Under the Sea.....Sylvie turned 3!

Snow Dog

Yep, you betcha we got a LOT of snow! Nowhere near mountainous, or blizzard amounts. But we got the high end of the prediction for the Chicagoland area. My guess is 8-10 inches at least in the last 2 days. So this is my second round of shoveling, and there was barely an indentation for my first round. Abby the 6 year old dog has never really minded the snow too much, her fur is so thick. She came out with me and was bouncing around like a bunny. It was hilarious. What a cutie pie! I had to wrap her up in a towel and pull snowballs off of her when we got inside.

The backyard shot shows how hard it can be to get to the alley to drop off garbage in the winter. When all those drifts get covered in ice (which could be a matter of days), it's virtually impossible without snowshoes. Fun times! The stairs belong to our neighbors who use their side door instead. This is why I took down our Christmas decorations long ago. And never put any outside. Seems like a good idea when it's 32 degrees and dry. Then snow, ice and below zero weather start making the idea of taking them all down a bit daunting!

Bedtime story...clothing optional

Me:"Once upon a time, there was a bad guy next door, so our neighbors called us and asked us to come get him. We all put on our superhero costumes. Sylvie, what did you put on?"

Sylvie:"Batgirl, no,Ariel, no, my Bride dress."

Me:"Logan, what did you put on."

Logan:"Nothin' " (pouting and not wanting to participate)

Me:"Okay, so mommy and daddy had their costumes on, and Sylvie was in her bride dress and Logan was naked. We all went next door." (Hysterical Laughter) "So we got there and the bad guy said "Woah, why are you naked? and he lost his concentration"

Logan: "So I punched him down!" Yeah!!!!!

No longer pouty, he went to bed picturing climbing the neighbors porch and surprising the bad guy:)

"Playschool"

Sylvie is all signed up for school for the fall. It will be her first of 2 years of preschool before she's old enough for Kindergarten in the public school. She is really excited. She watches Caillou most mornings and he goes to "Playschool", so despite the fact that "preschool" was said about 100 times yesterday by various people, it is officially "playschool" in her mind. I love it. Know what, at age 3, it is all play at school! She will attend on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Should be fun!

Educational Explosion!

We spent Christmas break obsessing verbally about numbers. Numbers of days until Santa arrived. Numbers of presents. Age transitions at holiday birthdays. So back to school now and Logan has gone crazy writing!!!! He sat down this morning and wrote out all the numbers. First it took "practice" and a few rounds of trying. But he did it! He wrote out 1-10 in order. Pretty cool! Yesterday he came home from school with a hat where he wrote out "Happy New Year!" with an exclamation point and all. I'm sure he copied it from a paper they had with the letters on it, but he insisted he did it himself and I am so proud of him!

Then he decided to be an author like Caillou and make a book. He drew pictures and hole punched the pages and we helped him tie them together. He now has a superhero book! In true little sis form, Sylvie had to find a reason to interrupt too much attention from big brother. If you notice, the one superhero has a bump on his head that he uses to bang his head against other bad guys. Please excuse our mess! The computer desk manages to catch everything.

Overheard....

Logan: "Can I play the game with you?"
Sylvie: "No"
Logan: (teary) "But I'm your big brother....."

Sylvie:"Spiderman, will you marry me?"
Spiderman/Logan: "Okay" (holding hands facing each other)
Together:"Here comes the bride....nuh nuh nuh nuh.....
Logan: "Let's go get the bad guy! " "Yeah!"
That's what I call a shotgun wedding!

Happy Birthday Sylvie!

You make our lives wonderful.

You sing all day long. Whether we listen or not.

You love to be "nudie bagudies" or in costume.

You adore your big brother, your family, and your dog.

You won't let anyone in your room, but insist on being in your brother's room at all times.

The Disney Princesses are your idols, but you get excited about Dora. You insist on at least 2 episodes of Caillou, "princess milk" and a blanket on the couch to start each day properly.

You want to be my little helper and dissolve into tears if I say no.

You cry if mommy isn't there when you wake up. You cry when you have to leave grandma. You cry when the mermaid song is over.

You smile and laugh and bounce to your heart's content when your favorite songs are playing. Or when someone is making you laugh. You love to have fun.

