Thanks and praise to the gods of sleep

Today is kind of rainy out, and I was wondering what on earth I was going to do to fill the morning until 11am when we're going to story time at the library. Lately, the girls have been getting up ridiculously early (6ish) and they are irritable and bickering with eachother by 8 or so. Taking them to the park or the beach is usually a good distractor, but that option is out, given today's weather.

Well, Eden just got up (8:30) and Sadie is still sleeping strong. It is going to be a glorious day, rain and all.

I may have to rethink my athiest stance.

Because I'm sure you're dying to know...

...the rainy day ended up being very nice, actually. I ran errands with the girls in the morning, and then Sadie's friend, Matan, came over for a playdate in the afternoon. The sun even came out, and Sadie is at her riding lesson right now with Evan, and Eden has just gone down for the night, and all is well in the world.

Rainy day, stuck inside, redux

I'm home with the kids again today, and guess what? It's raining out. Pouring, in fact. This better not be a pattern. Anyone have any suggestions for good rainy day activities? I'm really struggling to find things to do that are entertaining and suitable for two kids of different ages. I can think of a bunch of indoor things to do with Sadie (baking, board games, cards, playing dolls), but those things are hard to engage Eden in, obviously. And, the things that I can do with Eden (read board books, sing songs, play tickle tickle) are not very interesting for Sadie.

I'm really trying not to spend money unnecessarily, so some of the other things I can think of (ride the rides at the mall, go to an indoor playspace) are off the table, too.

If the rain would just let up, I'd just take us all for a walk around the neighborhood, but that's not happening right now.

Somehow, rainy days seem just so much worse in the summertime, don't they?

Just some randomness about the kids

1. Sadie has been very into riding her bicycle recently, after basically ignoring it for ages. She is still using training wheels, and probably will be for a while yet, but she has been enjoying taking it out, and even willingly (ok, it took a bit of coaxing, but she did it) got right back on after a spill the other night.

2. Eden now tells me when she has crapped her pants. As if I actually needed her to tell me (you can smell her a mile away). She starts saying "Tinky! Tinky!" which is Edenspeak for "I made a stinky load in my pants, please come change me."

3. Sadie has suddenly gotten over a lot of her finickiness with food. Thank goodness! She is starting to try more things, and dinner has become a lot less stressful.

4. If I haven't mentioned before, Eden has gone totally gaga over the Sesame Street crew. She just lurves "Harney and Dirt" and "Almo". Goes nuts when she sees them. It is very cute.

What is going on?

For the past several days, Eden has been fighting bedtime. To the tune of talking, whining, complaining, crying, calling out for me for as much as TWO HOURS after she is put to bed for the night. Then, she's waking really early (for her), regardless of the fact that she is getting to sleep so much later than usual. Evan thinks she's maybe going through a developmental leap, and can't shut her mind off enough to go to sleep. I think maybe the four teeth that she has been working on are bothering her. Either way, it is not fun. I'm starting to dread bedtime, because I know it will be such an ordeal.

This morning, she actually did sleep until almost 7 (though, she didn't finally fall asleep last night until 9), but for other reasons not known to me...Sadie woke ridiculously early (6am, as opposed to her normal 8am).

What is going on with these girls? Spring fever?

Again with the Yard...

We had such a productive weekend, as far as the yard goes. Saturday morning, bright and early, Evan, his friend Paul and my father-in-law got out there and started ripping up the old, delapidated deck. The work seemed to go pretty quickly and easily for them. Probably because, as Evan says, "destroying stuff is fun." By noon, the deck was off and most of the building material that couldn't be salvaged was loaded into Evan's truck, ready to go to the dump.

So, now we are left with a bit more of a disaster back there, but within the next week or so, Evan is going to rent a machine and level out the yard. Then, we'll get a load of topsoil delivered, spread that out and plant some grass. Our current plan is to leave it like that until later in the summer when we can afford to buy the material for the new deck. Evan has decided to use Ipe
for it, which is quite a bit more expensive than we had originally budgeted for. So, we'll be deckless for a bit longer.

