Christmas 2008

Hope you had a very merry Christmas!
(more to come momentarily)

Park Break

We took a break from all the shopping, shopping, shopping, and wrapping, wrapping, wrapping and cooking, cooking, cooking to go run around the park for awhile. Mimi snapped some super cute pictures I just had to share.

O' Christmas Tree

There's been so much going on lately it's difficult to sit down, let alone take pictures. YiaYia and Mimi arrived on Wednesday to many squeals and giggles. I have only seen Athena in passing since then, she has become Mimi's child. The first night she actually woke up crying for Mimi twice (separation anxiety?) and is never more than two feet from her. Mimi is lapping it all up because she knows the tides will turn when Unca Stu comes to visit.

Wednesday was also Mimi's birthday. The girls helped her celebrate with a princess birthday cake and candles (picked out by you-know-who). We did not, however, make her wear a tiara when she blew out the candles.

The next day, we had plans to escape to LA for some beauty maintenance and IKEA shopping while the girls were in school. However, Zoe's up and down fever was up and staying up. She also woke twice during the night, flushed and hot and dazed. A trip to the pediatricain revealed ear infections in both ears and bronchitis, poor baby. She was listless, feverish and quiet for one day but back to herself by the next.

Friday night we planned to decorate the tree. Originally, we wanted to do this on Mimi's birthday, but it was pouring rain outside, so we put it off until Friday, six days before Christmas. Our hunting party (consisting of Mimi, Chris and Athena) went around town for over two hours Friday evening, existing solely on M&Ms, and did not find any trees. They came home with only a pine branch that Athena found at one of the empty spaces in the Home Depot parking lot.

Over our very late dinner, the family convinced me that maybe a live 8 foot spruce was not going to happen this year. So, with head hanging low, I let them go back to Home Depot and get one of the fake firs on sale for half price. This, they say, will be our back up tree and not a commitment to non-live trees for all our future Christmases.

Although I was very suspicious at first, it doesn't look half bad and, hey, no pine needles.

We were not quite tall enough to put the star on the top of the tree.

Athena was a big help decorating on Saturday morning, but, there are alot
of ornaments hanging on the bottom branches of the tree.

Check out the preggo belly behind Zoe.

In spite of her high fever, Zoe was able to choke
down a little bit of birthday cake.

The Power of Chocolate

Featured Artist

Athena is this month's "Featured Artist" at her daycare. Considering there are over 100 students and only 12 months in the year, this is quite an honor.

The note says: Athena L. 3 years old Teacher placed orange paint on paper. The teacher gave a paint brush to the child, and the child painted this artwork on yellow paper.

It hangs in the front hallway. Juice and crackers will be served at the show's opening on Tuesday night.

Little Elf

The girls and I hosted a play date today with some of our friends from Zoe's now defunct preschool. Ten kids and five moms came to visit! This was our first time actually hosting a play date at our home, although we have attended many, because before our house was too small. The girls were very concerned about other kids playing with their toys, but other than that it was really fun (and quite exhausting).

I bought some blank cards, stickers and markers for the kids and Mom's to make their own Christmas cards as an activity. Each child did about one, maybe two, and then went on their merry way playing with their friends.

Athena was obsessed. She made a card for everyone she could think of and even after all the kids left she continued to make cards throughout the afternoon and into the evening. Two of the other Mom's who were very crafty and had burned their children out on crafts asked if they could "borrow" Athena, just for an afternoon, and do crafts with her.

Who's going to get one of these unique creations? I don't know...maybe YOU!

Holiday Portraits = Fail

Some may remember my struggles with getting a decent holiday photo last year. Well this year I seem to be having the same issue. The above photo is about as good as it got this time around.

Why oh why can't I get both my children to look at the camera at the same time while not making a face or crying because the other one is touching them?! How do other people do it?

This is how it started.

"Um, Zoe, can you scoot closer to your sister please?"

"Nooo! She's touching me!"

"Okay." *readjust*
"Let's try this again. Look at Mommy and smile!"

"Zoe try not to smile that much!
And Athena WHAT are YOU doing!"

"Please stop yelling Mommy."

"I'm outta here."

"Fine. We'll just take individual shots."

"Athena, can you please try to smile?"

And then, of course, the one time I had them both smiling and laughing and looking at the camera, I pressed "video" instead of "photo."

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

*sigh*

Maybe we need to go to Walmart this year.

Santa Sighting

The girls approach Santa with a mixture of awe, dread and fear.
After much prompting Athena manages to sputter that she wants a Cinderella princess dress and Sleeping Beauty toy. Zoe says nothing.
Neither go near him without a buffer of parents in between.
Luckily there is a kind elf available to take a family portrait.

Beautiful Teeth

"Beautiful teeth. No worries." - a direct quote from our dentist after he checked out Athena's teeth for the first time. Zoe got a similar report.

Whew. I was so worried that with my history of childhood cavities the girls would be equally unlucky. The dentist explained that childhood cavities are often a result of the saliva the child inherits. So the girls must have gotten their Daddy's spit, because they are cavity free! They even had their picture taken (above) and added to the "Perfect Smiles" board.

We found a great dentist here who could not have been better working with children. The whole staff was fun and engaging and the girls allowed them to take x-rays, clean their teeth and do a check up in the big dental chair. There were many bribes given out along the way - among the loot were sparkly princess toothbrushes, Christmas pencils, Scooby-Doo stickers and miniature toy horses.

They even gave me a copy of Zoe's x-rays to take to her new cranio-facial team next month. It shows a baby tooth growing inside her cleft (tooth "C") which is often missing in cleft babies. However, there is no adult tooth "C" behind it, so that will have to be implanted after her adult teeth come in. No other little baby teeth are growing in weird places (which is common) but the dentist did say he noticed a hole in her palate (!) which he suggests I speak with her new team about. Poor little girl has so many surgeries ahead of her, my heart aches.

Athena chillin' while waiting for the dentist.

Rocketship

Since Zoe was feeling pretty wretched today with symptoms of lethargy, whining, no appetite and extreme clinginess, we decided to cancel our outdoor activities and stay home.

After the favorite morning shows were finished, we all got a little antsy so we decided to build a rocketship to the moon and take Zoe's stuffed "alien" home to visit his Mommy and Daddy.

We sacrificed one of the massive moving boxes that we haven't Freecycled yet, cut out holes and decorated with construction paper moons and stars, markers and stickers. Both girls would go into the rocketship at the same time and the giggling that would ensue would shake the whole box. We had more than a few crash landings.

After all this activity, Zoe was exhausted and went to nap sobbing "I want my Daddy." Chris is always the caretaker when the girls are sick, or recovering from surgery (probably because he is usually the one not freaking out) and they always want him when they're feeling yucky. When he got home from work, Zoe made up for lost time and made him hold her for most of the evening.

Our little astronaut was very specific and
said she was a "girl" astronaut...hmmm.

I let Zoe pick her outfit today

since we were not leaving the house.
She opted for her giraffe costume.