Do you have a patron Saint for 2012?

Over the past several years I've noticed that some bloggers pick a patron saint for the year.  When I first encountered this practice I thought it was a bit odd.  Sure I have my favorite saints, but I've never thought to adopt one for a year although for the number of times I call on St. Anthony to help me find the plethora of stuff that I misplace, I might as well just adopt him as my life long patron saint.  Anyway, as the years have progressed, I have warmed up to the idea of picking a saint for the year.  So today I decided to hop on  the bandwagon when I saw a link to a nifty Saint's Name Generator.

My saint for 2012 will be St. Philomena--that's fun to say!  Given that I have a philodendron that I call Phyllis I'm willing to bet that St. Philomena and I will get on just fine.

Quick Takes Volume 24

~1~

I'm giving blogging from my iPad another try. This time I'm sitting in the van gleaning someone's unsecured network while Ellie is at her ophthalmologist.

~2~

Katie had her follow up visit with the doctor this morning. She's pretty much maintaining the status quo with her illness. The doctor thinks its likely she'll get through this without needing to be hospitalized but he said she could still deteriorate. I'm hoping she will turn the corner. He already thinks her lungs sound better after a day of nebulizer treatments.

~3~

I woke up this morning feeling like I'm coming down with a bad cold. Wonder where I picked that virus up. With the older kids I can try to limit contact with them when they are sick, but it's not possible to do that with a small baby.

~4~

Bryan got me a Dyson for Christmas. I'm a Hoover girl through and through so I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like the Dyson all that much. After taking it for a spin on Christmas I'm totally sold on what I previously believed was an overpriced vacuum. For everything it picked up you would think I hadn't vacuumed in over a month.

~5~

Thanks to Target's post-Christmas clearance sales I now have all the gift wrap and tags I need for next Christmas.  I even found a small box of Duplo blocks on clearance that I will give Katie next Christmas.  

~6~

I felt overwhelmed and rushed this past Advent so I sat down with my Mom's Family Planner and filled in important dates and reminders to buy ingredients for things like cookies and gingerbread houses a week or so before I'll need them.  I also wrote myself little notes telling me how many batches of cookies to make per variety so I don't get stuck with a bunch of cookies that won't get consumed.

~7~

I realized on Christmas Eve that even though I have systematically been scaling back on what I buy the kids for Christmas that other family members have not done so in regards to buying for them.  It's sort of odd, even though the kids didn't get any gifts from our estranged family this year [a very welcome blessing in disguise although I'm sure it wasn't intended as such] they were still overwhelmed with stuff. 

 My last minute decision to scale stocking stuffing back to four items and a candy cane meant that the kids actually appreciated what they found in it instead of feeling overwhelmed with a stocking full of stuff.  I put a note in my planner for next year reminding myself to buy four specific items for next year (a favorite candy, $5 Lego gift card to Target, a small toy and a faith based gift).  Given that the stocking scale back was a success I think I will also scale gifts from Bryan and I back to three or four items going forward.   Years ago someone mentioned having their children list items they would like for Christmas under specific categories such as: something you want, something you need, something you wear and something you read.  On Christmas morning they could expect to find something under the tree that fit each of those categories.  I am now at a point where I really like that concept and will likely use it starting next year.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

Capturing the context of contentment in every day life...

{pretty}

{happy}

Amazingly I managed to capture a picture of Katie when she was very happy.  Seconds later when she discovered that my mom and I were about to take several more pictures her mood quickly changed to one of discontent.

Ellie was thrilled to finally get the Jessie doll that she has wanted since June.

Madeline was surprised and excited to get a Kindle.  I'm excited too since she's happily reading classic children's literature.  

The girls were very happy that they got to visit the aquarium.  Their generous Uncle Mark gave us an annual membership to the aquarium for Christmas. 

{funny}

Have you ever seen a child who is this happy to get a weather station?

