Christmas Cookies and Caroling

Despite the large amount of traveling, the busyness of the end of the semester, and the sadness of losing Great Grandma, we've been having lots of fun preparing for Christmas. Last weekend we held our annual Christmas cookie decorating party. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this will be the last one in South Bend. Anyhow, we had fun with icing and sprinkles and lots and lots of cookies. This weekend we went to our friend Katie's for Advent caroling and the girls had a blast. Reese "helped" Katie on the piano (we sang a few more traditional Christmas songs for her) and Julie just laughed and laughed at the singing. Here are a few pictures of our fun times: 

 Having fun in the kitchen

 Reese loves to cook

 Of course, she likes decorating even better (check out the sprinkles on that cookie!)

 Julie enjoyed the evening from her excersaucer

Todd's more "artistic" take on cookie decorating...

Reese and Miss Katie playing "Here Comes Santa Claus"

5 Months Old!

Time is flying by. I can't believe Julie turned 5 months old last week. She seems to be growing and learning more every day. She is very attentive to the world around her and tries to talk to everyone. She likes to do this thing where she blows her binky out but holds her gums just close enough to catch the very tip of it so she doesn't lose it from her mouth. She's developed her own schedule very little help from me. In fact, I tried to put her on a schedule about a month ago and failed miserably. This week I suddenly realized that she takes naps at roughly the same time every day. She's been waking up more at night, but hopefully we can fix once the semester is over. Julie is continuing to refuse her bottle - something she started just a few weeks ago - which prompted me to start feeding her rice cereal. I keep thinking that if I can get her used to the taste of formula, maybe she won't refuse to eat from a bottle or a cup and I can actually go out for more than 3 hours at a time. I can't say that she enjoys the cereal so much as she is willing to humor me and munch on a few bites. And our biggest news of all - Julie rolled over for the first time on Sunday! Well, I'm told she rolled over. I was busy in the kitchen making chocolate chip and pumpkin pancakes so I missed it. Don't worry, she doesn't seem to have noticed that she did it. She's much more interested in standing and trying to scootch forward than in rolling over.

Reese continues to amaze us (and humor us) as well. I went to her parent-teacher conference two weeks ago and her teacher told me that she can add and subtract number 1 through 10. She said, "I kept trying new numbers just to test it out, and she kept getting them right!" Other than showing off her math skills, her teacher said that she talks about Julie a lot, loves to dress up in "pretty dresses and shiny shoes," and really likes art. She has been very excited for Christmas ever since she helped my mom put Christmas lights on her Christmas tree over Thanksgiving weekend. She was bouncing off the walls when we did our Christmas trees and couldn't quite grasp why we would want to spread out the ornaments (which she called "pyramids") rather than put them all on two branches. The bottoms of both of our Christmas trees look kind of special. Everytime I look at the clusters of ornaments and garland I have to smile. I asked her recently what she wants Santa to bring her for Christmas. She responded, "He'll bring me whatever he wants to." Ok...

Otherwise, we had a great (though short) Thanksgiving with our families and even got to sneak out to see the 7th Harry Potter movie thanks to Todd's parents. St. Nick visited our house and brought Reese a chocolate mouse (which she liked the idea of more than the actual taste of  since it wasn't dark chocolate) and - the thing she is most excited about - Teddy Grahams. He also brought Julie so carrots and sweet potatoes. We'll see what she thinks about these shortly. I'll post some pictures when I try them out. Until then, here are some pics of our beautiful girls:

 Julie sitting down for her first food - rice cereal!

 Reese pretending to be a bunny (and yes, Todd is responsible for this outfit)

 Mmmm....cereal!

 Julie and Mommy!

 Reese and her puzzle

Reese and her really big puzzle

Reese helping put up the Christmas tree - can you tell she was excited?

Julie's Baptism

Sorry about the long span between posts, but it has been a crazy couple of weeks. We were out-of-town 4 out of the past 5 weekends! I am slowly trying to put my house back together, clean, and decorate for Christmas as we settle back in. Rather than writing a massive post, I think I'll catch you up through a few smaller posts.

Sunday, Nov. 7 was Julie's baptism. She was baptized in the church where I was baptized (as was Reese). We had a private ceremony which ended up being a good thing. I would have felt awful if someone else was trying to tape their child's baptism during this time. While the ceremony was beautiful and I thought it was quite moving, others may have had trouble focusing and praying because, well, we experienced a colossal meltdown from many angles. Joey, son of the godparents, was not too fond of being separated from his mommy and daddy during the ceremony at first. He did, however, eventually realize the freedom he gained from this and wandered up to the lectern and went after the Chrism before being shepherded back to his parents by Uncle Chip. Meanwhile, Reese - who was on little sleep and lots of adrenaline as she was very excited about the baptism party and her pretty pink dress - lost it. I mean LOST it. She started crying so hard that she was having trouble breathing. Needless to say, the priest elected not to preach a homily or to add any extras to the event, but he did do a great job handling the distractions. It's funny, with Reese's baptism, we have all of these pictures of her in her dress beforehand, of the event itself, and of every possible combination of family members possible. Not for Julie. We were running late before the baptism after having taken her to go see my grandmother, the event itself was a little chaotic, and with all of the crying and chaos we just didn't really take pictures afterwars. We were just ready to get to the party. Luckily Julie's godparents took a few pictures with her on their own. Ugh. Poor second child...

