Announcing it to the girls . . .

. . . (and some other people I guess). We told the girls about my current pregnancy Christmas morning with baby dolls from their "future brother or sister." We told family weeks earlier in our Christmas card (though in the end Liz knew before most of my brothers because apparently they don't read cards).

Anyway, Liz didn't quite get it at first which was reminiscent of when we told our own parents about our pregnancy with Lizzie. We gave them "I love Grandma" bibs and Drew's mom suggested we give it to his pregnant sister, Carrie. My father didn't get it either but played along until it was obvious what we were talking about.

Dead Battery

Today started out pretty good. The girls and I hit a couple Smithsonian museums. Great displays, but it was crazy busy (on a school holiday, go figure). Things took an unpleasant turn when we tried to leave the city and our car wouldn't start. Turns out I had a dead battery and it was totally my fault because I had forgotten some basic car mechanics or as Drew said, I was "acting dumb." He was pretty willing to walk to the van (many blocks in the biting cold) for moral support, but when I told him the circumstances of the dead battery he became increasingly upset (Liz was watching a movie on a portable DVD player and I decided to turn on the car to save the battery but I only turned on the battery thereby making it worse).

Anyway, I joined AAA. They came (an hour later than they said they would). They jumped us and tomorrow I plan to buy my very own set of jumper cables.

The above shot is of the girls happily freed from the van and awaiting their dinner of fruity crepes. Yum. At least we ended the day well.

A week ago today . . . .

WE WERE SLEDDING!
It was the perfect day to go sledding too--great weather, tons of snow, and best of all school was cancelled. How fabulous for a kid to think as they sail down a hill, "I could have been in school right now." We went with our friends, the Pomeroys, at a high school near their home. Fortunately for us, Dan and Sharon have a sled so we didn't have to resort to cookie sheets again.
I wish I had a video of Dan's first ride down the hill on a child's inner tube. Thinking of it still makes me laugh--popped tube & a few spectacular wipe-outs. The following videos are cute too:


This Monday hasn't been nearly as exciting as last Monday. Drew is back at work, the girls and I ran errands in the morning (in our pajamas), and went out for a pancake brunch (also in our pajamas). We are home now cleaning, playing, and doing art.

It is 2 p.m. and we are still in our pajamas. I think at this point it's not worth changing.

Gingerbread Over the Years

2005 2006

2007

20082009

Christmas Day

Ahhh, the Big Day.

Santa left a book for each of the girls on their bed. It kept Liz busy for at least 20 minutes, but Alaina wasn't into hers so when she woke up, we all had to get up.Before Liz opened her presents I made her brush her hair and make her bed and wait for Drew to get the sweet rolls in the oven. Once we started unwrapping things I felt like we took our time. Only one person at a time opened gifts and we stopped to examine things. Still we were done eating and opening by 8 a.m. Darn kids waking up so early. My mother often had to wake us up. I can remember her grumbling about how she was "the only mother in the world who has to wake her children up Christmas morning!"Because we were done so early, I actually had time to take a nap before we went to our friend's place at 10:30 a.m. While I slept Drew and Liz played with their new toys (Drew=Lego Batman Wii game, Liz=My Little Pony).

Other favorite gifts:

Drew=Wii Zapper, Dominion Rootbeer, synthetic top

Jill=White House Christmas ornaments, camera (to replace the one I kind of ruined by trying to take some pictures on a windy sand dune)

Lizzie=everything (even the batteries--"my very own batteries!"), nearly every time she opened a gift she exclaimed "My dream came true!" We also heard, "Santa must be very rich!" and, when trying to remove lots of small toy pieces from an overly-taped package, "Those elves did a really good job!"

Alaina=baby treats, shopping cart

And of course Drew and I loved Lizzie's handmade gift. So cute.

We continued my parent's tradition of using wrapping paper with Santas on it for the Santa gifts. I was also very careful to make sure that I did not use the same labels on my gifts that I used on the Santa ones. Drew wasn't so careful. He even used some of the mommy-daddy paper to wrap a Santa gift and had Santa give me things that Liz helped him buy just three days before. Liz never even noticed.

We spent the bulk of our day with our friends, the Pomeroys. The dads took the big girls to see a princess movie while the moms made a non-traditional holiday lunch (barbecue ribs, coleslaw, potato salad, rolls, mac 'n cheese).

Liz and Taryn played very well together for a very long time. It was lovely.And we all played (and enjoyed) Beatles Rocks Band.

Christmas Eve

This was our first year celebrating Christmas alone with our kids (we have spent one other Christmas alone pre-parenthood). I was a little bummed about it initially, but it turned out really fun and it was nice to start doing some of our own traditions. Plus, Liz was super excited about her first Christmas in her own home.

On Christmas Eve we:

Visited the Botanical Gardens' holiday display. Loved it. Aside from the seasonal stuff, Liz liked the hands on room. Lainey really liked the trains.Went bowling. We had so much fun honoring my sister-in-law, Codi's Christmas Eve tradition last year, we decided to go by ourselves again this year.

