the girls' christmas lists

i can't believe christmas is just around the corner already! here is what the girls have their eyes on this year:

Nina
high-heeled dress-up shoes (in her size, not my old castoffs)
a princess dress-up necklace (one of those plastic jewelery sets would be perfect since the girls sometimes fight over the one pair of clip-on earrings that we have)
a ken doll, preferably a prince
anything disney princess or tinkerbell
slippers (size 12 or 13)
wagon
sports equipment (t-ball, soccer ball, things like that)

Maggie
anything winnie the pooh
anything princess
slippers (size 7)
anything with letters or numbers

and for either one
anything crafty

nina is currently just going into a size 5 and maggie is a 2T or 3T (pretty much a 3T for everyting except pants, 3T are still a bit too long, but 2T probably won't fit for too much longer)

that's all i can think of!

goin' to kansas city

kansas city, here we come!


we'll be on our way in about an hour. the girls are so excited that they're running around in circles. should be a fun flight!

i'll type this on commercial breaks...

man i love the law and order theme song!

you all probably know that nina doesn't like to go to sleep. she stalls, says she's not tired, asks for another snack, another drink, another story... standard kid stuff. but she also talks a lot about how she doesn't like to go to sleep, and how she can't wait until it's morning. lately, she has been asking us whether, when she has a dream, her body stays in bed or if it leaves. we had thought that dreams might have been part of why she doesn't like to sleep, but she rarely talks about having bad dreams, so we weren't sure. nick and i keep explaining that dreams are just her imagination (nick tells her they are her brain telling her a story while she's asleep to keep her entertained. interesting explanation nick). i'm not sure she totally believes it, because she keeps asking over and over again. poor kid, i hope her dreams are just unnerving and not scary.

another busy day

what a day! nick went to best buy last night and bought a new laptop. he's been wanting to for a while, and then on tuesday the cord to plug the old laptop in broke. i got a new one, but nick was already determined. he went to best buy after the kids were in bed last night and bought this spiffy, shiny new laptop. it's a gateway. so far, so good! i like that all of the keys work properly. on the old laptop, you had to strike the N and the D really hard. and the spacebar. it was getting to be quite a pain.

so, the day had a busy start with all of us oohing and aahing over the new laptop. then eve called and asked if we wanted to go to a new indoor playground in warren, since it was raining. we did! it was great. indoor bouncies, riding toys, a playset with a slide, a toddler area, a kitchen, an amazing amount of dress-up clothes, it goes on and on but i'm getting bored of listing thigns and i'm sure you're getting the idea. wow i even type faster on the new laptop!

the girls had a great but exhausting time. maggie loved that she didn't have to get out of the bouncies (remember the damariscotta pumpkin festival? i had to go into the inflatable pumpkin and drag her out. it was a scene).

THEN we went to return our books to the library and get some new ones, then on to the grocery store for some grub for dinner. now it's 8 on friday, the kids are in bed, adn we're about to watch law and order. what a great day!

a quick nina funny too

nina is still obsessed with the princess thing. she has pointed out that nick must be my prince, since we're married. when speaking to me about him, she refers to him as "your prince." well, tonight nina wanted one more snack before bed, and nick was getting impatient. then she asked for a glass of water too, and nick was annoyed and said no. nina turned to me and said, "mean! your prince is mean!" with this big smile on her face. it was hysterical.

serial posting

there's so much to catch up on!

erik and isabelle were here this weekend. and chester. we all had a wonderful time, and maggie really misses chester and isabelle. she keeps saying "chester home?" "belle home?" note that she does not mention erik. she wont or can't say his name, instead referring to him all weekend as "this." funny kid!!

margarete has topped herself

remember how i was all flabbergasted that maggie was climbing up onto the arms of the couches and jumping onto the cushions? i should have been happy then, because she found an even more dangerous trick. she stood on the arms and jumped backwards onto the cushions. gah, i guess i should be happy she's still jumping onto the cushions! she also stood on the back of the couch and jumped backwards onto the cushions. oy vey.

nina destroyed me in wii bowling

we hadn't played in a while because we were out of batteries. well, i haven't gotten any better in the last few months but nina sure has! she bowled almost all strikes and spares. she's a prodigy!!

more on oma's visit...

so let's see, on wednesday we pretty much just hung out at the house. the weather was kind of icky if i remember correctly.

thursday, nick and i had to go to the bank. we decided to go without the kids and leave the grandmas in charge! i don't know what happened while we were gone, but the kids were happy and healthy when we got home, so good job grandmas. A+! on thursday, nina also went to the first rehearsal for the polar express play that the library is putting on at the railway village in december. there were only a few kids there, but that was good for nina, because it was her first introduction to acting and she thought the idea was a little weird. i think she's really going to like it though, so hopefully she is willing to stick with it. rehearsals will start next week, i guess we'll see!

