Yes, we went to Disneyland

...and yes, I almost lost it on the Teacups.

Star of the Week

Annika's class started a new program called "Star of the Week". Despite a bit of disappointment at not being the very first Star of the Week (little Faith claimed that honor specifically for being "very helpful to others"), she can now wear the crown proudly. The Star of the Week gets to give an interview and have a poster of his/her answers outside of the room for a whole week.

Without further ado, here's my little star's answers to the interview questions:

Birthday: July 1
Who do you most admire: My brother
Favorite food: Candy
Favorite animal: Dog
My wish: To get a dog
Favorite book: The Monster at the End of This Book
What pictures do you like best: Rainbows and unicorns
What's your favorite thing to do in school: Arts & Crafts
What are you good at?: Art projects

Valentine's Day bliss

A pretzel at the mall in seasonal clothing. Happy Valentine's Day!

A note about the videos

Hey everyone,

Yes we know that the videos aren't working most of the time. There's a known issue with Blogger that Google is working on...hopefully it'll get fixed. In the meantime, enjoy some lovely still shots of the children...

Something New...

So, Declan is entering his next phase of mobility. Prior to today he would "crawl" (and I use the term loosely) when he was on a hardwood floor. Basically, the slick surface provided him the opportunity to use his arms to drag his legs along for the ride as he semi-crawled wherever he wanted to go. The catch was that if you got him onto carpet, the resistance was too much for him to overcome and he would either give up, or just start flailing and rolling around until he got where he wanted to go.

Apparently, the flailing wasn't cutting it because today he decided to do this...

I'm somewhat conflicted at this latest development. On the one hand, I'm proud of my baby boy for doing something his sister never did. On the other, he's now capable of getting into all sorts of new hazardous situations.

Annika built a fort

...and other things we do as a family.

We lead pretty boring lives...I always struggle when someone asks how our weekend was, or what "new things" the kids are up to. The truth is, we really just hang out. Sometimes we go shopping. Sometimes we go out to eat. Usually we play with the kids. That's about it. But I love it - wouldn't trade it for anything.

A couple of weeks ago, Annika asked Chris to build her a fort, and this is the fruit of their labor. I came home and was like...wow! I wish I had something like that as a kid! The end result of that is, 3 weeks later, our couches are still 'fort style." But that's ok. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
'

Declan loves to play with things that are not toys. As the second child, he doesn't really have a lot to choose from, truth be told, but the collection has gotten better over the last 9 months. Anyway, he loves measuring spoons, tape, shoes, belts, and most of all, the remote control. (though, what little kid doesn't?) I'm not sure exactly what he's playing with in this picture, but he did enjoy it.



Yeah, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

"Clap, Clap!"

New trick - clapping on command.

Old trick - being adorable:

Molly

Annika has been asking for a pet for...well, ever since she could talk. She wants a dog (they all do, don't they?), but i told her we can barely take care of her and her brother. She did admit, "Dogs are a lot of responsibility. I learned that on a TV show."

I have been thinking for a while that Annika deserves a pet of some sort. She's a nurturing person, a sweet soul and a good girl. Maybe some sort of low maintenance pet is in order?

The price she had to pay was to not whine for 24 hours. I know...easier said than done. In fact, she failed 4 times before the magic day. (I think it also somewhat cured her whininess...she does it a lot less now, which was really the point.) I said she could have a toy or a fish if she managed to abstain from whining for a day. She chose the fish.

We got a 2.5 gallon tank, set it up. Waited a day to make sure the tank was up to temperature and the filter was working. She & Daddy went the next night to pick out a fish which took her a while to decide on...she went from frog to some small white fish thing to a goldfish and finally settled on a molly. The molly's name is Molly and she is yellow and quite cute.

Molly's first night in the tank was rough. She tended to stay at the top part of the tank and seemed to be breathing heavily. We explained to Annika that fish have pretty short life spans and though we would do our best to keep her healthy, sometimes fish don't make it. Annika was ok with that though told us she was already very "attached" to Molly and would "never want to let her go."

Day 2, Molly was fed for the first time and ate like a champ. She was swimming throughout the tank and looked great. To celebrate, Annika and Daddy went for ice cream! Yay!

