December 2007 Archives

Merry Christmas, everyone! While we wish we could have spent it with all of our family and loved ones, it was also nice starting a few traditions of our own here at home with our little family. We had such a great holiday, and the fact that the girls were "into" Christmas more than ever this year was even more fun to watch.

While we intended to have a nice Thai dinner on Christmas Eve, we didn't really plan ahead to see which restaurants were open. Our choices were limited and in the end we decided to have dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse. Not exactly exciting, but our tummies were full at the end of the night (gosh, I sound like a mom with the word "tummies", huh?) While normally very well behaved at restaurants, the girls were absolute monkeys at dinner. It was all we could do to keep them in their seats. I'm sure the excitement of the night, plus being tired (we had a very full couple of days up until that point) were the culprits, but Bill and I couldn't eat fast enough to get out of there.

After dinner, we went home and opened some of the presents from our family in Indiana, plus ones from Mommy and Daddy. The girls had a great time playing with some of their new toys before we finally dragged them off to bed. Here's a video of Josie talking to her friend "Ginga" on her new Little Mermaid toy phone:

Yeah, she does that all the time when playing with her toy phone. Sometimes we'll listen to her and find it hard to believe she isn't actually talking to someone. Her conversations are hilarious.

We hung up the reindeer signs the girls had made the previous week at the library, put out some homemade chocolate chip cookies and milk for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer. We sprinkled some reindeer food (oats and glitter) on the front lawn, and left a note for Santa before heading off to bed. We worried the girls would have a hard time falling asleep with all the excitement, but we hadn't figured how tired they were already. They were out of it in only a few minutes.

Christmas morning, the girls woke up around 10am (they really were exhausted) which was fine with Mommy and Daddy as they'd stayed up way too late the night before anyway. We got some great video of Maddie and Josie running out to see their presents from Santa, but it's on our camcorder and we still need to convert it to a .mov file so we can post it here. We'll try to do that in the next week, as the video is pretty cute. Santa was very kind this year and brought them a new Dora playhouse tent and a new swingset. It rained all day on Christmas, so they didn't get a chance to play on their new swingset, but the 26th was beautiful and sunny so they tried it out then. They had a few surprises inside their playhouse too. Poppa had traveled to the North Pole to help Santa make some baby doll beds for each of the girls, complete with their initials, and baby blankets and pillows and a diaper bag (Mommy helped Santa with a little bit of the sewing since he was already so busy). They were pretty excited and set about putting all of their babies to bed right away. Waiting in their beds, though, were new teddy bears which light up at night. These have come in really handy since the girls like to sleep with a night light now (fear of the dark is a new thing for us.) Their stockings were full too, mostly of things on their Christmas lists to Santa (a polka dot robot -- yes, complete with polka dots -- dolphin, elephant, yo-yo, and a few other things.)

Santa was really good about bringing them everything on their Christmas lists this year, except for one thing: a snail friend that Maddie requested for her robot. I asked her later in the day if she was happy with all her presents. I said she must have been a really good girl this year to get all the stuff on her list. She replied, "Well, Santa didn't bring me the snail I wanted on my list, but maybe next year." It's good to see she's not too bitter about it! Bill and I are pretty adamant that the girls aren't too spoiled by all of this. We agree that they shouldn't get everything they want, and shouldn't expect it. Still, though, it was nice to see most of their wishes had gotten granted this year.

(BTW, over the past few weeks, whenever you would ask Maddie what she wanted for Christmas she would reply, "You have to go to the North Pole to see my letter and find out." Well!)

We were so busy playing with our new gifts and getting Christmas dinner started, that we almost weren't ready when Nana & Poppa, Aunt Mic & Uncle Heath, and Uncle Rob arrived. (Okay, to be honest, the girls were dressed and ready, I was half ready, and Bill was so busy cooking he hadn't had a chance to shower yet!) More presents followed while we waited for the food to finish cooking. The girls were again spoiled with so many presents and our living room was a gigantic wasteland of wrapping paper, with Mallory in the middle of it all:

Since we lost Sindri, Mallory can't stand to be anywhere that we aren't. That even means she's willing to put up with things that she wouldn't have liked before. She has to be close to us all the time, poor girl.

Here's a video of Josie playing with one of her new toys, a Dora the Explorer Dance Party DVD, complete with costume and maracas. She supplied the wig from our stash of dress-up clothes:

Later, we stuffed ourselves with ham, homemade macaroni & cheese, veggie casserole, pasta salad, rolls, cheese, artichoke dip, and much more. Most of it was made by Bill. How lucky am I to have a husband who cooks so well?