The party was great with yummy food, good times with our family, and a wonderful location. Here are a few of the pictures we did manage to get:

Julie's godparents (Uncle Adam and Aunt Krisitn), Joey, Todd, me and Julie

Julie squirming around

Julie being baptized!

Our happy family

Trick-or-Treat!

This year was the first time Reese was excited for Halloween. And when I say that she was excited, I mean she was EXCITED. She started counting down the days until trick-or-treating in September. Somehow dressing up for Halloween must have been brought up at school because Reese told me that she told her teachers that she wasn't going to dress up for Halloween. I thought, "Oh great, they're going to think we're some sort of conservative nuts who won't let our children participate in Halloween." So I asked Reese what she wanted to dress up as and she immediately decided on being Tinkerbell. Not that she knows who Tinkerbell is or has seen her in a movie or anything. Undoubtedly she decided on Tinkerbell because she loves her Tinkerbell dress-up clothes - a green sparkly dress and wings, what more could a girl ask for? I was of course happy because this meant that I didn't have to buy a Halloween costume :-). Of course she practiced for Halloween all month by dressing up like Tinkerbell and making the wings fly all over the house.

As with most things, the anticipation of trick-or-treating turned out to be more fun than the event itself. Reese was very excited to dress-up the day before Halloween in order to visit her great-grandmother and her grandpa, GrandJan, aunts, uncle, and cousins. By the time trick-or-treating came around, she was so excited that she was running around my mom's house. Until it came to going outside, that is. My brother and his son, Joey, joined Reese and I (Julie stayed with my mom and Dave) and we all went to my sister's house. We were outside for maybe 5 minutes before Reese asked to go back inside "to get warm." Granted it was a bit chilly. Plus she was SO excited by the 5 pieces of candy in her pumpkin - quite a large bounty for a child who never eats candy. I convinced her to go to a couple of houses with her cousins Kylie and Zoe, but only if I held her the eintire time. Joey was really cute, making my brother Adam hold his pumpkin and insisting that he open every lollipop he got on the spot so that this little Superman got to walk around with a sucker in his mouth the entire evening. It was very sweet as you can see from the pictures below.

So Reese has taken up saying, "Yessss, Sir!" in response to any question she is asked. I've told her many timese (after she has said this to me) that I am not a sir but a ma'am so she should say, "Yessss, Ma'am!" to me. Today I asked her if she wanted more food for lunch to which she responded, "Yessss, Sir! Wait, you're not a sir, you're a man!"

In other news, Julie turned 4 months this past weekend. I took her to her check-up today and she weighs a not-so-whopping 13 lbs. She is in the 95th percentile for height and only the 31st for weight. She continues to be my long, lanky, laidback little girl. She did, however, find her loud voice on Monday while visiting her great-grandmother. She is very amused by her ability to sqeal like a dolphin (or maybe more like a hurt cat...). It's fun to see her so thrilled by her new tricks. She entertained my family with her big smiles and silly giggles all weekend. I feel so lucky to have such a happy baby.

Julie cuddling up with her blankets

Julie and Papa

Looking out the window

Tinkerbell is all business getting ready for trick-or-treating

Reese and Joey

Superman's sucker

Cousin Zoe

Reese and Kylie

Big Night Out

 On Friday night, Todd and I had a big night out for my birthday.  That's right, for the first time since she was born, we left Julie in someone else's care (well, it was the first time someone watched her where she didn't stay in her carseat asleep the entire time).  Of course, by "big night out" I mean that we left her for a 2 hours and 20 minutes, not that anyone was counting... The girls did beautifully and Reese was even asleep when we got home.  I was worried about how she'd do since she's needed her mommy a lot this week.  However, when the babysitter, Kat, came, she was so excited that she didn't even bother to say good-bye to us.  Now she keeps asking when Kat will come over again to play :-).  It was really nice to get out by ourselves for dinner and to take our time.  Dinner was great - I could even eat the dessert! It topped off a wonderful day of not doing any work, sleeping in, a surprise lunch from Chipotle, roses, German beer, Hershey's kisses, and shopping all by myself.  I am such a lucky lady.

