The difference 6 months makes

The End

Today is the end, so in honor of that, I'll post some pictures from Christmas and this last week to get you through what's sure to be an interesting day today. It's snowing crazily here. I went into the grocery store to it just barely doing anything and when I came out 20 minutes later, there was a significant coating and everything was insanely slick. I hope everyone is safe today, regardless of what they're doing. We're just hanging out. I think I'll build a fire and make cocoa in a bit.

When will it be.....

2008 again? Man, Hannah just does not get what order the years go in, or that once they are gone, that's it. I have mentioned more than once to her that Friday will be January and also 2010, and while she thinks that's cool, she wants to know when it will be other years again. And let me tell you, I have many sweet moments from many years. I do not wish to relive them. Ever.

Norah just talks herself up a little storm, and she finds herself completely hilarious. She chatters to herself, points out things she recognizes, or demands snacks and drinks like she's a dictator in charge of my kitchen. I was holding her in the kitchen earlier and she pointed into the sink and said "ewwwww ucky" Followed immediately by a listing of the objects in the immediate area, and to whom they belong. Soap, bracelet, dishes. Quite a ham, that one.

Hannah was very excited that her favorite friend Emma came over to play yesterday. She spent nearly a week telling me that Emma was going to come over on vacation, and it was really very nice. Dori and I got a chance to chat, and the girls played very nicely with each other, and moderately nicely with their younger siblings. Can't really ask for anything else. Everyone left with all their appendages, and reasonably happy. Hannah is thrilled to have gotten an invitation to Emma's upcoming birthday party, so I'm sure we'll be headed out there in the next couple of weeks for that.

Moving on

Christmas is over. Gifts were opened, breakfast was eaten, family was visited. And now it's all finished. Steven was so over it that Sunday morning he took down everything that resembled a decoration and put them away. So back into normal we go, and I get to start hearing "when I turn five can I have..... for my birthday present" As if they didn't just get a boatload of new gifts. Thankfully Norah is too little to worry about all that. She is a joy, but too small to realize that gifts come at specified times of year. At least for another year I bet.

I was very spoiled by Steven this year, getting new beads for my bracelet, a new straightening iron for my hair, and a waffle iron to indulge at breakfasts. Steven was also a fan of his moustache trimmer, new t shirts, and Metallica DVD's. It was clear that Steven and I were afterthoughts as usual at other celebrations, but thankfully the girls are too young to notice those kind of slights. I hope to never treat my children that way, and I truly hope that if I did, someone would tell me.

So now we're into the week of vacation following the holiday. I don't know that we'll have time to put their new museum membership to the test this week, but definitely by the next Monday holiday, I'm sure. Hannah is very excited to be able to go to Kidcity anytime she wants!

Pictures

It's here

YAY the Winter Solstice is here! That means, that starting tomorrow, the days will no longer get shorter. And in the next few days, they will start to get LONGER. Thank the lord! I'm already done being cold, and reality is I have at least another three months of bitter cold and chances of snow to get through.

Hannah is so excited for Christmas, and was almost as excited to spend the night at Meema's on Saturday night. She and Norah were fabulously well behaved, and Steven and I got a night of peace. Christmas shopping is finished, all gifts are wrapped, stockings stuffed.... basically all that's left to do is put everything out and cross my fingers they both sleep in. Since essentially they only wake up when they're done sleeping at this age.

In the rotation

Whoever came up with the idea of rotating toys with kids... hello Genius! About six months ago we put away the dollhouse and all the included accessories. In the meantime we've gotten some other house like toys (thank you Kat) and it had come to my attention that my kids like them. So we brought the giant house back downstairs. I love this house, it's the embodiment of a fantastic doll house for girls. It's huge, so there is more than enough room for them to play with it TOGETHER. And shockingly, they do. I mean there is plenty of Hannah stealing everything that could resemble a person (pooh figures, princesses, little people, bunnies.... etc) and playing school, but they sit in the toy room and play with the house, together. Even alone they will both play for a few quiet minutes. And I'm thinking it's because at the moment, they're into that. Which makes me happy, and clearly makes them happy. So toys go into the rotation, and some come out. With Christmas on the horizon, I'm plenty happy to be taking some out of rotation and not adding new ones in. I'm also happy to start donating toys they've outgrown, and toss toys that are broken and/or missing pieces. Hopefully the new stash of Christmas toys isn't too awful.

