there's time to squeeze in one last post this decade

i sorta feel like i should do some kind of year (or decade) in review post since that's what's filling the news today, but meh, too much effort. it's 10:30 and i just now got maggie to sleep (poor kid still has a stuffy nose and i think not being able to nurse to sleep threw her off. finally i gave her some tylenol and propped us both up with pillows to nurse in an elevated position. she konked out and is sleeping still propped on the pillows. cross your fingers for me!). so just a regular old post instead.

not much happened today, because of maggie's cold we mostly stayed in. nick took nina out to play in the snow (we got 2 or 3 inches today) and mom and i took the girls to the grocery store, but that was it. a rather quiet new year's eve. tomorrow is our new year's day party, that should be fun, a little overrun with kids maybe, but fun. i'll update tomorrow if i'm not too tired, saturday if i am.

happy new year! here's to much more cuteness in 2010!

the skirt i made nina

i made it from an old t-shirt


i wanted to hem it but she wants it long

i think i want one!

if it tastes good, it's gotta be...

nick reminded me of this one. while we were visiting paul and sarah, sarah gave the kids frozen yogurt tubes. maggie loved hers. heath asked maggie, "maggie, what is that that you have?" and maggie looked around at everyone, looked at her fro-yo, and announced "meat."

nick was so proud! it's the austrian in her. she also calls her favorite breakfast cereal (strawberry frosted miniwheats) "meat." i think everything she likes is meat.

back to catching up: christmas eve

christmas eve was another great day. we hung out together in the morning, played with chester, good family time. erik and isabelle took nina to the store with them, which she loved. she's such a big girl!

later, erik, isabelle, nick, and i cooked a yummy seafood newburg lasagna. well, erik and i did the lasagna, isabelle did the salad and grated the chees, and nick de-tailed the shrimp. boy it was good! then the 4 of us took the girls to church while mom and dad stayed behind to get dinner in the over. maggie was a bit feistier than usual but managed to make it through mass. by the skin of her teeth! when we went up for communion, she saw the nativity scene set up on the right side of the church. we stopped there and looked at it, she loved that there was a horse (actually i think it was a donkey but i didn't say anything). 'perfect,' i thought to myself. 'there are chairs here, we'll ride out the last few minutes looking at the nativity scene.' but THEN she noticed that there was a christmas tree on the altar. she tried to make a run for it. i grabbed her. the priest was this close to the closing prayer. maggie was about to scream. tense! then he said "go now in peace" and maggie made her break. father laughed and said "good timing." i asked if we could stand by the tree and he said sure. whew, it was definitely a close call. good thing she's so darn cute!

after dinner, the girls got to open one present (it's a family tradition). i had picked out their robes as the present so that they could wear them on christmas morning. and they loved them. "in the robe!!!!" said maggie. they wear them all the time!

yesterday we saw paul, sarah, and their son connor. it was great fun, and we left late, hoping that the girls would sleep in the car on the way home. and they did, once we hit edgecomb... of course. so an hour with everyone awake but maggie on the edge of flipping out, 10 minutes of kids sleeping peacefully in the back. yup, that's our girls! poor nina was exhausted too, maggie was the one keeping her awake.

so, when we got home, i managed to put maggie down in her crib without waking her up, but nina did wake up. very very tired still, she brushed her teeth and got into her jammies, and i laid down with her until she fell asleep.

after a few minutes of lying there in bed (and after saying her dream prayers. she said, "i wish i would dream that i could fly." and then a few minutes later changed her mind and said, "i wish i would dream that i'm a mermaid."), my tummy made a noise. here's how the exchange went down:

me: "my stomach growled."
nina: "no, it was my stomach."
me: "is your tummy hungry for a snack now, or for pancakes in the morning?"
nina: "for pancakes in the morning."
me: "ok, i'll make them in the morning."
nina: "actually, my stomach wasn't growling, it was snoring."

haha! what a funny kid she is!

uploading videos problems...

i was trying to upload videos of the kids, but then i realized they're way too big to upload, so so much for that. they're even too big for you tube! blech! they're the videos we're taking using the camera in the laptop, and i guess they just record really big. i'll go back to using the camera i guess... but the kids like that they can see themselves while we record. when we use the camera, maggie just keeps wanting to see herself on the little screen, and then i can't record her. difficult, difficult...

well, it was a merry christmas! you can tell we're having a lot of fun when i'm not updating the blog, too busy and too tired at the end of the day to write anything. i'll try to do a bunch of posts catching up on the past week, but sometimes those peter out and i don't finish.

so, today: today we went to aunt maria and uncle lee's for christmas II. it was great fun! joseph and jessica were both there, plus a friend of jessica's (boyfriend? you don't have to answer jessica, but great grandma's not reading, so you can say whatever you want. :-)
nina fell asleep on the way home in spite of the fact that maggie was screaming, so we went to mom and dad's afterwards to get out some of that energy she stored up with her little nap. even then, she didn't fall asleep until 10 tonight. maggie was out at 9:15.