Unfortunately the rest of the week wasn't as exciting.  Todd and I are both inundated with work right now so we haven't been able to do a lot.  On Monday when I picked up Reese from school, we stayed on campus at Notre Dame and had a picnic by the library.  The weather was gorgeous as were the trees whose leaves  are now changing colors.  Todd even joined us outside for a bit.  After Reese ate her lunch outside, the four of us went to Fiddlers to celebrate one of our friend's passing his candidacy exams.  I had thought that feeding Therese beforehand would be a good idea since I didn't think she'd eat much at Fiddlers.  Man was I wrong.  She ate more fries than I did!  I guess I should have known...  Anyhow, here are some pictures of our picnic.

Gooooo Irish!

After the enthusiasm Reese showed in singing Notre Dame's fight song (constantly....all week long...), we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and took the girls to campus on Saturday before the Pitt game in order to listen to the band.  Campus was busy (of course) but it was really gorgeous out.  While Todd got our burgers and hotdogs, I snagged a shaded spot along the sidewalk from which we could watch the players walk by on their way from Mass to the stadium.  That double-stroller really marks off a good amount of territory.  Reese loved her hamburger (and watering the grass with her water bottle) and drew a bit of attention thanks to her outstanding curls. As the time for the players to walk by drew near, I found out that the blonde woman straight across from me was a player's mom.  Then I started looking around and noticed that a lot of people had these white tags hanging around their necks.  We were right in the middle of the football recruits and their families.  The recruit two people to my left was acting very cool like this was no big deal.  Then the players came.  As they walked by in their suits, being cheered by fans who lined their entire walk from the basilica to the stadium, even he smiled and looked excited.  Reese was super excited to see the people she sees on tv every week.  Well, she was excited about the clapping and cheering anyway.  She thought it was very silly that they went to Mass on Saturday (we prefer Sunday nights).  Julie slept through the entire event.  After cheering for the players, we walked over to see the band play while Reese sang the fight song much to the delight of passing fans.  We found an amazing spot really close to the band and in the shade. As we waited, Reese started to fade.  We were an hour past nap time and had had quite the exciting day already.  When the band played, Therese wanted to be put down and to eat her chips until they played the fight song, which she greeted with a big smile.  At least Julie really enjoyed herself.  She was giving huge grins the entire time.  Today Reese was telling us about going to see the band when she said, "The horns were too loud.  I was listening from people's legs."  People's legs? I asked her if she had wanted to be put down when the band was playing because it was too loud.  She said yes.  I asked her if it wasn't as loud when she only saw people's legs.  Yep. :-)

While Saturday was certainly the highlight of the week, I was also excited to go to Curriculum Night at Reese's school.  While it was great to learn a bit more about Therese's teachers, her schedule at school, and the teaching philosophy behind the curriculum, the teachers were wise enough to know that what we all really wanted to hear was how our kids are doing.  Right away the head teacher said something about how Reese is a social butterfly.  She immediately recognized the shock on my face.  I told her I was glad but surprised - last year every report was marked by how she wasn't playing with other children yet or how she was engaging in a little bit of parallel play!  At some point the teacher was talking about how their class seems to be really interested in math and told a story about a kid who was holding 9 pegs and the teacher asked her, "How many would you have if I added these 2?" and she said, "11."  The teacher then asked, "If I had 8 pegs, how many would I need to have 10?" and the child answered, "2."  Yep, you guessed it - the teacher later told me it was Therese.

Of course Julie is learning and growing quickly as well.  She now not only sucks on her fist but on some of her fingers as well.  Of course this often results in her gagging herself.  She gets really upsest by this, makes a huge frowny face, and then seconds later is back to sucking on her outstretched fingers.  At least she doesn't pull her own hair anymore... In more exciting news, Julie has started laughing.  She just cracks up at the most random things. She starts laughing which makes us laugh which makes her laugh... It's so much fun. 

Anyhow, here are some pictures of our big outting yesterday (and a random one from today).  Enjoy!        

Reese was so excited to see the football players

Julie was excited too

Reese and Daddy

Walking along, singing her favorite tune

Mommy, Daddy and Reese waiting for the band

Me and Julie

Isn't she sweet?

Welcome to My World...

Two Big Days

Things continue to be a bit crazy around here.  In addition to the demands of two little girls, Todd's teaching, and housework, my job has become a bit crazy (and time-consuming) lately.  We've also been spending inordinate amounts of time on Todd's applications for jobs in exotic places like Omaha :-).  In the meantime, we just celebrated two big days in our house.  On Thursday Julie turned 3 months old.  Wow.  I can't believe it's been three months already.  I can't believe Julie is getting so big so fast.  I can't believe I haven't had a good night's sleep in three months... Actually, when I thought about writitng this post yesterday, I was noting that I'd have to write about how good of a sleeper Julie has become.  Todd's been handling her at night all week because I've had a very crazy (early) work schedule and she slept at least 7 hours every night.  Then last night happend.  She was up FOUR TIMES to eat.  Ugh.  She must be going through a growth spurt.  She is continuing to grow like crazy and loves to stand up (with a lot of help, of course).  She also loves to blow spit bubbles and has been soaking us (and herself) with as much drool as spit-up lately.  Above all else, she loves to look at the clock in our family room.  No matter what she's doing or how much I am trying to command her attention, she just takes a little glance at the clock and she shows off her gums in a toothless grin.  Julie must truly be getting older because last night, when our friends came over, at least four different times someone spied her playing in her bouncy chair and said, "Wow, I've never seen Julie awake before."