It was an absolutely wonderful Christmas. As usual, our families were way too generous with gifts and we want them to know we are extremely grateful, though none of it was expected. It's one thing for Maddie and Josie to be spoiled, but it's another for Bill and I to have gotten so many gifts. It was hard for Bill and I to put together a wish list this year anyway (there isn't really much that we wanted or needed), but we ended up getting almost everything on our lists anyway. Thank you to everyone.

We hope all of you are enjoying your vacations and time together with family. We wish you all a very wonderful, happy, and healthy New Year. With that, we leave you with a little video of Maddie and Josie singing on their new Hannah Montana microphones. Hopefully, it will bring a little laughter to your day:

I was lying in bed, talking to Josie last night when she started telling me about everyone's ages.

I is 2, Mommy is 3, and Daddy is 5.

You're two years old, but Mommy is 30 and Daddy is 35.

Yeah, five. I said that.

Our house is buzzing with excitement as we wait just a few more days until the girls get to attack all the presents under the tree.

- We've had a busy couple of weeks leading up to Christmas, trying to see everyone before they leave to visit family. On Saturday night last weekend we had dinner with Todd and Amanda. Todd always heads home to Indiana for Christmas so we have an early Christmas dinner with him each year. We all got the chance to exchange presents (Todd drew my name this year -- thank you very much for the gifts!) and of course Maddie and Josie got to open presents again. We've had so many events that they've pretty much opened presents at least once a week throughout this month.

- The following night, on Sunday, we had our annual Christmas dinner with Carolyn and Todd and their girls. We all met at Atlantic Station, a new shopping and residential area in Midtown. It's a really cute area with it's own little "downtown" square and shops and condos. We met at California Pizza Kitchen (same as last year, but different location) and stuffed ourselves on pizzas and gigantic salads. Afterwards -- and the real reason we came -- we went out to the square for the 7:30 "snow." Living in Atlanta, we don't see snow often, so having a fake little snow flurry brings all the kids out. The machines are actually soap bubbles (a disappointment the first time you try to catch a snowflake on your tongue) but the kids didn't mind at all. They ran around squealing. I have to admit that it did bring out a little of the kid in me. I miss snow. :(

- And don't let me forget last Friday as well (last weekend was a busy one!) We went to Callaway Gardens again to see the Fantasy in Lights show. We met Nana, Aunt Mic, Uncle Heath, and some of Heath's family there as well. The girls got a chance to see Santa too. This time they took a picture with him. It's so cute to see how shy they get around him.

- Have I mentioned how awesome our library is? The Smyrna library is actually the only municipal library in the state (meaning it's the only library owned by a city and not a county.) We go to story time each week and they always have the most fun crafts and activities afterwards. Last week the girls made their gingerbread houses, and this week they made signs to put outside to let Santa know where to stop. We also got some reindeer food to put out on Christmas Eve (oats and glitter). There are so many new activities coming up in January too.

Playing with Daddy is fun.

- Extra time with Bill. Each year, December rolls around and Bill still has so many unused vacation days. They don't carry over into the new year, so he loses them if they aren't taken before the 31st. For the past few years he has taken Fridays off in December. They've been great because those are the days we take to do some family holiday stuff, like visiting Callaway Gardens, or doing some Christmas shopping together. This year, he had even more days unused so he has taken every Friday and Monday off in December. When I say that he takes the day off, I really mean that he gets to work from home. He just has so much going on at work that actually being incommunicado for any length of time is just unheard of. Still, it makes each weekend seem like a holiday in itself. The girls get so excited and actually wake up each morning and ask, "Is Daddy staying home to play with us today?"

- I'm so glad I got most of my Christmas shopping done early this year. That is a first for me as I NEVER shop early. I used to enjoy the mad rush leading up to the big day, the stress of trying to find what you want. This year, I got up at 4am on Black Friday and shopped nonstop until 1:30pm, at which point I came home and collapsed on the couch. I got almost all gifts taken care of and the rest were ordered online. You may think I'm crazy to get up that early, but it was necessary because Santa needed my help getting a few things this year, most of which were in big demand. I actually ended up getting the last one of two of the items (with people coming up right behind me to get one as well.) It has been nice just relaxing these past few weeks and enjoying all the activities without stress (like visiting the Pink Pig, above).

