Monday, December 21, 2009

The Christmas Spirit

Pictures, as promised :)

First, Amanda's holiday program at school. They each wore a reindeer hat and sang "Rudolph" while walking down the aisles and jingling bells they carried. Amanda was very shy as usual with her hand in her mouth.

Our holiday card photo:

Amanda found my Santa hat and shoes and walked around the living room with them both on:

Sunday I baked for 8 hours straight. I made cookies for all the daycare workers, as well as for Christmas dinner. Kevin watched from his bumbo:

The results. Candy cane sugar cookies and Poinsettia cookies:

Chocolate pretzels with m&ms
And Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheels (these are delicious by the way!)

It's beginning to feel like Christmas

Today is Dec. 21st, and I'm finally starting to feel like Christmas. With everything going on with a new baby, and then flying to Illinois with said baby, I didn't even start Christmas shopping until Dec. 2. That is so not like me (I like to be DONE by the day after Thanksgiving), so it's no surprise that panic started to set in around Dec. 3 and I've been feeling more like a chicken with it's head cut off, than Santa.

Which explains why I've been neglecting the blog.

And by the way, I'm still not done with my shopping. *sigh* Every time I think I'm done, something reminds me I should have gotten a gift for so-and-so and then I have to come up with something, and then I'm at Toys-r-us at 10 o'clock at night when I should be at home sleeping... Sleeping? What's that? You would think with 2 children who sleep 12+ hours every night I would be getting plenty of rest. But no...

And the weather isn't helping much. It's been 75-80 degrees every day. It doesn't feel like winter! But it's supposed to finally cool down and rain tonight. I'm hoping to curl up with a cup of hot chocolate and enjoy the rain from inside next to the fireplace. Yes, that sounds nice...

Anyway, so I baked yesterday like a madwoman. 8 hours straight, so the daycare ladies would have some homecooked goodness as part of their holiday gifts. 3 new recipes, only one of which really turned out good. But I think the baking and listening to Christmas carols finally got me in the Christmas spirit. That and Amanda did a great job helping me roll out the dough and sprinkling sugar in the appropriate places (instead of screaming). Yes, yesterday was a good day, despite the dissappointing results.

Pictures to follow once I get them uploaded...

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

It's the holiday season

So we flew to Illinois for Thanksgiving this year, and I DID remember my camera, but FORGOT the charger for the battery. So after Amanda got ahold of it on the plane ride out there, I no longer had battery to take any pictures. I got 2 pictures total. One of Amanda on the plane (this is why she insisted on playing with the camera. I'm still kicking myself for bringing the camera out!) and one of Kevin in his "First Thanksgiving" onesie.



Isn't Kevin getting chubby? I love baby fat :)


This is once we got home and I charged the battery, Amanda is trying to get the camera from me. She is really interested in playing with it!!


And here we are decorating the FAKE Christmas tree. We were supposed to go with my family to cut down a real one, but Amanda got sick, so we couldn't go and decided just to put the fake one up.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Life at home

Life is never dull around here, that's for sure! First, here's a pic of Amanda in her jewelry Grandma gave her for Easter last year. I accidentally put it away and forgot about it, but Mike found it and she wanted to put it on. So here she is.



I asked Mike to get a picture of me with Kevin. He often falls asleep after eating, and I love that he falls asleep on my shoulder :)



Amanda has figured out how to use my camera (smart girl!) and while most of the pictures she takes are of the ceiling, she got a funny one of the oranges she was eating one day.



These next two pictures are from Amanda's Thanksgiving program at daycare. She sang "The Alphabet Song", "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Thank You God". Mostly she jumped around the stage and the teachers sang, but it was cute anyway :)






This was a horrendous temper tantrum she threw one night that lasted a good half hour because she wanted to watch TV and not come eat dinner. So I took a picture to tease her about it later in life!



This next series is how I found her one Saturday morning. She found her Dora bandaids and opened them ALL! Now, keep in mind she never wants a bandaid when she hurts herself, so I have no idea why she felt she had to open them all!






And here is a picture showing that she would rather play with a laundry basket and tennis balls, than all the expensive toys we get for her! Figures!


Sunday, November 1, 2009

Happy Halloween!

Here's Amanda checking out all her loot from the school trick-or-treat on Friday. She meticulously took everything out of the bag and told me "Look Mommy!"



Halloween night, here's Kevin all dressed up as the Little Devil.



And both kids (including a very tired Amanda who refused to take a nap earlier in the day) ready to go trick-or-treating.





Wednesday, October 28, 2009

October update

Here are some pics before all the Halloween pics we're sure to have after this week.

First: Kevin is all smiles for the mobile above his changing table. This was the best shot I could get. He kicks around and gives this HUGE smile as he watches each animal come through his area of vision.



Here's a good pic of his smile.




Here's a funny one. I was nursing him one afternoon and he had been eating for close to 20 minutes, so I asked him "Are you done yet?" He stuck his pointer finger up like he was trying to say "One minute mom!"

Here's a couple of Amanda. I found her in each of these pics like this. The first, she's wearing the Baby Bjorn I often carry Kevin in. She attempted to put her "babies" in it, but it didn't quite work out.



And this day she found my purse and wallet. Decided to take EVERY. SINGLE. THING. out of my wallet. It took me a while to put it all back together!


Another of Kevin. I decided to spike his hair since he has so much of it. He would make an adorable rocker :)

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Pics from September

Sorry I've been lazy about posting here... I'm trying to enjoy Kevin's infancy and my maternity leave, as this will be my last!
Here are a few of Kevin being cute:


The "O" face (Amanda did the same thing!)


Kevin was great at holding his head up, even just a few days after birth. Here he is at about 5 weeks holding his head up like a pro!



More beach pics. After our successful beach trip with Mimi & Mark, Mike wants to go fairly often. So here we are at the beach again in September.



Mike dug a hole to get to the wet sand, and Amanda wouldn't climb in it until I did. So here is me standing in the hole, and then Amanda.




"Ok Mommy, I done"
The day after Labor Day, our daycare was closed for a Staff Development Day so I had both kids all day by myself. I attempted to take Amanda to a Children's Museum in Norwalk, but discovered when we got there that it was closed until October. So we played in the adjoining park where they had some dinosaur sculptures Amanda climbed on:


This was inspired by a photographer I saw on Oprah that poses little babies in these adorable positions. I tried to do the same with Kevin and got the following pic that I think turned out pretty good :)


And here's my best shot of the "Oh my gosh, look at me!" face that Kevin does when he sort of stands up on my lap.


Friday, September 4, 2009

Cousins

Amanda & Kevin's cousin Andrew slept the same way Kevin does now when he was a baby, so I thought I'd do a side-by-side comparison. They are definitely related! Andrew is on the left, and Kevin is on the right.



Monday, August 31, 2009

August Pics

Some pictures from August in no particular order...

Mimi & Mark holding Kevin before they headed back to Illinois.



Funny pose by Kevin in the swing



Amanda helping to feed Kevin




Amanda helping me clean the kitchen




At the beach with Mimi & Mark, Mike just got done surfing.




Amanda actually went in the water!








Friday, August 21, 2009

Update & pics

Some new pics from the last week...

I put Kevin on the floor and Amanda decided to join him!



First bath... Kevin's umbilical cord actually fell off after just a week, but that was the day he got his plastibell so we had to wait for that to fall off as well before giving him a real bath.




My little ham, smiling for the camera while she holds K.


And finally, last Friday we spent the day at Grandma's with cousin Andrew and Aunt Erin. The kids both stick to Grandma like glue, so I had to take a pic.