Florida Trip - 2012

Fresh off the plane from Florida, I found myself with a full memory card last night and decided to do the memory dump and sort through photos (as opposed to doing something meaningful like laundry or grocery shopping).  Once again, we had a wonderful trip - a big THANK YOU to Grandma and Grandpa Nelson for allowing us to take over their otherwise quiet and spacious rental property.

The girls had an amazing time enjoying the beach, playing in the water, visiting with their cousins Lauren (3 - turning 4 in June) and Logan (2) - (the level at which they are related was explained to me but has since exited my brain - let it be known that they are the grandchildren of my mother's cousin, which I believe makes them 15th cousins 8 times removed or something of that nature - it is quicker and easier just to say "cousins") - and otherwise being outside.  They also made time to be spoiled rotten by Grandma and eat copious amounts of ice cream and popsicles.

It is always a special time for Mommy to spend with them, and I enjoyed it immensely.  (Sitting in my quiet office this morning was not entirely a bad experience, however - six days of intense Mommyhood was probably my limit).

We were sad to return to cold weather in Michigan, but what a pleasant surprise to see our front yard full of flowers and green leaves.  I hope the hot stuff returns soon!

Follow the link for the pics...

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=Share-_-Personal-_-Email-_-Sharee-_-Images&token=128198456311%3A1468340788&_requestid=210456

Megan & Hannah Pictures - January/February 2012

Please see the attached for some recent pictures of the little ladies. This is kind of a random assortment, but we're headed to Florida for our annual trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa Nelson in a couple of weeks, and I thought it was a good time to clean up the camera.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp;jsessionid=D8CE1EF4DCF78478BAF71E000C6A6C87.ecom304_main?sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=Share-_-Personal-_-Email-_-Sharee-_-Images&token=457975726311%3A1715647969&_requestid=141800

Everyone is doing very well. We've been keeping busy and survived January - our annual month of disastrous health - relatively unscathed (see below for discussion re: individual hospital visits - but aside from that, I would say it was marked improvement over January 2011!).

Megan started dance class just after the first of the year - it's a tap/ballet combo, and she LOVES it. It's an hour long on Saturday mornings, and she thinks she is big stuff because Hannah and I drop her off and then go hang out at the library until she's done. Little Miss Maturity. She just moved into the school-age room at daycare, for the kindergarten crew and up, so we're getting used to that transition. We're also in the process of getting her enrolled for kindergarten in the fall. There is a lot up in the air about whether or not our school district will go to all-day, every day kindergarten or not, so some of the informational meetings are being pushed back until this gets decided at the state level. (Currently our school district does two full days and one half day kindergarten). I'm not sure it will make much of a difference to Megan since she's used to being in daycare full time, but it will be nice to figure out what next year will look like for her. In other school events, she really enjoyed her class Valentine's Day party (which Mom got to attend for the first time - yay new job!) - including handwriting all of her own Valentine's and reading her friends names to pass them out appropriately. She and Kyle also attended the school's Daddy Daughter Dance a couple of weeks ago - this was their second time going, and Megan had been looking forward to it pretty much since the last one ended. We let her get her hair and nails done for the event, which is a pretty big deal to an aspiring princess. There wasn't much dancing with Daddy to be done, but she had a great time bouncing around with her little friends who were also ignoring their fathers.

Hannah talks and/or sings All. The. Time. She cannot be stopped. It is like owning a little parrot. She is stringing all kinds of words together and her song playlist is pretty impressive as well. She is very much an independent little gal - not one to submit willingly to big sister's domination (unfortunately for her big sister). It is not unusual for her to hit and/or pull Megan's hair when she is displeased with the way play is going...or just because she's bored. (Megan, god love her, is not a very physical child and will try to talk her way out of the situation - screaming when the miniature bully of the house has her by the hair. I am not going to come out and suggest that she use her size to her advantage, but I really think if she were to just lay Hannah out one time, it would make a world of difference on the amount of little sister instigated violence in our home). Aside from physical abuse of her older sibling, she is very into her books and baby dolls (including covering them with blankets and patting their backs - just like Megan did!) and has become a certified two-foot jumper. She is very much a Mommy's girl and is the world's greatest cuddler. We still have her in the crib for now - mostly because she is routinely soaking through her overnight diapers, and it is easier to wash crib bedding than full-sized mattress bedding. Really, really hoping that stops soon - I really don't enjoy much about the laundry. We are looking forward to celebrating her second birthday next month!

