It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas . . .

Our stockings are trimmed and hung by the fireplace, waiting to be filled with all sorts of great goodies!


This Victorian doll holding a Christmas tree sits in a beautiful vintage stocking trimmed with garland and a tortoiseshell hair comb.


Our Santas are waiting patiently on the mantle for midnight on Christmas Eve to come so that they can start to put presents under the tree!




My collection of vintage ornaments look especially sparkly to me this year!






New and old ornaments are side by side, like this button-eyed gingerbread man that James made last year.


One of my new favorite decorations is this Rudolph that James and his Auntie Amy made during her visit.


"But the prettiest sight you'll see is the Holly that will be on your own, front door!"

We're getting excited!

Are We Done Yet?

I have a great colleague who, when we are trying to have a meeting for work and gather everyone in the same room she always throws up her hands and says "It's like herding cats!"

That's the way I felt today.

I tried to take the Christmas photo of the kids this afternoon with my sister's help.

Now, I did this last year, and my biggest problem was that I had ordered the prints online and had them ready for me to pick up at CVS. Or was it Walgreens? No, it was CVS. I think . . . anyhow, you can read about that minor I think I'll blow my head off now holiday breakdown here.

This year my challenge was trying to get a 3 month old and a 2 1/2 year old semi-posed for a photo. You know, I wanted them both looking at me, I wanted the photo to be clear, I wanted James to hold the stinking candy cane in his lap for Pete's sake smile nicely and naturally for the camera . . . you know--the normal stuff.

Did it happen? Was I able to get that one, perfect, make-your-heart-melt photo? Well, you be the judge:




Okay, do you see James in the last photo here? What exactly is the attention span of a toddler?

Anyhow, I won't spoil the surprise with the photo that I actually got. Is it perfectly in focus? No. That's why they have the soft blurring effect in Photoshop, so that it makes it LOOK LIKE that was the effect you were going after.

Right? Well, anyhow. It did come out perfect after all. I mean look at them. How could it not?

(But I do think these collages are WAAAAAY better. Just for the record.)

Auntie Amy

My sister is visiting with us this week. She is six years younger than me and does not have children of her own (yet--but no pressure, Amy). She plays the role of Auntie well--at one point during the visit she acts as a jungle gym, at another point in the visit a giver of pinch bugs. James adores her and is sucking every moment of Auntie Amy time out of her that he can. I adore her for being here to give me an extra hand and to allow me to get some work done. I am also glad that there is someone in the house who likes snapping pics of my kids even more than I do!

We took the kids to see Santa. James would not go in. Here he is standing outside, STARING and getting all worked up.


He CRIED and SCREAMED and TREMBLED. So I took Ella in and had her picture taken.


After, since there wasn't a line (I guess Tuesday afternoons are slow at Enfield Square Mall), Santa actually CAME OUT and said Hi to James and gave him a lollipop. Fresh from his crying jag, my son still managed to say "thank you Santa" and "Merry Christmas" to Jolly Old St. Nick.

That evening we started to decorate our tree. I simply could not help myself, and pulled out James' Christmas pjs early. What the heck. I mean COME ON--sock monkey gingerbread men? HOW COULD I RESIST???!!!

Then, after realizing that all of my huge and heavy glass ornaments weigh down all of my live tree branches, we gave up and then watched Frosty and had hot chocolate and sugar cookies (homemade from the tube.)

Here is Amy in her favorite place, with her favorite beer and her favorite dog. (What you can't see is that Gino and Henry are also in her lap.) She is a kid and pet MAGNET.

Ella couldn't decorate the tree, but she did her job of just looking cute just fine!

Today I had to take Amy to Shady Glen, as she is somewhat an expert on Diners and Drive-ins. She was impressed.

She snapped this pic of the kiddos. I just love the look on James' face!

Here she is working her magic on Ella Bella.

Here is a great video she took of Ella's FIRST GIGGLES.

Sorry Babe!! Come home soon!

First Snowfall and First Real Tree

Feast Your Eyes on this Bambina!

Talk on the Phone?

James' new favorite pastime?

CALLING EVERYONE HE KNOWS!


Everyday he picks someone that he wants to call
and he asks me all day long if he can call them.

"Talk a Daddy?"
"Talk a Grandpa?"
"Talk a Auntie Gini?"
"Talk a Auntie Amy?"
"Talk a Grandma?"
"Talk a Auntie Kimmy?"
"Talk a Garrin?"
"Talk a Dennis?"
"Talk a Matthew?"

(If your name isn't on this list it just means
that he isn't to the point of torturing me with calling YOU yet.)


He concentrates very hard when he is on the phone.
His favorite topics are playing cars, riding the red tractor
and what he had for lunch.

I snapped this shot of him the other day
when he was talking to his Grandpa.

PRICELESS!!!

My Baby Girl

I just love her.

I love the way she sleeps so peacefully.


I love that rosebud mouth, the cute little nose,
her long fingers and her soft, perfect skin.

I love her crazy-just-out-of-the-tub hair.

I love her smile.

But right now, most of all, I love her smell.

I hope I never, EVER, forget it.

I hope when I am an old woman I still remember
how sweet she smelled as a baby.

Adventures in Potty Training

CAUTION: Extreme cuteness and underpants shots are included in this post.

We are in the midst of potty training. James was just about there when we had Ella, moved out of our Vegas house, moved into Gini's house for a couple of weeks, moved cross-country, Chris started a new job where he is gone all week, and just basically threw as many changes at him as possible. It's no wonder he regressed.

I decided to take a relaxed approach and just basically started to slowly ask him again if he had to go, and then rewarded him when he did. I bought him cool underpants, made him reward charts, etc. He was doing pretty great and then just dropped any interest in it.

The issue has never been (ahem) #2. I can say that I haven't changed a poopy James diaper in the last two weeks. He tells me when he has to go, and he does great. He even told Dennis' Mom at Thanksgiving and said "Hurry, hurry!" Very cute.

So, we are starting again. Today is the big day. We did a few dry runs (ha ha) yesterday, and are in total BIG BOY underpants today. As of lunch time today we haven't had any accidents.

He is very proud.


Here is his Big Boy Potty chart. He gets a Cars sticker every time he pees, and two stickers for #2. He tries to go #2 A LOT. HE WANTS THOSE STICKERS!


I'd like to say a special thank you to Disney / Pixar, and to whomever the marketing genius was who came up with this sticker book. That's right folks, OVER 700 STICKERS! (That's a lot of poop!)


Additionally, a shout out to the same person who probably came up with the Mater underpants. James' favorite. Here's a hint. Not every two year old wants an assortment of Cars characters in their underpants pak of 3. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE start making packs of JUST TOWMATER.



This post is sure to prove delightfully embarassing for James when I show it to his future fiance! Yes, I asked him to show me his butt and then say cheese. OMG. There is so much cuteness in this picture that I just CAN'T STAND IT!!!!!

Wish us luck this week! (And we are accepting any and all gifts of Cars stickers and Towmater underpants. Size 3T, please.)