easter egg hunt 2013

We continued the tradition of going up to my brother's for their annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt.  (Rebecca's sickness appeared to be a quick thing, and she's been completely fine since yesterday morning, so we went ahead and took her.) 

If you click on the links in the paragraph above, it'll take you to the previous years' posts about the easter egg hunt--I enjoyed seeing the pictures of how much the girls have changed over the years.  In the last two links, Rebecca hadn't even been born yet! 

The girls had a great time!

 

Waiting for the hunt to start with Grandma and Grandpa

Waiting for the bell to ring--almost her turn!

She had to shake each egg before she put it in her bucket....I had to keep reminding her to pick up some more, but eventually she sped up and got the hang of it.

Rachel was happy when they finally rang the bell for her turn--she was in the third group this year, age-wise, so she had to wait a little longer!

Showing Daddy her chocolate!

Cousin-love....Rebecca is enamored with her cousin, Ethan, who is 12.  He is good with her, but clearly gets annoyed with her constant ploys for his attention at times, too.  But he's a good sport and plays with her.

sick girl

Stuffy noses, coughs, fevers....I can handle those fairly well.  But throw up?  Ugh.  It's just the WORST. 

Last night I put Rebecca to bed and told my husband that I was worried that she might wake us up that night throwing up.  She had had a really nasty diaper before bed, had been super whiny at dinner, sat in the bathtub staring into space instead of playing, and complained that her tummy didn't feel good. 

And unfortunately, my intuition was right.  If ever I wished I was wrong, it was then!

It took me two hours to fall asleep because I've been sick this week, and my husband and I keep each other awake coughing (he's been sick for about two weeks).  Then, after finally being asleep about an hour and a half, she woke us up, crying, after throwing up in her crib, and not knowing what in the world was going on. 

She got a bath (but even washing her hair twice didn't take the smell out completely) and sheets changed, and put back to bed.

An hour later it all happened again.

This morning she slept late and when she got up she said, "It stayed in my mouth this time!"  (Meaning that she didn't throw up again.)  She's so funny....

She seems okay this morning, so far, though she's hardly eaten anything.  She got another bath, but I STILL can't get the smell out of her hair!  Any advice for getting the smell out???  Yuck, yuck, yuck.

fun at the museum

We're home from Grandma and Grandpa's now, but while we were there we went to the children's museum near their house.

Both girls had a ball.

at grandma's

It's spring break, and just like most of the Midwest, it snowed all day today. We escaped by traveling north, which didn't help the weather, of course, but it doesn't matter...we went to GRANDMA'S!

Forget Florida or anywhere else warm. Grandma's is heaven for my girls....

wacky Wednesday

Rachel missed wacky Wednesday a few weeks ago because of a snow day, so she was thrilled to have another attempt at it today, during "spirit week" at school.

She came downstairs all dressed this morning, she was so excited (she never comes down dressed...there's almost always grumbling when I tell her it's time to get dressed).

So here she is in the outfit she picked out and the hair do she decided on to be wacky.

Silly girl!

Oh, and a not so wacky Rebecca, just because she wanted her picture taken, too!

on the mend?

Here's hoping that today is Rachel's last day at home. Her strep test yesterday was negative, so we are just waiting for the virus to run its course. Her throat still hurts a lot and she still had a fever this morning, though lower than yesterday, so I'm hoping it is on its way out. She's cried every morning when she finds out she can't go to school. Yesterday it was, "but I can't miss library!" Today it was, "but I can't miss game day in math class!" Then she realized that she missed art class on Tuesday and she was super sad about that, too. I'm happy that she loves going and always has things she looks forward to. Hopefully she won't have to miss tomorrow.

Rebecca, on the other hand, has loved having her home, and so have I. They've played together lots. This morning I brought up a princess tent from the basement that had been put away for awhile, and it was like a brand new toy. They played in it forever.

I don't think I've mentioned how affectionate Rebecca has been lately. She always has been more cuddly than Rachel ever was, but lately she just wants to hug me all day long and tell me, "I WUV you, Mommy!" And also for the last few days she's been calling me Momma. I don't know why, and for some reason it's driving me crazy. Sometimes I let it go and sometimes I say, "Why are you calling me Momma? My name is Mommy." Then she starts calling me Mom. I'd much rather be Mommy for as long as I can, than Mom. For some reason, though, she seems to prefer Momma right now. Strange. I guess if I have to choose between Momma and Mom, I'll take Momma for a little while.

I never posted my final picture of my new shelf, after I got new baskets. It looks a lot better, I think. The problem is, when my husband and I put our coats on it, they hang all the way down to the bench, which makes it harder to use! Oh well....I still like it.

sick

Rachel was home from school yesterday and will be home again today, sick. Each morning she's been in tears because she can't go to school. But she has a very sore throat and fever, so she can't go, unfortunately. I almost didn't send her on Monday, either, but she hadn't started the fever yet at that point. I hope to get her in at the doctor today.

I don't like that she's sick, but it's nice having her home. When she has ibuprofen in her she feels pretty good and and plays normally. So she entertains her sister, which makes things easier on me! Yesterday she and I dressed paper dolls while Rebecca played with other things. She said, "I like going to school, but I'm having fun at home with you, Mommy." :) But a few hours later she kept telling me how bored she was, lest you think it's all roses....

