Thanksgiving

While going through pictures for Thanksgiving, I came across this shot from Halloween. Felix was showing me his lame "olympian" costume, and there is Emma in the background sneaking in her "scary face" pose!

 We took the kids to the zoo a week ago, and it was perfect. The weather was great, it was not crowded at all, Levi hitched a ride on Felix and Emma was eager to run from exhibit to exhibit. Typically, I hate zoos. Just being honest. But- this trip was so fun! We followed our own timeline, it was relaxing, and it is hard not to enjoy the experience when the kids are getting so excited and asking questions about all the cool things they are seeing.

 We thought this crazy bird sported the same hairstyle as little Levi......

WATER POLO.
What a season!!!!! The end of the season was crazy intense. I do not like competition. My favorite games to watch are the ones where Brown is crushing their opponent. I'm talking, 6+ goal lead, no chance of turning it around. I can just sit back and enjoy the show. But the games where they are trading goals, I hate. I can hear my heartbeat. And forget about games that go into overtime! So, when we realized the team had a real shot at making it to the NCAA's, things were getting exciting. I stayed home with the kids during the tournament. They won their first game and had two to go. The night of the 2nd game, I was waiting for Felix's phone call and after an hour I finally logged onto twitter to see if I could find live updates. They were up by 1 goal in the 3rd quarter. I couldn't believe how nervous I was, waiting for the final score!!!! Unfortunately, they lost the game in the end which meant they were done for the season. But the good news was that we got Felix back all to ourselves :)
I brought the kids out to support the team for their final game on the 3rd day. Unfortunately, I went to MIT instead of Harvard (where they were playing) and missed all but the last 5 minutes. But, the smile we got from Felix when he looked up in the stands and saw little Emma waving "Hi Daddy!!! Daddy! I picked a flower for you!!".........was priceless!

Watching the Navy/Princeton game with the Schwartz family.

 Our little monster. Guess what! On Thanksgiving day, he said "turkey"!!!

 We are officially done nursing. It has been about a week, and he is doing great. If he sees me in my bed, which is where he used to nurse in the morning, he cries and begs for it, but other than that- he is a whole new man!!

THANKFUL!

 When asked in school what she is most thankful for, she said "my daddy". And when prompted at home to expand on that, she confirmed she was in fact, just thankful for her daddy. And to drive home the point a bit more, when I took her on a special "mommy/Emma" day out for some shopping and dinner, I asked her what she wants to do on her next "mommy/Emma" day. Her response? Bring Levi & Daddy so we can have an "everybody" day!

We were really enjoying our Thanksgiving festivities. I was excited about all the decorating projects we had planned to do, and the special Thanksgiving themed food I was going to make. And the fact that Felix was relaxed and home with us made everything even more special. The kids were sitting on the couch with Felix, and Emma told me to come sit so we could be a family. LOVE HER!

Meanwhile, as the kids and Felix were having a dance party in the living room, I was using a cheap plastic vase from the dollar store to cut out circles in my rice krispy treats in order to make little turkey cookies. The treats got stuck, and as I tried to wiggle them out, the vase shattered in my hand, and sliced my finger. I got a quick look at it and freaked out. My finger was gushing blood with a gash that was so wide you could see deep inside. I panicked, yelled "oh my G-d" about 5 times until Felix came running over, I threw it under freezing cold water in the sink, but it wouldnt stop bleeding. Felix called the neighbors to come over incase we had to go to the doctor, and I called mom demanding to talk to dad! Clearly, I don't do well in these types of situations. And my mother told me exactly what to do, but I could barely even focus to listen. We wrapped it in a cloth, and finally gauze and tape. It kept bleeding for 2 hours.

***Gross Pictures Below****



This is 2 hours after the incident. The bandage fell off and it was still bleeding!



1st gross bandage.

