Goin Bananas

My mom said its gross posting a picture of poor Goldie on here. Well... it's a fish. We eat sushi all the time. Is that gross? We go to funeral viewings. Is that gross? I'm giving Goldie his proper, respectful viewing. RIP. Sydney was pretty sad. I'm pretty grossed out by "dead fish water" and still haven't touched the tank. Need to do something about that.

Her ears!!! So cute.

Sydney thought she might feed him and bring him back to life. It was so sad.

But a few minutes later she was snuggling Kelli on the floor.

It's still "the holidays" and alot of schools and establishments are closed & friends out of town so I took Sydney to "Bananas" to run off some energy.

Kelli played in the baby area and stood up without assistance for the longest time to date. I didn't actually time it, but it was a minute or more. I was amazed.

We got home and Daddy requested baby smoochers for a break. Then Sydney requested Julia to come over and play.

Where are they???

There they are!

Post Christmasness

I don't know what I'm going to do with this playroom anymore. I organized it about 6 months ago, and it's already getting stuffed again. This, I dont understand, because we do not buy toys except birthdays & Christmas? Maybe it just suddenly feels swamped in there because we included another child in there (so baby stuff) plus Sydney had her birthday & Christmas back-to-back. The easle, play house, train table and art table and kitchen have all been in there for 2 years. Why do I feel like its SO much more crowded? I need an answer team.

This little white box here has three drawers in it. One for stamps & colored pencils, one for stickers and one for cards & envelopes and card stock. She LOVES making cards & pictures so I created a little card-making craft "area" on her table for her. There is no stopping her now. The roses? Oh... she needed a "centerpiece". I just have no clue where she gets some of this.

Kelli will be a year old in about 5 months, and we'll start learning how to pick up after ourself. Let's re-phrase. Kelli WILL be a neat child. Now that she is mobile... I walk by this all the time.

See how neat her big sister is? I'm very proud of this. The most I do for Sydney is make her bed in the morning. Sydney is a very tidy little girl. (beaming with pride over here!!!!)

Nowhere to put her new fisher price castle... (absolutely not going on the floor where little pieces can be picked up by Kelli)... so she plays it in the bathroom!!! Which is okay... it has good lighting and she can do her hair at the same time.

Look who I found trying to pull herself up into the toy chest.

I'm sad that in a few days I'll have to take all this down. It's such a downer after Christmas! It's like you're living on a big high for a month (for me... two months) and then all the air is let out of your balloon in one day. ppppphhhhtttttt. I had a good Christmas though! Santa loves me. I got new hardwood floors, some pretty jewelry, Anne Taylor & J Jill, photo frame (I almost spelled frame "phrame"... I need more coffee), and lots of yummy smelly stuff and a CUTE apron! The kids got what they asked for and yes, Santa brought Andy that awkward VT garden gnome he wanted, and everything else VT (pens, coffee mugs, cuff links, tailgate chairs etc), and some gadgets Sling Media Slingbox PRO-HD SB300-100 (whatever that is but Santa got it for him and he's spent 3 days rearranging and rerouting our wireless in our house, so I assume he likes it? or not? I dont know. I hope so!)

This is the best. I completely LOVE hearing Kelli wake up from her nap. No crying. Just little jibber-jabbering from her room as she talks to the walls, cielling and her toys. I walk in and see little eyeballs staring through her crib bars.

Then a big smile. Which is usually bigger, and usually she squeals and rolls over in excitement or tries to pull herself up on the bars... but this time Mommy brought the camera with her, which is interesting, so she's a little curious.

Oooooooh what's Daddy doing??? (Mommy thinks that is SEXY!! If she were not so sick... well...)

Again, very curious about the camera.

tooling around with the camera again. I wasn't feeling well yesterday and needed to kill some time as I couldnt run errands or do anything too physical. Dang stomach bug.

Sydney was happy to pose for a few photos since I showed her how we can do neat tricks on the camera. She thought it was cool.

I caught a cute moment here. She sat down in front of Kelli and called to her, and so Kelli got up and crawled right into her lap and buried her head into her and snuggled up and squealed. it was SO cute. But then a minute later Sydney "defended" her My Little Ponies against her big, mean, bully sister and was sent straight to her room, and had her Achoo Baby Doll taken away for a week. Yes, we understand sibling rivalry will ocurr. We know there will be some fights or jealousy or maybe ABUSE. Haha!! However, I just need to put the brakes on this NOW. It's only happened twice in 7 months and those two incidences happened in these past 2 days, which I'm sure have something to do with the fact that Sydney just got her two favorite toys on earth (and is already possessive of her things) and Kelli is alot more mobile (crawling, sitting, pulling up... & even beginning to walk a little assisted God help me). So those two things, I'm afraid, may be leading to a little gap between the girls like "oh no... now my cute baby sister gets into things and PLAYS and wants my stuff, time to draw boundaries" and being bossy as she is, Sydney doesn't properly understand how to apply the boundaries she wants. So I guess we need to work on this before it gets out of hand. I cannot expect Sydney to share EVERYTHING she owns, so I'll let her pick 5 things she does not have to share with Kelli, and if Kelli wants to play with it or something, then we'll work out a plan to address it without pushing or shoving. Oy!

