happy valentines day

I haven't had much to write about, but things are good. Rachel's doing pretty well at school (if you overlook a few random mishaps that shall remain unnamed, for the sake of her privacy--I feel like I need to start protecting that a little bit on this blog as she gets older and can now read this blog on her own if she wants to), Rebecca is her usual talk-all-day self, losing pieces of toys and making us laugh, and I'm busy trying new recipes and keeping my house clean (two of my goals for the new year....still going strong).

Last weekend we went to visit my family, since my brother was home from NYC for the first time since summer, and it was a chance for all of us to get together to celebrate my mom's birthday a few days late. It was like Christmas without the presents....lots of people, cousins for my girls to play with, a full house, and lots of fun. And I don't have a single picture. :(

My husband and I are planning our first (sans kids) vacation in several years. He wanted me to choose where I wanted to go, since he usually does the planning. I've been pondering it for months (I really hate making decisions) and I finally decided to go to Mackinac Island. I've wanted to go ever since I was a teenager and saw "Somewhere In Time." (And it needed to be somewhere we could drive in a day, because I didn't want to spend money on airfare or waste my husband's few vacation days driving, and this fit the bill.). Now that I finally have the decision made, I'm looking forward to planning it. Until now, I haven't been because it was too stressful to try and decide where, but now that I've decided, I'm excited about the planning.

So my husband surprised me last night with these....

So, Happy Valentines Day to me!  And to you....  Rachel's been talking about it for a long time, because if you know her, you know how she loves a holiday! This morning she gave me my first valentine that she made completely by herself, on her own accord, and hid days ago in her room. She made one for each of us. I love it!

groundhogs

Last year Rachel was SO excited about Groundhog Day that she threw her food across the room.

Last night she started talking about it, excited again to watch the news this morning. I reminded her of last year when she cried at the results (until I read that post above, I had forgotten about her throwing her Cheerios!). I told her she could watch it, but she couldn't cry if it wasn't the news she wanted to hear.

So this morning the news was mostly about the Super Bowl and very little about the groundhog, but when they did finally come on and say that he hadn't seen his shadow, and he predicted an early spring, all was right in her little world.

before and after

I'm a terrible decorator. I don't know how to put things together and make them look good. I can't really picture how things are going to look, and don't want to spend money if I don't know if I'm going to like something, so many, many parts of our house have gone undecorated in the over eight years that we have lived in this house. I hate how plain it looks, but don't really know what I want most of the time. My husband gets so frustrated, because he wishes it were decorated, but I don't want to waste money on things I'm not going to like for long.

One of the areas that has become increasingly more frustrating in our house is the entryway. It's very small, first of all. In the winter there are shoes and boots galore. There's nowhere to store anything. Our hats and gloves are in a cardboard box stashed on the top shelf of the closet. So hard to get to. We don't have a mud room, or even room for anything like it, so the front entry is the only place to have these sorts of thing. The closet is small, too, so there's not room to store much in the way of shoes either. Also, there's no way for the girls to hang up their coats. They can't reach the hangers in the closet. So they either throw their coats on the chair in the adjacent living room, which looks awful, or I have to stand at the closet and wait for them to bring me their coats every time we come in.

One of my Christmas presents from my parents was a bench with storage, which is something I've been wanting for at least a year, but I've had trouble finding what I want. There are so many qualifications. Size is the biggest obstacle: it has to be small. Another issue is that it can't be flush to the ground because there is a heat register there, which needs to be left open, so it has to be up off the ground. Price was another obstacle. Finding something I liked, which also fit these parameters was tough. But my mom and I finally did it. We found one and she ordered it for me a few weeks ago. She also bought me an early birthday present, and got me a matching shelf with hooks to put above it, which will allow the girls to hang up their own coats.

The bench arrived last week and the shelf came yesterday. Tonight my husband and I put it up. Imagine new, nicer baskets on the shelves, which I'll hopefully find soon.

