Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful first Christmas as a complete family! We celebrated with my side of the family on Christmas Eve.

It started raining as we left to come home, and by the time we got the girls in bed, it was really windy too. After we... I mean, Santa... put the presents under the tree, I went to bed so I could be ready for a busy Christmas day. Around 11 pm, I hear the sound of tree falling, so I jumped out of bed to check on my car. We couldn't see any trees down from the windows, so Andy went out back and noticed that one of the big, live pine trees had totally uprooted from the wind and rain.

We decided that our Christmas angel was watching out for us that night. That tree is on the side of the house that the girls rooms are on, but luckily it fell away from the house. It also managed to fall without hitting the shed, the Adarondak chairs, the toys in the yard - the only thing it damaged was the fence, which Andy was able to pretty much bend back to shaped today after he, Pete and Dad got the tree off.

On Christmas morning, after showing Audrey the tree that Santa knocked down on his way out, we opened our gifts here.

Then we headed over to Andy's side of the family for Christmas brunch and dinner.

Andy and I spent two hours last night putting gifts away and I have been sorting and putting stuff away all day today too! Here are all of my Christmas pictures:

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We hope you all had a Merry Christmas too!

Ariel Junior

Little Bridget has been forced to watch The Little Mermaid so many times with big sis that she has one of the songs down.

For those of you who don't watch the movie five times a week (what is wrong with you?), in order to get legs to visit Prince Eric, Ursula makes Ariel sing a song and traps her voice into a seashell necklace.

Audrey received the seashell necklace as part of her b'day gift. When you press it, it plays Ariel's voice, and Bridget has been singing along with it. She has a terrible voice, but she has the melody down! ;)

Busy, Busy, Busy

This past weekend, we had my company party on Friday, Andy's company party on Saturday, and then Disney Live with Emma on Sunday. I must say, Disney Live was a bit disappointing. They did not do any songs that the kids knew, but Audrey at least watched the whole thing, clapped at the appropriate times, and bounced with Tigger! Too bad Ariel wasn't there!


Sunday was also Bridget's 10 month birthday, so here is her official 10 month old photo:

In comparison with Audrey's:

Audrey wanted me to take her picture while I was trying to get a decent one of B on Sunday:

This morning we went over to bake cookies for Santa and decorate sugar cookies with Tyler, Ryan and Jack. For some reason, the kids weren't very into it this year, so it turned into mostly Tina and I making cookies! (Side story - it took us forever to get to Tina's because my little fashionista insisted on wearing a dress to go see the boys. She kept picking out her fancy holiday dresses and it took me forever to convince her to wear a regular dress!) When lunch time rolled around, Audrey wouldn't eat and was laying around saying that she needed medicine. We took her temperature - 101.4.

Luckily, I had her 3 year checkup scheduled for today, so were were already on our way to the doctor's office. On the checkup front, Audrey is 39 1/2 inches tall (90th%) and 33 1/3 lbs (50th%). When her doc looked in her mouth, she saw white spots i her throat and ordered a strep test. It came back negative, but they are going to culture it to see if it's one of the strains that isn't picked up by the instant test. She thinks that Audrey may have a virus and will have a fever and bad cold symptoms for the next couple of days. Bridget is already on an antibiotic for an ear infection, so if it is strep, she won't get it too.

The pediatrician recommended taking Audrey to a dentist sometime between 3 and 4 years old. She gave me a list of pediatric dentists that they refer to. She circled two - one is the one that she uses and loves, the other is one that is great and is also good looking. I think we know which one I am going to choose... :)

I talked to Stephanie tonight and the other cousins are sick this week too. Keep your fingers crossed that everyone is healthy for Christmas!

Ballerina

Today was the last day of this ballet session, so the Mom's were allowed to sit in class. It was a little distracting at first, but then she ignored me and Bridget (after she announced that she had to go potty about 5 minutes in).

She got praise on her form here:

And they got to dress up as Sugar Plum Fairies and Reindeer:
And here is a video of her super-duper leap and twirl!

She is already signed up for the January Twinkle Tots class!

Happy 3rd Birthday Audrey!

We had a party filled weekend last weekend, starting with cousin Tyler's 6th birthday party at the bowling alley. This was Audrey's first time bowling and I think she had a good time. I thought it was cute that they had bowling shoes in her size!

Here is Bridget walking around the bowling alley with Papa.

