Merry Christmas....

...from one slightly shell-shocked little elf...



...and one that can't wait to do it all again next year! (She's laughing and smiling in this picture, not grimacing as you may have guessed!)

These Are The Cheeks I Love

...even if they do have food all over them!



Having a laugh...



And a chew...

They Grow Up So Fast

One day we're cheering her as she rolls over for the first time. And then, in the blink of an eye she's drinking lattes....



.....and WALKING!
No pictures of that (yet) as she's in that precarious "step, step, splat" phase. But they are coming!
Unlike adults, kids remember how to have fun at the mall 5 days before Christmas....

Saved by the You Tube

We're not big fans of TV for our kids. Liam is familiar with a few characters but while other kids are besties with Dora and Diego, Liam is more acquainted with "The Map." And that is all because of You Tube. Seriously, You Tube is the only way we get stuff done anymore. Putting away laundry? Throw some diggers on the screen. Trying to distract a toddler high on candy canes? Let's watch that cucumber that sings about his lips! But I have to share with you the best one of all....I challenge you to watch all 4 minutes of it and see if you don't start groovin' along. And if you can't spare the 4 minutes then at least skip to the 2 minute mark for the spoken word portion. It is powerful.
I bring you...Excavator.....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXhhXXsxSfE&NR=1

"Do you think they're in bed, or are they making us waffles?"

This was Matt's musing at NINE O'CLOCK this morning when both kids were still silent. Look out your windows, folks...there are PIGS flying out there!
So what were we to do with the energy from all this extra sleep? Why, go snowshoeing of course!
Two points about this next picture of Sarah. The obvious one...her tongue looks a bit strange. That second tooth is driving her crazy and she just can't leave it alone. This is a look we've seen a lot of in the last few days. And somewhat less obvious...she is wearing 4 hats in this picture. Yep, 4. It was cold out there!



She's back to cute in this picture...hat count is still at 4.



Liam only has two hats, but we were unaware of the issues they were obviously causing him here!

"I didn't say 'poop' at Santa!"

By now we all know that 'poop' is Liam's favorite word. He loves everything about it: the way the word sounds, the shock factor, the general stinkiness and forbidden-ness of it all. But a few weeks ago we unleashed our secret weapon on poop: Santa. Whenever Liam would start a verbal barrage of "poops" we would remind him that Santa doesn't like poop talk. Gradually we heard less and less of the word, and I just figured the novelty had worn off. Then came our visit to Santa....
We waited in line with the kids for an hour. We ate dinner in line. We danced. We (Liam) balanced and walked on the little ledge that clearly read "do not stand or lean on ledge"....Sarah and I wandered into the jewelery store to look at sparkles and it became very clear she's a girl with a penchant for bling! But finally it was our turn. We really weren't sure how this was going to go and after the Meet and Greet with Santa Fiasco of 2008, we had low expectations. But Liam walked himself right over to Santa, got up on his knee and said ever-so-clearly "I want a garbage truck. A BIG ONE!" We missed the 'please' on that one, but I was pretty impressed with his boldness and kind of relieved he didn't throw us a curveball and say "I want a zhu zhu pet!" so I let it go. Santa said he'd check at the North Pole and see if he could find a garbage truck. Thanks for asking what colour, Santa. We appreciate that you clarified that Liam would like a RED garbage truck.....
Anyways, that was such a huge success that it didn't really matter that Sarah was on the verge of a meltdown (it was past 7pm after all) and we knew it would be impossible to pry her from my arms over to some jingly guy with loads of facial hair. So we all got to have a little visit with the man of the hour, who bumped his status up another notch by offering Liam the most delicious candy cane ever flown in from the North Pole.
So back to the 'poop' thing....
With Sarah reasonably content in her stroller and Liam busy getting a layer of candy cane stickiness all over himself, we had a brief shopping opportunity. And this is when Liam announced to an unsuspecting sales clerk "I didn't say 'poop' at Santa!" Who knew? He had been coaching himself for weeks not to say The Word because Santa doesn't like it. I just bet he had a little mantra going through his head the whole time we were waiting: "Do not say poop, do not say poop, do not say poop....."
Well done, Liam! I'm sure Santa is as proud of you as we are.