The first three pictures are before (including the mess of shoes...) and the last picture is after.

lost and found

All is right with the world. I just found the wonderful, soft, expensive leather glove that I lost last Friday. I've been going crazy since then, trying to find it. I just went to the grocery store, which was the last place I knew I had it, to see if anyone had turned it in. (No luck there.). On Friday I actually shoveled the whole driveway, looking for it, rather than waiting for my husband ti come home and snow blow us out, because it had snowed for hours before I realized I had lost it and I was afraid the snow blower might ruin it. I didn't find it there either. As the snow has melted since then, I kept looking in the grass, thinking maybe while I was shoveling I tossed it into the grass with the snow. Nope. Looked through the car several times. Nope. But just now I was walking through the garage on my way in the house and thought to look in a box that was out there, which had been in the house on Friday. And sure enough, there it was!! Hooray!

It's a good thing, because do you know that you can't buy a decent pair of gloves in the middle of January? I've looked. You can buy swimsuits. You can buy short sleeved shirts. But you can't buy gloves. Isn't that crazy, the way the stores do that? Clearance all of the winter stuff right after Christmas and bring in summer. Who wants summer stuff in January?? We need gloves, people!

So thankfully, mine have been found.

tonight's facebook status...

"At bedtime tonight I started telling Rebecca (age 2.5) about how I used to rock her in the rocking chair we were sitting in, and give her a bottle. "Where are the bottles?" she asked. I told her we don't have them anymore. "You hold me like this?" she asked, as she scooted herself laying sideways in my arms like a baby. "Yes, and I sang to you," I told her. "You sing to me now?" she asked. So we rocked and I sang song after song to my "baby" in my arms (after each one she asked for another one). Best stall tactic ever, Rebecca.... So, so sweet...."

pigtailed cuties

Rachel hasn't wanted me to do anything to her hair (other than brush it) for years. But for some reason, for the last couple of days she's asked me to put it up. Yesterday it was one ponytail, which didn't work out too well because it fell out at school (her hair wasn't quite long enough for it), so today we did two pigtails, which are much more secure. And whatever her big sister has, Rebecca wants, too, so here is the result.



My ipad doesn't take the greatest pictures, especially when the blinds are open right behind them, but it makes it a lot easier to share pictures because there is no transferring between camera, card reader, and computer.

this and that

There's not a lot of news around here. Real life has started up again after the holiday craziness. Rachel's back at school, and thankfully doing pretty well at the moment (she was having a rough time, behavior-wise, before Christmas, so I was worried about how she'd do going back), and Rebecca and I are back in our little routine.

Rebecca's room time is going better this week. That first day was the only one she cried. The next day she fell asleep curled up in a little ball in her rocking chair, and now she's playing and seems to enjoy it. Today she even ASKED me if she could go play in her room! I hadn't given her room time today because we went to the grocery store during that time, so after lunch, before naptime, she asked to play in her room. What? You want to give Mommy some time to herself? Are you kidding me? Sure!

We've been working a lot on helping her learn her letters. She's interested and enjoys it, so why not? She knows R (R says Rebecca, she proudly yells.), M (M says Mommy!), D, G, T, K, B, U, E, H, X...I think that's all for now. When we're out driving around she'll point out letters on signs. She's always right on, too!

She's enjoying her toys from Christmas, but she likes playing with them in unconventional ways. She got a "puzzle" which looks like a barn (she loves barns and farm things) and you open up little doors and there are little animal magnets inside. Rather than taking them out and putting them back in, she takes them out, sticks them together (they're magnets, so they stick together, back to back), and calls it her iPad or her iPhone (I don't know how she even knows what an iPhone is, because no one she knows even has one!). She carries it around, swiping her finger across it, like you do on an iPad or iPhone....silly girl. Or she puts them in a dish from her little kitchen and calls them cookies. She loves taking little pieces and parts of toys and using them for other things. This is all well and good until its time to put the pieces away and I can't find them all. It drives me crazy. I've kept Rachel's toys for years without losing parts, and now I'm losing all kinds of pieces. It makes me so mad when I can't find something. I try and tell myself it's just a toy, but I want them to remain complete with all their pieces. A lot of times they're up in Rachel's room, where the two of them often play. And since Rachel's room is usually a disaster, even though I make her clean her room at least once or twice a week, they're always hard to find. If they're not there, I find them under couches, in between cushions, and so on. Or they just stay lost...which I hate. This girl....I don't remember having this problem with Rachel.