Oscar is fully aware that we have brought him the same gift for the past three Christmases.  A couple days ago he pulled out all three of his brightly colored bones and sat in the middle of the family room.  Is he trying to tell us that he's happy to have three of a kind or did he bring them all out as a plea for variety?  Either way, he's very likely to see another bone like this next Christmas.  He had a glow in the dark one a couple years ago.  Maybe I'll be able to find another one of those.

{real}

This picture alone pretty much sums up Katie's first Christmas.

She was largely unimpressed and would have preferred to sleep through the day.

She feigned mild interest in presents.

She was happiest when snuggled up on her Pop in a quite room.

Katie's not feeling well at all these days.  She was diagnosed yesterday with bronchiolitis.  Just look at how sad my sweet baby looks.

Poor Katie

On Christmas morning when Katie woke up and was completely miserable starting as soon as we went downstairs to the family room which was brimming with brightly colored presents, we figured she had gone into sensory overload.  Bryan and I felt the same way the evening before as I arranged all the gifts into piles.  When her screaming and crying didn't stop after the room had pretty much returned to normal, I wondered if maybe she was feeling unwell.  I thought perhaps it was just a bad reflux day based on the unusual amount of spit up and her arching away from me whenever I would nurse her.  She was spitting up quite a lot on Christmas Eve night, too, so it seemed like a logical connection.

Monday and Tuesday didn't see much of an improvement with Katie's temperament or appetite and it became obvious that she wasn't feeling well.  She was congested and had developed a cough.  Since Ellie had been coughing a bit and seemed to have a bit of a cold I wasn't all the concerned.  I've been around the block enough times to know that when I bring a kid with sniffles or a little cough to the doctor that there's really nothing they can do to help it.  Following that logic I decided it wasn't necessary to take her to the doctor just yet.  I needed something more convincing to make me think a trip to the doctor was needed, something like Katie rubbing her ear.  I don't mess with ear infections so as soon as we noticed that Katie was going after her ears many times today it was time to call for an appointment.

I was hopeful on the ride over to the pediatrician that we were either going to be told that she just had a little cold or that she had an ear infection.  Both are not fun with a baby, but I don't see them as being a big deal.  What I wasn't expecting was to hear that the baby had a problem that if it escalates could land her in the hospital.  Few words fill me with as much dread as the mention of a hospital stay.

Katie has bronchiolitis which apparently is a big deal when you are two months old.  The doctor tells me that in an older kid the virus which causes this will result in a cold that could either be mild or severe.  In Katie's case, she's wheezing, congested, miserable and not eating well.  Her wheezing was significant enough that the doctor put her on a nebulizer while we were there.  It made a big enough difference that he felt confident that she could benefit from nebulizer treatments at home.  So now we're on watch to see that she doesn't get worse.  We're told that if she makes it through the weekend without getting worse then we are pretty much in the clear even though she will still be sick for another week or so.  If not, she may find herself in the hospital.  I'm praying that we can avoid that.  The doctor will be monitoring her condition over the next week or so which means we'll be seeing the doctor's office every few days.  I'm hoping that she will improve between now and Friday morning when she goes back to be checked.  I can tell you that she has clearly degraded a decent amount between Christmas Eve and today.

Merry Christmas!

I'm posting my card on a tree Christmas picture a little later than I wanted to, but sometimes life gets crazy and my blogging timeline has to take a back seat to living life.  I figured you would all understand where my children might not understand why the presents weren't put out for Christmas morning because Mommy had to blog.

Life has been rather busy since Thursday night which has left me with precious little time to blog.  I do however have some blog posts that I'm anxious to write.

I want to blog about the circus Christmas Eve Mass we went to in the parish school's cafe-gym-itorium.  THAT was an interesting experience that makes me feel compelled to throw my opinion into the great pants vs. skirts debate and my thoughts on appropriate attire for Mass.