Though we have been ear infection free all winter (knock on wood), the girls each had their fair share of brief stomach bugs early in the New Year. I missed a few days of work here and there, but overall, it wasn't nearly the disaster that last year was with Hannah's recurring ear infections and severe colds. This is all well and good, yet we still managed to take each kid for some form of emergent care - I suppose it wouldn't be January without it. On an otherwise enjoyable Sunday, Megan started complaining of abdominal pain, and within an hour it got to the point where she wouldn't stand up and was begging to go to the doctor. I called our doctor's office and they suggested we go to the ER at the Children's Hospital in the event she needed an ultrasound - her symptoms were sounding like potential appendix trouble. It turned out to be a bladder infection that was giving her all the trouble, and the hospital experience was actually pretty positive - she got to watch Disney movies in her own private room, with a blue slushie to boot.

Hannah required her *first* (unless I succeed at finding her the perfect two year old helmet, I am sure it will not be the last) set of stitches in January as well. She took off running down the hallway at daycare (not listening? shocker!) and cracked her head on the corner of a wall, splitting the skin just above her eyebrow. It only took one stitch to get her put back together, but it looks like she'll be sporting a nice little scar on her forehead. Stitches at 21 months? God has dealt us a wild card here, folks.

Valentine's Day Pictures

So, these were not supposed to happen, let alone work out as well as they did, but such is my luck.  Daddy has been traveling quite a bit lately, and will be leaving us again the week of Valentine's Day.  To be clear, I HATE Valentine's Day, but being the mother of two girls on a holiday that features pink/purple girly-ness, it is my lot in life to do it up right.  I got a very last minute idea in my head last Friday to take the girls to JCPenney's for Valentine's Day pictures.  It was literally as we were getting ready on Friday morning that this idea popped into my head.  I threw their newly purchased novelty character Valentine's Day t-shirts and a couple of combs into a bag and away we went.  I didn't even have an appointment for pictures until just before lunch, but everything fell into place quite nicely. 

I had the afternoon off of work - Hannah had a doctor's appointment already scheduled to have the stitch removed from her forehead (oh, did I not tell you about that?  what?  would you not normally schedule pictures until facial lacerations have healed?  lame!).  So at 1:45 my baby was having a stitch plucked out of her head and by 2:30 we were at the mall having a quick snack before our photo shoot.  I am just trying to frame the context here to give you some idea of how low my expectations for success were.  The bar was set at approximately zero for taking away anything salvageable, but at $4 per portait sheet, I really had nothing to lose.

So the photo shoot begins, and Hannah immediately starts screaming when the photographer touches her.  I am not the slightest bit concerned about this, as I mentioned previously that I had zero expectations for this working out anyway.  But then something miraculous happens - Hannah becomes cooperative!  For perhaps the first time in her life, she behaves on cue!!  There was truly some higher power involved here.  Anywho, I ended up with like 5 billion photos that I don't need, but it was a very successful shoot and will hopefully make for a nice surprise for Daddy (and probably the Grandma's as well - they tend to covet cute pics of the girls together).  See below for a small sample of the pictures.

Megan & Hannah Pictures - November/December 2011

Please see the attached for some recent pics of our little ladies.  We had a wonderful Christmas with them - each year gets more and more fun with all the Santa magic.  Megan has been totally into it the last couple of years - now she is just getting harder to trick.  Hannah absorbed a whole lot this year as well - any person with a white beard was automatically labeled "Santa" and followed by a jolly "ho ho ho".  She's got the belly to pull off quite the realistic impression, too.  

 

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=285849165311%3A609703898

We kept very busy with pre-holiday activities - a trip to the GR zoo for Christmas with the Animals (we also find they have the best Santa in town - the ones in the mall have turned into real scheisters these days), Megan's preschool Christmas program, a whole lot o' baking (Megan and I made 12 batches of cookies for 5 families in our neighborhood for our very own "12 Days of Cookies" - we delivered one cookie per family member each night for 12 nights, solidifying our Favorite Neighbor of 2011 award), and a visit to Frederick Meijer Gardens to see the Christmas trees from around the world.  All these activities were made that much merrier by the fact that we've had no significant snowfall in our neck of the woods yet this winter - YAY!