Rebecca's developing an imagination, which is fun to see. She plays in the bathtub and makes up scenarios for the princess dolls (Rachel's bathtub princess dolls), or she has pretend tea parties with a stuffed animal, and so forth. She's enjoying playing with Rachel's old Little People castle, carriage, and the princes and princesses that go along with them. That's what she usually plays with during her room time.

Rachel is enjoying school. I hear the most about music class. She loves it. Art class, too, but especially music. She's selling Girl Scout cookies right now, and has already surpassed what she sold last year, so we've made some progress. (We are not the greatest Girl Scout cookie selling family. We have a small family, no one is local, and most of the people we know are already Girl Scouts, so it's hard to find people to sell to. There are three Girl Scouts just on our little cul de sac of 10 houses, so selling in the neighborhood is tough, too.)

I'm taking two correspondence courses right now in order to renew my teaching license by the time it expires this summer. One of them is about using the iPad in the classroom. I actually have learned quite a few things about my ipad that I didn't know, just from doing my assignments!

And that's the news from our world.

room time

When Rachel was little, she had playpen time each day, when she would play independently in the playpen for thirty minutes or so in another room while I cleaned or showered or whatever. When she was older she graduated to room time, where she did the same thing, but in her room with her toys instead of in the playpen. She did great, and sometimes would last even an hour in there playing by herself.

When Rebecca was younger, I did playpen time with her, too, but it never worked as well. She'd play for a little while, but it always ended in tears, wanting to be rescued and let out. I used to use her playpen time to shower and take Rachel out to the bus stop last year, when the bus stop was right across the street, so I wouldn't have to get her bundled up to go out in the cold.

Over the summer I finally gave up on playpen time, though, because she rarely played, and mostly cried. I started taking showers earlier, before my husband left for work. I hated doing it that way, but it was the only way I saw to do it.

This year the bus stop is quite a way from our house, so I can't leave her in the house anyway (Since it's been cold and icy we've been driving. Today was the first day we walked in quite awhile, though it was rough pushing the stroller through our neighbor's unshoveled, icy, snowy sidewalks...grr....that's a story for another day...).

But I decided that it was time to introduce Rebecca to room time. She needs to learn to play independently like her sister always has. So today was the first day. I told her that she was going to play in her room awhile and I was going to do some work and then come back and get her. Well, she didn't like that idea. She kept asking me to stay and play with her. I told her no, that I had things to do, but I would come back to see her in a little bit. As soon as I left, she started crying. I let her cry for a little bit, then went in and told her that it would be a lot more fun to play than to cry. I said, "You can play or you can cry, but you need to stay in here until Mommy comes back, and it would be lots more fun to spend that time playing!" She told me, "I wanna cry!" So I left again, and let her cry. She started yelling, "I wanna get out! I don't wanna pway wif my toys! I wanna go downstairs NOW!" I just let her continue her rant, and she soon stopped, and I heard her toys moving around, so I assumed she started playing.

After a few minutes of quiet playing she started saying (not yelling or crying, this time), "Hurry up, mom! Come in here!" But she continued to play. I left her for 15 minutes and then went in to get her. We cleaned up and I told her we'd practice again tomorrow, but now it was time to go downstairs. Hopefully the crying will get less each day and she'll start to enjoy it.

In other news, Rachel has another bad cold. Ugh. But some good news is that she's FINALLY learned how to tie her shoes!! She got her first pair of shoes that tie for Christmas, so she finally had motivation to learn. She caught on a lot faster than I expected her to. She's so proud of herself every time she ties them. Her knots are pretty loose, so we're working on getting them tighter, but at least she finally gets it.

The artist

Rachel has always loved to draw. I'm biased, but I think she's pretty good. For being six.

Today I found this picture on the back of one of her school papers and was impressed with the details. It's Merida, from Brave, holding her bow and arrows, and the black thing is a bear.

If I can't brag on my own blog, then where?

back to reality

Today Rachel goes back to school, which means Christmas Vacation is officially over, and real life starts up again.  A few days ago I was really down about it all.  Today I'm very ready for things to get back to normal. 