- I love all the Christmas TV specials on right now. I can appreciate them even more now that I'm an adult, and the girls love them too, of course. It's a nice change from Dora or Blue's Clues every day.

- My mommie's group had a couple of parties this month too. First we had a holiday party for the kids, where the kids got to exchange books as gifts. The moms had a "tacky gift" white elephant exchange. It was really funny to see what everyone got. I actually picked two gifts that weren't so tacky and were thus stolen from me. Still, I ended up with a really cute purse that I didn't think was tacky at all. To each his own.

The group then had a cookie exchange just for the moms. In fact, it was called "Cookies and Cocktails" so it was definitely not kid-friendly. I made a couple dozen lime spritzer cookies. I'm not such a great cook, so it really was a compliment when people kept commenting that they were "so different." I could take that to mean something bad, but instead I choose to take it as a compliment since all the other cookies were chocolate. Mine were the only fruity ones. We had a white elephant ornament exchange too. In the end, I came home with a couple dozen cookies and a cute ornament for the tree (and a good recipe for a "Poinsettia Martini").

- Christmas cards. Thank you to all of you who sent them! You have no idea how loved we feel now. Last year we ended up getting only 6 cards. No lie. We wondered two things: 1) were people just not sending cards? or 2) were we taken off everyone's lists for some reason? You have to understand that we'd gotten nearly 30 the year before, so it was enough for a little concern. This year, though, we're back up in the double digits again, so that makes us happy. Send us your cards, especially if they have cute pics of your kids in them. :)

- Now that the girls are getting older, we've had the opportunity to start a few holiday traditions of our own. It's so great to hear other people's traditions, and we've stolen a few to use as our own. One tradition we're starting this year is to go out to eat on Christmas Eve instead of cooking. There will be plenty of cooking on Christmas Day, so we've decided to take it easy the night before. Our dinner each year will be something non-American. This year I think we're going to try Thai, but next year may be Indian or Sushi or who knows?

- The girls got a letter back from Santa yesterday, and they were pretty excited to hear that he'd gotten their letters. Anytime you ask Maddie what she wants for Christmas this year, she'll reply, "You have to go to the North Pole to read my letter to find out." Little smartypants. The girls know that they have to be good or they'll get "a dirty old rock" for Christmas instead of presents. Surprisingly, we haven't had any problems with the girls trying to open presents early. Instead, they choose to mangle the tree and move the ornaments on it daily. We've had a few incidents with broken snowglobes, but lessons seem to have been learned (hopefully).

We hope everyone has a great Christmas this year. My family will be coming over on Christmas Day, but otherwise we won't get to see the Indiana constituency until sometime in 2008. We miss all of you and wish we could be with you. Give all the kids kisses for us. And of course we'll pass your kisses and hugs on to the girls as well. (Even if you're not sending any, we'll be covering them with kisses and hugs anyway.)

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I have made two great discoveries in the past few months. These aren't your run-of-the-mill discoveries either. Oh no. Christopher Columbus had nothing on this.

#1. Kroger. The grocery store. But not just any Kroger. The Kroger located in Marietta, GA, that provides free childcare while you shop. True? You better believe it.

Now, we have a Kroger only about 2 miles from our house, but guess where I've gone for my grocery shopping the past month or so? Yep, I've driven 12 miles away to the one in the suburbs. It's the only one I've ever heard of, but the store has a childcare center inside where you can check your kids in (must be potty-trained) and shop for two hours. There are TVs located throughout the store with video feed into the area so you can watch your kids playing too. Once you're done with your shopping, you stop back by to pick up the kids, at which time they give them each a balloon and cookie. How awesome is that???? Maddie and Josie have been begging me to let them go to the grocery store each week.

I couldn't quite understand how this worked, so I asked Miss Gwen (the childcare director) that first day we went.

So how does this work? Is there a monthly fee? No, it's free.
Do I need to be a Kroger Card Member? (I am, but I wanted to know otherwise) No, you don't have to be.
So are the prices higher here? I haven't noticed any difference in these compared to the other stores, so am I missing something? No, they just offer this service. I'm not sure how, but all I know is that they pay me a salary to do this. It's great, isn't it?

