Cheese!

 Audrey has begun to say cheese when having her picture taken and one day taught Allie to say it as well.  Even though as a photographer I never ask people to say "cheese" when taking their picture, this day I did.

"cheese!"

Sarah

Audrey visits Sunnyside

I took a Zumba class this week at our gym and the girls stayed in the child care area. Anytime Audrey goes to a "day care" area she thinks she's visiting Sunnyside--the daycare in Toy Story 3. Hilarious. When I picked her up she was very sad that she'd lost a monkey that she'd taken with her. We have rules about not taking our toys into church or stores or child care but this was a little monkey from a happy meal that I didn't care if she lost. Apparently, she really did care if she lost it. There were tears and grief over this lost little monkey that seemed to subside once she ate lunch. But now, every time I say we're going to the gym she gets all excited about going to look for the monkey that's at Sunnyside!


Sarah

Just a tease

We got a small taste of spring last Sunday, February 20th. We went outside for a brief time, talked to neighbors and broke out the sidewalk chalk. And then, the next day it snowed.

Again.

 Dear Winter: We forfeit. You win.  We are ready for spring and you are no longer welcome here until next December. As you exit, please send in Spring and tell her to bring lots of sunshine and 60 degree days with an occasional thunderstorm and warm rain so we can play in the puddles.

Ah, if it only worked that way!

breaking out the princess bike for a quick ride down the sidewalk

Audrey practiced writing her "A's" with the sidewalk chalk

Sarah

princesses don't wear bras

 I flutter in and out from my little cat nap on the couch during quiet time the other day. It's a rare occurrence that the youngest is asleep and the oldest is tuned into a movie.  Out of the corner of my eye Audrey has her princess Barbie dolls lined up on the floor, naked, as if they are sunbathing on the beach. She has undressed five and is working on number six when I ask her what she's doing.  "They wanted to play in the pool but I had to take off their dresses, cause they can't get wet." Understandable.  I'm not sure where these dolls were "swimming". She was in the middle of our living room floor. When they were done with their five minute swim she asked me to help dress them again. There are eight. My quiet time is officially over. We talk about the details of each dress/outfit and I teach her how to put them on and velcro them in the back. I can't help but notice that these Barbies' panties are molded on. I think this is interesting because back in my day, they didn't make Barbies like that. I then make an off handed comment about them not having bras. (to hold up their large every so perky fake boobs) And Audrey responds, "Princesses don't wear bras Mommy. Just panties."

Not wanting to know why, I left it at that.

I guess when you're a princess, bras are optional.

Sarah

my dancing queen signs up for dance

We bought the shoes, it's official. My little princess is taking ballet.

Dear Audrey,


 You tried a dance class today, and you loved it. Peeking through the blinds outside the studio 3,  I watch as you jump and twirl and learn new steps. I can't see everything but I didn't see you hesitate at all when it was your turn to chasse around the room in front of our classmates. This thrilled me, as up until now, you didn't like all eyes to be on you, no matter where you were. You had no fears leaving me in the waiting room and walking down the hall with your class. You looked so sweet in your adorable pink tutu and tights as you walked to your class, hand in hand with your new friends. You tried ballet and tap and told me you didn't like tap because it was too loud. The smile on your face lit up the room when you came rushing back after class! I'm so proud of you for trying something new all by yourself. 


Love, 
Mom

It occurred to me about an hour before the first ever ballet class that her hair needed to be in a bun. (crap!) I never took ballet. To say my expertise in this area was lacking, was an understatement. I had thought about u-tubing it--surely there's a how-to on making a ballerina bun. But alas, time had escaped me. A ponytail and a dozen bobby pins later she had a "bun." It was pretty rough, but I promised I'd get better.

After trying ballet and ballet/tap, she decided on ballet. There was a class that had an opening and an extra costume available in the right size, giving her the opportunity to dance at the recital. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she'll actually go out on stage and perform.

Traveling to this weeks class I remind Audrey who her teacher is. She clarifies from the backseat, "No tap?" I assure her this class is strictly ballet, no tap. She can hardly contain her excitement as she says, "This class is going to be fabulous! I'm so excited!"

first night of dance. don't worry, the boots were replaced by ballet shoes once we got there.