Christmas is Coming!

And oh MAN is Hannah excited! She really gets it this year, and I'm excited for that too. I love waking up and giving them their stockings to play with while we fix breakfast. I'm even half praying that they'll sleep in until 7 on Christmas morning. That would be a merry day for me indeed.

So far we have planned to break the cardinal rule I made when I was pregnant with Hannah. Provided it isn't snowing, we will be traveling on Christmas. I know, I know, I said when I was pregnant that it would be the last Christmas I traveled, and up until now, that was true. With everyone being adults now, there are more people to think about besides just me and my family. So I will amend the rule to say that I will not travel for Christmas Morning. I want to have that at my house. Where we can sit in PJ's at leisure and open gifts, snack on food, drink coffee and enjoy. Not that it wouldn't be enjoyable elsewhere, as I've spent many christmases many different places... but you know, home is where the heart is. And I want my kids to always wake up on Christmas in their own beds.

Still sick

Sorry there are no new updates, Hannah and Norah are both sick now, so things are um, interesting here. They're being reasonably good about it, but the coughing at night is killing me. They don't bother themselves nearly as much as they bother me. And of course Norah is still refusing to go to bed at any time. She gets up repeatedly, rocking the chair or banging on the door. So some of us are pretty tired around here. Unfortunately Hannah ran a fever on Thursday afternoon, so Friday she had to miss school and hanging out with Mimi and Iza, sine fevers aren't allowed around Mimi. I'm certain she'll ask tomorrow when I pick her up if she's better enough to go visit.

Sickness strikes again

Not weeks after Norah spend many nights coughing endlessly, we are back at it again. In fact just long enough for me to have finally recovered. And now she's coughing and sniffly and refusing to eat. I tried to tell myself that I would much prefer her to be sick now, than in a couple weeks when Christmas will be knocking at our door. It's true, I would prefer that. But with her being the only one sick, I'm terrified that she'll be fine and the rest of us will be lolling on the floor in a stupor of vicks induced haze. Ok maybe not, but I'm afraid that Christmas will be spoiled somehow.

And speaking of Christmas, one of the girls gifts arrived this weekend. Grampy and Mimi were kind enough to get the girls a years membership to Kidcity Children's Museum, in Middletown CT. The recent pics of all of my girls (Kat's and Kate's included) were taken there, and I'm certain to be spending lots of Monday holidays there during the Member only hours :)

A cool party

Hannah's super good friends, Mimi and Iza, turned five this past week. So to celebrate there was a big surprise for them today. After breakfast at Kat's house, we all trekked over to her brother's place of work for a photo shoot party. Never have so many little girls had so much fun! I'm certain there were some fabulous pictures taken. Victor will get to it at some point. Even Sara who was with me got to take a few, seeing as how she's a professional and all. Thanks to Kate for taking this with my camera while Victor was taking the rest of the pictures.

It's over

Thanksgiving has come and gone. It's my favorite holiday and somehow it never lasts long enough. We had fabulous food and lots of wonderful company basically all day. I did a lot of prep work the previous days so that on Thursday I actually had very little to do other than stir and check things. Donny was here for a bit, as were the rest of that part of the family, some of Steven's family, and of course my wonderful mother!

So now we're on to Christmas, with very few days left to go before it's time to open gifts and watch their adorable faces. Because their faces will be the only ones with gifts this year. They are most important, and of course when things are tight, they receive when others do not. Thankfully though, a good portion of what they'll be opening Christmas morning will be handmade gifts that I've sewn. Things they've asked for, or shown an interest in. I'm excited for it.

And Christmas cards will be going out soon, since I managed to get *the* picture while Steven was putting up Christmas lawn decor this morning!

