.

Dad's in trouble

Both of our girls seem to have developed a strong affinity towards jewelry. Considering Norah is only one, I would say this qualifies as a problem. We can only keep them in inexpensive bead for so long....one day, they are going to figure out about diamonds, rubies, and sapphires.

Another tough holiday....

Jim caught the cold that I got from Lolo a few days ago....Poor Norah only got a few days of good health before she was struck with our colds. Hopefully, last night was the worst of it for Jim. Norah's running a pretty high fever today and is very congested. She's sleeping a lot today, so I guess that's good. We're hoping everyone will be over the worst of things by tomorrow.
Lolo and I baked a chocolate birthday cake this morning. She and her daddy went out to buy candles.....Jim asked her how many candles should go on Jesus' cake....Lolo said 3. Whew. I was a little worried about candle overload on our little cake.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas (a bit early since I don't know how much blogging I'll get in the next couple of days). We were out visiting with Eileen and Julia's family this evening....partaking of some Norwegian cookies (that I can't spell). Norah was a two fisted eater in that department.....brought the tinest midget home early while the older midget is out "late" partying with her friends. Not much snow here in the Twin Cities....Lolo has a snowball saved in the freezer at Eileen and Julia's house.

We're hoping for more snow on Christmas. Will be taking pictures of our Christmas dinner (bbq ribs) and Jesus' birthday party.

From this afternoon

Lolo, our expert decorator, at work with her friends, Eileen and Jacqueline (who is in Lolo's preschool class). Personally, I was very impressed with Lolo's work on her house. Note the "christmas lights" that she strung up on her house with the licorice string :-)

Conned by an elf!

I've been conned by the Keebler elves....making a graham cracker "house" is HARD! I struggled and struggled with it this evening (because you've got to let the icing dry for a while before the house gets decorated, I figured that I'd do this step at night and the kids would decorate in the afternoon). I should have just gotten off my lazy rear end and baked gingerbread. Depending upon snow conditions tomorrow and/or saturday, I just might bake some and do it right before Christmas. Unfortunately, the kids who come over tomorrow are going to end up with funky houses. At least Norah won't have to suffer the indiginity of ever working on such a house. Maybe if I get them all hopped up on sugar, they'll just forget about the house. We're going to do it right from here on out. Live and learn.

Putting Norah to work

In the past couple of weeks, we realized that Norah could follow simple instructions. Today, I put this to the test when we got home from the grocery store. Usually, I just have Lolo help me put up items. But today, Norah was digging through the bags and I asked her to carry the napkins into the pantry. Lo and behold, she DID IT!
This is going to be another one of those things Jim won't believe until he sees it for himself. Norah has been giving me and Lolo big wet-baby-drool-kisses upon request the last couple of days, but when Jim asks for one, she always is distracted and has yet to do it. We'll see if I can get Norah to do more work in the coming days.....now, if only I could get her to change her own diaper......

Weather prediction

Ha ha ha! It's snowing, snowing, snowing. Yeah. My ability to predict the weather was pretty off. You know what did the trick? We had been paying our snow plow guy for the whole season instead of per-plow....hence, no snow. The day before yesterday I was talking to him and we agreed to change it over. I hope we owe the snow plow man a LOT of money this season.

Wonders never cease

Lolo was tantruming this afternoon...I wouldn't let her blow soap bubbles in the kitchen while I was getting dinner started. I heard her stomp upstairs and close the door to her room. Norah and I eventually went upstairs and Norah started banging on her door. No response. Hmmm. Willem was coming over for a playdate. I called out to her. No response. I peeked in. Lolo had put herself down for a nap and was sleeping peacefully...all tucked in. Wow. Another miracle....Norah is settling down for her nap now too. Double wow.
We've got a big day tomorrow. Lolo's friends are coming over tomorrow to decorate "gingerbread" houses....actually, we're going to do graham crackers since I'm too lazy to bake this year. I figure next year when Norah is a bit older and can participate (beyond the eating graham crackers stage), we can step it up a notch.

Yahoo! Let it snow!

An icy rain has just started. It's supposed to turn into snow and we're forecasted to get up to 5 inches by saturday! Hooray!
A few pictures of Lolo skating yesterday (courtesy of Ashley and Nick). She's actually up on her feet by herself!

At breakfast this morning, Lolo was showing me how Ashley spins and how she can spin on the ice too!

Christmas in Mexico

When we picked Lolo up from school today, her teacher buckled her in and asked "Are you going to Mexico on friday?" No, I replied. "Lolo said she was going to Mexico on Friday."
Hmmm. Apparently, our Lolo told her whole class she was going to Mexico over the holidays.

Snowless Minnesota

Hard to believe but true....no snow here in the Twin Cities. The chances of a white Christmas are very slim. Lolo has a big day today....school, then I'm taking the girls out for lunch to celebrate the end of her first semester in preschool (as Lolo said last night "oh booooy!"), and then Ashley is coming to take Lolo to see the Christmas window displays at Macys....she had talked about taking Lolo ice skating but it's been so warm our neighborhood rink has no ice!!
Here's the biggest kick-in-the-teeth for us....we've been eagerly anticipating teaching Norah to ski this winter....and improving Lolo's skills....I figured she'd be ready to tackle moguls by the end of the season. We had set aside December and January for Norah's first ski lessons in Minnesota....even bought new midget-sized skis. What a huge disappointment.
Our next trip will be in February....probably to warmer climates. Lolo may have to wait on the bumps until next winter.

