Carrie decided she wanted a new haircut, so yesterday she and I went to the kid’s salon. Ta-da!
I’m going to miss braiding her long, thick hair – but after how easy it was to brush through this morning, maybe not so much as I thought I would! And actually, I’m kind of jealous. I really, really, really want to get my hair cut now…
It tastes as good as it looks!
We were going to wait another couple of weeks to start Anna on solid food, but she was going to take matters into her own hands – quite literally – if we didn’t start feeding her. Any time I hold her on my lap while I eat she tries to grab whatever it is I’m eating, or sticks her fingers into my bowl or onto my plate and tries to taste food! A few days ago she actually started crying when I prevented her from eating the piece of peanut butter & jelly sandwich she snatched off of Carrie’s plate!
So we decided that a couple extra weeks weren’t going to make that much of a difference, and I stocked up on yummy first foods: avocado, sweet potatoes and rice cereal, and we started with the avocados today. I’ve only ever bought avocado in guacamole form, so I was a little nervous about whether the ones I bought would be the right ripeness, but this seems to have been the perfect avocado.
Anna thought so too!
Anna was, I think, the perfect age for a first Christmas. Not quite mobile enough to get into everything yet, but interested and engaged and awed by the lights, the colorful wrapping paper, and the fabulous new toys she could put in her mouth. She’s just thrilled beyond words to be able to roll all over and find a new toy wherever she lands that she can drool on and stuff in her mouth for a bit before she gets bored and rolls around in search of something new.
Carolyn got her Handy Manny tools and costume from Santa, and couldn’t be more thrilled with them. She’s been using the old-school Fisher-Price phone that Aunt Jeannie got for Anna to pretend to take fix-it calls (I get to play the caller – usually I have a squeaky baby that needs oil!) She also seems to really like her new Sleep Fairy CD – as in, for three nights in a row now she’s asleep before the CD ends. Oh, how I hope this lasts! And the Tinkerbell movie was also a big hit.
Denis and I? We treated each other to new Wii games: Mario Kart for him and Animal Crossing for me. Because, you know, we have so much free time to play games! But they’ve been a fun distraction at odd moments over the last few days.
All in all, this has been a very fun Christmas, and I’m looking forward to the next several weeks with not much to do or worry about beyond our everyday hectic lives!
Anna spent the morning merrily rolling around the floor among all of the new toys she got for Christmas. And then she was on her tummy, with an enticing toy just out of reach in front of her. She dug in her little toes and came thisclose to scooting forward. If it were simply mind over matter she would have gotten there, but she couldn’t quite do it. But in a week or so I think we’re going to be in big trouble!
Dear Carolyn,
Today you are four years and two months old! It’s also your Grandma’s birthday, and Christmas Eve! You are so excited about Santa. I can hear you bouncing around upstairs, almost an hour after we put you to bed. But you have to realize one very important thing: Santa doesn’t come until everyone in the house is sleeping!
Sleep is one of those things that seem to be a struggle in every family with small children, and ours is no exception. Anna, for example, does not nap – even though she should. And you? You think you can manage with nine or ten hours of sleep in a night. Which is kind of like me managing on four or five hours of sleep. It can be done, but it doesn’t make for very pleasant days. The tough part is that instead of sleeping, you read. And I haven’t quite figured out on what planet a parent could possibly say “stop reading and go to bed!” Plus, since you’re related to me? It won’t work anyway. I used to sneak into my walk-in closet and turn on the light in there and read books until I fell asleep on a pile of clothes.
So our days have been kind of cranky lately – you’re cranky because you’re up late reading. I’m cranky because I’ve been up late knitting, wrapping, baking, cleaning and decorating. So it hasn’t been the calmest month we’ve ever had, and we have had more than a few meltdowns – both of us have. And Anna looks at us like we’re both nuts. (Which is probably true, but she’s related to us, so she’ll be a nut too, right?)
This month should be better. I promise to go bed at a reasonable hour each night so I can be a more pleasant mommy each day. And you’re going to go to bed earlier because tomorrow morning under the tree you will unwrap the gift of sleep: “The Sleep Fairy”, which is a guided relaxation CD for children. Here’s hoping it works, and that we can all sleep better for the new year!
Love, Mommy
So it only took Anna eight days to learn how to flip back from her tummy onto her back. Life as we know it is going to change drastically, because a baby who can roll both ways is a mobile baby.
Time to figure out where to keep all of Carrie’s teeny-tiny choking-hazard toys…
We were supposed to drive to NYC today, but the weather reports sounded really bad, so at 7 PM we made the decision to leave as soon as we could get everything in the car. Which was 9 PM.
Actually, though, all things considered it wasn’t a bad way to make the trip. We stopped once to change drivers and managed to get in at 2:30. And in reality, I’ve been up nearly that late for several nights in a row now, trying to get things done for the holidays – although not with the added stress of traveling. The kids pretty much slept the whole way, although it was tough to get them back to sleep once we arrived.
Now we just have to recover before our weekend of partying!
So I’m a little late with everything to do with the holidays – including the decorating. Yesterday Carrie and I broke out the “family room” box and decorated the mantel:
I was fussing with the lights for a few minutes, and when I turned around, Carrie had decorated the dogs:
Considering the efforts we went through to get the dogs to wear those things for Carrie’s first Christmas I’m flabbergasted. Either the dogs have really mellowed over the past few years, or they’ve realized she’s above them in the pack order…
Is there anything much cuter than 4 (and 5) year olds in little costumes singing? I thought not. Carrie was the Innkeeper’s Wife in the Christmas pageant this year, and had one of the only spoken lines in the whole play: “No room in the inn!”
Unlike last year, the baby doll didn’t come close to falling on the floor, and all the wise men were willing to give up their gifts. This year the kids signed along with singing one of the songs – I noticed when Carrie would practice it at home that she was signing. It was really, really adorable. I have to admit I’m going to miss this sort of thing when Carrie goes to public school next year, although I imagine there will still be some sort of holiday concerts? And of course Anna will get her turn in a few years.