Eight Years

This morning's conversation:

Him (after he had walked to the church for the morning, called on the phone to say): "Happy Anniversary."

Me: "It is not our anniversary. Our anniversary is tomorrow."

Him: "No. It's today."

Me: "Oh. You're right. Happy Anniversary. I thought it was tomorrow."

On the Feast of Stephen

I'll give my sister-in-law credit for finding this children's book first, but it's been one of my favorites from the library this month. Good King Wenceslas is one of my favorite Christmas carols, and that's probably why I like this book so much--a good excuse to sing to my girls.

Christmas Dresses

Favorite Holiday Classic?

Can you guess the favorite holiday classic movie at our house?

Put Up and Take Down

We put up our Christmas tree this evening. It is our tradition to put the tree up on the "Rose Sunday", a marital compromise between the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. I love the house decorated for Christmas. The decorations make me feel like a kid again, especially when Nat King Cole is crooning the Christmas Song in the background. This childlike glee can be directly contrasted with the grown-up anxiety I feel knowing that the girls are going to break my ornaments. Ultimately it is just a matter of which one(s) and when. It's probably best not to get attached to any of them, but holiday sentiments tend to run deep.

We took down Izzy's crib yesterday afternoon. I always expect this particular transition into "big-kid" to be a lot harder for the kids than it turns out to be. I have issues--not them. She collected the nuts and bolts and put them in a ziploc bag, and then waved bye to her crib as it went upstairs into the attic. I stalked her bedroom door last night after bedtime, impatiently waiting for screams of a toddler needing comfort, but the cries never came. Sniffle, sniffle. My girls are getting so big.

Baby Trip

My husband and I have taken a trip each time I have been pregnant. With Claire we went to Greece, with Lillian we went to New York City and with Isabel we went to Chicago. Obviously the trips have gotten shorter and closer to home with each child.

On Thursday we went to a Resort/ Indoor Waterpark Hotel only 22 miles from our house. We booked the Kids Suite (with bunkbeds) and played in the water for an overnight. We all had a really nice time, even if for Chris and me, it was enjoying the experience through our children. I certainly think that we will go again--but not necessarily because of impending childbirth.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. I am so bad at grabbing my camera! Not that I wanted to show any of you pictures of me in maternity swimwear anyway. Izzy kept pointing to my stomach, which was partly exposed from under the tankini top (yikes), and saying "Belly!". Thanks Izzy, you know how to flatter!

Pineapple Keikei Hula

Our neighbors just got back from Hawaii (how about a giant snowstorm to welcome you home from sunny 85 degree days?). They bought the girls floral leis which have been inspiring much creative play. Izzy, who had been wearing the lei all morning, even through breakfast and the choking incident, suddenly had an impulse to take it off for the picture. :(

For anyone who still needs to buy a Christmas gift for their children, I highly recommend the playsilks modeled in the above picture. My girls play with them every day. They take on a variety of uses--doll blankets, hats, dresses, fort canopies, slings for "broken arms", and even grass hula skirts.

Today's Tasty Treat

There is never a dull moment at my house (just wait a few weeks, right?). This morning I gave Izzy a usual box of math manipulatives to play with while I did math with Claire. She ate one! A glass mancala stone! She started choking, vomited on the floor, her face was bright red and tears were welling up in her eyes...I started having visions of quarter extractions...and then she swallowed it and went right on playing like nothing even happened. I called my doctor who said she would be fine--it should pass right through without a problem.

Sigh.

***FYI: I linked to a previous post about Lily and Claire's ER adventures this summer. Lily's heel is just recently "healed" (ha ha). It is still tender and she insists on wearing shoes a size too big as to not put pressure on the scar tissue.

I Hate Corelle Plates

Corelle place settings are supposed to be unbreakable. Corelle lies. They break, or rather explode into hundreds of pieces. I know this because my daughters are breaking unbreakable plates at an unbelievable rate. I am down to 7 from 20 a few years ago. A majority of the explosions have occurred in the last 3 to 4 months. I asked for new place settings for Christmas. We might be eating off of paper for Advent 4.

Corelle is free to use my daughters in quality testing. It is possible, I suppose, that the combination of 6 and 4 year old girls is lethal to dinnerware. Or maybe it's just my kitchen floor--the patina of crumbs, milk spills and marker scribbles sets those plates to pieces.

Whatever. My new plates will not be Corelle.