New print/pdf program

Found a new program via a Wall Street Journal article....it's called greenprint...helps save paper by eliminating that pesky blank page we all seem to get when we print webpages. Anyway, I've been testing it out and it seems pretty neat.
The only reason I mention it is because I've been using it to convert the blog into pdf pages (in my laziness, I realize that poor Norah has ZERO pages completed in her very beautiful baby scrapbook that I bought before she was born)....so, I'm hoping to just get the pdfs bound into a nice baby book for both girls.....although I am hopeful that I'll put together a nice book for Norah someday (since I've got all the supplies)....it just may not get done until she starts school ;-0

The girls in action

A sweet christmas gift

Lolo comes home from school today and says "Miss Karen says all she wants for Christmas is me and Betsy." Lolo thought that was pretty crazy.

Peeping Norah

Our Norah loves water. Doesn't matter if it's in the pool, in the bathtub, or the shower....in fact, it doesn't even matter if it's someone else in the shower....she just wants in.

Busy couple of evenings

Whew. It's been busy around here. Last night, Jim went to "steak club" with a bunch of guys in town. The twins, their kids (Lolo's buddies Ben & Nick), and Linda came over here for a light dinner, dessert, and impromptu wine tasting. Lolo got to stay up late to play with her buddies. Big time for Lolo.
Today, Lolo played outside for a while with Willem. Then we headed out to dinner with Eileen and Julia's family. And then we all went to a model train exhibit that was lit up for Christmas. The exhibit was set up to replicate parts of the Twin Cities. Very neat. The girls had a blast. Lolo and Norah both were fascinated with the trains. But their favorite part of the exhibit? A couple of play tables set up with Thomas the train sets. Jim and I were very impressed with Norah (1) because it was so much past her bedtime and (2) because at the play tables she really held her own against the bigger kids. Norah was clearly the youngest (and smallest) kid and she was trying to box out older kids and take their trains! LOL! Guess that's a clear sign of a kid who has an older sibling.

Leaps and Bounds

Norah has made amazing strides this weeks. She's walking around the house....from the kitchen into the living room....from Lolo's room into our room while carrying a favorite book. It's amazing. We were out the other night...driving around to look at Christmas lights....Norah was just giggling and pointing at the lights in amazement.

Christmas cards

FYI- we just got our cards out today....as we did last year, the insert in the card is an actual photo (apparently some people didn't know that it was an actual framable photo).
ag

Milestone for Norah

Norah just about made it all the way DOWN the stairs by herself tonight. She has figured out how to go down the stairs by crawling down backwards. Lolo never would do that....she just wanted to walk down the stairs.
Hooray for Norah!

Decorating Our Christmas Tree

Last night, Lolo and I decorated our christmas tree while Jim and Norah supervised the effort. We decided to dig through the toybox and create a toy themed tree this year. As we progressed in putting decorations up, I tried to suggest that Lolo put some decorations on the other branches....I was informed by Lolo that decoration placement was her job....my job was to only tie the ribbons on the decorations for her to hang. Umm. I see....(note the far right side of the tree is very heavily decorated and there are no decorations on the tree anywhere else....we'll work on a more even distribution next year).

Lolo put the finishing touches on the tree this morning before school. Norah was so cute...she picked up some of her toys and tried to put them on the lower branches too :-) She just grinned with delight when she got the zebra to sit on a lower branch and we said "Good Job Nor!"

Jesus's birthday

Well, Lolo is in high gear over Jesus's birthday. She's decided He needs a chocolate cake. And she picked out our tree and wreath this afternoon as well. This is the biggest birthday celebration of the year and we are excited!

Our Christmas Elf

Lolo is out at the Children's Museum with Willem this morning. My littlest helper has been busy getting ready for the holidays.

Ramblings about the day....

Knock on wood. I think we're close to getting back on schedule. I don't know why it has taken so long this time for the girls to get back on their regular schedule. Usually, after a trip, the girls get back into their regular routine after a day or two. This time, we're still not 100% and it's friday. Ugh. But, I think we're close. It's probably because Norah is still sick. Our poor baby girl has the worst case of diaper rash I have ever seen (and Lolo had some bad cases before we figured out the problem was related to citrus fruits). I'm guessing Norah's issue stems from 3 weeks of the runs. Ick. Keep praying that she gets back to normal soon. Even Lolo commented on the condition of Norah's "booty" tonight when they were taking a bath :-(
The girls have had playdates with their buddies Willem and Micheal this week. Lolo and Willem are actually going out tomorrow to play again. This afternoon, Lolo decided she was playing "wedding". Rebecca (Willem's mama) asked who was getting married. Lolo said that she was. Then she asked "Lolo who are you going to marry?" Lolo said in her "duh" tone of voice "Willem!" Oh Boy. Yes, I will talk to her daddy this evening about this.
OK. I thought about leaving you with just the video of Lolo snorkeling "alone" (actually, I had Jim dive under while she was snorkeling so it would look like she was by herself). FYI - I was mildly paranoid about taking the camera into the water (therefore, no close up shots). Here's another video of our little mermaid....

