christmastime

it's the most wonderful time of the year, right?  at least it feels like it.  

+  our tree is up, decorated with both colored and white lights, and the kids keep rearranging the ornaments on it.  

+  we're listening to christmas music every afternoon and evening.  i have to try and play it not too often or else i'll get a little sick of it by the time the 25th rolls around.  

+  we've watched elf once, we attempted the polar express but we had to abandon it because it was 'too scary', and we'll sneak in a viewing of the grinch before too long. 

+  we're spending mornings reading christmas books and the kids are loving opening two new ones each week that my mom sent to us.  our basket of christmas books is overflowing this year!

+  we've had some snow which always makes things feel festive and the kids are loving bundling up in their snow gear and running around, sledding down our little hill in the back, and then coming inside to warm up with some hot chocolate.  

+  we've attempted one ski trip already this year to test out avery's 'new' skis.  of course she hated it and says she doesn't want to go again and doesn't like skiing.  but they should fit ellie by next year, hopefully.

+  we've been making lots of christmas crafts.  so far we've done a santa, an elf, a christmas tree, rudolph, a snow globe, and a snowman and our fridge is filling up fast with all of their handiwork. 

+  our christmas cards have been ordered, addressed, and mostly sent.  i still need a few more stamps for the rest of them. 

+  avery's been drawing and painting pictures to give to family members and is really, really excited to wrap some presents.  

+  buddy the elf has been slowly making his way around our house and if the kids have noticed that sometimes he doesn't move for four days they haven't said anything. 

+  there are mini trees in each of their rooms.  the colored lights on ellie's tree are serving as her nightlight right now and it's the coziest thing to see when i read to her before bed.  

+  we've planned our christmas dinner menu, although i'm still looking for a good breakfast recipe to eat during some breaks in present opening.  i'm thinking we might just go with french toast since that used to be one of avery's favorites and we haven't made it in over a year!

+  we made salt dough ornaments and hung them on the tree.  they are quite imperfect but the kids had a lot of fun with them.   

+  we still would like to see the zoo lights, make some sugar cookies, have a holiday dinner with some friends, and wrap and mail presents to far away family.   

it's been such a wonderful holiday season so far and i'm excited for the rest of it.  i will admit that we started decorating before thanksgiving, putting up a few decorations each day but saving the tree for the day after thanksgiving like we always do.  with three birthdays between the two holidays it's sort of nice to have the extra time to savor the season and the kids are so, so, so excited for everything.  they love every string of lights that we've hung, every garland, every stocking, and every wreath.  they love their little trees and they love, love the big tree in our living room.  i'm really looking forward to a slow holiday with our little family this year.  it's actually been really nice having two 'older' kids who can actually understand everything, help with the decorating, and enjoy the mess of baking and crafting.  these days are the best and i will miss them, i know, when they're older and 'cooler'.  

hello?

it's been awhile and i won't even attempt to say that i'm back to blogging but i have missed keeping a record of our family's life.  so i'm going to attempt to do just that every once in awhile.  poor ellie has had rather sad documentation of her life compared to avery and while i know she's loved every bit as much i would like to actually have a place to look back on her growing up because i know i sure won't remember it all!  so, here's what's been going on in the past year: 

... ellie is 18 months.  crazy town.  i love this age so much.  she's a running, climbing, following her sister around all day, talking up a storm, crazy toddler.  charlie and i die over how cute she is daily.  she's imitating everything that her 'cool' big sis is doing these days including her newest phrase "knock knock, who's there? pee" that she definitely picked up from avery.  she's also stubborn, brave, and still very much attached to her mama these days.  she knows what she wants and how she wants it and she will let you know exactly what that is.  and (knock on wood) she is finally, finally sleeping in her crib all through the night.  it only took us a year and a half to figure that one out.  she wakes up at the crack of dawn but i can deal with a 5:30 wake up time as long as she's not in my bed thrashing around like a fool for hours each night.  

...  avery is three and a half and growing by the minute.  she is pretty opinionated about things these days too and like most three year olds has zero patience for things like waiting for things she wants, sharing toys with her sister, and picking up after her own giant messes.  she seems so old to me these days and she'll start preschool in the fall.  i'm both excited for her and so sad because how in the world is she old enough to go out into the world without me.  she's a pretty great sister most of the time and over the past 6 months they have started to play with each other a lot more.  i find it pretty adorable and usually waste all the time that they're happily playing sneakily watching them from the other room instead of getting anything done.  