Sarah

Saying & Waving Goodbye

Good-bye. However you say it, it means the same thing: good wishes until we meet again. One of the first words my girls learned to sign was goodbye. We say it dozens of times everyday.

At the end of Kindermusik class today Audrey be-bopped up to the teacher to get her sticker. Like at the end of every class, the kids bombard the teacher and she sings goodbye to them individually, and they sing it back. Never, since she turned two has she EVER said or sung goodbye to the teacher. She would just stand there, often not making eye contact, and wait for her sticker. Sometimes she'd ask for a sticker for her doll, but never would she even wave good-bye. Today, though, after a smiley faced sticker was placed precisely where she directed on her shirt, she said "goodbye". The teacher, noting this was huge for my Audrey, made sure she made eye contact with me from across the room and mouthed, "she said goodbye today." Way to go Auds!

Audrey has been more outspoken lately. I hope this continues.

Allie stayed home with Daddy today and missed Kindermusik due to the illness that has one by one taken over  our household. I heard that during the morning news program, while the anchors were saying goodbye Allie began waiving goodbye at the TV. (Daddy didn't get the memo that we watch Sesame Street, I guess).  Later today I took her to see her pediatrician as she has so much phlegm she's gagging on it. Luckily it wasn't in her lungs but she did have fluid behind both ears. We will wait and see if it gets infected or not. When the doctor said goodbye she waved, her back and forth arm motion and again at Target on our mini mission to get a cool mist vaporizer she waved goodbye to the cashier. Allie has been signing goodbye since she turned one. And she rarely misses an opportunity.

Overall a big day of communication for our household.













Sarah

a tetanus shot, a desperate prayer and pizza for dinner

Do you ever have one of those days when every time you're moving forward, something happens to send you back an hour or two? That was Friday February 11th for us. My brother's birthday. It started with a 5:00 am workout for me. I was proud! Really, that's huge for me to roll out of bed that early. Turns out I think it was a bad omen.

We had a play-date at 9:30. The fruit tray was missing something. What goes with fruit I thought as I stood staring into my refrigerator with only a few minutes to spare. Cheese! Perfect. I grab a few blocks and a sharp knife. My cutting boards are child proofed in a cabinet with the most annoying child proof lock on the market so I've been using them less and less. I wasn't thinking (although I'd been up since 5 am) and decided to hold the cheese in my hand like you would when paring an apple. Really, a stupid idea. Problem was, I grabbed a 5" utility knife, not a paring knife. I was cut on the first slice. I did not add cheese to the play date fruit tray.  Luckily, the cut wasn't that deep, but then I noticed the knife was a tad bit rusty. Trying not to overanalyze but kinda curious about the line of when you need a tetnus shot and when you don't, I call my mother. She tells me to call my husband. He thinks there probably isn't anything to worry about. Ever so late to our play-date, we enter, me, with a huge band-aid on my thumb. I tell my girlfriends and they suggest calling the triage nurse at the ER. I never knew I could do that.

Post playdate I call.

Me: "Ok, so I cut my thumb on a kitchen knife that was clean but a tad rusty in spots. The cut itself doesn't need stitches or anything, but I don't remember when you are to get a tetanus shot."

Nurse: "What's your date of birth?" (Ok, really, does it matter what year I was born? Are people born before 1980 automatically immune to tetanus?)

Me: I comply

Nurse: "Your name?"

Me: again, I answer (seriously, just answer my question. )

Nurse: "When was your last tetanus shot?"

Me: "I don't remember,  (thus the point of this conversation) either high school or college but either way, was 10 years ago. I think."

Nurse: "Well then you should probably get one."

Me: "Really? I mean, the knife wasn't dirty, isn't it the bacteria that's the problem and not the rust? It's probably fine, right?"

Nurse: "Well I wouldn't mess around with it. Call your primary doctor and if they don't have it , go to a Prompt Care."

Ugh! A bad day to leave shopping to the last minute. We were entertaining for my brother's birthday and now only did I need to get the ingredients for enchiladas but pick up a birthday gift too.  And now, I've got to try and fit in a shot, with my two girls in tow.  Did I mention clean my house? On a side note, I've noticed, the older I get, the less I care about having a perfect house when entertaining.

