Christmas Program

I have a confession to make - I hate to cry in public. I mean, I deplore it. I don't think there is anything wrong with it...for other people. I just hate it when I do it. I do not think it is a sign of weakness. I do not think there is anything bad about it at all. I just really don't like when it happens to me. And, for all of my adult life I have teared-up whenever watching the children sing at our church, or on TV, or wherever. For some reason, children make me get all weepy.

So, as you can imagine, I have been greatly looking forward to the day when my own children would be the ones I am watching so that at least when I get all bleary-eyed people wouldn't think I am crazy. And, today was that day.

Kyrie did an awesome job singing in her preschool Christmas program. She sang almost the entire time, did most of the hand motions when she was supposed to and only got a little wild while everyone was clapping. She received her very own round of laughter when she sang one part very loudly. That part is what I have posted above. (I don't know if you will need to turn your sound up or not, but it is near the end of the clip.) As you may have guessed, I got quite the amount of tears in my eyes, but luckily had the video camera to hide them.

Bakin' Cookies

Priceless

Christmas Tree: $100
Star-Topper: $20
Home-made Ornament (a gift from my daughter): Priceless

Loco

Today I was talking with Kyrie about how sometimes I feel like I am going crazy.

"Are you crazy?", I said.
"Mommy, when you close your eyes do you see a TV?", was her response.

Uhhhhhhh....yeah, I think we are all going crazy. To add to my craziness I decided to go to the doctor this morning and got the confirmation that I have a sinus infection. Big bummer, but thank God for antibiotics. If I have to live much longer with this headache, you really are going to have to put me into the loony bin (is that how you spell loony?).

If I have a chance I will post some adorable photos of baking Christmas cookies today. I think that at least 16 dozen cookies were churned out today. Wow! Uncle Jim and my mom are machines.

Takin' it in Stride

Chef Lariska

Yesterday, after a harried journey to the pediatrician, we found out that Lariska has pink eye (in both eyes) and an ear infection (in one ear). Lariska has had a runny nose and cough for going on something like four weeks now, but has been sleeping like a trooper and in fine spirits. On Wednesday, however, she developed gook in her eyes and since her cousins Jackson and Tyler and Uncle Dan all got pink eye the previous weekend we decided it was time to make a call to the ped. Since Lariska is under two they were not willing to give us a prescription for the drops over the phone, and a good thing, too because otherwise we would not have known about her ear infection - the very thing they wanted to screen her for. Unfortunately, our pediatrician is all the way out in Hales Corners and the traffic was horrendous. I am a little bit disappointed, since this is Lariska's first ear infection, but I do think it is pretty good that she made it to 19 months without one. (Kyrie has only ever had two.) So, I guess overall we are fairly fortunate so far concerining the ears. Lariska is hanging in there and taking this all in stride. She is a sweet child....when she is not being sassy.

Photos from the week

A new day

 

Yesterday I blogged that everyday should be as exciting as that day was - Mommy taught Kyrie's Sunday School class, we met Santa and Mrs. Claus, had popcorn and hot chocolate and watched the Menomonee Falls Christmas parade in the dark and cold (in entirety!). I distinctly remember sitting at Pop's and saying to Matt, "Kyrie is basically eating popcorn for dinner. Are we okay with that?" Matt's response was something like, "Some days are just like that." I totally agreed with him and let Kyrie continue to engorge herself with the bag of popcorn.

She continued to eat the popcorn on the way home and even while getting ready for bed. In the end, she ate the entire bag of popcorn. Bedtime was routine. In comes the new day - 12:40-something AM and we hear, "Mommy!" It was Matt's night (we switch off who handles the girls in the middle of the night), so he went to check out the problem. I knew as soon as he entered the room from the way Kyrie sounded over the monitor what was about to happen. I ran to the closet to grab a towel, but I was too late. I am sorry to disgust you, but it was disgusting - popcorn puke was everywhere. I don't think I should go into detail here, but if you want to know just how gross it was feel free to ask me. What I will tell you is that it required an entire change of pajamas, sheets, Matt and my clothes, something like four towels, one washcloth, and a lot of Chlorox wipes. We probably should've thrown Kyrie into the shower, but neither of us wanted to deal with her screaming about soap in her eyes at 1am.

Sunday was a great day. Monday began a whole new way.

Kyrie did feel up to going to preschool, though. It seems her tummy just couldn't handle an entire bag of popcorn and that's all there was to the thing. When I went to pick her up from preschool and was clipping her into her carseat, she discovered some kernels she had dropped the night before. "Look Mommy, popcorn!" It was like slow motion in my mind as I reached over and swiped the popcorn from her hand...

"No-o-o-o-o-o-o...."

"What's wrong, Mommy?"

"Don't you remember throwing up all that popcorn last night? Do you really want to eat more?"

Insert large popcorn-eating grin here.