 Meanwhile, this stupid cut was seriously painful! I had to take advil! After 24 hours, my skin was still not closed, so I simply taped it together so it can try to heal. I know its a bit much to write about my "giant paper cut" as Felix calls it, but it was pretty gross. First of all, I can't believe how stupid I was to crush a vase in my hand, but also, I could not believe what a huge gash I was staring at on my finger!

 Levi wrapped his fist around my finger and gave it a nice squeeze. It reminded me of those movies where they are in the torture room and rubbing salt in wounds. Levi now points to my finger and says "ouch, ouch" and sometimes "yuck".


NOW, on to our Thanksgiving dinner!
Gobble, Gobble.........

 We had a lot of fun decorating our fruit turkey, our bread basket turkey, and pilgrim hat utensil holders! I really liked the googly eyes we put on. In fact, I did a lot of this project myself and was a little embarrassed when I realized my children were sound asleep in bed, Felix was watching TV on the couch, and I was hard at working gluing feathers on a shoe box! Emma decorated all the paper feathers and loved the glitter glue pens. Levi's favorite part was ripping the red balloon off the turkey's face. We even dusted off the fine china for our feast!

 Our good friends came to celebrate with us, and it was very nice to have great company to enjoy Thanksgiving. The girls did a great job playing together, for the most part! Emma LOVES her friend Brooklyn's daddy. He was reading the little princesses a pre-dinner story in their princess tent.

 After our guests left, the kids were a little wound up and wanted to play a bit more before bedtime. They were playing "horsey" with Felix. Emma had a few rides by herself, but once Levi climbed on, Felix just slithered across the floor. When Emma asked him to get up and trot around, Felix said he couldn't because of Levi.......

 So she threw him off!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I just so happened to snap the shot! Caught on camera kid!!!

Friday morning, instead of risking our lives shopping for some great deal in an overcrowded store, we opted to have fun at the Providence Children's Museum with our friends and give Felix some time to clean out the basement relax.

 Look at my little stud! He was great. My big boy- played on his own, interested in the toys instead of just throwing random items across the room, climbed and crawled around, and pretty much did good listening! It was all fun & games.... until a certain toddler peed in their pants and mommy got a little annoyed : {

Lexi & Levi racing to the top as Emma cheers them on!

 After changing Emma's pants, and washing Levi's hands he dipped in the "still filled with a stranger's urine toilet", we decided to call it quits. It was a nice feeling to know that when I got home, Felix would be there. We put the kids down for naptime and I went out to run a few errands. Then, the neighbors came over to help us polish off the leftovers from Thanksgiving.

After Emma performed her show for our guests, she graciously offered to read them a book while Brayden had an after dinner drink.

And Levi chose to read a novel of his own :)

No words......

 Lately, there just aren't words to explain what our days are like. I am flat out exhausted with these two little monsters running around wild all day! Usually, every square inch of the first floor of the house is usually trashed by the end of the day. Also, my camera is in the shop once again, so these blurry pictures are some fun ones I caught on my phone.

Every day Levi does something that just blows me away. And not in a good way!!!! I cannot understand how this little kid has the energy, or even the ability, to get his tiny little hands into something every single second that I am not physcially restraining him. Some of his favorites? The toilet bowl brush, the plunger, the broom, the vacuum, the box of diapers, Emma's hairbows, DVD's, eating crayons, wacking the tv with his toy broom, wacking his sister with his toy broom, remote controls, phones, and my i-touch. To name a few.

He insists on drinking from a big adult cup, still screams when he doesn't get what he wants, and now, thanks to his big sis, has the vocabulary to tell us "NO"- and he uses it all the time. Daddy leaving for work? Levi chases him to the door, screaming and crying"no, no, no, no, no, no, no"! Mommy picks him up to change his diaper? "no, no, no, no". This little one is a handful!

Yet, somehow, I still just can't get enough of him!

