Merry Christmas! More Christmas Pics

Christmas 2011

Because we went to Mexico last year just two weeks before Christmas, we were working on a very tight timeline for buying and wrapping Christmas presents, and getting things ready for the holidays. We had everything ready before we left for our trip, so when we got back we were able to just relax and enjoy Christmas. This year we did not have anything urging us to take care of business early and therefore we completely procrastinated. I am used to working under pressure (because I am a classic procrastinator) and this would not have been that big of a deal had I not accidentally thrown a huge wrench in our last minute plans.

The Monday before Christmas, I picked Elise up from school and we went shopping for some last minute gifts. On the way out of the store, I was talking to her not paying any attention to what I was doing and rolled my ankle off the curb in the parking lot. It was excruciating and I could barely limp to the car. Then it took every amount of inner strength I had to be able to use my injured foot (my right foot of course!) to drive home. (Elise said "Mom you're really brave. I would have cried") It was fairly disastrous, especially considering that I had lots of plans to get lots of things done that week - things that I certainly needed to have use of my ankle to do. Not a convenient time for an ankle sprain!

Nonetheless, I managed to get most things done in between doctors appointments and we all had a pretty fabulous Christmas. On Tuesday, Elise, Marty and I went to see Luke's class perform Christmas songs (his class sang Rudolph, Frosty and We Wish you a Merry Christmas). He was so cute and SO excited that we were in the audience (he was fairly distracted that we were there - he kept waving at us excitedly and calling our names in between a few moments of singing). I had a whole slew of pictures that we took during the recital but Lu subsequently (and hopefully accidentally) deleted them off of my camera so we'll just have to remember how cute he was without the assistance of photos. On Wednesday I volunteered in Elise's Kindergarten class to help the make gingerbread houses. They turned out really cute and Elise was really, really excited to have me in her classroom for the day so it was totally worth hobbling around for two hours.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with the Stauffer family and continued our many wonderful family traditions. The kids had a blast decorating the tree and after an awesome meal the kids opened stocking gifts, which really ramped up the excitement and anticipation for Christmas morning. Cousin Abby came home with us Christmas Eve to spend the night and spend Christmas morning with us, which added too all of the fun and excitement of the day. It was also super exciting to have Aunt Amy with us this year!

Christmas morning Abby and Lucas woke around 7 and waited (somewhat) patiently for Elise to also wake up. By 7:30 they were out of patience and were stomping around so much they "accidentally" woke Elise. Gift opening was great - the kids react completely differently to presents. Lucas opens something and then lifts it in the air and screams, while Elise shyly smiles and hides her face behind the gift, especially if it's something she really wanted. It was so much fun for us as parents to watch them, and the was sort of a perfect year with both kids now completely understanding and being really, really enthusiastic and excited.

Gram, Grandpa, Uncle Tom and Uncle Kevin all joined us around 9am for cinnamon buns and more gift opening before we headed down to the Meredith Family celebration that afternoon and evening. There were several families who weren't there this year, including three families who have children, so it was much more low-key than usual but we all had a fabulous time. By the time we left that night, we were all pretty exhausted. It was such a great day day.

Christmas 2011 was a big success.

The Holiday Season

The day before Thanksgiving, Elise began asking if we could put up all of our Christmas decorations ("or at least just the tree!"). As we have said many times before, Marty and I have never been huge holiday people and we are definitely not big on decorating for anything. Obviously this has changed some over the years because kids think the holidays are incredibly fun and it's awesome to share in the excitement with them. But sharing in the excitement of Christmas before Thanksgiving is still a definite no-no in our house. Marty was insistent that we wait until December before putting up anything Christmas related. Elise and Lucas spent their time and energy wearing me down so that I switched to their team (and they won over Aunt Amy too) so Marty was completely outnumbered and we put up our tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving. AFTER Thanksgiving, but a little before December felt like a fair compromise.

People in the suburbs - or at least in our new neighborhood - go all out with decorations for all occasions. Nearly every house on our block decorated for Halloween (and we're not just talking about a pumpkin on the stoop - these are serious decorations) so I was pretty sure that Christmas decorations were going to be out of control.

In our old neighborhood, very few people put up holiday decorations of any kind. So when we put up our tree and hung up a few wreaths, our kids were excited and very satisfied. Only after they got a chance to glance at what was going on at all of our neighbors houses did they realize that our decorations are very tame (lame?). Nearly everyone in our neighborhood has outdoor lights and a large percentage have lawn ornaments and blow ups. The kids both immediately started asking where our blow ups were?! and even though we did cave into putting decorations up before December, I really never see us giving in to having lawn ornaments or blow ups. Mark my words! I have given a speech several times on how looking out of our front window we can enjoy our neighbors decorations much better than we could see them if they were in our own yard facing the street. Neither of them has asked in a few days so maybe my logic is working with them!