In spite of having to hold for darn near 15 minutes  just to talk to a nurse at the doctors office, I finally get through and get an appointment for 1:15. It's now 11:30 and my youngest has fallen asleep in the backseat.  I run my van through the golden arches for like the 5th time ever and get Audrey a happy meal and my brother a gift certificate. She eats her cheeseburger in her car seat while Allie naps.  In the store, my day continued to challenge me. Today was the day I nearly deconstructed the store with the cart that has the little car on the front. I swear I hit something on every aisle and nearly knocked down a display of hot wheels cars in the tampon aisle. 

In the exam room at the doctors office my quiet and reserved Audrey informs the doctor there will be no shots today. She has been overly vocal lately (for her). Multiple times she sternly says, "no shots today. I said no shots today." The doctor gets a kick out of her and reassures her, she won't be getting a shot. She then looks me in the eye and says, "It's not gonna hurt. It will be okay." (so motherly she is) The nurse enters with the DTap  vaccine. I don't want that I tell her. I just want the tetanus shot. She leaves. And then Audrey says......

"Mommy I have to go to the bathroom." (huge deep breath and exhale) I reply, "Audrey can you wait just a second? The nurse will be coming back soon and then we'll go home." Whining now she insists, "No, Mommy, I need to go poop." Knowing that I'm gonna have to take her, but not giving up I ask again, "Audrey are you sure you can't hold it?" She then replies, but not to me, "Dear God, help me, I have to poop!"

My heart sings when my daughter says her own prayers, but today, I laughed.

We survive the bathroom (barely) and the shot. At home now I begin to cook the chicken for the enchiladas. Audrey decides to take a nap. I see, from the kitchen that Allie has climbed onto the box (containing my Valentine's present) that the UPS guy brought earlier.  Before I can get down the hall she loses her balance falls off backwards knocking her head hard on the tile. It doesn't knock her out but she cries hard. I call the doctor, just to ask the nurse again what I should watch for in her behavior if she had hit too hard. She instead tells me to come in. (heavy sigh). Of course she was fine, not even a bump.  Why did the nurse tell us to come in!?  Because it was Friday. Better to get it checked out before the weekend. Mercy. I make it home an hour before people are to arrive.

 We ordered pizza.

 Days like this tend to stress me a bit. Planning ahead would have eliminated the fast food lunch my daughter got, the lame present my brother received and would have lessened the chaos  when I needed to make two trips to the doctor in one day. Life hasn't allowed me to plan ahead as much as I'd like lately and I don't always get to follow my cleaning "schedule" I made when we first got married or the meal plan I created. The hardest thing for me as a parent is learning to accept that I can't control the majority of my day and I can't do what I'd like to do when I'd like to do it. Accidents happen, unnecessary messes are made and boo boos create chaos. It's all part of the job.

What an imagination

I love that an empty puzzle rack becomes a drink dispenser that fills up my tiny pink tea glass with coffee and her wooden puzzle pieces become cookies. A car transforms into a boat and a plastic bucket becomes chocolate cake. Car keys lead to an intricate adventure in the back of a shopping cart. Whether it's with her doll or acting out a scene from a movie Audrey's imagination has really exploded since she turned three.

Bitty Baby has a (pretend) friend named Doc. He likes to go to Bitty's birthday party. Go ahead, ask her, she'll tell you a story about him. But make sure you have the time to listen, these stories are long and in depth!

This morning the girls transformed Allie's pink mini coupe car into a boat. (they turned it over on it's side.) They were going fishing. Under water, with the fish.

Her  imagination has become more complex and sometimes I watch in awe.  I once had not one, but two imaginary friends (later I learned that meant I was  creative) and baked prize winning cookies in my easy bake oven too, but then, I came upon a lot of responsibility. Ah to be three again!

She loves to pretend play. When we get home from the grocery store, she'll want to play "shopping." She'll take bags, fill them up and carry them around the house. After a doctor appointment recently, she said she wanted to play doctor when she came home. She's learning, learning by doing, and  it's so fun to watch!

