Soooooooooooo let's get caught up again, shall we?

You know that Time Lapse setting for videos on the iPhone? Yeah? Well, that's what I feel our life has been like since the last time I posted. Work for both of us was busy through the fall and winter and is just now easing up. Added to that has been Tom going back to school, which doesn't add a whole lot to my plate, but it certainly does to his.

Let's go month by month...

November & December

As usual Thanksgiving and Christmas were spent at home with family. Stasa even had a Thanksgiving meal at school and lots of fun things counting down to Christmas, including special Christmas readers and visits from Santa and his elves. I'm sure I've said it before, but I really do love her school and can't wait until all of the kids are there. Stasa also sang in a Christmas pageant with her class and the whole school. The kids were all so adorable and the kindergartners sang and signed Silent Night in their Sunday best. 

January

The new year brought more snow and cold weather AND Stasa's sixth birthday. Every day I look at my Timehop app and am amazed at how quickly all of the years have flown by. We gave Stas a choice for birthday parties and she decided that she wanted to invite her whole class. Thinking that only a percentage of the 24 kids would show up we booked a party at our local bounce house for 15 or so. Well, we wound up increasing that number to 22! when nearly everyone RSVPed yes. Stasa couldn't have been more thrilled to have everyone there to celebrate with her and was a gracious host when it was time to leave, handing each of her classmates a helium balloon as a favor. That many guests means many many thank yous to write, which for a kindergartner is quite a task. She took about a week to finish them all since I insisted that she write them with a short personal note. It was actually great handwriting practice for her, too.

February

Between school and all of the events we've had with that we've also had some Girl Scout meetings, though we wound up missing both our February meeting and a February event due to snow and school closings. To say I'm excited for spring to come is an understatement. I'm so over the cold and snow and ick. February was mostly consumed with my work and preparing for a huge firm event. I spent so many hours working that month I can't even recall anything else that we did other than the usual daily routines. 

March

That brings us to this month. My birthday month that I now share with Alexia, who just turned FOUR. My birthday was pretty low key - we wound up getting a ton of snow that day and both school and daycare was closed, so I spent the day playing outside with the kids and then later that night Tom trekked out to get me Taco Bell (per my request). Lexi only had one request for her birthday: that we spend it at Chuck E Cheese with just our family. So last night we did just that. Stasa spent the day at home sick - her first all year (knock on wood) - and she and I took breaks to decorate the house and bake the cake. Tom took off a little early from work to get the smalls from daycare so we could hit up Chuck E Cheese on the early side. If I ever do lose my mind and actually plan a Chuck E Cheese birthday party I'm tempted to host it on a weekday evening. The place was practically empty. We grabbed a table, bought some tokens, for which I had a great coupon, and let the kids loose. Stas eventually got tired and rested at our table for a bit, but Lexi and Tommy couldn't be stopped. I was actually surprised by how many games Tommy was able to play. We combined all of their tickets and ordered dinner. While we waited for dinner we let Lexi pick prizes for everyone. Of course you have to have like 2000+ tickets to get anything of value and we only had about 260, so she wound up choosing candy and a few plastic bracelets. They also had a deal for walk in birthdays, so I got her a birthday crown, guitar balloon, and medallion. Once we finished dinner there we packed it up and headed home for cake and a lively game of Hungry Hungry Hippos. I forgot how much fun that game is. Tommy's favorite part was taking the balls out of everyone's goal and putting them in his own. And so now the kids are counting down to Easter and Tommy's birthday and then we'll all count down to summer and warm days spent at the pool and camping. 

Party like a rock star

Ever since our little man was born we've called him Tommy and Tom and the girls often sing part of The Who's Tommy to him. So when it came time to start planning Tommy's first birthday party I immediately knew I wanted to do a rock n roll theme. I originally wanted to get him a Tommy shirt, but actually get around to looking for one until the week of the party and by then all I could find were $25-40 shirts and really, does a one year old need a $40 shirt for a one-time wear? Thankfully we already had a few different classic rock band shirts for him and eventually settled on Led Zeppelin. We kept the decorations simple with black and silver/grey streamers and balloons and tablecloths. I made a couple of faux speakers with boxes and black tablecloths. I had bought the girls some punk rock gloves and wound up repurposing the cardboard hands from the gloves to use as sign of the horns decorations. ROCK ON!



It's hard to see in that pic, but I made a birthday banner using a tattoo-style font.



I also printed out a bunch of classic rock album covers to hang as decorations.


As for the birthday boy himself, well, he felt like being a true mama's boy that day and broke down every time I left the room without him. But you know what they say, it was his party and to hell if he wasn't going to cry if he wanted to.


