Christmas/Hannukah/D's 40th Birthday 2006
We're all still a little bleary-eyed and tired from multiple days of late nights, lots of sugar, and family time. The kids had a blast this year. Here are a few highlights:

• We kicked off Hanukkah at a party at the Ginns on Dec 10 - adults loved the latkes and kids loved the chocolate gelt and cookies
• Elizabeth lit candles on a few nights with a steady hand ("Isn't it so beautiful Da-Da?)
• We moved into Christmas festivities with a party at the Skidmores on Dec 16th at their new house in Brookline
• I treated Danny to a birthday adults-only dinner at the Red House in Harvard Square
• We had a family party for D on Christmas eve - kids had fun with cousins and Whittakers. Elizabeth asked to go home with Colleen becuase the two of them had matching yellow straws (!?). I said that E might want to sleep at home so Santa would know where to find her
• Elizabeth put out cookies and milk for Santa; and carefully placed bowls of carrots and water for the reindeer on the deck
• Needless to say, the kids were awed by the mountain of presents they woke up to on Christmas morning. Mom (grandma) told E that she must have been a good girl this year and E nodded seriously and said "uh, huh. I really was"
• Elizabeth loves "crackernuts" (nutcracker dolls)
• Kids loved their gifts: the current favorites are the ball game from Nancy and the little ballerina dolls - also from Nancy, the master gift-giver; Elizabeth loved the fantasy items from Deanna
• We had Christmas dinner in Marblehead at Kris/Scott's. More presents, sugar, fun
• And we went back up to MHD the day after Xmas to spend time with Tyler and Trevor, who is visiting from Hawaii
• The girls loved the K & S's cats. They followed them around patting them all night. Paige makes this cute little sound to mimic what she thinks cats sound like when they drink milk and mimics licking her hand
• Paige was impressive in her ability to hold her own with the older kids. They all kept running in and out of the tent that Mom gave them and P didn't let her self get knocked down. She fell off Mason's tractor toy a few times, bumped her head, but got right back to playing
• The kids are pretty ragged from too many late nights, but they had a great time
• We have a few days of normalcy and then it's back to party-planning mode for New Year's Eve

Paige loves shoes. She was toddling around the house this weekend in her diaper, just doing her own thing. She came into the kitchen, plunked herself down on the floor, and with a very determined look on her face, tried to squeeze her chubby feet into some pink boots.

Here's a great shot of her in her costume

Paige is adding words pretty fast. She's been doing sign language for "more" for a few months and now at 14 months she says:

• uh oh
• wow
• yay!
• mama (sometimes mama means "more")
• here-go ("here you go" when handing us something)
• ankyou
• and the latest is apple - she loves to eat apples whole, none of those whimpy skinned slices for her

We just got back from a 5 day family cruise. Unc took the whole family on a Royal Caribbean cruise from Boston to Halifax, Nova Scotia. I was a little dubious, but the boat was first-class and we had a blast. The trip was meticulously organized and we never waited a minute for anything, hard to believe that we shared the boat with 2100 passengers and about 900 crew.

A Few highlights:

• we had 2 waiters dedicated to our table for dinner. i ordered fruit for the kids the first night and they had it waiting each night after that
• first stop was Portland, ME - walked around all morning
• next was Bar Harbor - took a bus tour of Acadia Park - nice town, let's go back sometime
• then Halifax where we rented vans and drove thru town and out to Peggy's cove where Dad and Wendy saw a whale
• kids loved going to shows after dinner (Platters, comedian, tango dancing, juggler)
• i got to workout 3 mornings in a row ...nice
• E loved the saltwater pool with waves made by the ship's rocking
• her first comment the day we got back was "I want to go back to our cruise boat"

Tough Nights

Ok, 90% of our lives as parents is miraculous, too wonderful for words. But oh boy, that other 10% is rough. Paige consistently slept through the night for only two months, back when she was about 4 months old. Before that she would wake at least twice and now she wakes up a lot. She usually starts with a few whimpers that turn into cries until we pick her up and give her some warm milk. I stopped breastfeeding at 13 months so night feedings mean warming up a bottle. Not fun at 3:00am.

