My favorite part of the morning is taking Olivia to school.

Every school day Olivia...

holds my hand in the parking lot until we get to the part where no cars are allowed. Then she lets go of my hand and races me (except that I don't actually run) to the front door where she sets down her lunch box and gathers all of her strength to open the door.

sneaks past her 2's class teacher because she doesn't want Miss Becca to see her. She actually loves Miss Becca; it's all part of Liv's love of sneaking around and surprising people.

finds the place her lunch box belongs and puts it on the shelf. Then she signs herself in by moving her picture from the Home board to the School board.

hides outside her classroom and giggles loudly until her teacher notices her.

These moments make up her school day ritual.

Mud and Water Day

Ever heard of it? Well, it's a major holiday according to Olivia. For a week we've woken up to a sing songy voice asking us "Is it Mud and Waters Day?" or telling us "It is Mud and Waters Day" when it actually wasn't.

Olivia put a lot of thought into this day. She requested that we present her with cards for Mud and Water Day, as if Hallmark had a line of greeting cards specifically for this special Day. She even instructed us as to when would be the appropriate time to give her the cards; first thing in the morning in case you are wondering.

The idea was just too fun to pass up. Chris did a wonderful drawing of Harry making his own mud and water puddles with a watering can (inspired by Harry and the Lady Next Door by Gene Zion) and then gave it to her before breakfast. And I gave her a foam football because I happened to have bought it a few days earlier to replace one the dog ate and hadn't given it to her yet.

So here are a few images from Olivia's much anticipated Mud and Water Day at school.












No home made treats or shiny decorations, just water, mud, shaving cream and some friends.

While reading a library book about animals I pointed to a cuttle fish and called it by name. Olivia responded quizzically "A cuddle fish?" I said no, it's a cu-t-t-le fish. A page later she said "Mommy, I want to see the snuggle fish."

Between signs and words Violet says:
cracker
night night
thank you
Olivia (which sounds like i-ya)
like this
and something that sounds a lot like "I did it"
what's this (whadis?)
ma ma and da da
dog
bird
banana
drink
all done

Violet's favorite things are:
sucking on the two middle fingers of her left hand
twirling her hair or my hair with her right hand
climbing up the backs of chairs
playing peekaboo and hide and seek
playing in the sprinkler
reading books
and generally doing anything that her big sister does

Violet's first Christmas

Violet spent the holiday season:

undecorating our Christmas trees (we have one for the living room and one for the front porch)

looking at the sparkly stockings

crying during her first visit to Santa

watching a choir while surrounded by adoring (seriously) pre-schoolers at the gingerbread decorating party

crawling around at my feet while Liv and I decorated cookies with friends

ogling the decorated and flocked trees at the bakery while enjoying blueberry muffin

and loving all of the family time

Santa's elves make an early arrival...

While touring local neighborhoods for Christmas lights we saw a little cottage with a big yard filled with probably 20 or more inflatable Christmas decorations. Liv was enchanted and decided she wanted a "popup" Christmas decoration for her yard from Santa. She specifically wanted a snow globe with a merry-go-round in it.

I think Santa had a tough time fulfilling Liv's specific wish but he did pretty darn well. A few days before Christmas Eve he sent his elves to set up 3 popups in our front yard! Liv was so excited when Chris and I woke her to show her the surprise. At first she was a little scared and wanted to go back inside. But after a few minutes of thinking about it she wanted to go right back outside to walk around and inspect her presents. Santa brought a giant snowman, Santa in a plane (with spinning propellers) and Santa on a sled with penguins.

Unfortunately this story has a sad ending; somebody swiped all but the snowman from our yard a few nights after Christmas. But luckily we had a chance to get some pretty good pictures to remember them by.

Capturing the candy cane swiper

I stepped out of the house to do some laundry in the carport while the girls played in the living room by the Christmas tree. When I came back Violet was crying and Liv dashed to her bedroom and I didn't see her again for about an hour and a half! And if you don't remember Liv doesn't take naps (hasn't since she was about 6 months old). So disappearing quietly into her bedroom for such a long time was highly unusual. I checked on her during this time and she was under the comforter in her bed. I was shocked.
She finally emerged with a lost look in her eye, shiny hands and hair that looked like a bird had made a nest in it. Here's what I figure happened.

Liv took a candy cane from the Christmas tree and ran out of the room just as I was coming in from doing the laundry (and she probably bumped Violet causing her to cry).
Liv hid under her comforter, removed the candy cane wrapper and started to eat.
And then, hold your breath, she fell into a sugary slumber.
About an hour and a half later she woke up and stumbled into the kitchen where Vi and I were having an afternoon snack.
Here she is after waking up (with the candy cane still in her mouth).