...  we recently put dunkin to sleep, which was the hardest decision i've ever made and thing i've had to do.  charlie and i miss him like crazy.  he was the best and the house seems so empty without him following me around everywhere.  

... i'm so excited that it's finally summer, my very favorite season.  we're busy enjoying things like flip flops, dresses, open windows, fires, grilling, the water table, running around without clothes on (the kids, not me), and growing our first garden.  we don't have a lot of plans this summer and i'm trying to really enjoy the last bit of completely unscheduled time that we have before after starts school.  i know after that we'll "only" have summer's off and i'm really going to miss the freedom of these before-school days.  

...  we took our annual trip back to maryland in june to visit family.  it was really great to see everyone and we even squeezed in some beach time one day but ellie not the chillest traveler during our second leg of the journey and we were all happy to get back home just to get back to our normal routine.  i'm usually complaining about how short those trips are and this one was only a week, compared to the last two years when we've stayed for two weeks, but with ellie being so difficult i was basically counting the days until we got back home.  hopefully she'll be a little more laid back next year.         

ellie: 10 months

oh my, so late.  sorry elle.  we still love you loads. this is basically 10.5 months but i'm sure you'll forgive me, right?  i could make this really short and say YOU ARE SO MUCH FUN and I LOVE THIS AGE.  in fact the only thing i don't love about this age is that your sleep is still not so good. but here are a few details anyway.

...  you are talking!  you say mommy, daddy, doggie (this sounds a lot like daddy), baa baa (for sheep although you say this randomly all the time anyway), and cat.  i really do love this milestone.  so fun. 

...  you're still a crawling machine.  you're fast and you get where you want to go no questions asked. 

...  you're climbing stairs.  uh-oh.  

...  you're pulling up on anything and everything and starting to walk with your walker a bit.  you will also walk when you hold our hands and you get the proudest smile on your face when you do this.  

...  you 'read' books.  you like me to read to you and you turn the pages and you will also flip through on your own.  board books are pretty much the only ones that are safe around you.

...  you love to wrestle with your daddy.  avery too if she's gentle enough.  

...  you are a really tough kid.  you don't cry for much (except when you don't get your way).  in fact at one time this month avery hit you in the face because you took her toy and your lip started bleeding.  you didn't even think about crying but you did give her a look like, 'oh hell no'.  i think she's in trouble when you get bigger.

...  speaking of toys you love to play with anything and everything your sister is into.  we're constantly hearing from avery that "i'm frustrated!" and i get it.  but thankfully when she's in the mood you guys are starting to play together nicely.  this usually involves her dictating the game and giving and taking toys away from you at random but you're usually amused enough by her made up games that you play along for a bit.

...  you eat everything.  you're eating three meals a day and i usually just give you whatever we're eating unless it's really hard or tough to chew.  dinner is your favorite meal and i'm always impressed with how much food you can actually eat. 

...  you have three teeth.  two on the bottom and one on the top.  

...  you do not like sleeping without me.  you've regressed to waking up after a short period of time after i put you to bed and you will scream your face off as long as you deem necessary (until i come and rescue you).  we probably need to night wean at some point but i'm not mentally ready for that battle yet.  

...  you hate the car and only tolerate the stroller when you're tired enough to be sleeping.  i really hate driving anywhere longer than 20 minutes with you because there's a change you'll scream the whole way.  i moved you into a convertible carseat this month in hopes that it would help but no such luck.  

...   you love ollie and like to lay your head down on his fluffy, fat belly.  he's pretty good with you, too.  the rest of the animals are a distant second to him.  

you love your sister, your dad, and i'm guessing me, too.  and we have loved watching you grow.  lately we've been thinking that there's a good chance you'll be our last baby, which is sort of bittersweet.  it's made me cherish those snuggles that i get from you even more and worry a little less about when you'll start sleeping through the night.  you are the sweetest baby and as hard as those first few months were with you these past few have been so sweet and happy.  love you big e.   

telluride 2014

telluriiiiiide!  man, i love that place.  this is becoming sort of a bi-annual (biennial?) tradition for us to visit in the summer.  crazy to think that our first trip was 4 years ago when we were much younger and kid-free and the last time we went avery was just 6 months old!  traveling with a toddler/two year old drama queen is never easy but it was still really, really nice to get away.  i love this place so much and have been mildly obsessed with it since college when i listened to tim mcgraw's set this circus down album pretty much nonstop.  if we ever win the lottery you can bet we'd be buying a place here.  funnily enough the kids pediatrician is also slightly obsessed with this place and every time they have an appointment we have a conversation about just how awesome it is.    

