Christmas 2010!

This was the first Christmas that Addison really knew what was going on and I think we ALL took advantage of that by spoiling her rotten! It was a fun and festive holiday with lots of toys and treats, maybe a bit too many, but it was all worth it! Gramma Pam was here for a week and really enjoyed spending time with the girls and witnessing the excitement of a traditional Christmas morning. We spent Christmas Eve at Ba and Nana's with a delicious meal and some present opening. Addison got some really cool things including a real wooden block set, a turtle that acts like a night-light and throws stars and a moon on her ceiling and a Good Night Moon memory game. Isla loaded up on cute clothes (yay! something other than Addison's hand-me-downs!) and baby toys. We got home that night and left cookies, that Addison had made earlier, and milk out for Santa Clause and read "The Night Before Christmas" before the kids hit the sack. Then the fun began - hauling up loads and loads of presents to place under the tree. When we were done there was a mountain of goods (including a rather large stuffed horse) spilling out into the living room.

When the girls woke up at the crack of dawn the next morning we were able to keep Addison downstairs long enough for us to make coffee and collect ourselves so we could really be in the moment when she first walked into the living room. When that moment arrived, the first thing she did was squeal and say "OH!!!!! A HORSE!!!" There were other exclamations about Santa, and lots of treats, and tiny reindeer and such, but I can imagine the whole thing was a bit of a whirlwind for her. Ba and Nana arrived around 9am, after Addison opened everyone's stockings, and we proceeded to open gifts until 12:30pm. That's right, 12:30pm, when we finally broke for brunch! That will give an idea of the amount of presents for the kids - meaning Addison. With 3 sets of grandparents and their generosity, it was completely mad. There were books and toys and games and dinosaurs and Chuck the Truck and a V-Tech reader with a carryng pack and books to go with it, puzzles and stuffed animals and DVDs, coloring books and more. When it was all said and done, we separated things into piles for our house, Brenda's house, Ba and Nana's house and things to store away to take out throughout the year. We are still thinking of new ideas for creative storage, always a challenge in a house with children and all their stuff!

It's been SO nice for DJ and I to have time off of work to spend with our girls and it's truly felt like a nice long break. We can't believe the new year is here (where did 2010 go?) and it's back to reality on Monday morning. We're looking forward to a healthy and happy year with our precious girls, and wish the same to all of you and yours!!!

High chair pals

Addison grabs Isla's hand and sings this song saying "Up already" or something like that when they are in their high chairs together. Not sure what that means, but it's cute.

Making cookies with Gramma

Christmas Eve at Ba and Nana's

Christmas morning

Eating Santa's cookies

Brunch! Finally...

Christmas night

Bye Bye Binky!

I had been dreading the day we got rid of Addison's binky for about, oh, 2 and 1/2 years now. Not because I didn't want to deal with naptime boycots or all night cry-fests, but mostly because I knew she LOVED the thing and it gave her comfort. She wasn't a kid who walked around with the binky stuck in her mouth 24/7, but she definitely had it at nap and bedtime, sometimes during a meltdown in a public place (toy aisle of Target) and we were REALLY lenient with letting her have it anytime we went on vacation - the plane, car rides, sleeping in different places in a different time zone - it made it just a tad more bearable.....for us.

Notice I am speaking in the PAST tense above. Yes, the PAST because the binky is no longer with us! It was kind of a snafu how this came to be. We had been meaning to pull the plug (no pun intended) for a few months now, but I'll admit it was me who kept putting it off. DJ would have had Addison go cold turkey when she was 18 months if I had let him, but I talked him into stretching it out to 2, then after we returned from CA in September, then...well, who knows when I would have been game for it. I don't know why, it just didn't seem like it was that big of a deal that she still had a pacifier. Hey, no comments from the peanut gallery! It has saved me many times during those meltdown moments! So last Thursday when we picked Addison up from Brenda's she filled us in on the day's events, of which the most important was that Addison napped without her binky! Apparently she had bitten a hole through it and was mad, asking for another one. Brenda told her matter-of-factly that she didn't have another one, that the broken binky was her only choice if she wanted one. Addison then proceeded to chuck the binky out of her bed, across the room and cried/whimpered for about 20 minutes. Then...silence. She had fallen aspeep, and stayed asleep for her normal 2 hour afternoon nap! We were all so excited by this new development that DJ and I decided to keep the trend going and attempt a non-binky night-time as well.

DJ had to give me a pep talk before we ascended on Addison's room to get her ready for bed. "Be strong" he told me, "Don't give in" he ordered as we headed downstairs with Addison wrapped up in a towel in his arms after her bath. As we were getting her jammies on it started. "Mama, where's my bink?" she asked. Yes, she had taken to calling it "the bink". When your kid comes up with a nickname for the nickname of a pacifier, it's time to let it go. "Your bink is broken honey", I muttered under my breath. "MAMA...my bink!" she demanded. "Sorry honey, no binky, it's gone." At this point she realized the game was over and that there truly was no binky. She looked at DJ and gave it a try. "Daddy? My bink?" "Nope, you're a big girl and the binky is broken." WHHAAAAAAAAAAAA! The crying and whimpering ensued. Addison climbed into my lap and burried her head in my shoulder, mourning the loss of the bink. DJ glared at me with stern eyes as if to say "DO. NOT. CAVE." He could see in my face that I was about to cry too! My poor baby has just lost her binky! Well, in about 30 seconds she collected herself as we distracted her with The Bearenstein Bears books she loves so much, and talk of Santa and Rudolph and Frosty. That was it. The drama was over. There was no more mention of the bink! We weren't sure what to do, but we sure as hell weren't going to say anything that could bring the binky back to the brain, not even that we were proud of her. We read stories and had the usual lovey-dovey good-nights and sleep-tights. Still, no mention of the binky. She slept soundly through the night and hasn't mentioned it, at nap or bedtime, since that night. Whheeew!!! What a relief! We are so proud of her, but aren't going to bring that up just yet. Let's just hope this streak continues.

