thank you santa!

This is Claire hugging the package of ten Disney Princess lip glosses she got from Santa. "This is my favorite! I love it! I love it! I love it!", she exclaimed after opening this gift and pretty much every gift she got. However, in mysterious two year old fashion, she still insists Easter is her favorite holiday.

After some anxious moments on Christmas Eve (I did my best to be good, really I did. I did not mean to hit Claire, Mommy, I am REALLY telling the truth), Abby was thrilled to discover gifts from Santa on Christmas morning.

However, I think her proudest moment came when she got to hand out the gifts she had carefully selected and payed for all by herself at her school's holiday shoppe. For her, I think this was as exciting as opening her own mound o' presents.

It turns out Santa was pretty good to Mommy too. I got almost everything on my wish list, including two new camera lenses that I am having lots of fun playing with (the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens and the Nikon 18-200mm) and these awesome slippers that are not coming off of my feet until spring.

But at the end of the day, even the girls agreed that it was the house full of family, food and laughter that was the best gift of all.

Two days later, my carefully cleaned house looks like an American Girl/Disney Princess/Polly Pocket disaster zone and we have done nothing but eat leftovers, hang out in our pajamas, watch movies and work our way through the numerous half empty bottles of wine hanging around the house.

A perfect, perfect end to the holiday season.

Maybe we will make it out for New Years. If I still fit in my jeans, that is.

oh, the excitement

Three straight days of snow. Three days until Christmas. You could say my kids are just a bit excited these days.

Tomorrow the cooking and the cleaning begins.

Wednesday will feature Christmas Mass and some quiet time as a family.

Thursday will be a blur of Santa, presents, family, food, more presents and more family.

Wishing a very Merry Christmas to all!

helping wrap the presents

to abby on your fifth birthday

To Abby,

Today you are five years old. One whole hand.

We celebrated your birthday yesterday in a very adult fashion with a trip to the museum of science and dinner out.

Today, you celebrated with a party at school.

After school, as we ran a few errands the special treatment continued. A special sticker from the cashier at the post office and a dollar bill slipped into your hand by the man bagging our groceries when he learned it was your birthday.

"For many more" he told you with a smile.

Back home, you got to choose your favorite foods, your favorite games and blow out more candles. And we still have your actual party yet to come.

Your life is so blessed. So simple and so happy.

Even outside of your birthday, your days are a blur of activities and special treats. Oma dropping by with a little treat for you. Mommy taking you on a spur of the moment trip. A party. A simple trip to the library. An invitation from a friend to the movies.

Your face is often painted and your acquire more candy than you know what to do with. With wardrobe and scheduling manged for you, you bounce from one activity to the next without a care in the world.

School is all fun and games. Literally.

Your friendships are still simple and straight forward. You have friends and you like to play with them, but there is none of the drama, fighting and competitiveness that I see in groups of girls just a few years older than you. You just do not compare yourself to your peers in any meaningful way yet.

You are who you are, and you are one hundred percent happy with that. You are eager to learn and explore the world, which still holds so many surprises for you. The harsh realities of the adult world swirl around you, but none of it has any real impact on you yet.

You are a happy kid, and that makes me happier than words can say.

I know that as you head off to school next year things will begin to shift, but I hope that you will always be able to hold on to some of the simple happiness that is your life right now.

All my love,
Mommy

the art of photographing a two year old

Claire, can mommy take your picture?

Can you look at mommy?

Can you please stand over here?

Can you just stand still??

Claire, if you come stand over here and let me take a couple of pictures, you can have a Dora candy cane.

Bribery. It works.

the shoes

These are the shoes.

The shoes that the second child spotted on a toddler height rack at Marshals while the mother was looking for snow boots for the first child.

The mother looked at the shoes and noted that they were incredibly tacky and a size smaller than the second child's feet. She also noted the excitement in the child's eyes.

"Okay, sweetie, let's see if they fit"

And magically, just like Cinderella, they did.

"I love them! I love them! I love them!" the second child chanted as she bounced around the children's shoe section.

The mother would never have bought a pair of shoes like this for the first child as a toddler. The first child was always taken to Stride Rite where her feet where properly measured and sturdy, supportive shoes were selected.

