Happy Birthday Hattie!

This is a few days late, but I want to write a little letter to my Hattie for her birthday:

To My Sunshine Girl,
You are an amazing little kid. I have put more work into raising you than I have put into any other project in my life (and I have done lots of big things!) You tire me out to exhaustion and at the same time make my soul smile as bright as the sun. Yes, at the exact same time! You started screaming when you were two weeks old. You turned two years old on Saturday. When will the screaming stop? Well, if it goes along with your hilarious personality and your adorable dimple, then I guess you can keep screaming.

I am in awe at how smart you are and how athletic you are and how kind you can be. You have started to say the word "sorry" when you do something that hurts someone else. You give the best kisses and hugs. You love your sister so much that it hurts her! You are a mommy's girl and a daddy's girl. You have a smile that would melt the polar ice caps - even if they weren't already melting. Everyone who meets you comments on your cute dimple and your dazzling blue eyes that are now turning a shade of green like Grace's. You have the softest honey blond curly hair that is getting to be quite long and beautiful. Mommy wishes she could put it in a pony tail or pig tails, but you don't like it to even be brushed.

When you are out with mommy, you are shy and reserved and a very good girl. You sit on Mommy's lap for 2 hours on Monday mornings during relief society meetings without complaining. When you are at home with our family, you are wild and crazy and funny. You can't go 5 minutes without begging for someone to get involved with your game or idea.

You are curious and love to learn to do anything. You want to be just like Grace and you wish you could do everything she does. You like to tease her and stand in front of her when she is watching tv. You know this will get her attention and that is what you want. You like to help Mommy make dinner. You like to climb and run and jump and play and roll on the ground and throw things. What sports will you like when you get bigger? Probably all of them.

You love animals. You love your doggies, the ponies at the barn, the birdies in the window, the kitty cat at the mailbox, and any other animal you see. You also love babies! You can't get enough baby dolls and you love each one that you have. You also love real babies and any pictures of babies that you see. You go to bed every night with at least a baby and an animal. You also love your pink blankie! It goes everywhere with us. You are like Linus from Charlie Brown.

You like to go to bed early and get up early. Mommy is the opposite. You like getting up with your daddy in the morning when he gets ready for work. You like it when we are all together and you don't like it when one of us is gone.

You hate to be in your carseat, but you constantly go to the mudroom and get your shoes and jacket and say "go!" I don't know where you want to go.
I wish I could go everywhere you want to go.

You picked out plates with suns on them for your birthday party and mommy made you a sparkly sunshine cake. You are my sunshine girl.

I could write about you all day. You are taking a nap right now and you will be up soon. So, Mommy should get something done before you give me something else to do.

Happy Second Birthday Hattie!
Love,
Mommy

I'm a soccer mom

I don't have a minivan (and I'm not going to say "yet" either), but I am officially a mom with a kid in soccer every Saturday.

Grace started munchkin soccer today. It was a perfect, beautiful day. We were actually supposed to start last week, but got rained out. She's not on a "team", but there are about 40-50 kids from town (ages 5-7) who come together and learn how to play soccer. They have a group of professional soccer players who come and help the "dad coaches."

(Grace is the one raising her hand - she always is first to raise her hand.)

The kids start with a group warm up and run around the field playing tag. Then, they separate into 7 teams in different parts of the really big field and have little skills games and scrimages. It's 1 hour 15 minutes total. I think that's a long time, but the kids didn't seem to tire and they certainly didn't run out of things to do.

I was amazed at the quality of coaching - both from the pro's and from the dads. They really taught them a lot and today was only the first day of 8 weeks. They get the whole soccer program and a real soccer ball and a soccer shirt for $50. This is the bargain of my year!
Anyway, I was really impressed and Grace had a terrific time. Harriet was even a good girl on the sidelines - running up and down and playing with an extra soccer ball. Too bad daddy missed it, but he will be taking her plenty of times without me when I work pony club. So he will be a soccer daddy too. He would probably volunteer to help coach if he didn't have to take Hattie along.

The Famous Dr. Warnick

On Saturday I had the fortunate privilege of spending time with one Dr. Bryan Warnick. Bryan is one of my oldest friends dating back to when we were in seventh grade at Bonneville Junior High. I haven't seen much of him the last 8 years as school and careers have taken us in different directions, but I still consider him to be one of my greatest friends.

So it was with much happiness that I headed into Cambridge to pick him up for a few hours of touring Boston the surrounding area. Bryan has already posted about when I picked him up. It was pretty funny listening to the admiring colleague. I have not had that experience. I am generally the one seeking out the giants in the field, annoying them, and keeping them from doing what they want. Once the praise was done, one bow-tie wearing Dr. Warnick hopped into my car and I gave him the brief auto-tour of Boston.

We had a good time seeing the sights and catching up. I didn't even mind that he was wearing a bow-tie. Despite the bow-tie, the fan club, the soon to be released book, and the PhD, I still think of Bryan as the guy who I met at 1 PM every day during the summer to play a little basketball. He has moved on to bigger and better pastures, but I still have many fond memories from Junior High, High School, and college.

