Pony Girls

Every morning when I get the girls ready for the day, I ask Xandra, "Big pony or little pony." She then tells me how she would like her hair styled for the day. While I'm fixing Xandra's hair, Theia carefully watches exclaiming, "I want pony, I want pony!" or "I pony tooooo!"

When I finish Xandra's hair, I put a pony or bow or barrette in Theia's hair. Lately she's been leaving them alone, so yesterday, I decided to give two ponies a try. Here was the result:

Boy that kid can be cute!

And silly!

Xandra also wanted to show off her beautiful ponytail. One never takes a picture at our house of one sibling without someone else insisting on having a picture too.

Then there's the mandatory group shot, of course.

It usually takes five or six tries to get a good one. But when you do, they sure are cute (not that I'm biased or anything).

Green Team

On St. Patrick's Day, after we got dressed in green and found someone had turned our milk green (who would do that?), we met some friends from our MOPS group, at a nearby garden, for a St. Patty's Day Walk.

The weather was sunny, beautiful and perfect, really. We played leprechaun says with these two guys.

Followed the leprechaun path and found his gold.

chatted with a clown,

and a dinosaur. We also got green carnations, made shamrock masks, had a snack, and played with our friends.

This is the only picture captured of Theia all morning long. She did NOT want her picture taken.

Liyah enjoyed the morning from the stroller quite happily.

Xandra brought her pandy (her name for him) along for the fun and carried him and his blanket around all morning long.

It was so fun to be outdoors enjoying the coming blooms of spring and making friends with all things green.

Reading

It's true, our girls love a good book. Most of the time they will bring book after book after book to you, asking you to read aloud until you grow hoarse or tell them you're all done reading for now.

Lately, however, they've been doing more independent "reading." They start by stuffing bags full of books and carting them about the house. When they get tired of carrying the books around, they plop down on the couch or inside laundry baskets and quietly "read" to themselves.

Last week, as Joe and I were watching basketball games (March Madness, baby) on the computer in the living room, they brought their pile of books over to the table to read.

This is the first and only time I've ever seen them share the book while reading. Usually they both have their own books.

This particular book is no book, but a magazine (or magerzine, in Xandra speak). The girls have a monthly subscription to High Five Magazine (a division of Highlights) from Grandma DeShon. They LOVE them. We read them over and over and over and over again. We also listen to the audio on the computer sometimes (it's posted on the magazine's website). Sometimes Xandra will gather all the magazines she can find and have me play one after another after another on the computer (or competer, in Xandra/Theia speak).

The girls know the stories so well, they can tell them to you. Here's a video of Theia doing just that:

Birthday Baby

Aliyah's first birthday was celebrated in traditional Pull style. Smoothie for breakfast (a first for each of the girls' first birthdays), pizza for dinner (also a first time on one-year birthdays), and presents after dinner (I guess this is a first, too).

She had her first taste of homemade pizza. It was so good she licked the bowl.

After dinner, we opened presents. One year olds don't really know how to open presents, so the big girls happily helped out.

Theia, Xandra and I reading Snuggle Puppies, one of Liyah's new books, together.

She didn't care much about her presents, but she did festively sport this birthday balloon in her hair. She also immensely enjoyed the screwdriver that we used to put batteries in one of her toys.

Eventually, she played with the toy, but only after we took the screwdriver away.

It is tradition that for first birthdays our children receive a stuffed animal and a book. Since Aliyah is a bandicoot, she got a stuffed bandicoot and a book featuring a bandicoot (both pictured below).

The fun ended with a piggy bank and coins.

Everyone took a turn playing with it. First Xandra,

then Theia,

and finally Liyah.

We even got her on video working ever so hard to get those coins in there. She's not successful on the video, but she did manage to get several of the coins in the bank all by herself later. Excuse the remarks of the frustrated mother in the background (kind of funny when it's not actually happening). Clearly she didn't get the memo about the video camera running.

