Sad Miranda

Elizabeth takes Miranda's toy. Again.

Emily Elizabeth Joins the World

My very pregnant friend Amity is no longer very pregnant. Emily Elizabeth made her grand entrance on Dec 3rd and mom and babe are already home from the hospital and looking good. Emily is surprisingly good looking considering she was not a C-section baby. She wasn't squishy or funny looking at all. Mom is sore, but doing well. Mac, Emily's older brother, is adjusting well so far. I don't think he knows what just hit him. Perhaps Parker can fill him in... Congrats to all!

More hinges

Magazines and Potty Training

I don't have a lot of addictions. Just nail biting, over eating popcorn (as well as other things) and trashy magazines. Miranda and Elizabeth discovered the magazines this morning. Caught! At least my popcorn was safe.




Then later, Miranda got interested in some potty training. Just not the kind of training I was thinking of... I really can't leave these kids alone for a second anymore.

Advent Calendar

Grammy sent the kids an advent calendar. It sat on our dining room table for a while until I realized December had started. I didn't think Parker would get the concept or be able to hang the tiny decorations, but we gave it a shot. Boy, was I wrong. The kid loves it. The last thing he says before he goes to sleep is, "Today we did 4 and tomorrow we can do 5." And the first thing he says when he wakes up is, "Today we can do 5!" He carefully takes out the ornament, and gently places it on the tree. Then he announces...."Tomorrow we can do 6!"

And, as if he is an old pro at this christmas thing, he says, "24 is Santa Claus!"

Peek a Boo

The girls have really polished their peek a boo skills. They will pretty much do it anytime you say, "Where's Miranda?"



And check this out...my photo editor has these bizarre effects that I just discovered. Trippy.

Breakfast

Bay Street

After naps today (which sucked by the way...lots of screaming by Miranda and not sleeping by Parker...but I won't get into that), I took the kids to Bay Street. Bay Street is a now not so new shopping area in Emeryville. They have shops, food, movie theatres, bookstores, and all that. It's all very corporate America with Gaps and Wanabe High End Chain Restaurants like PF Changs. It's always crowded, but for some reason, it is the place to go. I always wonder where everyone went before it existed, but I digress.

After a quick stop at Old Navy, I let the kids run around in this little courtyard. They had a great time and generally stuck together, which I appreciated. After about 20 minutes or so, Elizabeth decided she needed to see more of the mall and took off (You can see the start of this in the last picture.) I got her back before she went too far, but by then Miranda had wandered into some candy store and Parker was yelling, "Miranda, come back! Come back!" And she did.

The Siren Chair

For some reason, the girls just love climbing on Parker's chair. Whenever they see it, the run towards it and almost jump onto it. This is why the chair is almost always when not in use, tipped over on the floor. But today, I left it up and just kept an eye on them. Of course, it called to them and they answered.

Ted and the Lamp

The other day, Parker wanted to nap with just Lion. He threw Ted on the ground and snuggled close with Lion in his bed. I felt so bad for Ted. He didn't deserve that. What did he do? I wanted Parker to apologize to Ted. Until I remembered Ted was stuffed animal. The whole thing made me think of this commercial from Ikea.

Sushi Shirts

Ebba, being the good hostess that she is, gave the kids some party favors at Allison and Fiona's birthday party. Parker got these cool playdough toys and the girls got these cute shirts. They are plain long sleeve shirts with a cute little patch on the front of a piece of sushi. Even though Ebba apologized for giving us a rose one (she knows I'm not a pink fan), they are great. Just adorable. So great in fact that I thought I should get some for my sister, who as you know if you read this blog, likes pink even less than I do. So I looked at the tag and was pleased when I saw Old Navy. I figured I would go down there after naps today and get a couple more for us and some for Amy.

When I saw Ebba today at the co-op (Susan got to go play this week), I thanked her for the shirts. It was then she told me they were custom made and she not only picked out the cute sushi material specifically because she knows we like sushi, but sewed them on herself. I laughed and laughed thinking of me going down to Old Navy demaning the cute sushi shirts and how they would have thought I was a crazy person.

I told her those shirts made me wish I was a crafty person. Like that will ever happen.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Yup...We got one. So far, no one has pulled it over. Parker did, however, pop a balloon on the needles (which freaked him out completely). And Miranda and Elizabeth like hanging on the lights. It's only a matter of time before something bad happens.