Her latest kick? She's planning her wedding. She plans out the menu, who'll she'll invite, whether Bitty will be there, what she'll wear and what she'll do with her hair. She wanted some envelopes one day to send out her invitations. (such a child of a party planner) I was happy to finally get my invitation. We're still working on the groom.

The other day I sat down to read books during our quiet time and she started in on a story and I know 15 minutes went by without her hardly stopping to breathe. She loves to tell stories almost as much as she loves reading them. She's always wanted to read the book after I'm done reading it to her. Sometimes it follows the same story line, and others  it takes a whole new turn.

What an imagination!

Sarah

Painting with Marbles

Last week Audrey created a masterpiece. With marbles.

Sarah

sisterly love, kinda

Today Audrey and I came home from he store to find Allie  asleep on the floor. Audrey wouldn't leave her alone. She sat by her, rubbed her head, cuddled up next to her, and gave her pillows until she finally, woke her up. She just couldn't handle not having a playmate. Poor Allie was sick and really needed a nap. But she loves her sister and often doesn't care if she wakes her up.

Sarah

Just when I thought I didn't have anything to blog about

My youngest has really stepped it up a notch securing her spot as the baby of our family.

Why I no longer clean during the day

The soap scum was starting to declare war on the tub toys. It was time to clean their bathroom.  The girls were playing together in Audrey's room, the gate was closed to the stairs and all unnecessary doors were shut. I had almost wiped the last of the Burt's Bees off their shower walls when I felt the urge to check on them.  I exited their bathroom and turned left. There was Allie, in the hallway with a children's Tylenol bottle in her mouth. Lid off. We use dye free pain reliever, so it's  hard to see where she might have left a trail. Her chin was sticky. There was a puddle on the floor in front of her and the bottle was empty.  I flip into hyperactive mommy mode and after assessing the situation and contemplating a call to the doctor, I call Jeremy, as he had put her to bed the night before.  He reassures me there wasn't even enough in there for a full dose yesterday. Breathing easier and happy I didn't have to call the doctor or the poison control center, I stress the importance of securing childproof lids on medicine before I hang up the phone. The bottle had been out of reach, but she managed with all her tip-toe might to knock it off her dresser.

Why we always keep the bathroom door shut

I have a curious 13 month old. For reasons I don't understand, she likes to sit on the little white step stool we have for Audrey in the bathroom. She walks right in there and sits down with her snack trap if the door is left open. We keep the door closed. But sometimes her older sister accidently leaves it open. Audrey and I were in the kitchen making Valentine's. I'm unaware the bathroom door was left open. Allie walks into the kitchen, mouth wide open with something lodged in it. At first I thought it was one of the white plastic eggs that belong to our pretend grocery store, but when I pulled it out of her mouth I realize it is the cap to the bottom of the toilet. You know, the cap that covers the nut that holds the toilet to the floor and often rusts? Ew! Thoughts of her digesting urine, chemical cleaners, rust and heaven forbid, chemical cleaners swirl in my head. After a frantic call to my husband he tells me there's nothing to worry about. I'm not so sure, and pretty grossed out but refrain from calling the poison control center today.

A few days later, I was on the phone with the poison control center for a completely different matter and asked them about the rusty toilet cap issue.  They confirmed my husbands diagnosis, no worries. Rust won't hurt her, they said, it's the bacteria that would. Great. I should have my bathroom sanitized at all times. OR maybe, we should just keep the door shut!!!

Little pink wrappers

I really don't understand the obsession that my little girls have with pantiliners. One day, they will realize they aren't all that neat. Audrey went through a phase after discovering pantiliners, where she wanted to wear one too.  She got to the point where she wouldn't ask, she'd just put it on herself, often on the outside of her underwear. I still laugh thinking about the first time I found her wearing one. There was the time that she stuck one on our bedroom wall, right under the light switch. Now, again, it seems I need to find a new hiding place. This morning I found an unused pantiliner floating in my toilet.  I still don't know who did it. Audrey blamed Allie, and Allie just stood there and looked at it, as we all did. I eventually fished it out with the toilet brush.