While Julie turning 3 months old on Thursday was a big deal, it was nothing compared to the excitement (at least from Therese) of Friday.  Yesterday - Friday - was Reese's feast day.  I know this because she woke us up at 6am screeching, "IT'S MY FEAST DAY!"  Of course she had been preparing for it all week.  Todd taught her how to spell St. Therese with the accents (note that I can't even do that on the computer) and to say say Therese of Lisieux.  She informed me on Wednesday night that we were going to have friends over on her feast day to eat the cupcakes she was going to make.  I said, "Really?  Who are we going to have over?" She proceded to name a number of our friends.  They did indeed come over to share in the festivities and Reese was soooo excited.  She decorated cupcakes by pouring green sprinkles all over them (and the table) and ate so much sugar that she acted a little drunk.  Overall I think she had a good night.  She was so tired from it all that she slept in and is now in the third hour of her nap.    

 Julie cuddling up

 Julie and Daddy

 Reese and her noodles

 Reese in the refrigerator

Cuddling with Pooh Bear

 Reese and her feast day cupcake. Can you guess who put the sprinkles on?

 Enjoying dessert

Julie being propped up for a picture.  She wasn't impressed.

Lord, Grant Us Patience

My brother-in-law used to love to start prayer before a meal with, "Lord, grant us patience.........." (insert very long pause).  I've been finding myself repeating this prayer a lot lately.  Well, without the pause.  After weeks of broken sleep, piles of work and housework, loads of laundry that may never make it out of the basement, and lugging a baby-filled carseat everywhere I go, I'm exhausted and my patience is wearing thin.  And Reese can be great at testing it,  As I've mentioned before, she loves to ask questions.  This has gotten much worse lately so that during lunch, we had the following conversation:

R: What are those?

Me: Seeds.

R: Are they to eat?

Me: No.

R: Why?

Me: They are dirty,

R: Why are they dirty?

Me: Because people touched them.

R: Why did they touch them?

Me: It was for a prayer service. 

R: Who touched them?

Me: My students.

R: What are their names? 

(and yes, I did start listing names....) 

During this same lunch Reese managed to spill her milk. Twice.  And then she spilled her water. Twice. And then she spilled a bowl full of shredded cheese.  I'm not making this up - it's 100% true.  Reese also loves to repeat the same idea over and over, like everytime I drive her in my car she likes to tell me, "Mom, don't use your left foot when you drive because you don't have a clutch."  Yes, thanks Therese, I would have never noticed.  At least we've hit the "J-curve" of humor - you know, something's funny at first, but after hearing a few times it isn't funny anymore until (after more repetition) it becomes funny again because of the repetition.  Anyhow, Reese is as active and silly as ever and has so much fun.  She loves school and screams, "NOOOOO!" when she spots my arrival to pick her up.  Ok, she doesn't always do that - only 50% of the time.  Her teacher told me that Reese used one of the toys in the classroom to make an ABAB pattern and then proceded to tell all the teachers, "I am making an ABAB patt-er-en." Nice to hear that she's picking up the lingo :-).

As for Julie, she is now 12 weeks old. She's getting so much bigger and so much older.  I had to put away some of her newborn clothes already which made my heart break a little inside.  She's as smiley and talkative as ever. When she smiles, she shows off her gums and the smile reaches all the way to her eyes.  She now prefers being held upright instead of being cradled so she can see what is going on.  She's started really swatting at her toys so that the blue elephant dangling in front of her bouncy chair has seen quite a few flights across the room.  Julie also drools a lot and started sucking on her fist (not her thumb or her fingers, her fist), but I'm happy to say we've had a major breakthrough in this department.  Julie, as sweet as she is, has been incredibly picky with her binky.  There is only one that she would ever take.  Not one brand or one type - one binky.  And she doesn't even like that one very much.  Well last week I finally stumbled across a kind of pacifier that she likes.  Not only is she much more content, but so are we as we don't have to fear losing the ONE binky.  Life is good :-).           

Julie sitting up

 Even her eyes smile...

 Reese playing with Julie (well, Julie's toy anyway)

 Can you tell Todd dressed her?

Binky!

More smiles