It strikes again

I recently purchased a wrap (the last I'll ever buy) to wear Norah in, as she still likes to be worn when we're out places that require a LOT of walking. Yesterday we ran some errands, going to Trader Joes, The tool store, Big lots, Savers, and Dunkin Donuts. It was still early-ish so we headed to the mall before dinner since Norah hadn't napped. I popped her in my wrap in a hip carry, snuggling her close while she looked around, and next thing I knew, she was passed out cold, slumped over against my chest. My snuggly little munchkin took a much needed rest and then was much more charming than she might have otherwise been. I've dubbed this wrap the Magic Wrap, because it seems like every time I've been lucky enough to be able to wrap her for more than a few minutes, she falls asleep. Maybe I should bring it in the house and wrap her in the middle of the night, since there's certainly no sleeping going on then.

Thanksgiving is Coming!

My favorite holiday ever! Nothing to me is better than an entire day centered around eating things that taste good and probably are terrible for you. I also love hosting said holiday, and any others that people want to come have at my house. It's so nice to have my fabulous family at my table chatting and eating. Helping to cook. Oh wait, I'm much too anal to ask for help when I'm cooking.

So because Thanksgiving is only days away, I'll be busy in the kitchen most of the week, cooking and baking away, so that when people are here on Thursday I can spend time with them, and only stir a few pots here and there. So far, the menu looks like this:

Turkey
whipped potatoes
squash
baked sweet potatoes
fresh green beans
buns
gravy

and dessert, though I feel like I'm forgetting something. Oh yeah, stuffing. Both the kind from a box and the kind my Mother in Law makes.

Chatterbox

Norah is a chatterbox. She's happy repeating anything you say, and telling you what to do. Sometimes I'll pick her up and she'll point at the couch. "Mommy sit down, there" and sometimes I'm nice enough to oblige.

Last night we were indulging Hannah in letting her see some of the old videos we took of her when she was a baby. There was Hannah rolling over, Hannah eating cereal, Hannah trying to crawl, pulling up... etc. She's the first child, she has the joy of having had our undivided attention for nearly three years. Norah has pictures of things like cereal, pulling up... but just one video on the digital camera of her scooting around as she learned to crawl. She'll never have all the things Hannah had in that aspect, and I'm sure someday I'll have to answer for that. I don't suppose she'll appreciate being told what a difficult baby/toddler she was. I'm guessing difficult and stubborn are some of those "Personality traits" that people can come to treasure, but mostly because they just never go away.

Updating with pictures

Yesterday was busy with a trip to Kidcity in Middletown CT. The kids all had a blast, and can't wait to go back.

Happy Halloween

A years retrospective. Times change... Darn.

The Pictures

Before

After

My new, old Kitchen

Steven did my kitchen! I have pictures, though it's not QUITE finished yet. I'm SO excited. I can see into my dining room while I'm in the kitchen, and it looks SO much more open. I can't even imagine how big my house will look once we have the wall done in the spring to open up the dining room into the living room! I'm going to post pictures, but at the moment I'm on the laptop in my PJ's and Hannah still needs to be ready for school. So they'll be up today, I promise.

Coordinating isn't matching

Because I am NOT a fan of matching kids, even if they're twins, which clearly mine are not. However, these dresses are VERY cute, and are the same style even if the fabric orders are different.

It's picture day today

And slacker me made Hannah's dress for it Yesterday afternoon. Oh well, I may be a procrastinating slacker, but it's still cute! I have a picture on my facebook and photobucket, but I uploaded it through the laptop, so I can't rotate it so that it's portrait instead of landscape. So until I boot up the other computer, you'll just have to wait to see her cuteness.

FINALLY!

After nearly two weeks, Norah slept last night. All night, quietly, until a reasonable hour. I don't know if it has anything to do with not napping yesterday, or the fact that she face planted into something, possibly a table, and has a huge goose egg and bruise on her little forehead. The good news of course, is that she's fine. A little yelling and then settled right down. Was enamoured of the mermaid ice pack Kat gave her, but didn't want it to actually be on her bump. It's her first serious injury to her head, though by this age Hannah had already accrued a couple. We'll be going pumpkin picking later today, so there will be pictures of that soon!