I didn't feel like grocery shopping today either.....

I'll admit it was a little embarrassing to roll my rocket ship grocery cart around the aisles like this.....I was definitely getting some "what is she doing to that baby?" looks. What? Am I the first person determined to check off all items on the list, even if my co-pilot(s) have other intentions? Anyways, we definitely made our presence known at the store, and I was about to snap at the next person who said "oh, poor baby, I think she's tired...." (duh), when a lady stopped me to say she had heard Sarah crying from a few rows over. I was about to answer with something snarky when she started tearing up. Turns out this lady's daughter is pregnant and was due with her first baby - a girl - this past Monday and is living far away. She knows her granddaughter may be born at any time and when she heard Sarah crying she just had "a feeling" that somewhere far away.....So there we were: two random, grocery shopping strangers getting all misty-eyed over screaming babies in the cracker aisle. Seems kind of appropriate!
But Sarah and I are not the only ones shedding a few tears these days.
I have personally verified all the rumors I heard about the Terrible Twos. I was naiive enough to think that Liam's relatively gentle disposition would have us sailing through this tantrum business. I have never been so wrong.....
This morning we had to diffuse a particularly difficult tantrum revolving around cinnamon toast. Little did Liam know, I made the mistake of throwing what was left of said cinnamon toast (not much) in the garbage during this extended scream-fest. We were already late for playschool and I thought it was best to get a change of scenery. I finally had one shoe on his foot and thought the issue was resolved when he asked for the "little pieces" of toast. Uh oh.....I had to fess up which caused him to immediately fling himself backwards onto the ground kicking and screaming, which knocked over Mojo who in turn toppled Sarah. The moment of silence was broken and I had a screaming toddler, whimpering dog and crying, hurt baby all in less than a second. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and so I ended up doing a bit of both.....
Yeah. So how is your day going?

Yes, Please!

Who could say no to Matt's waffles?

Teething, Tantrums and the Terrible Twos

We're still here, but with all of the above and Liam's recent naptime rebellion the ol' blog has taken a hit! Here is a mini-update and a few pics to help fill the gap:

BIG NEWS: Sarah finally cut her second tooth! I think it was 4 months behind the first, but she now has "teeth" not "tooth".
Sarah is also on the verge of walking. She stands up without holding onto anything, which is kind of amazing to watch. She has also (for the most part) toned down the separation anxiety which is a huge relief to everyone...but especially me! She's a sweetheart but my left arm is thankful for the break!


Liam, on the other hand, has hit a bit of a rough patch. No naps, waking early, lots of screaming (understatement alert!) and general crankiness. With two conservative, ultra rule-abiding (okay that's just me) first-born parents, he's probably the only kid in playschool that can say the words "consequences" and "disrespectful"! The phrase "Because I'm your mother and I said so" is so very close to coming out of my mouth. So very close.

But all that aside, these are 2 amazing kids that keep us laughing every day. Especially when they look like this....

Duet

Enjoy, and marvel at the attention span of a 2 1/2 year old....or lack thereof!

*** Sorry, forgot you can't rotate video on here!

A Remembrance Day to Remember

A little evening ritual has been developing around here this past week. Each night after Sarah goes to bed Matt turns on the Christmas music, I make some hot chocolate and Liam dumps fistfuls of marshmallows into the mugs. We drink our hot chocolate in the living room which is part of the thrill for Liam who hears the words "only in the kitchen" every other time he is handed a drink. And Liam is determined to prove himself worthy of this honor. He sits across from us in his (towel covered) chair wearing only his big boy undies on the bottom.*** He takes very careful sips, politely asking for a spoon when the marshmallows get stuck. He sits so still, does a little singing, talks about his day and musters all the grown-up-ness a 2-year old can handle.
Then on Remembrance Day - our second puddle-laden day of potty training - Liam piped up during hot chocolate time that he needed to pee. We moved that party into the bathroom at lightning speed and....
.....success! High fives, cheering and extra marshmallows all around. But Liam was so charged up he wasn't going to stop there. What seemed like hours (and one banana) later....


