Merry Christmas from the Newman Family

Stella and her new favorite "shape game" from Aunt Carrie

New top teeth

Sophia started crawling the day we put up the tree

She's obsessed-I put bells on the bottom so I can hear if she is into the tree. Don't people do that with dogs?

Family tradition-Stella helping daddy put the star on the tree

Stella helped me decorate. She was so careful with the ornaments. She is also my watchdog with Sophia. She is sure to yell at me when Sophia is getting close to it. The other day, she was trying to physically move her away-which was very impressive because she is only 14 pounds heavier than Sophia. That is like me trying to lift something that is 100 pounds! (what are you laughing about?)

If Sophia is not messing with the tree, this is usually where you can find her....under my feet!

In line to visit with Santa-I don't know if they do this with all Santas(this is our first time), but you actually make an appointment to see him and you have a 15 minute window. I actually signed up for the date in October! Anyway, it was a great experience. She wouldn't even go near him last year at school, so I didn't even bother to take her to the mall Santa. This year, she was absolutely bursting with excitement.

He was wonderful. I think I actually believe in Santa now. He talked to them both and was so sweet. Stella first told him she wanted "toys and presents," which is what she has been telling me for weeks. This makes my job pretty easy. He then asked "what kind of toys and presents?" She answered "girl presents." He said "What are girl presents?" She answered "a teddy bear." That is better than the answer she has been giving us. She told me she wanted a rainbow. I can definitely do a teddy bear.

Another favorite place to play-under the coffee table. Apparently she has a really hard head. She bangs her head on the table, the floor, the door facings, etc. all day and doesn't even cry.

O Christmas Tree

December 5th

Daddy and Stella before they blew out the candles

Out of order-Stella helping me bake the cake for daddy. She is such a great helper. She even knows how to crack eggs now. She is great at measuring and pouring in the ingredients. Maybe she will be a better cook than I am and can take over in a year or two.

Sophia has been so busy lately-learning to crawl, pull up (she would pull up at first and not know how to get down), and cutting two top teeth!

Stella is still the funniest person I know. She is a great kid. We like three a whole lot more than two. She is a lot more agreeable and a lot of help with Sophia. She is mostly eager to please and is a joy to be around. (I am her mother, though) It's so funny to hear her say things like "pretty much" or "that's your choice" or listening to her sing a song in the other room and say "thank you, thank you..."

Sophia is growing up too fast. I keep getting sad because she will probably be my last baby-unless we end up getting a night shift nanny for a third baby. That is the only way I would get through another newborn phase. I LOVE the fact that she sleeps for 12 hours. She is such a snuggly baby-she loves to just sit in your lap. This will change soon because she is crawling, but it is great for now. I keep having to remind myself to just enjoy the moment and that she will be a baby for a long time.

Stay tuned for our 2009 Top Ten List! Looking forward to seeing our Texas people in a week!

p.s. It occurred to me that in most of these pictures, the girls are wearing pajamas. There is a reason for this. When we are at home, they do wear their flannel pajamas a lot. It is not because we are lazy-it is because they are warm and we live in a drafty old house! We love our drafty old house, but it is COLD! We do own real clothes and wear them every day.

Family Pics

We went to Stone Mountain today to take some family portraits with Danielle Bryson-a local photographer. It was soooo cold, but the girls did really well. She had to do black and whites at the end of the shoot because Sophia's nose was so red! Here are some of them-more to come!

http://daniellebryson.com/blog/

Christmas at Stone Mountain

Stella and the Snow Princess

Mailing her letter to Santa

Sophia on the train

Part of the lights on the train ride

Mmmm....hot chocolate!

My girls

Waiting in line to see the 4D movie-The Polar Express

The Bubble Man

We love bubbles!

Watching the show on the train

So tired!

We had a great time at Stone Mountain. The lights were amazing, but the pictures didn't do them justice. I was so excited about Stella riding the train at night. I thought she would think it was so cool because she loves it every time we go. Think again. She buried her head in my chest for the entire time. The only time she removed it was when we stopped and listened to a story-the meaning of Christmas. I think this will be a fun family tradition until the girls start rolling their eyes and being teenagers. Maybe we will still force them to go just to torture them.

