Stella & Sophia

Monday, January 23, 2012

2011 Wrap Up

Had to throw this picture in of Sophia checking out the goats at the zoo. She was pretty amazed by this view.

A baby Quinn is born! We've been waiting for this little guy for a long time and he's finally here! He looks totally different now. I will post new pictures soon. He is ADORABLE!

"Mary" and "Joseph"(that's Jerome Bettis, Jr., for all you sports fans out there)

Stella was arguing with Papa John about how barrels work at the rodeo. Yes, her room always looks like that. (except for about 15 minutes on cleaning days)

Gingerbread house construction

Feeding reindeer (after Christmas eve ER visit and before mommy and daddy polished off a bottle of wine after our stressful day)

Cookies and milk for Santa

Opening presents on Christmas morning! So fun!

Sisters

Our farewell visit with best buddy

New bedding-courtesy of Mimi Sandy

Mimi Sandy and the girls on the porch of our new mountain vacation home. Just kidding. We were looking and pretending.

Date night while the grandparents are in town!

Top 10 Lessons of 2011

Do not try to clean sand (or really, anything) from a potty training toddler's pants at the park. You might get more than you bargained for. (flashback to me, holding up my hand in horror, covered with poo at a park with no running water and Josh laughing at me)
Resist the urge to call 911 when your daughter has a collision with a coffee table and is bleeding out of her face. There was a lot of blood. It actually crossed my mind to call. I didn't. Instead, we made a trip to the ER and paid $845 for glue and steri strips. Maybe resist the urge to go the ER would be another one.
Don't feel guilty for not enjoying every moment of parenthood. Thank you, Momastery.com, for pointing out the difference between the kairos(listening to them giggle and play together peacefully) moments and the chronos (doctor's office diarrhea) moments.
Kids save weird things. Cleaning out the playroom baskets is an adventure. Twist ties, Christmas ribbon, dried play dough, paper with scribbled art work, a doll arm, an empty baby shampoo bottle...."Mom! You can't throw that away! I was saving that!"
Kids can be mean and it makes me want to hit them when they are mean to mine. I can't help it. I just do. I mean, I don't actually hit them, but I want to. Instead, I just give them dirty looks and hope their mothers aren't watching me. You know what? I don't care if their mothers are watching me. I'll give them a dirty look, too.
It is a TERRIBLE idea to take children to the grocery store after 4:30 p.m. I don't know what happens, but they shouldn't be allowed in public places after this hour.
We are not old enough to go to the movie theatre yet. ($27 for tickets, $10 popcorn, $7 drinks+getting there early to get good seats+1/2 hour of previews+small children=leaving after about 30 minutes after the movie begins)
Our kids are never going to sleep late. I must give up on this dream.
No matter how many times you tell them not to, kids are going to cut hair (on dolls, horses, each other) if left alone with craft scissors. After finding little piles of fuzz, Rapunzel hair, and finally Sophia's hair, I learned my lesson and took the scissors away.
Bubble baths solve all of the problems of the day. That's why we rarely skip a bath. They can go from chronos to kieros with a little capful of bubble bath. :-)

Sunday, January 8, 2012

I know I am 2 months late on this one, but I have been really busy and had to find all of my notes that I have written down here and there as I think of them. Stella turned FIVE on November 8th. This is big. She has been talking about FIVE since, well, since she turned 4, I guess. (which is a long time in kid time) Apparently, her whole world was going to change when she "got 5." She chose to have heart shaped cookies with pink icing for her school friends and she wanted to invite Caroline and Stella P. to the zoo for her "party." Easiest. Birthday. Ever. In fact, she is getting really easy. So, I have compiled a list of 10 things I love about Stella.

She has the voice of an angel. And she loves to use it. She sings....and sings....and sings. She makes up songs, she changes the words to songs, and she doesn't care where we are or who is listening.
She has an amazing imagination. Did you know that wild dogs live in our back yard and she is the only person that can tame them?
She is nice. Yesterday we were at the park and this little girl was being a jerk to her and Stella just persisted and kept ignoring the little girl's disinterest in anything she had to say until the little girl gave in and played with her. This could be a good thing or a bad thing in the future, but I was glad she didn't throw sand in her face (which is what I wanted to do) or that SHE wasn't the punk kid.
She's a stellar dancer. Actually, she's a little spastic, but she dances with reckless abandon. Kind of like her dad.
Her favorite character in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was the "organic snow monster."
She is really funny.
She's going to be famous when she grows up. Do you know how I know? She is going to have 5 daughters when she grows up and their names are: Amelia, Pepper, Suzanne, Suzanne, and Pumpkinhead
She LOVES cowboys and horses. That's cool.
She's brave. She got up on stage as Mary in her school Christmas play in front of about 200 people and entertained the crowd without a bit of nervousness. She wanted to rock climb at the zoo and I told her she was too short. (she wasn't) I hope my fear of pretty much everything doesn't affect her. I hope she stays brave and fearless. Sometimes I need to learn to keep my mouth shut and admire her fearlessness. I love her for teaching me that.
I love that she shows her love for everyone (and I mean, everyone-even the exterminator) and doesn't apologize for it. She loves deeply, purely, happily, sweetly, and she gives hugs like she will never let go. I know one day she will, so I'll cherish those hugs for as long as I can get them.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Kids are Gross