our drive out was actually pretty horrible.  we took the 'back way' and completely forgot that the pro cycling tour was going on.  they closed one of the roads that we needed to take and we had to make a four hour detour that turned a 6 hour trip into a 12 hour trip.  the kids actually did amazing until maybe the last 2 hours when ellie was just over her car seat.  really couldn't blame her since i was pretty over it, too.  we didn't get there until around 9:30 on wednesday night and after we found our place and unpacked everything we just tried to get the kids to bed.  they both had a hard time that night.  avery climbed into bed with charlie who was sleeping in a room with her and ellie was flopping all over the place in our bed.  when we woke up the next morning we walked to find breakfast and let the kids sleep a bit as we walked around.
  

we usually stay in mountain village (charlie's favorite) when we come and this was the first time that we stayed in telluride.  i actually really liked being right in town but charlie said that he really missed taking the gondola into town even though we rode it a bunch while we were there.  after breakfast we rode the gondola into mountain village and walked through a bunch of shops since charlie was on the hunt for some ski deals.

avery throwing a giant fit for some unknown reason.

avery loved the gondola ride and we did it again that night and each day after that.  after the gondola ride we went back to our condo to try and get the kids to nap but they were doing construction right outside our building and we ended up moving to a different house where it was a bit quieter.  the nice thing was that the house was actually much nicer than the condo we were in.  one sort of funny thing about it was that it was a really tall and narrow house (4+ stories) and avery kept getting confused about where everything was.  and another bonus was that there was cable in the house which meant that charlie and i binged watched hgtv after the kids went to bed.  i really miss that channel. 

we ate out for every meal when we were there but we usually just ended up eating breakfast and then a late lunch/early dinner and then giving avery a snack before bed.  the kids actually did pretty well at the restaurants, which is something they're often pretty hit or miss with.  the one meal that was pretty awful was on saturday i took them to breakfast alone and avery was just not into having proper restaurant behavior or really proper anything behavior but we survived and left and then i walked around with ellie in the ergo and avery in the stroller until they both fell asleep.







i love this place so much that even just a morning walk is so amazing.  the san miguel river runs through town and there's a really nice path that runs along it and we walked there a few times and then took avery to the playground at the end.  charlie and i always talk about how awesome it must be for kids to grow up there since there are so many amazing outdoor activities that are literally right in your backyard.  the playground was pretty awesome too, avery really liked it although we had to book it home pretty quickly because it started to rain. 

charlie got some new skis one of the days that we were here and then exchanged them a few hours later.  i think he's pretty excited about our steamboat trip this december now that he has new, 'fast' skis.











on our last say here we ended up doing the bridal veils hike that we've done every year in the past.  i was actually not at all in the mood to be hiking since i thought the kids would probably freak at some point (they did) but i am so glad that we did it.  the waterfall is the tallest free falling waterfall in colorado and not a terrible hike.  it's a decent climb but pretty short, which was good since both kids were ready to get out for a bit.  on the way down they were not into the hike at all.  i think we were all hungry and tired and just ready to eat something.  it was 3 pm at this point and we hadn't eaten lunch.  so we made it down as quickly as possible and then headed to brown dog (one of our favorites) for pizza and beer.



on sunday we ate breakfast, checked out of our place, rode the gondola one last time, and then finally headed back home.  the kids did pretty well in the car but we were all really happy to be home.  i know ellie was so excited to be out of her carseat and she spent the hour after we got home before bed crawling around the house as if she was trying to remember everything.

until next time, telluride!  i know charlie really, really wants to make a winter trip here at some point but i see no point in doing that until the kids are old enough to ski and not whine about the cold.  also, i cannot even imagine how expensive it would be to plan a winter trip here.  summer is still pretty popular because of all of the festivals that they have going on but not nearly as popular/expensive as the winter time.  it's really the funniest down because it doesn't look like anything crazy.  it's tiny, there are no stop lights, no chains or big box stores, etc. and the houses are pretty modest and some are really, really tiny and yet they're over a million dollars and really, usually several million dollars.  it's also not easy to get here.  even if you fly you can't really fly direct (unless you're one of the super wealthy) and obviously driving from anywhere is a huge pain.  so it's sort of funny that the little town is as expensive and popular as it is.  i have heard that the skiing is amazing but obviously we've never done that.  anyway.  i totally get the charm but probably will not be buying a second home here during this lifetime.  that's okay.  we'll just visit when we can and take lots of pictures while we're there.

ellie: 9 months

happy 9 months, elle.  i feel like this was a huge month for you, filled with lots of changes.  i cannot believe how fast you are growing and changing.  

