The Days of our Lives (Dec 8 - Dec 14)

Sunday & Monday - Trip to Stowe. 

Tuesday - We came home early from our vacation so that we all would have one more day of Brian's to recover from the trip.  Unfortunately Brian had to spend most of the morning working on the car, in our cold, wet parking lot with heavy snowfall (minimal accumulation though).  He got the wiper fluid replaced with with winter mix + de-icer, changed the oil and also replaced the rear break pads that had gotten down to the wear bars.  Our Chirstmas cards had come in the mail, so the kids and I worked on them for a while in the afternoon, unfortunately leaving me with a hand cramp that would not go away (I barely write anything by hand anymore - luckily it was fine the next morning, especially since I still had dozens of cards to go).  I did get my motivation up to make one of the family's favorite meals: fried pork chops ("schnitzel") with white gravy and  rice.

Wednesday - Brian was home in the morning pre-call, and after he slept in some in preparation for the night ahead, I ran to the grocery store to pick up some desperately needed fresh fruits and veggies.  After I got home I was having somewhat of a "blah" morning, so Brian sent me away for some downtime while he played with the kids.  Sarah got SO UPSET that I was going to another room and she wasn't allowed to follow me - she was crying for quite a while, and even after I emerged from my room about 30 minutes later, as soon as she saw me her little bottom lip started quivering as she remembered how much she had missed me.   She ended up taking a long afternoon nap (thank goodness), which gave Nathan and me time to make some serious headway on the Christmas cards.  He was so into helping me, which was so nice!  Sometimes he would want to affix all the stamps and labels on the envelopes, sometimes I would have him sign his name on the back of specific cards, and sometimes he would decide that a certain recipient needed a special piece of artwork included with the card (one NC playgroup family received four different pictures from Nathan - one for the girl, one for the boy and one for each of the parents).  It was not quite clear to me, though, how he determined who rated a personalized insert - it was all based on his whims.

Thursday - Library in the morning.  Nathan hasn't wanted to go to storytime for months, but I checked again with him this morning to see if he was interested - he wasn't.  But then Sarah piped up and told me "Me go sit storytime!"  I sprung into action since I knew sometimes people are turned away if the room is too full, which of course happens more frequently when its cold.  Unfortunately we arrived at the library at 10:31 and were too late to get in. Sarah was almost inconsolable she was so disappointed.

Friday - Another outing to the children's museum.  I told Nathan that next week when he wanted to go somewhere that he would need to pick either the aquarium or the science museum since we had been to the Children's museum so many weeks in a row!  Somehow, even with as many times as we've been so far, the kids found a new engrossing activity to do this morning.  Well, our first stop was the art studio which is one of Nathan's favorite activities.  Then we spent lots of time in the workshop for the first time. The kids played for a while and then were almost ready to go when they discovered the safety goggles and work aprons hanging around the corner at the "entrance" to the workshop and boy did they fall in love!  There was lots of switching of the goggles from green to pink and back and forth and we ended up spending almost an hour in the shop.

While the kids were spending an impressively long time playing, I hopped on Amazon to see if I could find some kid-size goggles to buy for them at some point, which I did.  I had already ordered all their Christmas gifts, but decided that these are definitely going on the gift idea list for the future - fun for dress up and also practical for when they're helping Daddy with car and house projects after we move!

Saturday - Brian was on call so the kids and I stayed home for the day to work on "projects" with the kids.  In the morning we made gingerbread boy cookies (since one of our favorite holiday books is "The Gingerbread Boy") and then in the afternoon we started on the kids' gingerbread houses.  I took lots of pictures, so I'll put those in a separate post.

The Days of our Lives (Dec 1 - Dec 7)

I'm going to try and catch up on the blog this week.  The holidays put me behind plus when I'm with the kids from wake-up to bedtime due to Brian's long days I tend to just crash at night.  

