Christmas Day 2010

Our kids woke up a bit later than most kids on Christmas morning.  On the one hand, I really appreciated this because it gave me time to clean up the mess that the reindeer had left on the front stoop from their none-too-neat carrot eating.  On the other hand, we were saddened that this late awakening was because Hallie had been up coughing for most of the night.  This, plus the fact that Hallie was burning up with a fever, worries us that Christmas-New Years 2010/11 may turn out to be a little bit too much like Christmas-New Years 2009/10.  (Fortunately, regular breathing treatments and tylenol seem to be doing the trick so far.  We are monitoring her respiratory rate, [40 and above is worrisome; Hallie's been staying at about 33-34 breaths per minute] fever, and hydration and so far she's not getting any worse.)

Anyway, the onset of this crud meant that Hallie was a bit more subdued than she likely would have been, particularly given her excitement level of the days leading up to Christmas. 

But that did not stop her from exclaiming, "There are presents in my stocking!" when she saw the following sight:

 

And indeed there were, and lots and lots of presents under the tree, too.  And cookies that had been munched and chocolate milk that had been slurped, and carrots strewn around all outside our house.  There was also a lovely note from Santa on cute reindeer stationary that read as follows:

Dear Hallie  and Lea,

Merry Christmas! The elves and I had a great time this year getting ready for Christmas and we were probably as excited as you two were when the big day finally arrived.  I got Rudolph and his friends harnessed up for the ride and we were thrilled to dash across the sky and land at your house in Philadelphia.  We were so happy when we heard that you guys were going to celebrate Christmas at home with your mommy, your mama, your cat Zenny, and your grammy.   It’s wonderful that you were able to pick and decorate your very first live tree.

News travels fast to us at the North Pole and we were so happy to hear about all the great things the two of you have done this year.  Hallie:  You became such a big, independent girl, almost overnight.  You got potty trained, began drinking milk out of a cup, and learned how to write your own name and read lots and lots of new words.  You also turned into such a great older sister who is always looking out for little Lea.  And Lea: you became a toddler this year.  You learned how to walk, gave up the bottle, began talking really well, and can do lots of things for yourself.  You are a great sister for Hallie and a wonderful mommy to all of your sweet little dolls.  Your family and teachers are really proud of both of you.  Here at the North Pole we had no doubt that you guys were nice and deserved to get those cameras that you told me you wanted the other day.  We also left you a few other trinkets and sweets in your stockings to make your Christmas extra special.

And speaking of treats:  thank you SO MUCH for the cookies and milk.  How did you guys know that chocolate milk is my favorite?  And Rudolph and the other reindeer enjoyed munching on those carrots you left them.  They get awfully hungry pulling my sleigh and really needed that snack.  They apologize for the mess they made, though.  They were in an awful rush to eat them because we have a lot of houses to visit still tonight. 

And that reminds me that I must be off now too.  Have a very merry Christmas! 

Santa

Hallie and Lea were both thrilled to rip open Santa's special wrapping paper:

Both of them spent a lot of the rest of the day (and the day after and the day after that) taking pictures of anything and everything.  They were constantly telling me, Sharon, Grammy, and our cat Zen to say "cheese" and took lots of pictures of parts of our bodies, the floor, the ceiling, and their own limbs (knees and toes and not just fingers).  They also took pictures of some of their favorite playthings.  Here, Lea has posed her babies for a shot:

And we have some very good pictures of Kai Lan that have been uploaded to my computer:

Lea even tried to teach her babies to use the camera, too:

Speaking of babies, the girls got lots of new ones from their grammy and us.  Hallie got a Baby Alive who constantly exclaims "I'm hungry" and likes to eat bananas (and hence hardly resembles her new owner; fortunately Lea takes care of this baby much of the time).  And Lea got a baby who likes to coo who came with a very cute outfit but who, like all the other residents of our baby nursery, has been stripped down to her birthday suit by the girls.  Lea also received a baby for the bath and a special tub and all the relevant accompaniments.  She had a great time washing and cleaning her bath baby this afternoon.  Finally, the girls got a new cradle for their babies.  This has led to some interesting "games" of tug of war around here and we've surmised that, even though Hallie usually ignores her babies, now that Lea is so very interested in them, her own curiosity (or is it desire to remain the alpha kid?) has been piqued.  Suffice it to say that we will be working on the concept of sharing in the new year.