It sure is! The couple of times I have gone have really changed the way I grocery shop. Before, I'd take the girls with me during the day, but there would inevitably be bathroom breaks (once we were on the complete opposite side of the store) and eventually whining and getting antsy and pulling things off the shelves and putting them in the cart (later wondering why our bill came to $100 for only a few basics, and why did I get 6 bags of marshmallows?...) That became more hassle than necessary so Bill or I would shop late at night after the girls were in bed. I actually didn't mind my 11pm grocery store trips. No crowds. Now, though, I go during the day and take my time, read the labels on everything, stop to browse through the magazines, you name it. Now if only the stores near us would catch on to this as well. I guess there is something to be said for living in the 'burbs.

#2. As if that weren't enough, there's more goodness. I've recently discovered a place called Coffee Park (close to above grocery store). What is it? It's a coffeehouse... and an indoor playground. Yeah? Yeah? You gettin' me? You can go and check your kids in (ages 9 months to 5 years) and let them play in an indoor play area, enclosed by glass, while you sip your coffee and read your book. It's supervised play too, and the girls who work inside are great and really interact with the kids. The play area isn't too shabby. There's a little play kitchen area, a "garden" with plastic vegetables, a puppet theater, a gigantic slide and climbing gym, dollhouse, dress-up clothes, a train table, a giant racetrack rug with cars and trucks, building blocks, babydolls, and more. There's also a separate area for the 9-24 month olds, with baby toys and a gate so the bigger kids can't get in (or the little ones out). I met my friends Carolyn and Angel there last week and we had the best time chatting while our kids played. Now that the weather has turned colder, I have a feeling we'll be there at least once a week. The best part is the price. It's only $5 per kid, with only $1 more for additional siblings. Total for 4 hours of playtime: $6 plus the cost of my caramel latte.

The shop is owned by one of the moms from my mommies group and it's brilliant. It's nice and relaxing, and not at all like those indoor inflatable jumpy-thing places. Don't get me wrong -- those places are great and they really prime the kids for a good nap after they've been jumping around for a while, but they're also pretty stressful. I find myself constantly chasing around both girls, trying to help them climb into whatever bouncy thing they want, while simultaneously trying to make sure they each don't get trampled on by bigger kids. Inevitably, they have fun until one of them gets bumped a little too hard and then crying ensues and we end up leaving. I'm not the overprotective mother type, and my kids aren't wussies -- they're just small little girls who aren't used to rough-housing in the form of 10 year old boys. It's enough to bring on small heart attacks.

The idea of making someplace kid-friendly is absolutely genius, even when it's the most basic of places (clowns juggling while I pump my gas, a magic show at the post office, the possibilities are endless.) I encourage all businesses to consider this. If you do make changes like this, I promise to not only shop at your store (daily), but I'll also bring at least 3 other moms with me each time I visit. How's that for incentive?

We went to China Buffet for dinner tonight. It just felt like one of those let's-go-to-a-gigantic-buffet-and-everyone-can-have-what-they-want nights. We'd just sat down with our food when Maddie commented:

Do you want to be like we're in China? Do you want to be a China? Maybe we can use some chapsticks.

We got her some from the buffet and Maddie had her first experience eating with chapsticks, er, I mean chopsticks.

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We're in the car heading home when I hear Josie's voice from the backseat:

Mama, I eat boogers and then they get in my nose!

Um, sure. That's not how it works, but okay. We tried to use that logic to explain that if she didn't eat her boogers, then she wouldn't have them in her nose. I don't think it convinced her.

We have the funniest, most beautiful girls in the world, but right now they're obsessed with all things gross.

It wasn't until I saw a comment on Flickr about Josie eating ice cream that I realized we haven't posted any updates on the girls lately. It's been a crazy couple of weeks, but for the most part it's good news.

Josie:
First of all... Josie is starting to outgrow her allergies!! Yay!! The last couple of months have seen a big change in her reactions to foods. She no longer has any trouble with dairy products and is actually drinking cow's milk instead of rice milk now. That also means ice cream, cheese, yogurt -- all her favorite things. Her reactions to berries and tomatoes aren't so bad either. We haven't noticed any hives. We're still keeping her away from soy, mostly because Bill already has a pretty serious allergy to it and we don't want to risk it. The allergist gave us the go-ahead to give her peanut butter since she seemed to be doing well with it a couple of months ago. However, recently we've noticed that she starts to get big red welts wherever she touches her face when she has peanut butter on her hands. So we're cutting that one back out, but we're seeing her allergist again in a couple of weeks and can talk to him further about it.