Here we are cleaning up the candy cane swiper.


Wrapper on the floor and the bed. The red is where she drooled on her sheets.





And I found this cute little munchkin at the scene of the crime but her alibi is solid as she was in the kitchen with me the whole time.

From last week's trip to the bakery...

Liv couldn't resist cleaning her plate,



there were blueberries all over "tiny munchkin",


and I can barely believe it but this little darling will be 1 year old very soon.

I had a little visitor at the office while Chris changed the tire on my car. She charmed everyone.

Enjoy a handful of pictures from our busy weekend. I'll update with more pictures very soon.

We've had a busy social calendar full of gingerbread house decorating parties, birthdays and a wedding! It's been lots of fun.
And Violet's big news is that she got her first tooth and took her first step this week! For her first step she was playing with her walking toy lion and got so caught up in things that she forgot she wasn't holding on when she took a step back and to the side. She didn't fall, she just grabbed hold of the lion again.

Some funny quotes from Liv:
"This is a stable so Santa won't poop in his panties."
"Mommy I swallowed my teeth." Clever, sweet girl was telling me her throat hurt.

This wonderful pop up book by Robert Sabuda is what we read for our advent activity tonight.

We set out our advent calendar (a three dimensional house with drawers for the windows) while Liv and Violet were sleeping last night. When Liv woke up this morning and saw it she ran to Chris and said "Daddy, there's a Santa house in our living room! Who did it? Was it my decorating friends?" I have no idea who these decorating friends are but I wish they'd come around more often.

I was inspired by a few blogs on the internet to do an activity advent calendar instead of putting treats in the calendar. Today's activity was to drink egg nog out of our Santa mugs. Liv decided she'd rather have hot cocoa so we did that instead. We enjoyed our drinks out on the front porch with our large tree covered in white lights. And Chris told a great story about "Doropede" the dinosaur and how she drank cocoa with her mommy and daddy. Liv has been a big fan of the Wiggles and Dorothy the dinosaur all year long. Here are some pictures of Liv and Chris making the hot cocoa.

Here's the note we put into the calendar.

Something nice to know about 3 year olds.

All year long Olivia has been asking me to fly her kite with her. And all year long (with exception of our trip to the beach) I've said 'it's too hot' or 'there's no wind' or 'we don't have time right now'. In regards to the time excuse here's what I had in my mind for kite flying. Get the girls and myself ready, pack snacks and water for a 2 hour trip and get out the door (a monumental task when you have a babe that still naps 3 times a day), drive or walk to a park and keep Violet protected from energetic dogs/kids while I help Liv fly a kite.

She asked again a few Saturdays ago. And since we were sitting on our front porch and her kite was handy and the wind was gusty AND Violet was taking a long nap I figured sure! Let's give it a go.

So Liv got her kite, put her shoes on and we walked down the porch steps to the front yard. We tossed the kite into the air (Daddy showed up about this time), Liv ran around giggling, I took photos and after 10 to 15 minutes of pure 3 year old joy at watching a kite fly and fall to the ground repeatedly she was satisfied and we all went back to the porch.

Well here's the thing to know about 3 year olds. Sometimes they are happy with so little that it does you a lot more good (think good karma) to say 'sure, why not?' than to keep telling them 'no'. If I had known how little it would take to make Liv happy I would have flown a kite with her for 10 minutes many months ago.

These toes need a good cleaning!

It turns out that chubby little baby toes are perfect traps for all that extra soft fluff in little socks. And it also seems that 3 year olds' fingers are just the right size for getting fuzz out of those chubby little baby toes. Who knew?!

Some pics from Halloween

Pony rides...









Yes, that's Violet on a pony. Notice my grip on her arm and leg; she wasn't going anywhere!

Here is Olivia trying on her Dorothy the dinosaur costume that mom and I made. Violet was very curious.

What makes Violet laugh...
anything goofy that her sister does
zerberts on her belly
Liv twirling her around in a shopping cart

What makes Violet upset...
Liv closing the door to her bedroom; especially when Violet is scooting down the hallway toward the bedroom
Mommy trying to put her to bed without a bed-time story

Violet's milestones update...
Violet's been saying "da da" for a few weeks now.
She only says "ma ma" when she's really upset and she started that around August. I've only heard her say it a handful of times.
She's become very interested in books and actually looks at them closely while I read them. She keeps flipping back to the front cover as if she's making a note of the book title so she can find it again later.

Halloween at the bakery...

After I saw Liv petting the mummy I decided we really should have a picture. Too bad I couldn't get video.