 

The kids also got a lot of ornaments.  Hallie's included were Lucy and Charlie Brown, Dora and Diego, and a Dr. Seuss Green Eggs and Ham ornament (this is currently one of Hallie's favorite books).  Lea stash included Linus and Snoopy, Cookie Monster and Elmo, and a dancing Snoopy and Woodstock ornament. We are glad to be able to keep up the tradition of getting them ornaments that will one day be hung with care on their very own trees.

In addition to all of this, Lea received a puzzle and Hallie received a dragon puppet from their good friend Eliza Grace.  Both girls really enjoyed playing with these gifts.

Sadly, we never made it over to the ICN at Pennsylvania Hospital with cookies and the girls as we had initially planned.  I could have run the cookies over before the big snow began but I suspect that the staff would have been disappointed if we had not had Hallie in tow.  But I also imagine that they would prefer that they, and especially their wee charges, be spared whatever crud is colonizing Hallie.  So we've revised the plans a bit and hope to get over there some time between now and the New Year.

We also have not gotten outside to play in the snow (this is not to be confused with getting outside to shovel the snow; I've had plenty of opportunity to do that).  One clear indication that Hallie is, so to speak, under the weather, is that she has not asked to go outside and build a snowman even once over the past 24 hours.  Another clear indication that something is amiss is that she is asking to go to bed quite early (even when dosed with albuterol not that long before bedtime).  Hopefully she'll improve soon and we'll at least be able to get out to see the snow if not actually play in it before it melts away by this weekend.  If not, I suspect there will be some more opportunities to do so this season.

I hope everyone out there who celebrates Christmas had a super holiday and that everyone is staying safe and warm.

We Believe!

Today is the big day and our kids have been gearing up for it for a very long time.  Just one short year ago, I wrote this post about our concern that Hallie wasn't yet able to understand the wonder and joy of Christmas.  What a difference a year (lots of social maturity, and a whole bunch of very good therapy) make(s)!  This year, Hallie has been infused with the holiday spirit pretty much since Thanksgiving.   Both kids were thrilled to light the menorah every night for Hanukkah (and collect their presents and eat their chocolate coins) and sat around singing the songs they learned in school (Hallie even corrected my made-up lyrics to "Oh Hanukkah!" and was amazed at how badly I knew the song).  And Lea was and is all about wishing everyone around her a "Happy Hanukkah"!  Hallie still refuses to try potato latkes (explaining to her that these are a close, rounder and flatter cousin to her beloved french fries does not really help) but I suppose there's always next year.  After all, Hanukkah is all about miracles involving oil, so I don't see why we can't hold out for Hallie to eat a potato pancake bathed in olive oil.

Just as Hanukkah drew to a close, Sharon and I procured our very first live tree.  Even though we did not quite make it to the Christmas tree farm to which we envisioned traveling, I think heading down to the guys who sell trees at the corner of our block is nearly as good.  It also spared us shivering in the cold while weighing the architectural merits of one six-footer versus another and the harrowing drive back (likely an hour and a half) with a tree strapped to the roof of our SUV.  The girls did not seem to mind missing out on either of these experiences.

Hallie was a bit upset, though, when Sharon dragged the tree through our front door.  She lay on the couch pouting and when Sharon asked her what was wrong, she replied, "I'm upset mama!  Our tree has no lights!"  Apparently she thought we'd gotten the cheaper, less flashy model, and that simply would not do.  No worries:  we had taken care of that problem in advance and had procured some colored LEDs at Target and the tree was winking and shining in no time. 

The kids were even more ecstatic the following week when we decorated the tree with ornaments.  Our collection, which includes many ornaments that passed down to Sharon from her family, has a nice over-representation of preschool-friendly characters like Mickey and Minnie Mouse.  Hallie kept exclaiming things like, "Look, there's Mickey and Pluto!" and "I see a Nutcracker!" (they 'study' the ballet, The Nutcracker, at preschool each year, so Hallie is familiar with the music and the characters).  Both kids wanted to help hang the ornaments on the tree and our biggest challenge was slowing them down, not keeping their interest.

