Rex said he wanted a flashy, one of a kind shirt to wear on stage so he got it. I made this for his Christmas present. He found it quite pleasing.

We went up to my SIL's house for a New Year's Party (which, due to everyone's schedule, was actually not held on New Year's Eve). There was a whole passel of little girls there (it seems we all breed females) so Sylvia had a ball. Gus had a great time playing with his older boy cousin's toys and joining in the general romp.

We met everyone from the party last night at Chick-fil-A today to celebrate N.'s third birthday. I took L. home with us so Sylvia has gotten in tons of play-time.

Strange Gift

We had a great Christmas this year. We spent Christmas Eve and Day at my parents house. Amy came down from UNCC and Kim flew in from CA. Sylvie and Gus love playing with their Aunties.

Out of the family, I believe I received the strangest gift. Yes, even stranger than the tongue cleaner in my mom's stocking. Among other things, Rex gave me some marmite. At first I thought it was a bottle of bread yeast, but it's actually a yeast spread for toast and crackers. It's supposed to be energizing. I have yet to try it...I'm a little scared.

Other gifts of note include the scrapbooks my mom made for each of us girls detailing our childhoods, an antique coffee grinder, and two large "lipsticks" stuffed with stickers and hair things.

Miniature pumpkins have some major staying power. We've had that thing since mid-October.

Christmas Shots

Wahoo! They liked our gift! My nephews that is. I guess it's not too hard to figure out what to get two Lego obsessed brothers but all the thank-you hugs and fake falling to the floor in disbelief sure were nice.



For her Xmas present, I made L. a dress to match Sylvie's.



This was a big hit with Gus. He's been really into trains lately. It just so happens that one of his cousins went through a huge Thomas faze a few years ago so we get lots of his old stuff. It was said cousin's parents who got Gus the ride on.



Isn't she a little pixie princess.



This picture came out a little fuzzy. How I wish it didn't! She is truly the sweet, sweet, sweetest baby in the world! I think I can say that objectively.

In the Kitchen

We managed to get in one batch of cookies this season using this recipe for Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies with crushed candy cane added on top for a little holiday flavor. The kids were helpful and it turned out to be a no stress operation. Sylvia picked out the dress she's wearing because it reminded her of chocolate with sprinkles on it, the kind of cookies we originally set out to make. Alas, the Fresh Market does not carry multi colored sprinkles...too bad.


When the cookies were done, we took a plate into the family room, spread out on the rug and listened to The Night Before Christmas and A Christmas Carol recorded from StoryNory.


And now I've got about 8 quarts of tomato and meatball sauce slowly simmering on the stove-top. This with some parmesan cheese, whole wheat pasta and a bottle of red wine is one of my favorite meals. The kids are doing arts and crafts at the kitchen table and Millie's napping. It's been a peaceful and productive day.

Domestic Goddess?

My life has been pretty hectic for awhile, well, ever since I started having kids. That's almost five years! But judging from how busy all of my friends are, many whom are childless, it's just that we're adults now. The beginning of my childbearing years did correspond with the end of my college years.

I was talking to Sylvie the other day, trying to explain to her why it makes me frustrated when she makes me do something for her that we all know full well she can do for herself (like turn on the bathroom light). I told her that I have so many things to do with cooking, cleaning, changing diapers, etc that I just do not want to have to walk across the house to turn on a light when I'm in the middle of cooking dinner. And tonight we had another talk where I explained the difference between "Mommy the servant" and "Mommy the friend". I am struggling to find a solution as to how to teach her to do some things for herself...little kids just like to be pampered! And I'm trying to figure out what to let go of in my own life to open up more room for quality time with the kids. Should I stop making the beds? Give up my attempts to get back into breadmaking? What about my sewing time? How many times should I clean the kitchen counters each day? This house can consume me with it needs if I let it.

Too Cute

I just wanted to post this picture because it is perfectly cute. Gus has been having a hard time going to bed and staying asleep. We thought it might be a good idea to have him sleep with Sylvia. Obviously things went well enough to get this shot in.

The Children's Museum

Well, I'm having a hard time figuring out how to place the pictures and I need to get downstairs to wrap some presents so this is just going to have to be okay. I took the kids to the Children's Museum today. This is one of our favorite places around town. We met some friends for the Spanish circle and then spent a few hours wandering the museum. The bulk of the time was spent in the Arts & Craft room. That's our friend Georgia holding the little Santa and Elf she made while sporting her new self fashioned crown. I also wanted to get a shot of the dress Miss Sylvie wore just because it was made by me. The children's all round favorite (and the adults' least favorite) part of the museum is the grocery store. If you look closely at Gus' cart you will see some fruits and vegetables. So they played around their for awhile and after I put three carts worth of groceries back we spent a few trifling minutes in the doughnut factory and at the play kitchen before it was time to go home.

Her First Nutcracker

Sylvia performed in The Nutcracker this past weekend. She was a Baby Mouse (and darned if I couldn't get those mouse ears to stay up!). This was a great experience for her. They had three performances but unfortunately were only onstage approximately one minute each time. I got to stay and watch the second show and was impressed with how professional it seemed. The whole thing was very entertaining. Even the hours spent in the waiting room! I got in some good gabbing time with the other moms.

I'm not sure if this is unusual for little girls but Sylvia is passionate about dance, ballet in particular. We've been renting ballets from Netflix for over a year now and she watches them nearly every night. She's familiar with the Bolshoi, Coppelia, the Lilac Fairy, and several other ballet related things I had no clue about until I began feeding her interest. She loves classical music (she calls princess music) and will dance for hours in the living room. We recently rented The Nutcracker cd from the library (she's humming the music in her bed as I type) and she reenacts the whole thing, she knows who does what during each part of the music. I caught her dancing on pointe a week or two ago and, amid protest, quickly put an end to that. They say it's dangerous until their feet stop growing.