The girls spent the night out that night so Andy and I could go to a Christmas party with some college friends and by the time they came home on Sunday, the house was decorated for Audrey's Ariel party. Just as I expected, she had to hurry and put on her costume. Her buddy Emma came dressed as Sleeping Beauty.

I had the kids play Pin the Tiara on Ariel and it didn't go quite as planned. Everyone pulled the bandana off when they got up to the Ariel poster, so it turned into Put a Sticker on Ariel. Cousin Ian put his right over the boobs - way to be a boy, Ian!

Everyone knows of Audrey's love of Ariel, so she got a ton of new Ariel stuff. Surprisingly, there were no repeat gifts - there must be a ton of Little Mermaid stuff out there! Audrey thoroughly played with everything before bed!

Here is a picture that I took of Audrey on her birthday that shows her little sassy face, which we see a lot lately. I told her to smile and she told me to get the camera out of her face and that I'm not her friend. I can tell that 3 is going to be a fun age! ;)

On Monday, Audrey's actual birthday (for which she chose chocolate chip pancakes for dinner), Bridget made a trip to the pediatrician with a 102.3 fever. The poor little thing has a cold which has lead to an ear infection and swollen tonsils. She started an antibiotic on Monday night but she is still really congested and fussy and her fever just broke yesterday.

Andy got a great shot of Bridget's gapped top teeth. Hopefully they will grow together as the other teeth come in, or we are going to be spending a lot on braces!

Bridget is standing by herself fairly well, but I think we are a long way off from walking. I am pretty sure I heard her say "Uh Oh" and "No" recently, but she hasn't said it consistantly enough for me to be sure. Other than that, we have been busy getting ready for Santa. The girls can't wait!

Random Photos From My Phone

Most of these are dark and fuzzy, but since I have been camera-less for the past couple of weeks, these are the only pictures I have! I have since purchased a new battery and will hopefully get around to sticking it in the camera soon!

You can't tell here, but Bridget is actually asleep while standing and screaming. She does this sometimes when we try to let her cry it out. We have to go lay her down, although we are curious how long she can stand there!

The twins came over the other day so their Mommy could go to the grocery store in peace. Audrey had to hurry and put on her Ariel costume and said "Where is Prince Charming? There he is!" She ran over to Jack and gave him a big hug, then put her arm around him and made him walk around the living room with her. This is how I found her about 20 minutes after they left:

In this shot, Audrey tackled Bridget and was rolling around on the floor with her saying "I lub you!" You can see the love on B's face!

Bridget was a fussbudget while eating dinner the other night and I snapped a picture to show Andy what I was dealing with. I felt really bad when a couple minutes later, I found a piece of wicker basket in her mouth! It probably doesn't feel that great to eat dinner with wicker in your mouth - Sorry B!

I snapped this last night. I was nursing Bridget and Audrey got up on the bed with her baby doll and nursed her too! She looks like a zombie because it's right before bedtime.

Turkey Day

My rechargeable camera battery bit the dust on Thursday morning, so excuse the lack of photos. Just believe me that the girls looked adorable in their dresses on Thanksgiving! :) Grandma Carol has some pictures on her camera, but it will probably be next Thanksgiving before she remembers to download and email them to me (hint, hint Mom)!

Audrey wore her Halloween costume while watching the Macy's parade. Luckily we convinced her to take it off before we left for Grandma and Papa's house! Bridget sampled all of the food, but like her Mommy, she wasn't super excited about the turkey. She only ate one piece of that and left the rest on her plate.

The rest of the long weekend was spent cleaning the house and putting up Christmas decorations. The tree is up with the lights on right now and Audrey and I plan on getting the ornaments up today. Even though there are no ornaments on the tree, the girls have already broken three!

What else is new... Bridget can now let go of stuff and stand by herself for about 10 seconds and she has also learned to clap in the past week. And she's still a crappy sleeper! I keep trying the "cry it out" technique but she just gets super pissed and then she's wide awake. I was reading online that sleep problems are common at this age because separation anxiety really kicks in. 9 month olds are learning that they are a separate person from Mommy and it's a little scary when Mommy is not near.

On Sunday night, Audrey kept trying to pick up Bridget and put her on her lap while saying "You are so cute! I love you. I love you already!"

