Christmas

We had a great time with my family for Christmas. Sophie loved having cousins to play with at every moment. We did too--we only had to pay attention to her when she needed to eat! All the youngsters headed out to a local hotel waterpark to play one morning. Sophie was a little timid about the water and said, "I'm all done" after about 1 hour. At least she finally went down the slide (although, holding her breath the whole way up the stairs and down the slide!). Sophie and Aubrey made and decorated cookies with me, and it was so much fun a few of the adults even wanted in on the decorating.
We tried to talk about Christmas a lot to reinforce why we were celebrating. Sophie knows it's Baby Jesus' birthday (though she does bring up Baby Moses now and again) and that he had to sleep in the barn in the manger with the animals. We also celebrated Santa Claus for the first time this year. We asked where Santa Claus would come from (the chimney--grandma & grandpa actually have one!), and Sophie said "Mary's tummy." No idea where that came from! She was a little concerned that he might come and kiss her while she was sleeping. We also left cookies and carrots (and one bean) for the reindeer. Sophie was very concerned about the carrots and bean and kept telling us, "I don't like carrots and beans." We assured her that the reindeer would. When she woke up and crawled into bed with us on Christmas morning, we said," Merry Christmas!" She replied, "I don't like carrots and beans."

The Mall

The kids and I went to the mall today to have some fun outside of the house. We went to play at the "train store," as I described it to Sophie. It was Barnes & Noble. We played with the train table for a while and looked at books, and then it was storytime. We were the only ones there at the time, so Sophie got to pick the book to be read. She requested Peter Pan, but the worker couldn't find that, so she settled for "The Little Mermaid." This storytime was accompanied by Starbucks treats for the kids (pretty smart--keeps them quiet!). There was a choice of rice krispie bars, brownies, or cookies with sprinkles. Sophie chose the cookie with sprinkles. I would have chosen the brownies. But the treats aren't for mommies...

After the "train store" we played in the mall's play area before heading into the food court to eat our picnic lunch. We downed our pb&j's and juice boxes and I asked Sophie if she wanted to go see Santa Claus. "No," she said. "Do you want to just LOOK at him?" I asked. "No!" she said. So we went back to the play area to play a little longer before going home. I guess we'll get a picture with Santa another year!

Parties and Exer-saucers

The kids and I went to a neighbor's house for a Christmas "Tea" party yesterday while Greg got some errands done. We had been there over an hour when Sophie asked, "When are we going to the party??" She was enthralled with their pet rabbit and 3 gerbils and kept wanting to touch them all. She asked me to help her (lucky me!), and she pointed out that the rabbit was sitting on raisins! She thought that was funny. Me too!!

Owen's new big fun stuff is that he's sucking his thumb periodically. It's the cutest thing, but I dread the day when we have to try to get him to stop. We won't worry about that right now. He also tried out the exer-saucer for the first time yesterday. He loves it, and so do we! Now we have one more contraption to rotate him through to keep him happy while we try to get something done. His swing used to be a sure-fire trick to get him to nap a while, but now he's actually wanting to play with the toys that are attached to the tray. He throws little baby fits when he can't get them into his mouth.

We stayed home from church today because Sophie's nose was running like a faucet last night. Of course, it hasn't run all day today, but things worked out because we all slept in. We're hoping to all be healthy for Christmas. Greg and Sophie played in the snow a little (obviously she's not TOO sick!...just too sick to be in the nursery), and came in to have some hot "choc-o-lit" as Sophie called it. She nearly licked her mug clean!

Christmas Cookies

I remember helping my mom decorate cookies as a kid, so I've been excited for Sophie to be old enough to help me. This year was finally the year. We got our aprons on, and we each had our own cutting boards for rolling out our dough. I think Sophie's favorite part of the process (until we got to frosting and sprinkles!) was the flour. She had it all over her apron and the counter, and she kept piling it on any dough that was unpowdered. She had fun cutting out shapes on her own board. The next night we decorated the cookies we made. She quickly figured out that spreading the frosting was not her gift area. Instead, she chose a cookie shape and frosting color for me to take care of, and then she took care of the important part--the sprinkles. She kept asking for more. Perhaps you can tell which ones she decorated and which ones I decorated. We had a great time working in the kitchen together. Today we're boxing the cookies up, along with some other little goodies, to distribute to our neighbors.

December pics

Sophie got some really cool window stickers in the mail from her friend Charis recently. She was so excited to put them on our kitchen window! I think the way she decided to put them on the window (completely her own doing--I wanted so badly to help her place them) is a little insight into her personality. It's obvious she's related to us, I think!

Owen is as cute as ever and is close to rolling over. He gets up on his side, but his arm on the bottom keeps him from going all the way over. He's only getting up once at night now. Woohoo!

The Latest

So sorry to have taken so long to get new pictures posted. I've been getting about 40 childless-minutes a day lately (during the day), and while trying to exercise, do my Bible study and clean up/prepare meals, etc. during that time, the blog has been neglected. I've also not had any new pictures to post as I haven't taken many for a while!

Sophie is still loving her Disney princesses. She continues to dress up in her Snow White costume regularly, and she even ventured to watch the movie finally. Now it's all we watch. I was surprised that she wasn't scared of the witch--I was as a child. Oh, and she thinks it's Snow White's daddy who kisses her to wake her up. I've explained that he's the prince (several times), but she insists he's her daddy. That's okay by me.