.....POOP! In the potty! I know you're wondering if I took a picture of it. You bet your Pull-Ups I did. And Matt did warn me that I may be crossing a line, so for that reason I will spare you the visual here. But it was a huge moment for Liam, one that I am happy to report has been repeated very consistently for nearly a week now! This is one of those growing-up milestones that does not make me weepy...I'm already plotting my strategy to get Sarah on board with the program. Diapers, be gone!

*** A cute side-note: the first day we put Liam in underwear he proudly strutted into Sarah's room as she was waking from her morning nap. He climbed up on her crib and announced "I got undies, Sarah!"

Decking The Halls

With a major rain and windstorm on the horizon we decided Saturday was the perfect day to string up some outdoor Christmas lights. We're festive people - that's just how we roll.
Matt hauled out all the boxes of lights and put his little elves to work in the "test environment."

Pin the Tail on the Reindeer....


Liam's latest ambitions are to be a "leaf blower man" or a "garbage truck" so he combined the tasks and busied himself with collecting leaves and stuffing them down the drain.



Sarah didn't have to do much but look cute, and I think she pulled it off....




The kids and I bailed on the project shortly after Matt's balancing-on-the-recycling-bin trick. We tried to lure him into the warm house with a cup of hot chocolate...with a staggering mini-marshmallow to cocoa ratio! 'Cause that's how Liam rolls!

Look Who's Skating!

As soon as Matt felt human in our time zone it was time to cash in on a promise: a trip to the ice rink!


Intermission....

Matt made some snow for the "Zamboni"....



Back to the game!

Sort of....


Adoring fans...


I wonder what's harder on the back: a 12 hour trans-continental flight, or a couple laps around the rink like this?:


Waving to the real Zamboni (the highlight of any trip to the rink)....


And why the Zamboni driver that offered to take our picture should keep his day job. ;)

Classic Sarah

I'm a little bit giddy as I type this.....even though she missed her morning nap Sarah was in a good mood this afternoon! Let me rephrase that. Sarah was in a good mood this afternoon even though she was not in my arms the entire time. It was brief, but I did manage to snap a few pictures of those sweet little faces she makes. Just in case the stars don't align that way again for a while I will have something to remember this by!
Liam was trying to "help" Sarah put on her hat:



Which inspired me to pull out the Santa hat (yes, our house is decorated)....

And...looks like that's a wrap.....

Always Be Daddy

When Liam woke up from his nap this afternoon he made a confession to us all: "Liam grumpy today." This was not news. He had been pretty miserable from the get-go and even music class could not coax him out from under his little black cloud. He didn't want to sing. He didn't want to dance. He didn't even want to do the Grand Old Duke of York thing, which is usually a guaranteed grump-buster. By the time we sang the goodbye song he joined in, but with his own spin on the lyrics. Here's how it is supposed to go:

May there always be Sunshine
May there always be Blue Skies
May there always be Music
May there always be Me

Then we go around the room and sing "May there always be insert each kids' name here". And each time, Liam would sing along with "Always Be Daddy." Liam has had enough of China. Good news is Matt is on the last leg of a whirlwind 3-city tour, and we on the home front have not yet scared his parents away! In fact, they still have a few tricks up their sleeves that should keep Liam distracted for the next few days. I heard some whispering about The Bundle and I think they've been keeping this one in their back pockets for the home stretch. (The Bundle refers to Liam being carried around in a blanket, kind of like a hammock. He hasn't been able to get enough of this in previous visits, but I'm quite sure there is some relief that he hasn't brought it up yet this week!)
In other news, I did promise a picture of Sarah today, and here it is. She was very entertained by a Skype conversation with Daddy. Here's what it looked like on Matt's end....


....and here she is trying to grab his nose, just like she does in real life!

Time to Lay Off the Hallowe'en Candy?

This is Liam first thing in the morning. I walked in his room and he was stripped down to nothing and greeting me with this face. That definitely sets a tone for the day!





Yes, he's a little intense.
I know there has been an absence of Sarah photos recently....there is a good reason for that. The girl's mood meter is set to Perma-Crank! I'll get a picture of her tomorrow, tears or smiles....