Sweetness

My sweet baby before her nap.  Holly is nineteen months now.  She only gets a bottle before her nap and bedtime.  The rest of the time she happily uses a sippy cup or a real cup with a bit of help.  I know it’s a good time to wean her from the bottle altogether, but…  I don’t want to!  This is my last baby.  While in some ways I am eager to see Holly move forward, losing the bottle is not one of them.  I love snuggling with her while she drinks her bottle.  I loved it with Linlee too.  In fact, Linlee finally had to wean herself because I clearly was not going to get the process started (I think she was two).  Wonder when I’ll actually ask Holly to give it up.

While Holly napped, I made some cookies to have ready when Linlee arrived home from school.  The funny thing was, as I was getting Holly up from her nap, she kept saying “kuh-kay, kuh-kay” (her word for cupcake).  I realized that she smelled the chocolate cookies!  She already has a good little sniffer, doesn’t she?

Christmas, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day Dinner

Okay, kidding about Valentine’s.  My family and my friend Anne’s family have been trying to get together for dinner since the middle of December.  Between illness, the holiday, more illness and a snowstorm, it has taken us until today to finally make that happen.  It felt like it was going to be Valentine’s Day before we could even exchange Christmas gifts!  Tonight both families had a wonderful time together up at Anne & Greg’s.  The three little girls were bursting with energy and giggles.  Linlee had a fabulous time playing with Rachel, which was really nice to see.  (Our last visit, Linlee was very off and wasn’t able to enjoy herself.)  Holly was determined to keep up with the big girls the entire time.  There was a lot of running and dancing and squealing and jumping and more running.  You know, we adults were having a great time too, but not one of us felt the need to run or jump or dance or squeal.  Isn’t that too bad?

Oops, maybe I spoke too soon.  Looks like Rob is dancing with the girls.

Belated Christmas presents!

Above, Holly and Rachel jumping on bubble wrap.

Holly was not into the “couch picture” session.

But Rachel and Linlee were super sweet together.

Awe…

And lastly, a picture of my pretty Linlee.  She had a wonderful night; lots of really great interacting and giggling with Rachel.  I’m so pleased for her.

Winter’s Walk

Still a winter wonderland in our neck of the woods; absolutely beautiful.  School was canceled again.  I know the weather is supposed to start warming up a bit this afternoon, but I would be surprised if everything was clear enough for school to resume tomorrow.  I’m not holding my breath.  In the meantime, my little family went for a nice walk/sled ride in the snow this morning.

At first, Holly wanted to walk, rather than ride.

Linlee wanted to be in front, but that didn’t work so well for Holly.

That’s better.

All the cars are lining this flat street because no one wants to attempt going down into their steep cul de sacs to their driveways!

Snow Day #2

After a breakfast of aebleskivers (my tradition for snow days), the girls and I headed out into the big, white world for a bit of fun.  Unfortunately, you will see no pictures of that.  It was only me and it was snowing hard and I was pulling the girls on the sled for a good part of the time.  The other part of the time I was helping Linlee go down a little hill by herself in the sled, or helping Holly stand back up in the deep snow, etc.  It was too hard to be the mom and the photographer.  Wish I could have been two people, though, because there were some really great snow moments with the girls.  Darn it!  When we got back to the house, the girls went to the swing set for some reason, so I quick dashed inside for the camera to get a few shots of our morning.

Linlee’s upper lip is still red and chapped from her cold (which Holly is now catching).

I believe all but one school district in all of Western WA is closed today.  Many government offices are also closed.  The news is advising people to stay off the roads, if possible.  Rob is tucked safely up in his computer room, working from home.  The girls and I are snuggled in and enjoying the heck out of our snowstorm.

The girls were watching the sledders going down our hill.  (Clearly I dressed one of my children in what I felt was appropriate for a snowy, winter’s day and the other dressed herself.)

This isn’t a picture of the snowman on our front porch.  Look in the window.

Snow Day

I was pretty cranky this morning when school was closed for “snow” and there wasn’t much to speak of.  I just needed to be patient…

I didn’t get any great pictures of Holly playing in the snow, but trust me, she was out there this morning.  She had a big, ol’ tantrum when I told her it was time to go in, too.  Here she is snuggling with sister after their morning romp outside.  (I imagine we’ll have to suit up for an afternoon one as well!)

Snow!

Snow finally came to the Pacific Northwest this afternoon.  As happy as we are to see it, it did interfere with our plans to head north for dinner at Anne’s (Linlee’s new cold didn’t help matters either).  We’ve been trying to get together with the Davises since the middle of December and can’t seem to make it happen.  Ugh.  Anyhow, we got a nice little bit of the white stuff this afternoon and expect more throughout the night.  Rob and I took the girls out back for building snowmen and throwing snowballs.  Good stuff.  I didn’t concentrate on taking photos as much as having fun with my children.

Darn snowflake blurred out Linlee’s pretty face!

Holly looked at the snow coming down and said, “OH NO!” about a thousand times.

Tonight’s Sky

Well Checkups for the Girls

Both girls had well checkups today.  For those who like stats, here they are:

Linlee (age seven):

height: 44.5 inches (5th percentile)

weight: 37 pounds (0.92 percentile)

Holly (age 18 months):

height: 34 inches (95th percentile)

weight: 31 pounds (98th percentile)

The doctor and I chuckled over how I have a child at each end of the growth chart.  Both girls are healthy; excellent news.  Linlee did the best she has ever done during a doctor’s visit, so we were finally able to check her vision and hearing; both great.  Holly objected to the examination.  Loudly.  What was worse is that she had to have a small blood draw (a poke in the heel).  The phlebotomist was a newbie and Holly was clearly his first baby.  The moment he stepped up to Holly she burst into tears.  The poor guy visibly paled and looked to his mentor for help.  The experienced phlebotomist just shook his head and said, “I know it’s hard, but you’ve got to do it.”  Because all he had to do was poke her foot, I let him go ahead.  If he’d had to do something more challenging, like find a vein, I would have insisted on an experienced technician.  Of course Holly howled the roof off the entire time they were trying to fill two, teeny-weenie viles (the size of long tooth picks) with her blood.  The funny part was, each time someone left the room through the swinging doors, Holly would catch her breath, call out “bye bye!” and then continue crying.  So polite, even during traumatic moments.  What a little sweetheart.

Sisterly Love

Tonight Linlee was sitting on the floor when Holly came up to her and gave her a big love.  Linlee howled “Noooooooo!” and pulled away.  Holly responded by whacking Linlee on the head.  Okay, so Holly does not handle rejection graciously.  It is something Linlee might want to keep in mind.

Did you use your spoon or fingers for that yogurt, Holly?

A berry big mess.

This was bound to happen with all that darn fruit they are eating.  I love how Holly says “whoops” these days.  It sounds like either “woots,” or “wooths!”  So cute.  (Sorry about the sound of our loud dishwasher in the background.)

Linlee slept through the night last night – hurrah!  I will feel terrible if we need to take her Christmas present permanently away (the bed tent), but…  A good night’s sleep is more important for everyone.