To further enhance our Christmas cheer, we went into the City last weekend to enjoy all the shows and Christmas spectaculars the city has to offer. Gram and Grandpa joined us on the adventure and we had so much fun! In the Christmas Village, the kids got to chat with Santa who said to Elise "You are so beautiful" to which she said with an exasperated sigh "I know!" Lucas stuck to asking Santa for "a Lightning McQueen for Elise" (so sweet!) and Elise asked for an American Girl doll. We enjoyed our trip to much we'll probably head into the city again. Luke has a Holiday Performance at school next week (he has been singing Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer a lot at home so I am sure that's involved) and I am volunteering at Elise's school to help her class make Gingerbread houses.

Bring on the (lawn ornament-free) Christmas Cheer!

The State of Elise

Apparently November is a big time for parent-teacher conferences, because not only did we have our conference with Luke's teachers this month, we also had two conferences with Elise's teachers (one at the enrichment program and one at the kindergarten). Similar to Luke's conference, there was not a lot that we heard that was surprising. Elise is a sweet girl and a smart kid. She is progressing nicely with her academics and navigating the social intricacies of kindergarten pretty well. All of her teachers commented on how kind and helpful she is. She was pretty shy when she first started school - both with her teachers and her peers - but they both commented that she's really getting comfortable and coming out of her shell now.

She has taken a particular interest in art-related activities this year which has been a little surprising but great. In the past, she has typically been much more drawn to physical activities. She still loves to do things which require her to be running around (and has said that gym class is her favorite thing about school) she also has really started to enjoy drawing and crafts. Every day in the enrichment program she and her friends make books - it used to be that they just drew pictures but now they are also starting to write out some of the story! She also comes home with some other very creative project - a model, picture, etc every day. We need to host another art show!

Elise has been adjusting to her new schools and new friendships pretty well considering all of the change she's experienced the last few months, but she definitely really misses her friends from our old neighborhood. There are a few girls in her class that are a little bit fickle with their friendships (they declare Elise their best friend one day and say they don't want to be her friend at all the next) and she finds this extremely confusing considering that her friendships with best buddies Audrey and Sara Jane were always very clear, straightforward and awesome. She is working through it and I am sure it will work itself out soon.

She is making good progress with reading and writing - she has tons and tons of sight words now and she is getting really good at sounding words out too. You don't realize how incredibly complicated English is until you're trying to teach someone to read it! They do lots of writing in her kindergarten class and while she was resistant to writing in lower case when she first started in September (she has always liked all caps way better) her writing has really improved.

The most important thing is that she loves school - and we love the school too. Obviously the reason that we moved to the Burbs in the first place was because this was such a good school system and we have not been at all disappointed. Phew!

The State of Lucas

When we had our first parent-teacher conference at Luke's new school two weeks ago, a few things became extremely apparent about our little guy. He's not a hard kid to get to know - and apparently he behaves the same way at school as he does at home. This may not really seem like it should be surprising, but children sometimes have a way of acting one way around their parents and a different way around other people, and I just assumed that Lucas was one of those kids who acted up at home but was an angel at school. But Luke apparently acts the same way with us as he does with everyone else. Not exactly an angel (but not a devil either!)

Here are some of the basics in getting to know our little boy:

1. He loves to make people laugh. How much he loves it cannot be understated. His teachers told me that at school, similar to at home, he goes for the laugh even if he knows it will get him in trouble. To him, the laugh is totally worth it. This terrifies me for his school years, of course, but hopefully he's getting it all out of his system now? Our little ham just loves being funny - and he's pretty good at it too.

2. He has hot feet. Yes, this is a weird one but Luke just prefers to have bare feet. This is something that drives me crazy when we're going somewhere in the car - because inevitably I am running late and when we arrive at our destination I inevitably discover that Lucas has taken his shoes (and possibly his socks) off on the ride and flung them somewhere around the car. Every car ride ends in the hunt for the shoes and socks somewhere in the car. Apparently he also pulls this trick at school, randomly pulling his shoes and socks of and flinging them around somewhere in the room (which is particularly frustrating when they are lining the kids up to go outside and realize he's once again shoeless). He tells me - and his teachers - that he does this because his feet are hot. I am hoping that now that the weather is starting to cool down this will be less of an issue but for the meantime his teachers have asked us to send him to school in sandals (yes, in November).

