Christmas Vacation 2012

While Christmas Vacation 2012 isn't yet over a lot has happened since our last post that we should get caught up on.  As always, Christmas tends to be one of the best times of year for us to take vacation from work, and while we didn't leave Chicago we've had a wonderful week+ off, and have kept Sawyer and Isla home from daycare with us. 

So we'll have to tell most of this via pictures because i have so many.  Work ended a bit early on the 21st - I think everyone was looking to get out of dodge.  Worked well for us because we had a little bit of cleaning to finish, followed up with some serious grocery shopping before heading off Saturday around noon to pick up our guests - Aunt Sue and Uncle Jeff came to town to celebrate Christmas with us!  We were very happy to have them in town, and the girls loved it too.  We ended up heading into town the first night as we had some library books to return, and so we hit up dinner as well, and of course Sawyer's favorite fro yo place.  Was a nice relaxing start to the "holidays".  The rest of our time was actually pretty uneventful.  Sue and Jeff walked into town most days, with me/the girls joining them at least once, did a lot of group crossword puzzles, hung out, and just ate some good food.  I suppose that's all vacation should be.  Isla and Sawyer loved having themselves an audience.  Isla became especially attached to her Uncle Jeff, and would often sit with him on the couch or chair and watch TV.  Most surprisingly, she did it after a nap one day, which is when she is most clingy so we know he rated high.  Aunt Sue also got some love and hugs, but maybe not quite this much...

We all got quite a kick out of watching them together actually.  Isla would insist they sit next to each other at meals, and because Isla's plate tends to have a lot of food left on it he started feeding her one day, and it became a regular thing at every meal after that.  Side note - she hasn't been spoon fed since Uncle Jeff left...

Sometimes Isla would give back...

Both girls were allowed to open a present on Christmas Eve, and had fun.  Despite Aunt Sue's worries that Isla might not like a doll that doesn't talk, and a sweater, I think Isla showed she's just a genuinely happy girl.  Her new doll, Annie, is still a favorite and Isla put her new sweater on immediately and wore it the rest of the night...making sure to give hugs and thank yous along the way.

Sawyer was also quite excited about presents.  She definitely knew what was going on this year.  While we struggle with getting her to say her thank you's, there was no doubt she was loving her gifts.  While not quite as affectionate as her sister, Sawyer would look for Sue and Jeff when she woke up every day, and was quite upset the morning they left because she slept too late to say goodbye.

While not planned, each girl was dressed up on Christmas Eve...made it feel a bit more festive...and it was all due to Sawyer.  She decided she wanted to wear a pretty dress, and whatever Sawyer does, Isla does.

A big shout out to Aunt Katie for the dress, because this is one we borrowed from Maeve till she gets older.  I liked how they looked so much I think I may start buying them Christmas dresses each year.

They were even happy to pose for pictures...

Bedtime was a bit easier than normal with Sawyer understanding she needed to go to bed before Santa could come.  Plus we had some work ahead of us...there were a few big presents - namely the dollhouse which is a share for both girls, and each got a scooter.  Sawyer seems to prefer Isla's scooter for now, which has three wheels, but i'm hoping come spring will want her two-wheeled scooter.  While our girls are certainly fortunate in the gifts they get, we tried not to go overboard and I think succeeded. 

For reasons I cannot fathom, Isla chose Christmas day to be the one day this whole vacation to wake up early.  She's been treating us this week to 7-8:30 am wake-ups which has been glorious, but on Christmas woke up at 6am or so.  We quickly brought her downstairs but she walked right past the Christmas tree without realizing anything was different, heading straight for the fridge to get her milk.  It was only when Mark and I explained Santa came that she got excited and started telling us Santa brought her presents.  She quickly gave her scooter a little test drive...

It took Sawyer another hour before she came down.  She can be a strange bird and it took her a few minutes to warm up to the idea of Christmas.  She sat with us by the tree and just started without saying anything, or smiling, for a few minutes, but then seemed to snap out of it and was bopping around pointing all the toys out to us.  Her and Isla immediately went to work playing with their new dollhouse.  It is now up in Sawyer's bedroom, and has been a great distraction for both girls, either playing together or alone.

Oops...this is out of sequence, but is a snap from Christmas Eve, Sawyer was playing with her present from the Kings.

Back in order, we opened presents over the course of about two hours which was nice because each present got some attention as it was opened or grabbed from the tree.  Here they are cuddling together in their new sleeping bags from Grandma and Grandpa Wallace...

Playing in the tunnel part of the tent from Grandma and Grandpa Harris...

Checking out their new tutus and wands...

Opening the tent...

