Taunton Time

I realized I never posted about Thanksgiving. Matt had to work 6-2, so the girls and I were home cooking and watching the parade, and then the Tauntons came over to share Thanksgiving dinner with us.

The kids gathered in the kitchen to take turns shaking some heavy cream--they made the butter for our rolls! Jillian needed help from her unicorn, apparently

The grownup table 

The kid table. I let the kids actually eat on our china and use my grandma's red crystal glasses. Jenni called me brave. I told her my grandma would love to see the kids enjoying them. No fine or sentimental tableware was harmed.

And then, on Sunday the Tauntons invited us to join them at the Nutcracker. This was Adrienne and Matt's first time.

We had 5 seats in one row, so we called it the girls' row

And we had 3 seats in front, just for those pesky boys

Moms of course were in the girly row

And as is tradition for us, following any event at the Civic Center the girls request to pose with the goose in the skyway. All I can think about is how dirty this goose must be. He is loved by all, and there's often a little line to get an up-close snuggle.

Christmas Performance

Little Miss Adrienne made her stage debut in the Kingdom Kids Christmas Program on Monday night. We have a history with this program. Matt barfed after Jillian's program 2 years ago, Jillian barfed on stage last year, and so this year I was waiting for the barfing. But--instead I just got a really pleasant treat and lots of giggles as we watched Adrienne's dramatic performance. She was quite the clown. Mrs Leif now knows the real Adrienne; the secret is out. Goofball da house!

Our performer and her adoring fan pre-show

I love being able to re-use Christmas dresses! J wore this for 2 years!

Hello pretty girl

It's very important to be sporting an "Elsa braid" at all times. This is our adaptation of the hairstyle...making do with the hair we've been given!

See Adrienne in the back row? Her tongue is out and there's a goofy face going on...

making stars with her hands

Ah, there's some nice focused singing

Hallelujah! We've got some praise hands going on

See that woman lurking in the back? That sweet woman is my friend's mother in law (who happens to be one of the teachers at the preschool). She had her hands full wrangling my goofball. God bless you, Marti!

Moved by the Spirit? Who knows.

No program is complete without a cookie post-show! Excellent performance, dah-ling!

Lost Tooth!

Jillian lost her first tooth on December 5th! The girls were playing in Jillian's room around bedtime when Jillian came downstairs puzzled because "Something fell out of my mouth!" While her tooth had been loose for awhile, she hasn't been the kind to really mess with it. Apparently she put the end of a blown up balloon between her teeth while being silly, and Adrienne chided her for doing so while ripping the balloon (and incidentally, the tooth!) out of her mouth.  This milestone caught me by surprise. And so did the tears I shed over it. There's just something very big-kid about losing teeth. The tooth fairy of course came, and while the mom tooth fairy thought a $1 bill was plenty, the dad tooth fairy insisted on a $5. The funny thing is that when she woke to find her money she came down to me perplexed. "I though the tooth fairy brought the circle kind of money." Seems a quarter would have sufficed!

She looks a little bit like a vampire with the still-bloody mouth

With the balloon and the accomplice

Here's a fun little fact. This is my tooth box from when I was a kid. I picked it out of the birthday box on my first day of kindergarten in 1983 (which also happened to be my 5th birthday). I'm not sure how such a small item survived all these years, but it was pretty cook to be able to give this to Jillian to use. 

Howe Visit

Last week Grandpa Bennie and Great Grandma Helen came up to see us for a couple of days. Grandma Helen brought the girls some dolls that they were very excited about--an ice skating Elsa for Adrienne (to which she proclaimed, "I always wanted this!'" and a Belle doll for Jillian). The highlight of their visit for me was taking Helen to my Bible study. Her presence was such a gift, her words encouraging to us all, and she prayed the most powerful prayer I've ever heard (not a dry eye in the room afterwards). I have had several women tell me how much of a blessing her visit was to our group. We were too busy doing stuff to take pictures until right before they left, but I got a couple keepers in front of the tree.

Nice, Adrienne.

Iron Clad

Oh, the will of a 3 year old. I had forgotten. Silly me. I've been trying to figure out how to write this post for weeks now, because while I don't want to "complain" or paint an ill picture of my darling second born, I aim to speak only the truth on this here blog. And the truth is that Adrienne is quite the little pickle these days. Now that we are back in this stage, I remember that 3 is generally "worse" than age 2, and that 3 1/2 is the most difficult age of all. Adrienne is asserting herself like never before, and digs her heels in to prove her point many, many, many times per day.  She has to be exhausted from all the stand downs--I know I sure am. So, bedtime is pretty hard. Last week she had a 90 minute scream fest that threatened to ruin her dad's nerves once and for all. The funny thing about the bedtime drama is that she stops to yawn often, which I find very validating for me. The kid needs to sleep. She's also found a new way to try and threaten me to comply with her wishes. She uses this a couple times a day, and I do my best not to laugh out loud. It goes something like this--

A: "I want peanut butter for suppah"

Me: "We are not having peanut butter tonight. You had peanut butter at lunch. This (pointing to her plate) is your dinner"

A: "If you don't give me peanut butter, I'm NEVAH EATING SUPPAH AGAIN!!"

or

A: "I want a treat."