3. He finds a way to work the word "poop" or "butt" into 90% of his sentences. This probably most clearly aligns with #1 (trying to make people laugh) because he thinks these words are hilarious and to a 3 year old, it's nearly impossible not to laugh when you've somehow worked the word poop into a conversation. So, for he sake of the laugh (his at least) he figures out a way to work in some sort of variation of the word poop (poo, poopey, poo poo) into a conversation even if it means just randomly tacking it on nonsensically to another word (such as "What are you doing Poopey Mommy?" or "I'd like a poop-grilled cheese for lunch" or "Yes, poo-poo-butt" explodes in giggles)

4. He is a kind child. For all of his energy and boundary testing, Lucas truly is a genuinely sweet child at heart. When asked what one Christmas present he would want if he could only get one, he said in all sincerity, "I want a Lightning McQueen to give to Elise." At school, he has befriended a boy named Abhi whose family does not speak English at home. At Luke's conference we discovered that Abhi didn't speak at school at all until Lucas came along and now Abhi talks all of the time - mostly to Lucas. The teachers have been thrilled at the progress that Abhi has made since he and Lucas have become friends. He has taken Abhi under his wing and is the sweetest thing to see.


5. He thinks it can be funny to break the rules. If you specifically ask him NOT to do something, there is a 95% chance that is exactly what he is going to do. For example if you say, "this door has wet paint, you can touch anything else in the entire house except this one door," he cannot help but touch it. He will touch the door and will be looking at you while he's doing it. And probably smiling. He just has no impulse control at all. Also, if someone else has been asked to stop doing something Luke will immediately stop whatever he was doing and begin doing whatever it is that person was doing that they shouldn't have been doing (i.e. I tell Elise to stop jumping on the bed, Lucas immediately runs in and starts jumping on the bed). This also happens at school. Again, I think this relates to #1 - he thinks you will find this funny. He actually can be a good listener when he knows you are totally serious.

They wrapped up the conference telling us that because he's so verbal, smart and coordinated it's easy to forget that he just turned three.

Overall, what we learned at Luke's conference is what we already knew - Lucas is a smart, sweet, cheeky little comedian. Charming, endearing and hilarious, he's impossible not to love.

The (Ridiculous) Adventures of Momma Molloy

Just like every person who juggles a lot things in their lives, my life these days seems to boil down to a series of schedules, plans and events - all jammed together in a very strategic but seemingly chaotic clump. Some days this insane schedule goes perfectly smoothly - all according to plan. And other days...not so much. Halloween day this year was one of those days that felt like I was in a video game - heroine must overcome a series of crazy obstacles in order to win the ultimate prize.

Ever since Elise started kindergarten this September she has been begging me - on an almost daily basis - to come in to volunteer in her class. At her school, they do something called Writers Workshop which requires lots of extra adults in the classroom to help all of these brand new writers compose stories each week. At the Back to School Night, we were informed that in order to assist during Writers Workshop, you need to be able to commit to coming in each week on the same day (so that it doesn't take a lot of the teachers time training new people each week and the volunteers can work with the same group of students and have a good sense of each students skills week-to-week). While I do have a certain amount of flexibility at work, my weekly schedule varies greatly, which obviously prevents me from being able to commit to volunteering the same day every week (not to mention that it's from 1-2pm - which is a very awkward time in the work day to get there, especially since I work about 35 minutes away).

Of course Elise does not understand this whole complicated-work-schedule-situation, even though I have explained it a hundred times. There are plenty of other opportunities for me to come in and help her class, and I assure her of this each time she hounds me. The first thing that isn't Writers Workshop I promise I will come to.

The first thing on the schedule is the kindergarten Halloween Parade and Halloween Party. Excellent! Sign me up and I will be there. I put it on my schedule a month in advance. Done.

But of course these things never happen the way you plan.

On the day of the parade, Elise practically wakes up asking "you're coming to the parade, right?" Yes, yes I will be there. I will! However, because she was so pressed and was harping on this thing so strongly I had a sinking, terrible feeling that something was not going to go right. So I had put a plan in place just in case things did not go as planned. First, I asked my parents if they could come to the parade on the off chance that something crazy happened that prevented me from getting there, she would still have someone there to see her (Marty was out of town). Secondly, the parade was scheduled to start at 12:45 and it takes about 35 minutes to get to her school from my work. But I have to drive through the city and then take the highway, and there is always some potential for a traffic accident or road work or traffic light outage that makes the drive slower. So I put it in my schedule to leave no later than 11:45 - an hour being more than enough time.