Alaina slept through the first game, sat sweetly through the second, and spent the entire third game trying to join us on deck. Attended a Holiday Party (unfortunately I did not realize I had my camera with me until we were leaving). Also: notice Lizzie's nails. We did that earlier in the day. I painted hers and she painted mine (and then I fixed them).

Opened Christmas pajamas - a tradition from both our families that we are happy to continue. Then we talked about the nativity and read some scriptures. Next year I'm hoping we can start acting it out. Stuffed the stockings and placed all the previously wrapped presents (thank goodness) under the tree. The stockings are new this year. When we shopping for them I wanted fancy, glitzy ones (coordinating of course). Drew kept picking out plaid ones and didn't see the need for coordination. Since we couldn't agree we opted for $1.00 ones (thank you World Market) and another year to decide. Really, we will probably use this set for many years to come.

After I put everything under the tree I felt like maybe it wasn't enough, but Andrew reminded me that I just wasn't used to having presents for only four people under one tree--what with growing up in a family of six kids and always visiting with relatives for the holidays. The next morning I saw that the girls had more than enough presents. . . .

Snowed In

The UNPLEASANT part of last weekend's snowstorm: digging our car out with a broom, dustpan, and borrowed garden shovel.
The PLEASANT part of last weekend's snowstorm: playing in the snow together.

I loved seeing the girls all bundled up. Unfortunately Laina didn't have snowpants and still doesn't because the four stores I have checked were out. Anyway, she seemed fine being outside until I set her down to take a picture and she did a face plant in the snow. Laines did a few more face plants (inside) before she got used to the boots. Unfortunately the face plants were all technically on my watch. It was Lizzie's first time sledding and she LOVED it. We didn't have a sled (still don't--all the stores are out) so Liz used a cookie sheet. It worked well.

It was also the first time Liz made a snowman. She enjoyed the the snowballs, snow angels, and snowman, but sledding was still her favorite.

Happy Ending

My brother (a.k.a. Uncle Robbie) came to visit us last weekend. Liz was beyond excited and we were all really glad to have family around. Rob was supposed to fly out Saturday. Naturally, with last weekend's snowstorm, his flight was cancelled. We were happy to have him around, but worried that extending his business trip to visit us would inadvertently cause him to miss an important family function the following Monday. Luckily it all worked out in the end. We had a nice visit and he was able to fly out Sunday night. Lainey was super classy for her uncle shot. At least she missed her nostril.

While Drew and Liz were otherwise engaged (boring work and school), Rob and I went to the Air and Space museum near Dulles airport.

While there Alaina spent most of her time trying to climb under the little fences surrounding the airplanes . . .

and pushing her stroller--for the first time ever. Another first this week: interest in books. Now she's bringing them to us to read instead of wandering away when we try to read bedtime stories.

While snowed in, we baked cookies, watched movies, played cards, and used our bread maker for the first time. Oh yeah, and we did all the outside stuff too. We sledded, made a snowman and snow angels, dug out the van, and went in search of shovels (no luck).

The girls both took to Rob right away. Lizzie wanted him to read her stories and play ponies (he did both) and Alaina also enjoyed his attention.Another Happy Ending: thanks to the weather, Lizzie's school was cancelled. We had intended to do all our holiday shopping this week while she was at said school. Luckily we were able to set up back-to-back playdates for Liz today (and even Alaina) and after a marathon shopping spree we are finished with our shopping. Hurray!

Now the Celebration is Complete

We finally had Andrew's birthday "cake" last night. Liz made of him purple frosting and put "a lot" of candles in (10 I think) "because Daddy's old."

Also part of his celebration, I took him to see Young Frankenstein at the Kennedy Center.

It's not like we don't provide her with toys . . .

she just loves the laundry baskets.

15 months old!

I finally got Alaina to her 15 month check up (just two weeks late). 7 a.m. appointment. Ouch.

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Stats: 15% for height, 20% for weight (20 lbs 5 oz), 60% for head circumference.

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She got gobs of shots and cried tons and I felt like a big jerk holding her down for them, so pretty standard.
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Alaina at 15 months: usually puts her binky in upside down, loves baths, likes to brush her hair, likes to wear shoes but removes them in the car, says "no" a lot (her main other words are uh-oh, hi, mama, & dada), uses baby sign to say please & thank you & food, enjoys pushing laundry baskets around, likes to put little toys on her fingers and wrists, dislikes wearing her winter hat and the babysitters at the gym, gives lots of hugs and sometimes open mouth kisses, is becoming attached to a little teddy bear, "dances" by spinning in a circle.

Birthday

Yesterday was Drew's birthday. We celebrated with a German pancake breakfast, a diaper-free weekend, some sleep-in time, and Liz made him a birthday poster with candy bars. It's her first and I let her make up the sentences so we ended up with stuff like "Happy Birthday KitKat" and "There is a Lemonhead at the door."