Apparently, the kids have been discussing their trees at school.  According to one report (we have a lot of spies...er, therapists...at school), Hallie went over to her friends and said, with feeling, "My tree is THIS tall" (as she demonstrated by getting up on her tip toes and reaching for the sky).  "And it has Rudolph on top!" 

Rudolph is an odd choice for a tree topper, but Hallie said this with such resolve that our spy (Miss Anne) was tempted to believe her.  And, indeed, Rudolph's existence as a tree topper can be confirmed:

Anyway, over the past week, the anticipation in this house has been tremendous.  First, there was ChristmaHannuKwanzika, which we celebrated last Sunday with the cousins who are off to Disney World tomorrow.  Then there was Wednesday night's Holiday Concert and Pot Luck at the YCCA Preschool.  The kids had been practicing all of their holiday songs at home for that event, which went swimmingly.  I hope to add pictures and description of both later on in a separate post.

But then, yesterday, after we picked up the kids from school for the last time this year,  we decided to get the girls back into their holiday dresses and head off to Macy's to visit Dicken's Village and Santa Land.   

The kids thought the life-sized rendition of the Dickens story (which was written in 1843.  The village has been put up each year since 1985 in Center City Philadelphia) was pretty cool, even if a bit scary (it's peopled by ethereal ghosts of Christmas past, present and future and these ghosts, and the graveyards where they shake their chains and such, are pretty realistic seeming in a haunted house sort of way). 

But the lines were long and we forgot to bring snacks, so Lea was a bit cranky by the time she got to Santa's lap.  Hallie, however, was excited to see the big guy and jumped up and down.  She also happily told him that she'd been a good girl and that she wanted him to bring her a pink camera.  He said he'd see what he could do about that.

Of course, the picture we took still has that old reindeer-caught-in-the-headlights quality to it:

Maybe one year we'll get both of them smiling.  At least they were fine getting up on Santa's lap and both of them were looking at the camera.

Hallie has taken this Santa thing very seriously.  For the past three weeks or so, all I have needed to do is warn her that Santa is watching over her like a hawk right now and is checking his list twice.  So if she wants that camera...  It's worked like a charm.  I am not sure what happens tomorrow, though!  I am sure that I am in good company on that one...

Today was a very low-key sort of day.  The kids were thrilled to see their grammy, who came to town this afternoon, to mark the official opening of Christmas Celebration 2010. 

We broke open the Gingerbread House kit for the occasion.  Hallie, who has been enthralled with the Hansel and Gretel story of late (though, as in most Hallie-authored rewrites of fairy tales, the witch turns out to be friend, not threat).  And one of the parents at school had put together kits for all of the pre-k kids (like Hallie) to make their own mini gingerbread houses, so she'd actually had a bit of practice in building such structures already.

At first things went pretty well for Sharon, who, as a Registered Architect, was put in charge of the project:

 The kids watched the process and sampled the candy.  Hallie announced that she was very hungry and proceeded to eat most of the bowl of Ghiradelli's Chocolate Chips that you see below:

But you'll note Lea's worried look in this next shot.  She knew that the roof did not meet code:

Even this was a Design-Build project, you'll note that our finished product looks nothing like the one on the front of the box.  Our architect assures us that it is not her fault:

This activity was followed up by much watching of Frosty the Snowman and a snack buffet for dinner.  Then it was time for bed.  But not quite.  First the girls needed their Christmas Eve present from us--new Christmas jammies. 

Hallie was overjoyed to open her Frosty jammies wrapped in a Frosty box covered with Frosty paper.

Lea, taking her cues from her big sister, got into the paper-wrapping spirit too.

(Aside: Note Lea's amazing hair in this shot.  We have scheduled her first haircut, which will take place on Tuesday, none too soon:

Once the kids were in their new jammies, we all ran outside to sprinkle the magic reindeer food that Hallie's teachers had sent home with her this year.  Hallie was thrilled to do this, because the sparkles would help guide Rudolph's nose to our house:

And then it was off to bed right away.  I have never seen Hallie move upstairs to bed quite so quickly as she did tonight.  And she began to heavy breathe right away--not because she was anxious (or at least we think this wasn't the reason) but because she was trying to will herself to go to sleep immediately.  She had confirmed with Sharon that she needed to be asleep for Santa to come and that Christmas would have to wait until morning.  (We had added this last proviso because, after all, this warning seemed prudent). 

