Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day

It was a tale of three Christmases for us this year and we had a great time with family and friends. We arrived in Des Moines late Tuesday night and got to relax for a few days before all of the festivities began. We had lunch with Nana at work, visited Great-Grandma Zee in Pella and hung out with Uncle Rusty.

While in Pella, Tim, Cate and Diane picked up a gingerbread house at their favorite bakery. This was definitely the cutest, best tasting gingerbread house that I have ever seen and Cate loved it because there was candy hidden inside the house.

Here they are peering inside to see the candy.

Cate loved choosing which parts of the house to eat...

...but she mostly favored the green dollops of frosting that served as bushes in front of the house...

We broke into the gingerbread house after presents, church and Christmas eve dinner but after that, the night was not so relaxing. We ended up in the emergency room with Timmy until 2am. He had been sick for a few days and, of course, got worse at night, right before Christmas. Thankfully, we did not wait at all at the hospital and were home and in bed with an antibiotic in less than two hours.

The next morning, we got up late and headed to Pella for Christmas dinner at Great-Grandma Zee's house. Although she was initially shy, Cate had a great time playing with her second cousins, Claire and Nicole. They did a lot of dancing and jumping on the bed which Cate thoroughly enjoyed.

We left Pella around 5 to head back to Chicago for "Boxing Day" with my family and the Beneshes. When we got into the car, Cate saw that we had installed a dual screen DVD player (Merry Christmas to us!) and looked at her brother and said, "Look, T! We're gonna watch a show in this!!!" Timmy was still not feeling well and both were very, very tired, but the DVD player helped and we made it home quickly.

We made it to Mimi and Pop's house the next morning and exchanged gifts with them. They loved all of their fun, new gifts.

Cate is obsessed with the eyes on a doll. It makes her very uncomfortable when they open and close. This baby's eyes stay open. Nana got her an adorable Bitty Baby (and tons of accessories), which Cate loves, but she had to get used to the fact that her eyes do open and close.

TT on the motorcycle with his Mimi.

The tent and tunnel...a big hit.

Cate and Auntie Jenn...not sure what kind of face she is making...

Taking care of her Bitty Baby. She loves to "change the baby" and pack and unpack her diaper bag.

Bee Bee and Lia Bee

The four of us.

We have a few cute videos from the past few days that I should upload but here is just one of my favorites from Nana's house:

(The first three words are her favorite Christmas song (that she made up and sings in bed), "Jesus is boooorn".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4-vVEjGves

A Big Girl Bed

Cate has spent the last two nights and two naps in her pink big girl bed. She is loving it. She has done really well with the transition and loves to just go in her room and look at books on her own bed now instead of on ours.

Cate's big girl room is still a work in progress, but the theme is pink pink and more pink. I ordered this for her walls to replace her green and yellow animals and I need to look for a new lamp at some point too. Timmy loves to roll around and play on this new "toy" which he can already climb up on by himself.

We are very much looking forward to spending Christmas with our families and have been busy wrapping gifts (Cate chose the gift tags and held the tape) and baking cookies, pretzel chocolate treats and banana bread. The spirit of Christmas is alive in Cate's room every night when she fully recounts the events of the day, "Timmy had milk, I had juice. T's a baby. Mama said no no no! I read books, I played, I fed my baby.... and finally at least a few minutes of, "Jesus is born, Jesus is born!" Merry Christmas!

Another Failed Attempt

If anyone is waiting to see a Christmas card with a cute photo of Cate and Timmy dressed in their Christmas clothes, don't hold your breath. For some reason, it has been more difficult this year than the last two. I guess we have two now who have their own "plans" for themselves. Anytime they are both dressed, I think that maybe I will capture a cute shot, even if it is in everyday clothes and that will just have to do. Timmy and I were playing a game of ball on the kitchen floor after dinner and he looked so cute sitting there throwing all of the balls he could find. When I ran to grab the camera, he took off, leaving me with this:

I don't think I'll be paying to send this one out.

O Christmas Tree

Last year we didn't put our tree up. Cate was essentially Timmy's age, so she was into everything but didn't yet understand when to be careful, gentle, etc. Plus we had a three month old, so I just didn't really care. This year, although Timmy is into everything, I was determined to put the tree up. I'm glad that we did and Cate and Timmy love to look at the lights, but "trimming the tree" was not much fun. Timmy was freaking out because he thought that all of the ornaments were balls and he could not understand why he couldn't have them. He was just pointing at all of the ornaments on the tree and looking pitifully at us as he yelled, "Ball, ball, a ball!"

I thought that maybe we could get a cute picture of Cate and Timmy in their matching reindeer pajamas but Timmy was too mad and for some reason, Cate insisted on lifting up her foot in all of the shots. The one below is one of the few where her foot doesn't obstruct her face.

I just wanted them to sit next to each other, but Timmy kept sitting on her lap and then slipping, so Cate would grab him in a strangle hold to try to hang on...

We gave this "ball" to Timmy to appease him. It is kind of an unusual ornament that is not (easily) breakable but this did not hold his interest for long. Doesn't he look like such a big boy here?

Thanksgiving

A few weeks before Thanksgiving we had the chance to take Cate and Timmy to a meal packing event designed for families with little kids. We have been talking about wanting to get more involved with our church's food pantry...or any food pantry, but it is still hard to do those types of things when you have such little kids. There was lots of music, which Cate loved, and simple instructions for packing a holiday meal for another family. We all did our best coloring work, Timmy too, and Cate followed directions very well when it came time to load up the basket.

We had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving weekend but I don't have many photos to show for it. Cate helped me with all of the cooking. She really loves to cook. She will look at a recipe and lean in really close to it, pretend to read it and drag her finger along the ingredient list, just like I do. For some reason when she "reads" recipes, she only speaks gibberish, no real words, but it is hilarious. Here she is with the Pumpkin Chiffon pie that we made.