9 Month Checkup

Bridget turned nine months old on Friday. It's hard to believe that she has now been out with us longer than she was in my belly! At her appointment today she was 16 lbs, 13 oz (10-25th %) and 27 inches (25-50th %). Big sis was 18 1/2 lbs and 28 1/2 inches!

When I look back at Audrey's monthly pictures from her first year, there is a time around 6 or 7 months where she starts looking a little different and more "grown up." B's pictures crack me up because so far, every single shot looks the same - tiny round bald head with giant blue eyes! Here is my hairy 9 month old eldest daughter:

I still think Bridget is going to be my little shy, quiet girl. I love it when I get that sweet dimpled little smile out of her. She is now officially crawling on all fours, although it's still slow and wobbly, she pulls up on whatever piece of furniture she can get to and puts every little teeny tiny thing she can find in her mouth. Her new favorite thing to babble besides "dada" is "yah." Sometimes she gets a little Canadian and says "Ah yah" and I'm pretty sure she said "Ha dah" three times while looking at Hazel the other day. If she says "Hazel" before she says "Mommy", I'm going to be very sad!

Here are a couple of shots from Andy's camera from Sawnee Mountain.

Andy took me birthday shopping last weekend, and while we were in New York & Co., he came up to me and said "I think you need to buy Audrey that scarf. She has been looking at it for 5 minutes." I walked up to her and she said "This scarf is SO pretty!" So of course, I bought it for her. She wore it today while we were running errands and got lots of compliments on it! This picture doesn't do justice to how bright the colors are, plus there are shiney gold threads in it.

And finally, here is a video of my little crawler going down the hallway looking for Da Da. And of course at the end, Sissy has to come jump in the shot!

Happy Birthday to Me!

This past Saturday was my birthday (the big double 3's), so we spent all weekend celebrating. We started out by going to Taco Mac on Friday night. Poor Bridget came home from daycare with a shiner from falling on a toy, then she smacked her head onto the table at the restaurant - I'm surprised nobody called DFACS on us!

On Saturday, I wanted to do something that everyone would enjoy, so since we had never been to Sawnee Mountain, we took a family hike. Audrey loved it! She picked up rocks and nuts along the trail, then put them back because "they belong to the forest" as she said.

She said that she had to go potty when we were almost to the top and refused to try to pee in the woods. Luckily, she was so entranced when she got to the top, she forgot all about it (she even made it back down without an accident!). She kept looking around and saying "I'm looking at the earth! I see a farm!" She also claimed to see Grandma's house and car - she must have amazing eye sight if she can see all the way to Roswell or Marietta!

Although there was only a four foot drop to some other rocks before the sharp drop off, I couldn't sit on the edge with Andy and Audrey. In fact, I had a hard time watching Audrey so close to the edge without my palms getting all sweaty.

I guess Bridget had a good time too since she managed to stay awake until we got back to the car and didn't cry about anything. (Time for a haircut.... yuck!)

This picture was supposed to look like Audrey had slid off the rock and was trying to climb her way back up, but she doesn't look panicked enough to pull it off!

Andy got a shot of all of us on the top of the mountain and a cute video of Audrey on his camera, so I'll post those as soon as I can steal his memory card.

Saturday night we grilled out at Grandma and Papa's with the Stevens clan and we spent Sunday evening with the Farbotko side. Right after I told Grandma Mary that Bridget was still army crawling, she got up on all fours and made it about four paces! She also proved that she was my Chinese food loving daughter by stealing Grandma's egg roll and munching on it for about 10 minutes. :)

Teething Pains

Andy went out of town on Friday and didn't return until late last night, so the girls and I had lots of bonding time. It started out on Friday with Audrey running a fever and vomiting up her dinner all over me. Naturally, I was out of Children's Tylenol, so Grandma and Papa had to come up and help me out!

Things were going fine until Monday night, when Bridget woke up about every hour or so screaming. I discovered the next morning that one of her top teeth was poking through. The other one popped out this morning. These top teeth are much rougher on her than the bottom two and I forgot to buy Orajel when I ran to the store the other day. Her baby Tylenol and teething toys are helping some in the meantime.

Grandpa Pete came and got the girls on Tuesday night and was brave enough to keep them overnight by himself (Grandma is at the beach). He got a taste of what I have been going through - it sounded like he had a really long night! I really appreciated the break though. I ran a couple of errands and then went and met Jenny's new baby, Madeline. When I got home, I got some painting done in the kitchen, popped some Tylenol PM and slept like a log!

