Adelaide meets her Great Grandparents

In early February (8-10) Adelaide and I flew down to Florida to visit my grandparents. She did so well on the plane, she fell asleep before we even boarded and didn't wake up until we were getting off the plane on the trip down.



We were lucky to have beautiful weather, my grandma and I took Adelaide for an hour walk in the 80 degree sunshine each day and I think she really enjoyed being out--it was the first time in her life that she was able to go outside and feel warm weather! On each walk we ran into a local mom walking her baby, too. It was so funny to me that Adelaide was out in an undershirt and diaper and the Florida baby was in a sleeper and hat and blanket!

We had a lovely visit with delicious meals and great conversation. I'm so glad that we were able to go down and introduce her.

Matilda's big girl day out

I took Matilda out for a "Big Girl Day" today and we had a fantastic time! First, we went to Jac-n-Jills kid salon to get her bangs trimmed. Next, we went to the nail spa and she got a mini manicure with violet polish and a little flower on each thumb. She sat still, was super polite, and made charming small talk with everyone we met. She was such a good girl, we rewarded her by meeting Daddy out for lunch. We went to Red Lobster. Matilda had macaroni and cheese, watched the lobsters in the tank and was terrified when the nice hostess fished one out of the water and offered to let her touch it.



After our big day out, we came home and had a nice nap. Evelyn was so jealous when she saw Matilda's nails that she was chasing her around yelling "Doz is MINE nails, Matilta!" So, we sat down and did Evelyn's nails too.





Adelaide was blissfully unaware that anything had happened.

Rollin'

Adelaide rolled over for the first time today!

Evelyn being Evelyn

She's such a spunky kid!

Work it

Adelaide turned 3 months old this weekend and got to try out the exersaucer for the first time, or, as we call it, her "office"


It took her a little bit to figure out all the stuff around her.




But she was certainly entertained!


It's exciting to see her get so big and try out new things. And here's her bald spot, just like Evelyn's!

Jolly Happy Soul

The girls are enjoying playing in the first snow of 2012. It was too cold to be outside the last couple days, but they waited patiently for the mercury to rise just enough. They built their first snowman today, complete with hat, scarf, carrot nose and wood chip eyes. They had a blast building their little guy and were singing "Frosty the Snowman" all the while.

If it fits, it ships

Updates on Adelaide

Adelaide is nearly 3 months old now. She's showing an interest in her toys and follows our voices when we talk around her. She can grasp and shake her rattle, enjoys her bath, is sleeping and eating well and starting to sit in her bumbo seat.

At her 2 month check up on December 16 she was 23.5 inches long, 12.1 pounds and had a head circumference of 40cm. She's up there on the Gustafson Girl Growth curve and has nearly doubled her birth weight already, you'd never know she started out small by looking at her!

She's fully out-grown her newborn clothes and is now in 0-3 and 3-6 month outfits, depending on the cut. She's a very alert baby who seems to enjoy lively surroundings and is generous with her smiles and has a very expressive little face. Her rare big frowns crack me up and she still has a bit of an elvish look about her.

Her dark hair is falling out and she has a bald spot on the back just like Evelyn did. Her brows and lashes are still very blonde and her eyes are still grey-blue for the moment. I imagine her hair will come back blonde just like Evelyn's did, but I'm not ready to make a guess about her eye color.

The Christmas Post 2011

After trimming the tree, we started the Christmas season with my (I thought) clever plan of taking pictures of the children sleeping for the Christmas card so I wouldn't have a repeat of 2009.

Things began cherubically

but sleeping big kids are kind of disheveled.

and the flash made Evelyn grimace.

So, I moved on to posing some shots.

Again, Adelaide was pretty easy, although quite committed to my original "sleeping child" idea

I'm in a stocking.... zzzzzzzzzz.

Evelyn loves to take pictures, but is also easily distracted. Here she's trying to figure out how to put Santa on the sleigh.

This was adorable but we ultimately decided it was too bare for the US Postal Service.

There we go! Matilda did a splendid job posing for the card this year and I let her eat the candy cane when we were done.

