December 21

I was sick enough to keep us home from church again today. With all of the sickness we've had lately, I hope our church doesn't forget who we are! Despite the sickness, though, I had a lot to accomplish today. Naptime was especially important, because I needed some distraction-free time. Daisy cooperated and went right down for a nap. 

Caleb even willingly took a nap.

Lily, however, was another story.

I spent - literally - two hours trying to get her to take a nap. She would only sleep if I was holding her, touching her, or sitting right next to her. It was awful. Finally I quit, and that was just about the time Caleb woke up. I explained to him that I was really frustrated with Lily and I just needed her to be out of my way for a while, and do you know what that child did? He took Lily into his room, shut the door, and played with her.

What a sweetheart. 

Meanwhile, I prepped dinner and made hot cocoa for tonight's adventure: Wild Lights at the Zoo. Chris' sister Grace is in town from Texas, and she has joined us at Wild Lights for the past few years. Here are our visits last year and the year before:

2013

2012

Honestly, though? The zoo lights don't do much for me. Maybe because they're always so crowded? Still, it's a fun tradition. I didn't get a picture of our favorite part this year - the sea lions. It was warm enough that they were out in their water, swimming and splashing around and barking like crazy. Daisy couldn't get enough of them, and was laughing so hard. But it was so dark and so crowded that I just couldn't get a picture of it.

Here are the three pictures I ended up with for the night, due to crowds and uncooperative children:

Toward the beginning of the evening. You can't see Lily's face, but you can see her candy cane-striped legs dangling down Chris' back.

This was about 7:30 - Lily's bedtime. She had given up; she didn't want to be in the Ergo, she didn't want to be in the BOB, she didn't want to be held or touched or talked to... she was a mess. 

At the exit at 8:00. Daisy was melting, too, and totally refusing to cooperate for pictures. 

Caleb refused to be in the picture because he wanted a light-up rainbow wand and we wouldn't buy it for him. During a bathroom break, he and I had the following conversation;

Caleb: Mommy, I really want one of those light-up rainbow light sabers. 

Me: Oh. Did you bring your money?

Caleb: No. Can I borrow some of yours?

Me: I'm sorry, honey. I don't have any money. I spent it all on Christmas presents.

Caleb: Oh. Well, I'll ask Daddy, then. He works, so he has lots of money.

And then I died laughing, because the kid has it all figured out. 

December 19

It never ends around here. Despite my best efforts with all of my natural remedies, I have the cold to beat all colds. It's just standard cold symptoms, but the intensity of each symptom goes up to 11. Plus, I apparently am a big baby. So there's that.

Still, the girls and I were remarkably productive today. We did laundry, got our Christmas cards ready to send out, read some books... and danced. To clarify, they danced, and I watched.

This baby doll is a hand-me-down from Chris' sisters, and her blanket belonged to my sisters and me when we were little. Lily loves hugging on her baby, and will bring the baby and the blanket to me and insist that I wrap her baby up. I have some mad swaddling skillz, so I always happily oblige.

That is one happy little girl!

Then I showed her the picture on the back of my camera, and she was obsessed with posing, then looking at the results.

She's blurry because she was anxious to see her picture!

Then the dancing began. 

What? You want to see video? Of course you do!

Brace yourself; this video is absolutely adorable. Daisy's antics + Lily's giggling = too sweet.

December 18

Oh, Lily.

For about a month now, we've been in the "pulls off her shoes and socks anytime we're in the car for more than five minutes" phase. But today, the girl took it a step further. Between dropping Daisy off at preschool and arriving at MOPS this morning, the girl had pulled off both shoes, both socks, the bow out of her hair, and her ponytail.

She was very pleased with herself.

(This was after I had started to put her socks back on, then realized I needed to document for posterity. The challenges of photographing a rear-facing child with my cell phone mean that I didn't get very much of her crazy hair in the frame. Sorry about that.)

MOPS ended early, which meant that Lily and I were able to race back to Daisy's preschool in time to catch the tail-end of Daisy's Winter Party. I had told Daisy I wouldn't be able to come, so when she saw me walk into the room, her whole face lit up. There are so many times my kids take me for granted and or don't appreciate my attempts to do something special for them, and this moment totally compensated for all of those times. The sweet girl was practically vibrating with joy and pride, and it made my heart nearly burst.  I remember when Daisy was born, Chris and I looked at each other and knew that God had made her to be a ray of sunshine. She has definitely been my sunbeam lately; her sweet, affectionate nature carries me through Caleb's grouchy spells. Today was a perfect example. She hugged me, grabbed onto my hand, and escorted me around the classroom as she showed me all of the fun party games. What a blessing that little girl is! It made me so happy to be able to make her so happy today.