I'm going to miss Rachel, though.  I've gotten used to having her around.  What I won't miss, though, is policing the arguing between the two girls.  Oh my.  It reached an all time high over the last two weeks, I think.  A little too much togetherness, I guess.  So I won't miss that, but I will miss Rebecca having a playmate. 

I'm also going to miss leisurely mornings in our PJs and not making Rachel's lunch each morning. 

But, that's life. 

Rebecca's been cuddly this morning.  She threw her arms around me and said, "This is my ____!"  (insert my name here--I don't know why she used my regular name--usually she says, "This is my mommy!").  Then she told me, "You are so cute."  I told her, "Well, you are so cute, too."  Next she said, "You love me!"  I assured her that yes, I love her, and she told me, "I love you, too."  She's been telling me that more and more in the last few days.  So sweet to hear!

On New Years Eve we were looking for something a little "special" to do with the girls without venturing out.  We ended up watching home movies.  We never watch the videos we take, so it was something special.  Rachel LOVED it.  She loved seeing herself as a younger girl.  And Rebecca kept saying that little Rachel was Rebecca.  They do look very similar, so a little Rachel does look like a current Rebecca, so it's easy to see why she thought that.  I couldn't believe how different Rachel was--so little girly, and it made her seem so grown up now.  Until recently she couldn't say certain sounds correctly (the R sound, the TH sound....), so to hear her talking that way in the videos made her current speech sound so mature.  I miss my little three and four year old Rachel.  I told her she needs to go back to being three or four.  She said she can't.  So I told her she needs to stay six and not get any older.  She didn't seem to like that idea either.  Sometimes I just want to stop time. 

We watched the day Rebecca was born.  So tiny.  So sweet.   No arguing with her sister, no telling me, "NO!" and no constantly getting into things she shouldn't.  There are certain things about babyhood that I miss.  Guess I'll just have to be happy that now there's no waking up in the middle of the night to eat like there was then.  She also couldn't tell me, "I love you!"  I'll take that.

Well, I have work to do.  Back to reality!

Happy New Year!

Here's how we brought in the new year this morning....

This is what Rebecca wanted to do the whole time. 

She did enjoy the sledding, though we don't have any pictures where you can see her!  (She was sandwiched between Rachel and either Mommy or Daddy.)  She is on the video we took, though.

Christmas 2012 Recap in Photos

We're back!  We had a great Christmas--first at our house on Christmas morning, then an impromptu trip to visit my husband's family (it was supposed to be the day after Christmas, but bad weather that day meant that if we wanted to see them, we had to fit it in on Christmas Day), and then several days with my family. 

The girls were thrilled with everything.  And my husband completely surprised me with my big gift--an iPad!  I had been wanting one, but didn't ask for one because I knew I didn't need it, and there were lots of other things I needed more.  But I got the things I needed PLUS an iPad!  I couldn't believe it.  I love it!

So here are pictures from the last few days.  Enjoy!  And Happy New Year!

Rachel's biggest wish was a Merida dress (the princess from Brave).  It was the last gift she opened.  She was so excited.

Daddy got the girls head lamps.  Hilarious!

Rebecca loves Minnie Mouse!

She also loves Doc McStuffins, so my mom made her this doctor's coat that says, "Doc Rebecca."

Not only did Rachel get a Merida dress, Grandma had a whole box of Brave stuff, including another Merida dress (that she made herself!), wig, shoes, crown, necklace, earrings, bow, arrows, and quiver.  This is Rachel opening the box

then expressing her excitement!

And all dressed up.... (isn't the wig hilarious???)

Rebecca had to get in on the Merida excitement, too....

Both girls are excited about my iPad, too!

What fun!

Nutcracker 2012

Today was the day!

Rachel was so excited.

It will never be as exciting as it was the first time we went, but it was a fun afternoon.

And just because Rebecca wanted her picture taken, too, here she is, with Grandma and Rachel:

 

 

And here are a few pictures from yesterday--our first snowfall of the year, and Rebecca's first time playing in the snow.  She mostly just walked around in it, laughing, and watched Rachel and me have a snowball fight (my first snowball fight with my daughter--she thought it was hilarious!).  We tried to make a snowman, without success.  And Rachel made a few snow blocks with this snow block maker, but mostly she just posed with it.