I also want to tell you about how Katie seems to have come down with a bit of a cold which made her miserable on Christmas. Like her big sister Ellie, I think Katie freaks out and shuts down when she encounters sensory overload.  This poor child was not happy when we brought her into the family room on Christmas morning and sat her next to her gifts.  Let's just say I'm very happy that I took pictures of Katie and the girls in front of the tree after Christmas Eve Mass, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten any nice pictures.

Despite Christmas day not being as pleasant as I had hoped it would be, we still had a very nice Christmas.  Madeline and Ellie were happy [for the most part--a certain 6 year old doesn't like opening presents] with the new toys and gadgets they received and Bryan didn't guess all of his presents prior to opening them.

The Blab

Ever since I was a child, I have been a notorious blabber mouth.  I have the hardest time keeping gifts a secret.  In an effort to keep Bryan's gifts a secret I have wrapped most of them in boxes that disguise what is inside.  It's a tactic that helps me a bit.  When it comes to gifts for the kids I try to stick with telling them we're buying stupid things that no kid would want such as toilet paper and soap.

Tonight has been a particularly difficult night for me and keeping secrets.  First, I nearly blabbed to Bryan that I brought him the sauce he likes for wings when Ellie scurried up to my bedroom on a covert mission to hide a gift Bryan bought at Buffalo Wild Wings when he picked up our take out order.  I so badly wanted to tell him that I was just there yesterday and got the sauce he and I like.  Keeping my mouth shut has been incredibly difficult for me.  I know if I tell him I got the sauce for him and me (we like different ones) that it will spoil the surprise of what he got for me.  It seems that it's nearly impossible for him to surprise me when it comes to gift giving.  Either I guess it or the girls blab. (Wonder where they got that trait!)  Even worse, was the fact that I left the link open on my laptop with the temporary membership pass to the aquarium.  I'm hoping that Madeline didn't notice it when she was getting ready to watch the Advent Adventure videos for tonight, but the slightly surprised look on her face makes me wonder if I ruined my brother's surprise for the girls.  He got us a family membership to the aquarium for Christmas and he wrapped up a printout of the temporary pass for them.

I need to make it another thirty or so hours without blabbing.  At this point I'm hoping I don't reveal anymore gifts.  If only I could keep a straight face when people try to guess what I got for them I'd be in good shape.

Quick Takes Volume 23 Festivus Style

Since today is the made up holiday of Festivus, I'm going to do my quick takes focusing completely on Festivus miracles.

~1~

Katie slept for nearly ten hours last night (nine hours and fifty minutes to be exact)!  She was awake most of yesterday so that might explain why she slept so well.  I was very surprised to wake up at 7am and have Bryan tell me that Katie slept the entire night.

~2~

I helped out at Ellie's classroom Christmas party today and Katie slept the entire time.  It was loud, but I left without a headache.

~3~

I went to the incredibly crowded grocery store this morning.  I couldn't locate the parsley that Bryan wanted for the turkey and was getting annoyed that I couldn't find it in the produce section.  Another Festivus miracle occurred when I found an employee who was able to direct me to the parsley. 

The grocery store may have been packed, but I managed to find the items I needed and check out in less than 15 minutes.  Not only did I maneuver through the store avoiding the crowds, I also scouted out the long check out lines and found the one lane that wasn't several people deep.

~4~
We went to Target tonight so Bryan could take the girls Christmas shopping for me.  (Can we say Daddy is a procrastinator?  Good, I knew that you could.)  On the way over there Madeline's best friend texted her that they were also heading to the same Target (Festivus miracle #1).  When we parked the van I got out to get a cart so we wouldn't have to lug Katie in her car seat since we parked far away and the employee who was rounding up the carts got a cart for me (Festivus miracle #2).  Once we got in the store our 17 year old neighbor spotted us and asked us to help her with a scavenger hunt she was doing with her friend (Festivus miracles #3 and #4).  While helping our neighbor Madeline's best friend and her mom showed up (Festivus miracle #5).  Bryan took our three girls and Madeline's friend to Christmas shop for their moms (Festivus miracle #6).  We stopped at the in-Target Starbucks on the way out.  I was nervous since the new girl who has messed up my drink a few times was the only one I saw behind the counter, but then one of the baristas who makes my drink appeared and took care of my drink (Festivus miracle #7).  It's amazing how many Festivus miracles happened in just one Target shopping trip.  Oh, and I also found the lemons Bryan wanted for the turkey (Festivus miracle #8).