You light up our lives:) Happy Birthday little Sylvie Alecia who is now 3 whole years old!!!!!

Oh, and you are really not a morning person. But our family tradition is to do presents and muffins on birthday morning. So we kept with tradition. And you decided to dress up for the occasion.:)

New Dolly

The dropoff/Pickup

I spent a few minutes getting together the info for next year about the preschool hours and kindergarten hours for this 2009 school year. Here are our options....

Option 1
M,T,W,Th,F: drop off Logan at 8 am at school in Brookfield, pick him up at 10:50
Tu, Th: Drop off Sylvie at preschool at 9 am in LaGrange, pick her up at 11:30

Option 2
M,T,W,Th,F: drop off Logan at 11:55 at school in Brookfield, pick him up at 2:45.
Tu,Th: Drop off Sylvie at preschool at 12:15 in LaGrange, pick her up at 2:45.

Does anyone see anything wrong with Option 2? Somehow whoever does the drop off/pick up needs to be miraculously in 2 places at once.

Option 3
Skip preschool and kindergarten altogether, quit my job, and homeschool.

Send some happy thoughts my way on January 8th that we get morning preschool. Please?

How the heck do people even do all this and work too? Even without work schedules thrown in there, this is way too complicated! Plus, did I mention my job starts each day at 8 am? Thank goodness for family helping us out. And I always figured I'd hire a sitter if grandparents didn't want to deal with it all, just to drive or watch them for that last hour. But did you know that you have to have special car insurance to haul around other people's children on a daily basis? Seriously? Ugh.

Can you believe tomorrow is the last day of the year? I know I'm going to be antsy at work tomorrow!

Best Gift, Worst Gift

Best Gift for Sylvie: Bopping bouncy ball she can ride on. Hard to capture, but here's my Sylvie lady in all her dressed-up new costume glory bopping around the living room!

Worst gift-

Cupcake maker. I admit grandma asked permission before buying it and I consented.

How to make a cupcake

1. Spend half an hour washing everything and hoping it all dries


















2. Find three pieces of equipment you actually need in massive pile of useless equipment.

3. Spend 10 minutes trying to get the wrong piece onto the main cupcake maker. Walk out of the room to read it in "quiet" as children will not quiet for even a moment while you try to make sense out of instructions.

4. Find alternate piece. Put frosting inside piece.

5. Watch as frosting spills out the bottom of piece. Remember that the frosting they give you makes 1 tablespoon at a time and start freaking out. Look how much frosting is on my hand, and how much is left in the bowl.





















6. Tell children cupcakes cooked individually in the microwave are still hot, please do not touch. Repeat 50 times.

7. Get frosting all over everything but the machine. Make second batch of frosting (they only give you about 3 "batches" total). Insert into machine.

8. Let child press lever to make beautiful frosting swirls. Cupcake spins around to make frosting look prettier. In reality, cupcake attempts to escape and frosting is flinging across the room in pretty swirly patterns. Let kids decorate with minute ball-type "sprinkles".




















9. Watch kids enjoy 1 bite each of cupcake and then run towards your furniture covered in chocolate. Run after then wielding baby wipes and threats.

10. Repeat 1/2 hour washing time for each piece now caked with chocolate and package carefully into basement for "next time."

Merry Christmas!!!!

The pictures from Christmas morning are blurry, there just was not enough light and the kids were moving too fast! I took lots of video instead. I'll post one from the night before Christmas....getting ready for Santa!

This year Logan was sooooooooo excited about Santa coming. Sylvie cried about Santa being in the house after I put her to bed. I reassured her I would stay downstairs and make sure he was in and out quick as a wink and did not come upstairs at all.

There was a fun get-together on the 24th for Jorge's family and then home to get ready for Santa and then bed. The 25th was awake, presents, church, and then to my family's house for lots more fun. The highlight of my parent's house was after we all opened presents my mom said we should go downstairs. There was this big row of "BIG" gifts all wrapped up and she said there was one for each of us! So Logan, Sylvie, Jamie, Bobby, Joe, Jorge and Kristin each got a big present. I think we all felt like kids again. It was so much fun!