On Christmas morning, each girl had a couple of gifts in front of the fireplace to open from Santa, and taped behind their stockings was a letter from the big guy himself indicating that he'd left quite a big surprise for them in their playroom downstairs.  Daddy went down first in order to "check it out" (a/k/a set up the video camera) and captured some priceless footage of two shocked little girls when they saw a massive dollhouse in the middle of the room. That was their big (literally) gift this year - on Christmas morning they were down there for 20 minutes on their own playing contentedly while I enjoyed breakfast of non-soggy cereal.  In my opinion, the thing paid for itself right there.  Another highlight of the letter - Megan had decided that in addition to leaving out cookies and milk for Santa, we should also provide a healthy option.  She chose broccoli - I could go on and on about what a hypocrite this makes her, but that is neither here nor there.  Anywho, Santa's letter included a thank you for the milk and cookies, and also a note that he doesn't really like broccoli, but ate it all up because he knows it's good for him.  She cannot seem to get this part out of her head.  We have discussed it every day since Christmas - "remember how Santa didn't like our broccoli?"..."does Santa gets snacks after dinner if he doesn't eat his broccoli?"... etc, etc.  The girl cracks us up.

The whole family suffered a round of the stomach flu between Christmas and New Years, which made for a very low-key week at home.  As I happen to suck at being low-key, I was the only person in my office this morning who was enthusiastic about being there.  I am sure we will look back on our downtime one day and appreciate it for what it was, but today is not that day.  For their part, I believe the kids were both awfully excited to get dropped off at school this morning, too.

In other non-holiday updates, we remain convinced (and totally unbiased) that both of our little beauties are extremely talented geniuses.  Megan is so, so, sooooo close to reading on her own.  She is doing 3-4 pages at night of her stories where she insists on sounding out every word and putting the sentences together before she gets frustrated with our slow pace and lets me take over.  Books with words that repeat over and over she can do all the way through - she is quick to pick up on these "sight words", as they call them in preschool.  It's very exciting to see this process unfold.  She is starting dance class (a ballet/tap combo this time) this Saturday, which will last until the recital at the beginning of June.  She is very excited to be back at it and is especially thrilled about her "clicky shoes" - I'm assuming her instructor will correct the tap lingo, for now I just think it's cute.  She is very into the movie "Matilda" (based on the book by Roald Dahl) and we actually picked up the chapter book at the library last weekend - she is tolerating a chapter a night of her first non-picture book very well.

Hannah is stringing together 3-4 words at a time kind of suddenly.  Tonight was "Lacey bad girl bark" for instance, which was a well articulated summary of the situation.  She's in rapid vocab expansion mode and is also extremely musical.  She doesn't know all the words to her song, but girlfriend can keep a beat - it's generally pretty easy to tell what she's singing based on her rhythm.  Pattycake and Frosty the Snowman are quite popular at the moment.  At 20 months, we haven't wanted to move her to her big girl bed yet, but will likely get to work on that shortly here.  She's also developing a pretty strong preference for immediate diaper changes after she's gone potty - this weekend she would come find me with a diaper in her hand when she wanted to be changed.  This probably means potty training is just around the corner for us, but I think I'm less eager about that process than I am about the thought of giving her the freedom to roam in a big girl bed.  We'll keep this stuff as close to her second birthday as possible, if she'll allow it.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Family Pictures - 2011

We went last month to get updated family pictures taken.  The goal was to beat or exceed last year's sister shots:

I know, I know - lofty goal.  But I think we did it!  Hannah was mostly uncooperative - we have a lot of shots of her walking away from the camera - but she happens to be highly adorable, so I think that compensated for her lack of posing.  Follow the link for the proofs.  We couldn't have been happier with how they turned out on a very cold, blustery day in Michigan.  Thanks Emily Rae Photography for a wonderful experience!

http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=8234705014/a=104359154_104359154/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Megan & Hannah Pictures - Fall 2011

Please see the attached for some updated pictures of the little ladies.  Our fall has been a busy one (odd since I felt like we did virtually nothing all summer), but filled with lots of fun.

 

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=172275684311%3A1305461410

 

Megan attended Family Camp with Grandma and Grandpa Purdy, which starts the week before Labor Day.  The camp is located in Pentwater, right on Lake Michigan, and Kyle has gone every year since he was born (the Purdys have been going for over 40 years themselves).  Anyway, it's a very special place and it's fun to see Megan make her own memories there.  She stayed up there all week long, most of the time without Mom and Dad, and had the time of her life.  Hannah, being a total disaster at this age, sat this year out (which of course has nothing to do with Mom being less than enthralled with the camping scene, obviously...), but we look forward to letting her have the experience next year.  