Sophie was explaining "Cinderella" to Greg the other day. Cinderella's fairy godmother is her "grandfather." And Cinderella was going in the carriage to the "ballgame." Greg especially loved that one!

We got tons of snow dumped on us the other day, so Sophie and Greg got out to play in it the first time this year. She was wearing snowpants from her friend Lydia and boots from her friend Aaron, and she was thrilled. She looked like the kid on the Christmas movie that's bundled up and can't move his arms and legs.

Owen is still a little sweetheart...so far. I feel really fortunate to have had two easy babies...so far. (I know that can change at a moment's notice, so I don't want to jinx it!). He's very smiley and "talking" a lot. This is especially helpful when he's doing it at 6 a.m. instead of going back to sleep after eating. Helpful in the sense that it makes me like him and be okay with the fact that my day now has started at 6 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. He's been reaching out to grab at toys and fingers a lot too.

All of my friends are having babies or have sick children right now, so that meant that Owen and Sophie got to go to the dentist with me today. I hoped Owen would sleep through the appointment, but he woke up the moment we got to the office! That meant that while Sophie watched a DVD in the corner (I love portable DVD players!!), Owen sat on my lap while I had my teeth cleaned. It actually worked out okay, but it didn't help the already stressful situation that visiting the dentist is in the first place. I calmed down about it after many hygienists peeked in at us with exclamations about the kids and the receptionist held Owen while I had x-rays and then offered to take him if he cried. It was like we were a treat for them!

Thanksgiving

We had a great time with Greg's side of the family visiting the great-grandmas' houses for Thanksgiving. Sophie got a bunch of new dress-up stuff and toys (we did Christmas with that side of the family). She is particularly fond of her Snow White dress and wears it every waking moment. The Little Mermaid doll is also very special to her and has been added to the privileged few who get to sleep with her. She also really enjoyed playing with her cousin Katie at Great-Grandma E's house. The girls played well with each other--Sophie just followed Katie (almost 5 yrs old) around and copied everything Katie did. Owen slept past 4 a.m. each night...a first! Of course, now that we're home, he was back up at 1:30 again. He was passed from person to person for several days and loved the attention. (He is napping on my lap as I write because he will not be left alone long today.) He was very sweet and smiled and cooed for people. He also developed an attraction for Sophie's special doll Lilly. He's just learning to use his hands, and he was grabbing at Lilly and trying to eat her face. I guess we still have time to get him his own doll for Christmas (if Greg will let us!! Remember Ives!??!).

The Big Mall

The kids and I went to the "Big Mall" today to take in their "Toddler Tuesday" events. We are typically in Bible study on Tuesdays, but we were off for the holiday week, so we decided to head to the mall for something different. It was Dr. Seuss storytime, and Sophie got to high-five the Cat in the Hat. She would not pose for a picture of that. We stayed to listen to one story, and then she wanted to go and play. So we walked around and found Legoland to play in for a while. I don't even want to think of the kinds of germs that are on those Legos. We also sought out Santa Claus and waited in line for 15 minutes (half way to Santa!) when Sophie said she was all done with that. She had previously told me she would not be getting her picture with him anyway, so I wasn't too disappointed. This was our first visit to Santa for the year, so perhaps, with practice, she'll actually sit on his lap for a picture before Dec. 25th! However, Sophie DID want to go on an enormous ride in the amusement park...the kind that would make me puke. I told her she was too small and Owen couldn't go on it. She said, "Ya, when I get bigger then I can do it." Yes, with Daddy. Owen isn't in any of these pictures because he was strapped onto the front of me in the Bjorn the whole morning. He did great in there, looking all around at the sights and sounds until his head bobbed forward and back as he tried to sleep while we walked around.

Leaves

I took the kids out to play for a few minutes yesterday, trying to get some pictures in the leaves before it got too dark and before Greg got rid of them. Sophie, very helpfully, moved handfuls of leaves off of the big pile and back into the grass. I'm sure Greg was thankful for the help! I did my best to get Sophie to pose with Owen, but she kept complaining that he was too heavy (probably true--he's about 13 lbs!). So, I got a cute picture of the two of them, but if you look closely you can tell they are both a little bit in distress. When we came back in, I tried to get some pictures of Owen on his new blanket from Great Grandma (my mom's mom), so Sophie climbed into his chair and said, "Look at me!" So, I finally got her to pose for a picture.

Some of the latest tricks...Owen has found his fingers! When he wakes up in the night I can hear him sucking his fists when he's ready to eat. He tends to hold one hand with the other while he chews on it--kind of makes him look like a chipmunk. Which reminds me...while we were visiting my parents last weekend, Sophie got out of the car and said, "It smells out here. Stinky! Phew!" I asked her what she was smelling, and without hesitation she said, "Chipmunks!" Some of her latest tricks are reaching the light switches herself to turn the lights on and off. She's also singing a lot lately, tunes we actually recognize. In fact, some I know that I haven't taught her. She's loving her class on Tuesdays at church, so I'm thinking she's getting the songs there. Sometimes she asks me to sing songs I don't even know. For instance, does anyone know a song about a BIG spider?? "The itsy-bitsy spider" is most definitely not the song Sophie is referring to!! She got angry when I tried to sing that instead.