Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Homemade Christmas Cards

I tried many, many times to get a cute Christmas picture of the girls together.  But this kept happening:

Such is life with babies...

So I thought a photo card might not happen this year.

Instead, with the help of Maddie's thumbs and some craft materials we already had around the house, we made our cards.  

We started by making two just for the grandparents, but they were so cute that we kept going.  

Maddie's thumbs were game, so she stamped away.  


After they dried, I drew some quick doodles to turn her prints into Santa and his reindeer.  I did not invent this idea.  I think I probably saw it on Pinterest cause that's where all good ideas are born.  

But I did come up with our other design:

Cause Yeti are awesome.  

Maddie colored in the trees!


I like how they're each a bit different.  They also took less than an hour to make.  Hoo-Ray!  

Then I tried for a picture one last time, and a miracle occurred:

They were staring at the television over my head.  Ellen I think...

I taped the pictures to the back of our cards and called it a day.  

Merry Christmas!

Monday, December 22, 2014

Vivi's First Birthday Party

It's a busy time of year for a baby to turn one.  I'm not sure how we'll celebrate Vivi's birthday in the future.  Maybe we'll have a party earlier...or later...instead of the week of Christmas.  But for her first birthday, I wanted to observe the actual day.

We went with a Winter Wonderland theme since our house would be decorated for the holidays anyhow.  



Thank you family and friends who helped us celebrate Vivi's big day.  We love you all!

Happy Birthday, nugget! 

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Vivi: One Year

Today is baby girl's first birthday!  One whole trip around the sun.  Boy, is she a well-traveled baby.  

Vivi still seems so baby-ish to me that I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around the idea of her being one.  Maybe it's hindsight, or maybe it's a second child thing, but Madeline seemed a lot older to me at her first birthday.  I mean, as old a one-year-old baby can be... But that's okay.  I'm in no rush for Vivi to grow up.  

In fact, maybe I'm just in a state of denial.  Sob!  Mah baby!  She can't be getting so big already!  

The memory of her birth is still so vivid.  I remember the epidural not working right and gripping the sheets on the bed.  I remember how fast it all happened.  I remember looking at Eric a moment before she arrived and laughing giddy with excitement.  I remember how she cried and cried and cried as if her heart was breaking when they handed her to me.  She wasn't thrilled about being ejected into the cold world.  

And here we are a year later...Our Vivienne is the best and the brightest baby in the world.  How did we ever make do without her?  

And at one year, here's what she's up to:

Vivi isn't walking yet.  She is getting braver about standing, but she'll only attempt it if she has something nearby to lean on just in case.  

On the other hand, our girl has become an accomplished climber.  She can climb the stairs, and she is obsessed.  She can climb onto the ottoman.  She tries to climb into chairs and out of her crib and over her baby gates.  She's a practicing escape artist.  

She can be quite driven if she wants something.  It's hard to distract her from her goals.  She also digs her heels in if we try to get her to do something she's not interested in.  There's no negotiating with this nugget.  

Homeslice has a temper.  Today she really wanted to get her hands on one of Madeline's Christmas art projects.  I tried handing her various toys to appease her. Each one was greeted with a terrible whine/screech and then thrown across the room.  Well then...

Vivi doesn't say much yet either.  She has said Mumma and Dada, but they've come so far and few between that I'm starting to think I imagined it.  Mostly she just points and says, "Dat. Dat," till we name everything in the room for her.  

She's very good at expressing herself through the art of baby dance, however.  She loves music.  The moment she hears a beat, she starts bopping her head.  It's probably my favorite thing she does.  

Vivi is quieter than Maddie was at this age, but just as silly.  She's a little more sly....a little more rascally.  I catch her wrinkling her nose misciviously at me all the time.  She lets out an evil giggle when I catch her doing something rotten.  She knows what trouble is, and she's not afraid of it.  

But she's also very sweet.  She loves being cuddled and kissed.  She spends probably eighty percent of her waking hours cuddling.  It's her favorite.  

She still is a total Mumma's girl.  It's the best thing ever seeing her face light up when I walk in the room.  I feel like a Beatle.  She cries when I leave the room to make dinner every night.  But mostly, it's pretty awesome.  Zw

She loves her Dada too of course.  Although she sometimes protests when he takes her from me, she seems to find him comforting.  He can get her to sleep faster and deeper than I can.  She loves snuggling up on his chest for a snooze.  

As for her relationship with Madeline...It's obvious that she wants to do whatever her sister does.  She thinks everything Maddie does is hilarious and wonderful.  There's a bit of competition between them at times.  Vivi still doesn't like it when I cuddle Madeline, and she wedges herself between us during story time.  

She's not sleeping through the night as much as I would like, but it's getting better.  She's still having tummy troubles, but that's getting better too.  Baby steps.  

She has her two bottom teeth, and the two on top just broke the surface this week.  

She eats pretty much everything we give her.  Blueberries are her favorite.  Most of her clothes are stained blue around the collar.  

Her hair is still red and still scarce.  It sticks up in all directions.  Her eyes are still blue but growing darker.  Today they looked quite brown at times.  

She is beautiful, sweet, healthy, and smart.  We are very lucky.  
 
We love you, angel.  Happy Birthday.  





Monday, December 15, 2014

Bye Bye Baby Gear

Vivienne turns one in a few days.  Umm what?  Excuse me?  That can't be right.  I just squeezed that wailing little lemon head first into this crazy world... 

