Disneyland

On Wednesday I took Maggie to Disneyland with my mom, brother, SIL and nieces. It was crowded but the weather was perfect and we had a great time. Maggie's favorite ride, as usual, was Small World. But the best part was having reserved seats for Fantasmic, the fireworks and snow. Maggie was in awe of Fantasmic and a little scared at some parts. She liked the fireworks fine, but she LOVED the snow. We were right under one of the snow blowers, and she spun and danced while it fell all over her.

Christmas afternoon

Christmas morning

Zoo

On Christmas Eve we went to the zoo with my brother's family, including my nieces Dora (5) and Julia (2). Maggie is quite smitten with her cousin Dora and likes to do things the way Dora does, including wearing a dress over pants, which I thought looked rather cute on both of them.

Catching up with Christmas pics

Forgive me for my tardiness in reporting on our Christmas festivities. I'm sure you've been horrified that I haven't been posting gobs of photos every day. To make up for it, beloved readers, I will inundate you with many photos of the girls having a Very Christmas, as Maggie puts it. First up are some photos from Saturday, when we celebrated with Robert's parents.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Preschool party

Maggie's preschool held the holiday party today. They did a gift exchange, ate pizza, and entertained Santa who handed out gifts and danced with the kids. Maggie was scared of Santa and only consented to accept his gift if I went up with her. She sang and clapped while Santa danced, and after he left she decided she liked Santa after all. Presumably she likes him best when he's not in the room.

Ready for a rainy day

Christmas checklist

Done:

• All decorations up except exterior lights, which I gave myself a pass on this year.
• All presents purchased, wrapped and under the tree.
• Only two presents so far opened by Audrey, rewrapped by me. Not bad.
• Holiday meals planned.
  
• $200 worth of groceries purchased and put away.
• Several bags of toys purchased for donation.
• Dozens of toys wrapped at church for needy families.
• Many, many, many carols sung at boys' group home. Forced to be the brave one who started every song. Panicked that would choose bad key; managed to do okay except for one unfortunately low-pitched rendition of Jingle Bells.
  

Next up:

• Holiday Baking Madness! All Cookies All The Time! I'm Already Exhausted...
  

Carousel

Maggie goes bowling

Cozy spot

This is the best seat in the house, right between the fire and the Christmas Tree. Moments before I snapped this picture, Robert and the girls were sitting there reading Goodnight Moon. 

Museum of Western Heritage

 

Mmm

Is it wrong that I love sausage mcmuffins so, so much?

Play-doh in the morning

Ice cream at Ghirardelli

Because we can

Audrey speaks

Audrey isn't the chatterbox her sister has always been. We've started a list of the words she knows really well and so far there are only 20-something on it. Despite that, Audrey manages to communicate pretty well with us most of the time and adds new words regularly. Her newest is "pot-pot," the toilet. Unfortunately it sounds very similar to "Papa," which is what she calls her grandfathers. I hope there aren't any hurt feelings over this.

She is also very proud to be able to say "Maggie" now. We actually think she's been saying it for some time, but it sounded so similar to "Mommy" that we didn't fully realize that's what she meant. Now she takes pains to make sure we know what she's saying. She will make eye contact with me and say, very slowly, "Mommy, Daddy, Ma-eee" and then grin proudly.

Quick change artist

Here's a shot of Audrey fully clothed, which is becoming an increasingly rare sight. She recently discovered she can take her clothes off and practices this new trick frequently. She even managed to remove this entire outfit, including diaper, in under a minute. I was so relieved when she made it through an hour of gym class this morning without disrobing.

Dad on the Today Show

My parents were on vacation in NYC and went to the Today Show taping this morning. I tivo'd the broadcast and scanned it looking for evidence...sure enough there are several seconds of my dad looking dapper in his red plaid scarf! Sadly I didn't spot my mom. As Robert said, she'll probably be mad that my dad got on and she didn't. I'm hoping maybe I just missed her--the recording bears closer scrutiny.

Shopping for...gifts?

I took Audrey to the mall to go Christmas shopping.

I bought:

1. Shoes for me
2. Sweater for me
3. Another sweater for me
4. Sunglasses for me
5. Book for me
6. Cookies for me
7. One teeny tiny present for my niece Amanda

Oops.

Painting

Christmas party recap

Yesterday we held our second annual Christmas kick-off party, postponed one week due to illness. We had more than 20 guests join us for snacks, treats, drinks, football on the TV, Christmas music on the stereo and a craft project on the table. The kids made some very creative snowflake ornaments, and I was especially tickled to see quite a few of the adults making them too.

I foolishly forgot to take any pictures until the very end, so unfortunately I only got shots of a few of the guests. I also forgot to make most of the guests sign my scrapbook (I started a scrapbook last year and intend to do a spread each year at the party). I'll have to hunt people down for signatures, I guess.