Visit to Santa

 

Kyrie, Lariska, and Jackson visited with Santa and Mrs. Claus this afternoon at St. Paul's church. None of them wished to sit in Santa's lap, but Kyrie gave us a very pleasant surprise - Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas...after answering him, he asked if there was anything else she would like and she responded, "No, thank you." Santa and Mrs. Claus were very impressed with her manners. So was I!

Afterwards, we headed to the Falls Christmas parade. It was a very fun day filled with treats from Santa, hot chocolate, popcorn, and piles of candy thrown into our laps. Everyday should be this exciting!

 

 

They decide they can sit at Santa's feet for a photo.

 

Jackson hugs Santa.

 

After much trepidation (and Jackson proves it can be done), Kyrie gives Santa Claus a hug.

My Girls

 

 

This photo did not show it properly, but after putting Kyrie's hair up for dance class, Lariska insisted that her hair be put up as well. It is now a daily activity to put Lariska's hair in the tiniest pony tail. Don't look at me - it isn't my idea to do this to my child.

Thanksgiving Day

 

Kyrie and Cousin Will dancing after dinner.

 

More of My Girls

 

Teetering on the totter

 

The Daddy/Uncle Boronco

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Well, you should've received our fourth annual thanksgiving card in the mail by now...hopefully. If you haven't received one yet we either:
a) Forgot the postage on yours
b) Don't have your new address (please e-mail it to us!)
c) Don't like you anymore. Just kidding!!!! We love everyone.

Matt said that one of his uncles once told him that two children is not chaotic (Matt's dad has 13 siblings) - I invite him to spend the night with us anytime...although, I do concede that fourteen children under one roof would just have to be beyond chaos. Our two are chaos. Fourteen is uber-chaos. I do not know how Matt's grandmother survived. God bless her and all mothers everywhere.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Friends

 

This evening I was rounding the corner to the playroom to check on the girls. I had to stop before I interrupted them. Kyrie was saying, "Lariska, you're my friend. Do you know that you're my friend, Lariska? I love you, Lariska. Lariska, do you know that I love you?" It was so unbelievably cute. I ran for the video camera, but would you believe it? (of course), the batteries were dead. Grrr.

Idiosyncracies

 

I have mentioned this several times before in this blog, but one of Kyrie's interesting idiosyncracies is that she likes to make piles. She enjoys piling her toys into a corner, or all of her books onto her bed, or for example as happened on Monday, all of the clothes in Lariska's room into Lariska's crib - with Lariska still in it. I was replying to an e-mail while Kyrie read some books to Lariska (I often do this in the morning or after naptime)...I sent Matt in to check on the girls and what I got in response was, "Kelly, you better come see." The sad thing is that I had just spent hours folding all of the clothes Lariska had outgrown and put them into rubbermaid containers. Kyrie opened two of these and systematically moved every piece into Lariska's crib. Next, she moved on to Lariska's dirty laundry. Thank goodness she did not go into the drawers and add those to the pile. I almost cried as it was. You have to smile or you would go crazy...or maybe I already have???

Monkeying Around

 

Kyrie and I attended a zoo class on Thursday - Apes and Monkeys. We learned that the biggest difference between an ape and a monkey is that monkeys have tails. We learned a lot more and Kyrie had lots of fun with all of the art projects they do. In the photo above she is wearing her monkey tail and ears and searching amongst the grass for food to eat. I especially enjoy the zoo classes because it gives Kyrie and I a chance to get out together one-on-one and is so good for us as a Mommy and Daughter. It is a nice bonding experience.

Happy Harry Potter Day!

"I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future - there will be books written about Harry - every child in our world will know his name!"
- Professor McGonagall, The Sorcerer's Stone

Also known as the day Harry unknowingly defeated Voldemort for the first time.
Also known as October 31st.
Also known as Halloween.

Okay, so most of you realize by now how obssessed I have previously been with Harry Potter. You didn't honestly think it would diminish after the final book came out, did you? On the contrary, my obsession has probably only grown. For the record, I have no problems with Dumbledore being gay. As a matter of fact, there was a great article written in the Miami Herald that was picked up by a lot of other papers - "Albus Dumbledore is gay (yawn)" - that I really liked. (Matt was nice enough to clip it for me.) That about sums it up.

But, this day is not supposed to be about my fanaticism, no...it is supposed to be about dressing our children up in crazy costumes and getting candy to celebrate a Pagan holiday to scare away death...or something like that.

Personally, I would much prefer to celebrate the day the boy lived.

 

The "before" photo. A fairy ballerina. A happy-footed penguin. And Max, of "Where The Wild Things Are".

 

A "during" photo. This neighbor had a particularly lovely basket of goodies.

 

Another "during" photo.

 

The "after" picture. Both Jake and Kyrie announced at the same time that they were finished trick-or-treating. Rather conveniently for us parents, I must add, since it was time for Kyrie to go to bed and for Jake to head home for dinner. What good little penguins and wild things.