Sunday - Sarah has been increasingly fussy about going to Junior Worship (kids church) since October when we missed a few weeks due to leaf peeping with Nana and Grand Dad and our trip to Knoxville.  Two weeks ago they came up to get Brian because they couldn't get Sarah calmed down.  She ended up falling asleep in his arms because she had gotten so worked up.  Last week Brian didn't even make it out of the room dropping her off before she had a meltdown.  Today I asked her to give me a kiss before Daddy took her downstairs (thinking that might help the separation) but then she wouldn't even willingly leave my arms and Daddy had to walk her out wailing the whole way.  Brian ended up staying with her (as I expected from her reaction to leaving me), and even so I kept hearing her crying from downstairs.  Then almost at the end of church I heard a little familiar sob from the back of the auditorium.  I whipped my head around to see her pig-tailed head through the glass doors at the back of the auditorium with an anguished expression on her face.  I rushed back to her as she started to cry "Mommy, mooooommmmmmmyyyyyyyy!".  As expected, on the way downstairs I heard Brian say, "Nathan, where's Sarah?!"  Brian had gone to wash paint off his hands (from the art project that morning) and Sarah had taken the opportunity to bolt and come find me.

Long nap for Sarah after church (thank goodness!) which meant that we actually had to wake her up at 4:30 so that we could have a little birthday celebration before small groups - yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting made from scratch by Brian and the kids, singing "Happy Birthday" and opening cards before heading out the door to small groups.

My cupcake was the "31" and Nathan got an "N" and Sarah an "S" on their cupcakes.  Brian put a lot more effort into decoratively frosting the cupcakes then I usually do!  Unfortunately we forgot to get a picture of the kids with me on my birthday, though we did get it on video. 

Monday - I have been reading "Large Family Logistics" this past week - not because I'm planning on having 9-ish kids, but rather because I figure a mother of that many would have some great advice to give.  I've been inspired to try to change some things about our days.  Some of these are ideas from the book and others are things that I've just been slacking on lately: expecting them to help around the house rather then just letting them play while I work, dedicated morning and afternoon clean-up times, reminded me to take time to teach/practice life skills with them as they come up, morning Bible/memory verse time after breakfast, reading a new book or chapter book out loud at lunch, etc. 

For instance, Sunday morning when Nathan needed help buttoning his shirt I worked with him to practice buttoning his own shirt.  He has been self-dressing for years now, but buttons is one skill that we've never practiced with him.  After I showed him once or twice how to do buttons he didn't want me to watch or help him, but after a while he came to find me and show off his buttoned shirt!

Monday morning the kids helped me unload the dishwasher and set the table for breakfast, then afterwards we spent quite a while cleaning up.  They cleared the table, put dishes in the DW and then I gave them spray bottles and rags to wipe the table off.  They especially loved cleaning the table and spent quite a while spraying and wiping.  After a week of company, our house was a mess so they helped me tidy up and sweep in the kitchen/living/dining room and then we picked up their room.

After Nathan's quiet time he and I spent a little time with a phonics lesson and writing practice and then I made some labels to put around the house for Nathan to practice reading.  When I started making the labels, he just wanted his own page to write on, but later when I had stuck them up around the house he got really excited about "reading" the words to me.  I know he had great context clues since each sign was taped to the corresponding item, but I was still impressed when he "read" the words "mirror", "oven", "fridge", "door", "book" and "window".  When I say "read", he would spell the word for me and then tell me what word he thought it was.


Tuesday -Grocery shopping in the morning.  I made ham salad for lunch (with leftover Thanksgiving ham) and both kids gave it a big thumbs up.  During Nathan's "school time" he was still super pumped about our new project of labeling things, so we worked on labeling some things in in the toy room.  Need to print some more pages of "lined paper" to continue our project tomorrow!

Wednesday - Children's museum trip in the morning then a quick swing by the library to return some movies before getting home at almost 2pm, which is very late for our morning outings.  Nathan was pretty irritated that I didn't let them check out any books since I just needed to drop things off to avoid late fees.  Later he told Daddy, "I really need to go to the library because I have books that are on due and Mommy wouldn't let us go downstairs to the kid's room!"  And by "on due" he actually meant that he had some that he wanted to pick out and check out.

