wildlights

The first year we were married we went to the lights at our zoo.  I've never thought much about lights at the zoo--I didn't want to walk around in the cold and see animals (I've never been a huge animal fan), so we haven't gone since.

But this year we decided that Rachel would probably love it, and we already have a membership, so it wouldn't cost us anything to go, so we talked about possibly going.  Last night, at the spur of the moment, we went, since it was in the 50s, the rain had stopped, and it is going to turn cold again tomorrow. 

We were right--Rachel loved it.  We didn't see much in the way of animals (polar bears, white foxes, and reindeer), but we saw lots of beautiful lights and it wasn't cold at all.  Both girls LOVED the carousel.

Enjoy the pictures!

new loves

Rebecca's newest loves:

Megablocks

Thomas trains (she doesn't know any of their names--she just calls them all "too-too-tain!" (choo choo train) and loves carrying them around.  (This is what her hair looks like after a rough nap...)

Doing puzzles

Cookies

(Just had to share my pretty cookies I made today!  I found them online weeks ago and bought the candy cane kisses to make them, but I hadn't gotten around to making them.  Then my husband and I broke into the bag of kisses, and I knew I had to make them before they were all gone!)

All day Rebecca's been asking for a "cocky" (her word for cookie and also for cracker, as well as for a nutcracker!).

daisies

Last night Rachel officially became a Daisy Girl Scout.  We had our investiture ceremony, where the girls say the Girl Scout Promise and get their pins, signifying that they are officially Girl Scouts.

We taught them the Girl Scout handshake, so after I pinned each girl, I gave them the Girl Scout handshake and welcomed them into Girl Scouts.

Each girl received a certificate.

And here she is after we got home.  I need to move her pins up and put her troop numbers on her vest (we just were assigned our troop number).  She loves her uniform!  Below her pins are the daisy petals that she's earning.  The dark blue is the center, and the light blue is the first petal, for learning about being "honest and fair."  At each meeting we will be working on a different petal and adding them around the center to make a daisy.

Christmas fun

Rachel's loving the advent calendar again this year and all of the activities leading up to Christmas.

Friday she opened the little door to find out that Grandma was coming to make gingerbread cookies, which has become a tradition over the years (2008, 2009, and right now I can't find pictures from 2010, but they exist somewhere!).

As always, Rachel loved it. Here are the pictures from 2011.

This morning Rachel and Rebecca got to open a present from Miss Allecia.

What a fun gift!

Rachel drew on a doorbell and doorknobs.

She said she ruled the castle, but I told her it was Rebecca's too, and she needed to be able to come in whenever she wanted. 

Rachel said it was okay, as long as she rang the doorbell first!

Thank you, Miss Allecia!

a little more of this and that

Here's an update on things:

:: I didn't win the tickets for The Nutcracker.  I actually was kind of surprised.  There were only 66 entries, we had three of them (my husband, my mom, and I all entered), and they were giving away three sets of tickets.  Those are great odds!  But we didn't win.   :(

:: Even though we didn't win, Rachel's grandpa decided that she should get to see it, so he bought us tickets!  (THANK YOU, DAD!!!!)  She's thrilled  (and I'm excited that I'll get to watch her experience it again).

::Rachel's still coughing like crazy.  But yesterday I took Rebecca to the doctor for her 18 month well visit.  I walked out with a prescription for an antibiotic because she had an ear infection in both ears!  Poor girl!  I didn't even know anything was wrong with her.  She's been coughing some, and has a constant runny nose, but I didn't think much about it because she didn't have a fever and was acting normal. 

::In other well visit news, Rebecca's in the 50th percentile for height, but only 25th percentile for weight, which surprised us a lot.  She eats like crazy.  I guess she must burn it all off as she runs and climbs away her days. 

::Last week I lamented that keeping her away from the Christmas tree would be rough.  I can't believe how wrong I was (and in this case I couldn't be happier to be wrong!).  She's doing great!  The first day she touched it a couple of times, and I kept telling her to look, not touch.  And she is!  (Looking, not touching.)  I never cease to be amazed!