Miss B has had some other milestones in the past 24 hours. Last night, when I went to get her at around 11 pm, she was sitting up waiting for me. I had never seen her get herself up into a sitting position from lying down before. Time to lower the mattress!

This morning, I'm pretty sure she was waving at herself in the mirror. We were on my bed and she was smiling at herself in the mirror. Every once in a while, she would wave one arm and grin.

She also had her first French fries this weekend. She was a little suspicious at first...

Then she decided that they were yummy!

Dancing Queen

Audrey had her first ballet class on Thursday and she loved it! When we first got dressed to go, she had a meltdown because she didn't want to be a ballerina, she wanted to wear her Ariel costume. I had to explain that we were not playing dress up, but going to a class! Once we got to the room and she saw the two other little ballerinas in the room, she got the idea and started dancing right away!




The class was adorable. The teacher is doing a great job of making it fun, so the kids don't really know that they are learning. The did some dances with stuffed teddy bears, wands, tutus and tiaras, and and pretended to be a galloping horse in order to learn to run on their toes.

I was really proud of how Audrey listened and followed direction!

I don't know why this one won't switch the correct way, but it's still cute seeing the little ballerinas all lined up on their carpet "lily pads." That is a big stuffed frog in the middle that they had to point their toes and tickle.

When we got out to the car, Audrey told me that she wanted more dance class, and before bed, she walked up to Andy and I and said "I really liked dance class. Really, Daddy." :)

Here is a quick clip I shot with my iPhone. Audrey is the tall one with the long ponytail.

Halloween Pictures

This Halloween was a little drizzly and chilly, but we made it to about 7 houses before a neighbor drove us home so we all didn't get colds! To anyone who knows Audrey, it will come as no surprise that she liked the dressing up part more than the actual trick or treating. She also liked helping answer the door and seeing the big kids in their costumes.

Bridget would not wear her mouse ears, but she was still an adorable Minnie Mouse! I didn't paint on her nose and whiskers because I figured with the misty rain, it would run and she would look like Goth Minnie!

When the little neighbor girl came to the door dressed as Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Audrey said "Hi! It's me, Ariel!"

On Sunday, Audrey and I had a little one-on-one time and went shopping for her ballet shoes. She starts a Twinkle Tots dance class on Thursday - I hope she likes it!

Miss Bridget is still perfecting her army crawl and hasn't gotten that tushy in the air yet. I'm enjoying the lack of full-on mobility while it lasts!

The Zoo and Birthdays

This past week has been a fun one for the girls. While Mommy was stuck at jury duty last week, they went to the zoo with Grandma, Grandpa and Cousin Ian. I hear everyone had a good time!

On Saturday, we went to Audrey's buddy Emma's birthday party at Farmhouse in the City. Audrey had a blast and I loved watching her get into all of the activities. It started with dress up and face painting. Audrey told me that she was a fairy "godmuddah" and I think was the only kid who wore her dress up clothes throughout the whole party.

The kids then got to paint a small pumpkin and pick out a ceramic figurine to paint. Audrey painted a mermaid, which she carried around all afternoon when we got home and broke (Daddy fixed it).

Then, they went outside for a scavenger hunt before cake time. Audrey's favorite part was petting the bunny and the chicken. She was the first one over to pet them and gave each of them a hug!

Oh, and here's the proof that Bridget and I were there, since she was strapped to me the whole time. She had fun too, smiling at everyone, kicking her legs and waving her arms!

Bridget is perfecting her army crawl right now, but still hasn't figured out how to get that belly up. We finally have heat upstairs, but she still won't sleep in her crib. She wakes up about every 45 minutes crying and I will go comfort her. This occurs until about 1 am when I give up and bring her into our room because I'm too tired. Her teacher at daycare told me that she calls her the human siren because she wails so loudly when they put her in the crib for nap time. Poor Bridgie!

Daycare has also been giving her different foods that I didn't realize that she was ready for yet, like pancakes, cheese toast and graham crackers. I guess my little baby is growing up. :( I suppose it will make meal time a little easier if she can feed herself parts of it though.

And, I am happy to announce that 8 months after ripping up the vinyl in the girls bathroom, Andy has finally put the tile down and reinstalled the toilet! It's nice to be able to use that bathroom again because Audrey wasn't a big fan of our garden tub and Bridget is getting a little big to have her baby tub on my counter!