Tally: Our favorite gifts

Jorge: Laptop Backpack, Fun gadget Digital Tire Gauge, New Suitcase, New books, new movies

Kristin: Jorge got me 2 down pillows and cases, a fleece throw for the family room, and the movie "The Women" - all perfect. From his family I got a new coffee maker, perfume and a steam mop. From my family I got paintings of the kids from my brother (so cool!), IKEA toy shelf/ bins (so I can out them away for real at night!), boots, gloves, clothes, tickets from my aunt to legoland as a family (great idea!) and we actually have a few gift cards. It was a big Christmas and I didn't expect that at all!

Logan: Transformers, Transformers, Transformers (he's in 7th Heaven!) , games, Star Wars guys, Hot Wheels racing loop-the-loop, Power Rangers- the whole Jungle Fury team, Bakugan!, and lots of other boy toys

Sylvie: FP3 Player (music with headphones), Tinkerbell flower houses and dolls, Cupcake maker (can't wait!), and a nursery to take care of her dolls (Craig's List deal!), clothes, a little puppy in a purse. And one of her favorites was a Mermaid book from my mom with her name in it and our family members. So cute!

From my parents, the kids got these cool castles you build with styrofoam tubes. Just to let you know Bobby and I assembled Sylvie's a lot faster than it took Jorge, Logan, Joe and my dad to complete Logan's playhouse. Just so you know:)

We had a fantastic blessed Christmas and it was so wonderful to be around our family.

Here are the kids getting ready for Santa! They were disagreeing about what drink Santa wanted to have with his cookies. So we left both orange juice and milk for him!

Breakfast Chatter

Pancakes...Sausages.....snow falling outside.....

"Daddy! That's enough" Sylvie demanding that Jorge stop putting syrup on his own pancakes.
"Sylvie, are you watching my cholesterol now?"
"No, I'm watching Little Einsteins."
:)

Countdown to Christmas!

"Hey honey, didn't you say we needed wrapping paper?"

"Look at the tag. How much does that roll cost."

"$8"

"That's 4 times the price that I would pay."

"That's why men don't take care of these things."

Yup!

This is the first Christmas week I think I've worked in ages. When in grad school I always had the week off. And I had two winter babies, and I got laid off last Thanksgiving and started in January. Kinda weird working in an empty office. BUT...oh man almighty the free food is covering tables from sponsors and manufacturers. I went in the kitchen to cut up a pear and came out with a plate containing a pear and a triangle of chocolate cake. Evil!!!! So far so good though, getting things done. Despite snowfall and frigid temps. We even went out last night and got the last few gifts. And almost everything is wrapped:)

The other day began at 6am for me looking out the window at this:

Scarier still, this is what it looked like at 10 am. Windchill was -30 I believe.

And who would I be to not include a pic of the snowfall we've had! Can't even see the street!

What are the chances...

That Jorge has the flu. He was sick all morning and is sleeping the day away.

And what are the chances that he will give it to us. I spent the morning frantically double-cleaning every inch of our home, light switches, doorknobs, everything I can possibly think of that he would have touched. Ugh. Let's hope it's a fluke and not the flu. It's possible right? I can dream right?

Sweet Baby Logan

Poor Logan. Dad headed out for an hour of alone time while I got the kids to bed with their typical routine. After books, Logan got super upset and told me he didnt' need his blankey anymore. This a a big topic that has been obsessed over for many months and it never ends good. I don't know what it is, it's like he takes out his feelings about life on Blue Blankey. He was obsessing over the fact that he no longer needs it. And I was talking to him and he said he didn't want me to work anymore. Can you say stab through the heart? Ugh, that's so hard to hear! Poor thing!

Just had to write that out. My sweet baby Logan. Still lets me snuggle with him and rock him when he's all rolled up in a towel. Still loves to tell his mommy about each inch of his life.. Still loves his mommy.

Little boys. Best thing on earth:)Hope he's happier tomorrow!

Today...

