Santa

So we saw Santa today. It went as expected...Rylie screamed, Paige got bashful. At the end (after we removed the screaming banshee from Santa's lap), Paige got to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas. She told him she wanted a "dog pit." I asked her afterwards what a "dog pit" was and she said, "my present from Santa." Duh.

This is the best picture we could get. The lady wanted to re-take it because, "the older one is leaning away from Santa." I was like, "uh, I think that if we're concerned about anything it's that the younger one is screaming, and while I think she'll forgive me for putting her there once, I think we'll need a baby therapist if we do it again."

Enjoy:

Shelf, the Elf on the Shelf

Last year, after a lot of discussion about the matter, we jumped on the "Elf on the Shelf" bandwagon. We heard our local Target had some in stock, and headed out to try to get us one. We may have had to elbow some desperate mothers out of the way to get ours, but we now have our very own little bundle of elf joy. We eagerly read the accompanying book with Paige (Rylie was only a few months old and we didn't think she could possibly begin to understand the idea of constant surveillance and reporting to Santa), and about half way through, they have this part where you have to name your elf. So when Paige was asked what we should name our elf and she barely thought about it before deciding on, "Shelf." We were like, "Ha ha, no, you don't understand, what should his NAME be," and she declared that his name is, in fact, Shelf. So last year we played along and didn't make a big deal out of Shelf, but he was definitely there when we needed him. This year, though, Shelf is like a celebrity in our house.

We got out the book at the beginning of December, and immediately Paige recognized her friend Shelf (I was secretly hoping she wouldn't remember his name, so we could make it a normal elf name this year...I never actually wrote it in the book, but I think we're stuck now). Our elf, Shelf, is not as creative as some other elves, he just hangs out up high, constantly watching. The very first thing Paige asks every morning is, "Can we go find Shelf," so we do have to be pretty diligent about moving him. She asks how his night was just about every morning, and sometimes will be like, "so did you tell Santa I was a good girl," to which he replies.....well, nothing, because he's a doll. But she still asks, every day.

Rylie still doesn't acknowledge Shelf, but I have high hopes for next year. When she is throwing a tantrum and I say, "Uh oh, I hope Shelf doesn't see you..." she doesn't even pause for a second to think about what I've said, so, like I said, next year.

Video Update

Here are a few videos from the last two months:

Paige has embraced her inner dare-devil and this is what she does every time we go out in the cul-de-sac. Don't worry, we've started making her wear a helmet. It was unsafe, I know...



A few months back I bought a deal for 4 cheerleading classes for kids. This was their final activity on the last class. As you can see, Paige has a real future here.



Andrew and Colleen went down to W&M for homecoming weekend. We got to watch Drew, and he's hysterical. Not sure why we didn't put clothes on him...watching 3 kids was hard.

Election Eve 2012

Tonight at dinner we were talking about voting tomorrow. Paige excitedly exclaimed, "We're going on a boat tomorrow?!" I decided to give her a brief overview of voting, and what it means to vote. Then I asked, "Who should I vote for tomorrow to be our next president?" Paige responded, without hesitation, "SANTA!"

Since we're on the topic of Santa, Paige decided that since we've checked Halloween off the list for this year, Christmas is really soon (not sure why she has that idea, Costco has only had Christmas decorations out since the second week of October). She told me that she's excited that Christmas is soon because it's almost time for Santa to bring her a dog bed. That's right, a dog bed. Apparently she would like a dog bed for when she's crawling around pretending she's a dog (which happens more frequently than I'd like to admit).

So, get out and vote for Santa tomorrow. Turn those states white.

Nom Nom

Rylie's palate is an interesting one. I foresee an episode of "My Strange Addiction" in her future. She's a great eater at all meals, and will eat just about anything I give her (exceptions are eggs, shrimp and tomatoes), but it is her non-approved between meal "snacks" that concern me.

Example 1: The other day I met a friend at Starbucks and we were sitting outside enjoying our coffee while her baby and Ry walked around on the sidewalk. There was a planter close to us and Rylie decided to try a handful of potting soil. Now, I get it...potting soil looks a lot like crushed up Oreos, so why not give it a go?! You'd think, though, that after one handful, Rylie would have thought to herself, "hum, that was gross," but instead she went back for about 5 more handfuls.