Now, someone please remind me of this the next time Daisy is a stinker and I start complaining.

December 17

Caleb was grumpy, grumpy, grumpy this morning, and even grumpier when he returned home from school this afternoon. I am desperately looking forward to Winter Break, so that he can get all the rest he needs and turn back into my sweet little man again. (I say that now, but I'm sure after a week of family fun time, I'll be ready to send him back to school!)

Once Caleb was safely on the bus, the girls and I decided to take a visit to the Butterfly House. Daisy chose her outfit very carefully: she rifled through all of her summer clothes, which had been put away, to find her t-shirt with butterflies on it. Then she chose a flowered long-sleeved shirt to wear underneath, in the hope that the butterflies would like it. Then she asked me to put two flower clips in her hair, hoping that the butterflies might mistake them for real flowers.

And yet, the moment we walked into the butterfly conservatory, she began fussing and begged to leave. She said it was a combination of too hot and scary butterflies, but honestly? There were hardly any butterflies to be found. Luckily, they were also having a special event that involved fairy houses, jewels, and a special "gnome forest" full of gnome-themed games and complimentary popcorn, so we were entertained for quite a while. It turned out that one of the people staffing the special gnome garden was a former student of mine! It's strange to realize that, since it's been over five years since I last taught, all of my former students are now grown-ups. The youngest are in college, but the majority are full-fledged grown-ups, with jobs and children. Crazy! Daisy was very confused, because she can't quite wrap her little head around the fact that I used to do something before I was a mommy.

Lily enjoyed every part of the Butterfly House. She was much more interested in the butterflies and flowers than Daisy was, and when we left the conservatory, she enjoyed wandering around and exploring everything. I love that she's finally big enough and a confident enough walker that she can check things out on her own! However, she's also entering a new stage of independence where she wants to do everything by herself. She wants to put her pants on by herself. She wants to put her jacket on by herself. Poor girl.

After I finally wrestled Lily's jacket on her and got the girls out the door, we realized that the sun was shining and it was beautiful outside, so at Daisy's insistence, we stopped to play at the giant caterpillar. They both had so much fun!

I love Daisy's grin, and Lily peeking out from under the caterpillar.

Daisy was willing to stop for a picture, but Lily couldn't be bothered. She was too busy exploring!

(No, that green thing above Daisy's head wasn't actually on her head. It was art in the background. But isn't she cute with those daisy bows in her hair? She's starting to let me do more things with her hair, but it always has to be her idea. She's definitely her mother's daughter!)

December 16

For the life of me, I can't remember what happened today. All I know is that we ate dinner late and I had to rush out the door right after dinner to got to a Christmas party. But then I had to run back in to grab something, and I found Chris and all three children doing calisthenics in the piano room.

Apparently this is what he does with them when I'm gone?

He had all three of them doing squats, jumps, jumping jacks, and stretches. It was the funniest thing ever, and they were all totally engaged. I love how daddies have such a special role in child rearing!

(or maybe I should be feeling guilty that I don't have enough gumption to start our children on an exercise regimen?)

December 15

Oh, Do-Nothing Monday, how I love you! 

Caleb started our day out with a bang by drawing the solar system on our chalkboard wall before breakfast. That kid is pretty fun.

He started with the rocket, astronaut, and moon on the bottom. Then he decided to add in the planets, so he drew the sun on the far left. The moon became Mercury, the yellow ball is Venus, then the blue and green Earth. Next to Earth is a very small red Mars, but it is almost eclipsed by the white comet with the red tail. Then there's another white comet, and "Big ol' Jupiter". Then a shooting star, followed by Saturn (with rings!), Uranus, and Neptune.

Then Daisy got sad that she didn't get to draw, so he drew a pink astronaut for her. After I took this picture, he also added a Lily astronaut, complete with a little ponytail sticking out of her helmet.

I think you can tell from the picture that Caleb was really proud of his work. We emailed the picture to his teacher, who was quite impressed. I love my boy.

I thought that was the only picture I took today, but I happened to check my memory card and found these gems that I'd forgotten I took:

That is Lily's "I'm eating yogurt and I love it!" face. Most of the time she uses her spoon, but sometimes she gets carried away and smears the yogurt all over her face. Whatev.

See? Back to the spoon like a perfect little lady. That girl.