Today was one of those days that seems like it's been a week since I woke up this morning. Let's see if I can put it in bullet form
~ :) Woke up to a quiet house, was able to creep downstairs and watch the news and call my mom and check on the snowfall before the screaming for mommy commenced.
~:) My husband is home:):):):):):):) Life is so much better with him in it:):):)
~:) Hang out with happy kids excited about ....well, everything.
~:) Give the kids a bath. They are so sweet smelling after a bath.
~:( Head out the door at 11 for my 12:00 work lunch. By 11:10, Jorge has his boots on and is helping me with the car. It is stuck. By 11:35 I am finally on the road to said party. The good news is we survived 20 minutes of the kids behaving and eating lunch inside while we worked hard to figure out how to get that car out of the alley and on to the road!!! Santa, if you are listening, maybe some snow tires would be a good idea?
~:) Work Party= Free Lunch. Jorge took Logan to school in the SUV, which of course has 4 wheel drive and no problems really driving around. Logan had a blast and said most everyone was there.
~:( Work Party Stress: I feel so ridiculously insecure in keeping my job. You could cut the tension in the room with a knife. Another guy got laid off this week. That makes 5 that I know of in the past month. It's not that big of a company. I hate this feeling. I wanted to throw up. It's a different kind of stress, I feel like the rug could be pulled under me at any moment. I am hopeful for my job to stay around, but not so sure that will happen.
~:) Getting a big hug from my husband after the work party stress
~:( The two MAJOR temper tantrums Sylvie threw today. Seriously out of control.
~:) Super Target: the golden place where I spent an hour getting the rest of everything I need, want , need for gifts, stockings, being Santa, bringing to a party, gifts, and a bottle of wine. Whew. We have one more trip for 2 gifts to one location. Very figured out and can happen anytime before Christmas Day. So should be okay. And neither is crucial.

So that's my day. And that's why I don't have any cute snow pictures to post. But maybe tomorrow I'll take the kids out? Hope you all had a much less involved and stressful day today!

Whew!

Sometimes, when you are looking around, and see too much dust does it bug the heck out of you? My computer desk is the worst offender. It collects dust so fast, I wish it could collect money instead! Would be much more productive and nice of the desk. We have had a very snowy week so the carpet, floors, and every square inch of the house has been suffering from dust, salt from the roads, slush, dirt, etc etc. Blech!

Between coming home from a playdate with Sylvie and getting Logan off the bus, I was able to use my vaccuum and go crazy on the house and floors, even some baseboards.

Boy did it feel good to get that done!!!!!

Preschool and Kindergarten

When they joke on tv about the more wealthy moms needing to decide where to enroll their child in preschool in utero, they aren't really kidding. All the talk amongst moms of my children's ages is when and where you will be enrolling.

For Logan:
He was in two preschools. I chose the one I chose because he wasn't potty trained by enrollment and my neighbor told me it was okay and recommended it to me. Literally, she was driving down the alley and we had this conversation. Thank goodness he likes it! Second year, we chose to continue with what we began. And I've been pleased! Big decision for next year is Kindergarten. I'm pretty sure we'll enroll him in the public K. I've heard great things about it and my neighbor who is a lot like Logan flourished and learned to read well. Only downfall is it is only a few hours long, not a "full-day" which means a third year of drop-off pick-up crazies. Mix that up with Sylvie's own drop-off pick-ups and I may need a chauffer to get them around! There is also the strong possibility that he will get speech services through the school after hourse. And if not, his preschool has a bus that picks kids up for an after-school daycare time at his current school. I figured this might give him the "free-time/play-time" that he'll probably be itchy for.

For Sylvie:
There are 3 preschools in contention for her. The school Logan goes to, the preschool for our church, and the Montessori school. I've heard good about them all. The only real reasons I can think of for switching from Logan's school for her are (1)- We've already been there as a family for 2 years. Why not change it up? (2) It starts late- after 9 am. I start work at 8. Not so easy for any of the babysitters/parents to deal with.

Babysitting/Daycare/School/Activities to enroll in: are such complex things to decide. They may not seem like it to some, but ugh they sure can keep you up at night. Or, you might just start thinking of them obsessively when you are already up because you are getting whacked in the head by your future preschooler.

I lost a lot of sleep last night...

Because Sylvie was a wild child, screaming ,kicking, wanting to be in our bed, but definitely making a lot of ruckus. Screaming at us, sitting up and acting like she was awake when she was definitely asleep. Crying whenever a blanket touched her.

So this evening we know she is definitely getting a cold. But she spent the morning adamently telling Daddy "I not sick Daddy. I don't need to go to the doctor." When he asked her about the bad dreams she said she was dreaming scary things about the Disney Store.