::Today Rebecca slept until 6:00 AM.  An improvement.  And she took a THREE hour afternoon nap, which is just unheard of for her (she usually sleeps about an hour and a half).  I hope this is the beginning of some better sleeping.

this and that

:: While eating breakfast this morning Rachel told me, "I just LOVE the holidays, Mommy."  Oh, my sweet girl, I don't think there's a soul in the world that loves them as much as you do!

:: Rebecca's fallen asleep in the car the last two mornings as we've been out running errands.  She obviously needs the sleep, but WHY won't she do it at 5:30 AM instead of 10 AM????  Ugh.  Any advice you have for how to give up the morning nap/sleep later in the morning would be greatly appreciated.

:: Rebecca has some great dance moves, but today she added twirling and posing to her repertoire.  It was hilarious.  I wish I had it on video to show you.

:: Rachel really wants to see the Nutcracker (you may recall that we saw it last year--a surprise early Christmas present from my husband).  She's been talking about little else this last week.  I've looked into tickets, but they're just more than my husband and I want to pay this year.  I've explained to her that we don't need to see it every year, and we'll go again sometime.  I told her that it'll make it even more special when we do get to go again.  "But it will be even more special if we go every year!" she told me!  She's told me we should sell stuff in order to buy tickets....and today she found a nickel on the bus and excitedly told me she could use it to buy tickets to see it.  It breaks my heart, and I really want to take her, but all of the inexpensive tickets are gone (I've looked) and we just don't want to spend the money for the more expensive seats.  We also decided we didn't really want to set the precedent of going every year.  So today a local parent magazine put on facebook that they're giving away two family packs of tickets to the show.  Never in my life have I wanted to win something more!  Oh, I know it probably won't happen, but wouldn't it be awesome if it did?!  The thing that makes me the most upset is that earlier this fall I saw an ad in the newspaper for a special code for buy one get one free tickets for the show, which was only good that week.  I showed my husband, but he said she probably didn't need to go again this year, so I let it go.  Ugh.  I really wish we had gotten them then!!!

:: Rebecca's really into playing dress up now.  She loves putting on shoes--Daddy's, Mommy's, Rachel's, and Rachel's dress up clothes.  She loves hats, too.  She usually chooses a fireman's hat, but on this day she decided to wear her sister's winter hat.

:: Rachel's sick--AGAIN!  This poor girl can't catch a break.  Right now it's just a bad cold and cough.  No fever, thankfully.  But she's waking up a lot at night (so I've been awake a lot, too) and just coughing non stop. 

:: Today I got the camera down from the top of the refrigerator (the place where I stash the things I don't want Rebecca to touch!).  Rebecca saw me get it down and she started saying, "Cheeeeeeeeeeese!"  I don't know where she learned that!  So I just had to take her picture....

then again, maybe not

Every morning I put Rebecca in her playpen while Rachel gets ready for school and I take a shower and get dressed myself.  She plays for about an hour as I make sure Rachel's ready for school and then get Rachel on the school bus.  Rebecca plays happily, but after an hour she's generally whining to get out.

Today when I came in from putting Rachel on the bus I noticed it was awfully quiet up in the playpen.  I waited a little while, did some chores, and still hadn't heard anything.

I went up and quietly opened the door, and there she was, face down in the playpen, surrounded by toys, snoring away!  She's never done that!

So maybe she's not quite ready to give up the morning nap?

I'm not giving it back to her though.  I think that it'll just be a little adjustment period and she'll eventually learn to get that extra sleep early in the mornings (instead of waking up at 5:00 or 5:30, which she's still doing--ugh!), or during her afternoon nap.

I hope.

 

long time coming

I've known it was coming for a long time.  I'm actually surprised it's stayed around this long, but today we bid adieu.

Any guesses as to what I'm talking about????

Rebecca's morning nap.

Today was the first day without it.  She's been fighting it for the last several days, spending an hour or more talking before falling asleep, or not falling asleep at all.  And I've suspected for awhile now that she may sleep longer in the mornings if I didn't give her a morning nap, but she didn't seem quite ready to give it up until the last few days.

So this morning we went to church, and ordinarily she falls asleep in the car on the way home, so I usually put her in bed as soon as we get home.  But this morning she didn't fall asleep as we drove home, and I didn't put her to bed when we got home.  I changed her clothes, she played, she ate lunch, and she probably could've gone to bed after that, for an early afternoon nap, but I wanted to push it back if I could so it coincided with Rachel's rest time (1:30).  If she got fussy, I told myself, I'd put her to bed earlier, but she actually was pretty happy the whole time, and she made it all the way until 1:30.