Ugly Nights

Norah's been waking multiple times a night banging on the door screaming "MOMMY!" at the top of her lungs. I'm exhausted and so is she. Add to this her being sick and a weekend without naps, and life is just really not fun here. I have new pictures, but I'm really tired and unmotivated. I'll try to get with the program asap.

She feels lost

Poor Norah, she just doesn't know what to do when Hannah goes to school. Or actually when anyone leaves. She's sad when Gary walks up to the bus, she's sad when Steven leaves for work, and she's very confused when we come home from dropping off Hannah and it's just her and I here at home. She gets plenty of attention, but I think she likes having other kids around more than me even. Yesterday we went to play at Kat's and she was much happier with Mimi, Iza, and Magi there to occupy her. Even though she mostly get my undivided attention when we're home.

I guess there is something to be said for being the second child.

The Big E

So this weekend after Steven finished fixing my van we headed over to The Big E. Hannah was very excited since she actually gets it this year. She started seeing the commercials on the news a few weeks ago and asked if we were going. Then she got excited that we were actually going and what were we going to see? She got some new funky penguin slippers and a potato from the Maine building for dinner.

I love the Big E. Love it. I always have, but somehow it was different this year. I didn't love it quite as much. Not sure why. I was lucky enough to have Norah cooperate for most of it and be slung/wrapped nearly the entire time. We got our potatoes and looked in some of the buildings. I don't have any pictures because Steven apparently doesn't want to use my camera ever. So I guess having pictures of things isn't important. Anyhow, they both had a good time and we managed to get home just in time for Norah to go to bed.

Steven wants to go back this weekend sans children but we'll see how that goes.

Independence

It's a scary thing. Norah is 18 months old now, and her fearlessness shocks me regularly. She rarely wants to snuggle me anymore, though there are rare occasions where she'll demand "up mama, uuuuugggs" And of course I love me some hugs, so I oblige happily. I somewhat miss when she was teeny and snuggly, slung up easily and always happy in there. Now when I get out a baby carrier, she screams "NOOOOO" and would run away if she wasn't nearly always in the car when I want to use it.


Hannah asks me pretty often still if I'll wrap her, but the reality is that at well over half my height I physically can't do it anymore. I hope that when Norah is 4.5 she wants to be wrapped too. I think I had a lot of wishful thinking that I'd be wrapping until she was 3+. But I'll take what I have, and at the moment she'll still be worn occasionally.

Norah has been worn for her entire life, and here are some of the carriers that have been loved here. Nearly all have moved on now, with the exception of one wrap and one pouch. The black and white toile pouch will go into her memory box, as well as the rainbow Inka wrap, when it's done loving Jonathan in New Jersey.

18 Month checkup

Norah's 18 month day came and went, but her well child check was today. Thankfully Hannah was feeling well enough to go to school, so Norah and I headed off for her appointment right after dropping off Hannah. We were a little early, but they took us into a room right away. She's doing all the right things, and growing well, so no complaints from anyone. Unfortunately the office was insanely slow today, so by the time we got out of there we had to head right back over to school so we could pick up Hannah.

Both girls seem to be feeling better, if still a bit tired/cranky. Much better than Sunday though, so I can't complain. Hopefully I don't get it though. The sore throat is already starting. I think I'll have tea with honey at naptime.

Apple Picking

When Hannah was small we started taking her pumpkin picking when it was October. With the gorgeous weekend we had, someone mentioned apple picking, so we geared up and went out yesterday. Hannah had a blast, and we now have way WAY too many apples. Even after stopping and sharing some with Meme. Neither one of the girls had ever been, and Norah was so not thrilled with the tractor ride out to the orchard. I was very glad she was wrapped up on my back because the trees were on a steep incline, and she would have fallen and possibly gotten hurt.


Other than both girls being sick now, it was a grade A weekend. They're both sniffly and Hannah's coughing. I figured it was coming, I mean school started almost two weeks ago and neither had been sick so far.