Good grief! Send some sleepy vibes our way for tonight, please? Oh, and Logan has no recollection of the night-long scream-fest.

"Practice" for Christmas Pictures

We ended up with different Christmas pictures. But picture the scene. Me in heels on Thanksgiving frantically bribing, begging and threatening to try to get pictures. Husband makes smart remark and I flip out on him that they are dressed and "camera ready" would he like to accomplish that at a time more convenient to him? So yeah, I was a bit of a mess this day. But dad did manage to get some laughs from the kids. I love the bottom series of pics though. Siblings- LOVE having my boy and my girl!

A picture by Sylvie

Sylvie drew a picture of "Grandpa" this morning. The squiggle at the bottom is "I wrote Grandpa's name." and the little thing to the right (when asked by Logan what it is ) is "A mouse house." And there you have it. Also, she made a point of mentioning "He has Loooong arms."

Big Words

Logan has come forth with some big words lately....

-Recipe: "Mom, if I put butter on my rice, it's a recipe and I'm making my dinner."

-Dressing: "Mom, I don't like dressing on my carrots."

-"How much does it cost." Not a big word per-se, but he really is getting the concept of how expensive things can be, and asked how much his box of cereal cost before asking if we could get it again. My little bargain hunter!

I'm sure there are more, I'll have to write them down. But I feel like there's this huge explosion of vocabulary lately. It's so much fun!

Also, he learned a little song at school that he likes to sing before we eat like a little prayer. I love it! He reminds us to say it before we eat at home....

"Please and Thank you are words we say, when we eat together every day." So cute!

Snowy Park Visit

Logan kept asking what we could do today. I already took Sylvie out to a gym this morning as part of my mom's meetup group, so I wasn't really in the mood to do something like that again. So we went outside bundled up and went to the park! His buddy was there ad they had a blast!

Logan's pictures- Age 5

My sweetie has done some neat pictures of late so I thought I would share. He can write his name, albiet backwards, on things as well, but that didn't make it to the picture

Hard to see but he's finally feeling comfortable writing letters sometimes. The green sheet is a person he drew. He never liked to draw people until this year- it's so fun! On the blue page, I drew some patterns to see if he could finish them and he did! And the bottom of that page is numbers he drew. And I like the sunflower picture he made at school. So fun!

Holiday Tag

I was tagged by Anna!

Egg nog or hot chocolate? Hot Chocolate!
Santa wrap presents or set them under the tree? Wrapping all the way. But some big presents are just there for the excitement factor.
Colored lights on tree or white? Colored, but not blinking
When do you put your decorations up? Stockings are hung, but the tree is usually 1-2 weeks before Christmas, or the next warm weekend!
What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Alcohol?
Favorite holiday memory as a child: Just the general excitement of prepping and waiting for Christmas. And waiting at the top of the stairs til the coffee was ready for mom and dad before we could go down.
And how did you learn the truth about Santa? I found all my presents with my brother and still believed. My mom had to break the news to me.
Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We used to exchange siblings gifts and get new jammies growing up. Now my husband's family Christmas is the 24th.
How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Family ornaments, lights
Snow! Love it or dread it? Each time it snows I wonder how we will still be able to carry on with our lives, how we will ever get to where we need to go, but then it clears from the roads and life is better. I LOVE watching it snow. If I can stay home.
Can you ice skate? I miss ice skating, I love it!
Do you remember your favorite gift? Dolls. My in-laws have given me some beautiful things.
What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? Holiday spirit. I love stories of happy things people have done to help one another.
What is your favorite holiday dessert? Fudge!
What is your favorite tradition? Our big cousins/aunts/uncles party. We do a fun gift exchange game now and I love it!
Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Giving. I can hardly contain myself as the pile of presents grows downstairs!
What is your favorite Christmas Song? All of the religious ones. Oh Holy Night. Silent Night. and the Gene Autry Rudolph and Jingle bells. Traditional.
Candy canes! Yuck or yum? Yuck
Ever recycled a Christmas present? Probably! Maybe more for the kids. But not that I remember. I have used gift cards from other things to buy presents when things are tight.

If you're reading this, answer it for yourself on your blog!