And so it was.  The stockings were hung by the bookcase with care in the hopes that Old Saint Nick would be there:

Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday, Fabulous Festivus to all, and to all a Good Night!

Christmas and Beyond: A VERY Belated Post

As Sharon just helpfully pointed out, I never did manage to do the Christmas post. I have also not managed to post much of anything else. The heart is willing, but the blogging hands are tired is all I have to say. Things have been nutty around here lately: we are currently experiencing a rare moment (that I am no doubt jinxing as I type this) when both kids are well, but between Thanksgiving through the end of the first week of the New Year, one or the other kid was sick, and quite dramatically so. Then they both recovered but Nadia, our mother's helper/nanny, contracted pneumonia (unrelated to Hallie's; she came back to work on Monday already showing symptoms of distress) and she's been out of work most of the week. So I've been doing pretty much all of the daytime childcare AND trying to prepare to start teaching full time again in a couple of days. Needless to say, blogging has suffered.

So, in the spirit of trying to catch up before the proverbial crap hits the fan, here goes:

Christmas:

We have crappy pictures that do not do justice to how much fun the kids, and especially Hallie, had at Aunt Laura's on Christmas eve (sadly, Santa neglected to leave us a D-SLR under the tree; we are trying hard not to believe we were on the naughty list). Both of the girls were thrilled to see their cousins and things got even more fun after Hallie cracked open a Christmas cracker and found a very small ball inside. She located a cardboard tube from some wrapping paper and initiated a game of 'blow the ball through the tube' with Hannah. What's notable here is that it was Hallie who came up with the idea for this game.

As usual, Hannah was thrilled to play with Hallie. She is a great older cousin and Hallie has benefited so much from being around her quite a bit this year.

Lea had a lot of fun, too. She spent a considerable amount of time at the chalkboard practicing her writing skills:

Now, while she did not in fact write the names on the board, she is really interested in writing/drawing because she sees Hallie doing it so often. She can smell a crayon a mile away and she has successfully drawn a few scribbles on our easel at home. She also enjoys biting off and swallowing the tips of crayons, so we tend to keep her away from them as much as possible.

We ended our Christmas eve soiree by going outside and scattering reindeer food for Rudolph & co. As you can see, we still had a whole lot of snow left over from the two-foot snowfall of the previous weekend. I find it much easier to believe that Santa comes flying in on his reindeer-driven sled when there is some snow to cushion the landing. And, since Sharon had been tracking Santa's progress via an app downloaded on her iPhone, we knew that the big guy was getting near and that it was time to get the kids in bed.

By the time we got back to Grammy's that night, Hallie was thoroughly exhausted. Perhaps she was coming down from a slight sugar high (her Christmas eve dinner consisted of two two-bite brownies; what they lack in nutrition, they make up for in calories). She opened her Christmas jammies, put them on, hit the bed, and crashed for the night.

As is typical, Lea completely came into her own just as Hallie was going down for the night. (This has become a source of great distress to me, by the way, since it bodes poorly for me getting my work done in the evening after Hallie goes to bed).

The first project that Lea undertook was stealing (and eating) Santa's cookies:

Then she moved on to Grammy's dish of Peppermint Patties. She found the shiny silver paper very alluring and the minty chocolate contents even more:

The kids slept in, but we finally shook them out of bed around 10:00am. Hallie clearly had no idea that Santa, Mommy and Mama, and Grammy had left a huge number of presents under the tree for her and Lea. It took a bit of time for us to manufacture the requisite excitement of opening presents on Christmas morning, but by the time Hallie was done, we think she got it. She certainly was into the presents -- which is not at all surprising and, for several weeks running, would regularly ask to open more presents from Santa. This, of course, was reinforced by the fact that we saw lots of good friends and family after Christmas was over and exchanged gifts with them then. I think that by the time New Years Day came around, Hallie was pretty convinced that every day is Christmas.

Anyway, I digress. The big ticket item that Santa got Hallie was a red guitar.

