Fashion

It's been a while since I've done a "fashion" post, so let's do it!

I often say that I think both Sydney and Lorelei have fashion knowledge and foresight that I do not possess.  However, they've both been pushing the envelope lately.

Lorelei's never met a pattern she doesn't love and doesn't insist on pairing with several other patterns:

Her love for dance and gymnastics clothing outweighs her love of patterns though:

Apparently she's into makeup now too:

Sydney, on the other hand, is in a monochromatic stage with clothing these days:

ALL pink.  Too bad I didn't snap a picture of her on Sunday, when she wore ALL brown to a birthday party (she was calling herself "brownie").

She's gone from owning zero to three Elsa/"Frozen" dresses in the last four weeks.  The one below she bought with her own Christmas money in Orlando at our hotel's gift shop (more on that later).  The pink "Frozen" dress in the above picture, and another dress (not yet pictured -- I'll snap one ASAP) are from Grammy for Christmas/birthday, and are super snazzy.

Don't let the fact that she's wearing Chet's combat boots be lost on you.

Syd and Bubby were both wearing plum purple the other day, which was festive:

But sometimes she gets it just right (in my own, non-fashion-forward, and possibly boring, opinion):

And Bubby obviously wears whatever I put him in:

Is there nothing cuter than a baby in a puffer vest?!

Salmon-colored sweatshirt and blue cords:

 One-pieced outfits are my very favorite, especially if they are sweater material, like this one:

A little hard to see, but this is an old-school-looking turtleneck.  It accentuated his red, dry-from-the-winter-weather cheeks all day long:

And then, of course, he wears things like birthday bows on his head, courtesy of two big sisters:

Happy Thursday!

Sydney is FIVE!

Yesterday our first baby turned five-years old -- happy birthday, Sydney Jo!

On one hand it's hard to believe, but on the other, it's completely believable that five years have already passed.  I won't say that Sydney is "exactly like me," because she's not, she's her own person, but she and I are definitely cut from the same cloth.  It makes our mother-daughter relationship both a breeze and a wee bit frustrating.  A breeze in that I feel like I really know her and where's she's coming from, and a wee bit frustrating in that...well, you know how it can be in the company of someone who is exactly like you (picture proverbial head butting).  I told my mom (who is in town visiting -- more on that later) that absolutely nothing that Sydney does or says surprises me, but sometimes I look at Lorelei (who is NOT exactly like me) and I think, "Who are you?! What's going on in that little head of yours?"

Anyway.

Sydney is five, and she is a terrific little girl.  Smart, funny, helpful, silly, precise, and with a memory like a steel trap.  Some of her favorite things include:
1. Performing hand motions to songs in the children's church choir
2. Picking up her brother and sister
3. Diapering and dressing her dolls and stuffed animals
4. Drawing pictures for and writing notes to who anyone who may cross her mind
5. Mastering the remote control

She goes to preschool (Pre-K, technically) four mornings a week, Monday through Thursday.  She used to take gymnastics, and loves and misses it.  She goes to ballet class on Friday afternoons, and especially loves learning the routine the class will perform at the May recital.  She doesn't nap very often anymore (since she has proven she can control her tiredness by not having meltdowns at the end of the day), but I usually make her nap on Thursday afternoons.  I tell her it's because she needs to rest up for ballet the next day, ha.

It's impossible to tell you all about Sydney in a single blog post, so we'll end things here.  Chet and I can now say our children are 5, 3, and 1, which is sort of fun and a lot more streamlined than "4 1/2, just turned 3, and 9 months."  Sydney is the best first born and oldest sibling for our family (duh!  God doesn't make mistakes!), and we love her more each day!

'Tis the Season...

...for the sickies. And I really don't even like that non-word (just like I don't like the words "snuggle" or "preggo"--which is actually another non-word), but "the sickies" have invaded our home this past weekend, and I'm not yet convinced they're gone.

I'll spare you the details, but I'll just say that four of us have experienced GI issues in one way or another starting with Ford in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday. He was pretty much over it by late morning on Saturday (a 6-hour bug!), but then Sydney and I were sick all day Monday (I laid in bed 90% of the day, and by late afternoon my body was ACHING from inactivity). Thankfully Chet was off work Monday, and kept the household humming while I let my muscles atrophy in bed. I'm sure he was looking forward to getting the heck out of here and back to work, but the sickness ("sickies") hit him early this morning, and he's been out of it all day (he even stayed home from work--RARE!). Sydney and I were both fine by this morning, so I was able to take over running things. So far Lorelei has been spared, but Chet and I have a $1,000,000 bet going that she starts puking any minute (I think she will, Chet things she won't--I hope he's right!).