School dropout attempts to finish her degree....

At least 5 or 6 years ago, Abby was enrolled in doggie training school. On the last day, the "Graduation" day, the snow was so thick, I had to turn around and come home instead of taking her to class. So we always joke about her being our "School Dropout."

Today my mom went out the door to get Logan off the bus from school. The driver said "We have a visitor." but it didn't phase her. She got Logan from the back of the bus to turn around and see Abby, the dog, on the schoolbus. Apparently she had rushed out the door after her and followed her right onto the bus!!!!

My personal theory is that she's just itching to go to school like the other "kids" in the family:)

Vegas- the city that never sleeps.

Me...I'm the person who does sleep, but I still enjoyed plenty of Vegas time with Jorge. The kids were happy and loved on and entertained completely by doting grandparents while I met up with him for a few days. It was weird flying alone. Liberating being able to spend so many hours alone. And terrifying because it's flying so I felt this need to make contact with each person on the plane on my way to the back rows, assuring myself that if they made eye contact, they were not terrorists. I mean, what would I have done if someone gave me a horrible vibe? Whip out baby pictures and start begging? Call security? De-plane? Alas, the angels were flying with me on the way there because there was hardly a bump in the ride. Phew!

Then I got to find my bag, find a cab and find the hotel room at the Venetian. Bliss. Really, could I just move our family there into one hotel room?

And the bathroom....divine. I draw bathrooms like this, but it has been awhile since I've bathed in one. I even knew the name of the line of faucets. Put them in my drawings last week at work. Obsessive me spent the hours I was waiting for Jorge looking at each little connection and trim piece, checking out how they laid out the tile, scratching my head over why the shower head didn't line up with the shower handle, looking at the complicated conditions like stairs. Yup. If I ever get a client that says "Make me a house like the hotel rooms at the Venetian" I'll be happy to oblige.

So, let's see. There were two major highlights there that make me smile to remember them.

1- The show at Treasure Island. So hilarious. And so not kid-friendly, despite the massive numbers of pirate toys in their gift shops and the cool pirate ship. I don't think I'll be bringing Logan and Sylvie to this show. I'm not sure which song was more suggestive, the "Sticky and sweet like honey" song or one about going "all the way." But the costumes sure left nothing to the imagination. The premise being a pirate who boards a ship of all scantily clad women and gets handcuffed, while his buddies rip their shirts off and dive into the water from another ship beconing him to come back. Well, you can imagine it being the kind of show that belongs in Vegas. BUT...it was corny and hilarious and seriously a show! There was fire and song and dance and fireworks and jumping into the water and a sinking ship. Well, I enjoyed it.

2-This morning we walked through the lobby at 5 am half-eyes open and saw such a mix of people it was hilarious! There were tons of people at the casino, having never gone to bed! There was a set of 3 hilarious drunken people all leaning on one another and everyone was stepping aside for them to make their way hopefully all the way to their room before collapsing or spewing. There were people in running clothes in their tiptop physical shape getting ready for a marathon that day. And, when we were waiting for a taxi, there was a fight between two guys waiting. I saw the taxi director raise his arms into his "Fight me, go ahead, I've only had 75 years of Navy Seal Training....I dare you" pose. And 30 seconds later, guys came running in black coats with badges. I halfway expected them to parallel down from the roof. But I definitely didn't feel in any danger. After all, the Venetian has a reputation to uphold, and this guy was talking a lot of smack before the guy he was talking at flung a cigarette in his face. Which resulted in a few slaps, punches and thrown cups of beer. But yeah, those guys aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

All in all, it was a great weekend away, enough adult time to appreciate the little ones and family life all over again.

My Nativity

My mom's best friends made this ceramic set for me when I was born. I love it! I just told the kids the Nativity story and they listened and were very excited to unpack and set up the nativity. Christmas is on it's way! And as a side note, is anyone else shocked that this survived 32 years? Let's hope this will not be it's last year in one mostly complete set (there are a few glued-on pieces, but no devastating breaks thus far!)

My favorite time of the day....

has got to be when the kids come home from their grandparent's house. Grandparents don't have to discipline, so it's like culture shock when they first hear the word "no" again. Seems the "welcome home hug" most nights tends to be a time-out for Sylvie. Ugh.