Joy, joy, joy, joy, joy! Olivia has been waking up in the middle of the night again. She usually takes a bottle and goes right back down. I had been trying to take a hard-lined approach and flat-out refusing to give in to these middle of the night feedings, but again just now as nothing else would get her to go back to sleep, I gave in. Its the craziest thing - if I don't give her the bottle she doesn't really cry or scream, she just squirms and wants to get down. Almost as if she thinks its time to be up. As soon as I give her that bottle she goes right back down. A friend was telling me that her 22-month old STILL gets up for a cup of milk in the middle of the night. We've got to nip this in the bud!

I'm going to bed!

Snow Again!
We got about 3-4 inches of the white stuff last night and everything looks awesome. LuLu has not been a huge fan this year, so our sledding relative to last year has been way down. She's only 11 months old though, so we won't write her off as soft just yet. Actually, Four did not even like the snow his second winter (~14-15 months old) but now loves it almost as much as I do. In fact, he's really excited to go skiing this year. We've gotten him a seasonal rental and are hoping to get out a few times before our week long stay at Shawnee.

LuLu is going through a phase where she is extremely clingy right now. She is on the verge of walking and either doesn't let me put her down or just climbs to standing next to me and clings to my legs. Not necessarily a bad thing, just try making dinner or doing laundry with a little soul stuck to your legs. Hopefully, this shall pass.

Liv has her fifth tooth! It is the tooth next to her top left front tooth -- and for all you smart alec's out there it is not her top right front tooth, she's had that one for some time. I have to go back -- and intend to -- and look through an old shoe box of receipts to figure out exactly when that one came in. It was the same day we bought our dining room rug. On that day both top front teeth came in. That was fun! Anyway, the new tooth is looking a bit crooked. Like English teeth crooked. Guess she'll be getting braces. There goes my new bike. ;^)

Happy New Year!

well, its been a while. not for lack of content, but for lack of time. where does it go? efficiency/productivity experts tell us that everyone has the same amount of time in a day, which must be true true, but I still feel short-changed in the time department. lately, I can't sit on the pot without a crisis erupting let alone at the keyboard long enough to document the cute and not-so-cute actions of the kids. Anyway, I digress.

Christmas was a whirlwind of activity. The kids really enjoyed it. Four opened almost everyone's presents for them. For each gift, Four would say, "OH, I know what this is!" Really, he didn't. This was the first year that we did not spend Christmas Eve at my parents' house. So it was kind of sad to see that tradition end. But we are now creating our own, which is a good thing.

Yesterday (or "westerday" as Four says) I was trying to get LuLu to use a more civilized method of requesting food than her now usual screeching. We actually have been doing this for some months now where we try to teach her to use sign language and words to say "more [hand to mouth] please [flat hand makes circular motion on chest and belly]". She responded by resting her head on her upper arm in exhausted resignation. M and I, thinking it was the most adorable thing, started laughing. LuLu took this and ran with it. Whenever she wanted to get a laugh out of us for the rest of the meal she would rest her big beautiful head on her right arm. It's amazing how they're always learning.