Thursday -  Daddy was home pre-call in the morning so I went out and ran some errands.  When I came home Daddy reported that he and the kids had spent lots of time playing football in the house and wrestling.  After nap, Daddy headed to work for a call shift.  I watched Carrie Underwood's Sound of Music special after putting the kids to bed and also had a long chat on the phone with the wonderful Jennie! 

Friday - Brian came home after a crazy call shift where he didn't get any sleep.  So he went to bed while the kids and I did a library run - this time letting them go downstairs and getting their books that were "on due".  After naps it was time to start packing for our Vermont trip!  I had Nathan try on his new snowpants to check and make sure they fit (even though it was kind of late for an alternate plan) and of course Sarah wanted to put her's on too.  Later when I told her that we needed to take off the snow pants to get her pajamas on, she started to have a melt down because she was "ready goooooo!".  She was very upset to learn that we weren't leaving until the next morning for our trip!  It took quite a while but we finally got her calmed down and into bed. 

Saturday - We headed off on a trip to Stowe, VT!  (Which deserves its own separate post).

Some Disappointing Peanut Allergy News...

Sarah had an appointment with the allergist was on Christmas Eve.  After talking for a while with the physician, she (the allergist) had a skin test performed on Sarah to check her reaction to peanuts as well as environmental allergens (to determine if they were contributing to her eczema).

Verdict - Peanut allergy confirmed!  Boo!

The test consisted of placing little droplets of each allergen on her back and then waited 15 minutes to "read" the results.  A positive result is a welt that forms where the droplet was applied.  She welted to two items - one was the control (that is always supposed to test positive) and the other welt was peanut.

After the results the allergist came back in and chatted with me about what this meant.

1. Sarah's welt was 12mm in diameter. She recommended that we have the skin test repeated every 1-2 years.  If/when the welt decreases to about 4-5 mm in size, then we might consider testing her by introduction (which I believe is a in-hospital food challenge test, administered by an allergist). 
2. Kids with peanut allergies have a 10-20% chance of outgrowing the allergy.
3. The peanut blood test (to which Sarah tested negative) has an 85% npv (negative predictive value), which means that a negative result is correct about 85% of the time.  We were in the unlucky 15%.
4. All desensitization studies are in clinical trials right now.  Desensitization is "a long-term form of allergy treatment involving gradual exposure to small doses of allergens over a period of several years."  (Source)  This treatment is supposed to gradually increase the body's tolerance of the allergen.  Sarah is currently too young for the trials and right now Brian's not interested in her participating in them anyway.  
5. Early vs. late exposure.  Sarah obviously had early exposure to peanuts.  Our allergist said the jury is currently out (based on the studies) as to whether delayed introduction of highly-allergenic foods is beneficial or detrimental.  Her personal opinion is that early introduction is better.  That was nice to hear.

So although I had convinced myself that the absence of any allergic reactions following her initial one meant that Sarah didn't really have an allergy (that the one reaction was a fluke), its not the case.  I know that she has had some accidental exposure to items with various peanut warnings, so I guess we just were fortunate that none of those cause her to have a reaction.  I do feel relieve now to know exactly what the scope of her allergies consist of and I'm thankful that she doesn't have to be on a completely nut-free diet.  So we will just wait and pray and maybe as Sarah grows older we'll get some better news on the peanut allergy front.  Until then I'll continue packing the epi-pen wherever we go!

On another note, Brian's in the first week of three in the ICU.  It's basically terrible.  He does not like the work in the ICU.  But worse, he has super-long hours - leaving before the kids are awake and coming home well after they've gone to bed, though thankfully he was off for Christmas!  Next week he works a "swing" shift, where he works from 11am to 11pm, which is nice for him to be home in the mornings.  But then the last week of this rotation he'll be working the regular shift 6 days straight.  That's 6 days in a row that the kids won't see him and that I'm totally on my own with the kids.  So please say a prayer for us all as we go through these next few weeks.  Thanks!