As an aside...Eden was completely mesmerized by the whole demolition project. She sat in front of the kitch windows, eating her crackers and watching her Daddy work, for well over an hour.


Yesterday, Eden blessed us with a three hour nap in the afternoon, and Sadie cooperated by mostly entertaining herself outside, so Evan and I got a ton done in the front. We got the bed along the front walkway tidied, and Sadie and Evan planted some flower seeds there, as well. We mowed the lawn, transplanted some hydrangeas, and tore out a very unsightly row of stragly azaleas bushes along the driveway. It is really looking pretty good out there!

Other weekend updates, bullet style:

• Had a great playdate with Sadie's friend Olivia, and her mom and baby sister
• Sadie and I had a girls afternoon, with a trip up to the Short Hills mall to meet my friend Cara
• Above trip did result in my first ever car accident. I got rear-ended (in my father-in-law's car, no less) while stopped at a light.
• Had a nice dinner with my parents last night - they brought Sadie this book, "The Kissing Hand" to help her with the crying at school in the morning issue. It worked like a charm this morning :-)
  

Better than Expected

The shots are administered, the tears have been dried, the bellies are full of nasty fast food, the little one is napping, the big one is back at school, and the mom is relieved. Phew!

Unhappy Visit = Happy Meal

In a little bit, I need to leave work and go pick up both girls and take them for their well visits. they are both getting shots today, so it isn't going to be pretty. Actually, Eden is likely to not really notice/care, if her 12 month appointment is any indicator. But Sadie will notice and care. And cry and whine. And recoil from the nurse as if she is a man-eating shark.

I will be bribing her to cooperate by dangling a rare and coveted trip to McDonald's afterwards. Truthfully, though, I'm sure I'll still have to basically pin her down, screaming, for the shot. And, we'll still go to McD's afterwards.

My mom is meeting me at the dr.'s office, to help by holding Eden while I'm wrestling with Sadie. It takes a village, I tell you....

My Little Philanthrop

Sadie has expressed an interest in 'earning' an allowance. In her words..."I want to do my responsibilities and then you give me money for it." So, we have agreed that each night after dinner, she is to help clear the table. If she does this every night, on Fridays, she will earn $1.40 (she came up with this amount).

In anticipation of her getting her hot little hands on the money, I've been talking with her about the concepts of saving, saving up for things, spending, and giving. At her school, they focus a lot on tzedukah (charity), so she is familiar with this one. So, this morning, I asked her what she was planning to do with her money that she will get tomorrow. Her answer? "I'm going to give it to you!"

Kind of negates the whole idea, doesn't it?

Perfect Weekend

Lots of Thoughts

ok, stupid title, I know, but I couldn't come up with anything better. Cut me some slack...its a Monday morning.

Anyway, the weekend was good, though very busy. The highlight, for me, was taking Sadie to her classmate's birthday party. I posted a while back about how I am really looking to connect with some new friends here. So, the party was at Build-a-Bear, at the mall. While the girls were engaged in selecting, stuffing, fluffing, and dressing their bears, one of the other moms and I went to grab a cup of coffee. I'm so glad we did! We ended up just talking and talking and having a great time.

After the party, we (and one other mom and daughter) decided to take the girls over to the food court and carousel (no food at the party). So, the girls got to binge on McDonald's and play, and the mothers got some adult company. Win win! I now have a playdate--I mean, Sadie now has a playdate ;) --for next weekend.

After that, Sadie and I headed home and caught up with Evan and Eden and enjoyed the rest of the day together. It was nice to be able to be outside all afternoon (yay for spring).

Yesterday, Evan needed to get some work done, so I took the girls up to my parents' house. We took them to a playground and let them run around. After lunch, while Eden was napping, Sadie, my dad and I played outside (Red light, green light...tag...races). I am a firm believer that tired out kids make for happy mommies, so I was keen to keep Sadie running around. I didn't anticipate how tired out I would be! But, my plan worked, as Sadie was completely exhausted and asking to go to bed nice and early last night. And, I followed suit not too much after that. Which was a good thing, since Eden decided to wake for the day at 5:30 this morning...Happy Monday!