 

Megan also gave soccer a try for the first time this fall.  She played on an under-5 girls league, and Kyle was her coach.  It went about as well as we expected it to go - she is very into her uniform (surprising as it wasn't pink and/or a dress) and loved her teammates and practicing before the games.  When it game to actual game time however, she would freeze.  For the first half of the season, we could barely get her to stay on the field and run with her team.  We saw a lot of improvement in the last few games, however, and by the end she was a pretty willing participant.  We're hoping to sign her up again in the spring (though I believe Coach Kyle has announced his retirement), to see what a second try at this might look like.  I don't believe we'll have this anxiety experience with Hannah, who had to be physically restrained in order to keep her off the field and on the sidelines.  Our little brut is ready for combat now.  :)

 

Soccer ended the last weekend in October, which gave us just enough time to fit in 10,000 Halloween activities.  Megan went as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.  Hannah was a scarecrow.  (I do so love costume themes that come along with multiple children).  After a brief breath-catching, we now have them both in Saturday swim lessons.  Hannah has been a bit aprehensive about the water - a blessing as she is not the slightest bit aprehensive about any other form of danger - but she did great in her first lesson last week.  She is now flopping down on her belly in the bath and blowing bubbles and sticking her face in the water, which I take as a sign that she is looking forward to tomorrow's class.

 

In other news, Megan is making great strides with her reading.  She is very focused on learning all the words to her favorite stories - many of which she has memorized already, but now she wants to know letter by letter exactly what word she's looking at.  She's doing a lot of sounding out and can navigate her way through the DVR menu to turn on her own favorite shows by doing that.  It's pretty exciting to watch - I think we'll be sending a full-fledged reader off to kindergarten next year. 

 

Hannah is now 18 months old and funnier than ever.  Just in the last couple of weeks, I've noticed a major jump in her communication skills.  She's trying to repeat just about any word she hears, and her list of ones she knows is expanding rapidly.  She loves baby dolls, books, and anything her big sister has.  She continues to be our wild child, though seems somewhat more tame to me recently (this could be wishful thinking on my part as I will be on my own with them all next week as Kyle travels for work).

 

Anyway, we are all doing well.  I'm loving my new job, and Kyle just made a career switch as well - he has now joined the ranks at BDO.  They began pursuing him about two seconds after I left, and since we knew from personal experience that it was a great place to work, it really wasn't a tough decision to make.  He started a few weeks ago and has been enjoying the experience thus far, which I will assume will continue at least to next week as they are flying him to Vegas for 5 days.  Jerk...

 

The next time you hear from me it will probably be post-Christmas (didn't we just do that?).  Hope everyone enjoys the holiday season!

 

Love,

Nicki, Kyle, Megan and Hannah

I Am the Walrus

Stupid nursery project #202:  Decorative pillows for use on baby's rocking chair.  I happen to be in possession of two perfectly goods ones from PBK that will be out of our lives shortly.  Though I hate to recover their expensive pillows rather than just buy new cheap ones, for the sake of simplicity I'm going for it.  As mentioned in my previous post, baby's quilt features a walrus.  Throughout our lives, my sister and I have had a thing for odd animals - I can think of at least two childhood stories that involved us rolling around on the ground laughing hysterically about a hippopotamus.  Given this history, the walrus is of great appeal to our demented little minds.  As such, it is only natural that one of baby's pillows incorporate the walrus.  Unfortunately the rest of the world doesn't seem as intrigued by walruses as we are, and several shopping trips and google searches for "walrus fabric" has left me empty-handed.  That's where felt comes in handy.  I discovered last night I apparently have some magical creative powers with making things of felt (yet another stupid human trick that will fail to make me rich). 

Starting with this as my guide (see cute fuzzy walrus middle row, right)...

I drew this pattern...

Which I then used to cut out the individual felt pieces, which eventually turned into this...

I love him.  As I am not yet able to sew (it's on my short list of things to take up), this is all I can show for now.  I intend to hand stitch the pieces together (this one I can do - the only skill you need to excel here is anal-retentiveness) and apply it to the recovered pillow (picture to follow) with iron-on adhesive.  Wish me luck!