the birthday girl!!

here she is, in all her 3 YEAR OLD glory ;)

happy birthday, avery!

almost there...

FANTASTIC holiday and weekend. a little glimpse of it HERE.

the next time i post we'll have a THREE year old! 3 years ago i was just getting admitted to the hospital and settling in for the next 24 hours before we could meet our little girl. love the big girl that our babygirl has grown into...happy (almost) birthday avery!!

happy thanksgiving!!

hope you all have a wonderful day celebrating family, friends and food :)



(this is nola's playdough creation from the other day. looks enough like a turkey to count ;))

a case of the mondays! (19/30)

i'm happy to report that monday brought calmer temperments and happy attitudes! no hitting (this morning at least), a happy preschooler at school, a happy toddler out running errands with mom and a relieved dad to find his girls smiling when he got home!

our thanksgiving "vacation" will start a little earlier than expected, though due to the circumstances, it's not really welcomed. zane has been fighting vertigo for a week and a half now, and though a trip to an ear/nose/throat dr on friday brought relief and "cure", it was shortlived and back to spinning on sunday. we're hoping it's because he played basketball on saturday and didn't keep his head as still as he could have for the days following his appointment (though he was only told to be careful for the remainder of that day). we're keeping our fingers crossed that after he gets retreated tomorrow, he'll be able to keep the recovery going smoothly and not have any repeat procedures! and that, 100%, would signify a happy(er) thanksgiving indeed.

oh, ps, due to zane having teacher conferences on avery's birthday and not being able to come home, we're celebrating avery's birthday on tuesday, the 30th! so, anyone planning on calling/stopping by, plan to do it a day later!! ;) she's getting too smart and this may be the only year we're able to trick her! (however, if you want to call and talk to me and coach me through having a 3 year old, when it was just YESTERDAY that i went through 23 hours of labor with her, feel free. we'll be here ;))

holy sisters. ( 18/30)

we've reached a new phase. a toddler who is testing all sorts of limits and boundaries with physical means, and a preschooler who is doing something very similar, but with more words.

it's a test of everyone's patience, endurance, consistent responses, and loving arms waiting at the end of each episode. today was an especially trying day...probably a combination of a full moon, a party we threw last night that had everyone up a bit later than usual, and no set plans for the day. (it was insane. the above picture wasn't taken today, but it might as well have been.)

these girls adore each other. when one isn't around, the other asks for them over and over. they giggle. and they chase. and they notice what the other is doing at all times. it's such a new relationship, and even in these frustrating days, amazing to watch. today, nola was in a "time-out" (sitting with me on the bottom step, removed from whatever had been happening and trying to calm down) when avery came over and gave her a hug and a kiss and said "i give you a hug so you don't cry anymore!", even though it was nola that hit avery and was supposed to be apologizing. there are things we never had to deal with or get through with just avery. she didn't have a sibling that was her size that she could whollop. she had us. and we had a better chance protecting ourselves and preventing her failing arms than she does against nola. it's all new territory.

we know the bond that's there is strong. and it's getting stronger with every hour we spend together as our family unit. and we know that the work and effort we put into this family today (and tomorrow and the next day) will pay off ten-fold down the road. but wow, this was a hard day to keep on working.

necessary and worth it, though.

finally friday (17/30)

what a week! and it's not over yet! the girls have been up (talking, whispering, playing in their beds) since before 6am. but! zane's taking a half day today to go to the dr so he'll be home early.

anyway...

see the look on avery's face? the guilty look? the "i know you told me that i'm supposed to ask you before we do this" look? yeah. when all seems to be quiet and things are too good to be true, i usually find them in the bathroom like this. brushing their teeth. both standing on the potty seat. just having a party.

i, on the other hand, am worrying about how much toothpaste they've eaten, who's going to fall off and hit their head on the toilet or radiator, how slippery the floor is going to be when they're done, and how i have a child old enough to get in the bathroom in the first place, turn on the light and get set up to brush her (and her sister's) teeth!?

it's a crazy time around here...

thankful thursday (16/30)

today i'm thankful for door locks. and neighbors.

last night i got an email from a neighbor, sent to a bunch of families. turns out earlier in the week, there were two people in the neighborhood trying to get into houses in the middle of the day. they left cleaning business cards in peoples doorways, but before they left, they checked the door handles to see if they could get in.

rewind to monday, lunchtime. i'm sitting with the girls at the table, eating and watching sesame videos. i hear someone at the door and think it's zane home from work really early. i get up to check and see the screen door close and see someone already down our steps and past our driveway. i remember thinking it was weird that they were already so far away from our door, but didn't give it much more thought.

