Nutcracker

Last night was the night!

She loved it.  I loved watching her love it.

Thank you, Dad!

santa fail

Rebecca wasn't impressed with Santa.

She was excited while we were waiting in line, saying "ho ho ho" and pointing at him.  But as soon as I tried to sit her on his lap, she wouldn't let go of me and started crying.  I had to pry her off of me and sit her down and watch her cry while my husband snapped pictures and we laughed.  What kind of parents do that???  Sit their child on a strange man's lap, let them cry, and laugh about it???  Well, apparently, we're that kind of parents.  It's a rite of passage.  I picked her up and she calmed down immediately.  She even waved goodbye to him once Rachel was done.

Rachel loved it, and told him the things she had written on her list (a Belle dress, shoes, gloves--"all yellow, please," and a princess doll).  He knew that Belle wore a yellow dress and she was impressed! 

Afterward we walked around outside and saw the big Christmas tree, trains, and nativity.

Rebecca loved the trains and kept saying "too too tain" over and over well after we left.

Then we went in Barnes and Noble to get warm and let Rebecca play awhile.

Despite the crying, it was a fun evening.

And here's one more picture of Rebecca....just because it makes me laugh.  This face of hers is even more priceless....but Rachel's isn't as good, which is why I chose the other one for the first one.

six pink peppermints 'til Christmas

Growing up, my mom always sang that song.  (It's six pink peppermints 'til Christmas....and there's lots and lots of things for us to do....)  I remember I would wait and wait for it to REALLY be six days until Christmas.  So here we are today!  Six more days!  Rachel thinks it's an eternity.  I can't believe it's already this close. 

We had Christmas celebration #1 this weekend with my husband's family.  Rachel had a great time with her cousins.  They have a Wii, and Rachel's been lamenting for months the fact that we don't have any video game systems in our house, so she was thrilled to finally get to play some video games for the first time (the only way she even knows what video games are is from commercials--she's seen commercials for X-box 360, so she keeps asking for one--we've told her she's too young).  So anyway, she got to play the Wii.  And even though she didn't really know what she was doing, she enjoyed it.

All of the cousins had a great time decorating Christmas cookies.

Yesterday we wrapped presents.  It's made Rachel even more excited, seeing presents under the tree.  She keeps asking to open "just ONE before Christmas."  "A week is such a loooooooooong time," she tells us. 

This morning she opened the little "19" door on the advent calendar (and read it all by herself!), and started jumping up and down.  It said, "Go see Santa."  She's been asking all month to go see him, and we just haven't had a chance to do it.  We've got a lot going on this week, so either tonight or Thursday night are our last two shots.  We thought it might be a little less crowded tonight.  So tonight it is!  It'll be interesting to see how Rebecca does--whether she screams in fear or not.

Rebecca is watching Sesame Street as I write this--her first time.  She's been really excited about Elmo lately, so I thought she might like it.  She's not a big TV watcher at all, but she's watching it off and on, in between stirring the "tea" in her play teapot and eating it with a spoon.  Every time Elmo goes off she keeps asking for him to come back.  But she's equally enthralled with Big Bird and Ernie.

Oh, and these are some more cookies I made last week.  They look cute, but didn't work out too well.  The pretzels kept falling off.  One of the recipes called for chocolate covered pretzels, and I think next time I'd try those, since the chocolate would melt when you push them in the hot cookies, and then harden, to help keep the pretzels in place.  But they looked good until you picked them up, anyway, and Rachel was excited about them.

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....