All in all it was a nice couple of days.  Aunt Sue and Uncle Jeff left to go home the morning after Christmas, and we spent the rest of the week doing more of the same, with a few special things thrown in.  Mark took Sawyer to her first 3D movie.  This was only her 2nd movie ever, but she made it through the whole thing and seemed to get into the 3D aspect of it.  We've gone out for a few lunches, gone bowling, to the library, and walked into town.  Mark and I even got out Saturday for dinner and a movie which was really nice.  The rest of the pics are just random shots from during the week...I'll admit they're heavy of Isla - the girl just is at a really cute age right now.

Ok...we're biased, perhaps only we can get excited by our kid sitting in a bucket.

Wearing her new outfit from Maeve, and the slippers I bought her last year that she hated, but now seems to love...

Just looking cute...

Photo credit:  Sawyer.  Sawyer and Mark were hanging in the living room and Isla surprised them.  Didn't realize she took a picture till a day or two later...what can i say, Sawyer has skills with the iphone.

We have a similar photo of Sawyer from her first bowl.  Here is Isla's.  While she didn't bowl a ton - it was mostly left to Sawyer, both seem to love it.  This is probably 1 of the 3 times I was allowed to help her.  Every time I went up with her she yelled for me to go back and told me she wanted Daddy's help.

We had some time to kill at the mall before bowling opened, and so we hit up the tree house play zone.  There were about a million kids there but ours didn't seem to care.  The best part was the crazy hair Sawyer would get every time she came down the slide.  The other parents may have thought Mark and I were a little weird as we took a picture almost every time she came down.  She of course was loving the attention.

And the last two are pictures Mark took of Isla in her crib when he went to wake her up from her nap.  How can you not think these are adorable?

Ready to get up now...

 

The girls are headed to daycare tomorrow.  Mark and I are off and headed out with a long list of things we want to do - some have to's/some want to's.  Should be a good day regardless, topped off wtih a quite New Year's Eve at home and then what will surely be a quiet day all together Tuesday before the craziness of the 2013 starts up...

Lunch Pictures

Have two pictures from our lunch out on Sunday.  Sawyer rocked some baby sunglasses for the day and reminded me a bit of Jan from Grease.  Girl was hamming it up for the camera and kept asking to have her picture taken.

Table manners are not the strong suit of these two and they spent much of lunch crawling in the space between our booth and the window.  Although, at least Sawyer eats quite well, if not slowly due to all her fooling around.  All we could get in Isla was half a cookie, some chips and some milk. 

In this picture, Sawyer is also upset because Isla is stealing her thunder and she didn't think she was in the picture.  All I can think about when I see Isla is the dress my mom bought her is in Michigan colors - she always wanted one of her kids to go to Michigan, so maybe it was intentional.  Daddy didn't seem to notice/care which is good because she's got plenty of room to grow in this dress still.

Counting our Blessings

This weekend was quite a nice one at our house.  Mark took Friday off and while I worked a half a day we grabbed lunch out before deciding to do some random errands together.  It was at lunch that I really learned of all that was going on in Connecticut.  Like everyone else it made me utterly sad for the parents, relieved/feeling guilty that my kids were safe, and scared at the total lack of reason and predictability with which these events occur...that sense of it could happen to everyone and you never know when your luck will run out.  Needless to say, after our errands Mark and I were both perfectly happy to go pick our kids up early from daycare and spend some extra time with them.  Sawyer had been asking to try out a new frozen yogurt place in town and it was the perfect start to our weekend.  Already a popular spot in our town, Sawyer quickly declared it our go-to spot as well.  There's a wall of frozen yogurts to select from, and then a huge bar of toppings to add to it. 

After heading home, we relaxed, snuggled up and watched a movie.  Despite Sawyer not going to bed till late it was a good night.  The rest of the weekend was filled with more of the same.  The weather was rainy so we may have hit a new low taking the kids to McDonalds to expend some energy on the playground, but we also got lots done around the house, including Mark painting the laundry room which wasn't even on our list of to-do's, more Christmas cookies, and getting Christmas cards out!  During all of this the girls played pretty well, including a bit of dress-up.

Isla is happy to wear her Tinkerbell outfit now that it's not Halloween.  And she's proving the resemblance to be true...

Sawyer goes back and forth between dresses, but if she's going all out it tends to be Cinderella or Rapunzel.

As for this week, we're likely to be pretty busy with work leading up to some vacation time.  Sawyer is counting down her five more days of school until we have nine days of vacation together.  Luckily all Christmas presents are accounted for so no last minute stress there. 

Tis the Season

I got a great surprise last night and thought I'd share.  Mark was getting Isla ready for bed and found the Christmas jammies I had pulled out.  Our girl was looking so cute he brought her back downstairs.  Aside from just looking like an absolute cutie (and I recognize my bias), the other reason I like these pictures is it kind of shows Isla's silly side.  Sawyer's personality and silly side is well known and well documented, but Isla has a lot of it too.  She's not quite as crazy as her sister, but she's got a great laugh and a very happy spirit.