Example 2: When I get ready in the morning, often times the girls will play in our bedroom or next to me in the bathroom. Rylie is known to get into the stuff under our sinks, so I have to do a lot of dancing around to keep a knee on whichever vanity door she's trying to open. However, occasionally she will get through my Fort Knox like security and get something out. A few weeks back she got out Dave's deodorant, popped off the lid, and took a big chomp (this is the point that I would like to make this a little less disgusting by saying it was a brand new deodorant, but that wasn't the case). Bad, right? Well, after that, she was zoned in on that deodorant and would wait for me to look away so that she could get another little taste. She's even gone after mine a few times. In total, I think she's taken about 3 big bites of deodorant.

Example 3: To prevent Ry from rummaging around too much in our bathroom cabinets, I've started putting her in Dave's sink while I get ready. His contact solution is usually sitting on the countertop and she'll drink from it like a bottle. So now I have to survey what products are out, make sure all lids are securely in place (or put them away), then plop her in the sink...all just so that I can brush my teeth.

Example 4: When I was unloading the groceries the other day, Rylie went into the pantry, grabbed the canister of brown sugar, carried it to the tv room and started shoveling handfuls of brown sugar into her mouth. Now, this is the first of her "odd foods" that I actually understand, but maybe not eating around a cup of it at once.

These are just the items that she actually ingests that gross me out, there's a whole laundry list of things that she just puts in her mouth that I think are pretty foul as well (toilet plunger, toilet brush, rocks, mulch, chalk, etc) so we've basically hidden everything in our house.

Family Update

It has been a while since we've updated our blog. So here's an update on the whole fam-damily.

Molly
I started up this school year on a part-time contract. I'm only working 2 days a week, and am "off" the other 3 days. Basically, on my days off I sit around and watch TV while chatting on the phone uninterrupted. It's awesome. Actually, I'm really enjoying my time home with the girls (but I could do without a little of the screaming). We go to the library, the gym, the playground, and in our spare time run around and do errands. We signed up for a CSA again this year (community supported agriculture; we get a tub of fruits and veggies every week), so we head out to the farm one day a week to do our "farming." Currently we have tons of potatoes, so I also spend my days figuring out what potato recipe I'm making that night. The girls really just enjoy the tractor ride to the fields, but I like that our weekly menu gets spiced up a bit with things I wouldn't normally buy (for example, say, 30 lbs of potatoes).

Paige
Paige is still growing like crazy and towers over most 3 year olds. She also talks A LOT. Like, if she's awake, she's saying something. Sometimes in the car she'll be talking, and I'll be like, "Paige, I can't hear you because my window is open." So she'll say, "It's okay Mommy, I'm just talking to myself." And she is. Some of her best things she has said recently are, "I'm not jumping on the bed, Mommy, I'm just squishing it with my feet" (for the record, she was totally jumping on the bed) and "Why we not need to ask why to everything, Mom?" She's doing one day a week pre-school ("fre-school" in Paige-land) which she likes but never seems to remember what she did when I pick her up. Today she said, "I don't remember what we did, it was too long ago." We were pulling out of the parking lot. She loves watching TV and playing on the iPad, and when we've told her she can't do either of those things, she'll go play with her dollhouse or dolls.

Rylie
Our little Ry isn't so little anymore. She walks, she runs, she jumps, she talks, and OCCASIONALLY she will sleep. She's often awake for the day before 5 am, which we all really enjoy. Rylie really likes to eat, her typical breakfast includes, but is not limited to: toast, yogurt, cereal and a banana. She'll eat that, then beg for Paige to give her bites of her oatmeal (which Paige will do because she likes feeding her). Rylie still enjoys climbing on stuff, but will now go, "un, chu, shree" which means she's about to leap. She also will hop around on the floor and can get some pretty good air when she jumps. She's always very impressed with herself after she's had a good jump (we all are, really). She's also developing a great sense of humor, at least I think she is, but that's probably because she thinks I'm hilarious.