Bounce House

We went to look for a Christmas Tree today. We first went to the lot where they had the pumpkin patch. I thought it would be a good place for the gals to run around, Parker could do the rides, and we could get a tree. A good outing for all. But...the rides were closed, the trees were very expensive, and it was damn cold. There was a bounce house, so we threw all the kids in it for some jumping. The girls just love it, but there are downsides: Elizabeth takes off her socks and then she won't come out of the house. This usually results in me going in to get her. When I did this recently at the farmers market, I fell on my ass while I was holding her as I climbed out. It was pretty embarassing to say the least.

Everyone likes playing with fridge letters

Now I really know my ABCs

Parker was singing the Alphabet song tonight. Backwards.

Try it and see how far you can get.

Fashion statement

I catch grief for some of the outfits I put the girls in, which is often entirely justified. My selection criteria involves asking two simple questions: 1) is it clean, and 2) is it the right size. Get a couple of yesses there, and everything else is gravy as far as I'm concerned.

However, from time to time the stars line up, and the girls are able to leave the house without looking like a couple of hobos.

The big apple

Parker wanted a snack today, so I offered him some apple, and he gladly accepted. However, when I went to cut it up, he let me know in his charmingly emphatic way that he wanted the whole apple.

Okay then.



At first he didn't seem to mind that the apple was almost bigger than his head.



But he wasn't able to get a really good bite out of it.



So he eventually saw that his eyes had been bigger than his stomach, or his mouth, and so he asked me to cut it up. Which I was happy to do. (And no, we don't skimp on presentation around here.)



Although primarily intended to facilitate eating, this apple cutting method also facilitates the making of letters.



It's amazing how many unrelated activities are transformed into letter and number games once Parker gets involved.



Still, he was hungry, and one good thing about edible letters is that they are delicious.



Of course, eating his apple slices didn't stop him from making letter shapes straight to the end. ("It looks like an E, daddy.")



But eventually, all things do come to an end, including apple snacks.



Meanwhile, in the other room, Miranda was honing her daredevil credentials by teaching herself to climb up on the green chair and jump like it's a trampoline. Yeah, she probably won't get hurt.

Sweet

I didn't really have anything to say about this picture. I just think it is sweet.

Hinge Wall

Miranda discovered the hinge wall again and spent some time there yesterday.

Poor Miranda

Poor Miranda looks like a train wreck after yesterday's accident. I was worried about bringing her to the party today since I figured a lot of people would ask what was wrong with her face. I told Michael I was going to blame him and he said, "Sure...Just say I cleaned her face with cheese grater."

Fake Reading

I went to Allison's and Fiona's one year birthday party today. It was very sweet. Mostly family and close friends, it was nice to be included in such a joyous occassion. Both Fiona and Allison are doing great. Allison is quite the talker and you'd never guess Fiona had some troubles getting around in the past. Ebba, their mom, being the fabulous person that she is, had the full spread for adults and kids, delicious cake and generous party favors (LOVE THE SUSHI SHIRTS!).

While at the party, Parker asked me to read him a book. A book in Spanish. I told him I didn't know how to read Spanish and he went to get another book. Samatha, who asked me to read a Spanish book moments later, wasn't as easily distracted to some boring English book. I tried to tell her that I didn't know Spanish and she looked at me as though I were speaking Greek. Then Liz, Samatha's mom, came over and said "Just read it". I protested saying that my Spanish pronouciation was terrible and I was embarassed with all the actual Spanish speakers around to even try. She said, "No, just reeeaaddd it." Then she picked up the book and made up her own story that went along with the pictures. "Here is a pretty horse. See it's nice mane." "Look at the bird flying in the sky. My how the sun is bright." I laughed so hard while she was doing this because Samatha was quite satisfied with this story. So much so that before Liz was even done, Samatha said, "THE END."

I had never thought to do such a thing. Not that I can't make up a good story, but because if Parker ever asked me to read him that same book again, he'd be really upset that I wasn't getting it right. He tends to memorize books so fast, I'm sure this method would get me into loads of trouble. But I applaud Liz and her technique. Bravo!