Merry Christmas!

So thankful to have spent this Christmas Day surrounded by my family!  Though the day wasn't perfect (when is it ever with little ones?), Brian did have the day off of work so we were able to have a memorable day with the kids.  Merry Christmas everyone!

(Previous years' pictures can be found here and here.)

Snow Fun and "Eber and Eber Amen"

Well, its been so long since I've posted videos to the blog, I figured I'd better share a few more!

This first one is of the kids playing in the snow on Wednesday morning after all the powdery stuff had fallen.  I had just showed the kids how to make a snow angel:



The next one was just too cute not to share, but first let me give a little background.  The church that we attend here is not a completely traditional "Church of Christ" congregation.  For one thing we say the Lord's Prayer together every Sunday.  Early on I worked with Nathan so that he could learn the words and say them with the rest of the congregation.  Then when Nana and Grand Dad were visiting we noticed that Sarah was reciting along somewhat - mainly she was saying some of the bigger words like "trespasses" and "temptation" and the super-cute "ebil" for "evil".  However she wouldn't recite the prayer aloud when asked, we would only catch her sometimes whispering along at church or when Nathan would recite it at home.  Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I resumed working on memory verses with Nathan, and now by default Sarah.  Mostly she just listens while Nathan and I practice, though she always wants to be holding one or more of the index cards that I have the verses printed on.  She knows Genesis 1:1 already - I'm pretty sure I have to give credit to an Ipod video of Nathan reciting the verse for her knowledge!  The other verse that she would attempt to recite was the Lord's Prayer.  Now after a few weeks of practice she totally impresses me with how well she can recite that long passage with some tough words.  It was too great not to video and share!  I added subtitles to help everyone else understand what she's saying.

Snowy, Snowy, Snowy Day #2

Brian and I each took a video on Sunday of the family playing in the snow.  Enjoy!

Snowy, Snowy, Snowy Days

These past few days have been the biggest two snowstorms that I've ever lived through.  And its not even technically winter yet!

Saturday Brian was on call and it snowed ALL DAY LONG (3.3 inches) and then ALL NIGHT LONG (another 5.9 inches) followed by morning rain on Sunday.  The rain packed down the snow and turned a thick top layer to ice.  The treck to church was an adventure with the kids - no modified stroller to make my life easier anymore!  I ended up carrying Sarah in the sling which she enjoyed and also significantly speeded up our walk to church.  Nathan kept getting sidetracked by stomping through snowdrifts on our way home, so I offered to push back the kids' naps so we could get bundled up and play in the snow at the park.  Brian decided that he was rested enough to get up and come with us.  Even though the snow wasn't build-able, we all had fun anyways!

Brian and Nathan LOVE to eat snow!  Brian discovered that if he could pull up a hunk of icey snow, the underneath part had good powder for licking.  So there was lots of this from him and Nathan.  Sarah and I not so much...

I did make a run to the grocery store on Sunday afternoon while the kids were napping since Brian and I figured the roads would be the clearest they would be for the next few days (it had gotten above freezing but wasn't supposed to again for the next few days, plus more snow in the forecast).

Today (Tuesday) it began snowing again.  The kids and I had to run out to the post office to mail some Christmas gifts.  I thought it would be a fun walk in the snow with them but it turns out that Sarah is super sensitive about getting snow in her eyes, which makes her very fussy!  We tried to put sunglasses on to protect her eyes, but they kept slipping down her nose as she looked down to watch her steps.  This also made her very fussy!  (The fact that it was basically nap time probably added to her grumpyness!  Or it could have been that the temp was about 20F but it felt like 4F!)

The traffic tonight was terrible, this is what the street looked like from our window.  Brian and I guess the plows weren't running due to rush hour traffic?  Anyways, Brian said that he saw traffic backed up for miles on his way home.