Bryan did make one comment how it seemed weird that from our group of friends in high school that two of us have PhD and work for big name universities. He also made a comment disparaging himself and his degree and job. While I don't really think that I have amounted to much with my PhD, I do think that Bryan is going places. I'm not really surprised by it either. One of the things I most admired about Bryan was that not only was he smart and talented, but perhaps more importantly he had passion (something I think that I lack). While that passion was arguable misplaced in high school, he probably focused and channeled it once he got into college. I personally think that this is what led him into philosophy and an advanced degree.

I still admire Bryan. I still sense his passion and I was grateful to share a day with him. Hopefully some of that rubbed off on me. Congrats Bryan. I'm part of that aspiring fan club.

True signs of spring

Erikson's Dairy Ice Cream stand opens! Chapman family start eating lots of yummy ice cream on the few days that have been warm.

Peeper frogs start chirping at night to sing us to sleep!

Snow melts and reveals fall leaves that have not yet been raked (ugh.)

Bulbs FINALLY show their tips above ground. We might get a tulip to bloom yet!

Birds start cackling earlier and earlier in the morning. Morning comes way too early. Harriet gets up before birds.

David's bike emerges from the basement and his car starts spending more time in the driveway.

Mosquitoes in the house.

David sets up mosquito magnet. Pond is now a mosquito nursery.

Velvet gets bitten by a tick.

GRACE GETS BITTEN BY A TICK!!! YUCK!!! Can we move please? Poor little thing... she came to me a few nights ago and said "mommy, I have an owee on my ear." I pulled her ear down to look at the back of it and saw something dark and crawly. I nearly had a heart attack - I knew exactly what it was. It was a deer tick - the worst kind. Luckily, I think she told me RIGHT away when it bit her because I got all of it out and it hadn't filled up with blood yet and it is healing really really well. We have to wait the 2 weeks to be sure that she doesn't get a rash and go in for Lyme disease treatments, but it usually takes over 24 hours for ticks to transmit Lyme so we are probably safe. For now.

Tick checks every night until November.

Winter, much too cold for much too long. Spring, too wet and too buggy. Early Summer too hot and too humid. Late Summer/Early Fall - no bugs, little rain, perfect temperature - PRICELESS. I'm waiting for August.

Easter 2008

(um, any more chocolate in there??)

Well, I shouldn't feel behind about blogging for Easter. We should just be having Easter this weekend it seems! Not weeks ago!(thanks for the new jammies Grandma Barbara!)

Easter used to be a sign of spring for me. Not anymore since living in New England - especially with it being so early this year. I've been meaning to write a few things about Easter for a while, so here goes.

Our Easter was simple. The Easter Bunny did come on Easter Sunday morning. We didn't go to any egg hunts - too cold. But, the Easter Bunny did leave a little egg hunt in our house for us. He (or is it a she?) did leave a little reminder about Jesus in the Easter egg hunt. A note was left with the baskets that said there was a special egg to find. There was a picture of Jesus in it. Just enough to remind the girls that Easter is not just about spring and candy, but it is really for Jesus. Grace was really excited about it and Hattie liked the picture. I never really go over the top with these kinds of things (egg hunts or Jesus eggs for that matter), but I do like to have family traditions and things that the kids can count on and someday have good memories of doing.(the Easter Bunny decorated our playroom with all of the bunnies we had in our house - there were a lot!)(does Hattie know I just took the egg she is looking for?)

We went to church in new Easter dresses. David actually took both girls shopping and bought their Easter dresses all by himself. (Grace helped him pick them out. ) They did an excellent job. The dresses are perfect for Easter and summer.Church was very nice except for having to sit in the overflow on the back row. I guess not as nice as the Catholics make it though! After church, we went to visit Jeanne. She asked Grace if the flowers were nice at church. Grace didn't know what she was talking about. We do have fresh flowers every week in sacrament, and did have some on Easter, but no more than usual. Jeanne told us that the thing she misses the most about going to the Catholic church is walking in on Easter and smelling all of the huge flower bouquets that fill the room. She was surprised we didn't do something more than a simple arrangement at the pulpit.

Anyway, we spent the afternoon and evening just as a family. I did go way over the top and cooked a really nice fancy meal. We usually have salmon for Easter dinner instead of the traditional ham. Jesus was a fisherman, not a pig farmer! We had a few of the traditional family holiday disagreements and the stress that is caused when mom spends 4 hours cooking dinner and kids want constant attention. But what is a holiday without some family strife?

Harriet's new vocab

Not to leave Hattie out. She is way wilder than a rock star. The child who literally almost made it to her second birthday without watching a single minute of tv (her choice NOT mine!) is now addicted to the movie Shrek. She asks for it by saying "showwww, showwww" over and over and over until you just hit the play button. We try to limit her to twice a day, but, sometimes your instinct to stay sane wins over your instinct to keep her media time down. She has a lot of catching up to do anyway - she's gone 2 years without watching tv!