~5~

On my drive home from visiting my parents, we nearly got rear ended [TWICE] by an old man who I suspect was not paying attention.  The first accident was avoided when I moved my car almost to the shoulder of the road to keep from being hit at the red light.  The second one was avoided when I quickly turned onto the road I was heading to.  

~6~

Bryan gave me a gift idea last night that involved me having to go to a liquor store.  I don't shop at liquor stores, at least not by myself or with little kids in tow.  I called my parents and asked if they were going to be near a liquor store today since I was visiting them this afternoon and they said they'd stop at one since they "needed" to buy lottery tickets. (Have I ever mentioned that I can't bear to gamble even a quarter let alone a whole dollar?  I simply don't see the appeal in gambling.)  They agreed to pick up the item I needed saving me a trip.

~7~

All of the laundry is completed--for now.  Bryan worked from home today and he swapped out loads of wash throughout the day.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

Capturing the context of contentment in every day life...

{pretty}

There's nothing quite like napping in the glow of the Christmas tree.

{happy}

Madeline and Ellie was quite happy to see Santa.  Katie wasn't sure what to make of the guy in the red suit.

On Friday night we invited our neighbors over to decorate gingerbread houses.  The girls had a lot of fun.

Ellie had lots of fun piping the icing on her house.

My happy little gingerbread house.

{funny}

Typically I'm not amused when I can't log into my email, but AOL put up this funny error message so I didn't feel so irritated when I couldn't get my email to load up.  Who knew you could make a silly looking robot with a tin can and some other random household items?

I like how it looks like Katie is staring down the girls with Santa in this picture.  This is probably when Santa was telling Madeline that she wasn't likely to get the iPad, iPhone 4s and Kindle that she just asked him for.

Judging by the look on Katie's face, I don't think she likes that I got my hair cut.

{real}

Two cookie presses broke in the process of making these 16 cookies.  

Cookie Fail

Small Successes-December 22nd

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

1. Yesterday I folded all of the laundry that was littering my living room.  The living room looked great for all of 20 minutes before the next round of clean laundry got dumped in the middle of the floor.

2.  I spent most of Saturday baking cookies.  I made snickerdoodles [from a bag mix], peanut butter cookies [also from a bag mix], and chocolate chip cookies from scratch.  I need to make chocolate chip cookies again since they're all gone.  I barely had enough to make cookie bags to give to teachers and there was a considerable amount of balking from those who claimed that others didn't "need" chocolate chip cookies.  Claiming 14 of these coveted cookies was no small feat.

3. On Sunday night when I accidentally moved a tin of butter cookies on to the fridge door which later wound up all over the kitchen floor, I didn't cry.  Instead, I decided it was better to laugh about the disaster of a cookie fail that the night had been.  The press cookies didn't want to work (both cookie presses that we own broke in the process that yielded just 16 cookies) and my crappy store brought cookies came crashing to the floor.  At least I don't have to eat three pounds of cookies I didn't like all that much.

4. The girls made gingerbread graham cracker houses on Friday night, and I made royal icing for the first time.

5. Katie discovered that it's fun to pull hair this weekend.  I got my hair cut on Monday morning because I'm a killjoy.  Ha ha, Katie.  I know how to play your new game and I say it's game over for now.

