Christmas with a Pile of Kids

I'm using that phrase because when Momo used it on the phone yesterday, I had to laugh! I think it's the mental picture. But look at this pile of kids! Cuties, aren't they?

Yesterday evening, we celebrated Christmas with some of our closest friends. Well, we used to be close, now we have a pile of kids. You make sacrifices... We are four families with six kids. The oldest four are all two. So for obvious reasons, we typically try to keep our expectations low when we all get together. Inevitably, someone is grumpy or sick or sleepy or hurt. You never know what is going to happen. At least for our family, this year's party was far above expectations. Because of her week, Sophia was the grumpy one. But it didn't seem to spoil the fun for her or anyone else. The children played wonderfully together, giving us adults a little space occasionally. I was also amazed at how things actually seemed to work out for the guys, then the girls, to get some time to engage in adult conversation!! That never happens with the kids around.

But, really, it was just so much fun to watch all of these kids enjoying their friends and the Christmas festivities. Here are Ava and Jimmy hanging out.

Presents were exchanged, and all of the kids were so sweet. They were each thrilled with their gifts, and so grateful to the giver. It was a treat to see them being such big kids.

We could only assume that Sophia was being blinded by all the flashes because she found Jimmy's sunglasses and kept them on for much of the evening.
And I'm putting this one on here just because I like Erick in blue.

It's hard to keep up on a blog

when you don't have a spacebar. Last weekend, I had an incident involving coffee and my keyboard. The result was the failure of several keys, including the spacebar, at the bottom of my keyboard. Right now, I'm posting from Erick's laptop. Maybe I'll make a post with no spacebar just to see who can read it.

It's also hard to keep up with a blog when you're not getting much sleep. For some reason, Sophia has decided she doesn't like her room or crib or sleeping any more. I blame the moon, it's full and closer the earth than normal. It can definitely mess with a person. Erick and I have been a little tired. I usually update the blog while she's sleeping, so that is why there have been few posts. That is also why I haven't had time to look into getting a new keyboard. It all plays together to make it impossible to keep up.

I'll try to be better, and maybe I'll even get a new keyboard. Hereisatasteofwhatyouareinfor.Enjoy.

Deep Brown Eyes

So what's going on behind that drink cup. . . and those eyes?

Surprise Fall Day

We had a pleasant surprise today when the weather made it possible for Sophia and I to take a little stroll outside. We have both felt a little cooped up, even just now at the end of fall - getting ready to lay in for a long winter.

Sophia did not appreciate the wind. She would stop now and then to say, "Wind, stop blowing my hair!"

One of her favorite things to do at our park is pretend that she runs a hotdog stand.

Here she is promising me the finest in fresh tomatoes.

A morning like we had always makes the weeks spent indoors a little more bearable. So, now we'll bundle up again for a while waiting for our next opportunity to stroll.

The Nutcracker

Saturday we took Sophia to her (and our) first ballet - The Nutcracker, performed by the St. Louis Ballet. It was so much fun to share this first with Erick and Sophia. I'm not exactly sure how I've made it this far without ever seeing a ballet in person, but I have. I was definitely more excited than Sophia. We read the story twice just before nap to help her get an idea of what we would see.

So then we arrived and prepared for the show.

She had no idea what was about to happen, but she knew the characters from the book. On the way in, she kept saying, "Where Drosselmeier?" I don't know why she got stuck on that name from the book, but she did.

Once we got to Jesse Hall, she began to ask, "Where is the Handsome Prince?" Then she seemed to remember that the prince played an important role in the story because she was asking about him a lot!

She didn't make it through the whole show, which was not at all surprising for a two-year-old. Intermission seemed to be the breaking point. If we had just pushed through, I think she could have made it. As it was, we finished the show by shopping at the Nutcracker table!

It was really a pleasure to watch the performance. The dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy really embodies the holiday spirit for me. It was just amazingly beautiful! I can't wait to go again next Christmas!

Christmas Preparation

Last weekend, we had a lot of fun getting our final touches on Christmas around the house. I had a feeling put up the tree with a two-year-old might not be all it's cracked up to be. I was right. Sophia was less interested in the tree than anything else, and what little interest she did have was in taking the tops out of the Christmas ornaments.

So in order to avoid the same happening with Christmas cookies, we did most of the work while Sophia was sleeping. I made my Granny's recipe for Santas, and I have the same set of cookie cutters that she does.

I made mine a little thicker than Granny's, but they still turned out great.

We decorated quite a few before Sophia got up from her nap, but we saved some ornament shapes and trees for her to decorate with us.

Can you guess which ones were Sophia's handiwork? Even she didn't want to eat the ones she decorated.

We learned our lesson quickly, and the cookie experiment went much more successfully than the tree. So keep it simple is my new philosophy. Let's see how I stick with it...

Weekend of Firsts

This was a big weekend for Sophia. Not only did we have a great holiday in Kansas City, Sophia had several winter firsts (at least as a toddler). One first that she had, was completely unrelated to winter. On Friday, Erick and I let Sophia watch a 30-minute show on DVD and told her it was the last TV till bed (when she does her breathing treatment). Usually, when her video ends, she comes to get me, but this time, we heard something different. Sure enough, when we went back there, she had switched out DVD's all by herself!! She was getting ready to start a new movie by herself since she knew we wouldn't help. I was very impressed with her dexterity, not to mention her observation of button sequences. She still had to be done with TV, though. I'm a tough mom.

The rest of her firsts were much more enjoyable for me. When we got up on Sunday morning, there was a fresh blanket (albeit a thin one) of snow. It was the first snow that Sophia could remember, and she was very taken with it! So we bundled her up and took her out, where she made and threw her first snowballs.

I don't know anyone who likes to play in the snow who doesn't also love a good cup of hot cocoa at the end. So, this was another first. Sophia's first cup of hot cocoa. She didn't drink very much of it, but she certainly loved stirring it!

The biggest deal came after nap. We decided at the last minute to see what Sophia would do at a movie. Madagascar 2 is out, and since she knows and loves the characters, we figured it would be a good first try. Look at this big girl!

We were really amazed at how well she did. She made it through the whole movie without a problem. A few times at the beginning, we had to remind her of using an inside voice. "What's Alex doing?!" and "Alex lost his daddy!" were pretty loud inside the auditorium. She settled down and enjoyed the show in no time. It was so much fun that I have no reason to expect a repeat performance that well for years. I'll just enjoy that one.

Needless to say, it was a marvelous weekend. We were sad to see Erick off to work this morning, but only a few weeks until we get to do it all again!