Her other new words include:
Mine!
Puppy!
chicks rule (sounds like schicks doool)
juice juice juice juice - this one has been going on for a while

She is definitely cruising the spectrum of the terrible twos. If she wasn't so dang cute, she would be in loads of trouble. glad she's sleeping right now...

Rock Star

ya, some day I'll get to blogging about Easter...but for now, forget American Idol - we've got a rock star in the family.

Grace wore her new cool sunglasses to pre-school on Monday (it was gray and rainy.) Her teacher asked her why she had them on - she said "I'm a rock star."

We've totally gotten into this guitar hero thing. Grace really can't play much because she's not quite quick enough with her fingers, but she loves to watch David and me play it. We're getting addicted. It's really super fun.
You know you're in trouble though, when your 5 year old's new favorite songs are:

Evenflo
Welcome to the Jungle
Slow Ride
Rock and Roll all Night

Last week, she didn't even know that Pearl Jam was a band. This week she's making me play Evenflo over and over on my ipod in the car.

She got some sweet hair color from Aunt Jess in Salt Lake and she put some cool red and blue rock star streaks in her hair tonight (don't worry Grandma - it only lasts until you wash it.)

ROCK ON!

to Utah to Utah

Yes, we went to Utah again. We like to make our seasonal trip back to see family. We have our usual routine, but we decided to do some different things this time to mix it up a bit. Lots of things about this trip were different...

First, let's not forget the AGONIZING trips there and back. Wait, yes, let's forget them so I have it in me to do it again. Grace has always been a world-class traveler. She loves the airport, taking her shoes off at security, putting her back pack through the scanner, the plane, the seat, the movie, the drink from the airline attendant, everything. Harriet HATES EVERYTHING ABOUT TRAVELING. She screamed all the way there and all the way back. Poor thing, though, she had a double ear-infection on the way there and I didn't know any different because she never gets them and I thought she was just her usual unhappy traveling self. So, yes, our trip started with a trip to urgent care - nothing changes.
We spent lots of time with grandmas, grandpas, aunts, and cousins and a few friends. (sorry if you're reading this and got skipped this time friend... we still love you...)
After all the birthday celebrations, we got out and did a few things. We spent time at some of our usual hang-outs - the zoo, mo-Deb's work, and the Training Table, but we added lots of new things. We went to the aquarium in Sandy, took Traxx with Grandma and Grandpa Chapman to the museum of Church History (spent most of our time in the Children's exhibit), and Grace and I went skiing at Alta. Grace had a rough day on the tow-line at Alta. When I say "day", I mean 30 minutes. It wasn't her happiest moment, but she and I made it up and down a few times together and then we went back to the deck at the lodge to enjoy the ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL 60 degree day. The drive up and down Little Cottonwood Canyon on that day made everything else worth it. And, she says, she will try skiing again with daddy.

A few notable things about this time spent with family was that Sean finally decided that he likes his cousins. Up 'til now, he has never enjoyed spending time with Grace and Hattie, but this time, they TOTALLY played together and had the most fun. This made things even harder to leave - to know that they could be good friends and play more often... At least he likes us now.

We also got to spend more time with Aunt Jess. Since she is living at home again for a minute, we got to see her every morning when she got ready for work and sometimes at night. We usually don't get to see much of her, so we were thankful for seeing her every day. The kids got to know her much better.

Grace went to see her dentist, Uncle Randy, to find out that she has 4 CAVITIES in her teeth! Yikes! I feel like the worst mom ever. We're getting 2 of them fixed tomorrow here in MA.We tried to do a few Easter things too. We took a few pics of the kids in their Easter outfits and did an Easter Egg hunt with Mo-Deb. Grace dyed Easter eggs with Aunt Em and mailed them home to herself. All but one were broken when they got here.

On our last day in SLC, we had a late flight, so we had time for a quick outing in the morning. We went to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum and went to the Sesame Street exhibit. That was SO much fun, and a great way to end our trip. We said good-bye to the ALMOST 70 degree weather (I know it got colder this weekend) and came back to MA where it is only 30-40 degrees. Spring can't come soon enough for me man.

Probably the hardest and saddest good-bye though, was Grace's good-bye to Grandpa Earl. She really really really loves him. She wanted to take him home on the plane.As always, we are so thankful for everyone who took time to spend with us and made our trip so much fun. We'll be back in July for lots of Chapman Family Reunion Fun! :-)

Catching up...

Well, I meant to blog about Grace's birthday the whole time we were in Utah, but never got a minute to do it. Now, I'm behind on the whole trip and Easter too!

I will start with Grace's birthday. Turning 5 was a pretty big thing for her. She has wanted to go to school since we can remember. She has wanted to ride the school bus since we moved here and she saw the school bus picking up the kids across the street. Here, the bus comes right to your house! Turning 5 means that she is getting very close to this big fun thing. Kindergarten registration is this week!