 



another failed attempt

Here's what happened last year we took the girls to see Santa.

I thought this year might be different.  Rebecca's not too shy anymore.  She's excited about Christmas and Santa and was excited about going to see him.

But as soon as I set her down on his lap, this happened:

And this:

After I quickly snapped the pictures I rushed over and rescued her.  She stopped crying right away and talked to him a little bit in the safety of my arms.  She told him she wanted a purple present.

Rachel changed her mind about what she had written in her letter to Santa and told him something completely different that she wanted him to bring.  Uh oh!

He asked her if she'd been a good girl.  She's gotten in some trouble at school lately, so she said, "Well, I've been a little bit good and a little bit bad, but I'm trying to do better."  He thanked her for being an honest girl and told her just to do her best and that no one can be good all the time. 

the best laid plans...

When we won the Nutcracker tickets, my plan was to wait and surprise Rachel the morning of the show with the tickets. 

But then, a week or so ago she came home from school with a birthday party invitation.  And wouldn't you know that it was for the exact day and time as I had already chosen the Nutcracker tickets.  Ugh. 

She was so excited about the birthday party (are all six year olds as into birthday parties as she is?  She talks about them for weeks and weeks!), but once I looked at the invitation, I knew she couldn't go.  But I couldn't tell her that she couldn't go unless I told her about The Nutcracker!  I hated changing the plans to surprise her, but I didn't really have a choice.

So I wrapped up a Nutcracker bookmark I had found and when she opened it I told her about winning the tickets and going to see it.  She was really excited, until she found out it meant that she couldn't go to the birthday party.  I guess I should've anticipated that reaction, but I didn't.  Lots of tears.  Ugh.

But over time, she's forgotten about the birthday party and is really excited to go to the Nutcracker tomorrow.  She's been listening to the music up in her room (two years ago after we saw it for the first time I bought her the CD for Christmas, and she loves it) and dancing to it.

The plan was for Grandma and Grandpa (who are coming with us to the Nutcracker tomorrow) to come down today and go with the girls and me to go visit Santa.  Rachel's been talking about it for a week.  But then winter decided to make an appearance, and it's going to snow all day here.  They said the roads are going to get worse and worse today, so they've decided to wait and come down tomorrow in time for the Nutcracker, and not go with us to see Santa today (tomorrow the weather is supposed to be fine).    So once again, plans change. 

Rachel's not good at changing plans.  Thankfully she took this one in stride.  I'll have to wait and see how the roads are before I decide whether or not to go on with the plan to go see Santa today.  That's a plan I'm afraid she won't be as okay with!  We'll see....

Rebecca's strep throat is the easiest case of strep throat I've ever heard of.  After we went to the doctor she hasn't had a fever at all!  She takes her medicine like a pro.  You can't even tell that she was ever sick.  Still hoping that Rachel doesn't come down with it, though....that would probably change some more plans, and that would make her (and me!) really sad.

medicine

Rebecca loves taking medicine.  This is a complete turnaround from what I'm used to with Rachel, who is terrible about taking medicine.

So it's a good thing that it's Rebecca who's been diagnosed with strep throat, not Rachel!

The last few days she's had a pretty high fever, and I figured it was just a virus, and wasn't planning on taking her to the doctor, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought now would probably be a better time to take her, rather than waiting until later in the week, closer to the holiday, when there would probably be fewer doctors in the office and harder to get an appointment.

I'm SO GLAD I did!  I never expected strep throat.  Neither of them has ever had it.  She wasn't complaining of her throat hurting, and was still eating okay.  Just the fever, really. 

So now she's on the pink stuff, except it's not pink!  It smells like it, is the same consistency, but it's white, not pink!  She likes it.  Oh, it makes it so much easier that way.  Bless you, Rebeeca!!!

Now I am really, really hoping that Rachel doesn't catch it. 

Gotta go wake up my sick girl to go to the bus stop.  In a few minutes it will be Christmas vacation!  Rachel's done with school for a couple of weeks.  YAY!

an eventful weekend

Last week/weekend was the busiest, most exhausting of the month (year??). Whew!  I'm so excited to relax and do nothing today (well, if you count lots of laundry and wrapping Christmas presents nothing....).