This is some of what Brian saw on his treck home.

Think it might have been a cold walk?  Well, not after he helped push two different cars that were stuck in the snow. 

Whew, winter's sure off to a fun start!  Nothing like baptism by fire snow!  (Today's snowfall as of 10pm - est. 5.6 inches!)

This and That (November)

Nathan is routinely skipping naps these days, so here's my current strategy for down-time even when it doesn't involve sleep anymore (I most definitely need some alone time during the day and I am convinced that Nathan also benefits from some rest/quiet time as well).  I put the kids down for naps together in their room, generally around 1:00.  We read together then turn off the light and sing and pray.  The I leave and set the timer for 45 minutes after which I'll poke my head into the bedroom and see if Nathan's still awake.  If he's asleep, I get a rush of giddy happiness that I get a few more minutes of down time.  This usually happens one day out of every three (although some weeks are no naps and some weeks he sleeps almost every day).

If he's awake, he quietly hops out of his room (his quiet tiptoeing is quite exaggerated and looks more like hopping on his toes.) Next is some time for him to do some independent work/projects, then he gets some time on the computer on the Starfall website, then we'll do something together.  To give him things to do during his independent work time, I bought a few workbooks at the end of October with activities like connect-the-dots, mazes, and cutting.  This gives me a little more time that I can either do work or veg out on the computer.  (When I'm at home with the kids by myself I make it a point to very rarely be on the computer when they're awake.  This is my major exception to that rule.)

His favorite workbook by far is the one with cutting projects.  I love how he turns even the most basic of the cutting pages into much bigger projects and typically spends half an hour turning the pages into a big cutting and taping project.  For example, lots of early pages in the book were just practice cutting on 3 or 4 straight or curved lines across the page.  The pages also were decorated with artwork based on a specific theme to keep them interesting.  But instead of just cutting on the lines, Nathan would also cut out all the associated graphics and then tape them all together using massive amounts of scotch tape, like this (these zig-zag pages were somewhat farther on in the book):

Another thing Nathan and I have been working on is practicing his letters.  He has been able to print all the letters in his name for months, but we've started working on other letters of the alphabet.  "S" was (and still is) proving to be a challenging one for him.  And he is so independent he'll only want me to write it for him once or twice (on my own piece of paper, NOT on his) and then he will try over and over to get it right.  He will tolerate me coaching him verbally but that is about it.  And he has such high standards - he'll write what I think is a pretty good attempt, but he'll just scribble it out when he thinks it doesn't look right.

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Months ago at church we gave Nathan the check to put in the collection basket.  He did NOT want to part with it when the time came and only would when I promised to get him his own "folded piece of paper" when we got home.  I though it was a passing fad, but not so much!  I had a pad of paper that I got for Christmas years ago (it said "Katie McDonald" on it, so probably over a decade!) that I would cut into check-size pieces and then fold for him.  From that day on he pretty much only did his artwork on these small pieces of paper.  This month we finally exhausted that pad of paper and I've started cutting regular printer paper into fourths to give to him.  And though his request for "a folded piece of paper" still comes almost daily, the pages usually aren't folded anymore and he really means "a small piece of paper".

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When we visited Grandmother and Granddaddy, Nathan was reminded that Grandmother always says "Guten appetit" after the prayer at mealtimes (a German saying meaning enjoy your meal).  The kids though this was awesome and amusing, and then changed it and have been saying "gude-er appetite" which then has transformed into "gude-er apple pie"

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This one actually should have been part of October since it was used quite frequently with Nana and Grand Dad both when they were visiting and again in Knoxville - Nathan's first joke!
   Nathan: Hey Grand Dad!
   Grand Dad: Yes Nathan?
   Nathan: Nufin! (Nothing!) hahaha
Then he repeats it with everyone nearby and then Sarah tells it to everyone as well.  They think its hysterical every time!

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I put this bowl on the floor one day (I guess to get it out of my way?) and Sarah turned it into her favorite place to sit in the kitchen!