He is really funny, and I'm convinced he is the cutest little boy around. He has light hair, big dark eyes, and a great smile that he flashes when he knows he is about to do something naughty! His favorite thing right now is sneaking around the corner to play wtih the vacuum. I've repeatedly told him not to do that and moved him back to the living room. After the third time he attempted to steal the vacuum (in about a 1-minute timespan), I came around the corner to remove him again, he jumped from being startled, gave me a huge grin, and shook his head "no no no no no" as if he was mocking me! After wacking the TV with the broom, and staring at me with his smile waiting for my reaction, I decided to try something different. I simply said "Levi, no hitting the TV", he did it again, and I said "go sit in time-out". AND HE DID! He walked right over and sat down. I couldn't believe it. Emma was shocked as well!

 

Speaking of time-out, I use the 1-2-3 system with Emma and because of that, my little Levi sort of knows how to count to 3 already! I'll start counting when Emma needs it, and sometimes after I say "Emma, that's 1".... Levi looks up with a smile and says "twoooooooooooo". If one of them is frustrating me, the other is usually making me laugh.Yesterday as we were rushing to leave the house, I put Levi's shoes & socks on, set him on the couch while I brushed Emma's hair only to look over and find Levi taking off his shoes & socks. Frustrated, I told him to stop, and my little Emma said to me "Leave him. He is not doing good listening". Clearly, Emma takes my threats of leaving her at home if she doesnt put her shoes & socks on pretty seriously!

Emma has really been into playing Little Red Riding Hood lately. She asks to put random garments around her like the cape. This is Felix's shirt she found on the couch. The funny thing is, she hardly even knows the story of Little Red.

Snow, Snow, Go Away, Come Again Another Day....or never.....

We got snow! In October!

Emma woke up that morning, ran down the stairs, threw open our bedroom door, and with the biggest brown eyes you have ever seen said "MOMMY! I have something to tell you! There is snow outside, over ALL the grass! The trees are so thirsty.....(???)!

Me: "yeaaaaayyyyy". ugh.

I kept the kids busy eating breakfast inside while I went outside to shovel the deck and make a path to our snow covered car. I knew there was a good chance I would walk back inside to find blueberry yogurt thrown all over my kitchen, so I shoveled as quickly as possible. Luckily, the weather was amazing outside and the snow was soft & beautiful, so I bundled up the kids and out we went to attempt our very first snowman. Halfway through, after putting Levi's mittens on for the twentieth time, I decided we would stick with the snowy bird looking thing we made and go inside.

Levi's first reaction was to eat the snow. And his facial expression told me that he was pleasantly surprised with what he was tasting, as he continued to grab handfull after handfull.

PLAYTIME!!!

The kids LOVE playing hairdresser, and Emma has all the tools necessary to do so. The double-sided comb is definitely my least favorite. I think Levi was trying to punish me in the 2nd picture- "oh yeah, mommy? you still think you are going to deny me the milkies?!?!?!!" 

The kids have been playing so well together. Emma's imagination is through the roof these days- we are meeting lots of imaginary friends, she is creating games for all of us to play, putting on shows and circus performances for us, and my favorite- make believe snacks. These make believe snacks are so funny, because she hands them to Levi, and he holds open his hand anxiously waiting for the surprise she is about to hand him.....and then......nothing! Poor kid doesn't know how to play make-believe-pretend-food yet, and is always so confused!

They love playing together, with a few rules! Both do not like their tents being entered without a proper invitation, or towers being knocked down before it is time, or baby dolls being kidnapped! And I can't help but smile when I see a sneak attack about to be made. Usually, Levi waits until the coast is clear- grabs Emma's sleeping baby doll out of the bassinet, clutches it tightly to his chest, and just as Emma notices the missing baby and starts screaming- Levi is hightailing it towards me for safety, panic-stricken face, and a death grip on that baby doll. Is it any wonder my man of little words is now saying "MINE"?!!!



