Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

From our family to yours!

Done. D-O-N-E

I am SO done Christmas shopping. Hooray! Got all the gifts. EVEN got the scrapbook that I make every year for my mother-in-law completed and ready to be wrapped.

HALLELUJAH!!

B Says....

Driving in the car the other day, I *think* I hear B say, "Mommy, I would appreciate a drink, please." Wow, what? Did that really just come out of my 3-year-old's mouth? After pausing a second to try to comprehend it, I asked her what she had just said. "I'm just chillin' waitin' for a drink, Mommy." *grin* (I often ask her to 'chill' when I'm trying to do something while she's pestering me about something else.)

Goodness, she's adorable!

Cobby-cot

Months ago after playing with older cousins, B started jumping on her bed while repeatedly saying, "Cobby-cot." For the life of me, I could not figure out what she was saying, but soon forgot about it. After mentioning something about it to my sister, her guess was that she was saying copy cat. AHA! That was it.

Well, we now have a "cobby-cot" on our hands. The other day B came downstairs and said, "Mommy, I'm going to go up and check my email really quickly. It will only take a minute." Then proceeded to go upstairs and get on the computer. hmmmmm.....you think we're on the computer a little too much?

1183??

1183....That's the number of photos that I deleted off my computer. Photos that I had taken in the last six months. They were all either blurry, had eyes closed, were comletely extraneous or were just duplicates of decent pictures that I had already edited.

After deleting ALL those, I still have more than 1,400 pictures left. For just the last six months.

Crazy. (I must have cute kids.)

B says...

When stopping for fast food on the way home this evening, we stayed for the obligatory romp in the playplace, which started a bit before enough food was consumed to fill little bellies. Taking the remaining food with us, we climbed into the car and headed home. B was hungry and I directed her toward her bag of food, of which she promptly began looking and asking for her french fries. She had a hamburger in her hand as she dug through the bag, repeatedly asking me if I knew where those precious fries were. More out of frustration than anything else, I requested that she just eat the burger first. "Oh," she said, "because it has pwoteen?"

I've obviously been worried about protein consumption. ;)

rockabye baby

Let me start by saying that as a rule, I'm against CIO. I can never stomach it when it's my own kids and I just feel that it's not necessary. Hubby has been making noises about K needing to be able to go to sleep more on her own lately. Sometimes it takes an hour or more to get her to sleep.

There's been a slow progression this week, though, that has led me to do the dreaded CIO. Tonight she cried for all of 4 minutes (none of which was more than complaining that I left her in there on her own.) She's now asleep.

Already I'm sad that I missed the opportunity to nurse her to sleep.

They grow up so fast. Do I need to rush this? Hubby says that I'm just having a "mushy woman moment." I think it's more of a mushy mommy moment. My baby is growing up. OK, she's obviously ready to go to sleep on her own if it took less than 5 minutes, but she's still a baby. right?

I guess I just need another baby! :)

growing pains...and a date

The other day, Hubby and I made plans to go out for an afternoon date. Usually I enjoy the anticipation more than the actual date (due to no fault of my hubby, but my own.) Here's where the growing pains come in. I'm so incredibly attached to my children. Very attached. Grandma had been (not so patiently) biding her time until I was Ok to allow B to spend the night. That finally happened about a year ago, when B was almost three. I don't know that I ever leave my kids for more than maybe a couple hours until they are close to a year old. That's just how I am. Back to the date. We planned to leave both girls for the entire afternoon and most of the evening. Coming to get K before bed, our plan was to leave B to spend the night.

We dropped the girls off. They were enjoying themselves and we were ready for some time to ourselves. Heading out, we scheduled our time, balancing priorities and expectations. After some time spent browsing books and magazines at Barnes & Noble, we headed to the mall to search out some christmas gift ideas for each other, grandparents and the girls. Our big hunt for the season is finding a bike for B. Toys 'R Us was the next stop, with some success. Rather than spending money to eat out, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some nice thick steaks for hubby to BBQ and rented a movie. The time spent by ourselves enjoying just being husband and wife was much needed and greatly enjoyed. We were able to mark some tasks off the forever long list and spend time remembering what it was like before kids, sort of. :) In short, we had fun. Feeling refreshed, we headed off to pick up K.

The girls both had a fabulous time, taking nice long naps for G'ma and enjoying being spoiled and doted upon. I got a few extra snuggles but for the most part was reassured that the girls were well taken care of and had enjoyed themselves immensely while not missing me too horribly much. *sigh*

We were off again. Headed home with only one child in tow. I was already missing B and was a bit sad that she's already big enough to be spending the night away from me so easily. K fell asleep on the way home, so Hubby and I were able to enjoy more of the evening just by ourselves.

All in all, it was a wonderfully refreshing day. Hubby and I got some much-needed couple time; the girls got some G'ma and G'pa time and the grandparents treasured the hours that they were able to spend with their granddaughters.

Just one more step. One day closer to the girls being little people of their own. To growing up and learning more; experiencing life while not directly under the protection of their mama's 'wing'.

It was a good day, bittersweet, but good.

Sing your crabbies out

In the midst of throwing together apple crisp last night, B kept coming in asking if she can help. Normally I say yes. Last night, however, I was not in the mood. I told her that I was crabby and would appreciate it if she could go play somewhere other than right in front of the frig or right by me. She happily said OK and trotted off. Into the living room. To play the piano. To sing her crabbies out. *grin, despite being crabby myself*

A few minutes later she came back in and happily told me that she had sung all her crabbies out and that maybe I should try it.

Ouch.

Total Flop X2

Tonight's dinner, that is. Complete and total flop.

I had intended to make "Poor Man's Soup" out of one of my mom's old cookbooks. At 4:30, I realized that I had neglected to pre-soak the beans. I got them in for a quick soak which involved bringing the water to a boil then allowing to soak for 1 hour. The first direction for the soup was to let them simmer for 45 minutes. The last direction was to allow all of the ingredients to simmer for 1 hour. That put us eating dinner somewhere around 7:30. Not too conducive to an 8 o'clock bedtime.

Onto plan B: Sorta sloppy joes made with the leftovers I could find in the frig. Pre-browned hamburger, some black beans, olives, mushrooms, tomato sauce and a little bit of salsa all warmed up. Dump onto leftover hamburger buns, top with cheese, set under broiler until bubbly. I didn't think that we could go wrong. Well, I was wrong. I had one bite and almost gagged. I think the beans were a bit too old, though the ones that I tasted before I dumped them in were fine.

We're having apple crisp for dinner. :) It's in the oven. Hopefully THAT will turn out OK.