Since no post is complete without pictures, here is the hopefully-not-sick little girl helping me fold clothes just a little while ago:

Hmm, she doesn't look sick...

Check out that pile she folded a little more closely:

Anyway, I suppose this post was to let you know we're still alive and (semi) well. My friend Casey called me out for not posting, and since I love to e-stalk as much as she does, I though I'd write something that will hopefully entertain you for at least five minutes.

Happy...Tuesday? I have no idea what day it is...

2015 Reading Challenge

Happy Friday!

I'm joining Modern Mrs. Darcy for her 2015 Reading Challenge.  I love this challenge because it's so flexible, and I'm looking forward to finding books that fit into each category!

Right now I'm reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.  This book fits into several categories for me (hence the flexibility of the challenge), but I'm going to file it under "Books I've Been Meaning to Read."  I actually own a hard copy of the book and have started reading it several times, but have never gotten very far.  I'm not sure why...

Do you have any suggestions/recommendations for any of the categories?  I need to ask my mom for a short list of some of her favorite books... ;-)

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Birthday!

Well, hello there!

Obviously, I have a lot of blogging to catch up on, but first I'm going to say happy (belated) first birthday to our baby boy! I can't believe he turned a year old yesterday--time really does fly.

We think Ford is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I can't imagine our family without him, and I feel like I've known him my whole life (I felt the same way the day he was born).

Happy 1st birthday, Bubby!

I will do my best to catch you up on our Christmas break, but I may grant myself the grace to move forward without posting perfectly crafted blog posts, because life just doesn't slow down.

I will say I'm tired of all the bleeding though. By that I mean, as you can probably see in the picture above, Ford has a war wound over his right eye, which he acquired mere hours before we had to catch a train to Florida. The ER folks glued him back together. While in West Palm Beach, I incurred a puncture wound when I dropped a pair of kitchen shears on my ankle. I bled like a stuck pig for about a minute, then it stopped, only to reveal the tiniest puncture wound you ever did (or didn't) see. I was sore the next day, but, thankfully, no glue or stitches. Yesterday Sydney bit her lip in a sliding accident (we're still trying to get the full story) that had her bleeding quite profusely too. Chet thinks one of her top teeth might be loose, but the jury's still out on that one. No glue or stitches for her either.

School started back yesterday, but we're all staying home today due to this:

Happy snow day! Chaos ensues here--gotta go!

Advent

Where on earth have I been?!

I've been an absent blogger, but not because this Christmas season has been crazy busy or anything. It HAS been busy, but I have tried my darnedest to keep the busy-ness at bay, and it seems to be working. 

This year we decided to to an Advent activity each day. VERY simple things, like taking a walk around the block to look at Christmas lights, and attending the girls' Christmas pageant at school (I'm really good at riding the coattails of already-scheduled Christmas activities). Before you assume I am really clever and on the ball, sometimes we go two or three days without doing an activity, and then our "daily" Advent activity goes something like, "Remember, two days ago when we opened the box that Didi sent and placed presents under the tree--wasn't that fun?!" We will have to be better planners as the kids get older, once they can read and aren't as easily distracted by shiny objects. The blissful "the kids won't know the difference" time period is quickly coming to a close. Sigh. 

I'm actually sitting on the posh sofa in my gym's locker room as I type this, so I'm going to wrap up. I just needed to post something (ANYTHING!). Here are a couple of pictures of our earliest Advent activities.

And, yes, our Christmas tree is a 4-footer sitting on a princess table (now covered by a tree skirt--whew!). The perfect solution to a tiny house and crawling baby. ;-)

Chill Out

I should be telling you about how we've been celebrating and enjoying this Advent season, but that will have to wait.

First let me tell you that I live in a city where only about 7% of drivers make a 100% stop at stop signs (based on my own extensive research and eagle-eyed observations), absolutely no one (except me) yields properly, and people blare their horns at you if you drive 10 mph OVER the speed limit...in the slow lane.