A couple more vacation pictures of the girls

Lolo snorkels by herself

Check out this video of Lolo snorkeling by herself at Pinel Island in St Martin ;-)

Betcha didn't know

Lolo announced this afternoon..."Dadabooboo is part chinese but he doesn't know it." LOL!

The big papa

Jim and Lolo have this new thing....Jim comes home and announces "I'm the big papa!" And Lolo calls out enthusiastically "Yes you are!" I don't know how he gets her to go along with such things....guess that's what makes daddy's special.

Lolo's necklace

I forgot to mention....did you notice the beaded necklaces that Lolo is wearing while playing in the sand? She made those herself on the boat at Kid's Club.

Payback

At dinner tonight, Lolo was crying and tantruming over not getting jam on her bread until she ate her dinner. Norah was throwing a fit because she was tired, irritable, and generally not well. I kept my head down, trying to block out the commotion, so I could eat my dinner. Jim took in the scene and gave me a pat on my leg. When I looked up, he commented, "Taking care of you and Vicki must have been he**. Don't you think this is payback?"
Yep....my grandmother must have prayed years ago that I get a taste of what Vicki and I dished out. Must have been bad. And since it runs in the genes, I'm a little fearful about what the girls will face when they've got little ones of their own. It will be bad. I have no doubt. Payback is always 10 times worse.

Quick Trip Report

Norah's down. The laundry is running. A moment for a brief look at the past week in review.
All in all, it was a very nice trip. Boat rocked a bit. There are times where I still feel the boat rocking even though we're at home (but perhaps that's related to my migraine).
Lolo thoroughly enjoyed the trip....loved the kid's club (she got to make necklaces and bracelets out of beads).
One night, we were sitting down for dinner. Norah finished early and was wandering around with PoPo. An older couple sitting near us noticed Norah and started cooing over how beautiful she was. Lolo didn't like that at all and had to actively put a stop to it by dancing around and saying "Hey PoPo, this is all about ME!" Oh boy. Our primadonna.
First stop was to Saint Maarten. We took a taxi from the Dutch side over to the French side and then a ferry boat ride over to Pinel Island where Lolo learned how to snorkel. It was a nice stop. I don't know that the St Maarten is worthy of a week's vacation, but it was a nice day stop for a cruise.
Next day was to St Thomas. We managed to charter a boat before we left and the captain took us to Little St James (where PoPo, Lolo and Dad snorkeled while Norah napped on the boat), then to a beach in St John for some time on the beach and body surfing for Lolo (you wouldn't believe how much sand she brought back onto the cruise ship in her swim suit), a brief stop to pick up a quick lunch in St John, out to a private bay for some swimming and lunch, then out to another nice spot for some snorkeling before heading back to St Thomas to catch our ship. Excellent day. Both girls were exhausted and slept on the taxi ride back. We're undoubtably going back to St John for a week.
Last stop was to the ship's "private" island....which was really just a beach the cruise company rented from the Bahamas so they could make more $$ off of us. Ick. But the girls had a great time playing in the sun, sand, and water.....and considering that it's December and we were warm....well, I don't think there's really too much to complain about there.
Now, back to reality...sounds like the next load of laundry is calling my name.....
ag

Update

Norah has another virus. Knock on wood, it's only coming out one end so far and not both. Still, there is a mountain of laundry to contend with....
Videos will have to wait.
ag

A couple more

From Pinel Island St Martin

Norah discovers that she REALLY enjoys a good bbq chicken leg! She was busy munching the entire meal and kept eating even when Lolo finished her lunch!
The girls really enjoyed building sand castles.

Back from the Islands

We got back on Sunday. Will try to post pictures and videos later today or tomorrow. We'll have to wait and see. Norah's over the virus from Thanksgiving that gave everyone such a scare and trouble...unfortunately, upon our return, she's caught another cold...congested and coughing. Poor kid.
The cruise was a good time....nice value for the money. Lolo has decided she'd like to live on the boat "forever". We did have some exceptional highlights.
First and foremost.....drumroll please....Lolo, our little mermaid, learned how to snorkel!! Hooray for Lolo! We taught her how to use the mask and snorkel at Pinel Island in St Martin. The next day, she went out and snorkeled throughout St Johns. We were all so impressed with her! You could hear her singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" through the snorkel and then later calling out "Nemo! Nemo!" None of us had the heart to tell her that Nemo was in the Great Barrier Reef and we probably wouldn't see him in the Caribbean. In any event, we were so tickled with her accomplishment.
And for Norah....wow, this little kid, we couldn't keep her out of the water. We'd put her in the sand and she'd keep crawling back into the surf and waves. She LOVED it! We've got 2 little waterbugs on our hands. It's going to be a real adventure.
More later.