now, back to reality. i get this email and my stomach drops and i'm shaking and think "what if the door had been unlocked and someone walked right into the house while we were here??" or "what if we were out and came home to someone in our house?" the rest of last night is a blur of me thinking irrational thoughts, zane calling the number on the business card (and talking to someone!), calling the police, talking to an office that came to our house (the woman that sent the email also filed a report), and making a plan to ensure that i/we feel as comfortable as possible here.

is it the weekend yet? :)

can't keep up! (15/30)

i might be falling behind in the blogging a bit. oh well. cheeks to nibble, clothes to wash, playdates to go to, toddlers to discipline, final projects to work on, cakes to order, etc...BUSY time of year!!

anyway, nola is 17 months today! i've said it before, but it's worth repeating...it is FLYING by. (i thought avery grew up way too fast, but this second child is just sprinting past us.) it blows me away that i was barely a couple months away from nola being born when avery was this age...it's kind of nice, i feel like i'm able to really enjoy all that is the almost 1 1/2 year old a lot more than i could when i had 9-10lbs of baby weighing me down.

i'm just exhausted. not even going to try and wrap up this post in any meaningful way. g'night.

ps, i felt in nola's mouth today and she has one more molar poking through and another just about to break through.

jungle gym (14/30)

dada was watching the football game on tv and girls were tired, so we watched some yo gabba gabba on the laptop. and the girls were in heaven...me included.

wild nights. (13/30)

well, i managed to miss posting yesterday. probably because we were in bed by 7:30 last night. yes, 7:30. zane had been feeling dizzy all day and we were both exhausted, so after the girls were in bed (around 6:00, they were exhausted too-we spent a lot of the day outside) we watched a little bit of harry potter and then went to sleep. aside from waking up at 10pm to get avery more water and feeling like it was 5am, it was a good move and i felt more awake today than i have in a while.

so that's that. and now it's 9:15 and even though i'm not very tired i should go to sleep cause these next few weeks are going to be insane and a bit stressful.

but tonight avery said "thanks for making dinner, you guys"
and (after she put a witch hat on zane)
"now, let me see how cute you look!"
and that is enough to get me through the stress :)

yay shutterfly!

i read about a promotion on shutterfly for bloggers-50 free cards! since i'm (for once!) ahead of the game and already thinking about christmas cards, this came at a perfect time!!

last year (see above), we used shutterfly for our "oops, we have 2 kids and are still adjusting and didn't get our acts together to send christmas cards, so we'll send new years cards instead! and that will also set us apart from the crowd a bit!" we loved how they came out. fun colors, fun design, and enough room to include pictures, some text and space to write a little personal note. (plus, the shutterfly cards seemed to be slightly cheaper than a lot of other photo sites, major plus when you're at home with the kiddos and missing an extra paycheck!!) anyway, this year will be a little different! we'll be lumped in with all the other christmas cards you receive...but i have faith that our card will be just as memorable :)
here are some of my favorites...

in general, i tend to like the cards that don't have the traditional red and green
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/retro-chic-christmas-card?sortType=1&storeNode=93476&fc=1

i also like when the cards don't specifiy the holiday..."holiday" works wonderfully for me :)

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/mod-snowflakes-christmas-card?sortType=1&storeNode=93476&fc=1

any maybe my most favorite, and one i'd use if i had a decent family picture of the 4 of us!!

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/joy-in-color-christmas-card?sortType=1&storeNode=93476&fc=1

go take a look at all shuttefly has to offer! you won't be disappointed. how awesome of a deal is this??? so, if you're a blogger and are interested, go for it!

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly -- Sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010:

budding artists (12/30)

the first time nola didn't just eat the crayons and markers! yay!


avery's drawing of me. her first drawing of a person with more than just a head. so proud ;) (funny, i asked her what was under my mouth, expecting her to say it was a belt. her response: "it's a line, mama!")

thankful thursday (11/30)

i'm thankful i get to observe their friendship and connection grow stronger everyday.

bigger is better. (10/30)

when jackie and mike came out to boston last spring, they took amazing pictures. mike is a photographer in arizona and was WONDERFUL enough to take some impromptu pictures of the girls while they were visiting. we had professional pictures of avery when she was a baby, and i always felt a little guilty that we haven't done any more, especially with nola. but now i don't have to worry :)
anyway, there was a deal on a photo site the other week to buy some 8x10's and you'd get 100 prints free. so i picked out 2 of my favorite pictures of the girls, not an easy task. but they are PERFECT. only problem? they're way too small...i wanted them to be the only things on our mantle. (i also plan to get better frames for them). long story short, i love these prints so much that i want them to be larger than life :)

quote of the day! (9/30)

nola brings me a dvd case.
avery comes over to us: "we're not watching a movie, nola. i didn't listen. maybewhen i take a good nap, we can watch it. but not right now. sorry."

we must be doing something right?!