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Another photo shoot with the kids!

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The kids were "cooking" with their leaves one day after we collected them from the lawn next to the library.

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Our favorite library books from November:

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This is Sarah displaying one of her birthday presents, a Tag Jr reader, but also demonstrating what Brian and I have dubbed her "chipmunk" tendencies.  She is constantly holding pieces of food in the side of her mouth!  In this picture I think its a piece of Halloween candy that she's savoring, but she ALWAYS does it in the mornings with her prunes.  Both kids get four prune halves with their breakfast (because of the special quality prunes have) and one day I realized that Sarah was still holding onto a piece in her mouth HALF AN HOUR after we got up from breakfast!  Now I've finally realized that I need to keep a close eye on her and continue to reminder her to "chew and swallow Sarah!"

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One day Nathan announced that he and Sarah were going to have a date in their room and that I shouldn't come in.  I am always super happy about encouraging independent and cooperative play so I eagerly obliged.  Later, when the date was over, this is what their room had turned into!

Sarah previously had asked me to move her mattress out of her bed and onto the floor, since she always wants to be like her brother, but the kids did the rest of this rearranging on their own.  Thankfully we were able to get it back to normal in about 5 minutes with us all working together, so the next time it happened I didn't have quite as much of a heart attack when I realized what they had done!

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Daddy trying his hand at putting Sarah's pigtails in.  This was one of the few times he's done it since he has trouble getting the bands tight enough to stay in her hair.  My smaller fingers are slightly better at that.

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Goofy expression on Nathan, but I wanted to capture this cool structure he built.  He is getting so imaginative with what he builds these days!

The Days of our Lives (Nov 24 - 30)

Sunday - Church in the morning, then Gran and Pawpaw arrived at our house just after naptime!  The kids especially were beside themselves with excitement and Nathan proudly took Gran and Pawpaw on a tour of the apartment.  Brian was working a night shift, but we had enough time for an early dinner of baked pork chops and spatzle before he had to leave.

Monday - Brian got home around 8am and went almost straight to bed, but first told us about an amusing story involving his Czech surplus parka that he wore to work for the first time (he bought it for $20 online since it was the cheapest winter coat option he could find).  He walked into work the night before and noticed that one of the security guys was keeping an eye on him.  He tried to discretely follow Brian until the he saw Brian badge his way into the employee changing room.  Brian apparently looked somewhat suspicious and definitely NOT like a physician in his surplus military coat!

I was planning on running to the library and CVS by myself in the morning, but the kids (Nathan) decided he wanted to take Gran and Pawpaw to the library, so we all got bundled up for the cold and took a walk to the library.  I left the kids there with the grands while I ran over to CVS to get a few things and once I got back the kids demonstrated how they check out their library books "self".  After we got home, Mom and I started our holiday cooking by making dipped chocolate centers and boiled custard.

Brian and I went out for our first date night of the week.  We had dinner (yummy fish tacos) and then saw Thor at the theater.  We realized after we got into the theater that the girl at the ticket counter gave us the student discount (without asking us), which I definitely took as a compliment.  It was also a super cold night but Brian decided that he would not wear his army parka for my sake! 

Tuesday - Gran woke up with a sinus headache (bummer!) but was slowly able to recover after getting some meds, taking a nap, and then resting on the sofa for part of the morning.  I went out on my own to run a few errands and then stop by the grocery to get the last of our Thansgiving food supplies.  The store was packed!! I made it home just in time for lunch then Gran and I continued our cooking in the afternoon - dipping the chocolate centers and making almost seven-layer bars (I couldn't find peanut-free butterschotch chips so we left them out... and of course neither child has touched these cooking so we could have put them in!).  Pawpaw treated us to a pasta dinner at Bottega di Capri - we got tortilini alfredo, lobster ravioli alfredo, pumpkin ravioli alfredo, lasagna and bowties with tomato sauce (for the kids).  Then Brian and I headed out to the movies again, this time to see Catching Fire (I love The Hunger Games!).  (This time we were asked if we qualified for the student discount, to which we said no.)