Thank you to all the friends who came to the party; we had a great time and look forward to seeing you again next year!

Gingerbread houses

It explains a lot

I've read that chronic sleep deprivation causes permanent brain damage.

We all expect to suffer sleep deprivation with a newborn. But why, oh why must I suffer insomnia while pregnant? I need rest now more than ever, yet here it is 2:00 in the morning and I haven't slept a wink. Audrey is due to wake up in about three hours. How am I going to get through another day on no sleep? You'd think at some point I'd just collapse.

The way things should work

Despite feeling under the weather (although I seem to be finally getting a little better), I did my best to be a Very Good Mom today. While Maggie was at preschool, Audrey and I used our alone time to read books, roll balls, share snacks, admire the Christmas tree, play with the water in the sink, etc.

Then I picked up Maggie and took the girls to the indoor playground for two hours. TWO FULL HOURS of playing, following, catching, soothing, doling out snacks, etc.

In my world view, all that should earn me some peace when we get back home. NOT two screaming monsters who keep running outside and trying to kill each other. At the moment I barely have them pacified with TV and every single toy we owned scattered across the floor.

I count the minutes until Robert is due home.

Maggie!

 

Disneyland

My mom and I took the girls to Disneyland yesterday. It was fun and Maggie loved seeing all the Christmas decorations, but it was probably a mistake given that I'm still sick. I thought I was feeling better, but I ended up coughing all day and was exhausted by the time we left, even though we weren't there very long. We did manage to see Santa, but as you can see in the photo, both girls didn't exactly enjoy the experience. Matter of fact, Santa doesn't look like he enjoyed it much either.




 

Under the tree

Just Monday

The girls spent last night at my inlaws', so I've been enjoying some much needed R & R. Maggie was so funny. As soon as she found out she was spending the night at Grandma's, she located her suitcase and started filling it with Legos and dollies--the necessities, clearly. At the time it was about 8 in the morning and nobody was even dressed yet.

While they were gone yesterday I made my Christmas shopping list, finished reading a book, decorated the tree, put up my Christmas Carol village and lazed about. Amazing how much can be accomplished when there are no "helpers." When Robert got back from dropping them off, we rented some movies and went to Target to stock up on cold remedies. I was in bed by 8:30 pm. Sadly for me, my insomnia--which is always worst when I'm sick and/or pregnant--kept me up most of the night. I was miserable from coughing and congestion and ended up spending the bulk of the night in the family room watching TV.

A good thing: I'm enjoying the site of my little pregnant belly. About a week ago I just looked a little bloated and the right shirt could hide it. Now I definitely look pregnant and it's fun to catch site of myself in a mirror and think "Oh yeah! Pregnant!" Every once in a while I am seized with a "this is the last time" feeling and start to get sad, but then I remind myself of my miseries and it seems to balance out.

The big news

Last night we told the girls about the new baby. Well, I had already told Audrey some time ago, knowing that she could keep a secret. But it was a revelation to Maggie, who was very still and quiet while we told her about the baby. The first thing she said was, "But where will my new baby brother sleep?" (Brother??) We told her that the baby will sleep in Audrey's room, and Audrey will move into Maggie's room. She didn't seem entirely pleased about this, but we assured her it won't happen for a long time yet.

We then asked her if she thinks it will be a boy or a girl, and she said "boy." We asked what we should name the baby, but she said she didn't know yet. After that she didn't seem to want to talk about it anymore, so we let it go.

Audrey, meanwhile, was happily saying "Ba-bee! Ba-bee!" and obligingly pointing at my stomach.

Quote of the day

"Mommy, did you know that Winnie the Pooh's birthday is on Christmas, just like Baby Jesus? Isn't that amaaaazing?"

FAQs

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: Are you always pregnant?
A: Yes, yes I am. I have been pregnant or nursing almost continuously since 2002.

Q: Was this planned?
A: Amazingly, yes.

Q: How do you feel?
A: The morning sickness is still lingering and I have a disappointingly small appetite. I'm tired all the time and by the end of the day I am often yelling at everyone and/or bursting into tears. But I'm happy. Really. I think.

Q: How do you stay so calm? (The photographer at the portrait studio actually asked me this.)
A: I'm only calm in public. You should see me when nobody's looking. (My actual answer.)

Q: Does this new baby have a nickname yet?
A: The official nickname is Trilogy, though I often call him/her Beastie.

Q: How far apart will the kids be?
A: Maggie and Audrey are 22 months apart; Audrey and Trilogy will be exactly 2 years apart. For a short time we will have a 3-year-old, a 1-year-old and a newborn.

Q: Are you guys nuts?
A: Yes.

Getting ready for bed