We've always been incredibly lucky that Josie's allergies seem to be more about skin irritation than any kind of breathing or throat trouble (that we know). Her skin -- knock on wood -- has been doing really well too. Occasionally, she'll have some rough spots on her ankles from scratching, but for the most part she's been okay. It seems like it should be worse this time of year, but instead we seem to be keeping things status quo for the meantime. Maybe we'll get lucky and she'll outgrow her eczema as well. It's definitely improving as she gets older.

One scary thing did happen last week, though. Bill and I had started to notice a couple of symptoms in Josie that had us worried that she might have pediatric diabetes. She goes to the bathroom at least once every half hour, and she's always thirsty and even wakes up every night in the middle of the night crying for a cup of water. It may sound like we were jumping the gun because she's thirsty and pees a lot, but there were quite a few other symptoms as well that made her a good match.

Her doctor agreed that her symptoms were suspicious, so he ordered urine and blood tests (a horrible experience involving Josie wetting her pants, a new lab tech, multiple needles, and Mommy passing out.) Luckily, everything was well within normal limits and, despite all the symptoms she's showing, she's just, in his words, "an extremely well-hydrated kid." Whew!

Josie's eye appointment last month was okay news. We had to increase her prescription just a little, after lowering it a few months ago, but there haven't been any drastic changes for the worse in her vision so it's good news to us.

So, luckily, things seem to be looking up for Josie, and our little baby is getting healthier by the day.

Maddie:
Maddie had her four year checkup a few weeks ago. She had her first hearing checkup, which turned out perfectly fine. She did have the nurse and I worried for a moment, though. She raised her hand and responded to all the beeps for her right ear, but when it came to her left one she didn't raise her hand at all. The nurse and I looked at each other and I saw the concern on her face. Luckily, though, it turns out that Maddie had moved the earpiece on that side and didn't have it positioned right to hear any of the sounds. Once it was adjusted, she heard all of them and we were told her hearing was perfect.

Vision is good. We already knew that, though, since we had her tested by Josie's eye doctor when she turned 3, just to be on the safe side.

Our only concern is with her weight. She's in the middle of the chart for height, but when it comes to weight, she's barely on the bottom line of the chart. The doctor didn't seem too concerned for now, but said he would be more worried if she was showing the same thing next year. Apparently, things are supposed to even out around the age of 5. Then again, as every doctor has told us during one of her checkups, she may just be a petite kid. It's worrying for us because Maddie practically doesn't eat ANYTHING anymore unless it's some kind of sweets, which we mostly restrict. She is so picky and will go days without eating much of anything, then finally pigging out on chicken nuggets or pasta. Whereas Josie absolutely loves any kind of vegetable (and okay, ANY food you put in front of her), Maddie only eats vegetables because I sneak baby food into her pasta sauce or in the pancake mix. It's tough and makes you feel guilty as a parent to see your kid so skinny and not eating.

Maddie was pretty hilarious in the doctor's office, though. We had a really great doctor and this year he directed all of his questions directly to Maddie. After answering for her for 4 years, it was odd to sit back and let her talk. He asked if she knew how to skip and she ran to the middle of the room and not only skipped for him, but also did some ballet pirouettes and jumps. He asked if she knew her ABCs and she told him yes and she could read them too. When he asked if she was good about eating her vegetables, she sheepishly looked at me and smiled. That time I answered for her. :) A lot of drama was involved with her vaccination shots, but the tears disappeared soon after.

We're so lucky to have two healthy, happy little girls. Sure, they've got their quirks, but I know that, compared to many other families, they're healthy and doing extremely well.

Tomorrow night we head to Callaway Gardens to see their Fantasy in Lights, a tradition we've done since Bill and I moved to Atlanta. My family will be meeting us there and the girls will get a chance to have their picture taken with Santa. We'll have more updates and pictures to post this weekend.

Please don't send any cards to "A recovering American soldier" this year:

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (Dec. 11) - Hundreds of thousands of holiday cards and letters thanking wounded American troops for their sacrifice and wishing them well never reach their destination. They are returned to sender or thrown away unopened.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax scare, the Pentagon and the Postal Service have refused to deliver mail addressed simply to "Any Wounded Soldier" for fear terrorists or opponents of the war might send toxic substances or demoralizing messages.

More here:

This is a day late, and I normally don't put birthday notices on here, anyway, since I'm so bad at tracking them. But since my mom made it so easy by posting some old pics of the now old man, I thought I'd share the love.

Happy belated birthday, Michael!

(A picture from when he was cute.)