In celebration of this milestone, (and also because we needed to wedge a Christmas tree in the living room) we packed up and donated all our baby gear to a local charity.  Lamb swing, lamb bouncy seat, jump-a-roo, co-sleeper...all gone.  We're left with a pack n' play and a used breast pump.  


We're pretty sure we're done having babies, and we have no storage space for such large items.  I considered hanging on to them, but I hated the thought of letting everything rot in our damp basement just in case...so off they went.  Of course, we're taunting the universe with such a bold move, so we'll probably be blessed with triplets next year.  

It was sad watching Eric load everything in the back of his truck.  It's just stuff, and I usually have no problem getting rid of things I no longer use.  But these things rocked and cuddled and bounced my girls.  Sob.  Mah babies!!  

I remember how exciting it was to set up all those items for the first time.  That jump-a-roo seemed so foreign.  A spaceship might as well have landed in our living room.  The swing was bought in desperation during the height of Maddie's colic.  It changed our lives!  

It was just as exciting to set them up again last year as we waited for Vivi's arrival.  Madeline would put her dolls in the seats, and we'd wonder what it would be like to welcome a little sister to the family.  Vivi napped in that swing or bouncy seat for the first six months of her life.  

But as exciting as it was to set all that equipment up for the first time, it was also liberating taking them apart.  Baby stuff takes up a lot of space.  Our tiny house suddenly feels so spacious.  

And in a way, it feels good to set that stage of our lives in the past.  We're ready for the next part.

 I know from our experiences with Madeline that it only gets better.  Each age is more interesting, more challenging, more fun than the last.  So, while I'm mourning the end of our baby days, I'm more excited to watch our girls grow, grow, grow.


Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Dear Santa

We brought the girls too see Santa with my family last weekend.

Vivi is getting a little less shy around strangers, but I did not have high hopes for her first visit with Mr. Claus. 

When she saw him, her grip on me tightened, but she didn't cry.  We were able to sit for a few family photos before the tears finally came.  I call that a win.

Maddie was braver this year too.  Before we got there, she decided that although she wouldn't sit on his lap, she would sit next to him. And that's just what she did.  She wouldn't look at him though....hey, baby steps.  

The goal is to eventually get a picture of the girls without Eric and I there too.  Maddie will probably be twelve by then.  

When we were finished, Madeline realized that she didn't tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas.  This worried her a but, but we reminded her that we wrote him a letter, so all was well.  

We've been bringing Madeline to the same local garden center to see Santa since she was one.  They have lots of decorated trees, hot cider, chocolate chip  cookies, and a large train set to keep the kiddos (and adults) amused.  

(I hate to tell you girls, but there's a creeper in the bushes behind you.)

(Cousin Love) 

And now, the ghosts of Santas past: (They also switched Santas on us this year, and we were bummed. The old Santa was the best!)


2013
2012


2011
2010

Thanks for playing photographer, Mimi and Bob!

I can't get over how much Madeline looks like Vivi in this picture....or Vivi looks like Maddie...

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Help! I'm Seeing Elves!

We "adopted" an elf for Christmas this year.  Her name is Tipsy, and she has a drinking problem.


(Eric got a beer advent case, and this may have contributed greatly toward our decision to introduce an elf to our home.)

But when she's not busy pounding them back, she's filling Madeline's life with magic and candy canes.  

I have mixed feelings about the whole Elf on the Shelf tradition.  I mean, it's kinda creepy that this elf watches you all day and then flies back to Santa to narc you out every night.  It's Santa, not the Gestapo for goodness sake.  Plus, I'd rather her be a good human because it's the right thing to do, and not because she's worried Santa won't bring her presents...which he is, obviously.  

On the other hand, I love cheesy stuff like this. I nerd out thinking of all the fun we can have with this elf.  

Best of all, Madelne's reaction to Tipsy has been priceless.  She believes.  Oh, she believes so hard.  

On the first day of our advent calendar, Madeline recieved a telegram from Santa stating that our request for an elf had been approved.  Later that afternoon, Tipsy appeared under our tree.  

Madeline was very quiet as we read the note Tipsy wrote to her.  Then she carefully held Tipsy in her lap while we read the book.  When we got to the part about how it's against the rules to touch an Elf on the Shelf, Maddie quickly passed her to me.  I told her it was okay because it was her first day with us.   I let her give Tipsy a kiss before we placed her on the shelf, and she hasn't touched her since.  

On the first night, Maddie had a hard time falling asleep.  

"Do you think she's come to life yet?"  she whispered across her bedroom as I fed Vivi a bottle.  

We downplay the part about Tipsy flying back to the North Pole to tell on her.  Although Tipsy did bring her a candy cane for good behavior one morning.  I'm not saying we haven't fallen back on the whole, "Remember, Tipsy is watching..." bit a few times.  When your kid refuses to eat her dinner three nights in a row, you'll try anything.  

Mostly, we focus on the idea that Tipsy helps us get in the holiday spirit!  

Here's what Tipsy's gotten herself into so far...

She threw herself a welcome parade with the instrument ornaments from our tree.

She perched on Giselle the Gazelle to get a better view of our house.

She took a ride on our penguin slide.  

She read Rudolph a Christmas book about reindeer.  

She played dress up with Anna and Elsa, and came away with a new skirt!

She took the princess Little People on a joy ride in the Little People school bus, but she was driving too fast for me to get a picture...

And she's educating the toys on Elf culture.


Oh that Tipsy Elf...