By evening Hallie was strumming away at it quite naturally. We've downloaded an iPhone app to help us tune it but we've yet to find an app that will prevent Hallie from turning the keys and loosening the strings again.

Hallie especially enjoys playing along with the Wiggles and Muno (from Yo Gabba Gabba). Lea's gotten in on the act, too. While the little red guitar is way too big for Lea (which of course does not stop her from cruising over to the guitar stand and plucking at the strings and occasionally threatening to drag the whole thing down on top of herself), she has taken to putting the guitar strap over her head (yes we watch her carefully when she does this, and the strap has a 'breakaway' feature) and playing the toy electric guitar that we inherited from brother Jake. She is so cute and so smart and reminds us a lot of Hallie in a very, very good way.

Of course, Lea got her own musical gift from Santa. Here she is unwrapping her Bee Bop Baby Band set:

She enjoyed the band set, but her real thrill came when she emptied her stocking. Here she is sampling her binkies:

In this next shot, Hallie is posing with her favorite gift of the day, which Grammy got her:

This remains her favorite and, today, several weeks after Christmas, Hallie took a bath with the Wonder Pets figures (we think she is partial to Ming Ming) and had them floating in a makeshift flyboat.

Grammy let Santa know what she was getting Hallie, so he also brought her a Super Hallie cape so that she could be just like her heroes. Unfortunately, the tight velcro around the neck bothers her, so we need to fashion a device to make it a bit looser for her. I think that one of the new mitten clips that we bought would work just fine. (Several times now Hallie has helpfully informed me, when I have inquired about the whereabouts of one of her mittens or gloves, that she 'put it on the floor' -- meaning that she had thrown yet another mitten onto the sidewalk during one of our walks. Even at three dollars a pair on sale at the Children's Place, all of these lost mittens have begun to add up so I've diverted our resources toward the purchase of super cute mitten clips from Etsy; one of them can be repurposed for our little super hero's comfort).

After we finished unwrapping our gifts and had time to test all of them out, Aunt Laura and Uncle Bryan and the extended family brought over Christmas dinner. The kids had a blast playing together and Hallie was very much part of the mix. Here, Hallie is playing with her cousins Hannah and Adam and their cousin, Quinn. The three older kids got Nintendo DS's for Christmas and Hannah shared hers with Hallie after Hallie asked for a turn. Hallie loved being part of the older kids' games.

She also really enjoyed pretending to be one of the five little monkey jumping on the bed and alternatively rough housing and cuddling with her cousin. Hannah makes Hallie very happy and I know that the feeling is quite mutual:

Lea also enjoyed playing with her cousins in her own Lea-like way. Here she is running her hands through Adam's hair (which is super thick). Adam was great because he also tolerated lots of face-patting (and slapping) and hair pulling from his littlest cousin.

We left Grammy's exhausted and in good spirits. The next day, more fun was in store because we had Boxing Day plans with Anne, Eliza Grace, and her Nana. Hallie was super excited when we pulled up at Nana's condominium complex. She knew exactly where we were (she has a phenomenal memory and sense of direction; perhaps she can get us out of all of those jams where we get lost and circle round and round when she gets a bit older). And she was thrilled to be there.

Here's a lovely shot of Anne with Hallie and Eliza:

We hung out all day, exchanged gifts, played hard, ate a couple of meals together and generally enjoyed the company of good friends. We love it that we manage to get Hallie and Eliza together pretty regularly and wish only that we all lived even closer to one another.

The girls ended the day with a nice bath and had a brilliant time splashing around in the tub and playing with Eliza's excellent array of tub toys:

After her bath, though, Hallie's face got very flushed--which is always a sign of a fever--and I became a bit worried. She seemed a tiny bit warm, but the condo was very hot (we had the oven on to cook dinner), and we attributed her slightly more subdued nature to lots of play and no nap. Hallie kept wanting to pretend to take a nap in Eliza's bed, and I suspect that she really did want to sleep, but there was too much going on to really settle down.

That was the evening that Hallie came down with pneumonia. Thankfully that's a thing of the past...at least where Hallie is concerned. Now let's keep our fingers crossed that Nadia (our nanny) recovers in time to take over for me when I need to return to work on Tuesday...

Stay tuned for more (and hopefully shorter and less delayed) developments in the life of our little family during the month of January....