Her 5th birthday was celebrated, um, 6 times. Celebration #1... She had a GREAT birthday party with some little friends. She invited 7 kids over from pre-school, church, and town. It was her first real birthday party with friends.
This is what they did at her "somewhere over the rainbow" party:
1- decorated their own puzzles to take home (along with a new set of crayons for each kid.)
2- had a treasure hunt to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow
3- tried very hard to break her rainbow "5" pinata (see post below for pic), but eventually, daddy had to step in with the bat and break it to get the candy out
4- had pizza and rainbow birthday cake.

Grace was pretty funny. She insisted that I make her cake at home and buy ice cream to go with it. She helped me make it (which was why she wanted a home-made cake), but she didn't eat any of it. She didn't eat any ice cream either. Weird kid. At least she really liked her cake and her party. It was exhausting though. I thought after teaching 30-40 high school kids at a time I could handle 8 five-year-olds in my house, but I was WRONG. There is a big fat reason I never taught elementary school - I don't have those SKILLS! Still, it turned out pretty well and Grace had a blast which is all that counts. Grace's favorite present: the wii game "MaterNational" which is a Cars racing game. She's playing it right now.Celebration #2... we failed to mention that we had Grace's party on David's birthday, so after the party, we went out to celebrate with Daddy. Grace and David wanted to go candle-pin bowling so that's what we did. Then we came home to have some good soup and more presents for Daddy. Daddy turned 33. Good number.

Celebration #3... took cupcakes to pre-school so she could have a snack-time birthday party at school.

Celebration #4... went out to dinner with her friends at McDonald's after dance class on the day of her real birthday.

Celebration #5... move the party to SLC! We left the day after Grace's real birthday. Last year we went to SLC for Hattie's birthday, so we figured it was only fair to go for Grace's this year. We had our first party there with David's family. Grace and Grandma made cupcakes and they all gave her a very nice party with presents and good food. Grace requested salmon and mashed potatoes for her birthday dinner.
Celebration #6... have a party with Aunt Jessica at my parents' house. Jessica's birthday is 3 days after Grace's, so we were in town for it. We wanted Grandma Primmer to come and make it a three-some since her birthday is 2 days later, but things didn't work out for her to make it. Grace and Aunt Jess had a great little party with a Tinkerbell cake and, of course, lots more presents.

Even Grace was tired of having birthday parties after it was all over.
Well, Gracie, you're officially 5 years old! Watch out for big girl stuff!!!

A quick birthday letter to Grace

Dear Grace,
It's a crazy day that you have turned 5 years old! Five years old is pretty cool. I cannot believe that it's been 5 years since the day you were born. It seems like forever and yesterday at the same time. You are the best little girl I know. I want to make a big long blog about you, but we are busy busy packing and getting ready for our big airplane ride tomorrow. I just want you to know that your mommy loves you a hundred thousand million bajillion. So does your daddy and your little sis. I am so proud of all of the things that you do and that you know and that you are. You are so smart and beautiful and funny and nice and kind and great to be with and you look at life with the best attitude and you love the world around you. Those things make me so happy that I'm your mom.When we get to grandma's house, I will blog about your birthday party and all of the fun things you got to do this week. But, I didn't want to let the night go by without writing you a note on the blog.
Happy Birthday Grace!
Love,
Mommy

I won the battle of the sleep

At least I think I did...
Our family had not slept through the night since Christmas, literally. So at the beginning of February after one particularly terrible night, we decided we'd had enough. I read every message board on the net, looked up the super nanny web-site and watched her videos and went upstairs the next night with a half dozen different techniques to try.

Our main sleep issues were: Grace is almost 5 years old and still required a person to sit by her on her bed until she fell fast asleep. Most nights this only took a few minutes, but sometimes up to an hour. This, we decided, had to go. Then, she had been getting up multiple times a night and yelling "mommy" and waiting for someone to go to her door and tell her that she could come get in bed with us.

Hattie had an exhausting "planets aligned" routine that often fell apart after much time spent and had to start over. It was taking a good hour to put her down for a nap and for bed-time. Then, she was getting up multiple times a night too and getting in our bed and not sleeping after that.

What do you do? Well, after reading the message boards, I've decided that there are few 2 year olds in America who actually do sleep. Still, it's no consolation that other parents are walking zombies too. You still want to sleep!

So, we tried everything from sitting in Hattie's room until she fell asleep to putting her back in bed and leaving and shutting the door (sometimes 35 times a night each time she woke up before it worked.) I tried the super nanny sit by her bed and then the next night move closer to the door and then the next night to the door and then eventually out of the room. This did not work well either. We tried locking her door from the outside (THIS WAS SO MEAN!!!!! David wanted to do it and I didn't, but I got desperate enough one night to try it.) She wouldn't stay in her bed and fell asleep in front of her door on the floor. Then, I tried putting a baby gate over the door with the door open. Still wouldn't stay in bed and would bring her blankie to the gate and put her head on the gate and wait for me to come back.