He knew *just* what to do when it was time for cake and grabbed his cupcake and focused on (somewhat) quietly eating it. I say somewhat because he would pause, look over and cry, then go back to his cupcake. Rinse and repeat. He finally calmed down after gifts were opened and settled on playing with a sturdy box one of the gifts came in.




Happy birthday, Tommallama!
Now. His first year well check.
Stats:
24 lbs, 87th percentile
31 1/8" long, 92nd percentile
19" head, 96th! percentile

He checked out well and wound up with three vaccinations and one prick to check his hemoglobin. Turns out his iron levels are still on the low side, so he'll be getting a daily vitamin with iron and we'll recheck him in a month. He's also had a newish development which seems to have happened overnight. He's been taking steps here and there, but not really walking - just cruising around. But this week he's just walking all over the place. I'm sure it won't be long until he's keeping up with his sisters.

In which Alexia turns three

Lexi's third birthday came and went faster than I thought it would. In the beginning of March I remember chatting with Tom about her birthday and what we were going to get her and plan for her and then BAM it was the week of her birthday and we hadn't accomplished anything. Thankfully she's easy to buy for and simply requested "a lot of Hello Kitties." So I packed up Stas and went out to Old Navy to get her just that. Together we picked out a new Hello Kitty shirt, two more small stuffed Hello Kitty dolls, a Hello Kitty flashlight and Hello Kitty water bottle.

Stas was sick on Lexi's actual birthday, so she stayed home while Tom and I worked from home. She helped decorate, and made a banner and card for Lexi before running up to get dolled up (including doing her own makeup).




Stasa and I stayed home while Tom went to school to pick up Tommy and Lexi. She was so excited the minute she walked through the door and saw all of the decorations...especially the balloons. I don't know what it is about balloons, but if we bought nothing but those, the kids would probably be happy. She counted up her balloons and then split them evenly between her and Stasa. Then it was straight to gifts. Each and every thing she opened she hugged and declared it her favorite thing ever.




After opening all of her gifts, she and Stasa ran around like looney toons with the balloons. Tommy took advantage of the opportunity and snatched some of Lexi's presents and started playing with them himself.

We let Lexi decide what to have for dinner and she, of course, picked chicken nuggets, apple slices, and chocolate milk (gee, I wonder where you could get *that* meal?). After dinner it was time for cake. I tried a new frosting for this one and it turned out pretty good. It wasn't as sweet as buttercream, but I thought it was perfect and nice and light. I also tried my hand at making colored sanding sugar for the rainbow. I didn't bake it so it really looks more like sand than crystals, but Lexi loved it because it was a rainbow and that's all that matters, right?
 

She's five.

Apparently being five is a big deal. Like a big BIG deal. Stasa had been counting down the days to her birthday since Christmas ended. She was so excited about being five. The morning of her birthday party she woke up at 6:00 am fully dressed for dance class. The party time couldn't come fast enough for her and the moment we got home from dance class she quickly changed into her special birthday outfit that she picked out weeks ago. She wanted her hair left down and also wanted it straight, so I straightened her hair while we killed some time waiting to leave for the party.

Then it was finally party time. Stasa initially wanted only one friend to come, but eventually invited four little girls, but only two came. She couldn't have been happier - her best friend, BFF's sister, and Lexi were all at her party and that's really all she wanted. This year we held her party at the local bowling alley and it was great. All we had to do was show up with the cake and everything else was handled by our party attendant. All four girls did a pretty good job bowling, though they all wanted the hot pink 14 pound bowling balls.




On her actual birthday, we brought cupcakes to school and she wore her special birthday outfit again (yay, laundry!). We let her decide on dinner and she chose her favorite, cheese pizza, the same thing we had at her party. Before Christmas we were shopping in Target and she spotted a Caboodle in the beauty department and asked me what it was. I explained what it was used for and she looked at me and said "maybe I can get one for my birthday." She was so happy when she opened her gift and saw that it was a hot pink Caboodle. She was even happier to discover her own makeup brushes, lip glosses, purple eye shadow, and pink blush inside. We told her it was for home only and that she had to wash her face before she left the house.

Happy birthday, five year old!

Their second birthdays

Stasa, at her second birthday party:


Lexi, at her second birthday party:

And now she's two

I debated over what theme to have for Lexi's birthday party and finally settled on a Yo Gabba Birthday. After buying a few decorations, tablecloths, and balloons in the theme, we were pretty set. I made two cakes instead of cupcakes because I figured it would be easier to decorate just two cakes instead of a couple dozen cupcakes. I think the cakes came out okay. It was my first time using fondant and I should have put the light blue part on the bottom of Toodee's face, but oh well. Lexi loved them both.