Nursing Barney



 After naptime, the kids were playing upstairs while I put away laundry and toys up there. As I was putting things away in the other room, I got nervous with how quiet it was- and I walked around the corner to find them BOTH sitting on the floor, each reading their own book. I watched them for a bit and it just made me smile. By the time I grabbed my camera, Levi had already stood up.....but you get the idea!

 More dress up shoes for the little guy! He brought them over to me, sat down, and demanded I put them on! He is such a funny, happy little boy, finding everything so entertaining and completely in love with his big sister.

 And SHE is completely in love with him! Emma's friend has 4 month old twin brother/sister, and after playing with them the other day, Emma has been playing "twins" at our house. She holds them, puts them to bed, etc., but it is proving to be a bit difficult to handle because she eventually hands one off to me and one to Felix, along with detailed instructions on what we are to do with them while she goes to the store. Both my kids were SO cute when playing with the (real) twins! Emma came over and acted like a little mommy, and Levi couldnt stop trying to kiss them and tickle them -I was shocked to see little L so interested in the babies (baba, as he calls them).



A picture from when Levi was sick with Roseola. One of the few moments he wasn't nursing.



In order to help Levi wean from nursing, we had Felix put him to bed at night for a bit after he got home from work. So when Felix came home, he would bring Levi upstairs to bed while I read books to Emma downstairs. We only did this for about a week- and the poor kid hated it!!!!! Everytime Felix walks in the door at night now, Levi starts crying and comes running to my arms!!!!

 Levi is growing up so fast. I'm noticing a ton of changes in him this week. A big one is his vocabulary! He has now added: wet, milk, yes, no, mine, booboo, walk, fish, eat, Dora, baba, block, yuck, ewww, book. It is so wonderful to hear his little words!!

Back in the swing of things!

Good to be back! I've had a lot on my mind lately, and the blog has been put on the back burner. In the past month we have been so busy with our new schedule with preschool, storytime, sports class, music class, and my attempt to cook and clean a bit more around here! I've been enjoying doing some temporary work at my old job for a few hours on Monday afternoons while Felix is home with the kids, and we have also survived Levi's miserable week of  roseola as well as helping him wean from nursing.

But we still found time to have some fun.

A few weeks ago we went to see a one ring circus put on in a neighboring town. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but was pretty surprised! They let the kids play in the ring before the show started. After about 5 attempts to grab a hula hoop in the mad rush of kids, and a little help from mommy, Emma finally scored one of her own......and she was not about to let it go!

 ....after swinging it around on her arm (which she totally rocks at, by the way)- it flew off and she nearly knocked this little girl to the floor as she ran after her hoop. It sort of reminded me of Jackie at our wedding during the bouquet toss :)

 Obviously, the cotton candy was a major highlight of the evening. We had front frow seats in the stands, which worked out perfectly to keep Levi in the stroller in front of us. However, Emma decided to get up and walk over to the concession stand to chat it up with the ladies. She walked right over and asked them for cotton candy, as if they were just handing it out for fun.

 Levi was so tired, he was such a trooper! I felt terrible when I looked down in front of me a minute into the loud show to see him screaming in terror!!! Poor kid was scared out of his mind :(

 It was an interesting show, to say the least. There were three of these lovely ladies, all dressed the same, dancing wtih their dogs. Super impressive.

 After the 2nd half of the show started, Emma and her friend Samantha lost all interest and put on their own dancing show in front of the stands. We left shortly after.

In other news, we celebrated Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and at the end of Yom Kippur I noticed Levi was feeling very warm and was coming down with a very high fever. I thought he was probably just exhausted and teething, gave him some tylenol and put him to bed. A few more days of high fever and I was getting a little nervous as memories came back of the time Emma was his age and turned into the exorcist, aka, came down with roseola. And sure enough, the next day, Levi broke out into a full body rash. Roseola had made an appearance in our home again. Unfortunately, Levi does not have a "comfort item" other than me. And he was still nursing several times a day, so he actually ended up nursing on me for hours. YES. Hours. In fact, the first night, he latched onto me for 3 hours after waking up at midnight and would not let me off without screaming for at least an hour. It was miserable, and I of course got sick from over-nursing with blisters and nausea. We were all miserable.