... the biggest change this month is that you are full on crawling.  you started right after your 8 month 'birthday' so by now you're not only on the move, but really fast, and really good at it.  you crawl 'normally' and have officially mastered the cross-crawl.  you are literally moving all over the house, from room to room, eating all the dirt you can find and messing with your big sister any chance you get.  i thought that crawling would make you a happier baby and i was right, but man it is exhausting chasing you around all day.

...  you're also pulling up on anything and you even try and stand on your own, which hasn't been successful for you yet but i can't believe you're even trying.  you like to try and stand from a sitting position and you also love to pull up on all furniture and people.  

...  your sleeping sucks.  i started having you sleep in your crib for at least the first portion of the night right before you turned 8 months and i really didn't think that you would be screaming your face off a month later.  i will nurse you and rock you and then put you down in your crib and about 50% of the time you'll wake up, pull up on your crib and scream for a while.  i've tried going back in to rock you or pat your back but that never worked because you never really fell back asleep and would always start screaming the second i left your room.  ugh.  i hate this part of parenting but i know that you need your sleep and letting you cry a bit before you fall asleep on your own seems like the only thing that's going to work for you.  one thing that's slightly hilarious/annoying is that you almost always fall asleep sitting up and holding onto the crib.  it drives me nuts that you won't lay down to sleep after all of this but i've learned that going back into your room to try and lay you down only makes things worse.  you're napping twice a day.  the morning nap is often on the go but your afternoon nap is usually your longer one at home.  you prefer that i lay with you for this nap and i really need to work on getting you to nap alone so you don't develop the same bad habit that your sister had of needed to be held through her entire nap.

...  you have a tooth!  finally.  and i actually thinking you're working on more with the crappy sleep and the constant chewing on everything.  

...  you're eating just about anything these days although i've been much less structured about feeding you than i was with feeding avery.  you don't really like purees from the spoon so all of that baby food that i made is still in the freezer.  luckily avery likes it so i know it won't go to waste.  you love eating solid foods and i can usually feed you some chunks of whatever we're eating.  you also have started to like pouches, so i've been buying those too since it's easier to get more fruits and veggies into you that way.  you're still nursing approximately a million times a day/night so i know you're getting a lot of nutrients through that, too. 

...  you took your first road trip this month and did pretty good.  you slept terribly, but did pretty well in the car although we did have some rough moments.  feeding you puffs seemed to keep you entertained for a bit and you eventually fell asleep, too. 

...  you are one determined child.  you know what you want and you're going to get it.  you will throw a fit if we take something away from you and you have no problem attempting to push avery around if she's in your way or not 'sharing' with you.  i actually have to watch you two pretty closely because you're officially into everything and she officially hates it.  

...  but despite that you really love your sister.  your face lights up when you see her and you love to touch her, play with her, wrestle around with her, and basically do all the things that she's doing.  she's actually not all that into you at the moment with is a little heartbreaking as a parent but i'm hoping she'll warm up to you more once you can actively play with her. 

...  you are a physical kid.  your favorite game is to flop around on our bed and wrestle with your dad.  you'll throw yourself backwards and you think it's the funniest thing ever.  you're constantly banging your head on things and scratching yourself.  luckily you seem to be pretty tough and get over things quickly.

...  you're getting to be weary of strangers.  you like to people watch but if they make eye contact with you you'll start crying.  i think you prefer me to other people but you really love your daddy, too.  i'm so thankful that you're so into him at this point.

...  you love baths.  you will seriously throw a fit if i don't get you in the tub fast enough and you always scream when i take you out.  you splash around like crazy and love all of the toys that we have.  this is actually one of the few times that you and your sister play nicely together. 

...  you also started climbing stairs this month.  woah kid, too fast.  our house in telluride had two stairs from the den to the kitchen and you quickly mastered going up those but would then face plant down them.  uh oh.  you haven't attempted to do this since we got home but it's only been a day.  :)  i think we might have to invest in some baby gates for you.

happy 9 months baby girl.  we love you!