All this went on and on for nights. Finally, I won the battle of wills and she would stay in her bed if I stood near the doorway. She has a bathroom connected to her bedroom that you have to walk through to get to the bedroom. Eventually I just moved into the bathroom where she couldn't see me and each time she got out of bed to find me or I could hear her sitting up, I would go in, lay her back down and say "time for bed" and walk back to the bathroom. After many many nights of this, she finally started staying in her bed, but cried when I left and wanted to sit up and wait for me, so I just kept saying from the bathroom "time for bed." After a couple of weeks, I only have to do this once from the bathroom and now I can walk out and shut the bathroom door. She still won't let me shut the bedroom door, but I can go back in later and shut it so that I can use the bathroom at night! I haven't been able to use that bathroom in the middle of the night forever.

Then, she was still getting up in the middle of the night. Same thing over and over - time for bed, time for bed. Until, yes, I can't believe it, she went to bed and slept through the night last night without one complaint! YES!!!!!!!!!!

As for Grace, she is just plain scared of the dark. David bought the girls a set of new cool LED night lights. 6 of them. Hattie has 2 in her room and one in the bathroom and Grace has 3 in her room plus a really bright night light behind her bed to light up the dark corner that scares her in the middle of the night. I finally convinced her that she could fall asleep if I turned off her light, left her door open, and walked across the hall to my room with my light on. I've been doing a lot of reading waiting for them to fall asleep. It was taking so long, but now I don't have time to read much. I walk across the hall, put my jammies on and by the time I'm done Grace is asleep and I can shut her door and move on. She's also sleeping through the night too - last night was the very first night that BOTH of them have gone to bed and SLEPT ALL NIGHT!!!! Seriously, this is the biggest victory for me.

I am also well aware that this may not and probably will not last forever. Something will mess it up. Like, say, going on a trip this week for 2 weeks and sleeping in different rooms and beds!!! I know I'm toast. But at least now I know I can win. I wasn't so sure before. I have been through these sleeping things many times before, but never felt like I really won the battle of wills. I've decided there is no easy answer or formula. Each kid is so different and has their own set of little issues that you just have to keep trying different things and be willing to not give up. It has taken 4 weeks of pretty much no sleep to solve the problem and get one complete night of sleep, and YES, it was worth it!

priceless

8 inches of new snow: FREE

New orange sled from the outdoor store: $20

A new pile of snow on top of an old snow bank on top of the already steep slope in the yard: 1 hour worth of work with the snow blower

Sledding down your own backyard: PRICELESS

My Valentines

Valentine's day is somewhat of an anniversary for us. We got engaged shortly after Valentine's day and we moved into our first house on Valentine's day and we made the offer on the house we live in now during Valentine's week. It just seems like this time of year is when we remember some big things that have happened to us.

Well, my true Valentine was out of town for the holiday. Don't worry, we celebrated and exchanged gifts before he left. He even took me to U2-3D on a date. That was really one of the best presents ever! What an amazing experience. You can't beat a movie that wasn't made for kids, a night out with my hubby, and my favorite band to boot!

But, for the actual holiday, I was home alone in Stow with the other loves of my life, Gracie and Hattie. I decided that just because David was out of town didn't mean that we couldn't do something nice, so we had a great evening together (and we're giving the bill to daddy!)

I took the girls out to a nice restaurant in Maynard. I made reservations for three. When we showed up at the hostess desk, they asked me if I was waiting for someone or if my party was already here somewhere? Well, the reservations say three people, and if I can count, Grace and Hattie and Mommy make 3! They looked at me in disbelief that I had brought 2 little kids to eat there by myself. I'm sure they were wondering why we weren't at the McDonald's across the street. Again, we got the same questions from the waiter when we sat down. Are you still waiting for the rest of your party? NOPE. Why do you have to eat at McDonald's just because you're eating with little kids? We want good food too!

Actually, one of the biggest reasons I chose the restaurant I did was that Grace said she wanted to go somewhere where she could get salmon. Usually it is a toss up between salmon and clam chowder for her. So, we didn't even order from the kids menu. I got a salmon entree for the girls to share. I had lobster bisque and a really spicy salad. I regretted the salad later...a little too spicy, but the lobster bisque was to die for.

Anyway, the girls were GOOD AS GOLD at dinner. They are really quite fun to take out. I have been trying to figure this out for the longest time. I do take them out to nice places every so often by myself and they are always very good and very charming to those around us. I brag about this, and then I take them out with David or heaven forbid with other friends and they are MONSTERS at the table. No one believes me that they are so good when we go out.

It finally occurred to me this time why they are good when they go with just me. It's because the nice meal is all about them. I talk to them the whole time and I can really concentrate on asking them to be polite in a nice way rather than just trying to manage the chaos. When we go out others or even just with David, I am trying to have adult conversations and they are just in the background while I'm quickly asking them to be good and trying to manage them on the side rather than focusing a lot of attention on them.

So, we had a great Valentine date, the 3 of us. We had a wonderful dinner and then walked over to the paper store nearby to spend some money that one of their grandma's had sent them in a valentine. Again, they were so good in the store because the shopping trip was all about what they wanted to look at and buy and I wasn't trying to look for other things in the mean-time.

This is seriously and epiphany for me. I just wish I could figure out how to get this behavior out of them when I do want to talk to someone else or when I do have to shop for something that isn't of interest to them...