6. The family room Christmas tree is up and decorated.  Now I don't feel like a slacker.

People Will Buy Anything

I have a severe dislike of infomercials and commercials that assume the viewer is a complete idiot.  As I watch intelligent programming I get bombarded every few minutes with commercials that I find insulting.  There are commercials selling knives to people who are incapable of cutting through a tomato.  Really?  Since when did cutting into a tomato become difficult? Apparently, for the portion of the population who can't figure out how to cut into a tomato (We're not talking about a pineapple or a coconut here, folks) the ad wizards have come up with many products to solve this vexing problem.  They now sell knives that can cut through tin cans AND tomatoes.  Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I have yet to have a need to slice tin cans open.  I guess someone out there is totally unaware that a thing called a can opener exists.  Those things do a bang up job when it comes to opening a can.

Commercials that promise to solve the age old problem of using a pesky blanket irritate me.  As I lay on the couch with my coffee bean throw blanket, I can't help but look at the television perplexed that there are people out there who can't figure out how to use a blanket.  It's not rocket science, simply place the blanket over yourself and you're golden.  Maybe my kids are just geniuses, but they have been able to use a blanket since they were old enough to crawl.  For those who can't figure out how a blanket is supposed to work they sell this irritating product called a Snuggie. The commercials for this product make me want to scream.  As if Snuggies weren't bad enough for the blanket using impaired they have now come out with a new product.  It's a Forever Lazy.  The commercial for this ridiculous product made me wonder if it was a joke.  Granted, I saw the commercial rather late at night and thought maybe it was intended as a spoof.  After discovering that it was a real product I can't help but wonder 1. WHY would anyone want this?  2. Do people realize this thing is basically a sleeper for adults? and 3. Is using a blanket really that difficult?  Not to mention why would anyone want to buy a product called Forever Lazy that pretty much insinuates that the person who uses it is a lazy slob?

These idiotic products and their commercials have lead me to believe that people will buy anything.  It's actually rather sad.  I suppose if I were a more opportunistic person with no conscience I would prey on the feeble minded and create a stupid poorly made product and market it as the solution to a problem that doesn't exist.   And if you are one of those people who are taxed by the difficulties of using a blanket, drop me an email.  I've got these great recyclable, multifunctional carrying devices called plastic bags that I can sell you for the amazingly low price of $5.95 each.  Contact me within the next two weeks and I'll toss in two more for free.

Quick Takes Volume 22

~1~

I'm not cut out to go shopping amid crowds of people.  Target has been way to busy for me this past week and Sam's Club was simply insane today.  The worst part of it all is I know I'll have to go back out to the stores next week since I couldn't buy half of the things I needed to buy (all food items) when I was out today.

~2~

I'm trying to motivate myself to make cookies.  I want to have a nice variety of cookies to put out on Christmas day when my family comes for dinner, and I'd also like to be able to make up goodie bags for several people, but I really don't want to actually bake the cookies.  

~3~

I took five girls to see Santa this afternoon at a local garden center that has a great Santa set up complete with live reindeer.  I began to wonder what I was thinking about five minutes after we got there.  The two girls I brought with me were well behaved, but my older girls went into excited puppy dog mode and were showing off and generally irritating me.

~4~

Since we can't have a week without one of my kids mortifying me, Madeline stepped up to the plate and decided to ask Santa for approximately $1200 worth of items.  Really.  But to be fair she only asked for three things: iPhone 4S, iPad, and a Kindle.  [Honestly, what dream world is Madeline living in?]  Santa told her he thought the only item he might be able to swing is the Kindle but to not get her hopes up.  Thankfully, I didn't know what she asked him for until she got back in the car or I would have publicly chastised her for acting like a spoiled brat.  I usually remind my girls to only ask Santa for one small reasonably priced item.  At least Ellie was realistic and only asked for a Jessie doll from the Toy Story movie.

~5~

Royal Icing is incredibly easy to make.  For several years I operated under the assumption that it was a difficult icing to make and had opted to make buttercream icing when making gingerbread houses.  The pitfall with buttercream, of course, is it's not as good at holding gingerbread houses together.

