Happy Holidays 2009!

Here are some of our family photos taken this fall by our adored friend Sabrina Simmons.

Oscar

Here is a token shot of our first born--poor guy--so put upon and undervalued these days. He is wishing for two weeks at Uncle Rocky's Camp for Pugs and will be thrilled when he learns his wish will come true beginning next Wednesday. If only his wish to turn back time could be addressed....

Silver and Gold

We have discovered that one of the joys of children is seeing yours enjoy your friends' children. How cool it is when the playdate is fun for everyone? Here are some not-so-great pictures of one such playdate with the Martins last weekend. The adults were playing and pouring and preparing dinner in the kitchen and I happened on the kids with Mr. Potato Head--all enjoying him in their own way. Elsie adores Wyatt in the way one might worship a Jonas brother, and she is big sister/pals with Yates (whom she calls "Baby Ates") who also attends her school. But on this night, I found Wyatt and Kit in a pow wow that has me thinking that arranged marriages aren't such a bad thing....

Buddha Bear: K and Friends

Kit is a doll--Bear is a peach--our baby is the sweetest of all sweet babies in the world. We are sure of it.

It is funny because, as an oldest child and as Elsie's mom, I was wondering just about a year ago how this would go: how could you love a second child as much... how could there be room... how could someone who wasn't the first to crawl, to talk, to walk be as exciting, be as loveable, be as absorbing?

But then... but then... right about six months... right about the time she was sleeping through the night.... right about the time she was sitting up... right about the time she was making noises and smiling and laughing and engaging and letting us see her personality, I realized that Kit, because we had had Elsie and because she was our Bear, could teach us how to enjoy the moment--not stress about what had happened or be anxious about what could happen--but taught us how to be present in what she was doing right then: there is so very much joy in that second child, something so sacred and zen. Rather than awaiting anxiously for that next milestone, I find myself savoring each one as it comes. In this way, I feel like a better parent this time around.

Kit started walking across the room on December 1st. It is a toddle and she won't do it if she is tired. She toddles with her arms open wide, laughing, and collapsing on who is cheering for her at the other side. She'll drop down and crawl to get going faster, but her taking off is just around the corner.

Kit's first word was Oscar--"O car." She looks for him everywhere and feeds him and lets him lick her and sits on him and grabs him. She reaches a chubby hand down from the high chair so he can clean it off for her. She is simply obsessed with that pug! She'll also say "uh oh" repeatedly and "ma ma ma ma" and "da da da da" and "na na na na" but we are not sure if those mean "Mommy," "Daddy," and "Nonie." She knows the word "light" and will find the nearest one if you ask her to. She loves to shake her head "no" and kind of likes nodding it "yes."

She has the very very best belly laugh and adores tickles and kisses. Ultimately, she is supremely kissable--every chubby part of her, front to back, top to toe. Her hair is now coming in--fine hair, straight hair, hair that is beginning to bend behind her ears, not Thompson hair--D says. Her two front teeth are just about here--that makes 4 teeth--and she is drooling--is she ever drooling?!

She is a mild baby who sleeps like clockwork: 9:30am-11am, 1:30pm-3pm, and 6:45pm-7:15am. She likes to go to bed on time and demands to be fed on time. Feed her anything you want--Nonie says, "that's why you call her Bear--she eats like a Bear."

And here she is in these pictures: standing tall, grabbing at her sister, and reacting to Judy. Ultimately, here she is, at almost a year, and we are smitten with our girl: she can do no wrong; she gives us great joy; she causes no angst; she is not yet three.

Two or Three Things about Elsie









Mom and Dad have had lots of parties of late. Here is Elsie awaiting her sitter Lucy and getting ready for a party of her own. While her parents weren't attired in a Charles Bukowski T, pirate hat, and tutu accessorized with a magic wand, they did unfortunately bust a few similar moves that may just have them low on the list for next year's invites. Let's just say that Friday night was a late one and Saturday was a long one.

And Elsie.... what can we say about Elsie here as 2009 wanes. She is wilful and exuberant, pouty and generous, demanding and passionate--she moves quickly and speaks amazingly fluently. She blows us away and drives us up the wall--and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Elsie is physical--she can climb and she can run fast. When she dances, she likes to kick quite a bit--a choppy kind of kick, more Beckham than Rockette. Her swimming has taken off--she can swim a lap and come up for breaths and stroke her arms and dive to the bottom of the pool. She adores Ms. Teresa, her instructor, and loves to jump right in to any water, splash into any pool, and slam into any wave--no matter how cold, no matter how deep. Next up, Elsie has been telling me she wants to do ballet--which strikes fear into her soccer playing mother, but perhaps Elsie can teach me a thing or two about tutus.

Elsie is into letters and words. She can write her name and her sister's. She recognizes many letters and numbers. She asks about the meanings of lots of words. The other day, she explained to me that there was a picture of a "chimpanda" on her paper plate--it was a chimpanzee, but I saw that the representation was a bit hybrid. At school, they have done a great job of teaching her to count on her fingers and I love to see her poking out each chubby digit as she counts things out. On occasion, we also hear her insert some of the other languages she has been introduced to at school like Japanese or Spanish--there may be more but how would her insular folks know. Hopefully, she'll teach us a thing or two about other languages.