So what did you do for Valentine's day? I caught up with my Oprah TIVO today and watched her Valentine special. It focused on all the different kinds of Valentines. A Valentine can be your friend, your grandma, or even your dog! I'm glad I spent mine with 2 gorgeous girls.

Sandman 911

Mr. Sandman... bring me a dream. MAKE MY KIDS SLEEP!!!!

10:30pm. Just spent over an hour getting both kids to bed and they're finally asleep. Mom and Dad in bed. Is it too good to be true? Do we actually get to go to bed by ourselves and get some sleep? NO!

First, the thunder starts. IN FEBRUARY? Yep, huge lightning and thunderstorm followed by torrential rain. I thought it was going to snow tonight? Oh, - it did at 4am. Thanks. Well, one of our dogs is scared to death of thunder. If you ever hoped to sleep during a thunder storm with her in the house, you were wrong. She comes right up to the bedside and pants with hot doggie breath right in your face for hours until you think she is going to have a heart-attack or pass out. We have doggie xanex for her, but it doesn't work very well. We use to have prescription tranq's for her, but they're not "safe" to use anymore so the vet won't give them to us.

Cue Hattie. Thunder (weather) and/or Shadow (dog) woke her up at what - 11:30pm? Another hour getting her back to bed. I lost count at 35 times of putting her back in her little toddler bed and walking out of the room. It was textbook sleep strategy -exactly what they do on tv, only it's pretty painful to do. FINALLY, she stayed in bed and went back to sleep.

Cue Grace 1:30am. Shadow still breathing hot doggie breath and freaking out. Grace sits straight up in bed and screams "Mommy" until you get out of bed, walk to her door and either put her back to sleep or tell her she can come in your room. It's a toss up which is more painful. I chose #2 last night and she came to our bed to David's dismay.

Finally David locks Shadow in the downstairs bathroom so that she feels safe in a "cave" and we close our eyes for a couple of hours.

Cue Hattie - 4:30am? She's up. She wants milk. Mom is seriously too tired to try the 35 times back to bed routine. I wish she would sleep with us, really, but whenever she gets in bed with us she does everything BUT sleep.
Mom takes Hattie to her room and sits in the rocking chair with her for an hour. Finally decides to go back to bed and take Hattie with her at 5:30 for dare we ask 15 minutes of sleep?

Hattie rolls and kicks and pulls Grace's hair. Shadow starts barking from the downstairs bathroom. David gets up for work. Hattie won't stay upstairs if Daddy is downstairs. Mommy and Hattie head downstairs for early breakfast and TV.

8:38am Grace is still ASLEEP in Mommy and Daddy's BED!!!! Lucky!!!

ps - this has been going on pretty much non-stop since the week of Christmas. Before that, both kids slept soundly in their own beds without a peep and didn't take much to go to bed. WHY? I know that sleeping in the same room for a week for our vacation didn't help, but it was going on long before that... I guess I did too much bragging about what great sleepers they were and now karma has me.

Vacation Wrap-up

Well, we did end up having a good end to our trip despite the emergency room visit. Grace just had a virus, but it sure made her sick. She missed about a day and a half of skiing. She fell behind in the class and wasn't having so much fun, so we signed her up to take a private daddy and me ski lesson on Saturday morning. This was awesome for both of them. She really built up her confidence and started skiing really well. She has moved up to a level 2 skier which means she can now ride the chair lift. David and I kept skiing all week. When the kids were sick, we just traded off, and then when they were a bit better and went back to camp and day care, we skied some more together. It was so nice to be together all morning and then go to lunch together without the kids. We haven't had so many dates in years. We also had fun going to the fireworks show they have at Smuggler's. Grace was so excited because we missed the fireworks here on the 4th of July. She has not let us forget it since. The instructors also did a torch ski run right before the fireworks show which was pretty cool.
Yay for our first family vacation! David promised me that our next vacation (not to see relatives) will be somewhere warm. I would love to do Disney in 2009 before Grace gets much older.
David says he wants to post about skiing. Hopefully he will soon. I think he was really excited to get back to the sport. We will try to do some spring skiing in Utah when we come this year. David will be there in February and we (the girls and I) are going in March. We hear that Alta does free rope tow all day, so I think I'll take Grace and let her see some Utah powder. New England ice is not so fun...

Ski Vermont!

That license plate is hard to get use to after Ski Utah for most of our lives.

Well, we arrived at Smuggler's Notch, VT on Monday night for our first family vacation ever that doesn't involve visiting relatives. David and I haven't done any skiing in over 10 years. We decided it was time to try it again and teach Grace.

Smuggler's is a fantasy place for families. It is seriously fun. Our little condo is right in the center of the village about 1 minute walking to anything we want to do. In fact, we can ski right to our building. We enrolled Grace in a week-long ski camp and Harriet in a week-long, well, day care. They call it Treasures, and actually it's really nice and they do a very good job, but it is still day care.

