All dressed up...

...and somewhere to go!

I'm going to dress them alike as long as they let me. Isn't it the cutest??

Complying after I asked them to actually stand closer together so I could get a good shot.


OOOH...SCARY!!! Might be the first and last time they wore the masks...


Ready to rumble! Declan on his way up each and every driveway "more candy more candy more candy more candy..."

Obligatory pumpkin patch photos

We've been going to the pumpkin patch every year since Annika was 9 months old. Why do kids love them so much? But they do, Lord they do. I'd like to say it was cheap entertainment...but it wasn't. But we had a great time... and we'll do it again next year.

Tired and in love

I am so tired. Every weekend we have plans (or I have plans) and work is fairly busy and stressful (but in a good way, I actually really like my job) and the kids are relentless (cute, but relentless). And though the exhaustion is sometimes overwhelming and certainly leads to some...a-hem...less desirable behavior on my part, I am in love with my family.

Declan is a funny kid. He likes to joke and play and is speaking more and more sentences. However, he can't say the "k" sound. As in: "O-tay." or "My name is Detan" or "I want to play tars!" It's adorable, but since he's going to go to preschool in 3 months, I thought we best start correcting that. Not really getting anywhere... "Declan, say CCCCCCars." "TARS!"



Annika started first grade last month and loves her teacher and her class. She loves to play at recess (duh) and also joins the "running club" during recess occasionally, which is when the kids run on the track for the entire recess (after they eat lunch). Sounds more like a thinly disguised Kid Boot Camp, but hey, she likes it...and she comes home nice and worn out. Ha!



Chris has lost 15 pounds in the last 2 months (after this pic was taken) and looks great. We're both trying to be healthier and eat more at home...which has mixed success, but we're trying! Now we spend our evenings talking about my Fantasy Football team (which is streaky....to be nice) which he says isn't his, but he spends more time thinking about it than I do. Every time I ask him to actually join my team, he says "I hate Fantasy Football." Isn't he cute? :)



OK, now back to work.

How to Lose a Tooth: Told in Pictures

The poor, long-suffering husband

My husband Chris looks nothing like my children. Before you ask if we're a "blended family', I will confirm - 100% Chris, YES! - that they are also both his children.

The other day I was lamenting to the aforementioned, long-suffering husband that I was bummed that my children didn't have blue eyes. I told him (with a straight face): "It's just very strange to look at both my kids and not see blue eyes...my whole family has blue eyes! That's all I've ever known."

And he responded (without a straight face): "IS IT STRANGE TO LOOK AT YOUR KIDS AND THINK THAT THEY DON'T LOOK LIKE YOU? IS IT?" He didn't really yell or scream like the caps imply..but he was sarcastic as the caps may have implied.

Despite the fact that Chris openly questions the paternity of these cuties, he is an amazing father. He is the one they come to when they want a tickle, he is usually their first choice for the bedtime book and Declan looks around like a crazed animal when Daddy is out of the house "Daddy? Daddy??!!!"

Sometimes I get jealous. And then I act out like a petulant third child, demanding of the poor, long-suffering husband, "Why don't you give meeee allll the atttennttioon??" Dear God, I'm annoyed just writing that. Can you imagine how annoying it is to hear it?

But he is the rock of the family. Rarely (openly) bothered, upset or irritated by the demands placed on him by three people who pretty much worship him. Exhausted maybe, but well, something's gotta give.

I raise my perennially-filled glass to the most wonderful husband, father and man that I know. Not for an occasion (our 8-year anniversary is coming up, honey - apparently I should be expecting something bronze?) but simply because I started writing this after I looked over, and saw that you were covered with two children. One was literally sitting on your face, demanding more tickles while the other one was wondering where her dinner was. And you were smiling.

Lucky us.

Cuties on vacation

We went to the beach last weekend...good times with two demanding kids! Well, it wasn't so bad. We had a wonderful, warm day on the beach - you'll see the proof below in Declan's close up. I love doing these family trips, I truly do, but man alive if they aren't exhausting...I need a vacation from my vacation!

Birthday and First Movie

Annika's 6th birthday was this past Friday. I've never been a fan of the number 6 (yay 48!) but it suits the little girl. I think she's determined to be a "big girl" and has slowly but surely proven herself capable of more an more. Some of her latest tricks include:

- Going to the bathroom in the middle of the night without assistance. No, she's not peeing the bed...she gets up to go to the bathroom.
- Buying a wallet and storing her cash in it, and asking if she can pay for stuff. She wanted to buy Declan a book this weekend, and she's also offered to help us out with dinner. This is a very helpful development.
- Getting dressed and ready every morning - without an alarm clock. Before I can say "coofffeeeee" Annika is fully dressed, with teeth brushed and hair combed. I need to bottle some of that energy up and sell it to myself. And pay for it with Annika's money.

I'm just so proud of this little girl...Happy Birthday, sweetie!