Here's a video of the girls doing their favorite things:

Shape Sorting

I heard the girls playing in the toy room this afternoon and became alarmed when the sounds were not shrieks from Rylie because she wanted whatever toy Paige was currently using, but instead they seemed to be happy sounds (something MUST be wrong, right?). Anyhow, this is what I found. I thought it was cute, but I'm their mom and I think everything they do is cute - well, maybe not the shrieking over toys.

"Rylie, NO"

Rylie has a new favorite game: Climbing on EVERYTHING.

If she leaves my sight for more than 24 seconds, it is pretty likely that I will find her perched on something that will require me to first take a picture, then to rush over and get her down. She's just recently figured out that she can slide the kitchen chairs over to the counter tops and is desperate to see what's up there. So far I have been able to reach her before she can slither up because, luckily, a 1 year old pushing a chair across a room is a noisy process. I spend about 3 hours a day plucking her off of the kitchen table (Pop asked me tonight if I had thought to tell her "no"...AHA, why hadn't I thought of that?!) where she typically goes to the pepper grinder and tosses it off first. Today she veered from her normal pattern and got on the DINING room table and dumped the sugar bowl, a nice change in our routine.

When Rylie is not climbing on stuff, she's most likely wreaking havoc somewhere in the house. Emptying tissue boxes and wipe containers, unrolling toilet paper, inventorying the tupperware cabinet (a nice way of saying "unloading" it), helping herself to the snacks in the pantry; these are her go-to acts. And yet, somehow, she pulls it all off while staying adorable and giggling so that I find myself putting all the tissues back in the box (for the 4th time that day) and laughing with her about it. Typically she has moved on to a new act of mischief before I have finished cleaning up the previous mess, so it is not unusual for there to be a pile of (clean) wipes in the tv room sitting next to the Goldfish container and every DVD from our tv cabinet strewn across the room. Whenever I try to redirect her to more "productive" forms of play, she'll go along with it as far as grabbing the stroller from the toy room, pushing it into another room, ditching the stroller and pulling every diaper out of the diaper drawer. I keep telling myself she'll grow out of this stage soon, but then realize that I can deal with the cleaning up if I can keep her tiny and cute for a little longer...

Paige's "Boobies"

Paige is not graceful (let's all refer back to her "dance" video). She falls at least 4 times a day. She falls when she walks, she falls when she runs, sometimes she falls when she's just standing still. This summer, I bought her a pair of cheap Target flip-flops, and they only made matters worse. She started falling even more and in two days managed to skin both knees in multiple places, both ankles and had bruises up and down her arms and legs. Needless to say, flip-flops have been banned.

While I hate the fact that she's covered in cuts and scrapes, Paige is proud of each and every one of her injuries. She regularly checks them out and shows them to anyone and everyone. Only problem is, she started referring to "boo-boos" as "boobies" (little boo-boos?). So imagine this: Paige, Rylie and I are shopping in Harris Teeter and I'm trying to decide which brand of tortilla to buy when another cart passes and I hear Paige declare, "Want to see my boobies?" That's when I grab the Old El Paso and pick up the pace a little, while loudly clarifying, "It's BOO-BOO, Paige." Poor thing just wants to show off her scabs to strangers.

Two other funny things Paige has done recently:
1) Told a lady in Kohl's, "I'm Paige, P-I-G, Paige" (we've started practicing spelling her name since that little incident).
2) Asked me why I have two "little" (thanks, Paige) bumps on my belly and she doesn't (verifying to me that she doesn't even know what boobies are).

Sour Puss

Happy Birthday, Girls!

Rylie is ONE!

Paige is THREE!

"Is it 'morrow, mom?"

Paige's birthday is "coming up." A fact that she will tell any person that makes the mistake of even glancing in her direction (for example: the cashier at the grocery store, random parents trying to pick up their children from her daycare, every person we pass in any store, the man leading story-time at the library last week, etc).

Unfortunately, she doesn't really understand the concept of a calender though, as I'll show her where her birthday is (May 7th), show her where we currently are (April 30th), we count the days until her birthday, and she'll look at me and say, "so my birthday 'morrow?" We have a count-down calendar hanging on our kitchen island, something I thought would help, but she just wants to fill all the boxes with stickers at once, so we can get to her birthday sooner. Which leads me to believe she doesn't get that either.