Monday was a tough day as we scurried to finish packing, take the dogs to the Doty's house, rent skis from REI and then make the 4 hour drive with the screaming and fighting kids to northern VT. As David says, there's little between here and the arctic and once you've felt the wind at the top of the peak, you're quite sure that Santa's neighborhood isn't far.

Tuesday, we dropped Hattie off and we all started skiing. David and I were a bit nervous and took a cautious day going down the bunny slope to make sure we weren't going to kill ourselves. Grace had a rough day too because the skis REI fitted her with were way too long and she had a hard time keeping up with the class. Still, we were all pretty happy at the end of the day after skiing, got Grace some new skis, and looked forward to a better day on Wednesday.

In the middle of the night, Grace woke up feeling sick with a fever. We couldn't believe our luck that she would get sick on the second night here, but I pretty much had planned on someone getting sick. She woke up Wednesday excited to ski. After a phone call to her doctor who said that if Grace felt like skiing that we should let her ski and she probably wasn't too sick. So we dropped her off at camp and took Hattie up the hill to Treasures. It proved to be a long day for Hattie. She had to stay in the day care for 7 hours (you can't pick them up and take them back) while David and I took ski lessons and then went to a mandatory condo sales pitch (mandatory if you want your $700 discount!)

David and I had great ski lessons (on separate mountains!) and now are pretty confident that we can get back out on the slopes and really enjoy ourselves. Our knees and egos are holding up so far.

We went to pick up Grace who looked like she wanted to lay down and sleep for 100 years. Her eyes were both red little slits and she just looked terrible. Her fever was pretty much gone so we took her back to the room for a good nap hoping that it was just a long day for her. Her instructor said that she had a great day skiing until the last run which ended up being one run too many and she melted down.

Long story short, David just took her for a 30 minute drive to the nearest emergency room. She is really really really sick today. I feel so bad for her. She was so looking forward to learning how to ski and we were looking forward to the end of the week when we could take her out with us and ski with her. Now things aren't looking so good. It should be apparent that if you have time to blog on a vacation, the vacation is not going well!

We have taken only a very few pictures and are now starting to regret we don't have any of Grace skiing or even outside in the snow. We might not get any now. If you're reading this, say a big prayer and cross your fingers for us that we can get Grace better in time for her to do some more skiing before we have to leave.

Here are a few snapshots. See, we could have just posted these and made you all think that we're having a lovely yuppie ski vacation.The view off of our balcony.

Harriet saying "cheese" (she does this on command now!)

Grace in her ski gear before camp yesterday.

Both girls FINALLY in bed and asleep on Monday night, little did we know...

The Family that Sniffs Together...

Well the blog front has been pretty quiet as we have all been battling colds since just after Christmas. In the family friendly tradition, Grace got RSV and her first ear infection right after Christmas. In the spirit of Christmas giving, Grace thought it would be nice to share with Hattie. So Hattie ended up with RSV the next week. And since this takes up to 2 weeks to run its course it was inevitable that Mom and Dad were also going to get sick. All told, everyone visited the doctor except for me. Although I probably should have. This past week was the sickest I have been in recent memory and caused me to take my first sick time in three years. Luckily we are all recovered (I still have no voice and an occasional cough) in time for Vermont. I'll let you know if church produces any sniffles on Wednesday. ;-)

Ring in the New

Nothing new here except new viruses. We have been sick since the day after Christmas and counting. I started the New Year by crawling to the barn in a snowstorm to teach an impromptu riding lesson. When the rider didn't show up, I actually got to ride by myself in the most beautiful snowstorm. A tiny piece of heaven... should have known there was nowhere to go but down! Grace is finally well, but Hattie has RSV this week and David and I finally caught our share. We're just hoping to get better and stay better for our ski trip coming up in about a week!

We've been meaning to do our 2007 top ten list. Still haven't had a chance to do it yet because we've been too busy wiping noses and filling prescriptions. But, I have 5 minutes today (totally should be doing something else) and I thought I would write down a few things that the kids are doing (besides coughing and sneezing) these days before I forget them:

Harriet is:
*wanting to do everything Grace does exactly the way Grace does
*trying to dress herself
*successfully undressing herself at the most inopportune moments (like when we're late to leave to go somewhere!)
*refusing to wear socks, but demanding shoes
*hating to have her diaper changed
*despising to have her teeth brushed
*kicking so hard in the tub, that I think she could kick herself across a swimming pool with no problem.
*throwing a fit at the sight of her carseat
*not wanting to eat anything except candy
*trying to talk, but still 95% eh, eh, eh...
*getting little OCD things going on - like her naptime and bedtime routine that has to be just so or she will launch herself out of her crib until you get it right.
*playing with baby dolls
*playing with trains
*drawing
*laughing at everything
*loving her doggies
*learning to say sorry (she doesn't say sorry, but softly pats the person who needs a sorry)
*wanting to talk on the phone
*wanting to carry a purse or a backpack
*still wearing her pink crocs (what will we do when they don't fit!)
*throwing everything on the floor when she is done with it at the table - plate, utensils, food, cups. The dogs get hit sometimes, but they must think it's worth the bonk on the head from the sippy cup to stay there and wait for the pasta to fall.
*driving us crazy and melting our hearts at the same time

