Outdoor Adventure

Evy asked to go on an outdoor adventure. It was a balmy 27 degrees today so we hit up our local recreation area. The adventure started off with a bang when we spotted 8 deer followed by "a boy deer" with antlers. Evy loved looking for animal tracks and plowing through the snow.

Starting to lose steam, the girls took a rest in the snow.

I'm not sure if you can zoom in on the photo to get a look at their faces, but it's priceless. By the end of the walk Charlie was crying, falling, and asking to be carried. Evy was walking on her knees because her "legs and ankles hurt so bad." After carrying Charlie I too was eagerly looking for the end of the path.

Christmas at Home

 

Scott had Christmas Eve off which gave us a rare two days at home with no obligations. On Christmas Eve we went ice skating, out to lunch, to the grocery store (big mistake!) and drove around looking at the Christmas lights.

 

 

Evy picked out Keebler Fudge Stripe cookies for Santa...I decided to eliminate one task from my list this year and that was the homemade cookies. The reindeer carrots were leftover from our lunch.

 

The girls slept together in the bunk beds, fell asleep immediately and slept until 7 a.m. I think our Santa threats finally had an impact.

Doesn't her hair make her look like a crazy elf?

Evy snuggling with her Fur Real kitty from Santa. Definitely her most favorite gift!

I think Charlie ate four pieces of candy before 8 a.m. 

We had a big breakfast so the kitchen was closed for lunch. Charlie chose to have oatmeal for her lunch. Or as she calls it, Oad-a-mole.

Week in Review

Maybe if I blog once a week I can keep up with things. Let's try it once.

 

On Monday, Evy had her pre-school holiday program. Her class sang 4 songs. The program is soooo funny as the kids jump, scream, and or dance along to their songs. Such a fun way to celebrate a special time of year with Evy's classmates and teachers.

 

Evy's teacher, Ms. Nancy is pictured. Ms. Nancy is a retired kindergarten teacher and we feel so lucky to have her as Evy's pre-K teacher. She is amazing with the kids! 

 

  

We spent the weekend at my parent's house celebrating Christmas.

 

 

Great-Grandma Max with the big kids.

These three spent a lot of time at the cookie tray.

Five inches of fresh snow!

Charlie loved sledding with her cousins!

On Friday, Charlie's Christmas present arrived. She has been asking for a big girl bed. We selfishly decided to get her a bunk bed so we could sacrifice Charlotte to try to get Evy to sleep through the night. We've been struggling with Evy for three months and this is the last idea we have up our sleeve. Operation sacrifice Charlie started tonight. Evy was asleep within 5 minutes--normally it takes her 45 minutes. Fingers crossed that we aren't awake all night!

Christmas Cheer!

Last night we completed our holiday project--purchasing and wrapping gifts for a family who needs a little assistance. Such a fun thing to do with great friends. Why weren't the Dads included in the photo? Because they sat around watching football while we did all of the work. 

When we got home the girls discovered that our elf, Elfie, had left them Christmas Pajamas! Evy said Charlie looked just like Santa with her big tummy! Grammy Sherry sent the dancing santa home for the girls and they love turning it on and watching him dance.

This is the first picture I took of the girls. Look at Evy's pose. Good grief! I told her to stand "normal" and then I took another shot. Five going on twenty-five.

Weekend Trip

Scott spent the weekend deer hunting so the girls and I rode along with Grandma Joan and Papa Jake to Jacob's birthday party in the 'burbs. After celebrating Jacob's birthday it's becoming tradition to walk two blocks and see the most ridiculously decorated house that you've ever seen! These people obviously love Christmas! They generously host Santa and give out hot chocolate and only ask for a donation to charity in exchange. Charlie asked for a big girl bed. Evy clarified that she meant a bunk bed. Evy asked for an orange kitty toy that has a purple toy you can play with.

All the cousins and all the lights!

 

 

Uncle Caleb snapped this shot. Beautiful girl. 

This is what our ride home looked like. Boo!

 

I Surrender

[Charlie went without clothes for most of the day and the blueberry yogurt and strawberry jelly stayed on her face a little longer than normal.]

 

The girls have generously shared their cough and cold with me. I'm tired. And I'm sick. I didn't have much fight left in me yesterday so I let the girls watch too much TV, eat too many chocolate chip cookies, and eat a random buffet of junk for lunch. Parenting is pretty easy when you don't fight battles. This troop commander needed a day off!

Curls

 

I don't think Charlotte will have these perfect ringlets for her entire life so I thought I should document them. Aren't they adorable? Five perfect little curls. Her hair is unruly and if you brush it it just makes it worse. She has a flap of hair in the front that is flat, no curls. I think it just adds to her big personality so I don't try to tame it. She will likely be doomed to have the half wavy, half straight hair that I have as an adult. For now, I will enjoy the messy cuteness that comes with these curls.

 

Evy wanted me to take a picture of the back of her hair too. She has hair exactly like me. One random wave through the back with some wayward curls underneath. If you brush it it looks ok for awhile but mostly looks like a mess. It takes a straightening iron to get it under control.

