I must be getting old

Today I got a call from an auditor at work. I get a call from this nice woman at the beginning of every year. The first call I get from her every year, we catch up. And it's really interesting to see the progression. She started calling me before I was married. The next year I was getting married and changing my name. A few years later she was getting married and changing her name. And so on... anyway in the phone call today we found out we both had children this year (her first, my second). I found it really interesting that we both have 1) stayed with the same company for so many years and 2) been able to stay in contact and follow each other's lives through basically the same progression of life.

There have been so many people in my life that have sort of drifted in, and drifted out again. Facebook has been awesome at allowing me to find these people again, but I find it fascinating to see what "stage" in life people are in. At my age, most of my peers are getting married or having babies. But there are some that are not quite there yet. And there are those that are far past that too.

Another interesting tidbit is I found a LONG lost friend on facebook this week. She was my absolute bestest friend in high school. With her by my side, I experienced my first kiss, my first boyfriend, and all the laughter and giggles that teenage girls do at that age. I really feel like her and I were kindred spirits. We didn't attend the same high school but would get together every weekend, often playing tennis (our favorite sport) at the local park and meeting up with boys our very strict parents wouldn't allow us to see on a normal basis. Somehow we drifted apart in college (not surprising since we went to completely different places). I thought about her often though, and I have tried many times over the years to search her out. I had pretty much given up ever finding her again when out of the blue, there she was on facebook! I sent her a message and I guess I have gotten used to people and their iphone technology so when she didn't respond almost immediately, my first thought was "What did I do to make her mad at me?!" (that gives you an idea of how my mind works!). But last night she finally replied, and happily she was excited to find me too. She is rather busy becoming a doctor, but we are planning on getting together soon and catching up. I absolutely cannot wait and am looking forward to it with bated breath.

Christmas fun!

Amanda got a Princess play tent from Santa and a bike from Grandma & Grandpa this year. When she came downstairs (we stayed at my parent's house), she found them waiting for her.



She chose to play in the tent first :)



My mom always puts scratchers in our stockings and we're lucky if one of them wins us another ticket. This year Mike won $25. Here he is proudly displaying his winning scratcher.

After all the presents were opened, we began cleaning up and making breakfast. Amanda decided to play Candyland with one of my sister's dogs.

I think this was a couple days after Christmas, but it's cute anyway :) Some Daddy love. The cat climbed on first, then Amanda. I had to use the restroom, so I handed over Kevin and took a pic of them all when I came back.

New Years Resolutions

I don't usually buy in to this whole resolution thing, but I'm feeling pensive and inspired today, so here goes...

1. Blog more!
I do this about once a year. I randomly stumble onto someone's blog that inspires me and makes me think "I can do that!". So I resolve to try again this year to put more in this blog than just pictures. I don't think anyone's really reading anymore, but hey, I can document these things for my own enjoyment, right? Most people are my friends on facebook now, and I post pictures there, so this blog is sort of changing with the times.

2. Be more honest
No I don't just mean don't lie ;) I mean more honest with my feelings. I tend to react emotionally to my surroundings, rather than sitting back, analyzing, calculating and deciding how I should or want to react. I want to work on this, especially my patience.

3. Work on becoming a "Woman of Grace"
Earlier in 2009 I joined a mom's group at our Church. In all honesty I joined for two reasons: 1) It meets in the evening after work, which works well for me, and 2) It was marketed as a group for moms with kids under 6 so I thought it was more of a social-network-kind-of-group. It took me until the 3rd meeting to realize it was a bible study. Which at first horrified me. I have never been a bible-thumping, shove-it-in-your-face religious nut. I like to quietly worship in my own way. But I really think God was calling me to this, because by the time I realized my mistake, I had formed friendships. And I was enjoying myself. We started reading a book called "Becoming a Woman of Grace". Each chapter is short, easy, and leads you directly to passages that get the point across for that lesson. And I began learning! But boy I learned that am I not a woman of grace. So, I am resolved to work on that this year.

4. Be more generous
The last year has been trying on a lot of people. We personally know several people who lost jobs or almost lost jobs, etc. Both Mike and I also face the (although small) possibility of layoffs at both our jobs this coming year. But I refuse to be negative, and feel that we should share some of our good fortune with others less fortunate. We usually try to give money to several charities during the year, but I often give Mike a hard time about how much to give. When I really reflect about that though, I have to ask why? I think it stems from the fact that Mike often resists spending money on us. And sometimes that irritates me, but really there are so many people who are more deserving than us. Material things are just that, and we have so much love in our house, do we really need so much material? The true answer is no. So I am resolving to be more humble and generous this year.

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...

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.

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!

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.

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 :)

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.