She went to sleep right away and slept until 3:15.  She woke up in a HORRIBLE mood.  She really needed to sleep longer than that, but maybe that will come as she adjusts.  Or maybe I should put her to bed a little earlier.  We'll see. 

We'll see, too, if she makes up for the lost sleep by waking up a little later in the morning, or if she'll just be sleep deprived for awhile until she adjusts and figures it all out.

I'm sad to see it go.  :(   But I know I'm lucky to have kept it this long.  Most 18 month olds gave up their morning naps long ago.  I'll have to adjust my morning routines now that she won't be napping in the mornings.  I'm not looking forward to it, but I know in the long run it will be better for all of us, especially if she starts sleeping later in the mornings! 

touring the tree

November was National Blog Posting Month, where you're supposed to blog every day of the month, but I didn't partake this year....  But in December there's a LOT more going on and it's much easier to find things to talk/blog about, so I guess I've started my own blog posting month in December.  I don't plan to post every day, but it's just happened that way so far, I guess.

Anyway, today we put up the Christmas tree.

Here's what Rebecca did while we put up the tree.

She was constantly in the way, so we strapped her in and fed her lots of graham crackers.  She actually did surprisingly well.

My favorite part of this exercise is reminiscing over each ornament as we pull one out of the box.  I don't like it when my husband just takes one out and puts it on the tree--I want to be the one taking each one out because I love seeing it and recalling the memories that go along with it.  Every ornament on the tree has a reason for being there, but man, we've got a LOT of ornaments!  We could easily decorate more than one tree.  My husband even asked me if I wanted to put up another tree (we still have our old tree).  I told him no--keeping Rebecca's hands off of one tree will be hard enough.  I didn't want to have to worry about keeping them off of two trees!

So here's a little tour of some of the ornaments on the tree.  I could put all of them on here and tell you the story behind each one, but that would take me all day.  So here are just a few of my favorites (I have lots of favorites, and didn't take pictures of all of them).

Here's Rachel's new ornament this year.  I don't have to tell you the story behind it....she started school this year, so that's why I picked this ornament.  I was debating between this one, a "Lost my first tooth" ornament, and a Girl Scout ornament.  She loves riding the school bus so much, so I chose this one.

This is Rebecca's ornament this year.  I already mentioned why I chose this one, because of her current obsession with e-i-e-i-o.  She loves the ornament and wants to touch it constantly, but she has actually been better than I expected, and just looks at it and moooooooos a lot.  She has touched some other ornaments, but not this one.  Yet.

Many of our ornaments are from trips we've taken.  This was new this year, from, well, you know where it's from.....

Cinderella's Castle!

This was the first one we ever bought together, on our honeymoon.

The following summer we went to Honduras on a mission trip together.  We found this in the airport right before we left to come home.  I love it (sorry, the focusing was off again...it's a nativity scene, handmade in a clay ornament).

Also that summer we went to the Canadian Rockies--GORGEOUS!!!!!  This is from Maligne Lake, where we took a beautiful boat tour while on that trip.

This is from our trip to San Fransisco, the summer before Rachel was born.

The summer Rachel was one we left her with my parents and went to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.  We stayed at the Old Faithful Inn, a beautiful lodge in the park.  This ornament is huge, but I love it (I couldn't get the camera to focus on the right part, so you can't read that it says Old Faithful Inn on the bottom).

When Rachel was two we took our first family vacation to the Outer Banks.  I love this lighthouse ornament from that trip.

We have lots of others from the other trips we've taken, but I can't show them all.

Last year I found this one and knew I had to get it for Rebecca Joy....

And Rachel's ornament last year (it says "I'm the big sister):

Several ornaments on the tree are from my childhood.  This is from my first Christmas, in 1974:

This is one my grandma made.  I love that I have it and it always makes me remember her.

And this is my very favorite from when I was a little girl.  Every year my dad helped me find just the right place to hang this angel ornament so she could swing on the branch. 