~6~

Up! is the most depressing movie ever.  The kids just turned it on a few minutes ago and I'm already bawling.  How can such a sad movie be called "Up!"?  Even thinking about this movie upsets me.

~7~

I'm reading A Christmas Carol [on my iPad's Kindle app] for the first time ever and I'm amazed at how true Mickey's Christmas Carol, A Muppet Christmas Carol and the version Disney put out a couple years ago are to the book.  I am really enjoying the book.

It's Fun to Mess with Your Kids

Bryan and I have a lot of fun teasing our girls and just messing around.  I've convinced Madeline that her picture was being considered at the illustration for the word gullible, as well as many other things.  We've told the kids we were going out for a treat only to take them for flu shots [they did get a treat later that day, so we aren't total monsters] and conversely have told them that we were taking them to get the "piggy and bird flu shot" when we were taking them to Cold Stone Creamery for a treat.  What always amazes me is they don't pick up on the fact that I'm laughing the whole time.  I'm terrible at playing it straight when we're messing around with the kids.  However, I did do a good job of not laughing when we took them for the flu shots.  You see, Madeline freaks out about shots, so we had decided to take the approach some people take in getting their dog in the car to go to the vet.  Instead of asking her if she wanted to go for a ride, we asked her if she wanted to go out for a special treat.  So instead of fretting on the ride to get the flu shot she was excited.  Of course, the excitement faded away when we pulled into the Walgreens parking lot.  Anyway, the reason I'm exposing my sick sense of humor when it comes to parenting is because I stumbled on this video where parents deliberately gave their kids crappy gifts to see their reaction.  With the exception of  a very spoiled child and another child who needs to watch his mouth, I found this video to be rather amusing.  I'm sure Bryan and I could have come up with something worthy of being included in this video.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

Capturing the context of contentment in every day life...

{pretty}

Ellie's felt eye patches were getting a little worn so yesterday I decided to make her one that would match her Christmas tee shirts.  She was very excited when she saw her new patch yesterday after school.

Ordinarily, she's not all that thrilled to have her picture taken wearing the patch, but this morning she happily stood next to her advent calendar to show it off.  She likes this one so much that she almost went to school wearing it this morning.  I had to stop her when she was half out of the car and tell her to take it off.  Right now she only patches for two hours a day.

{happy}

For about $2.50 you can make these lovely girls very happy.  Cinnamon rolls from a tube always get Madeline and Ellie smiling.  

{funny}

Despite her deer in headlights look, Katie likes this little bear hat.  She got upset with us when we took it off.  

{real}

That would be my living room two days ago.  Pretty tree surrounded by a room full of laundry waiting to be folded.  The laundry on the floor has been folded and moved upstairs, but the couch and love seat are still covered with clothes to be folded.  Can you spot the crying baby in this picture?  She sort of blends in with the mess.

Small Successes-December 15th

Celebrating the little things in life that add up...

1.  I discovered on Sunday night that the basement was a dismal mess and I could no longer stand it.  I set out to point out to the girls what needed to be picked up, but they weren't exactly doing a good job at that.  Actually, they pretty much didn't care that they had made the basement look like a battered war zone.  At that point I decided that my empty threat that I had been using for years needed to become a reality.  I broke out the trash bag and began tossing the toys they couldn't be bothered to pick up into it.  I wound up spending most of Sunday night and most of the school day on Monday cleaning the basement.  It looks much better now.

2. On Monday, the girls and I gathered up a lot of toys and household items and took them to Good Will.  Let me just say that I'm amazed that my kids will play with scatter toys they don't even like anymore all over the basement floor.  I was surprised when they told me that they didn't want the Barbie jet anymore.  Bryan and I dislike it because it takes up way too much space, and they don't like it because it falls apart all of the time.  Glad it's out of here.