Rebecca's still got her cold, too, but hers only had a fever associated with it one night, and otherwise she's just been stuffed up (and now she's coughing). Come on, spring!!

But so much for spring...there's a coating of snow on the ground this morning. Yuck!

So that's the news from here. I'll be glad when everyone's healthy again (and spring is here to stay!)

spring!

The weather this weekend is very spring-like. We went to the park yesterday and today the girls played outside without coats and were so excited.

While playing outside they picked up the snowman's clothes from a couple of days ago. When I went outside to check on them, this was what I found.

bowling with Daddy

Today was "Father Daughter Bowling" day for our Girl Scout troop.  Most of the girls hadn't bowled before, including Rachel.  She was a little nervous, but excited about it.  I had to be there, too, in order to pay and I guess be there in case something happened (even though all the dads were there), so I became the official photographer.  I took a TON of pictures.  I can't show the ones with the girls' faces (except Rachel's), but here are some of the others.  Here's my husband....

Daddy instructing Rachel on how to bowl....

Take a look at her form!

I love this--Rachel's in mid-air, jumping up and down, so excited to see how many she'll knock down!

Poor Rebecca....she was supposed to go to my friend's house to play with her two little boys, but she got sick and was up half the night with a stuffy nose and slight fever, so I couldn't take her, and she had to come with us.  I was worried about how she'd behave, but she was a perfect angel--in her stroller the WHOLE time!  What a trooper!

snow day

I don't know why, but Rachel has a snow day today. They forecasted tons of snow, the opposite side of town got eight inches, but we only had two, if that. But all of the schools in town were closed. Rachel came down all dressed this morning (which NEVER happens) because it was Wacky Wednesday today and she was excited to wear her clothes backwards and have crazy hair. When I told her it was a snow day she said, "No!!" and burst into tears. She was so excited about Wacky Wednesday.

But she got over it. Then she asked me to print her some worksheets. Huh?? Rachel wants to do extra schoolwork? That never happens either! But she did it all, even the math facts that took her FOREVER! She stuck with it and finished them all. I was proud of her.

Then she went outside with her sister to play in the snow. A little while later she came and knocked on the door and asked for clothes for her snowman, which she had made all by herself for the first time ever. So I got him some clothes and then, of course, Rebecca wanted a snowman. So Rachel helped make her one and we clothed him, too.

Here they are with their creations (on Rebecca's snowman Rachel told me she lost some of the rocks I gave her for the face, so she just used dirty snow!!!).

overheard

The girls are at the kitchen table painting right now.  Until just a minute ago I was doing the dishes, listening and watching.

A few minutes ago, Rachel, clearly thinking about how she wants to be an artist when she grows up asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up, Rebecca?"

"A Wadybug!!!!!!!" she exclaims.

Rachel and I laughed.  Rachel says, "No, you can't be an insect when you grow up."

Rebecca answers, "Oh....I be a bunny when I gwo up!"

our little comedienne

Rebecca is constantly cracking us up with the things she says.  She doesn't mean to be funny, but it just comes out that way.  I only remember a few of the hilarious things she says.  I wish I could write them all down to remember them, but I never have anything handy to write it down.  So here are just a few of the things she's said lately to keep us laughing.

Last weekend my parents were here.  Rebecca was sitting on Grandma's lap while Grandma was talking to me.  Rebecca kept trying to get her attention while she was talking to me, so she finally put her hand on Grandma's mouth and said, "Don't say another word." 

A few minutes later, while we were still laughing about that one, she was trying to get my mom to look at something she had made.  My mom was looking in that direction, but Rebecca wanted to make sure she was looking closely, so she kept trying to push her head down, right next to what she had made.  "Just a WIIIIIITTLE bit cwoser," she kept telling her.  ("Just a liiiiiiittle bit closer," is what she was saying--she doesn't say her "L" sound very well yet.)

A few weeks ago she was watching The Wonder Pets.  It's not a show she normally watches, so she was watching pretty intently.  After it was over she said, "Mommy, we don't have a fwy boat.  We need to go to the store to buy one!"  (The Wonder Pets fly in a FLY boat....she calls it a fwy boat.)

As she gave me a hug not too long ago she told me, "I love you, Mommy.  You're my sweet little mama." 

I wish I could think of more.  She's so funny, but these don't sound quite so funny when you write it down.  Some of those, "I guess you had to be there...." type of moments, I guess....

While they were here, my parents were entertained by both girls.  Rachel decided to play Egyptian princess with them, and put these things on them (they're the protectors from the arms of the living room chair) to turn them into an Egyptian Queen and King.  They decided to play along and "Walk Like An Egyptian."

Rebecca decided to try doing it, too.

Oh, and she got a haircut...so here she is with her new 'do.

Love my crazy family!

mazes

Over the weekend we went to the science museum.  There was a special mazes exhibit. 

Rachel had a great time and worked hard at making her own maze.

Rebecca traveled through the maze.

Rachel had a little trouble with this maze...

There was a bounce house in a different exhibit--Rachel loved it.  Rebecca spent the whole time like this because she couldn't stand up!

But we all had a great time.

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.