Me: "We are not having dessert tonight. You had a treat after school."

A: "Little kids can made decisions for demselves!!!! Give me a treat or I'm nevah eating suppah again!" 

Listen, kid. This isn't my first time at the 3 year old rodeo. You want to protest your dinner and skip a meal? Fine with me.

You get the picture. But guess what? She is also saying some really cute stuff these days that doesn't bring me to my wits end.

-Last week the girls were looking at Christmas ornaments on the tree, and they came across the one from Jillian's first Christmas. Adrienne asked Matt where she was when Jillian was a baby. Matt told her she wasn't born yet. So, Adrienne shared her interpretation with her sister a short while later: "Jillian you know where I was when you were a baby? I was dead."

-She and I were waiting in the dr's office for an appt this week when a woman in high heels walked by. Adrienne watched her walk away, turned to me, and then asked, "Mommy, why not do I get to wear doze shoes with da wands on the bottom?"

-And yesterday, we were stuck in the school pick up line to end all lines and Adrienne complained that she had to pee NOW. There was no way out of this line, nowhere to go, and she assured me she could not wait ("Mom, da pee is going to come out of my bottom now!!!") So I had to think fast. Luckily, I found a pull up in the console, so I told her she was going to have to get out of her car seat, take her pants off, put on the pull up and pee in it, and then take it off and get re-dressed. Not fantastic, but it was better than a wet car seat, right? So she complied, but had plenty of complaints as she was undressing, "Mom, dis is da worstest fing dat evah happened to me!" Of course, once we got all the clothing switched out she declared she could wait until we got home (and she did). 

No dull moments over here. EVAH!

Thanksgiving Party

Let's rewind a bit, shall we? I attended Adrienne's preschool Thanksgiving party the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Mrs Leif does a precious little party every year, and it was fun to attend with child number 2, as I did with number 1 just two years ago. We sat at a table with Emily and her mom (who I discovered during conversation is also an OT!) and Rowan and his mom (who just so happens to be from Kansas). Rowan's mom told me that he talks about Adrienne all the time...saying that her name starts with "A" and she is pretty. He apparently told his dad that the reason he likes Adrienne so much is because he loves her ponytails. Cute stuff. Here are a few pics of this little event.

Discovering that she likes pumpkin pie

Snuggling with me after the snack

Mrs Leif lining all her little turkeys up for some songs

Pilgrim hats in place. Brecken is to Adrienne's left and he is full of entertainment

We've got our own brand of silly over here.

The Joy of Music

It's been a dream of mine to have a piano in our home. As we've slowly worked on decorating/completing our home, we planned for the front room to eventually morph from "toy overflow" to a beautiful formal room with a piano. Now, we are well on our way! With fresh paint, new carpet, and most importantly, a gorgeous piano, we are enjoying this space in our home immensely. It's been in our house all of 10 days and we can't stay away from it. So, pardon the lack of blogging (both here and on the cooking site). What you also can't see are the piles of laundry, note-yet-addressed Christmas cards, and clutter in the house as a result. Matt and I both played in high school (ironically from the same teacher at the same time, though we were not yet dating), and I've been dying to take lessons again. I put a shout out to my Facebook friends for piano teacher recommendations, and I got the most sincere, heartfelt endorsement from our friend and neighbor, who was one of Matt's residency classmates. I figured if this woman was willing to drive all the way out here to give her son lessons, there'd be a chance she'd come here for us. And, so she is. Miss Marilyn is amazing. We love her already. She is a wonderfully talented and accomplished pianist with a heart for teaching. She uses cartooning during her lessons to draw instructions for Jillian and at the end of her first lesson had her playing songs via patterns. After week 2 she can play Jingle Bells. Her goal is to help her students be able to play as quickly as possible to get joy out of the music and limit frustration. I am also taking lessons from her (she comes here on a morning where both girls are in school), and her approach to adult students is just as motivating. She spent a good deal of time talking to me about what would be meaningful for me to play, truly seeking to make this endeavor one of joy and not just accomplishment. This totally jives with the life philosophy of someone who is an OT by trade. Marilyn is a blessing to our family already, and we are so thankful for her!

Jillian and Miss Marilyn, first lesson

Marilyn called Jillian "a joy to teach". Music to a mother's ear.

As soon as the piano was delivered, we had a concert by our resident Queen Elsa (wearing a Snow White costume and her snow gloves). You can bet she belted out "Let It Go" while she played. We're giving this little royal girl a bit more time before things get official with the piano. In the meantime, she enjoys experimenting with sounds and making us smile with her enthusiastic concerts.