Kids are the funniest. You can't make this stuff up. Almost every day of my life, I think "Is this really happening?" Friday, we had to go to the doctor's office for Sophia. She's had a cough and woke up with a fever. We were sitting in the waiting room and Stella and Sophia were taking turns pushing(no,hitting) the button that activates the train that goes around a track overhead. Then, at every passing, they shriek and squeal with laughter at the "surprise" that there is actually a train coming by. (We have been going to this doctor for three years)
Stella-"Mom? I need to go to the bathroom."
Me-"Really? We just went before we left." (knowing that a) as soon as I take her, they will call our name b)she probably doesn't really need to go, but has an obsession with public restrooms, and c)Sophia will touch everything in the public restroom and I will have to wrestle her away from everything and fight with her to wash her hands)
Me-"OK, let's go." I sigh.
We go and everything I knew would happen, did. They called our name, she didn't really have to go but Sophia decided she wanted to sit on the potty, too (didn't need to) and thought it would be nice to pick up someone else's used t.p. off of the floor and hand it to me to throw it away. Hands washed, germophobic mother thoroughly disgusted, and back out to the waiting room.
Nurse-"Sophia? Sophia?"
Back to the doctor's office we go, and as the nurse is trying to ask questions about Sophia's health, Stella is tugging at my shirt saying she has to go to the bathroom again. REALLY?!?!? The nurse says we can go while she weighs Sophia and gets her temp. I take Stella and she actually uses it this time. Wash hands and back to doctor's office. Dr. finally comes in and Stella says (holding her hand with something earth toned on it up to my face) "I just poopoo'd in my pants." Dr. says "I'll let you take care of that." And we go back to the bathroom. (this is the third time in an hour if you are counting) I deposit her underwear into the garbage can and use thirty paper towels to clean her up (no wipes because Sophia is potty trained and we don't need a diaper bag anymore, right? RIGHT?!?!?) Poor Stella has diarrhea, no underwear on, and blue jeans. Ouch. We wash hands and I try to get the poo off of my jeans that she wiped on me I tried to help her onto the adult sized toilet seat. We go back to the doctor's office and wait for 20 more minutes because now we have lost our place in the rotation. He returns and Sophia is swabbed for strep. "I'll be back from the lab in 5 minutes with your test results," says Dr.
Stella- "I have to go to the bathroom again."
Me-"Stella. Please try to hold it. As soon as we leave, the doctor will come back. Just wait a little bit, pleeeeeassse."
Five minutes pass and he steps back into the room to say "Sophia has strep. Here is her prescription." "Great, thanks," I say.
"MOM! I just pooped in my pants again," says Stella, spreading her legs apart in a semi-split. Dr. says "Alright-I will leave your prescription and file at the front desk. Hope you all have a great weekend!" So, here we are again in the bathroom cleaning poo off of Stella's jeans, stuffing them with paper towels, and cleaning poo off of toilet, sink, floor, hands, arms....did I leave anything out? I apologize to the giggling nurses in the hall that I am sure heard me saying "Oh my gosh. Oh...my...gosh....oh good Lord, help me....Sophia, get out of the trash.....Stella, stop touching that....ohhhhh.....good grief.....wash your hands....make bubbles....." Then, to the line to pay. Of course there were 185 people waiting to pay on a Friday afternoon. By this point, we had been there for 2 hours. So, as we stand in line, Stella and Sophia were ooh-ing and aah-ing over the babies and Stella decided to share with everyone how she had pooped in her pants. Lovely. Now, I have parents clutching their newborns to their bosoms and trying to get as far away from me and my diseased children. That was my Friday. Like I said, you cannot make this stuff up. Why would you want to? Kids are disgusting. It's a good thing they have wonderful personalities 85% of the time.

B.J. Reece's Apple Orchard

Apple pickin' smile

This goat looks thrilled to be here.

About 2 seconds later, she was running to me screaming bloody murder because the turkey pecked her. He's gonna make a nice Thanksgiving meal.

Short-lived slumber party in Sophia's new bed

After 5 years, we finally said goodbye to the crib. It was bittersweet, but Sophia was soooo excited about her new bed! Stella thought it was her bed, too. She wanted to have a sleep in "her" new bed next to Sophia, so we said o.k. since it was a Saturday night. We read stories, tucked them in, gave goodnight kisses and ventured downstairs. We sat on the couch and smiled at each other, so proud of our precious, little girls. About 20 minutes later, there were wails and tears and names being yelled at one another. "What is going on?" I said, flinging the door open. "Sophia hit me in the head with a BOOK!" "Sophia? Is this true?" "YES! Sissy is a POOPOO PANTS!" Alright. Slumber party over.

Disney Princesses on Ice at Phillips Arena

Brooke, Moody Stella, and Harper

Bert's Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin Painting

We got "Boo"d!" If you don't know what this means, it happens when someone knocks on your door and leaves a treat and you are supposed to "pay it forward" and leave treats on another doorstep. It is really exciting for kids, so we decided to choose two friends to "Boo" after we received our surprise. I made up little treat bags and loaded the girls in the car. When we arrived at the first house, I told Stella to hop out of the car and leave it on the doorstep of some friends of ours. These friends have a gorgeous golden retriever that hangs out in the front yard at times and this was one of those days. After Stella struggled to try to open the door (child lock), I had to get out and open the door for her. As I am getting back in, there is a lady in a car waiting to get into the driveway of the house we were about to "Boo." Lady in Car-"Are you trying to get into their driveway?"

Me-"No-we are trying to 'Boo' them."(assuming everyone knows what that means-I was wrong)

Lady in Car-"Pardon me?"

Me-"We are leaving candy on their doorstep"

Lady in Car-"Oh...o.k." (looking a little unimpressed)

Back to Stella-by this time, she had made it halfway across their football field front yard and was racing back to the car, screaming and crying, with the Golden Retriever on her heels trying to lick her to death. By this time, the person we are trying to "Boo" (this is all supposed to be anonymous) has come out onto the driveway and is yelling at the dog. I am grabbing the bag from Stella and running it to the front doorstep and running back across Central Park yard back to my now locked car. Luckily, I have a code and type it in, jump into the car and speed away. First Boo-ing=Success....well, maybe not.