Merry Christmas!

All snug in their beds...

Not a creature is stirring...

(notice how you can see the floor this year? you couldn't last year. we completely held back in a huge way but they still got spoiled)

Sydney apparently heard "the sleigh bells on the roof and didn't want Santa to see her" so she hid under the covers. Andy nor I jingled the bells, so we know it was ALL in her imagination. HOW CUTE! I remember when I was 5 my mom let me sleep on the couch & I SWORE I woke up and saw Santa packing our tree in the middle of the night. I can STILL remember this vividly. I'm not lying! It is SUCH a vivid memory I can remember the red suit, him bending over and putting presents under the tree and everything.... but neither of my parents had a suit or dressed up as him. This was all in my imagination, and total proof of what the excitement of this holiday can do to a child's mind!

Completely enamored by one of her stocking stuffers.

Okay. here we go. A smile. Thank you!

We have to get Kelli in this picture too! Sydney is back to her silly putty splat thing again.

Kelli had no idea what this was or what she was supposed to do once I put her on it. She did hang on to the handle bars and I bounced her. But I think she giggled and smiled more because Andy & I got excited. She was more excited about opening her stocking which had new binkies in it.

Nerd fight. (no. she's never seen the movie. but she did want these once she saw them in the catalog. I am unsure which of these two are more excited about this gift. )

A piano for Kelli. She loves the piano! She has a few piano-like toys now.

FUNNY STORY!!! (1) note: this is a gift from Andy's mom (2) If Susan is reading this, please do not take offense, but just laugh! (3) okay. first of all this is basically a beach blanket. XXXL ...not the brand. the SIZE!! HAHA!!! and (4) #7... that was Michael Vick's old jersey number back in the day. You know. Michael Vick... the quarterback from VT that went on to murder dogs in pitbull fighting, got caught and went to jail? That Michael Vick. (5) So whoever the guy is at the sports store our dear mother went to and asked "do you have any VT stuff?" that sold her THIS jersey needs to morality check. He told her infact he had ONE last VT item in the back he "wanted to get rid of", and KNOWING she probably had no clue about the size or who #7 was, SOLD IT TO HER... and there isnt a SOUL on earth who would have paid $35 for that!!!!! Hilarious. But not.

This was a mom & dad gift. I had to get her one awesome thing so that Santa wasn't the ONLY cool person on Christmas day. We needed some credit.

I cannot wait to look at boogers under the microscope with her! weeeee!!! (such a bad influence)

Towards the end...."I got achoo baby!!!! Santa brought me it!" (whew!)

After all the gifts were opened she realized he hadnt brought her "handy mandy" tool shop. She was a little upset but then we pointed out (in tru Christmas Story fashion) that we see ONE MORE package in the corner in daddy's office. YAY!!!

This has been very MERRY so far!

First order of business.... following Daddy around the house and asking him to put together her princess castle.

Then her Handy Mandy tool shop....

And to play with her....(and fix her achoo baby doll)

Then we were hussling over to Mom & Dad's to open presents/have breakfast by 10:45 at least because Erik & Carrie had to get to her family's by 1pm. (and I was cooking breakfast)....

Sydney nominated herself as Santa & handed out stockings & gifts.

Everyone got a loud "HO! HO! HO!" each time they opened something. She played her role well.

Sydney & Kelli actually had matching dresses but I didn't get ONE picture dangit!!!!!! Kelli loved the comotion.

Sometimes I really love being around family alot because that means I get free hands!

Jenny's famous spice drink she makes (cranberry & peppermint I think) and my quiches.

This didn't look right. She is SO little. And short. But she really did begin taking steps (assisted) properly; bending her knees and walking with feet firmly planted on the ground. SHE did the walking as we held her steady, it was amazing because she was truly projecting herself. This doesn't seem 'right' for her because she's only 6mo and SO LITTLE and short. It looked funny. And I have done NOTHING to promote this whatsoever. I am selfish and would rather she remain immobile as long as possible.

Chris is SOOOO patient with Sydney. What uncle sits & plays DOLLS with a 4yo? Or tea party? or browses princess websites?

After the morning festivities at Mom & Dad's, we went back to our house and Sydney was excited to show off her Santa goodies for Wendy, Chris & Doug. They painted some more cookies.

Whipped out the microscope (but Wendy - the germaphobe- was not having the booger inspection so she had Sydney get WATER)

Kelli was feelin' the Christmas spirit after her nap!

Then I left my camera at home when we went back to Mom & Dad's for dinner and am missing SO many great pictures from our dinner, and game time. booo. But Merry Christmas everyone! We had a blessed year!