Separately, little Dex finally got to see his first movie in the movie theater. We;ve been prepping him with non-stop encores of both Kung Fu Panda and Cars at home, with both Chris and I debating about whether he was ready, and if so, which movie would be be more likely to sit through? We opted for Kung Fu Panda, because honestly, I can only take so much of Larry the Cable Guy.

He did very well for the first half of the movie, but started to get a little antsy towards the latter half. I mean, I was crying like a baby (the panda loves his goose daddy!) but Dex was wandering around the front of our seats like a trapped animal. We had to silence him a few times - he loves to talk at that big screen - but overall, it was successful. I won't do it again for a while, though.



This picture is taken with the Cars 2 poster for 2 reasons - 1) Declan is obsessed with Lightning McQueen and 2) there was no Kung Fu Panda 2 poster. So there.

Incidentally, Annika's first movie theater movie was the first Kung Fu Panda...Too bad there will NOT be a Baby #3 for Kung Fu Panda 3.

Girls Night!

A few weeks ago, Annika and I were chatting and I had a brainstorm....what if once/week she and I went out on a special date and called it "Girls Night."? Activities could include dinner, movie, ice cream (a specific request of hers), the mall...you get the idea. I mean, it's a list of things girls like to do. GIRLS NIGHT. Get it?

We've done Girls Night twice so far. The first time we went to the mall and grabbed a quick bite so we could shop for Daddy's birthday and Father's Day. The whole trip was actually quite handy, because otherwise I'd be forced to use the Interwebs for gift orders, and we all know I'd do it too late and then would have to spend at least 50% of the cost of the gift on Express shipping...This Girls Night thing came in quite handy.

The second time, we went to a restaurant that I like, but Chris doesn't. Handy again! There are a whole bunch of places he hates going that I never get to...thanks Annika!

So, even though Girls Night is certainly useful for gift-giving and pigging out, its real purpose is maybe even more awesome...spending 1:1 quality time with my gorgeous daughter. We do Girls Night on Mondays, and even though that's a school night (for me, since it's summer time for her) and I'm usually *exhausted*, I rally because having that time with her is simply amazing. I'm so honored that she's willing to spend that time with me, and I hope it's something that she looks back at fondly after Girls Night is long over, and has turned into "Monday Night...The Night Where I Ignore Mom...Just Like Every Night."

Long live Girls Night!

All choked up

Annika "graduated" from Kindergarten this week. I'm so over these "graduations" but well, it's still cute and I still eat it up like a cupcake with peanut butter icing and devils food cake...was that too specific?

The teacher promised the parents who were able to go a "surprise" and a surprise we got! The kids sang four songs that they had clearly been practicing and they even had little hand motions for many of the words. It was super cute, to say the least, but I found myself holding back sobs thinking to myself "she'll never have it this good again."



Not that I'm that much of a pessimist - I think Annika will have a swell life. But after Kindergarten, when do you really get to sing with your friends and sit on a carpet with different colors and have a room full of toys to play with during your "free choice" time? When do you have 4-hour school days and "snack time" and friends who forget to zip up their pants and have their shoes on backwards and no one cares? I literally had to pinch myself to stop crying while they sang, sad that my little girl is on her way to finding out what life is really like.

Again, this sounds so awful, but come on...it's true. Mortgage payments, fat jeans, teeth whitening, busted water heaters, weird neighbors...it's all coming for her. I'm so sad that her innocence will slowly be chipped away until she finds herself writing a blog post (or whatever they have in the year 2028) about many of these same subjects.

As we were walking back to the car, I started to tear up again, and she asked me "Momma, are you sad because I am growing up? I'm not even in 1st grade yet!" And I laughed a bit and said, "Yeah baby, I am sad. I'm sorry." Then she insisted she would cheer me up. Her tactic? "Think about my butt."

It worked.

Dominoes

Last week, Declan slept in a little. Unusual for him since he loooves to be the early bird that catches that proverbial worm. He finally started rousing after 7, and I went to get him. His little cheeks were flushed and his cute face was lying next to a tiny pool of vomit. Ew!

Little guy had a stomach virus. He proceeded to tell us that his tummy felt "sick" and then puked two more times that day. His appetite wasn't its usual robust self, so we knew he was sick. However, he was in pretty good spirits and seemed to bounce back in a day. We thought it might be over.

Two days later, Chris came down with something similar...but the virus had gotten worse and he was laid up for at least an extra day more than Dex was. I, of course, have little patience for adult sickies, so I was less than helpful and annoyed that I had to spend my Memorial Day weekend tending to the kids as a single mother. The nerve!! In Chris's defense, he did rally for one day so we could go to the beach for a few hours...but he promptly relapsed pretty bad on that Monday and our long weekend was over.

Tuesday we wake up and Chris decided he needs an extra day, so is staying home sick. Declan is at the grandparents, and Annika and I are getting ready for school and work, respectively. Then guess what? Annika runs into our room and starts grabbing her tummy and says "Mommy, Mommy, Daddy Daddy, I don't feel good!! My tummy!!" and not five minutes later, we're bringing out the cleaning supplies. So much for Chris's sick day.