The girls loved the large scene setter decoration with the Yo Gabba Gabba characters, although Tom and I thought it was weird that all of them were on there except Foofa. I kept the decorations with the thought of putting them in the playroom or in the girls' rooms for a little bit. I made the little food signs to add a bit more Gabba flare to the tables. We had Foofa's Fruit, Brobee's Veggies, Plex's Piggies, Muno's Meatballs, and Toodee's Tots. Tom and his mom did a lot of cooking for the party and made a ton of fried wings, meatballs, potato salad, and pigs in blankets (or as I call them, heart attacks on a stick).

The birthday girl had a blast and got to wear a new Yo Gabba Gabba outfit for the party.


She actually ate a plate of food and not just all junk. And then happily dug into her cake.


Look at that big girl. Ankles crossed and using a fork like a little lady. How did she grow up so fast??? After everyone left, she was perfectly happy playing with the many balloons that we got for the party.


And on her actual birthday, the big girl woke up so happy and became even more excited when she realized it was STILL her birthday. Three days of birthday. Who wouldn't love that?


At two years old Lexi is smart, funny, sassy, silly, cuddly, loving, and a ball of energy and laughs. She's so much more cautious than Stasa ever was and prefers to slide down the stairs on her butt rather than walk. Although she may also prefer that method because it's much faster than walking. LOL She craves cuddles in the morning and I hope that doesn't change anytime soon because I love them as much as she does. And on the eve of turning two she declared that she needed to go potty, dropped her pants, pulled off her diaper, climbed on the potty, and actually went! Even Stasa came in and cheered. Keep it up, big girl!

Can not believe four years have flown by

Each year I say it and each year it's true. I can not believe another year has gone by and my little baby is growing up.

Today Stasa is four years old.

She's thoughtful and funny and frustrating and bossy and sweet and lovable and all girl. She loves pink and Ariel and dresses and skirts and sleeping without pajamas. She comes in our room in the middle of the night every now and then to ask for a kiss and then heads back to her own bed. She shares with her sister, even if it's her birthday and her special birthday balloons and individual cake. She's got quite the imagination and comes up with really wild stories, mostly about giant bunnies and tigers who come in her room at night and wreak havoc. She loves reading to herself and being read to. As loud as she is most of the time, she's really quite modest and shy when she sings. She loves being the teacher's helper at school (just like her mama) and comes home ready to help us with dinner prep and table setting.

We still check on her every night before we go to bed and wake her up together every morning. I'm always overwhelmed by the feeling of love I have for her and can't really remember life without her. Seeing her excitement about her birthday makes me enjoy it that much more. And I love that she's most excited about bringing goody bags to school. Happy birthday, Stasa!

Happy birthday, Daddy!

I love love love birthdays and try to make them a big deal even when we keep them low key. So yesterday I rushed to the store to pick up a bunch of balloons and a cake and then sped home to set everything up before getting Tom.

The other day I took the girls to the Family Dollar so they could pick out five gifts each for Tom. They had way too much fun deciding what daddy needed. After careful consideration, Stasa selected a crazy purple ghost skull with light up eyes, a Captain America figurine, a watch with flames on it, a bag of marbles, and a reusable travel mug. Lexi was much quicker with her selections. She chose play money, dinosaur grow capsules, a play gun and sheriff's badge, a whoopee cushion, and a sink strainer.

After we opened gifts we went out for Mongolian BBQ and then came home for ice cream cake. And then poor Tom spent the rest of his night writing his annual assessment for work. We'll get to celebrate a bit more this weekend though. We're headed to the Renaissance Fair tomorrow after dance class and then to the Redskins game on Sunday for our anniversary.

Sterlingfest and the rest of the weekend

We spent Saturday at our local community fall festival, Sterlingfest. We've lived here four years and this is the first year we've gone. The festival is always set up near our local firehouse and shops. The firehouse was having a HUGE open house, which Stasa absolutely loved. They must have gotten almost all of the volunteer firefighters in Sterling - there were so many and so many engines and even a big ladder truck. They let her get on one of the fire engines, sit in the driver's seat, climb aboard the ambulance, and even gave her some sterile gloves. Doesn't sound like much, but it's heaven for an almost four year old.


They also did some pretty neat fire safety demonstrations and in one they set a car on fire, hosed it down, then used the jaws of life to open it up. Later that night Stasa told us that next time we need to bring the firefighters some tape so they can fix the car when they're done. Oh and Stasa insisted on wearing her fire helmet I got at the craft fair at Occoquan. The firefighters commented that we were far from home when they saw her helmet. As soon as they learned that we live close by, they rushed to get her new hats with their name on it. So now the girls are rich in fire helmets.






They also had a smoke house maze for the kids. It was really dark in the maze and at first I didn't think Stasa would do it, but after a moment of hesitation she ran in and found her way around and out the other end. Then she did it again and again and again and again. I was really impressed with everything the firehouse put together for the kids. They really outdid themselves and it's something we'll be going to every year. PLUS the firefighters all said that we're welcome to visit any time and if they don't have an emergency they'll walk the kids through all of the equipment and would even get geared up for them. So nice.