on friday went to story hour with oma, and on friday night nick and i took the girls to the Y for some family swim. the girls love to swim, and it tuckers them out, which makes bedtime a breeze.

saturday we all went down to ocean point to throw rocks into the water, and on sunday, oma had to leave. it was a short visit, but fun!

margarete has a new trick

you know how in the living room we have the two couches at a 90 degree angle to each other? well, today maggie started climbing up on the loveseat, standing on the arm of the loveseat, making her way onto the adjacent arm of the couch, standing up on that, and then jumping from that arm onto the cushions. she's not even 18 months old!! this is insane!

how do you childproof a couch? i don't know. luckily, nina pulled all the cushions off the couch into a big pile on the floor, and maggie forgot all about her launch spot. hopefully she won't remember tomorrow, or else i'm in trouble.

oma's arrival

i don't remember what we did on monday, so i'll skip straight to the big day--tuesday! nick went to portland to pick up oma at 5, and they got in at around 6:30. i had taken the girls swimming at the Y after ballet to help kill time until they got home, and that was a lot of fun. we now use the handicapped changing room exclusively because i can lock the door, preventing maggie from running out into the hallway at least 3 times while i'm changing. (and me from having to put a towel over myself to run after her. obviously that is an embarrassment waiting to happen!). so, the locking door on the handicapped changing room makes swimming possible. and really, no one says anything about me using it because clearly one look at us and they know i'm a woman who needs all the help she can get!
the big news with swimming is that nina now swims with just 2 bubbles. it's a little harder for her, she has to work the muscles a little more to stay afloat and move, but she loves it. the bubbles system is such an easy way for them to develop their strength.

finally, oma arrived and there was merriment, cheese, chocolate, cookies, coffee, and one other thing that doesn't start with "c" but i can't remember what... oh well, it'll come to me. books, was that it?

mom and dad popped by, and there was just one episode of mass hysteria over who was going to wear the princess nightgown. nina threw herself sobbing onto the futon, saying "i don't want maggie to wear my nightgown," and maggie threw herself to the futon, also sobbing. the situation was resolved when maggie was presented with the option of wearing her winnie the pooh shirt to bed. she loves pooh. grandma fixed the situation permanently by buying maggie an identical princess nightgown. whew! and i thought the clothing arguments weren't supposed to start for another 10 years!

edit: rice! that was it, oma also brought arboiro rice!

oma is visiting, and i'm not posting!

i tell you, once i break the stride of every-other-day posting, it's so easy to let the blog slip and bam! i realize a week has gone by. it's even harder to make the blog a priority when fully half of my audience is right here with us! add to that the daily phone calls with vanessa and erik, and there's little new to put up here.

still, the blog serves an important, but sometimes overlooked (by me) purpose, and that is its function as a record of the kids' early years. so, even if it's repetitious, i'll re-cap the week. feel free to skim.

sunday: sunday morning we went to church. there was some kind of "all saints' parish" thing going on (our lady queen of peace is no longer a "church" but a "worship center." that's because we now share a priest with a bunch of other churches, collectively called "all saints' parish.") so, some of the all saints parishoners from other worship centers came to church (worship?) at OLQP, and they did the readings an such. well, there was also big breakfast. what luck! poor nick had stayed home to work and was really disappointed when he found out about the breakfast. they had so much bacon they actually announced that people needed to come up for seconds to help finish it off. a little piece of nick heaven. maybe that's god's way of telling nick that by missing church, he's missing his own little heaven... hmm nick, you should think about that.
also, there was some mass cuteness from maggie; she still loves the singing, and was "la la la"ing along with the cantor woman while she was singing her solo cantor part (you know, where one one lady sings/chants something like "and the fruits of all the trees and birds will be ripe/for the season of the lord is upon us" and we all sing in response "we will praise the lord on this day" in some bizarre melody that is not melodious at all.) but adding maggie's "la la la"ing on top of that made for some real cuteness.

that's all i can think of from sunday. hm, i'll have to start another post about oma's visit.

i can't believe i missed my blogiversary!

i totally forgot about it, even though i'd looked back at my first post in september and saw that i'd written it on october 14, 2008. well, happy belated blogiversary to me! i must say, i enjoy having the blog to look back on even more than i had thought. there are so many little things that i had forgotten. and the girls love it too; just today nina made me dig up the video of her saying "i have a big piece of toilet!" she loves that! this inevitably led to a youtube fest of halterfamily's video postings. remember the one where nina is feeding maggie a lollipop and maggie is wiggling her little feet in joy? ok, i'll link to it: here. i can't believe how much that little margarete has grown!!!!

here's to another year of cuteness!!