There are lots more...handprints of both girls as babies, hand made ones by Rachel, baby's first Christmas ornaments for both girls, and on an on--I love them all.  Some people have beautifully crafted trees to match the decor in their home.  They're nice, but I don't want that kind of tree.  Give me these memories over a beautiful tree any day.  No one else appreciates these like I do, but I'm thankful every year to have the chance to go down memory lane as I unpack them, reminisce, and hang them up.

So here's what Rebecca's been doing all day.....staring in delight (and touching here and there).

We'll see how it goes for the rest of the month!!!

less is more

As I've been going through Christmas decorations the last couple of days I've realized that there will be more decorations staying in the boxes than being put out this year.  The reason?  I'll give you one guess.

This little stinker....

I can only put things out in places she can't touch.  So that means I can only decorate the mantle and the top of the piano.  She can touch every other surface downstairs except the top of the fridge, which is the only place I can stash my purse so she doesn't get into it, and the kitchen counters, which are already jam packed (because I don't have much counter space to begin with).

Less decorating means fewer slaps on her little hand, and more peace in my home. 

But let's not talk about what's going to happen when we put the Christmas tree up tomorrow.  Ugh.  Usually I LOVE having the Christmas tree up, but not this year.  It's going to be a battle for the next 23 days, let me tell you!  It was rough with Rachel, but Rebecca is 100 times worse in the "getting into things" department than Rachel ever was.

Rudy Update:
For anyone who is interested, Rudy revived and found a cozy hiding spot on top of the phone up on the wall today, safely out of Rebecca's grasp.  Rachel was very happy to see him back in business this morning.  She says bye to him before she goes to school and ran to tell him hi when she got home.  At one point I found her standing in the middle of the kitchen floor just staring at him.  I was wondering what was going through her little mind.


Rebecca looks at him, points and says, "Woo-wie!"  (Her version of "Rudy."  It's also her version of the name, "Woody," who she just learned about after playing with Rachel's Woody doll.)

on the first day of Christmas...

The Christmas season starts December 1st at our house.  For at least a week now Rachel has been counting down the days until December 1st, because she knew that December=Christmas!

So this morning Rudy, our Elf on the Shelf, made his first appearance of the year.  Rachel's completely embraced the elf idea, and couldn't wait to see him.  Every morning Rudy is hiding in a new look out spot, and she searches the downstairs to find him.  According to the book, Rudy watches her throughout the day and reports back to Santa at night.  Then he flies back and into a new spot early in the morning.  The book warns that if you touch the elf he could lose his magic.

This morning she found Rudy sitting on top of the speaker in the family room, next to our advent calendar (another important part of our December).  She was thrilled to see him, but one of the first things out of her mouth was, "What if Rebecca touches Rudy!?"  Oops.  Rudy didn't take into account last night when he chose his spot the fact that there's a very curious 18 month old in the house that will touch anything and everything--especially things that are new, exciting, and different.
Sure enough, later in the day, after Rachel got home from school, and she and I were busy doing something else, we heard a crash in the family room, just as Rebecca started to cry.  I looked in to see Rebecca standing next to the speaker, the advent calendar house on the floor next to her, and Rudy in her hand.

*GASP*

Rachel BURST into tears immediately.  "RUDY!" she screamed.  "She touched Rudy!  Oh no....." she sobbed, "I really wanted him to fly!"

I calmed down a crying Rebecca, who really wasn't hurt after pulling the house down on herself, then tried to calm down a crying Rachel, assuring her that Rudy would be okay.

Over the weekend she saw the Elf on the Shelf special, which was on TV.  In the story the boy who doesn't really believe in elves, touches the elf, knocks him down, and the elf can't fly anymore.  That's why Rachel was so sad--she didn't want Rudy to lose his ability to fly.  In the movie the elf's friends carried him back to the North Pole to a special elf hospital, where they took care of him, and he was able to fly the next morning.  Rachel asked if that's what would happen to Rudy.  Not wanting to lie to her, I said, "I guess we'll have to wait and see."

So Rudy is currently "resting" on the mantle, where Rebecca can't reach him,

and I told Rachel that we'll just have to see tomorrow if he's in a new spot, like usual.

So it's been a catastrophic day on this first day of Christmas.  Hopefully Rudy will remember to choose better places to hide for the rest of the month, out of reach of you know who.