Our attempt at a Gingerbread House - it's ugly, but hey, she had fun!

Our big girl sitting up! She was actually hanging out in the bathroom while I gave Addison a bath. I like this glimpse of self-sufficiency!

Christmas decorations at our house

This is where all the fun Christmas cards get hung!

Addison making cookies at Brenda's

Addison in front of Brenda's tree

Frosty the snowman

More Callie torture

Blizzard Time

Last weekend we had a full blown blizzard - easily the most snow I've ever seen since living here. In total, I think we got around 15 inches from Friday night through Sunday morning. I made the mistake of going to the gym on Saturday morning, right in the midst of the madness, and BARELY made it home! I couldn't help but laugh though as I drove about 4 miles per hour through the snowy streets back to my house. The scene around me was like the end of the world had come. Everywhere I looked there were cars plowed into snowbanks, stuck on offramps, spun out in the middle of the road, and people all bundled up trudging through the chaos shoveling, heaving and helping each other out. I finally made it home and we hunkered down all day Saturday, peering out the windows now and again to check the progress of the mounting snow. By Sunday morning the snow had stopped falling and there were walls of icy white around us. The temperature also plummeted, so we're looking at below zero weather now. As Addison says, "It's so cold it hurts!"

The blizzard!
Sunday morning - all the neighbors working together to plow driveways!

Watching the scene from inside

Callie getting tortured

Jingle Bells

Belly laughs

Happy Thanksgiving & 1/2 Birthday to Isla Weekend!

Our LONG holiday weekend began with me working from home on Wednesday and simultaneously cleaning the house, baking a cheesecake and running around getting everything ready for Thanksgiving the next day. We had such a nice time on Thursday and were really happy with the way everything turned out. DJ's first attempt at a full turkey was a huge success, and my gingersnap cherry cheesecake was a little bit of heaven, if I do say so myself. The Barats helped a ton by bringing the lion's share of the side dishes - delicious stuffing, sweet potatoes with sauteed pears and cranberries, an apple/manchego cheese salad and a homemade pumpkin pie. My friend KateE. (yes, that's Kate E., and she pronounces it like Katie) from work joined us, along with Guy, Heather and Carly and Cassie. The meal was delicious and the company was lovely, truly a perfect Thanksgiving. DJ set to work making a turkey soup out of the leftover turkey and vegetables the next day, so now we have soup for a month, and it is fabulous!

The rest of the weekend was spent cleaning UP from Thanksgiving, decorating the house for Christmas, doing a little Christmas shopping, going to the gym to work off the feast, playing outside in the snow and just hanging around the house relaxing. Every weekend should be 4 days! We picked up the classic Frosty the Snowman cartoon movie for Addison and she is really in the spirit now. She talks about frosty and Santa, and when it came time to decorate the house and tree, she was all over it - "I can help, I can help." And help she did - she got the hang of placing ornaments on the branches eventually, and really enjoys the tree. We can't wait to see her excitement on Christmas day.

Thanksgiving day was Isla's 6 month birthday! She celebrated by rolling all over the floor now that she's figured out how to do that, and by jumping in the Excersaucer that we busted out. She loves it! She's a real sturdy little thing and can already sit up very well unassisted without tipping over for a god stretch of time. She's got sturdy (albeit short) legs as well and stands firm when lifted up to put weight on her feet.

Another big event happened tonight...Addison went poop on her potty for the first time!!! It was hysterical. DJ was in the bath with Isla and Addison was up next, so I was in the bathroom getting her undressed. She announced she had to go potty, so I to took off her diaper and we started cheering her on to sit down. She sat down, thought for a bit, then got up and said "I'm done!". Nothing. So I went back out to the kitchen to finish cleaning up from dinner and I head DJ yell "She's gonna go!". I ran into the bathroom and Addison had pooped a little the floor and looked so embarrassed. I scooped up the poop and threw it in the regular toilet (all the while not believing that I was actually doing it) and we started cheering her on again, telling her it was OK and that she was just like Elmo in the Potty Time video. That got her. So she sat down on the potty and went some more, right into the little hole. YAY!! We were going crazy telling her how great she did. She was clapping for herself and talking about Elmo, then she flushed the big toilet and continued to look a little worried and a lot embarrassed. I wiped her bottom, then she ran away into Isla's room and shut the door. I followed her in and she screamed at me to get out as she hid behind the curtains. Poor thing was so embarrassed! You could see it all over her face and it made me sad to see that she was feeling awkward. I talked her out from behind the curtains into the bathtub and DJ eventually turned her embarrassment into pride...for now at least. We'll cross our fingers for next time. We're so proud of her and are going to give her a prize every time she goes on the potty. We're not going to force it though, just going to take this potty training thing slowly. Big weekend in the Barat house!

This was last weekend visiting "A Day in the Life of an Elf" display on the 8th floor of Macy's downtown

Isla in her Excersaucer

Addison got a kick out of spinning her around and around



Happy Thanksgiving!

Leftovers the day after

Sledding down the hill in our yard

Even Isla got in on the action - although not on a hill


Getting the house ready for the holidays! Addison was napping while we did part of the tree. It's amazing how difficult it is to make any headway in these types of projects with two awake children!

Watching Frosty on the "baby TV"
Gotta love a little "Where is Thumpkin?"

This is the newest thing at dinner. Addison sees the reflection from the silverware on the ceiling and thinks it's a fairy. So cute! We play it up every time.