TBT

Happy Thursday!

Our first throwbacks are all about GINGERBREAD HOUSES.

I'd like to say they each year's house has gotten a little better, but 2013
was clearly a year of sleep deprivation for a couple members of our household.

This girl works hard and eats hard.
Lots of candy goes missing during the process.

Then we have cute toddlers with mouths agape.

Finally, Callie's Christmas concert at preschool was tonight.  It went MUCH better than last year.

I'll blog more about it tomorrow, but here is a throwback pic.

Happy Birthday Auntie Mari!!!

It took me a couple minutes to actually do the math and figure out she is entering her LATE twenties. 

As someone 7 years older than her, that makes me feel old.

We hope you have a great day!  Love you!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Well, we had our first real toddler melt down tonight with toddler #2.  She was having fun poking a little fork into some play doh, but when it was time to start getting ready for bed, Chris told her it was time to be done.

She took it hard.  She immediately freaked out and started shrieking (hmmm...wonder where she learned that?).  Once I took the play-doh away, it was over: screaming, flailing, making quite a scene.  Unfortunately for her, her older sister has toughened us up and the only thing Chris and I could do was look at each other and giggle.  One-year-old tantrumers are SO nothing compared to four-year-old tantrumers.

It will be interesting to see if this as an isolated incident, or the start of a new phase. 

As for the weekend...

Saturday

*We spent the morning decorating the tree.


 *Then we went to a Christmas celebration at G-ma's church.  Callie did some crafts, we had lunch, and even got to meet some wisemen and shepherds.

*While Callie went to dance class, Maya was ADORABLE.


IMG 1720 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

*Callie's attitude continued, though she had a couple of funny QOTDs.

Callie: (looking at the Swedish ornament) This is a weird ornament!
Me: It's Swedish!
Callie: It is made of sweets!?  I don't want to eat it!
----------------
Callie: (MAJOR ATTITUDE)
Me: (texting Chris about major attitude)
Callie: You're not texting Santa, are you?
Me: No, but thanks for the idea (continue texting)
----------------
Callie: I am NOT singing in the Christmas program at preschool.  Shouldn't grown-ups be the ones to do a program for kids?  They are bigger than kids are.
Me: But grown-ups love to watch little kids sing.  They think it is so cute.
Callie: NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO WATCH ME AT THE PROGRAM EXCEPT MAYA.

Sunday

*Maya continued her ridiculously cute behavior on Sunday morning.  This girl has been fawned over all weekend by strangers- at the Christmas party, at Lund's, etc. 

Picture on the left: her face once she realized Daddy and Sissy were home.
Picture on the top right: found on my phone- must have been a toddler selfie.
Picture on the bottom right: Cowgirl Maya.

*During naptime we decorated a gingerbread house. 

*Callie, Boom, Auntie Cat and I went to see a short production of "The Nutcracker," featuring Callie's (and my former) dance teacher, Connie. 

*We got our wreath put on the door, but that is about all the outdoor decorations our house will get.  Besides seeing our tree through the window, I guess.

And then there was wrestle time on Daddy.

As for our silly elves, Coo-Koo and Loony, they have been pretty creative this week.

Rappelling down the wall......stealing from the candy jar.......relaxing in Daddy's boots......sitting with the Mommy Juice

Playing Gigi's piano.....pointing out favorite princesses.......hanging on the lamp

Have a great week!

FTPDF

Happy Weekend!

We had a pretty chill week.  Callie has been displaying a combination of major attitude and sweet excitement about everything, mixed with an obnoxious amount of baby talk and irrationality.  Maya is babbling up a storm and continuously falling down because she wants to keep up with everybody but has tiny little legs.

As for the pictures, there aren't too many.  But here's what I got.

Favorite Thing #1: Pictures from the grandparents

Favorite Thing #2: Christmas things

Favorite Thing #3: Elf Show with Boom

Favorite Thing #4: Playtime at home- including an evening with Sydney and Kylie...
With four girls playing nonstop, this is the best picture I could get.

 Have a great weekend!

TBT

Happy Thursday!  Happy December!

I am really glad to be out of fall.  September, October and November were less than ideal months, but the magic of December is going to make up for them all...I hope.

Our first throwback of sweet Maya is leftover from November.

That FACE

Then we have a couple other cute ones.

Toddlers lying on the ground

Sisters cuddling (or...something).
Callie is wearing the same footie jammies.

Our Bedtime Routine

There have probably been thousands of blog posts about sleeping (or not so sleeping) kids written by bloggers.

I have been one of them.  We have had our fair share of sleeping issues, especially when the little one was a new baby.  Our older one was a good sleeper as a baby, but provided us with some good nap avoidance stories too.

But really, compared to so many other kids I have heard about, our bedtime routine has always been pretty short and sweet and solid.

These days, Chris and I have it down to a science. 

6:15-6:50ish: Play upstairs: Wrestle...read books...write words...fly off the couch...etc.

6:50-7:00ish: Get ready for bed: Toothbrush...potty...diaper...etc.

Then, as of lately, Callie joins Maya for her book before bed.

7:10ish: Callie sings her a song or too before heading to her room, and I finish rocking and singing with Maya. Chris gets Callie into bed.

7:15ish: I put Maya down and then head to Callie's room to say goodnight. We sing 5-8 verses of the "Banana Song."  You know the one: "Daddy daddy bo baddy, banana nana fo faddy, me my mo maddy, DADDY!"  Then she asks to hold my finger and I stay up for a couple more minutes snuggling in bed with her.

7:20ish: We are done and don't usually hear a peep until at least 6:30am.

Doesn't that sounds nice?

Now that I have thrown all that out in the universe, Maya will probably start going through a major sleep regression and Callie will probably start refusing to go to bed on time or start waking up at 5am.

So I guess I'll soak it in while it lasts.

Weekend Wrap-Up

Sigh.

5 days off went way too fast.

We are back to Sunday night before a crazy 3 week push til winter break. 

The weekend was as lovely as our Thanksgiving week.

Saturday

Callie and I went to the fancily decorated Bachman's house with
G-ma, Auntie Cat, Hanna, Nana and Aunt Jeanne.  Then we all had lunch
at Backman's with Papa.  It was a fun morning, though taking an
almost 5-year-old into a house with a lot of breakables wasn't
my best idea.



Because...the energy.  Is boundless.



After Bachman's we hung out at G-ma and G-pa's house and
did some impromptu knitting while the girls were playing with Pa.

And then we headed over to the condo for some playtime with Boom and Bops.

Sunday

 Maya and I got a lot of Christmas shopping done in the morning. 
She was a trooper and let me bring her to four different stores without putting up a fight. 
Though by the end she refused to sit down in her car seat.
Later on we had more playtime at G-ma and G-pa's.

I found this cute craft online, so Callie and I made "icicles" out of beads and
pipe cleaners.  We have them hanging on our front window.

This girl loves her doggy.

And I'll leave you with an ELF ON THE SHELF update every Sunday in December.  Those elves we have are pretty fun!  They fly to the North Pole EVERY NIGHT and come back in the morning to a new spot in our house.  They love Cheerios, they only talk to Mommy (who has to then tell everyone what they say...coincidentally they are often napping), and you can't touch them or they lose their magic. 

On the front table..................in the stockings...................by the chalkboard

This time of year is super magical and it is so fun to watch it through the eyes of little ones.