The first Sunday of Advent our church hosted an Advent wreath making brunch after the service. The kids enjoyed donuts and fruit and Matilda really loved helping to make the wreath. It was a bit more challenging with Evelyn, the event lasted much longer than her attention span, but she did help put a few decorations on our family wreath and she loved lighting the candles at dinner time, singing happy birthday Jesus (every night for 28 nights) and blowing out the candles.

After collecting the supplies, Daddy showed the girls how to put the greens into the floral foam

Matilda did a great job sticking the boxwood and assorted greenery into the wreath and really seemed to enjoy herself.

Evelyn was much more interested in running around, hiding under the table and tickling Daddy with the wreath supplies.

Tada! Thats our wreath! We put the candles in at home.

Silly Evelyn!

In mid-December, Ms. Nina, the director of the Little Cherubs church choir, hosted a "Happy birthday, Jesus!" party following choir practice. There were little tables set up in the youth lounge, a buffet with cheeses, fruit, veggies, meatballs, deli meats and lots of sweets, fancy candy canes at each place, punch, and even a birthday cake. Ms. Nina invited the siblings to attend too and made (and wrapped!) a blanket for every child (even the siblings who are not in the choir!) The kids sang songs, read a story, unwrapped their blankets and enjoyed the goodies. After the party, we took the girls to visit Santa at our neighborhood store. He was a jolly santa with a real beard!

Evelyn was scared and pulled a Randy.

Matilda was determined to be VERY good.

Matilda and Santa chatted for just a minute.

She assured him she was a good girl and asked for a princess doll.

We did so many fun things getting ready for the big day! We purchased a large Advent calendar from noel eternelle in Montreal last July and put a candy in each door for the girls. They loved opening the doors to find their treat and count down to the big day! We read tons of Christmas books--we added a few to our collection this year, including How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The girls watched Charlie Brown Christmas and Frosty the Snowman a million times along with some Christmas specials of their favorite pre-school shows, but Matilda found the Grinch movie to be too scary. I watched Polar Express with them as well, but there were some parts Matilda found too frightening and we had to fast forward.

We baked cookies... LOTS of cookies. And we worked on Christmas crafts. The girls made Ruldoph, Frosty and Santa faces on paper plates with foam stickers, created plastic snow globes, decorated gift bags, and helped make hot chocolate gift sets for Kim and Eric and Grandma and Grandpa to put under the tree. With Kim's help, they also made penguin ornaments. Daddy and Adelaide made a little footprint ornament for her first christmas and I put together a photo ornament for her as well as a calendar and framed some of her birthday pictures for the family.

Matilda's cherub choir sang twice this December, once on the 18th and again at the Christmas Eve service. Kim and Eric arrived on Christmas Eve and the whole family attended the service followed by a nice dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house. After dinner, we went home to get cleaned up for bed and feed Adelaide. Then Daddy read Twas the Night Before Christmas to the girls and we opened the last day on the Advent calendar where the girls found an extra special candy--chocolate covered marshmallows! The big girls hung their stockings by the fireplace and went to bed. Kim, Eric, Ed and I stayed up until midnight wrapping presents, filling stockings and getting the house ready for guests the next day.

Christmas morning, the tree was absolutely stuffed with gifts from Santa, grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, and friends. We kept the girls upstairs until grandma and grandpa arrived, but they were so excited when they woke up and realized Santa had left a gift in their bedrooms. I was washing dishes when I heard Matilda yell "Santa came! Mommy, did Jesus find you!?" It was so cute. He left each girl a "Zhu Zhu Pet" which is just a little robotic hamster that rolls around and makes funny noises. Adorably, they seemed satisfied (until we got downstairs) with the idea that that might be all Santa got for them!

When they saw all the gifts they were a bit overwhelmed, I think. Matilda was delighted that Santa remembered to bring her a princess doll. There were so many gifts that the girls ran out of steam and stopped opening 1/2 way through and had to come back and finish later with Grandma. Everyone seemed pleased with their gifts and the trinkets in their stockings. It was a fun morning. Once the unwrapping was over and cleaned up, I made gingerbread waffles. Even the girls were brave enough to try them this year and it's a Christmas tradition I have no intention of abandoning!