Since we'll be having her party this Saturday, I thought a good activity for us this afternoon would be to go to the party store to get stuff we "need" (as a side note, I could spend hours in that store). To say that Paige was excited for this trip is the understatement of the century. She was ECSTATIC. On the way there she started babbling on about presents, so I stupidly say, "what do you want for your birthday?" Paige responds with, "um....a car, like Mommy and Daddy's." And here I thought we had about 13 more years before I'd have to explain to her that she's not getting a car for her birthday, EVER. After I did a very drawn out, "oh reeeallly," she said, "and a box, to put my presents in." Now, a box is something a little more reasonable. I could easily get her 10 Xerox boxes for her birthday (one of the few perks of being a teacher). But Paige wasn't done yet, her final request was my favorite, a "sidewalk, a blue sidewalk." So to recap, Paige wants a car, a box and a blue sidewalk for her birthday. Great.

Rylie Walks

Pacifiers

So, Rylie really likes pacifiers. Unfortunately, for her, we have banned them from daytime activities, and they only exist in her crib and the car.

But she somehow solved the pacifier problem on her own....by creating pacifiers out of EVERYTHING she finds.

Like, puzzle pieces...

...and dolls from the dollhouse...

...and pretend shampoo bottles for Paige's dolls.

She also has been known to stand by the counters and put the knobs in her mouth as if they are pacifiers, but those moments are more difficult to capture because her desire to move outweighs her love of the paci.

Bad Dream

Paige woke up this morning and said she was "scared, because the moons are all gone." Well, in an attempt to make her feel better, I said, "no, the moon is not gone, it's outside," which caused her to go into total hysterics. Apparently I said something wrong...

Here's Paige's telling of her Moon Horror Story:

Paige: The moon is outside and coming to get me.
Dave: No, the moon is behind the clouds.
Me: It only comes at night, the sun is out in the day.
Paige (eyes wide): The moon is going to eat the sun? The moon has BIIIIG teeth.
Dave and me: (laughter)
Paige: The moon is going to get ebborybody [sic].
Dave and me: (laughter)
Paige: The moon is like a monthster [sic].
Dave and me: (laughter)

Paige is now identifying all the objects around our house that the moon will, "get." I asked if she's done being scared, and she said, "No, the moon is still in the sky." This could be a rough day.

P.S. Paige has now said that the moon will soon be "getting" my computer. Great, and I just got this for Christmas.

Rylie's New "Trick"

Twenty Twelve

Apparently (according to Ruthie), a video does not suffice as a blog post. So here I am, making a "real" entry. I can summarize what Izzy has been up to in about 5 words: eat, sleep, poop, sleep again. It's difficult to make her life interesting. She has taken to sleeping on the girl's couch and doll bed, which is incredibly cute, but other than that, she's boring. 

Paige and Rylie, on the other hand, have been up to so much. We enrolled Paige in a tap/ballet dance class, and are awed at her complete lack of grace every Saturday. Each class they do a little lesson (parents kicked out of the room), then invite the parents in to show us what they "learned." Well, today Paige discovered that her tap shoes can make a loud bang if she stomps her heal into the dance floor. So, while all the other girls delicately tapped their shoes and followed the instructors lead, she stomp stomped her heel and was SO proud of herself. I'm almost certain there is a divot in the floor where she was standing (as a side note, I was laughing so hard I started crying and had to leave the room). 

Rylie has learned how to crawl, clap, play peek-a-boo, stand, and get into mischief. Her goal in life is to find a hole in our child-proofing and show us what happens because of it. If the gate is off the stairs for 2.5 seconds, she'll be 5 steps up before you catch her. She thinks the oddest things are absolutely hilarious (head butting, pretending to drop her, etc) and has an infectious laugh that will make you continue doing these things to keep her giggling. 

Tappity Tap Tap

The Lynches in Video

So Paige LOVES singing. Here's her singing "Openie Donald Had a Farm."



Also, and more importantly, Rylie has said her first word! She said "MOM!!!" Dave would disagree, and say that she has said, "dad" before, but there certainly isn't any video of it, so I call it!