But, after a week he was better and I decided it was time to wean him. The first day was horrible, he threw himself on the floor, grabbing at my legs, just begging to nurse. Felix & I both thought to ourselves that it was like watching an addict in withdrawal, and it was so hard to watch knowing I could so easily make him feel better. But I'm glad we held strong, because I am so proud to say that he is now only nursing first thing in the morning. And, while I'm all for the health benefits of nursing my children, it was time. And we have noticed a HUGE difference in this little guy. I can't explain how nice it is to have him sit next to me on the couch to snuggle and just smile and be happy, instead of whining and trying to pull up my shirt anytime he sees me. He seems happier now, so it was definitely the right decision.

The following weekend we went to a local 'community day' at the preschool around the corner from our house. It was great to get out and see some friends and play. The kids got to pet some goats, play in the playground, get face painted, and go inside a fire truck. Levi loved the truck :)

 "Cheeeeeese". I have him trained well! As soon as he sees the camera, he poses and says "cheese"!

 Oh, feel the love! I know it looks like I dressed my kids in boy/girl tracksuits, but I didn't- just coincidence that their pants matched their jackets that day!

 Sports Class!!!!! I still can't tell if she likes it or not. She runs around and has fun, but the teacher is always calling her name to get her attention and get her focused back to the task at hand! They start off in this gymnastics set-up in the picture below, which she loves and seems to follow directions well. It is after they leave this section and move to the sports-drills section that she seems to lose it, rolling around on the floor, chasing after a ball, sitting on the bench, etc.

 Unlike the sports class, she surprisingly refuses to go to her ballet class at the "real" studio! I've tried bringing her twice, and both times she comes out shortly after and tells me she wants to go home. I really can't blame her. I watched the class and it does seem extremely boring. She tells me she doesn't like it because it is too hard and she isn't allowed to run. Apparently, she likes the little town run ballet class that she did over the summer, so we'll see. I think she has a lot going on as it is!!!

Other than that, we have been very excited about our Halloween costumes this year. The Little Mermaid! Emma is Ariel (an interesting look.....), and Levi is Sebastian! I tried to put makeup on little Ariel to help soften the look a bit, but I don't think it did much! I think it's the hair- out of control. And the costume is about 3 sizes too small, but she loves being Ariel. Luckily, I found another Ariel costume for her at a thrift store that is a bit more flattering, and she will be wearing that one for the rest of our Halloween appearances this year :)

 My little crab! He is so funny, as soon as I put on his costume he grabbed the claws and clapped them together "clap clap clap".

 Getting ready for our first outing to a Halloween party at the YMCA.

The next morning we got dressed up in costume again, very excited to head out to meet our friends at another party at the local playground. Felix was away in California,  and the kids & I walked out of the house only to realize the keys were now locked inside. Awesome. No car keys, no house keys, nothing. I was in the middle of plotting  how I was going to climb up on our roof and try to break into one of the upstairs windows when my friend called and came by to help. I was eventually able to open a small window and stick Emma inside to open the door. Of course, I made sure I was able to get in the window myself incase I needed to go in there and rescue her- but I was so happy to see her little smiling face proud of herself for getting inside and opening the door, saving the day! We eventually made it to the playground for some more Halloween fun- but our morning certainly set the tone for the rest of the day. I wish I could say I was in a good mood and positive, but I most definitely was not! There were bees flying all over the place which completely stressed me out, then Levi got a bloody nose in the bouncy house, and Emma threw a tantrum in the playground.

So, we have had a lot going on. The weaning from nursing was really taking a toll on me and I'm glad we are finally past it. I'm glad Felix is done with the long travel weekends for the season, and I'm glad we are over our illnesses and can make an appearance at the gym again. We have much to look forward to this week, and a big to-do list I want to tackle!