Last night Paige woke up at 3:00am with happy chirps, drank 8oz, and went right back to sleep. Then at 3:30 as we were falling back to sleep, Miss Elizabeth came wandering in asking to sleep with us. We all finally fell back to sleep after 4:00am. Zzzzzzzzzz..........

A blog update is way overdue. Here's a quick overview of what we've been up to over the last year:

Current Events as of Oct 1:
Elizabeth's big news - officially potty trained! No more diapers, even at night
Paige's big news - started taking steps at 12 months and fully walking a few weeks later.

The last year:
E started gymnastic classes at the Gymnastics Academy of Boston in Cambridge in Sept 2005 and got promoted to the no-parents class after about 6 months. She loves it.

We hosted Thanksgiving at our place (Mom, Dad, Unc, Kris, Scott, X and M)
We hosted both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at out house (Mom, Dad, Unc, Wendy, Marty - plus Suchi, Mark and the kids for Christmas Day)
We pulled it off, but boy! it was a ton of work. We're definitly going to someone else's house this year.

March - E turned 3 and we had her party on March 18th. I did my usual sandwich buffet and set up a sand art station for the kids. They loved it.

We skiied at Killington in March or April, can't remember. E went up the magic carpet a few times and then wanted to tackle the real ski lift - hey, why not. Wendy and I took turns sking with E in front of us the entire way down Rams Head. E did amazing. She was able to ski just holding on to our arm the next day.

April – E starts ballet class at Munroe Art Center in Lexingon, with Miss Madeline, Saturdays at 9:00

May – up to VT to visit G&G and Whittakers Memorial Day BBQE had a blast with Xander and Colleen, running around wearing E’s beads and

June
Got elected to the Board for a second term, elected by the Board as President
Turned 40, took a vacation day for bike ride with Danny, dinner out at Tapas place in Waltham, then family party at Kris & Scott’s

Early Summer – E has a ballet recital at 9:00 followed by her gymnastics show at 3:00. She had a cold, didn’t sleep well, woke up early, and it was pouring rain and cold – wonderful. We got to the ballet recital on time and got E into her costume (whew!) She made it most of the way through the recital, then broke away from the other dancers and plopped on the floor next to us and said she didn’t want to dance anymore. We celebrated with coffee, chocolate milk, and treats at a local café. The morning excitement and sugar meant no nap, so off we went through the rain to the gymnastics show with E wearing her fancy sparkly leatoard under her dress. She didn't want to take off her dress, but did a great job at doing her stretches in front of about 200 people and got a medal around her neck. A pink cupcake after the show topped off her day.

June 28 – July 9th – LA trip (add some notes)

July 23 – Aug 6 – Nancy and Helena visit. We had a blast despite two weeks of heat wave.

Sept - E starts new ballet classes at Arlington Dance Place - very casual place, she likes it a lot better.

Sept 22 – 24 – NYC weekend, first weekend away without kids.

Paige is playing with toys and smiling at E - making her a lot more fun for her older sister. E made a "tent" for her by draping blankets over her gymenia and P took a nap in her tent. D went into the living room and saw a little hand clutching the blanket and two little eyes peeking out from the tent.

Both kids are getting huge. Paige was 14.5 at her 4 mo appt and is probably over 15 lbs now. E is almost 37" tall and must weigh about 35 lbs. At 5 months, P is just starting to sit up on her own. She hasn't tried any solid foods yet but she's ready. She's had a monster cold for almost 2 weeks so we'll wait till it's gone to let her try out some rice cereal.

E continues to expand her vocabular and speaking skills. It's a blast to hear what she'll say next. This morning it was "We need to get a present for Xander so he won't cry" (for his bday party this weekend). And "I'm a good friend to Xander". She woke up early this morning saying, "I need a fresh diaper".