3.  I tackled the laundry this week.  With the exception of the clothes we wore yesterday, everything is washed.  Some of it is folded, but it's all sitting in my living room.  The furniture and the floor are covered with clothes.  I need to work on getting it all folded and put away today and tomorrow.

4. I cleaned up Bryan's office.  Papers were organized, shredded and put in their proper place.  I also finally emptied the laundry basket that was filled with mailing labels, card stock, and construction paper and put those in the drawers where they belong.  I'm happy to have my laundry basket back after ten months.  You read that right, I procrastinated putting these papers in a new home for ten months.  I had taken them out of what is now Katie's closet when I was trying to make room for her things and simply left them in a basket next to Bryan's office door.

A Flaky Scalp and Sleep Pattern

Shortly after Katie was born I noticed what appeared to be cradle cap on her eyebrows.  I assumed that it was just dry skin (the poor kid was covered in dry peeling skin when she was born) and waited for it to come off.  Ok, I picked at it here and there when she would tolerate it.  I'm a picker.  I bite pick stray hairs off of Bryan's ears and generally can't help myself when I see things that look like they ought to be picked [like ear wax].

On Saturday, Bryan gave Katie a bath.  I'm pretty dismal at this task and I take so long to wash the poor child that she's shivering by the time I'm done washing her.  I'm as bad at washing a baby as I am at putting a pullover shirt on one.  Small babies just aren't my forte, but I can change a diaper in any position and even while the baby is on the run.  At least I've got that skill.   Clothing and bathing could be considered optional depending on who you question, but diapers simply aren't.  Anyway, back to Katie's bath.  Turns out the kid has the beginnings of cradle cap and bathing her seems to make it spread.  It seems like every time we get some of it to come off, a few more patches of it appear.

I just washed her determined to loosen some of the cradle cap because picking at it didn't work, but I think I only succeeded in making her look like a baby with a dandruff problem and a moderate case of cradle cap.  Madeline never had this and I am convinced it's because I used this medical scrub brush that I was given in the hospital.  When Ellie was born I used a brush made for removing the corn silk from corn on the cob.  She eventually developed a really bad case of cradle cap that took a while to loosen even when using a cradle cap lotion that was supposed to break up the crusty skin.  Katie's scalp isn't as bad as Ellie's was but based on where it's forming, I have a feeling it could be worse.  I'll probably have a crusty scalped baby for Christmas. Awesome.  It will go great with her black sweater.

So on top of the cradle cap we now have Katie toying with our sleep.  For a couple of weeks she's been really good about sleeping for a 5-6 hour stretch and then another 3-4 hours after that.  Then, last week she made Bryan and I very happy when she slept for about 8 hours straight for three nights in a row.  Unfortunately, she has been waking a couple times a night for the past two or three days.  I felt so rested after Friday night when she stayed up until 11PM and didn't wake until around 7AM.  That was exactly the stretch of sleep I had been telling her she should consider.  She tried it and decided it wasn't her her.  Saturday night she was up twice and I felt worn out when I had to get up in the morning to go teach my class.  I have no idea if she woke up once or twice on Monday but Bryan was unable to sleep the rest of the night because of it.  I think she might have been up twice last night.  I just can't remember.  It is becoming clear that when she's on her back she sleeps for shorter increments.  Bryan gets nervous about her sleeping on her belly and typically will not put her down that way when we're sleeping.  I on the other hand, prefer to put her on her belly (she prefers it, too) since she sleeps better and she doesn't gurgle and choke when she spits up.

I'm hoping she starts sleeping for longer stretches soon.  Bryan is wondering if Katie's very lumpy looking gums have something to do with her not sleeping as well.  I'm currently in denial that she could possibly be teething.  She has been drooling a lot and trying to chew on her fingers but I'm not ready for teeth.

Quick Takes Volume 21

~1~

Katie slept in her crib for a little over seven hours last night.  The night before she slept for nearly eight hours, but that was in the playard and then the bassinet.  Bryan had been a little nervous about her sleeping upstairs in her crib since she's not a back sleeper.