This weekend Rachel performed three times in the kids' choir at our church and I performed three times in a choir at a different church across town (I skipped two additional performances in order to see Rachel in hers, or I would've been in five!).  It was BUSY, and I didn't know how we'd make it all work, but we survived, and it all went well.

 

Here are some pictures from Rachel's performance.  She did great and it was so fun watching her up on stage.  I can't really put many because there are other children's faces in them.  Hopefully I cropped these well enough.

Also, this weekend, my parents came (to see us sing) and made gingerbread cookies with the girls.  By this point Rebecca was done with baking and didn't want to pose for pictures, so I only have pictures of Grandma and Rachel.

And not to be outdone, here's Rebecca.  She was a trooper this weekend, putting up with everyone else performing.  She had to do lots of waiting around.  At our church they have this nativity scene set up, and she enjoyed playing in it while she waited for Rachel to finish singing for the last time.

the lucky one

Remember how my dad won us tickets to go see the Nutcracker?

Well, before we found out he won, I had entered another giveaway.  And would you believe that I just found out yesterday that I won that one, too!?!?!? 

I won four more tickets!  Is that crazy or what?  I've never been lucky in this sort of thing before, so I don't know why this sudden stroke of luck, but I'm so thankful to have been blessed by EIGHT tickets to this show!

Last night I called a friend with two little girls who I thought might like them.  She told me, "I think you're about to make my little girl's dream come true!"  Her daughter (a friend of Rachel's) had recently seen the Barbie Nutcracker video, and there was a documentary at the end about the real Nutcracker ballet, which she loved watching.  Then her mom told her that they do the Nutcracker here in town, and she started begging to go see it.  They looked into going, but the only tickets left are the really expensive seats, so they decided not to go.  And then I called her with four extra tickets!  I'm so excited that I could help make her dreams come true.  They're so thrilled.

As fun as it is to know we get to go see it again next weekend (Rachel still doesn't know--please don't tell her if you see her!), I think it's even more fun to get to play Santa and give these away to a little girl and her family who really, really want them. 

fancy

Over Thanksgiving my mom decided she wanted to get Rachel a gingerbread house for us to put together at Christmastime.  While looking at them, I saw this:

If you know Rachel, you know what a perfect find this was.  She's still very princess-obsessed, and loves anything having to do with princesses, castles, fairies, fancy...you get the idea.  So this was perfect. 

She couldn't wait to put it together, but we had to wait until a weekend, when we'd have more time to devote to it.  This past Saturday was finally the day.  Of course, we couldn't wait until a normal hour-- my girls are up at the crack of dawn, so all kinds of things happen around here before 8:00 AM, including making gingerbread castles. 

Mommy had a little trouble getting it put together....

But in the end, it all turned out just fine.

Rachel helped with the decorations while Rebecca played with the Cinderella and coach. 

Later, the girls were dressing up.  Rebecca's not as into playing dress up as Rachel, but sometimes she gets into it.  Here's my fancy girl:

And Rachel wanted her picture taken, too.

Love my fancy girls! (Rebecca was done with looking at the camera.....

another one bites the dust

First Rachel had a cold.  Then I caught it.  I'm still getting over it, but this afternoon I started wondering if Rebecca was sick. I had to wake her up from her nap in order to go get Rachel from the bus stop, and she was really lethargic for the next hour or so.  She finally perked up and acted pretty normal during and after dinner, but about an hour before bed she was on my lap, rubbing her eyes, digging her head into my shoulder, whining that no, she wasn't "sweepy."  She felt a little warm.  She continued to sit quietly with me for a long time, which is very unlike her.  She loves to sit with me, but only for a few minutes at a time, and then she's down running around again. 

Before bed I took her temp.  Slight fever.  I tried to put her right to bed after giving her some medicine, but she said she wanted a story (our usual ritual).  I started the story, but she spent the whole time with her head laying down on my chest, not even looking at the book.  Not normal Rebecca at all.

Hopefully it's quick, but that's not usually the case with my kids.  And this is something different than Rachel and I had (she's not congested, and neither Rachel or I had a fever), so anyone could catch it....  Ugh.  This next week is the busiest of this whole busy month.  This could throw a wrench in things.....