yesterday: christmas. we opened presents at the house first thing in the morning, with anne and fritz present by webcam. how cool was that! they're thousands of miles away but were with us on christmas morning. it was like some kind of high-speed internet commercial. we should have filmed it all and sold the footage to verizon or something. next time!
after opening presents here, we moved over to mom and dad's and opened presents there. it was mayhem! the girls loved their presents. big ticket items were the wagon, easel, and puppet theater. they love them! i've already been treated to a host of shows at the puppet theater (here's how one usually goes: a princess starts to tell her story in an unnaturally high, squeaky voice. maggie comes out from behind the theater with a puppet to show me. she holds it up, tells me what it is, and then runs back behind the theater. meanwhile, nina's princess meets an animal, which ends up on her head. then the animal jumps off the stage. maggie runs out with another puppet or animal (the animals have all joined the theater) to show me, tells me what it is, and runs back. more animals on the stage with the princess. "all of a sudden," says the narrator (nina), "a shark comes by!". maggie pokes her head through the curtains, holds out a puppet and says "hi!", and the show ends with a few more animals jumping from the stage. it's hysterical!!)

gosh, that was a long tangent, where was i?.... oh, christmas day. there was also a lot of playing with the princess figurines, which are another big hit, and of course the girls' best friend chester.

wow all of a sudden it's almost 11:00! more later!

christmas greetings

just a quick check-in

things are good here. girls are happy and healthy. had a nice visit with paul and connor today, the kids had a blast together. maggie wasn't thrilled to be sharing her toys with connor (aged 21 months) at first, but about half-way through the visit she warmed up to him and they had fun. nina was perfect, of course, showing connor toys he might like and doting on him.

the weekend was good too, we only got three inches of snow though! the rest of the eastern seaboard gets the storm of the decade, and we get 3 measly inches. still, the kids got out in it for a bit on sunday and it looks pretty, so that's something. i think we're going to get more this week too??

presents are starting to get wrapped. we'll have to do a big push to wrap the girls' gifts soon, but not tonight, i'm pooped!

oh, one cute thing: in the morning, i usually put on my robe and wrap maggie in it too. she loves it. well this morning i slept in a bit and she went downstairs with nick and nina. when i finally came down, she ran up to me and yelled "in the wobe! in the wobe!" (wobe = robe, she's still working on those r's). how cute!

we stopped to see the horses on tuesday

you know the horses on dover rd? well, we saw charlie and hattie on courjon road on tuesday, so we stopped in to visit with them and say hi to the horses. maggie loved it! and then, one of the horses peed! she was so excited! "neigh poo-poo!" she said. and she's been talking about it ever since. 10 times a day at least. more like 25. "neigh poo-poo! neigh poo-poo!" then she laughs. it was the funniest thing she's ever seen.

some more potty success!

today i really embraced the fact that maggie is a fiercely independent little girl who wants no help with anything. so instead of telling her to tell me when she has to go potty so i can take her, like i did with nina, i put her little potty on the floor and told her that when she has to go, she should pull her pants down and just go by herself. all by herself. just her.

and she did!

within an hour, she did it! she sat down on that potty when she had to go and peed! she did forget to pull her pants down that first time, but that's ok.

she used the potty all day today! if she hadn't gone in a while, i would remind her that the potty was there for her to use by herself when she was ready, and often she did go at the reminder. but reminding her is no big deal; heck, i still remind nina to go.

we mostly stayed in today, close to that potty. it's supposed to be super cold tomorrow and the next day too, so we'll probably stay in for the most part again. keep your fingers crossed that this is it!

yay maggie!

how about some pictures?

we had some snow last week and boy was that fuN!

nanta claus is coming to town...

maggie says nanta for santa and it is just too cute. too cute! she LOVES santa too. every time he pops up on a commercial, or even if there's just a tiny little santa somewhere on an ad or something, she points it out and gets excited. nanta! nanta!

what are some other cute things?... oh, grandpa took his usual heaping plate of food at dinner tonight and nina took a look at it and asked, "are you going to eat all that food?" dad says yes he was. "because if you don't," nina said, "it's a poor choice." hee hee! she's such a funny kid.

nina is still very fearful of bad people. a few days ago she made a sign for our wall: "no bad strangers." she even put a line through it (like the signs with a circle and a line through it. she really likes those kinds of signs).

have i posted about maggie and letters? she knows all of the letters, she has for at least a month. she drilled me on them until she got them all; i'd be in the kitchen, cooking dinner or loading the dishwasher, and she'd come up to me with one of the refrigerator magnet letters and say "this? this?" then i'd tell her, she'd repeat it, and go back to the refrigerator for a new one. now she loves to point out letters wherever we are.

what else? nina's current obsessions (besides bad people) are that the toilet will break if she flushes more than 1 square of toilet paper, that pants cannot be worn after peeing because of drips, and that food might get stuck in her throat. fortunately, she let me shampoo her hair today happily. she wanted me to curl it like wendy from peter pan, and it didn't work because her hair was too dirty (it had been a month since the last shampoo). so she was all for one. she suggested we do it in the kitchen sink (her lying down on teh counter with a towel under her neck so it was kind of like at the hair salon). she kept a towel over her face to keep the spray off of her, and it went great! she was happy the whole time. maybe another breakthrough here!