Zilch, Zero, Nada, None

Zilch, Zero, Nada, None. That is the number of pictures you'll see on this post. Why? Because that is the number of photos I bought last week at JCPenney Portrait Studios.

After giving all three girls a bath, taking a shower myself, brushing hair, getting clothes on, making lunches and getting out the door on time, we arrived at JCPenney early for our portrait session. I was hoping to get a few group pictures for Joe. It's our annual Valentine's Day gift to give Joe pictures of all of his girls. We were snowed in when I would normally be getting the photos taken, so we settled for a later version of the annual pictures.

After waiting for an hour and 15 minutes in the waiting area where the only toys were a box of colors with no coloring sheets (we did eventually get some upon inquring), we finally made it into the studio to have our pictures taken. Let me just say that I do NOT have high expectations for pictures of my 3, 2, and 1 year old. I know we're a tough group to photograph, so I don't expect much. However, I do expect a picture. Just ONE picture to turn out nicely (by nicely I mean at least one child smiling and/or looking at the camera). Especially when you're taking single pictures of my 1 year old and 3 year old who are happily smiling for you. Surely you can get a good picture of them, right? Theia, I know, is a different story as she would not cooperate on any front. But Xandra, who was sitting nicely, listening and smiling on command. No good picture? Please tell me this was a horrible joke.

So, after 2 and 1/2 hours at the portrait studio, I left with NO pictures. None. All I had to show for our troubles was a wasted morning, three cranky kids, and one VERY cranky mom. It's a good thing it was naptime when we got home, because we ALL needed one.

Later that day when the manager of the portrait studio called to inquire about my appointment, I shared with her my experience. She coaxed me into coming back for a photoshoot in which she herself would take the pictures. After a hefty discount and a promise for no wait time, she prevailed and we gave it another try. All of this, despite promises to myself earlier in the day that we were NEVER doing pictures again.

After another, more successful try, we will soon have some good pictures for Joe's picture frames at work. Better than the pictures, is the story that I will always think of when I look at them: a crazy, wasted morning at the portrait studio. I'm sure someday it will be funny. For now, the thought of it still makes me want to poke my eyeballs out.

Uh Ohhhhh

Liyah has learned the power of "dropping things" and she's using it to torment her older sister. In the video below you'll see a snippet of what had been going on in our house for probably 10 minutes. Liyah dumps her cup over the side of her highchair, Theia runs from the other room where she's eating to pick it up. Theia gets back to her chair just in time for Liyah to "drop" her cup onto the floor. Theia gets down, runs to the highchair and picks up the cup. This went on again and again. Finally, Theia started just waiting in the living room for Liyah to drop it instead of going all of the way back to her chair.

At the end of the video when Liyah drops her cup for the last time, you'll hear Theia say, "I no git down. Mommy, git it. Git it, mommy." I guess she finally got tired of the game.

Simon Says

Recently the girls have had a desire to be "naked jaybirds" when they're at home. They play their normal games and read their normal books but now they just enjoy doing it in their underwear. It's a strange habit, but one I don't really mind (as long as it's passing). No, they did not pick this habit up from Joe or I.

The girls also seem fascinated with poop, pee, and their pee pee and poopy parts. It comes up in conversation with them frequently and we do our best to steer the conversation elsewhere or instruct them to stop talking about it.

Unfortunately, while we try to squelch the obsession, we haven't been completely successful at stopping the potty talk. This truth came to light a few weeks ago when our kids were among a group who were being babysat at a friend's house. The kids were all playing Simon Says with each taking a turn being Simon. "Simon Says touch your head, Simon Says run around, Simon Says stand on one foot, etc." When it was Xandra's turn to be Simon, the babysitter tells us she said, "Simon says everyone touch your pee pee parts." I seriously don't know where she gets this stuff, but I wish I'd been there to see it (I mean stop it). Evidently all the other kids just went along with it, preparing to touch their pee pee parts when the babysitter very wisely and quickly stepped in and put a stop to that particular Simon Says. The babysitters were evidently doing their best to hold back the peals of laughter. Joe and I had a good many chuckles over this episode, also. It's funny to imagine a room full of 2-5 year olds all simply just doing what Simon Says.