Grace is:
*being driven crazy by Hattie
*loving having someone who can play with her (sometimes)
*starting to pick up little traits at school from her friends - not always good
*loving school
*loving dance
*still playing with trains
*still not doing her hair
*choosing her own clothes - not always good choices for the weather
*able to get dressed all by herself, but doesn't want to half the time
*getting a huge vocabulary
*reading entire books
*adding and subtracting
*counting to 100 by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's
*writing everything she can think of
*asking us how to spell every word she can think of
*writing lots of notes to Velvet, Shadow, Rudolf, and her friends
*paying close attention to North, South, East, and West when we are driving. She watches the compass in my car. She wishes that we had a Mount Olympus nearby so that you could tell which way was East. East is her favorite direction because that's where Mount Olympus is in SLC.
*desperately wanting to take the training wheels off her new bike
*telling us she already knows how to ski (has never been)
*eating nothing for days and then eating every 20 minutes for days
*telling jokes
*talking more on the phone when I can trick her
*wishing for spring and summer, but appreciating winter
*planning her 5th birthday party

Conversations with Grace this week:

Mom: Grace, get in the car.
nothing
Mom: get in the car
nothing
Mom: Grace, get in the car.
Grace: Just a minute, I'm watching the fluffy gray clouds float by with the wind (on an overcast day when you can barely tell that the clouds are moving). Isn't it beautiful mom?

Grace: Mom, I think I see a red and white light in the sky. Yes! It's Rudolf!

Grace: I can't wait for Kindergarten. They will have monkey bars. You know, just the way I have been dreaming about. It will be amazing.

2007-Year in Review

Well I am a week late and I am sure a few dollars short, but here is the much anticipated 2nd annual video year in review. If you don't see yourself in the video, I guess you need to visit us more often!

Michelle and I are working on a 2007 Top Ten Event list that we will hopefully post shortly. For now, grab the popcorn, the drink, and sit back and enjoy the show. I hope that you have some time to waste.

Christmas Day 2007

Christmas morning was amazing. Grace has been wanting a bike all year and has been sincerely hoping to find one under the tree. She was absolutely thrilled to find just that thing on Christmas morning. Harriet is finally understanding a little of the magic and excitement. She even got the hang of trying to find "our elf" each morning during the month of December. ("Red" came each day to check on our house and reported to Santa each night!) Hattie found a bed full of baby dolls under her tree and was ecstatic. She has loved the Christmas tree, the lights, the bells, the music, and most of all - the BABY JESUS figures in the nativities!Having little kids and believing in Santa with them is one of the true miracles at Christmas. I don't care what some people might think of me, but for me, Santa and Christ go hand in hand and what better way to celebrate Christ's birth than to experience the pure joy of a child? Our only flaw of the morning was that for the second year in a row, we have finished opening all our gifts to realize that we didn't take a single photo! David manned the video camera through it all and I tried to orchestrate the chaos of passing presents and helping the girls open them and there just wasn't a second camera man available! In a way, it speaks to how excited and wrapped up in things we get that we totally forget to take pictures while we're opening gifts. I guess we trade being in the moment for recording the moment with a snapshot.

We did take pictures of everyone enjoying their gifts afterward. We received such an abundance from Santa and from relatives afar that we are still enjoying each gift as we play with it, wear it, or use it for the first time.
After all of the decorating, shopping, planning, wrapping, driving, thinking, mailing, sub-for-santa-ing, baking, and re-doing all of the above, the big day has finally come and gone. Sometimes in the middle of it, I really wonder if I'm doing the right thing by setting all of these crazy standards and trying to do so much - shouldn't Christmas be simple and solely about Christ? Then, when the day comes, I am glad that I did it and sometimes wish I could have done more. I think that threaded through the middle of what seems to be excess is the real Christmas spirit and I don't know if my Christmas spirit would be the same if I pared it down. In fact, I am wishing that I was able to do one more thing that I didn't get to do. I missed the Nutcracker this year with Grace and I felt the hole all season. I planned to take her "after Christmas when things calmed down", but so far, the calm hasn't come. So, I'm afraid it will have to wait until next year. To me, the abundance and craziness and tons of traditions just means that I love lots of people and want to show them that and also that lots of people love our family. And, in the end, I am always humbled by the generosity of everyone. Sorry, that was a bit of a tangent, but back to our day. We lucked out and got a warm Christmas day with a melted driveway - perfect for trying out the new bike. David pitched in big time and made a huge turkey dinner complete with all the side dishes and dessert. We had a great time just eating together in our dining room as a family. We didn't go a single place all day long. Even though we do miss going to different family members' houses, we were so grateful for an entire day that could be devoted to playing with the kids and being together without any other agenda.
We do want to say a very big THANK YOU to each person who sent an e-mail, card, picture, gift, or talked to us on the phone or video chatted with us on the computer this season. We felt very loved and remembered.