Stella has been really trying my patience with potty training. I won't go into the details, but I am doing a LOT of laundry. Yesterday, she had an accident on the couch, so I sent her upstairs to get cleaned up while I stripped the couch covers off of the cushions. I went up to check on her-she gets side tracked easily (ie: This morning I sent her upstairs to get her flashlight and she came back down with a wrapping paper roll and a medicine syringe) and smelled a familiar, but disturbing smell. She was painting her nails on her rug in her room. Hot pink nail polish-some on her nails and some on her rug. As I as cleaning the rug, she was waiting patiently and pointing out the spots I had missed. Deep breaths....deep breaths.....Carrie asked if I had taken a picture so I could laugh at the memory. Take a picture? I had a hard time keeping myself from running out the front door screaming-never to return. You know the moms that just leave to go pick up some milk at the store and never return? I have thought a lot about that recently. The only thing that has stopped me is Josh. Thank goodness he keeps me sane. I am not sure he really knows what my days are like, but he knows he wouldn't want to do it!

But on a positive note-Stella had her first dentist appointment this week and she was awesome! She made me proud. I almost cried I was so proud. I asked Josh if I was going to get teary eyed every time she made me proud-dental appointments, showing good manners without prompting, making at 3 pointer in the big game, an "A" on a research paper, etc. He said "Isn't that why people become parents? Because of those kinds of moments?" Yes, I guess it is the reason. So for every couch soiling/rug painting memory, I hope to have a dentist appointment memory to go along with it. That sounds weird, but it makes perfect sense to me.

Sophia

Resting with Daddy

The bonnet is a little small for her head-normal 6 month olds must have freakishly small heads....or my kids have freakishly large heads? It looked the same way on Stella when she wore it.

Being a kid is hard.

That's right. Being a kid is hard. You hardly ever get to do what you want to do. There is always some sort of change going on that you can't control. You can't eat strawberries for every meal. You can't play with mommy and daddy's things. You can't read your own books-you have to wait for the rotten adults to finish doing what they are doing to enjoy a good book. You have to sit in a car seat. You can't sit outside and blow bubbles all day. You have to go to bed at 8. You have to wear shoes. And there is a LOT of confusing stuff that you have to learn.

The story of Christmas

Me: (reading a story about Baby Jesus) This is Baby Jesus in a manger.

Stella: Manger? What's a manger?

M: A place where they put hay for the animals, but Baby Jesus didn't have a baby bed, so they put Him in there for the night.

S: Why didn't he have a baby bed?

M: Well, they didn't have room in any of the inns...

S: Inns?

M: Kind of like hotels, or places where people stay when they are travelling...Anyway, he is here in this picture with his mommy and daddy, Mary and Joseph. Well, not exactly his real daddy, but his daddy on earth.

S: (look of confusion) Who is his real daddy?

M: God.

S: Oh...who are those guys? (pointing at the Three Wise Men)

M: They are some guys who came to his birthday party and brought presents. This is why we celebrate Christmas-it's his birthday.

S: Where's Santa?

M: Santa wasn't around back then. He's kind of a newer thing as far as Christmas goes. He doesn't really have anything to do with Jesus.

This brings me to the Santa discussion and how ridiculous it sounds when you try to explain it. I wanted her to know who Santa is so she doesn't look like a weirdo when he comes to her school next week and she says "Who's this guy?"

M: Do you know who Santa Claus is?"

S: Who?

M: That's what I thought. Santa is a man who lives at the North Pole-like in Diego's Arctic Adventure-and he lives with a bunch of elves-little people-who help him build toys. If you are a good girl all year, you can write a letter or tell him when he comes to your school about what you would like for Christmas. Then, on Christmas Eve-the night before Christmas-he flies through the air in a sleigh-a sled type automobile-that is pulled by reindeer. He comes into your house and eats cookies-that we leave out for him-and leaves the presents under the tree. Anyway, he is coming to your school next week and you will tell him what kinds of toys you would like for Christmas.