~2~

Bryan, Katie and I attended the Principal's List breakfast at Madeline's school.  It was a zoo there.  Every time I visit the middle school I'm convinced even more that they aren't incredibly organized.

~3~

I'm coming close to being able to write a few book reviews.  I just need to find some time to write them.  I keep waiting for a hour or so when the house is quiet and I have nothing else to do, but I'm starting to think that's just not going to happen.

~4~

I'm on the fence about when we should put up our big Christmas tree.  Ordinarily I would have it up for the first Sunday in Advent, but I've been putting it off since the baby's playard is in the spot where the tree will go and it's something we still use everyday.  I'm leaning towards putting it up either this Sunday or the following one.

~5~

I think I've come down with another cold.  I feel like I just got over being sick a couple of weeks ago and now I'm sick again.  I'm hoping I'll feel better soon.  I don't want to spend another two weeks with a sore throat and congestion.

~6~

This weekend is our first soccer-free weekend since September.  We don't have any plans at the moment, but I'm sure we'll think of something to do.  

~7~

I think we're nearing a point where I'm going to have to do a toy purge.  Every time I go down to the basement and see the playroom I want to scream.  Sometimes the mess is so bad I do scream.  I keep telling the girls they need to clean up their messes and get in the habit of making sure their are no small pieces on the floor but they continually disregard what I say.  One day they're going to come home and find that Barbie and her plethora of accessories have been relocated to the trash can.  The funny thing is I don't think the girls really even play with these toys.  I think they just scatter them and walk away.  I know the wooden blocks and legos get played with and the kitchen and pretend food also see ample play time, but I think the rest of the stuff is just there to make a mess.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life.

{pretty}

Don't you just want to squeeze those adorable chubby cheeks?

I love the sight of the girls happily celebrating Advent each night.  They're coloring their Jesse tree ornament for the day in this picture.  I think Advent is one of my favorite times of the year.

{happy}

Happy baby!

When there's chocolate involved you don't have to ask Ellie to smile.

Can you believe she came home from school with pipe cleaner "antlers"?  And, she wonders why my nickname for her is Dorkish.

{funny}

Madeline lost the privilege of using her cell phone for all of last week because she hadn't been doing her chores even when reminded enough times to inch me towards the brink of insanity.  On Sunday, Bryan and I made a deal with her.  If she wore this awesome paper hat from Buffalo Wild Wings while we dined at the restaurant, and then when we went to Old Navy, we would let her have her phone back.  I then decided that she also needed to pose for this picture while Bryan took a video of her enthusiastically saying "I'm on fire!"  She got her phone back.  Being a parent is awesome, but I'm sure I'm going to do some serious time in purgatory for having so much fun embarrassing my children at every opportunity.  Some parents get upset when their kids go through that stage where they're embarrassed to be seen with their parent, but we will totally understand why our kids feel that way and we'll just ramp up the level of mortification for them.

{real}

Madeline clearly had a long day last Thursday.  After going to school and religious ed, she also had soccer practice.  She "forgot" her glasses in Bryan's car so she went out to look for them.  After her second trip out to his car to look for them, Bryan and I couldn't contain our laughter any longer and she discovered her glasses were on her face all along.  Awesome parents that we are, we played along and made a big deal about her being so careless and not knowing what she did with her glasses.  She was totally freaking out seconds before I snapped this picture.

Oscar is seriously a pain in my rear.  He annoys me and he smells, but he does have some redeeming qualities.  One of them is that he loves pancakes or panny-cakes as I like to call them.  He is willing to jump in the air and twist to catch bits of pancake.  He is also willing to let us stack pancakes on his snout and head and patiently wait for us to tell him he can flip them into his mouth.  Just look at the level of concentration and self control he's exhibiting in this picture.  Now if we could just train him to not bark and be calm when we have visitors I might admit that I like him.