Sarah

A Valentine's Day Photo Shoot

Sarah

Valentine's Day cupcakes

Roses are red 

Violets are blue

Sugar is bad 

Believe me it's true

Just kidding. I don't fully believe that sugar is bad, but it's not that great for you either. Mercy. I wouldn't be an upstanding SAHM if I didn't bake with my kids for Valentine's Day. Isn't that a rule, that you must make some colorful creative concoction for every holiday? Audrey LOVES cupcakes. I don't have a healthy gluten free cupcake yet so we used a short cut.  Friends, after you've been off sugar for even a week and you eat a boxed cake mix cupcake with that nasty tub frosting the metal aftertaste is overwhelming. Homemade buttercream next time for sure.

watching the cupcakes bake

carefully decorating them

I don't really believe it's a rule to exhibit Martha skills at every holiday. I think it's more important to use your time and energy  LOVING your children. 

Sarah

You color my world, Valentine

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! 

This year Audrey made heart shaped crayons for her dearest friends. 

I actually did this in fifth grade for my science project, minus the heart. 

We took her old broken crayons, unwrapped them, melted them in the oven in a heart shaped cupcake pan. When they cooled we flipped over the pan and out came new colorful heart shaped crayons! 

We attached them with ribbon on paper hearts that said,  "You color my world"

I will say I did not come up with that line on my own. 

a sampling of the finished product. no two were the same

the crayon wrappers

ready to be melted

the finished product

Sarah

Love Hearts

For a Valentine's Day activity, we cut out pink and red hearts and glued them together to make  garland. Audrey told me what she loved and couldn't live without and I wrote it on the hearts. After Toy Story 3 was listed she thought for a minute and said,  "My little sister, Allie. I loooovvvee her!" Then I asked her what she couldn't live without. She exclaimed, "Daddy! I can't live without Daddy!" Of course, after she said Daddy, she looked at me and said, " You too, Mom." 

Audrey, here other things you said you LOVE this Valentine's Day:

Toy Story guys: this is what you call your toys from the movie.

Barbie princesses: you love making them "bootiful" by putting on their tiaras, shoes and necklaces. You begged and begged for a Repunzel Barbie during the blizzard last week. You just didn't understand why we couldn't leave and go get it. You insisted that Target was open.

Mac and cheese: not my homemade made from scratch recipe, but that over processed junk in the blue box.  

Mamma Mia & Dance Class.  You are my dancing queen!

Target. You, my child, love to shop.

Playing in the snow

Dress up clothes: You have started dressing yourself of a morning. Yesterday you wore a t-shirt, cardigan, jeggings, a dress-up skirt and Hello Kitty boots to Target.  Paired with a hot pink necklace and little red purse. The cashier told you you were pretty. I think you're doing a great job tackling this task on your own.

My friend Avery

Grandma & Grandpa and Grandmother and Grandpa.

What Allie LOVES this Valentine's Day

Boots: Lately, she can't get enough of  her sister's pink polka dot rain boots. She doesn't care that they're four sizes too big, she loves to waddle down the hall, careful not step out of them. She loves to take them on, and take them back off. And repeat. She'll carry one in each hand, walk over to you and hold them up. That means, "put these on me (please)."

Blueberries

Babies

Pulling her sister's hair. Oh the agony Audrey goes through on a daily basis. I hear screams and then, "Mommy, Allie pulled my hair!" at least five times a day. 

Puppies. She loves them in books. She loves them in person. She spent a lot of time playing with a dear  Golden Retriever at Christmas. 

Crawling up the stairs. She thinks it's hilarious to sneak past the gate if it's left open and see how far she can get before she's caught. Once she hears footsteps down the hallway she starts laughing and frantically tries to get to the top before you reach her.

Her zoo book. 

Baths. Allie does a dance with her chubby little feet and walks as fast as her little legs will take her to the gate whenever she hears the word, "bath". She then stands there and shakes it until we open it and head upstairs. She gets pretty upset if she hears "bath" and she doesn't get to take one. 