S: (look of wide eyed wonder and confusion)

M: Got it?

S: Yeah...I got it. The deers fly?

M: Yep.

S: Oh. Okay. Do you want to make some cookies for him?

M: Sure.

Life is so much easier at this age-Sophia is pondering grass while Stella is trying to figure out the meaning of Christmas with all of the crazy stories that are flooding her poor little brain. Notice the bruise on her forehead? I guess she has a lot going on as well-she is learning to crawl and that the wood floor is pretty hard when you lunge forward and forget to move your arms. I guess life is just tough at any age.

Beautiful weekend

Conversation with Stella as she was sitting on the potty(we are spending a lot of time in the bathroom since the pediatrician told me that 3 year olds don't wear Pull Ups. I would like to invite him to spend some time with us to dispute that. After 5 pairs of wet undies/pants/socks today, I think 3 year olds in Pull Ups are a great idea!)

Me: What did you learn about at church today?

Stella: Shapes

Me: Shapes? You didn't learn about Jesus?

Stella: Oh...yea...I learned that Jesus was building something. A tent. With holes in it. (A holy tent)

Me: A tent? With holes in it? Why?

Stella: I don't know.

Me: We learned about angels in my class.

Stella: Really? Angels? That's cool.

3 Day Birthday Celebration!

Birthday Party

"Flying" with Caroline

Grandma Polly and Sophia

Caroline, Sadie, Stella and CJ

Blowing out the candle

Paw Paw Johnny, Gigi, and Grandma Polly

Sophia and Lisa

Diego cupcakes! Stella helped bake them.

Mixed in pictures from the Fall Hootenanny at her school

Listening to Mr. Eric sing songs at the Hootenanny

When she came home from school-she LOVED that crown. She is still wearing it-tried to wear it to school today.

Willem and Caroline-we love this girl!

Trying to get Stella to open her presents-she was only interested in balloons

Balloon fight with Daddy

"No pictures, please."

Paw Paw Johnny and Sophia

We had such a great weekend with the grandparents. Stella celebrated her birthday at school on Friday, had her party on Saturday, and the Fall Hootenanny on Sunday(which I am sure she assumed was the continuation of her birthday celebration extravaganza). Josh was scolding her for destroying her room during nap time and she said "But it's my birthday." She is so funny and getting smarter every day. It is so great to watch her grow up and she has been such a blessing and a joy to have around. I can't believe 3 years have already passed. It seems like yesterday that I was holding her in my arms and feeling so uncertain yet thrilled to be a new mom. I remember how heart wrenching it was to leave her to go back to work and how I worried all the time about how it would affect her. Now she jumps out of the car in the morning and says "Bye, Mommy!" She asked no less than 50 times this morning if it was time to go to school yet. She is complex and emotional, but she is a precious little girl with so much love in her heart. We are honored to be her mom and dad.

I was putting together a really complex fairy lantern set that she got for her birthday and there were several little pieces to each lantern. Stella was "helping" me and I was getting frustrated. I couldn't find a piece that I needed and said "Stella, I can't find the hook-did you move it? It was just here and you keep moving everything. Where is it?" She looked me dead in the eye and said "Breathe, mama. Count to three and I will help you find it." I laughed out loud. Maybe everyone needs a portable Stella to remind them to breathe. Get your own-she's ours.

Sophia is growing up so fast. She is eating solids now and is loving it-except for green beans. They make her vomit-literally. She is still trying to learn how to crawl and can go from all fours to a sitting position. She still flips backward and bumps her head on the floor. I find myself trying to keep a pillow behind her, but she scoots all over the place so my attempts are futile. She is such an easy baby and is so happy. We are happy that she chose us to watch her grow. She is an angel. If I would have had her first, I would have had three more kids. But since Stella was first, well...we'll just have to keep it at two.