Like most drivers, I am pretty critical of other drivers.  I won't say that I suffer from road rage, but I do get upset when people make dumb choices (like texting -- or whatever -- while driving), thus putting all of our lives in danger.  But overall I try to be patient on the road, especially since the timeline I operate on is almost entirely self-imposed.

But today something happened that showed me we need to generally chill out (by the end of this post, you will be tired of the phrase "chill out").  Drive defensively, but don't assume the worst about someone just because they don't drive (or talk, or raise their children, etc.) exactly the way you do.  Since we don't know the hearts/minds/situations of others, let's stop getting so worked up when someone offends us.  Chill out.

Let me set the stage...

Today Lorelei attended a gymnastics class for the second time (the first time was last Wednesday) in a part of town I don't know very well.  Today we had to go to the grocery store after class, and I did not know how to get from gymnastics to the grocery store without my GPS.  After loading Lorelei and Ford into the car and while I was still in my parking spot, I typed the grocery store into my phone's Google Map app, but the app wasn't working (the "thinking circle" just kept spinning and spinning).  I remembered that I had the same problem last week, and realized that the building must be blocking the cell phone signal (the parking lot is behind the building), so I left the parking lot and stopped before turning onto the street, hoping my phone would find a signal so that I would know whether I should turn left or right out of the parking lot.  Viola!  Cell phone signal!

I typed in the address, Google Maps told me to turn left onto the street, and I looked up from my phone so that I could start our journey.  There was a woman with a baby stroller to my right, stopped on the sidewalk and giving me the death glare of all death glares.  My car (minivan, actually) was pulled too far forward for her to continue on the sidewalk, and I obviously hadn't seen her until I looked up and started looking both ways.  (I was blocking the sidewalk, not due to carelessness, but because this particular street allows street parking, and it is impossible to see if the coast is clear unless you pull waaaaaaaay forward.)  I felt bad that I was blocking the sidewalk, so I motioned for her to "go ahead," even though she would be forced to steer around the front of my car.  At first she gave me her best "you're an idiot" look for suggesting she go first, but in the end she took me up on my offer.  I rolled down my window to apologize, saying, "I'm so sorry, I'm not familiar with this part of town."  Her response was something snippy to the tune of, "You just can't resist playing with your iPhone."

Well.

Had the situation been reversed, I too probably would have been annoyed and assumed that the driver was Facebooking/Instagramming/Tweeting before leaving the parking lot and pulling out into traffic. Because we just can't quit, can we?  I too would have stood still, refusing to continue my walk with my baby stroller until the driver in the car blocking the sidewalk was aware that I was actually standing there.  No way would I have started to walk in front of the car before making eye contact with the distracted driver, because Heaven knows there was a good chance Distracted Driver would step on the gas before tearing her eyes away from her iPhone screen.  Because whatever is on that screen is obviously much more important than driving safely.

But.

I was NOT Facebooking/Instagramming/Tweeting.  Yes, I should not have pulled up so far and blocked the sidewalk -- next time I won't.  But I honestly didn't know where I was going, and there was honestly not a cell phone signal in the back parking lot.  So I HAD to get to the front of the building before typing my destination into the phone's GPS.  Once the GPS registered my destination, I lifted my eyes and saw you, dear woman...before my foot even thought about letting my foot off the brake.  I did not accidentally almost hit you.  I understand that your job is ensure the safety of yourself and the child, but YOU DON'T KNOW ME OR MY SITUATION.

After her snippy comment, I called after her, "Have a great day!"  She was ticked off, and, frankly, I'm a little ticked off too (obviously, otherwise this would not be a blog post).  But because I could see where the woman was coming from, I was forced to chill out, and realized that I need to chill out a lot more often.  Not just while driving, but in many instances.  Like when the man in the grocery store shouted at Lorelei to "Watch out!" when she was walking backwards in the aisle and nearly backed into his shopping cart, then rolled his eyes at us.  Perhaps one of his own children had been hurt when his guard was down.  Or when the woman walking into the library in front of us let go of the door before I could grab it to hold it open, even though I was certain she saw me and my small army of children.  Perhaps she suffers from chronic shoulder pain.  See?  Chill out.

I challenge myself, and you, this Christmas season -- a season that is all about giving and love -- to give others the benefit of the doubt, and to love them in spite of how they may treat you.  Let's stop assuming the worst of others (because we don't want them assuming the worst of us), and start extending kindness (because we want kindness extended to us).  It's the least we can do, in light of what has already been done for us.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."  John 3:16