Wednesday - It was wet but much warmer today (60 degrees!) so I thought it would be fun to go out with the kids and let them stomp in puddles.  I had a few new items on hold that I wanted to pick up from the library, so I planned on killing two birds with one stone.  Pawpaw joined us on our outing but unfortunately due to extreme attitude issues from the kids it wasn't a fun experience.  But I did get another cute picture of them in their rain gear, so it wasn't a total loss!

We stayed inside the rest of the day and did a little more Thanksgiving prep (make cornbread and biscuits for dressing, chicken broth to turn into gravy).  Brian had another night shift so Gran and Pawpaw joined me in watching Les Miserables after the kids went to bed (which Brian was thankful to miss!).

Thursday - Brian had an uneventful night shift and came home and fell in bed.  Gran and I resumed cooking by making the pecan pie and the crust for the french silk pie.  We had a pretty low-key day, but it really didn't feel like Thanksgiving.  We decided it was because we had Thanksgiving dinner close to regular dinnertime (5pm) since Brian was napping post-call and also so the kids could have their regular naps (which they desperately needed).  But we had a delicious dinner in the evening: ham, sausage dressing, gravy, green beans, pumpkin pudding, cranberry salad, and then pecan and french silk pie for the adults and (dipped) "chocolate balls" for the kids. Brian did tell me this was probably his first Thanksgiving ever not to have turkey - sorry honey!  (He didn't mind that we had ham, but just mentioned the fact to me.)

Unfortunately I deleted the pictures of Thanksgiving dinner off my camera by accident, but here's the one Gran took with her camera.

  
Thanksgiving happened to be the only night of the visit that all four of us adults were home in the evening, so we pulled out the Rummikub and played a few rounds before bed.

Friday - Brian went in for a regular day of work, but the rest of us spent the morning putting up the Christmas tree.  It was really fun for both the kids to be old enough to "help" this year and I loved having other adults to work on decorations with me (since its always hit or miss with Brian's schedule and when I'm motivated to put the tree up.)  I remember vividly last year Nathan helping me while Sarah was down for her morning nap - he would stretch out the lights from the tree in the dining room all the way back into the kitchen, then "help" me by holding the end and bringing it toward me as I put the lights in the tree.  Nathan had the same job this year, although with many other willing hands.  Both Nathan and Sarah were really excited about helping to hang up the ornaments too.  Nathan even asked specifically for us to find the snowmen ornaments with their names on them that Aunt Karen gave the kids last year.  Then they got to open this year's ornaments from Aunt Karen - penguins since they love watching the penguins at the aquarium so much!

Nathan was super excited when we pulled out the singing/dancing snowman and Sarah just needed a "mel-wa ba" (granola bar) to snack on.

She was able to back away from her snack long enough to shoot Gran a smile!

Opening the kids' penguin ornaments.

Nathan and Sarah were super excited about hanging the ornaments on the tree, though both had their "issues".  Nathan liked to group all the ornaments he was hanging on the same branch.  On one he had 5 similar/identical non-breakable balls crowded together.  In another spot he had a couple snowmen snuggled up right next to each other and he told me it was because he didn't want them to be lonely.  (I am that mom though that tweaked the ornament placement after he stopped paying attention.)  Sarah on the other hand really REALLY wanted to hang ornaments but just didn't have the skills yet to get any of the hangers or thread loops placed on the branches, but thankfully her frustration didn't get in the way of her excitement about the Christmas tree.

After all the hard work, the kids wanted to pull out the camera and tripod and take some pictures - so glad they thought of it or else we may not have gotten pictures with Gran and Pawpaw this visit!

After we got a good shot with all of us, Nathan decided he wanted to take a picture of him jumping.  There were lots and lots and lots of takes, but we ended up with more then one good shot of both kids in the air.  This one, though, had the best smiles of them all!