I love the fact that I was a teacher for 7 years and still cannot write on a chalkboard. In class, I would try to write neatly and when I would step away from the board, I would realize that the letters all got bigger at the end of the word and were on an upward slant.

Dancing and singing with her "microphone"

Pinks

This is what Cate looks like about 20 hrs a day. It is all I can do to get her out of her favorite pink pajamas. She only wants her "pinks," no other jammies will do. These pajamas that Cate finds so cozy that she wants to live in them, were $7.99 at Marshalls. I ended up picking up a second pair because they make her so happy and sometimes they need to get washed.

The other day, she got her sleeves wet washing her hands and she told me that she would need her other pinks before her nap. Yes, she insists on changing back into them for nap time. I told her that I thought both sets were in the wash and that she would have to settle for her pink owl pajamas. When I opened her drawer and she saw the second pair of pinks in there, clean and folded, she said, "Oooh mommy. These are warm, right? I want my pinks, please." Crisis averted.

We are getting ready to switch her into a big girl bed, so I am in the process of picking out new bedding, etc. for her room. It will be pink, of course, so I can't wait to see her reaction.

Visiting Uncle Rus

Last weekend we went to visit Uncle Rusty and to see his new apartment. As you can see, his apartment has amazing views and Cate and Timmy loved looking out the windows. I'm sure that they left many hand and face prints...sorry about that! Cate loved seeing the "L" as we walked to lunch, so we rode it around the Loop just for fun afterwards. We even got to ride the pink line, which worked out great because Cate loves all things pink at the moment. Cate and Timmy with fascinated by all of the cars, buses and trains and it was fun to think about all of the things that they will soon be old enough to do in the city.

Happy Halloween!

Cate and Timmy went out trick-or-treating together for the first time this afternoon. Cate really got into it after the first house when she realized that candy was involved. She was jumping along the sidewalk saying, "Ok, one more house, baby! Come on guys!" She would pick out candy for herself and for little T.

We picked up pizza for dinner and as kids rang the doorbell, she ran to the door to help Tim hand out candy. She seemed unphased by the costumes and just dropped candy into the big kids' bags. She was VERY wound up after dinner and treated us to a long song and dance routine which I eventually got the video camera out to capture, so I'll have to upload that. Timmy didn't seem to mind wearing his giraffe costume (which was worn by Cate last year) and I think he just loved Halloween because he got to hang out outside and roam around for awhile.

Our baby bumblebee

Baby giraffe

Timmy the teaser...he loves to antagonize her at the moment

Timmy the giraffe, 2010

Cate the giraffe, 2009

First Haircut

I know that many of you are wondering why we haven't bothered to trim Cate's hair up until this point. There are several reasons. Primary among them are that I knew Cate would scream and cry when getting her hair cut (she did), and we made several appointments earlier this fall and she kept napping through them.

So her hair is a cute little bob (although I told the woman that I really wanted it longer than a bob). I think it really looks cute though and Cate likes to admire herself in the mirror. We went to a place that specialized in cutting children's hair but the woman who cut Cate's hair did not have much patience for her crying. I'm not sure we'll be going back there, but I'm glad that her hair looks nice and neat.

So, How is it?

I think that the question I am most often asked these days (other than Cate's incessant, "Why, Mama?") is, "So, how is it being at home?" My answer is pretty much always (unless no one napped) that my life is so much better, so much less stressful and that now that Timmy is one, it is really fun to be with them all day.

I've been thinking though that I've been away from work for a few months now and I should really be disciplined about practicing my French, studying, reading, speaking it to Cate and Timmy. The other night, Mrs. Benesh (aka Bee Bee) brought me a box of macaroons from their recent trip to Paris. Seeing the beautiful box made me remember what I love about French culture, French food and speaking the language. So this morning, while Timmy napped and I drank my third giant cup of coffee (not very French), I let Cate choose which one she would like to eat. She chose pink, of course, and we spoke French for a few minutes while she told me how good her "cookie" was.

Vacation

Last week we finally got to go to Florida to see Mimi and Pop's new house. I was nervous about how Cate and Timmy would do on the plane, in a new environment, on a different schedule, but they did great. They slept well at night and during the day and would even sometimes take a very late afternoon nap so that we could go out for dinner and go dancing in the town square (more about that below). We had a great time just hanging out, swimming, shopping, golfing (the boys) and finally catching up with the Celluccis and Edgars. Of course I don't even have a picture of me and Jen and we decided that Bobby and Tim got to spend more time together on the golf course than we did, but we snuck in some hang out and shopping time in between kids' naps.

Cate loved to ride in the golf carts. Timmy was a bit too squirmy to go very far in them though.

I wouldn't say that either of our kids loved the water. Cate talks about the pool like she loves it but they both complain a lot while we're there.

This is Cate's current fake laugh face.

New friends, Timmy and Luke with handsome Jake in the background.

At the dock after lunch

Big Tim, Little Tim

Wrestling is Timmy's new favorite activity. He just lies on his back and waits for someone to come and get him.

At the wildlife sanctuary

Almost every night we would go into town for dinner and then to hear the live music play. Cate LOVED this. As soon as we would get close to the music, she would start dancing on the sidewalk and when we made it to the dance area, she just let loose. She does have skinned up knees from some of her wilder moves, but when you ask her what her favorite thing was on vacation, she immediately says dancing...followed by ice cream cones. In the second tolast picture, the singer from the band came down to sing with Timmy because Timmy was enthusiastically waving his arm in the air (his only real dance move) to the song. I think that the band thought that he was waving to them.