Sunday we went out to Tom's brother Peter's house in Winchester to hang out with the family. And to celebrate three birthdays. October is a busy month for us. The girls were caked out and passed out for the night on the ride home. Of course, since Stasa fell asleep so early, she was up around 4ish this morning and WIRED. We found her in her room watching Disney videos on my iPad (yeah, she knows how to work the whole thing).

Thursday is Tom's birthday and I think we'll be keeping it low key with just dinner with the girls. I'm going to take both girls out to the dollar aisle at Target and let them pick a few things for him. Last year Stasa chose a pink football, some breast cancer awareness decorations, candy, and an iTunes card. I'm sure he'll make out like a bandit this year, too.

She's ONE

Last night as a "baby."


Happy birthday, baby!


I know, I know. It's belated, but I've been too tired in the evenings to blog. And I don't even have a lot of pictures from the big day, but it was fun. We went with a carnival/circus theme for Miss Lexi's first birthday. The decorations were mostly just brightly colored tablecloths and balloons and little hangy down guys for the ceiling.



We served a lot of "carnival" fare: sausages, chicken-on-a-stick, corn dogs, popcorn, caramel apples, candy, soft pretzels...I really wanted to have cotton candy, but that seemed like a mess to deal with, so we ended up with a candy bar and cupcakes. Speaking of cupcakes, Lexi didn't seem to mind at all when everyone sang to her and just sat patiently with her eye on her own cupcake. As soon as we placed the cupcake on her tray she dug in. Quietly and slowly eating every bite. So different from Stasa's full on meltdown at her first birthday.




I love celebrating the girls' birthdays in a big way because I think birthdays are so special and it's fun to have a whole day just about you (of course I have a whole month for me, but what are you gonna do?). I was shocked that we didn't get a single repeat book or toy and Lexi loves every single thing she got. It's interesting to see Stasa with Lexi's birthday gifts - she knows that they're Lexi's and knows that she has to ask to play with them. We're trying to teach her to share and that not everything is hers - I know, tough world, right?

So, what's next for the Lexifer? Well, she's officially on cow's milk during the day and I nurse her at night. I was going to try to plan out a weaning schedule for the night nursing, but I think she'll just wean naturally so I'm just going to go with the flow. We are working on getting her used to a sippy instead of a bottle and she's not too thrilled with that. At all. In fact, if I'm in the room she throws her sippy at me. But then she gets thirsty enough to pick it up and drink from it. I win.

We took both girls in for their annual check ups together and here are Lexi's one year stats:
Weight: 22 lbs 9 oz: 78th percentile
Height: 29.5": 62nd percentile
Head: 18": 68th percentile

Getting to be a big girl.

Let the countdown begin

It's Wednesday, March 21. Lexi will be one this Saturday. I'm still in disbelief and am trying to figure out where the year went. Wasn't it just last week that I went back to work? Or just yesterday I held my little froggy-legged baby in my arms?

Now she wriggles around, desperate to get out of my arms and down on the ground so she can walk around. She's quick, too. We like to refer to her as our little Swiper, kind of like Swiper Fox from Dora. You can turn your back for all of a second and within that time she'll have grabbed your phone, the remote, your drink, and anything else you left laying around.

So now we countdown. Three more days. And then we'll be celebrating the greatest show on Earth.

I'll post more later this week about the slow wean from nursing. :C

We have a three year old

We started the day with a small present. I knew she would ask about presents because the girl's not stupid and she loves presents (but what three year old doesn't?). So I made her a simple necklace with a little M bead on it. She came downstairs and got so excited about the decorations and then zeroed in on the present.





And then we had a special breakfast: pancakes with sprinkles, chocolate chips, and whipped cream! She picked out all of the sprinkles to eat them first.



We kept the birthday low key this year and just had immediate family over for finger foods and cake and ice cream. Stasa really loved the gift from Uncle Jeff and Holly. It was a little girl's dream: fancy tutu skirt and accessories and she wore them the entire day.



Of course there were balloons again. I wonder when the wonder of balloons will wear off? Hopefully never.


She is OBSESSED with our vacuum cleaner and always wants to use it, so we got her her very own Dyson ball toy vacuum. And it actually works! Well, it picks up the equivalent of what you'd find in three bellybuttons.


Then we sang and had cake and ice cream and other desserts.


And Stasa blew out her own candles. She was so happy it was finally her turn.


I still can't believe we have a three year old now and often have to correct myself when I'm talking about her, "our almost three year old - I mean our NOW three year old."

Happy birthday, big girl!