finally, poor maggie fell today in the kitchen and got a bloody nose and fat lip. poor little kid. nina was really worried but didn't cry (usually she does if maggie gets hurt). we were so proud of her for being so big. later she told mom about what happened and said, "i really keeped it together!"

when is oma coming to visit?

nina is asking every day. aww!! i tell her soon, and that we'll go back to austria to visit soon too. we're not sure when though. this spring? if we wait until fall, we have kindergarten to contend with! well, we'll figure it out...

and maggie cannot get enough of oma and opa in the elf yourself video! she points to the laptop when it's open and says "oma? opa?". when i put it on she says "oma! opa!" the whole time. it's too cute!!

a video (i hope!)

finally! it has worked!! here is a video of the girls doing some ballet.

santa arrived AGAIN!

wow, that santa is a busy guy. last saturday he arrived at the common by firetruck, and today it was the harbor by boat (on the novelty). maggie was even more excited than nina! we had started the day by popping in to the historical society for some treats and to see if they have a map that nick and i are looking for (they didn't, but the southport historical society might have it). then it was on to the opera house for the festival of trees, which was pretty crowded and lacked free goodies, so we didn't stay long. from there we went to the library to make a craft and (surprise, surprise) avail ourselves of the treats. maggie got sick of waiting at the library and starting saying "santa! santa!", so off to the whale park we went. finally he arrived with mrs. claus and a whole troop of elves. the girls were so happy! THEN, if you can believe it, we even got a ride on a big trolly pulled by two horses ("big neigh!" said maggie). what an amazingly fun day. there are even pictures this time, i'll see if i can get them up tonight.

i also have videos to put up, and really, really have got to get nina on video doing the walking hula hoop, the running hula hoop, the galloping hula hoop, and the jumping hula hoop. she is too funny!

fun day at the YMCA

swimming and then a few laps around the track. the girls had a blast, and nina was swimming with just one bubble. i'm so proud of her! maggie floated by herself for a few seconds with three bubbles, and then said "i'm a fish! i'm a fish!"

oh, and last night, before nina fell asleep, she wished she would dream she lived in a house made of bubblegum.

a KC recap

sorry i didn't post anything at all while we were in KC, nick was working a lot and it was busy, busy, busy (and fast, fast, fast!). wyatt is adorable!! such a cute, good little guy. nina just loved holding him, and maggie loved pointing at him and saying "baby!" then pointing at vanessa and saying "mama!". maggie also loved the boppy, i wonder if she misses ours? i guess i should drag it out of the basement and see!

one day we went into KC proper and saw the model train exhibit at the train station, plus some gingerbread houses at... where were those? i don't remember.

all in all, a great trip. though the girls were not too happy when i held wyatt. nina would pout and glare, and maggie would whine. one time nina asked, "but we're not taking him home, right?". actually, it was more of a command. :-)

potty training maggie

this is not going as easily as i had hoped. maggie started sitting on the potty at 8 months. for a few weeks, she peed on it after naps; it seemed like we were off to a roaring start. then, she stopped using it. months passed, i'd put her on occasionally, no pressure, but she never went. then, at about 11 months, she started peeing after naps again. she even pooped on the potty on her first birthday!

slowly, she progressed to peeing a lot on the potty. for a few months, she has done 80% of her pees in the potty (no more poops though). which is wonderful, think of all the diapers we're keeping out of landfills. at home, she wears cloth trainers during the day, so we're using even fewer disposables. i feel good and green.

however, she rarely tells me when she has to go. sometimes she whispers "poo-poo... poo-poo" but makes no attempt to make sure i hear. if i do, good for me. if not, well, tough luck momma.

i was wondering if leaving a potty out for her to use herself (she has an indpendant streak a mile wide, after all) would be better. it's not like maggie to want to ask me for help getting to the potty, you know? she won't let me help her with anything; in fact, she resents help and sometimes has a tantrum if you help her do something that she wants to do on her own.

well, the potty out quickly proved to be a bit of a success. she said "little potty?" when she had to go, but i still had to help her get her pants down. then, in the tub last night, she told me "poo-poo" and tried to get out of the tub. i was cleaning the potty, so i told her she had to wait. she sat back down, got up when i was done cleaning, and then i put her on the potty and she went. that's right, the little stinker is PERFECTLY capable of telling me and holding it when it's her bath water that's about to be peed in. but ask her to keep it off my floor, and not worth it.

so far today she has peed on the ground twice, so it looks like our gains have not carried over. ah well, think of all the diapers i'm keeping out of landfills...

sweet dreams

last night as nina was falling asleep she said quietly to herself:
"i wish i'd have a dream about bubblegum. (pause)
"i wish i'd have a dream that i'm a princess with bubblegum."

there you go, inside the mind of a 4 year old girl!