That morning I had meetings until 11, and even if something went a little long, there was still plenty of extra time for me to get out at 11:45. But, coming out of my last meeting, I get an email from a funder asking if we could talk at 11:15. We started our conversation, and things were going fine when - at 11:30 - the fire alarm in my building started going off. I considered just staying on the phone to assume it was a drill (which it was) but ultimately decided that I could get in lots of trouble - or you know, die - if I ignored it. I rushed off the phone and got outside, pacing and frantically looking at the clock. Once we got back inside, I'd still need to wrap up the conversation and then get on the road. Luckily I'd built in all that extra time!

I end up dashing back upstairs, finishing up and racing out of the building, with coats and papers and bags like something out of a sitcom - dropping things and fumbling around. I get into my car at noon and feel a little calmer. Still plenty of time. I drive along, with everything going perfectly smoothly. I'd made it through the tricky part.

As I was nearing my exit off the highway - about 3 miles - my heart sank. Up ahead there it was - a big fat wall of brake lights. I come to a complete stop. Then began to inch along. A baby could crawl faster than this traffic was moving. My frustrated thoughts were then interrupted by the ping of my gas light coming on (seriously, I am not making this stuff up). The universe seems to be against me getting there on time. I was going to miss the parade. After all this. I had done everything I could to do my best to get there and in the end, some stupid traffic accident (no offense to the people who suffered through that) and potentially an empty gas tank (I swear there was plenty of gas when I left for work that morning! someone must have siphoned it from the tank!) were keeping me just a few miles away from my little girl. But just when I had given up all hope - I could see the lanes going down from 4 to 2 - if it was close enough to see perhaps it wouldn't take as long as I thought. After some quick inner dialogue about whether you can drive with your gas light on for 20 miles or with the car running for 20 minutes, I decided that if I made it out of this traffic in reasonable time I'd just have to chance it.

When I did finally get past the blocked section it was 12:38. I am not really one to drive like a complete maniac ordinarily, but I must say that in this case I really did. I sputtered onto the street of Elise's school at 12:44. The street was completely packed with cars of other (more prompt) parents so I turned off on the first side street, found the first spot I could, jumped out of the car and ran. I am not a runner - particularly in boots with a 3 inch heel - but I ran as fast as my out-of-shape legs would take me. When I got around to the back of the school, (about 4 blocks from my parking spot) I came to a screeching halt at the crowd of parents and looked around frantically for my little batgirl. Panting, legs shaking, heart racing.

And then I spot her and wave like an insane person to get her attention. She bursts into a huge smile "Mommy!' she is so excited to see me as she parades past. All of the stress and emotions I have gone through in the past 60 minutes, I can't help but burst into tears like a fool. I am sure the other parents thought I was the most ridiculously sentimental mom ever. So I quickly get it together. The parade of costumed kindergartners makes its way back into the building and I give one final wave and blow kisses as she disappears into the school. I look at the time. 12:54. My legs are still shaking. But I made it. I made it.

Now, I guess I should figure out where the closest gas station is...

Hilarity to File Away

I know I am way over due for a real blog post, but in the meantime, I wanted to make sure I wrote down some of the hilarious things that have been coming out of my children's mouths lately. Enjoy!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elise: "People who sell ice cream must be really rich."

Me: "Why is that?"

Elise: "Well who doesn't want to eat ice cream?!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lucas, speaking out Bentley, his grandparents dog: "Mommy, I was asking Bentley a question and he didn't answer. He just walked away and smelled things."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marty, trying to make bathtime more fun, put Elise in the bathtub - full of water - headfirst. Elise thought this was hysterical. She later tells him, "Daddy can you put me in head first again sometime? When Mommy isn't home?" "Ok, but why can't Mommy be home?" Dad asks. Elise answers, "You know. She worries."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lucas: "I love Halloween." pause "Except skeletons. I don't like skelectons - they're too scary." pause. "Actually, I don't like Halloween."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Me: "Oh, is that the assistant teacher in your class? Is she nice?"

Elise, confused: "Why wouldn't she be nice?"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elise, trying to tell a joke:

"Knock, knock."

"Who's there?"

"Orange."

"Orange who?"

"Banana you glad I didn't say orange?"

Pumpkin Birthday Boy

I feel like this is the blog where I am supposed to write about how I can't believe my little baby - my sweet little boy - is three years old. About how it feels like just yesterday his entire tiny little body was laying on my chest. About how I can practically still feel his little hand curled around my finger.

The thing is, though, I don't really feel that way. At least not completely. It is amazing that my youngest child is three and sometimes he does say or do things that make me think "when in the heck did he grow up?" (like a few weeks ago when he said "I am not listening to you reading that book because I am really distracted"). But at the same time, I also feel like Lucas was two for forever. People would ask how old he was and I would tell them 2, thinking STILL two? really? is that right?!