We had a great surprise when Brian walked in the door just after 1:00pm; they had let him go early at work since it was such a slow day.  The previous week Brian had bought tickets to take me to opening night of the Nutcracker ballet at the Boston Opera House as my birthday present, and since he had gotten home so early we also were going to have time for dinner before the show.  We had a great time and really enjoyed the show, although I mentioned to Brian that since neither of us knew much about ballet the high caliber of the performance was probably lost on us.  But it was another great Boston memory we made!

Saturday - We said goodbye to Gran and Pawpaw.  Sarah especially was very sad about the parting and at first refused to say good-bye to them.  But when we got back into the apartment after saying out goodbyes at the curb, Sarah got really upset that she hadn't said bye.  So I grabbed her in my arms and we rushed downstairs one more time and I passed her into Gran's arms in the car and she gave hugs and kisses, then we blew kisses and waved until the car had disappeared down the street. 

This and That (October)

*Sigh*... October...

Sarah loves to clomp around the house on Sundays in my high heels!

Sarah joined me on a milk run to the convenience store across the street.

The kids eating consolation doughnut after their flu shots.

Sarah "helping" by holding the mixer while we were making Nana's birthday cake.  I usually hold the mixer down when I'm mixing/kneading bread dough because the mixer jumps around so much, so she thinks the mixer always needs a hand on top to support it!  We do talk every time though about how our hands only go on top, not near the mixing paddle.

Whenever we hear a siren outside our house, Nathan and Sarah both love to predict which kind of emergency vehicle will be driving by.  Sarah usually thinks its a fire truck and Nathan usually predicts an ambulance.  And even after the emergency vehicle passes, they refuse to admit when their prediction was wrong!  Brian also noticed and mentioned to me that the emergency vehicles around here use lots of non-standard siren noises - maybe because there are so many of them in this city??  Who knows!

Grand Dad and Nana got the kids each an umbrella for their birthday and the kids wanted to take them with us everywhere that week.  Within a few days Nathan's was already horribly scuffed at the tip from being dragged around on the sidewalk.  And as you've seen from more recent pictures, they are still quite attached to them!  Sarah just learned (at the end of November) how to open and close her umbrella by herself.

Sarah has become crazy ridiculous with changing her mind about things and then getting really upset with the results.  For example, the other day we got some Chinese takeout and had four crab rangoons for the whole family.  She only took one tiny bite out of hers and then REFUSED to eat any more, so finally I asked if she wanted to eat it or if she wanted Mommy to eat it.  She said "Mommy eat it", but knowing her I only took one small bite and offered it back to her.  She still wasn't interested.  So I took another bite, still keeping an eye on her.  Nothing.  So I finished off the last bite and and almost immediately she looked at me with shock in her eyes and said "me eat it!!!!!"  and then proceeded to cry because it was all gone.  This was not an isolated incident and causes us grief quite a few times a week.

When Sarah wants to do something herself, she always says "self!"  Now Nathan's picked up this saying and will tell us "I want to do it 'self'!". 

Nathan and Sarah love to snack on raw bread dough when I make bread.  Nathan saw Gran do this probably one time when he was about 1 and ever since then he always expects me to give him some.  So now Sarah has decided that she likes raw bread dough too, so she joins in the chorus whenever I'm baking.  I do limit them to two bites a piece because I remember Gran lamenting how she would get stomach aches because she would eat too much (I guess the yeast continues to grow inside your stomach?).  In related news, Nathan still thinks that anything with raw eggs can't be eaten (ie. cookie dough).  So every time we have bread dough, he checks with me to make sure it doesn't have raw eggs in it and I have to assure him there aren't.  Someday I'm going to have to come clean that Mommy eats some things with raw eggs in it, but I have no problem waiting until the kids are a little older. In the meantime, I'll just be content to sneak dough when no one's looking or when the kids are asleep!  (When Brian and the kids were making my cupcakes the other day Brian tasted the dough and so the kids followed suit.  So I guess we've started the slide!)