December 14

What a long day! I woke up with no voice at all, and that, combined with the girls' ear infections and our fear of them getting sick again kept us home from church. We spent the morning eating pancakes, snuggling on the couch, and taking Christmas card photos. (Yes, it's December 14 and I'm just taking Christmas card photos. I know. But I think there's a chance that I might be able to get them in the mail and at least to local people before Christmas. Like, on Chrismas Eve. Maybe. But at least I should be able to get them in the mail before Christmas. That counts, right?)

It was a gorgeous day today, so my family made the last-minute decision to attend the Garden Glow at the Botanical Garden tonight. Usually our Christmas tradition is a visit to the Christmas tree farm, but this year logistics kept us from doing it. Instead, the whole family (minus Jenny, who had to work) went to look at the Christmas lights at the garden.

It was lovely! Do you remember when we visited last year?  (Funny coincidences: we visited on the 13th last year, and the 14th this year! Also, it appears that I was running late with Christmas cards last year, too, and took Christmas card pictures on the same day as our Garden Glow visit. Funny how that works out!) This year was similar and very different. It was much more crowded this year, I'm sure due to the warm weather (even when we left at 8:30pm, it was still 54 degrees out!). 

Chris pushed the big kids in the stroller and wore Lily in the Ergo. He was basically our baby wrangler. It worked out really well, until Lily decided she was done in the Ergo. Then Daisy eagerly took a turn up there, and eventually even Caleb got to ride in the Ergo! It blows my mind that our 5-year-old can still ride in the same carrier our 1-year-old rides in, but the weight limit is 45 pounds, and Caleb is still clocking in at 40 pounds. (We happened to weigh all of the kids yesterday - Lily was 20 pounds even, Daisy 28.4 pounds, and Caleb 40.8 pounds. Perhaps they are so small because they always refuse to eat the food I make.)

This picture is funny. Daisy insisted on pigtails tonight. She and Max were eager to have their pictures taken. Caleb, however, just scowled. Who knows why. 

I feel terrible about this picture - Mom and Dad were actually eager to have their picture taken, but my camera's focus was slightly off. Boo. Still, they're pretty cute. Dad works at the Garden, but this was his first time seeing the Glow at night this year.

Nighttime pictures are clearly not my forte. Still, you can kind of tell how magical everything was. You can also kind of see how scowly and uncooperative Caleb and Daisy were about pictures.

Emily and her boys!

My grouchy kids. They actually really enjoyed the whole thing, they just didn't want their pictures taken.

28.5 weeks, baby! 3 more months until we get to meet Baby Yoey!

This was when Lily decided she was done riding in the Ergo. She really just wanted to snuggle with Grandma. Of course. She always wants to snuggle with Grandma!

But Daisy was thrilled to ride in the Ergo! She spent the whole time grinning and giggling and kicking her feet!

Caleb has been talking about s'mores at the Garden for weeks now. Even though we hadn't had dinner yet and were a bit pressed for time, we decided to splurge on s'mores to toast at the fire pits. I'm so glad we did - Caleb later told me that s'mores and watching Grandpa catch his marshmallow on fire were the best part of his day.

Lily, meanwhile, enjoyed the lights.

I tried to get a picture of my parents kissing under the mistletoe, but apparently they don't kiss?

Even with Caleb on his back, Lily on my hip, and Baby Yoey in my belly between us, Chris and I had no problem kissing under the mistletoe. Perhaps that's how we ended up in this situation!

December 13

Daisy and Lily are fine today; thank you for asking. But then, they were fine yesterday, too. I suppose if they have to have ear infections and ruptured ear drums, they're doing it the right way: without complaining. 

I worked my once-every-six-weeks job supervising the ACT today, so I had to be out the door before 7 this morning. As I left, I glanced back and saw a scene so cute that I had to come back in and take a picture.

Chris was reading the comics to Daisy and Caleb. He even used funny voices, and the kids just eat it up. He is such a good daddy.

While I was gone, Chris' mom came over to visit. Apparently they spent most of the time in the basement, and had a grand old time! These pictures are all compliments of Chris.

Gayle is such a good sport - she's always up for anything, even if it's running around the basement in a crouch, pushing Lily on her little car.

The kids have a race track of sorts in the basement, and in the wintertime they like to do laps on their bikes.

I love that Caleb is carrying a bag on his arm while he rode his bike in his dinosaur slippers.

After bike riding, they played dress up. I love how pleased Daisy is with her ensemble!

I asked Chris why Caleb was pouting/scowling in this picture, and Chris said that this was Caleb's serious "knight" face. Apparently this is how Caleb thinks a knight looks when he is protecting a princess. Too funny!

December 12

Today was awful. Just awful.

