Wordless Wednesday: The Little Sis’s first game of Candyland

Wordless Wednesday: Monkey see, monkey do

Your firstborn always holds a very special place in your heart. She’s the one who initiates you into parenthood, giving you a nonstop ticket to an unforgettable journey.

The late-night feedings and endless diapers soon give way to toddler tantrums and preschool sassiness, but through it all, she reminds you to STOP. To have fun. To experience the world with all your senses and without any sort of self-imposed time limit. To be hopeful.

The Big Sis is exuberant and extremely social and a natural-born leader and constantly searches for logical fallacies, and while those qualities present many challenges as a parent, they are also the qualities that will take her far in life.

Happy 7th to my one and only “Big Sis.”

Wordless Wednesday: Kentucky snow angel

Continuing tradition

This was my first Christmas without my mom — always a difficult milestone. We have our Christmas traditions with my parents (in addition to our own family traditions with The Husband and The Girls, of course), but I was curious how much would change this year, as my mom was typically the one to lead such traditions.

My dad decided not to put up a tree this year, and I can’t blame him, really. That does seem like a lot of work when you’re the only one who will see it. He did, however, use his sense of humor and taped a gift bag that had a picture of a Christmas tree on it — and called that his Christmas tree. 🙂 On the bricks below, he set out the “stockings,” which really ended up being plastic grocery bags for everyone.

Actually, it was the stockings that I was most curious about. My mom loved shopping to fill the stockings, and she always found the neatest things, so I was going to be a little sad if my dad didn’t continue that tradition, but I also understood if he just wasn’t up to taking over the task. I considered asking him if he was going to do it, but then I didn’t want him to feel pressured to do it if he hadn’t planned on it. I considered asking if he wanted suggestions on stocking stuffers for all of us, but I didn’t want him to feel offended and think I didn’t think he could do it on his own. So I mentioned in passing that I’d be buying stuff to fill his stocking, and I prepared myself beforehand for either outcome.

I was very pleased when I walked in the house and saw the grocery bag “stockings” sitting in front of the fireplace. While certainly not the same without my mom, it was so nice to sit together and open these little goodies with each other. For me, it helped me feel like a part of her remains with us.

Without further adieu, my dad’s Christmas tree and stockings:

Santa time

Last weekend we took the girls for their annual visit to Santa. Not surprisingly, The Little Sis did NOT want anything to do with the jolly ol’ elf, so no picture of them together. The Big Sis, however, was very happy to have a chance to share her wish list with him, and we were able to pick a picture of her that shows her recently missing top front tooth!

Wordless Wednesday: School pics

Wordless Wednesday: Tooth pulling

Wordless Wednesday: People play

Time lapse!

Feb. 2012

Oct. 2013

Wordless Wednesday: Thankful for these gals

Fall into fall

Doppelganger

So I had a good friend email me yesterday, saying she’d seen a childhood photo of Celine Dion and thought it reminded her of The Big Sis. It was funny — the more I looked at it, the more I agreed. I think there are some obvious differences, and it’s not a flattering picture of Celine to start with, but I still thought it was pretty noteworthy.

What do you think?

Wordless Wednesday: Is it child labor if they volunteer to do it themselves?

Halloween 2013

Glinda the Good Witch (from “Oz the Great and Powerful,” not from “The Wizard of Oz”):

Our red princess witch:

Wordless Wednesday: My little birds

Wordless Wednesday: R2D2 and Ewok

Wordless Wednesday: Wigging out

Wordless Wednesday: Her father’s daughter

Wordless Wednesday: My big girls

Wordless Wednesday: Record number of family pics in a single week

Wordless Wednesday: My brown-eyed girls

Wordless Wednesday: Cool cat

Foto Friday

The girls’ school pics weren’t the best when I know they can take better pics, so here are some better ones:

Wordless Wednesday: Spring school pics

Wordless Wednesday: Brown-eyed girls

Wordless Wednesday: Color me happy

(**Yes, my pants are too big. I have lost 20 pounds since the beginning of the year, BUT I went to Goodwill and got some cheap pants for this race since I knew they’d likely be ruined. I had to buy them big since I knew I’d be layering other stuff underneath with it being so cold (and truthfully, that’s the only thing I could find in a light color that fit me). So while they are big, it’s not because of lost weight. They would have been big even without that as a factor. But hey, $3 to not ruin my other pants? I’ll take it.**)

Wordless Wednesday: First time “using” the potty

SIX (years old)

Wordless Wednesday: Spending time with sis

Wordless Wednesday: Seeing Santa

Wordless Wednesday: Superstar

Christmas cuties

For a couple of weeks now, The Big Sis has been begging us to put up the Christmas tree and all of the decorations. I generally hesitate to put them up too early — and outright refuse to do so before Thanksgiving — but we did agree to put the stuff up this weekend, mostly because we’ll be out of town next weekend when we’d be more likely to put it up. We didn’t get everything done, but we did get the tree up and mostly decorated and also bought some lights to put up outside (for the first time ever). I have to admit that I do enjoy looking over in the evenings and seeing the glow of the lights on the tree; it is instantly relaxing.

‘Tis the season!

Sissies in a basket

Apparently The Little Sis graduated to being allowed to share The Big Sis’ traditional spot for watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade: in a laundry basket on the couch. I don’t pretend to understand it, but they love it, and that means I love it. 🙂

(Also: Yay for post #1,600 yesterday! It didn’t quite feel right to comment on it with that post, but it’s definitely quite a milestone.)

Wordless Wednesday: Hello, Sweetcheeks

Nodding off

The Big Sis has only fallen asleep in a weird place twice: in the highchair and once on the floor holding her snack cup when she was sick, both times when she was pretty little. (Weird place = not in our arms, her crib, or the car.) Fifteen months in and The Little Sis still hadn’t fallen asleep in an inappropriate place — until today, when she started dozing off at lunch, quite ready for her nap. She never actually fell all the way asleep, mostly because we all kept erupting into giggles every time she’d do it. We’d laugh at her, she’d open her eyes looking serious, then we bust out into an “okay, okay, you caught me” grin.

Today was a pajamas day for all of us, all day long. I woke up thinking, “Oof, I feel like I could throw up,” but I figured it was just me being hungry or my antibiotic for my sinus infection. But then suddenly, around 9 a.m., The Big Sis laid on the floor and said her belly hurt, then ran to the bathroom, not quite making it all the way there before she threw up — the kind where it just comes out against her control. Poor girl. We were expecting some visitors a couple hours later for lunch, so we canceled with them, then canceled our trip to Cincinnati tonight for a birthday party. No need to spread the yuck germs to anyone else. Nothing like a little kid-puke to wipe your plans away instantly. She did end up getting sick again when I was napping (but made it into the trashcan we had for her); I was napping because while I never threw up and didn’t really feel sick exactly, I also haven’t felt 100% normal, either. (Example: All I could manage for lunch was mandarin oranges.) I’d had to pick up The Little Sis one day earlier this week when she threw up at school and had, let’s say, questionable diapers, though thankfully that was the extent of her sick, so hopefully the same can be said for The Big Sis (and for me).

Wordless Wednesday: Glee

A helping hand

Wordless Wednesday: Sometimes you just need to hug your mama’s legs tight

Happy Halloween from She-Ra and Swift Wind