There was plenty of food this year. Ed ordered a Jamon Serano from Spain, along with a stand and special knife to make the delectable delicate slices. There were also 100 oysters overnighted to our door that he and Eric expertly shucked, displayed on a bed of rock salt and slurped down. There were cookies and candies galore, cheese, olives, and dolmas. For dinner we served prime rib roast with port wine sauce, turkey breast, gravy, creamed spinach, potatoes au gratin and home made dinner rolls, accompanied by a Jeroboam of champagne (4 bottles) Shanti and Laura joined us for Christmas dinner and the conversation and company were delightful.

I am sure that there are pictures and videos somewhere of the advent calendar and

maybe cookies and the cherub choir and the ham and the whole family at Christmas Eve dinner...

but I can't find them. Once I unearth them, I'll add them here for posterity.

My gift from Jim and Joanne (photography backdrop and lighting kit) came in a bag so large we couldn't resist putting the family into it!

Evelyn is the only kid I know who is excited to receive clothing as a gift, here's one of the many princess nightgowns she got and wants to wear constantly.

In the days following Christmas the girls had a blast playing with their new toys and with their relatives. On the 29th, Jim, Eric, Kim and Edward went to Milwaukee for a basketball game and the girls and I had a quiet afternoon and evening at home unwinding from all the festivities. On the 30th Ed left for California to watch the Rose Bowl. My dad came out on the 31st to visit and help out with the girls.

By the 3rd of January our decorations were put away, our guests had all returned home, Ed was back in town and life has gone back to normal. It's always sad to see Christmas go, especially such a fun one that the girls were so excited about, but I know next year will be even better now that Matilda and Evelyn are old enough to remember what we did this year. It's wonderful to be building our family traditions and lovely memories for years to come.

First Day of School

Evelyn had her first day of school on Tuesday, January 3. She and Matilda are in the same class this semester. There were no tears for the drop off and they both had a great day. They met new friends, talked about their favorite things, had snack, played and learned about the letter F, the days of the week and the months of the year. Thursday, they practiced the letter F and calendar skills again. When I arrived to pick them up, Evelyn didn't even notice I was there, she was so busy building letters with special "handwriting" blocks.

When we got home from their first day of school I set up my new photography backdrop stand from Jim and Joanne to take some pictures of the girls in the outfits Kim and Eric picked for them. Evelyn is a little ham and enjoys being in front of the camera.

Matilda is a more difficult subject, she doesn't like to keep still and she makes funny faces but, with practice she'll get used to having her portrait taken.

Of course, we had to get a picture with Adelaide!

Everyone wants to hold her though, so you don't get much time to snap a good shot before the big sisters lose patience and just want to play with baby Adelaide.

Trimming the Tree

We brought up the tree the day after Thanksgiving and the big girls were so excited to help decorate!



This is the "Safe Tree" that has mostly non-breakable things on it. I gave them a box full of christmas balls, bells and other trinkets (and candy canes!) to put on the tree themselves. At first, the tree was pretty bottom-heavy in decor, but then Evelyn got this bright idea:

She is really impressed with her efforts. She and Matilda still get excited every day when I turn on the lights.


The "Safe Tree" also has all our travelling ornaments on it. Whenever we visit a new place, Ed and I try to pick up an ornament or bauble to put on the tree to remember the trip. We're only missing 6 cities: Orlando, New Orleans, Charleston, Wellington, Madrid, and Montreal.

The ornament Evelyn is looking at is a light house from our trip to Cape Cod. while we were decorating the tree, I told the girls about the trips associated with each of the special ornaments. For this one, I explained to Matilda that we took her to Cape Cod before Evelyn was born. Something was lost in translation, however, and it is now "The lighthouse where Evelyn was born." :)

Big Girl Bed

It was bound to happen eventually. Evelyn has started climbing out of her crib. The tiny hotel crib stood no chance of containing her, and her successful escapes only emboldened her. So, on December 15, we converted her crib to a toddler bed.

She is such a wild sleeper, I was certain she'd fall out or just spend all night running around her room abusing her freedom, but she shocked me and went right to sleep and stayed in her big girl bed all night.



As you can see, she was pretty stoked. (I was too!)