She got the giggles.  While neither girl loved hats as a young baby, they've both taken a keen interest as they've gotten older.  I have to admit, I love it, though I foresee a lot of hat purchases in my future.

She ran around and played for awhile...

And got to stay up past bedtime last night because Mark and I both loved watching her play in her cute jammies.

Happy Birthday To Me

Well I hit the big 35 today, and we had a nice little weekend celebrating.  Saturday was spent checking some things off the family list, but all in all it felt like a pretty relaxing day.  We started by heading out to brunch in town.  Everyone was pretty slow to get moving so we went at the prime time but I have to say our girls were pretty good.  Both ate really well, and we had only one potential problem when Isla wanted to follow Dad/Sawyer to the bathroom.  So, thankfully, we didn't have to rush home but headed off to get some paint, drop off to Goodwill, and then treat the ladies to a little time at the library.  It's always a good spot and both enjoyed themselves quite a bit.  Sawyer got in some good computer time and Isla was able to hit up the train and coloring tables.  I suspect we'll be there more due to the oncoming cold winter days.

After heading home we got some things done - Mark finished up painting while I finished decorating the staircase....it turned out really nicely in case you were wondering.  Other than that, we just hung out until Isla welcomed me to my birthday by waking up at midnight with her second bloody nose of the night.  It woke her up and so I brought her downstairs to clean her up, and ended up having to hang together on the couch till about 4am.  Luckily I was in and out of sleep while she sat on me and watched her shows.  I really only had to deal with her repositioning herself, and asking for new shows.

Come Sunday I got some great handmade cards and then we headed out to lunch at the restaurant of my choosing. I picked a local greek place, which was nicer than I thought, but luckily our girls were actually well behaved.  I thought we might have an issue when Sawyer was complaining her stomach hurt and needed to go home to lay on the couch and have her stomach rubbed, but she quickly recovered when I let her play with my phone at the table.  Lunch even came complete with surprise cake, candle, and singing.  We had four forks and all of us dug in which was quite funny.

After heading home, it was time for some rest and then christmas cookies.  I had made the dough Saturday night and so Sawyer and I rolled it out and made the cutouts while Isla slept.  Sawyer is quite possible one of the more annoying people to bake with - she eats everything she can touch, including raw flour.  But we got it done and didn't kill each other, and saved the frosting and decorating for when Isla woke up.

Turns out Isla is quite similar to her sister.  She helped decorate, but likes to snack on the frosting and sprinkles more than put them on the cookies.

Very proud of herself... 

And the final product - we used every single bit of decorative sugar/sprinkles I had in the house.  Most of our cookies are completely covered.

And after all that sugar, it should be no surprise that a dance party ensued.  Actually Sawyer and Mark did a lot of dancing this weekend.  Girl has a lot of moves, this is just one mid-action...kind of looks like a sprinkler move, but I think she was more mid-twirl.

And with that a nice weekend ends.  It makes me look forward to time off at xmas very much.  I managed to finish most of the Christmas shopping on Friday, either online or through quick trips to the store.  Ordered the Xmas cards tonight, and hoping to get those out next weekend...though I should caveat them by saying I wasn't totally feeling it this year, so feels like our card is a little lacking in inspiration this year.  Any grand plans I had were not realized.  Next year I'll start earlier and actually try to plan out a set of pictures.  And now, since the house is all quiet, I think I'll head off to bed like the rest of the family.

She's 2!

Isla turned two on Monday, just a reminder that our little girl is growing up.  She loves to tell people "Happy Birthday" so it's fitting that now it's her turn.  When she's had cupcakes this week, she says "Happy Birthday Isla" and I find it quite adorable. When it's all said and done she will have had three different cakes/cupcakes so hoping she felt special.

 Taking a little lick...

We didn't do much to celebrate since we had some cake at Grandma and Grandpa's and Isla had already opened presents on three different days.  But on Sunday we had some lasagna for dinner and some mini cupcakes and sang to our girl.  It was already getting late and the girls needed a bath so we didn't give her a present from us.  I figured we'd do that on Monday, her actual birthday, however Mark worked late and they were tired so it seems we have forgone presents from us this year and Isla will be receiving it at Christmas time.  This is probably the last year that will be acceptable because she still doesn't really understand why she's getting presents.  Plus Sawyer has demonstrated a heck of a jealous streak so no need to push that further.

At any rate, with this birthday Isla will be moving up into a different room at daycare - the preppers room - and so the official potty training is likely to start soon.  That and moving her into a big girl bed are probably the two big things over the next few months.  I let Sawyer and Isla try to take a nap in Sawyer's bed on Saturday after our drive home from Michigan and it was disastrous.  Neither of them slept or would stay in bed.  We'll give that another few months.  I'm hoping potty training happens before then - Isla is definitely ready - she tells us when she's pooping and asks to be changed.  This morning I even had her taking off her wet diaper saying "yuck".  However, she seems terribly afraid of the toilet and will not even sit on it since that one and only time several months ago.  I don't want her afraid so I haven't pushed it but hoping seeing her older classmates go will prove to be some incentive. 