Christmas is coming

And I am happy to say I've already gotten a good start on ideas AND sewing them for Christmas. Money is tight this year, so I'll be taking some of my stash fabric and sewing gifts from that. So far I've made two flannel pillowcases and a doll blanket for Norah. On the list still are aprons for both girls, more pillowcases for Hannah, doll diapers, reuseable lunch bags with snack sacks and sandwich wraps inside. Overnight bags I think, so when they spend the night away they have cute bags to put everything inside, and a couple things from the store.

I also found this great tutorial online for making fold up grocery bags, and got some CHEAP nylon netting, so I think I'll make the grocery bags and some washable produce bags with the netting for teacher gifts at Christmas.

There are some sisters of mine who read this who have gifts being sewn also, so I won't say anymore about them other than that one of them is finished and Hannah thinks it's fantastic.

Updating finally

Life is going pretty smoothly right now. Hannah started school last week, and Norah has slept fantastically in her big girl bed. She in fact didn't appear to bat an eyelash about it not being a crib any longer, and doesn't climb out at all :) I'll get some pictures of her sleeping in it very soon, since we certainly had plenty of Hannah sleeping in hers.

We had a very busy and fun Labor day weekend with lots of visitors here and some trips away also. Zach came up from Delaware, and Sara came down. They had a great weekend hanging out, and then said goodbye again at Grampy's on Monday afternoon.

Norah's become quite the little terror, demanding to swing and go high. She is also the kid who makes me look like "that" mom. You know the one helpless in the store with the kid throwing a tantrum kicking on the floor. SUPER.

Ready... Set... Big Girl

So this weekend amidst all the other chaos that goes with helping people move, we switched Norah into a "big girl" bed. She has been climbing everything and trying desperately to climb out of her crib, so we went ahead and took it down. We split up the bunk beds and put Norah in the "top" bunk because it has a rail almost all the way around. So she's plenty safe and snuggly in her bed. She seems to like it too because she's slept just as well in there as she did in her crib. Of course she still has her music box and her bear that whooshes, but she just looks so teeny cuddled up by herself in that big bed.

Hannah finally had her four year appointment with the pediatrician yesterday. She is 36lbs and 41 3/4 inches tall. She said 50th percentile for both, so my girl is pretty average! She's a good eater and knows all the things she should at 4.5. She did unfortunately get her shots that mean she's ready to enroll in Kindergarten next year. So aside from being cranky and oversensitive after those, she had a good appointment. It was of course topped off by a chocolate sprinkle donut, because apparently donuts make everything better.

Busy Weekends

Hannah is desperate to go to the beach. I can't even spell it because then she asks "are we going to the E C H tomorrow". Unfortunately we also have loads of busy weekends, none of which are really great for driving 90 minutes to the ocean. I'm actually hoping that next weekend will be nice. Odd to go on Labor Day weekend, and probably a TERRIBLE idea, but hey I'll take what we can get.

In fact this last weekend we stayed home so that Meema's truck could be fixed. And this coming weekend we've agreed to help Mimi and Iza's family move into their new place. We did manage to go do some fun things though like go shopping and go to Meme's for dinner and Wii playing. Hannah had a blast, and seemingly so did Steven and Gary. I've never played a Wii, but the cow race was pretty darn hilarious.

Norah is just getting slicker every day. I'm in the process of revamping her diaper stash because I can no longer put any diapers on her with Velcro. She takes them off. And the problem with summer is that I regularly just put her in a shirt and a diaper... and clearly you can see where this is going. So I've been selling diapers she doesn't/can't use and am using the money to purchase diapers that she can/will use and leave on. Though I feel like she will potty train earlier than Hannah did. Norah already tells me when she pees/poops so I can change her. That's certainly a start, even if telling me after the fact isn't always emminently useful.

Recent Pictures

Some new pictures, though sadly mostly of Norah because Hannah is at the "I'm making ugly faces at you when you get the camera out" age.

Less than three weeks

I remember being a kid and being sad to see the summer end and school start again. Now that I'm an adult I'm so excited to watch them go back to school. Hannah's first day back is three weeks from yesterday, and I think that at least so far, she's just as excited to go back as I am to send her. She enjoys having school friends and learning, and I would love to encourage that in her. She's very intelligent and when she really applies herself she does well in most things she tries.