I watched Molly with a relatively grumpy Declan who rather enjoys the tank. Something else was swimming in that tank. A tiny Molly. Molly had a baby!

I texted Chris. I ran to the Interwebs...what do I do?? Will Molly eat her baby? Does the baby need a special tank? Special food? Turns out Molly might in fact eat her little guy, so I camped out in front of the tank until Chris got home because well, he knows everything. As I stared at the tank, I realized...Molly had two babies...twins!!!

Annika and Chris got home and I asked Chris if he told Annika. (He had not). I told Chris that we have to separate those babies, and he said...let's let nature take its course. Look, I am no environmentalist, nor am I particuarly a friend to the animal kingdom, but I just really felt that we had taken Molly into our home and it was our duty to take care of her babies as best we could. I knew we couldn't guarantee their survival, but I wanted to at least try.

We showed Annika the twins and she was shocked. She was so excited but we told her there was a chance the momma could eat her babies. She took that rather well...weird. Anyway, Chris started calling all the pet stores in the area to find out what they had to separate the babies, and after 15 minutes of calls, found a store that had something. He left. Annika and I watched Molly and the twins for a while until we got bored. (Sorry twins!)

While Chris was out, I asked Annika what she wanted to name the twins - she said "Skipper, Fishy and Mo." I said - well, that's three names. She said "OK, only Mo if there's another baby." Turns out she's quite prescient.

Chris came home with the contraption to separate the babies and as he fiddled around with it...he found some more babies. Four more. So now they are sextuplets. Their names are Skipper, Fishy, Mo, Jacker, Spirit and Sugar. Annika rattled them off as if she had known them her whole life. And now we are a family of 10.

Addendum: I couldn't find Sugar this morning.

Declan opens

Declan opens his first ever Christmas present. Enjoy the spectacle.

Costco baby

Chris says I picked up our baby at Costco. I said if I had, we would have 50 babies.

Anyway, he thinks the Costco diaper box baby looks like Declan - you decide:

Baby's First Christmas

...and Annika was there, too.

- Annika leaves Santa his homemade cupcake and the reindeer a few carrots. (Only four because she said they had to share).


- Getting into the spirit.


- Dutiful Big Sister teaches Baby Bro how to open the bounty.


- Looks like he figured it out.


- The end.

Robot Fight!

Merry Christmas!!

"Don't worry Baby Bro, we'll open the presents soon."

Taking the year off

For those of you who are expecting a Christmas card from us, or thought we simply left you off our list...we did not. We're just not doing one. Let me tell you why.

With the blog, Facebook and the fact that I tell everyone everything - not to mention our lives our pretty boring (wonderful, but boring) - I decided to take a year off with Christmas cards. Most of you whom I stay in touch with either read the blog, check me out on Facebook or....dare I say it? Talk to me. So, you know that Annika is continuing to love preschool but gets sad when other children won't play with her, but is also independent enough to go away for entire weekends with her cousins. You also know that Declan is starting to make more discernible noises, shows somewhat of an affinity for Momma over Dada but also gets sad when he walks out of a room. You also know that we are exhausted and can't wait when they're old enough to go on a family vacation.

I post enough pictures of these adorable souls on a semi-monthly basis, but let me post what likely would have made the Christmas card:

I promise it's nothing personal and we still love you the same as we did last year. Merry Christmas!

xoxo

Yes, they saw Santa

And here's the blurry proof!



Highlights included Annika's long conversation with Santa covering topics like how much taller she was than last year and the fact that her parents already sent her letter to Santa and his assurances that he would receive it; Declan's smiles causing all looker-ons to literally ooh and ahh in audible appreciation; and the lady over-charging me.

Christmas bound

They're ready for Santa....

So What

Annika loves to dance and this is one of her favorite tunes...quite the feminist anthem! Enjoy...

Annika says...

....Happy Thanksgiving!

Sleeping and jumping together again

No, we didn't taser him.

Somehow he actually fell asleep in the Jumperoo...potentially one of the most stimulating baby contraptions on the market.

I envy him.

Sing it, James Blunt

Only took me 3 years to learn the "new" iMovie!