We're doing our best to make sure she doesn't get kicked out of Sunday School until she outgrows this phase. I'm sure she'll get over it just in time for Theia to begin.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Meet Cora:

She's the girls' cousin and is just nine days older than Xandra.

Recently she was having a conversation with her momma, Laura, about our new baby.

The converstaion went something like this (per Laura's email to me):

...I (Laura) said yep, that was right—Auntie Trisha was having a baby, too.

Cora said, “She already has a baby.”

I said they’re having another—then they’ll have four: Xandra, Theia, Aliyah, and the new baby.

Cora thought about that, and started to repeat that there was four and their names. Then Cora says very slowly (and I quote), “That’s amazing!” and a second later—“They can handle all those kids??”

I laughed and said they were going to try…her solution was maybe Joe could take care of the baby.

We appreciate the vote of confidence, Cora.

Birthday Blizzard

My 32nd birthday came amidst the dumping of snow we received in February. We spent the whole day inside watching the snow fall and fall and fall. Joe even stayed home from work as the Metro was shutdown from all of the snow.

I had many fun phone calls and stayed in my pajamas all day long. The girls and I made muffins for breakfast and brownies in place of a birthday cake.

Joe and I actually celebrated my birthday several weeks later by attending dinner and a concert given by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Joe found the concert on his own and surprised me with the tickets. The concert featured a Bach Duo Concerto featuring oboe and violin. Itzak Perlman was the violinist and he was wonderful to listen to and watch. I also enjoyed the melodious sounds of the first chair oboist from BSO. It was a wonderful evening out and one of the more thoughtful birthday gifts I've been given (before kids I played oboe extensively, so hearing a fine oboist featured in concert is a real treat for me).

Farewell to Snow

It's funny to think that less than a month ago things outside looked like this:

Now it seems as though spring is just around the corner when I step outside. I see buds on the tops of our maple trees, green sprouts of daffodils in the yard poking through the soil, and the temperatures are climbing into the fifties.

I've never been a part of such snowstorms as the two that passed through here in February.

I'm pretty sure our yard has not either. That is a pine tree in our front yard that stands probably 25 feet in the air. One section of it was actually horizontal because of the heavy snowfall.

It was actually leaning on some of the other trees in the yard, causing them to lean a bit as well.

Our van, post clean off (this was just after the first snow storm). The second storm added another foot to the tally.

This is our cul-de-sac. It took an entire week for the county to plow us out. Between snows, Joe shoveled from our driveway across the cul-de-sac to our neighbors drive where they had shoveled from their house to the end of the cul-de-sac.

That is our Honda Civic buried under there. After another foot of snow the following week, you couldn't see any part of the snow covered car.

What a difference a few weeks makes. Now, as we look out our backdoor, we just see a few small drifts of snow remaining where the sun does not easily shine.

A final reminder of our record breaking winter as we turn our attention toward the coming blooms of spring.

Basket Bliss

Baskets are still fascinating at our house. When the girls find an empty one it gets pushed from one end of the house to the other, sat in, filled up, and dumped out. For now, we only fit two children, two bears, and two blankies in at a time. Do you think Aliyah will try to squeeze in soon?

Carpet Picnic

A few Sundays ago Joe decided that for dinner we'd have a popcorn picnic on the floor. The girls thought this was a GREAT idea. They happily munched their veggies while I prepared the popcorn. We also had crackers, cheese, and apple slices (momma's attempt to balance the dinner a bit more). Aliyah's favorite part was crawling around trying to steal everyone else's food instead of eating her own.

Now, every night before dinner Xandra asks if we can eat on the carpet.