Today was a typical day around here. I tried to sleep in but Gus and Millie weren't having it so I was out of bed by 7:20am. We got ready, read some stories, and had breakfast. I spent too long on the computer catching up with email and between that, the laundry, and sundry other chores, lunch time came real fast. We got in a couple more stories, ate Tomato Soup from the freezer and sourdough rolls from the Fresh Market and then I took a quick rest on the couch. Next was some more story time, more cleaning for me while the kids got about 20 minutes of a Charlotte's Web dvd (I'm trying to peak Sylvia's interest so she'll listen to the novel on cd) and then off to the grocery store. We dropped off some Christmas presents to friends on the way home and stayed for a short visit. We left with a really awesome set of wooden blocks...a much appreciated score. For dinner it was broccoli and cheese (and dijon for the adults) quesadillas. I still can't believe my kids like broccoli.

They're in bed now and I'm off to finish sewing my niece's Christmas present.

A Four Year Old's Day

Sylvia woke up early today which fit nicely into our schedule as we had to be in King at 9am. She had a smile on her face and got herself dressed, brushed her hair, and had me brush her teeth because I do it faster. We headed out the door and up to our MOPs meeting listening to Alice in Wonderland in the van. I volunteered in the nursery today so I just kept all three of the kids in Sylvia's room. Sylvia played, danced, talked to other children, watched a movie, had a snack, made a wreath...it was a good time.

After we came home Sylvia suggested PB&J for lunch and as Rex just bought a loaf of walnut wheat bread from our local organic bakery, I thought that was a great idea. Even better, Sylvia volunteered to make them herself and did a wonderful job. After that we went outside where Sylvia decided Gus would be Fritz, she would be Clara (from the Nutcracker), and I would be the mom (go figure). So she danced around the driveway and set up various scenes including fights with Fritz, Clara hurting her feet on pebbles, and me scolding her for going in the house.

Back inside we pulled out the arts and crafts box and Sylvia made good use of our new markers. I finally let these in the house even though I'm still wary Gus is going to use them where they ought not to be used. She was thrilled with how easy the markers made it to stay in the lines in her coloring book. That lasted for a good hour or so before I made her come fold her laundry and put it away. This is a relatively new chore for her and she still enjoys doing it. After that we pulled out her beads (we were recently handed down millions!) and she began a necklace for her dear friend and cousin L.

That's how 5pm found us. And so we put the beads away, Sylvia had a shower and cleaned up her toys in record time. The kids had leftover spaghetti with Bolognese sauce for dinner...Sylvia scarfed her own and ended up eating most of Gus' as well. She watched a half hour of Swan Lake and then it was story time. We read "The Carrot Seed", "I Am a Ballerina", and various Animal Tales from The Little Golden Book Collection. I tucked her in and we played our new favorite game that goes like this...

Me: "Sylvia, before you were born I was sad. I felt like there was something missing in my life. But then you were born and my heart danced with joy.

Sylvia tells me to wait and tries her hardest to make a straight face. Then she signals me to go on.

Me: And do you know what comes over my face every time I think of what a wonderful person you are?

She sustains her straight face for a millisecond before it fills with a smile.

Me: "A BIG Smile! And do you know what..."

Here she tells me to wait again and does the straight face.

Me: "And do you know what will come over other people's faces when they get to know what a wonderful person you are?"

Another big smile on her part.

Me: "A BIG smile!!!"

I love our new tradition.

An Interesting Lunch

Do you see those tomatoes? They're homegrown...and it's December. No, we don't have a greenhouse. But between the late sprouting, mild fall, and the whole plant taking up residence on our kitchen table when it got too cold, we still have one tomato plant working for us. Maybe I'll make caprese for Christmas.

You may wonder what's on the dish. It's not mushrooms covered in yellow tempura paint but sardines with a honey mustard sauce. I'm trying to include more fish in our diet and sardines are cheap, high in DHA, and low in toxins. It's taken me awhile to get used to them and I'm not there yet, the spine still gets to me. Sylvia thought it'd be a good idea to first try them with chocolate. So Rex fixed her a cracker with Nutella and sardine...it did not go over well, at least not for Sylvia, Gus seemed to like it. Either way, by the end of the meal they had both eaten some sardines and I think they'll like them even better next week.

Christmas Time's A Comin'

Here's our official Christmas card picture. And thanks to the help of my mom, it only took 4 tries to get a good one. Rex did the decorating this year including a cedar tree cut down from King and numerous sprigs of holly, ivy, and other various evergreens from our yard. It was all done the night before my mom came for her visit and she was duly impressed. As soon as we were done with our photography session, I dropped my mom and Sylvia off downtown to see the Nutcracker and took Millie to do some (almost) final Christmas shopping.

Clean Laundry

There it is, the pile of diaper laundry that greets me four times a week (and this is a very small load). Bummer, another chore, right? Maybe I should be ashamed to admit this but I actually enjoy the diaper laundry, washing, drying, folding, and putting away. When we lived up in the country and my laundry lines (inside and out) were such that I could hang and watch the kids, I readily did so. Unfortunately the lines in our city house are too far from where the children are and Rex does not like the idea of putting screws into our plaster walls to support a line in the family room.

I suppose it's a zen thing. And it's a chore for which I get to sit down! I love sitting there and zoning out, vaguely acknowledging the usefulness of these rags. And, of course, I pat myself on the back for my environmental stewardship. Usually the kids are in the room with me while I fold. It's Sylvia's chore to fold the wipes. Lately we've had music on. We've been listening to an introductory series for the Classics from the library and we are enjoying The Story of Mozart this week. Out of the three cds we've listened to so far Sylvia's favorite is Tchaikovsky because she recognizes all the ballets.