Fast and Furious

that pretty much describes the weekend we just had. Woosh! Flew by in the blink of an eye. One moment is was Friday afternoon and I was getting out of work early (snow day, early dismissal - woohoo!), the next thing I know, it is Monday morning and I'm frantically trying to jump in the shower in the seven seconds I have while Eden is occupied with her banana and Sadie is still asleep.

So, what happened in between?

First, some waiting around for the tree service guy to come out and give us a quote for taking down a couple of trees. Waiting around in vain, I should say, as he called (my work #) to reschedule.

This exciting activity was followed by a trip to the grocery store (not fun - Evan and I foolishly thought going at 11:30 in the morning would be a fine time, and both kids ended up hungry and cranky).

Unpacking groceries, lunch for the hungry kids and a nap for the most-tired Eden came next.

Sadie and I had an afternoon "date" to go see a showing of Happy Feet at my work. It was cute, and we had a good time getting out together, but we didn't make it through the whole movie (she got frightened by the scene with the seal). Still, it was nice to have some time for just the two of us. We don't get much of that these days.

Sunday, I took the girls to Chuck E. Cheese, so Evan could get some work done. Yes, I really did. I should get some sort of medal of bravery for that one. I did manage to lose Sadie within our first 10 minutes there, but that incident aside, both kids had a blast.

Then, my parents came for an afternoon visit and birthday (Dad's) dinner.

So, it was a busy weekend and now here I am, back at work. Time to start thinking about the next one!

Love is in the air...

Did you have a romantic Valentine's Day?

We...did not.

Wednesday saw a huge ice storm hit our area. "Oh, that's romantic!" you are probably thinking, "Being holed up and cozy inside, watching the miracle of nature in action from the comfort of your couch." Yeah, not so much. I mean, I did get the day off, due to the weather, and so, it would have been nice to kick back and watch the storm. Except.

Except that Sadie was in the throes of this virus that rendered her unable to do anything but lie on the couch, cry, vomit, nap intermittently, and demand that I bring her juice. Or ice-pops. Or coloring books. Or a different movie. Or tissues. So, my day centered around caring for her.

And, the icing on the cake, so to speak, was when my parents, who had been without power (and therefore heat) all day showed up to stay the night. Don't get me wrong. I was so glad that we were there, and could give them a comfortable place to stay. And, it was nice having them. It kind of reminded me of the long weekend visits they would make to us up in Massachussetts. We gave them our room and we slept in the den. This was probably a good thing, as I was up and down out of bed all night helping poor Sadie.

Anyway, I would not call this one of our most romantic Valentine's Days.

Sisters

Growing up, I always wanted a sister. Someone to share secrets with, to fight with in that way that only sisters can, and someone I knew I'd be close with my entire life.

Well, I never got that sister, though I do have an amazing sister in law. But, I think I have something even more wonderful. I have two daughters. And they have eachother.

As Eden is getting bigger and becoming more of a real person, it is so amazing to watch the two of them interact, play, squabble.

I know that there will be fights and petty jealousies and times when they don't like eachother very much. But I also know that they will always have eachother, and this makes my heart smile. Here's to sisters!!!

One Year

This week is all about getting ready for Eden's birthday party on Sunday. We're having about 30 people -- the first real big gathering at our house since we moved in. I'm excited, but also kind of nervous.

It amazes me that a year has passed already since she came into our lives. Unfreakingbelievable. I have a hard time thinking back to my pregnancy with her, because it was so filled with doubt about whether I really wanted or could handle another baby. I had no idea what an absolute joy she would be. I often hear about how a baby can "complete" a family (as in, once you have them, you know you are done having kids). For me, in many ways, Eden is the piece of the puzzle that actually made us a family. When it was just Sadie, I think Evan and I were very much a couple with a child. Somehow, Eden changed all that. I can't, for a minute, imagine our lives without her now.