Fittingly, I also had the girls parent-teacher conferences for daycare today.  I do them over the phone because I don't feel my kids have any huge issues and they usually only last a few minutes.  But I did write down some of the things they said...

Isla:

• Strong verbal skills - this one surprised me because she's  not as strong as Sawyer was, but she does talk a lot, and understands a lot...perhaps it's just her soft voice that has me doubting her
• Catches on quickly to stories and songs
• Loves to engage in group activities - one of the first to run over for them when called
• Is very helpful, and enjoys cleaning up toys
• Independent - likes to play with the other kids but equally fine going off on her own to play in the kitchen or read a book
• Is very caring - this one I knew, but I was happy to hear it confirmed from school. Our Isla is just an affectionate, and caring kid.  At school when kids cry she goes over and rubs their backs, or hugs them, and says "it's ok".  As home, she loves to give us hugs and kisses and tell us "i love you".  Mark and I are the biggest beneficiaries of this, and I think it's safe to say we both love it.
• Her main thing to work on was using words when she's upset, though she doesn't hit or bite at school which is nice - seems she reserves that for the one who can really upset her (Sawyer), and she's still struggling with sharing toys, as it seems most of her peers are as well.

Sawyer:

• Very smart - I've known this for a long time, but again good to hear others thing the same.  Sawyer is a smarty who catches on to things very quickly
• Has lots of friends
• Is very imaginative - she's gotten very into art, and has a teacher who is very artistic and fosters this a lot which is great
• Can focus for extremely long periods of time - Sawyer can get engrossed in her art projects or coloring and concentrate
• Her teacher said she's ready to learn to read and should be able to sound out words if she would try - they don't work on it right now in her class, and we haven't much either because Sawyer hasn't shown much interest but her teacher thinks she's more than ready
• She's not quite as bossy as she was in her last update, but her teacher told me she did taunt a little boy the other day and almost made him cry.  It seems she really didn't know what she was doing but definitely didn't stop as he got more upset.  Apparently she was quite remorseful when the teacher stopped her and pointed out the reaction of the boy, but I do hope our girl uses her powers for good and not evil, and doesn't become some kind of bully.

All in all good reports.  Definitely growing up fast...

Thanksgiving

We headed over to Michigan this Thanksgiving for a few days of relaxation with the family.  Wasn't able to update about it till now because I was out of space for pictures on the blog and had to get more.  Now that's settled, on with the update.  We drove into town on Wednesday and while it started out quite relaxing with us not rushing in the morning, and stopping for a bit of a bigger lunch on the way, it ended a little painfully when we hit traffic/accidents and got delayed quite a bit longer than normal.  Made arriving really nice.

The girls seemed to enjoy themselves quite a bit - most of this will be captured via the few pictures I did take.  We went to the plane on Thanksgiving as it was such a nice day, and Sawyer took two flights with her Grandpa.  She told us her favorite part was when they saw deer.  Charlie and Ben came in as well which always provides them entertainment.  Couple that with a Thanksgiving feast, a trip out to the local pizza joint for Daddy, and a night out for dinner with the whole family and we had a very nice trip. 

For the pictures I took - each Grandchild posed with Grandpa before dinner...all turned out great, except Isla looks more like a marionette doll...

 Sawyer was in good spirits though...

We had a mini birthday celebration for Isla.  She wasn't so fond of singing to her, but did dig into her cake.

She got some great presents from Grandma, Grandpa, Ann, and Ted.  She seemed to enjoy watching the other kids open/play with them more than opening them herself.

Grandpa broke out the whipped cream and was squirting it into kids mouths.  They got quite excited by this, but all crashed pretty hard a bit later.

Sawyer was not so sure about the presents being for Isla and not her.  We saw some jealousy on this birthday for sure.

 And finally the girls opening up her present...

We headed home to Chicago on Saturday morning.  Took a different route than normal which was nice, and made it home in time to get adjusted ahead of the work week - always laundry and grocery shopping waiting for us.  Plus some kids who needed to rest and get back on their schedule.  We came home to a box of more presents from Aunt Sue and Uncle Jeff which delighted Isla and sent Sawyer's jealous meter soaring again.  The theme of the gifts was Dora, and while we may kill Sue for the singing cell phone, Isla plays with her Dora doll all the time, brushing her hair mostly.  She's very protective of her and tries to prevent Sawyer from getting her hands on it.

And with that we enter into the Christmas holiday season.  Lots of decorating, baking, gifts, and fun in our future I'm sure.