Messy photos

I had the kids take off their clothes before dinner tonight because we were having ribs (not that either of them ate any, they preferred the sweet potatoes). Kyra is trying to stab at food with spoons and forks and often refuses to let anyone else help her. She's resilient. When she fails with a utensil, she opts for her hands... Here are some photos of them having fun -- and a glimpse of the severity of the cleanup effort required!

Christmas

We had a nice Christmas Day. The kids were overwhelmed a bit by the gifts but Daniel loved his gifts from Santa. I didn't take as many pictures as I should have. But here are a couple of shots. Matt and I enjoyed our gifts and watching the kids with their new toys. The day was a bit more hectic than we expected because our plans to attend Mass on Christmas Eve were thrwarted by the fact that people were out the door of the church at the 3pm Mass. It wasn't worth staying when we couldn't hear or see anything. So we left and went today instead. It was a lot less crowded and the kids were very good for about half of the extra long service. Then Kyra started getting a little grumpy as it got closer to naptime and Daniel saw some kids he knows and got a little wild which then turned into a temper tantrum (a new thing). I think overall it was a busy, overwhelming morning. Kyra usually naps 3 hours and napped about 1 hour and Daniel didn't nap at all, despite his crying tantrum. The evening was nice, though. We cooked a roast, potatoes and carrots and had dinner as a family. Very nice.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

First, I want to wish each of you a Christmas Eve and Christmas Day of peace and joy!

We plan to attend Mass at 3pm (yes, that's considered after dark in Seattle) and then to a friend's house for Christmas Eve dinner. After that, home to put the kids to bed and get Daniel geared up for Santa -- we made and decorated Santa's cookies yesterday and will put them out tonight. Then Matt and I become Santa and Mrs. Claus and spend what will likely be hours putting together Daniel's new Cook 'n Grill Kitchen -- not sure where we'll put it once it's assembled, though. I also got him a Chef's outfit so that he won't wear his Pull-Up diaper on his head as a chef's hat when we go to the restaurant.

I know it's been some time since I posted a picture - I promise I'll take some tomorrow and post them.

Merry Christmas!

Lights Out

We went without power for almost 72 hours this week. The first night, we stuck it out at home. After that, we visited friends at a local hotel and managed miraculously to get a room there for the next two nights. There were literally no rooms available anywhere -- we happened to call right at the time someone else had cancelled. Poor Basil had to stay here in the cold. The house got down to 48 degrees. Today we came home and got to dump everything out of the fridge -- good opporunity to clean it out! Kids and I went to Safeway to buy food and Safeway lost a lot plus their heater is out so the store was freezing, too! I had forgotten Kyra's jacket and Daniel had refused to wear his so I zoomed through the store trying to pick up essentials. We did okay. Anyway, we were fortunate not to have any damage to the house -- trees were fallen everywhere -- and to have somewhere warm to stay so we can't complain at all. We are very happy to be home, though, and are looking forward to Christmas.

11 months old

Kyra turned 11 months old yesterday. She is now walking 5-6 steps at a time and willing to let go of furniture to walk a few steps to me. She is also trying very hard to use a fork. She takes it and pushes it into her food on her plate like she's trying to stab at it. She's not too effective with that but very effective in getting it to her mouth as long as it stays on her fork long enough. Flinging yogurt was her favorite thing on Tuesday. She's also trying to say lots of words - she can make any combination of "b" and a vowel together and says "boo", "bu(g)" and pointed to the duck in a book last night and said "du". I couldn't get her to do it again so it may have simply been coincidence but I believe it was intentional. She's moving up to the toddler room at daycare next month which will put her in with the same teacher Daniel had at that age and make her the youngest in the class - I think that will be better for her developmentally.

We've begun Baby Boot Camp for Daniel's sleeping problems. Matt and I can't handle him getting up multiple times each night anymore. It makes us not-so-great parents during the day so in the longer term, it's the better solution. Daniel's a smart kid and will get the picture pretty quickly. I only worry that his problem is being scared of the dark or something and that we're creating a problem by not going to him each time. He does talk about monsters in his curtains but doesn't ever wake up crying or screaming because he's scared. I think it's really just that he wants one of us in there with him. The doctor says he needs to learn how to go back to sleep by himself and this is the way to do it... Again, it's better than me constantly being grumpy mommy.

Christmas Cookies

We had our cookie decorating party. Daniel loved it. Here's a picture of the result. It was a lot more work for Mommy than expected but turned out pretty well -- not as nice as the picture on the booklet, though. I pre-made and pre-iced the cookies, then we piled them up and the kids added the decorations. It really was a very nice party.

Kyra's been suffering from a tooth coming in and has been fussy and unhappy and up at night... But she is starting to walk. She walked about 4 steps away from me to the table on Tuesday which was a first -- usually she walks towards me but not away. And so proud of herself! She's also saying (or trying to say) quite a few words - mostly b's such as book, burp, and there was another one I can't think of. She's also learning the basic signs for milk, eat, and all done. I was reading to her before bed last night and she signed "milk" so we stopped, had milk and went to sleep. Seemed to work pretty well.

Tonight, I picked up the kids at daycare, went and got Daniel a haircut, off to dinner at Red Robin and then to see Snowflake Lane in downtown Bellevue. It's a program of drummers (live toy soldiers) that line the road and play the drums to Christmas music. It all ends with snow falling from the buildings. Daniel enjoyed the drummers but felt the noise was too much given that it was blasted from speakers on the buildings. I was a bit worried about Kyra but she watched intently. Of course, after all that, neither of them was interested in bed. They were funny, tonight, though. I was trying to put Daniel to sleep because Kyra wasn't cooperating and Daniel seemed tired and Kyra was peeking at him through the slats in his headboard and they were both giggling. Obviously it was not a very productive way to get the kids to sleep but I let it continue for a short while because they were so cute and enjoying each other so much.

Daniel loves his Advent Calendar but is disappointed when every day doesn't have candy... trucks, play dough, baloons, etc. don't have the same effect. Maybe we should skip Christmas presents and just have a giant muffin or cookie... We are having a cookie decorating party on Sunday with some friends. I seem to plan these things in the midst of my busiest times. I've got an all day presentation on Saturday and the ND Club Christmas brunch and mass is on Sunday morning -- we may have to skip that although it is always such a nice program with Santa and all.

The restaurant is doing well, getting more traction, more visibility, more customers. The big sign is **hopefully** going up on Friday!

I probably need to calendar my time for blogging -- every night I plan to do it and don't remember until after I've turned off the computer. Friday night, I invited a girlfriend of mine to hang out with me at the Twisted Cork. Turns out, Matt was available that night so my friend invited her hubby, too, another couple of friends showed up. It was soooo lovely to hang out in the Champagne Lounge with friends, enjoying the food and wine flights. Matt even got me some very lovely roses as a gift for visiting the restaurant as a patron for the first time -- not including Thanksgiving dinner! It really was such a nice evening!

Well, I just heard Daniel get up, so I'll have to continue this later -- seems that fighting with Daniel and Kyra's sleep habits are par for the course.