Elsie isn't a cuddly kid per se. She loves to do "run hugs" where she runs from afar into your arms--more about the running then the hugging. She'll kiss on command. She is stingy with her kind words sometimes. But then she surprises us--she adores her sister and loves on her so fully and so thoroughly, too hard at times. And she loves Antonio and George, our lawn guys--who she greets with huge hugs and open arms, that recently brought tears to George's eyes. This morning, Elsie was desperate to get out of the car at school to give the school owner Ms. Mary a big hug before she got out of her own car and surprised Ms. Mary with the force of her embrace. Elsie talks about missing her grandparents, cousins, her Nonie when they are not with her and eagerly anticipates seeing them soon. Her independence and inquisitiveness sometimes supersede her need for my wings. She has definitely taught me a thing or two about how best to love her and how impossible it is not to. I am amazed at how she can fly already and cannot wait to witness how high she'll go.

'Tis the Season

While it is Christmas with a three year old and has all of the three year old angst ever present, Christmas with a three year old is pretty marvelous. I mean she just loves it, embraces it, is inquisitive about it all--every aspect of Christmas and the holidays from the Baby Jesus to Ho Ho, from the Little Drummer Boy to Rudolph, from the Abominable (pronounced either Abobidoll or Abomenamenaball) Snowman to the Elf on the Shelf. Every morning she races to dig into Santa bag on the Advent Calendar and pick out the perfect felt shape for the day--and it has to be the right one--Ho Ho has to wake to be velcroed on on Christmas Eve and some days a horn isn't right but Frosty is and today was a nutcracker day and he was placed on, just so.

Then, we look for the Elf on the Shelf--a gift from Addie--and we find out where he is hanging: sometimes he is having a tea party, sometimes he is in the tree trying to hang the lights, sometimes he is snacking in the kitchen, this morning he was riding Kit's rocking horse with a Christmas posse of stuffed friends, everyday he is somewhere different.... On the best days, he leaves a tiny little surprise for Elsie. And then the Elf is used as bribery to get Elsie to eat, tinkle, and stop doing whatever it is she is doing/touching/putting in her mouth that she shouldn't. Remember, the Elf is watching and will report back to Ho Ho who is naughty and who is nice!

After that, we venture forth our merry way in our MDX full of Christmas cheer listening to the Ray Charles "Little Drummer Boy" and the Reverend Horton Heat's "Santa on the Roof" over and over and over again--if we don't, we listen to requests/demands to listen to them over and over and over again. We like to sing "pa rum pa pum pum..." We like to ask questions ad nauseum about why Santa is on the roof and why he is quiet as a mouse and why the reindeer go pitter patter and why Santa goes down the chimney and why why why why.... One of us is going to make a really good lawyer one day and one of us is going to be a great fiction writer.

Then we play with our Christmas little people and Santa visits the Baby Jesus in the manger and the three wise men have a tea party with Mrs. Claus and an elf.

After we have gotten through our day, we usually watch a bit of either Rudolph, Little Drummer Boy, Santa Claus Comes to Town, or Frosty. More questions ensue. We like to sing some songs--only the right ones and only as Conductor Elsie directs us. And then we go to bed with visions of sugar plums and Judy dolls dancing in our heads....

Elsie has seen Ho Ho once and has requested a motorcycle, two Judy dolls, bunk beds, make up, a singing dollhouse, and whatever else she has just recently seen on TV, in a magazine, or at someone's house. We'll probably revisit Ho Ho and anticipate his arrival with a few suggestions of what she might wish for/expect. Here are a few shots of us picking up our tree a few weeks back. We are lucky to leave the house with both kids and a diaper bag so it was a little much to expect us to have the camera, too. Even more fortunate, we happened to met the Heidels at the lot who had their camera and snapped some shots of the big girls.

Stay @ Home Dads: When the Moms are Away





When the moms hit the outlets, the dads put the kids out to pasture. Here are some shots from their visit to the Lawton Stables and Petting Zoo. Yee Haw!

We don't have any footage of Pat off-roading in the Pilot to beat the crowds... which is probably for the best.

Golfing/Girls Gone Wild: Black Friday at the Beach






David makes it a point to golf every ten years. And what do you know... his moment arrived in time for Poppa to take all the boys golfing. The women-folk corralled all the wee ones at the Sandbox children's museum on Hilton Head. Here you'll see Elsie and Bryce engaging in all of the crafting deemed too messy or dangerous for home--Elsie cut her hair with her child safety scissors at home and glitter is outlawed on 64th street for obvious reasons. The big kids also flew a plane, steered a pirate ship, performed a puppet show, and literally, climbed the walls. The baby area was just right for the babies and everyone worked up an appetite for our favorite cantina Amigo's after.

Finally Frosty

Jesus is Next



Brooke much preferred Jesus to Ho Ho. Kit can do without either. Elsie was providing us all with valuable spiritual instruction. Last night she informed me that Baby Jesus rides in Ho Ho's sleigh with the Elf on the Shelf. This evening's bedtime story will involve Rudolph and Pegasus pulling said sleigh.

Ho Ho IV: Tad's Turn