I had been grumpy for the last few days, but thought I was avoiding the virus monster, so I went to work. I felt a little off, but just thought I was annoyed to be at work...I mean, I usually am. Anyway, I get home that night and feel the alien invading my body...I ate dinner that night knowing it would be my last meal: and it was.

Annika and I are still feeling bad, almost a week later. Of course after I finally was able to keep food down, I promptly got a cold. Like, what the heck! Anyway, I spent this weekend on Nyquill and eating toast. Good times. Oh, and Chris's Dad got it too...from Patient Zero: Declan.

Annika finally went back to school on Friday, which is a bit of a bummer since this is her last week of school and she missed a few special days with her friends before the summer starts. I luckily was able to work from home the rest of the week (I tried to go in for a day, but my co-workers said I was gross and shooed me away).

We're all a little thinner, a little grumpier and a little out of it...we've never all been sick at the same time, but we sure fell like dominoes. The only thing I'm grateful for is that the sickness was somewhat staggered so we were all able to take care of each other at one stage or another. Well, except poor Chris...no one really took care of him. Love you, sweetie!

The kids being cute

Here's a couple of pictures of the kids...they make me think of summer (Hi Summer!) because it was so warm in these pics...and now it's barely 70 at the end of May. Oh global warming, why don't you actually *warm* us???

Annika is almost done with her first year of Kindergarten. She's an ok reader, pretty good at simple math and a very attentive and obedient student. I sorta think she'll be that kid who gets A's and B's but every teacher wants her in their class because she's so good. I'm ok with that. We'll push on the straight A's for high school - you know, so she can get into Harvard (Hi Summer!).

Declan is knee deep in his terrible 2's which is upsetting because Annika never had any. So we don't know what to do. I've told Chris a number of times that I think one of our problems in dealing with him is that we discipline him like we did Annika...and that isn't what works for him. But what does work? Hell if I know.

However, he is wonderful to his sister, is very funny (tells some great knock knock jokes!) and is super handsome. He's so cute...hmm, gotta go so I can go cuddle him. xoxo.

Momma Day

Thanks to my little ones for breakfast in bed, homemade scrambled eggs, a flower pot with an actual flower, cards and kisses. OK, most of this is thank you to Annika who not only did most of the above on her own, she also spent an hour folding my ridiculous, never-ending pile of clothes with me because "it's your special day, Momma." AWWWWW. Declan...well, he's a work in progress. Love you anyway, buddy! :)



Also, I start a new job tomorrow. Cue dramatic music!

Two whole years

Believe it! The little monster is now two...



His latest tricks:

- Telling knock knock jokes.
- Proclaiming "I did it!" when he keeps at a task and gets it done.
- Running...everywhere.
- Asking to read many books at a sitting.
- Crying to get his way (oh, that's not really a new trick).
- Yelling, "DOOO!!!" when he wants to watch Scooby Doo.
- Telling us "I sorry" when he makes a mistake.
- And apparently, he really likes to and is very good at, blowing out candles.

I love you my little two year old!!! How lucky is a Momma like me to have a baby like you?

Hijinks

Annika asked us to wrap her in a blanket like a baby. Naturally, I swaddled her.




This is a common scene on our couch in the evening. One little girl looooves to love on her baby bro. One baby bro says "Hep please!" We're working on the letter l.




Hijinks!

Valentine's Day Eve

Look how old this little girl is...and wow, is this a baby or a little boy?



When did this little girl become a big girl? When did this baby boy get all old? Who are these children?

Happy Valentine's Day!

First school project

Annika's into her 100th day of school. The K teachers asked for the kids to put together a collection of 100 things to commemorate the occasion. This is what she produced:





Next up: The Science Fair. Let the games begin!

Merry Christmas!

Ok, just one more year off...

So last year I pled busy (or rather, lazy) and said I wasn't going to send out Christmas cards. Well, the day of reckoning has arrived, and it won't happen this year either.

Here's what this year's Christmas card might have looked like:



This year was a big year for us. Declan started to walk and talk. Annika started Kindergarten. Declan fell in love with trucks and Annika fell in love with her friends. She's starting to read and write a bit and Declan is learning that the world doesn't revolve around him. They love each other so, so much and we couldn't be happier watching their relationship grow.

Chris and I continue to work way too hard, so I'm hopeful that 2011 will be a new year to appreciate the joy that we have in our lives and be a little easier on ourselves. With the kids getting bigger and incrementally independent, I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll be able to spend more one-on-one time with my fabulous husband.

Chris and I marvel often at the fortune in our lives and appreciate the people who make it possible. Much love to our family and friends who have read this blog for five (!) years - Merry Christmas!!

Love, Jenn, Chris, Annika & Declan

Kids

Annika reading:





Wouldn't want to run into this kid in a dark alley:

Blankets

My kids love their blankets. Annika's is called "Blankie" and Declan's is called "Ba-Ba." Annika smells hers for comfort while Dex appears to lick his. Ok, it's a little weird, but is also mad cute!