Norah just keeps getting bigger and smarter every day of course too. I think that the one on one time she and I will get while Hannah is in school will be fantastic for her. She's very smart and opinionated, which is frustrating but cool. She knows exactly what she wants, and most of the time has figured out how to get it, or at least get someone to do it for her. Unlike last year where she napped all of Hannah being gone at school, this year she'll be up and about because Hannah is in a morning class, so will go from 8:30 to 11, instead of 12:15 to 2:30.

Summer

It FINALLY feels like summer here. We're headed for our third straight day of oppressive 90+ temps, and while I love summer and try not to complain, I wish Norah liked the pool a little better. Poor girlie gets so red and sweaty when we play outside because she refuses to go in the pool and cool off. She's also figured out that if the big girls can climb up the slide the wrong way, so can she. She's already figured out how to get to the top of the playset slide, so the big metal slide won't be far behind.

Norah has so many words it's scary. She just keeps popping out new ones, I'm literally afraid of what she'll repeat next. I never worried about that with Hannah until she was MUCH older. Just shows how two kids from the same family can be so unbelieveably different.

Yesterday morning the girls and I headed to the hospital to visit Mimi, their first since she was admitted last Monday. Mimi was in good spirits and looking well, and Hannah enjoyed the visit and didn't seem so overly confused about what everything was and if Mimi was ok. They colored and played with some toys and Ella and Lily, and before we left I got a picture of all the girls and Kate. So if I ever boot up the other computer and download my camera I'll post it (with Kat's permission, I know how some people are about hospital pictures).

My sweet girl

Hannah and I were talking about how some of the medicine Mimi will be getting for her Leukemia will make her hair fall out. Mimi's twin, Iza, went and had her hair cut Friday and the plan was to find a hairdresser to come in to the hospital to cut Mimi's so it wouldn't be so shocking to her when it did fall out. So Hannah says to me


"Mommy I want to go get my hair cut too, I don't want Mimi to be sad that I still have long hair" So yesterday we did. And here is the result.







My girl finally learned empathy! Yay now I don't have to worry about serial killers in the family.

Please Pray to whomever you Pray to

Emilia Lapierre (Mimi) Age 4.5

Yesterday Mimi, who is one of twins who are Hannah's very best friends, was diagnosed with Leukemia (ALL for anyone researching it). I don't know much but that her family is very stressed and scared and could use any and all good thoughts/prayers. The Lapierre girls are like my own kids, I see them so often and have watched them grow up and change. Please pray that healing isn't too hard for her and for her family.

Lucky

So yesterday I was cooking dinner when I hear a crash. The kind that makes your heart jump up into your throat. Then the scream. Ear shattering and terror inducing. I run into the bedroom and find Hannah on the floor shrieking. Snatch her up and try to settle her down. She says that her arm hurts, but hey she just fell, that's normal. So we get her settled with some ice, and 25 minutes later she's still saying it hurts. So I call Holyoke Pediatrics and they say to take her to the ER. So we head over to Baystate because they have Pedi Priority. So at dinnertime on one of the hottest days of the year we were in and out in just over two hours. The entire time Norah hung out on my back eating fish and grinning at everyone who walked by. Hannah of course perked up about the time we walked in, and after quite a bit of poking/squeezing it was determined that she was fine and we could go home sans xrays. This morning she seems to be just fine, and she's happy to have her stickers.

Propensity to change her mind

Norah hates water. Pools, buckets, water tables... she wants NONE of it. Or so I thought. Apparently our city decides that they'll close the pools this week, you know because it's not finally nice and not raining *eyeroll*. So yesterday Kat, Kate, and I along with some other friends took all our girls (yes we ALL have girls) to the wading pool locally because today is the last day. Hannah and the girls all had a great time, and Norah sat in the water at the edge getting wet and giggling. She convinced Kate to take her out and let her walk around, and was so happy until she tripped and got her face a little wet. So I'd say next time I should wear shorts and/or a bathing suit.... except we won't be going again until next year.

Money's Worth Part Two

2007 2.5
















2008 3.5



















2009 4.5