Sarah

Super Bowl Sunday

No parties. No party beverages. Probably the first time in six years we haven't had one or the other on Super Bowl Sunday. This year we simply stayed home and tried to watch the commercials game over the  screams playful laughter of our two little girls. I don't miss a million people standing around an island all trying to dip their chip in the same small bowl of dip, or going to an overly crowded loud and often cold restaurant/bar where they have nothing gluten free on the menu besides celery. Did I mention chasing after my little children in houses that aren't baby proofed while my husband sits with his buddies and watches the game!? Please! I was happy to stay home. We aren't huge fans of NFL football anyway.  Who am I kidding? I don't care in the least. But I do love parties and I love to cook and the Super Bowl poses that opportunity.  I will note we didn't have the most elaborate menu this year. Maybe next year we'll step it up a notch.

Our (we're watching what we eat) Super Bowl menu:

Buffalo Chicken Tenders
Cheese & hot sauce stuffed Celery
Football shaped cookies
Jalapeno Cheddar Dip with baked chips
Popcorn

Audrey really wanted football shaped cookies. I entertained the thought of buying the roll of sugar cookie dough and just rolling it out. This way, I would not be tempted to eat any of her cookies. But the stress of all that gluten in my kitchen was higher than the stress of eating sugar--or trying to refuse it. So we made GF chocolate chip football cookies instead. And I'll say......they were yummy. I commented to my husband that before kids I would have piped laces on these football cookies with icing. But today, it's all we could do to get plain footballs.

Buffalo Chicken Tenders
We just grill chicken tenders, or this time I used my covered baker to cook the chicken and then put Franks Buffalo Sauce over the shredded chicken. It's high in sodium so I measured mine out and the serving size was plenty for 3 oz of chicken.
Celery
The stuffed celery was inspired by a recipe I found on the Weight Watcher site. Cream cheese, feta cheese and garlic mixed together. Spread in celery stalks. Sprinkle with hot sauce and green onion. It complimented the chicken well and was used in place of ranch dressing.
Cookies
They are as easy as they look. Find a football shaped cookie cutter and cut.

stuffed celery

football cookies

Sarah

why I need a new throw pillow and I'm out of garlic

You know that mess about how mothers have eyes in the back of their heads? Well I don't. I can hear like a champ but my children make the most messes when my eyes are not on them. I can't tell what they're doing in the other room, and here are two stories to prove it.

The Red Permanent Marker

Yesterday Audrey wrote with a red sharpie on our white microfiber couch.  She claims she was making a birthday card for Uncle Drew. Instead of the table, she used the couch. In between unloading the dishwasher, and throwing on some make-up I vaguely remember Audrey pulling open the drawer next to the fridge that houses notepads and pens (as well as hair ties, calculators and whatever else had been on the counter when company was coming last). She gets in there all the time. I thought nothing of it. A few minutes later she proudly held up a piece of paper that I'd calculated the point values of take-out pizza on and said, "Look Mom!" In my head I remember wondering what marker she used for that  but that thought was trumped, as my thoughts often are.  Grandma arrives, I put on my shoes, grab my tea and I'm out the door. About 25 minutes later my buzzing smart phone indicates that Grandma is calling me. I answer, wondering who puked or whose head met the tile. She tells me nothing is wrong except that she found a red permanent marker and that Audrey had drawn all over the couch. Relieved, actually, that no one was hurt or sick I told her I'd deal with it when I got home.

 It was a little terrifying, our white couch now saturated with red permanent markings. And when I finally saw it, Grandma had scrubbed and blotted for 30 minutes, it had been worse! I grabbed the magical rag.  Another 30 minutes later and some carpet cleaner (all natural carpet cleaner, at that) most of it came out and the rest  faded to a dull orange. A nice decorative pillow is in order. Time to go shopping.