I am not sure why it feels like Lucas should be older than he actually is. Maybe it's because he has had his distinctive, quirky, silly personality for as long as I can remember. (Or perhaps that I've been married to someone with a 'distinctive/quirky' personality, but that is another blog.) See, it's hard to determine what Lucas actually knows in terms of learning. He finds it HILARIOUS to say the alphabet incorrectly, call numbers the wrong names and say something is a color that it isn't. I think the fact that he thinks it's so funny is a sign that he does, in fact, know these things but I have little proof other than the few occasions he's actually being serious. It doesn't happen often. What I do think this proves is that he is on the path to being the class clown one day.

These days, Lucas also thinks it's funny to give people silly nicknames. As a term of endearment, I often call him "Pumpkin" and his Aunt Lauren calls him "Turkey". He has adopted these into his own nicknames, mainly "Pumpkin Mommy" or "Turkey Daddy" such as:

Me: "Lucas? Did you hear me?"

Lucas: " Yes, Pumpkin Bumpkin Mommy, ole buddy ole pal!"

He also likes to throw an ole buddy ole pal (no idea where he got this one) on the end of things - something else he finds hilarious. So do we.

Or maybe I feel like he should be older because I see Elise and Lucas as a pair - they are so intertwined with each other it's hard to remember a time when it wasn't so. Not that they are always best buddies, or even that they are always together. Now that they go to different schools and have different friends they actually aren't quite as together as they were before.

But they do love each other and protect each other (when they aren't hitting each other, that is) and they are our little guys, the two of them - together. Last night in the car Lucas said "Je t'aime Elise" (because he's learned some French phrases from his Gram) which she completely ignored so then screamed it at her over and over until she acknowledged him ("yes, ok Lucas I love you too, geesh!" she said, completely exasperated).

I will, hopefully, always remember those days when he was a chill, cooing, easy going little baby, curled up in my arms. And no, those days don't feel like yesterday already, but in a way I am actually glad. Because getting to know this goofy, sweet, happy, enthusiastic little guy has felt like a long, fun adventure. And I have a feeling it always will be.

Happy Birthday to my silly little Pumpkin Bumpkin!

To Nap or Not To Nap

I have found that parents tend to move the second child to the next stage a lot earlier than the first. Bedtime gets pushed later when they are younger, they move out of the crib earlier than the first child, move out of the high chair more quickly and so on. I think that this is fairly common, but I don't have any stats to back that up. It has certainly been true with Lucas. For example, Elise went to bed at 7:00pm until she was 3 1/2 or 4 but when her bedtime moved to 8, Luke's bedtime quickly followed to that time though he was barely 2. It just didn't make sense putting two kids to bed an hour a part - you quickly realize that the bedtime process then takes like 3 hours. Which is ridiculous. But sometimes your children move on to phases even when you aren't the one contributing to it - they are just ready to move on up on their own.

This summer, realizing that we needed to prepare Elise for afternoon kindergarten, Elise transitioned out of napping and into quiet time (playing and reading quietly in her room for an hour). She was excited to give up the nap, and though some days she still really needed it, the weaning off nap process went pretty smoothly. However, it never occurred to me that there was a possibility that Lucas would also stop napping. And maybe these things are not even related at all. But a few weeks ago, Lucas stopping falling asleep at nap time. I refuse to say "gave up naps" because though HE may have given up, I certainly haven't. He is still two. He is very active. He still needs a nap.

So why isn't he sleeping?

He's been having sleep issues ever since we moved into our new house, and it seems like his anxiety over bedtime and going to sleep by himself at night has switched over to this not napping during the day. It used to be that if he didn't take a nap, he became this puddle of meltdown starting at around 5pm. Luckily, this doesn't appear to be the case anymore. He doesn't meltdown at all in fact, but he does go to bed much more easily at night. Jury is still out on whether that's a positive trade off or not. I feel like he still needs a nap and that he MUST miss that middle of the day sleep (especially since he's typically a 3 hour napper!) but most days even if we keep him in his room for two and a half hours, he just doesn't fall asleep. When I asked him if he's sleeping at daycare he told me "No, I just lay there and look at people" (which was confirmed by his teacher).

Maybe he's just not tired. Or maybe he's just very strong willed. Knowing him, either is possible. As we figure that out, we are going to continue to try to get Lucas to nap. We are hoping this non-nap stretch is just a phase and that we just need to wait it out.

Waiting, waiting, waiting...