Do you remember how I posted  yesterday that Daisy failed her preschool hearing screening for the second time? Well. Our doctor's office called this morning and offered us a 4:00 appointment to check Daisy's ear. Aside from needing someone to stay with Lily while she napped and pick Caleb up from the bus stop, it was perfect, so I jumped on it.

Then I loaded the girls in the car for a quick stop at the grocery store before Daisy's gymnastics class. When we arrived at the store, I went to unbuckle Lily from her car seat and noticed that her left ear was full of yellow pus and goo. 

Her eardrum had ruptured during the 10-minute car ride to the store, and if not for the pus, I never would have known. I quickly called the doctor's office, and they said they couldn't fit both girls in during the perfect-timing 4:00 appointment, and suggested 2:00 instead. 2:00, as in the girls wouldn't get to nap at all. I told them no way, and finally we settled on 3:30 with our doctor's partner. 

In the end, the girls got to nap for 30 or 45 minutes before I had to load them in the car. The doctor checked Daisy's ears first, and informed me that the right was absolutely clear and perfectly healthy, but the left had ruptured and was full of pus. Great.

Then she checked Lily's ears. As I thought, the left had ruptured, and the right eardrum was bulging and ready to burst at any moment. 

The doctor marveled at what high pain tolerances my girls must have, and how good they were about the whole thing. In the meantime, I felt like such a jerk for not even knowing my girls were hurting. I was so foolish to think that we were actually all healthy for a change! The doctor saw that I was struggling, and rushed to reassure me that there was no way I could have prevented this, and that I am doing a great job... and then I started crying. And then she started crying. We were a mess.

But. Even with a ruptured eardrum apiece, the girls are in great spirits. Daisy is sleeping fine, and Lily is doing some occasional night waking. You would never know they are hurting! I am so thankful that we have children who are so healthy and strong that they can just roll through a situation like this without even batting an eye.

This morning, before Lily's eardrum burst:

She was petting Daisy's hair, and Daisy was loving it. I am just dying at how special the bond is between these sisters!

You can't tell it, but both girls were mugging for the camera. Goodness, I love them.

And this was just as we got home from the doctor. Chris was able to scoot out of work early to meet Caleb at the bus stop, so he was home when we returned. Lily, tired from no nap and hurting from her ear infections, only wanted to snuggle her Daddy. I think she has the right idea.

December 11

My dear friend Jill says that my family has the plague, and I'm starting to believe her. I thought we were all healthy, but apparently I'm sick. Mostly it's just a sore throat and a cough, so I can't really complain; at least it's not the flu or a nasty cold. And then I picked Daisy up from preschool yesterday to find the early childhood nurse there and wanting to talk to me. 

Oh, no.

They did a hearing screening for all kids on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and Daisy failed for left ear. The Friday after Thanksgiving, she began showing symptoms of an ear infection. We chose watchful waiting, and after a few days the symptoms went away. Easy peasy! 

Only apparently, the symptoms might have gone away, but the problem persisted. Daisy failed her hearing re-check today; she can pretty much only hear shouting or louder out of that ear. Poor baby. Concerned, the nurse checked the ear with her otoscope and found that her eardrum was white and possibly pussy. I have no clue about anything ear-infection-related, but that sounds alarming. I'm currently waiting to hear back from our doctor about a course of action.

In the meantime, Lily was cute.

She grabbed Daisy's puffy coat and tried her hardest to put it on. She nearly succeeded, except that it was inside-out and backwards. Finally I took pity on her and helped her out, and Lily wandered around the house, proud as a peacock, for nearly an hour. Funny girl.

Also, I should probably record for posterity a conversation that Caleb and I had in the car this morning. We were discussing babies, and how even though we don't know the gender of our baby, many mommies do know their baby's gender. Caleb thought for a while, and then he said, "Oh! What if our baby is twins? I want to have twins, Mommy!"

I replied that, though we don't know Baby's gender, we DO know that there's only one baby in there.

Undeterred, Caleb said, "Well, after Yoey is born, I want our next baby to be twins."

I tried to gently explain to Caleb that Yoey is likely the last baby that I will grow in my belly, but he didn't like that answer.

"But Mommy, I want MORE babies!"

I replied that we just don't have room for any more babies right now.

"Mommy. We can get a van."

Yes, child, and we will get a van, but there's not room in our house for more babies.

"Mommy, we have a BIG ol' house! I want more babies!"

I have to give the kid credit - under close examination, all of our excuses for being done having babies are kind of lame. Finally, I gave up and told him to discuss the matter with his father. I love that kid.