The mother had certainly had her share of shoe fights in the past, but on this particular morning she decided it was worth spending $9.99 on a pair of cheap, tacky shoes that might not even fit next week.

The glittery pink princess shoes with bows stayed on the second child's feet. The smile on her face got bigger and her eyes sparkled as she bounced through the store.

When she darted off and hid behind the coats, the mother found her by looking for the sparkly pink shoes.

"You need to stay with Mommy or we are going to have to bring those shoes back," the mother warned.

The second child stayed right by the mother's side through the rest of the store. The mother even took a minute to look at the women's shoes. She did not really need anything and did not buy anything, but still it was nice to get a chance to look somewhere other than the children's section.

The shoes stayed firmly in place all day and were reluctantly removed only at bedtime. The mother looked at them carefully placed by the second child's bureau and decided that maybe they were kind of cute after all.

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

a two year old just being a two year old

Check out more Wordless Wednesday here and here.

the magic of the first snow

The first snow of the season. A magical, magical morning.

Here we have Claire exploring the white stuff in an array of quickly assembled hand-me-down snow gear.

Where is Abby? Um, well, she just happens to be in her room riping off her snow suit and screaming her head off due to technical difficulties with her socks and the fact that she had to wear rain boots because, terrible mother that I am, I have not bought new snow boots yet.

Ah, the joy.

And here we have Daddy and his girls proudly displaying our very first snowman of the year.

princess for a day

Five calendars, two photo books, seventy five Christmas cards (when exactly did my Christmas card list get so long?). Christmas parties, Christmas craft time, Christmas story time, a Christmas tree lighting.

The holiday season is in full swing here. And did I mention the baby is no longer napping? And my husband and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary? My blog reader and my DVR are overflowing.

But I did manage to squeeze in a spur of the moment day trip with the girls this week. Some of my best moments as a mother involve spontaneous little adventures, days when the weather and my energy and their moods are all just right. Monday was one of those days.

After days of rain, it was suddenly sunny and 60 degrees. 60 degrees! In December! In New England! So we were off to Newport see a fancy castle all decorated for Christmas, otherwise known as Marble House.

My two little princesses were totally and completely in awe.Their eyes lit up as soon as the house came into view. It had a gate, just like Cinderella's castle!! And a grand curving driveway, to drive up in your carriage!

Inside we found princess stairs.

"Oh, Claire, we have to walk up like princesses" Abby announced.

So up they went with skirts in hand and heads held high, just like real princesses.

Then it was on to the real princess bedroom. Abby just stood for several minutes, eyes as wide as saucers, taking in every detail. The the ornate Louis XIV furniture. The garlands, nymphs, and cherubs. The silk covered walls. Goddess Athena painted on the ceiling. I could see the wheels turning in her head, thinking of ways she could make her room more like this one, as she pointed out each of these details.

Next the girls ran and played on the beautiful lawn overlooking the ocean and explored the tea house where Alva Vanderbilt once hosted rallies for women's suffrage. They even allowed me to get a picture of them together, which will appearing on this years Christmas card.

Our day continued with a stop to admire the scenery at Brenton Point State Park, a shared pizza for dinner, a shared hot fudge sundae for dessert and a visit to my aunt's house in Jamestown.

A perfect day that ended with two exhausted girls sleeping soundly in the backseat of the car in their cozy pajamas.

let the christmas season begin

The malls of America may have decided that the Christmas season begins in August, but for this family it begins the day after Thanksgiving with the selection of a Christmas tree.

Excitement was high as we piled in the wagon, cranked up the Christmas tunes and headed to our local tree farm in search of that perfect tree.

Each tree was carefully evaluated for size, shape and prickliness (apparently prickliness is an important factor for 2 and 4 year olds).

Finally a rather cute, non-prickly tree was found and the family was forced to pose in front of it.

Then the tree was brutally cut down (sniff, sniff).

Then we had hot cider and candy canes (yay!).

Then it was back home to decorate our little tree.

This entailed the four year old lovingly hanging each ornament at a height of about four feet all the way around the tree while the two year old wandered off unsupervised and slammed her forehead into the coffee table.

Let the Christmas Season begin!