My Buddy

 

Charlie is the second child which means she has always had Evy in her life. They are the best little buddies and have started playing so well together. Yesterday, Evy went to school for three hours in the morning to do a special Thanksgiving project that her teacher didn't want her to miss out on. So, just Charlie and I headed out to do some errands. After errands we stopped off at an indoor playground for awhile. We've been there before and the girls run like crazy animals having a blast. But yesterday, when it was just Charlie she was shy and wanted to sit in my lap. She was not interested in playing without her buddy. I am sad for Charlie that Evy will go to Kindergarten in the Fall and she will loose her little playmate. I think she's going to miss her terribly.

Shoe Tying

Evy's teacher made this little shoe tying contraption and Evy desperately wanted to bring it home over the weekend.

I was trying to help her learn, but oh my goodness I didn't realize how hard it is to teach someone to tie their shoes. It takes a lot of coordination and it's hard to explain step by step. Maybe we'll stick with velcro for awhile longer.

Mommy Day Fun

 

Before we moved we always did fun outings on mommy days. In warm weather we would go to the park, the pool, the zoo, or for a walk. On cold days we would do the Children's Museum, Tot-Lot, the library or the indoor pool. Since moving mommy days have mostly been spent getting things done. We've had a multitude of contractor appointments that I've tried to do so Scott doesn't have to leave work. Charlie and Evy are playing pretty well together so now I use my days at home to do laundry, clean, and try to keep my head above water. I'm not sure what has changed but I can't seem to keep up now. It's a struggle to no longer have time when both children are asleep--with Evy not falling asleep until 9 or 9:30 p.m. most nights I am so exhausted I just go to sleep at 10:00 and leave the work until the next day, or the next..... I need to find a new balance so we can enjoy our fun time before Evy heads off to Kindergarten this Fall.

 

On Friday, I decided we were going to have fun! The girls got to watch nursery rhymes on the computer while I quickly got us packed up and ready to go to Tot-Lot.

 

 

We were only there an hour but the girls had a great time playing with all the toys. They loved these "bunnies"....although I think they are actually donkeys?!? Not sure.

Funny Things

This morning Scott was showing me a book that he repaired after Charlie ripped it last night. I said, "Charlie, did you rip that book?" She said, "Yeah. I did. I serious."

Charlie is growing out of her carseat so we need to bump her up to Evy's. I asked Evy if we should get a booster seat for her. "I am going to have to fink (think) about that at school today."

Desperate Times...

We have been living in sleep deprivation hell for the past 12 weeks. Evy is suddenly afraid of the dark and is having a hard time with everything related to sleep. She says that she is afraid of shadows, that she can't fall asleep, that her heart beats really fast when she tries to fall asleep, and when she falls asleep she has "bad thoughts." I think she has real anxiety around sleep. It takes her about 45 minutes and numerous trips out of her room before she finally falls asleep around 9 p.m. She then wakes up and comes in to our room 1 to 3 times during the night. Last night she was in our room at midnight, 2 a.m. and 2:45 a.m. It would be one thing if she then slept in, but no. She is awake by 6 a.m. every morning. I am slowly dying.

She no longer naps so I cannot believe that she is able to function on this amount of sleep, although it does not seem to affect her. Since the day she was born she has fought sleep and existed on the minimum requirement for her age. If the child didn't look exactly like me I might think she was switched at birth. I cannot comprehend how my offspring does not share my love of sleep. Thank God I slept a lot before I had children.

We've tried nightlights, sound machines, soft music, audio books, and reasoning. We've tried "tough love" and "understanding." We follow the same bedtime routine every night and have started turning the TV off early in the evening in case that is over stimulating her. I have no idea what else to do so tonight I started a bribery positive reinforcement chart. If she stays in her bed for five nights she can pick out a Palace Pet (Disney's latest racket to suck all of your money out of your hands). Lets hope this is the ticket. Please feel free to share any ideas you may have in the comments. I'll try to stay awake long enough to read them.

Evy's teacher, Miss Nancy, says that Evy is very much a visual learner so I made some visual tools just in case that may help. Like I said...desperate times.

Angelina Ballerina

Evy and I went to Angelina Ballerina yesterday. It was a short production that involved mice (well, humans dressed up as mice) signing and dancing...I think Evy loved it. I enjoyed the frozen yogurt afterwards.

 

Photo Credit: Kate A.

 

 

More Halloween

Celebrating Halloween on only one night would be totally boring and a waste of a costume.

So here is the rest of our Halloween week roundup!

 

Evy had a Halloween party at school where she ditched her cowgirl threads and went as Barbie Pop Star.

The adult-only party where the trophy wife and sugar daddy made an appearance.

Dance class last week was also Halloween themed.

 

And the most fun? Trick or treating at mom's office where both cowgirls came away with a total haul!

Happy Halloween!

The girls were so excited to commence pumpkin carving. Evy exclaimed, "This is the best day ever!"

Thirty seconds later they lost interest and said the pumpkin was stinky.

The pumpkin stinks. We're just going to watch Dad.

 

In an attempt to keep them engaged I asked them to color their own pumpkins.

Evy made a kitty face.

My little cowgirls all ready for trick or treat!

It stopped raining about 10 minutes before trick or treat time. It was a damp and cold night.

All aboard the candy express!

Scott took the girls around the neighborhood while I was on candy duty at home.