Missing garlic

Not to be outdone after Audrey drew on the couch, Allie confiscated 4 heads of garlic from under my nose and proceeded to push them down the furnace register by our front door. How did she do that? She didn't work alone. She can't get the cover off by herself. By the time I heard the clanging of the register hit the tile, it was too late. But when I heard it, I had no idea they had stuffed anything down inside. I just thought they were taking it out and putting it back in, which they Audrey had gotten in trouble for earlier that day. When Jeremy came home he found the furnace vent out on the tile and a ziplock bag in the vent. I was and had been in the kitchen making supper.  He asked if I knew they peeled an onion. I sighed and said no. I walked down the hall and saw the fruits of my daughters mischievous work. "That's not onion I tell him, that's garlic." I went back to the kitchen and pull open the drawer where I keep the garlic. (The garlic I just bought the day before). It wasn't there, but the measuring cups I saw Allie take out earlier were. Odd. It didn't take us too long to figure out the four garlic bulbs I was missing were in the vent. Upon investigation Jeremy was able to reach two of them fairly easily. The other two he couldn't even see. He tried several contraptions before declaring success on the missing garlic. All in all he used:  a shop vac, duct tape, a hose, a make-up mirror, a smart phone, a flashlight, and part of a pepsi bottle. At one point I asked, "What would happen if we just left them in there?" He looked at me offended that I would even bring up an option. As he was working on that, I dropped a marble in the garbage disposal.  I don't touch garbage disposals. Gross. (I know it's just stainless steel, but it freaks me out to stick my hand down in it) What would I do without my handyman? My house would smell like garlic and my garbage disposal would clatter horrendously.






Sarah

It's been two years

I thought for weeks what I would write today. And the words never came to me. Then I thought I'd just post a poem, but none of them fit and just made me cry. I tried writing a poem. And got stuck. I wanted to acknowledge this day somehow.

Two years ago today we were told my pregnancy had aborted. I'd had a miscarriage. Our family of four went back to a family of three. We were devastated, heartbroken and numb.

I remember the prayer I prayed that day sitting in the dark sonogram room, waiting for the tech. "Dear God, give me the strength to deal with whatever happens next."

I can honestly say through the shock, through the sobbing tears, through the decisions that came next, I felt peace. Even today, as I remember our baby we never got to meet, I am comforted and dare I say, healed. I cry on this day, because I am human and I can't forget the details of that day. But as I wipe away tears, I smile because I hear innocent laughter from the other room, and giggles as my two little girls play together.

Eight weeks after the miscarriage our hearts were filled with joy and bewilderment when the results of a pregnancy test was positive. You have to understand that to this day (and Allie is 13 months) we wonder how that happened. Logistically it just didn't make sense. We had really wanted to have a baby in 2009 and after the miscarriage we discarded it, thinking it was too late. But God's timing is perfect. In December of that year, three months after we thought we'd have a baby, Allie was born.

It's been two years. I was sad that God wanted our baby back so soon but He got us through that day.  And the next.  And the weeks that followed. 

My prayer today went a little something like this "Thank you so much for Allie. For her warm smile, her willingness to be snuggled and her gentle spirit. Thank you for the opportunity to be a mother to two beautiful, healthy girls. Please watch over us today as we travel and send your angels to protect us. Thank you for this day and even though my heart is sad, give me the strength to not buy a bag of M&M's at the store. "

Sarah

The princess and her snow castle

On Saturday, four days after the blizzard, Audrey decided she wanted to go outside and play in the snow. Allie stomped and pointed and moaned from the sliding glass window until I bundled her up and took her outside too. Audrey and Daddy made snow angels, attempted to sled down a drift and started to make a snowman when Audrey declared, "I want a castle!" Of course! Princesses don't need snowmen, they castles! Personally,  I thought the snowman would have made a good castle guard! But I was too busy trying to take pictures and carry a 30 pound toddler through the snow in boots with five inch heels (seriously need some Uggs).

Poor Allie, she really couldn't move with all her layers so she either sat or stood frozen in the snow until someone picked her up and planted her somewhere else. I don't think she had fun at all this day. She  actually fell asleep standing up. 

We got out the little purple sledding saucer Audrey got for Christmas and Daddy demonstrated how it worked--which was hilarious. 

When it was finished, Audrey liked her castle and her Daddy made it for her, and that's all that matters when you're three. 

Allie trying out the saucer

Daddy showing Audrey how it works.......kinda. :) 

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snow is fun! 

sliding down the drift

not a fan

Auds and Allie 

Allie falling asleep standing up

the princess snow castle, which to me, looks more like a wall that soldiers would hide behind to reload.  :)

Sarah