Brunch with Santa

The Sunday before Christmas we went to the country club for brunch with Santa. Honestly, we were a little concerned about how this was going to go down after Finn didn't want anything to do with Santa last year on the East Haven trolley. This year was a little different since we had explained to him that Santa brings presents (I'm really not sure how long I'll be able to perpetuate this myth but we'll see). The setup was in our favor because the buffet was upstairs and you could choose whether or not to stop and see old St. Nick downstairs on the way out. Here's how it went.

Tess was up for anything!

She asked for a Lilly Pulitzer swimsuit.

The skeptic.

Tess and Caroline - her BFF born 20 days ahead of her.

We are so happy that they live just up the block!

(Her older brother is 2 months older than Finn so they are friends too).

Finally he bravely approaches, lured by the promise of a lollipop.

Lollipop=secured. Shopping cart=requested.

Success!

Christmas

Hooray for the holidays, and hooray for them being over! Ha! After a few days' recovery I wanted to get these photos up right away. Thanks to everyone who helped to make it so special - including those that we were with in person or talked to on the phone or exchanged cards with - it was really a sweet weekend. A few photos to provide evidence, below.

Upon waking and seeing presents under the tree,

Finn naturally heads straight for Tess's big present.

Aha! But then he sees his workbench.

And grocery cart. Score!

Loading his tools into the shopping cart.

It's like he was trying to play with everything at once.

Naturally it was important to begin drilling immediately.

Lots of things to fix.

Tess was so excited for her first Christmas!

And toys of her very own!

This photo is so "Mick" to me.

Is it the footie jams? The hair? The expression?

Big brother helping little sister open her presents.

What do you mean, this musical snail is not for me?

Aunt Sue and Uncle Mick sent this fantastic superhero cape.

Tess loves her new activity table.

Taking a moment to just enjoy.

Later that night... (we had taken a long break from presents)

Finn opened his stocking with Aunt Heather & Barber cousins.

"A HARMONICA!"

The next night, we posed with Tess in her Christmas hat.

Mimi knitted it (or as Finn would say, "Mimi yarned it.")

Unfortunately she won't keep it on but we have photos for posterity.

king of the juice

Mama's boots are a perfect fit.

Andrew took Finn to see the Christmas Pageant tonight at the Waverly Presbyterian Church, since it's a neat tradition and Finn pretty much loves anything with music and lights. By all accounts he was on his best behavior and very enthusiastic, clapping at all of the music and expressing pride at his grandfather who helped to change the sets.

The best part is when the narrator was talking about the "King of the Jews." Finn immediately asked Andrew (in what I'm sure was not the most quiet whisper), "WHERE'S the juice? May I have some juice?"

I'm looking forward to lots of good pre-holiday commentary - and behavior - this week.

but I'm so cute

We woke up this morning to a dusting of snow. I was very concerned that school would be delayed (and therefore cancelled, since school is only two hours) but thankfully it was on, and Finn got his kwanzaa lesson/gym time on before coming home to throw his dreidel at Tess. (Last week was the hanukah lesson). He is such a good kid most of the time but his one major flaw is his need to perpetually hurl objects ranging from cups to muffins to wooden concrete mixers. Everyone says he'll grow out of it, which is all good and well except that we've been saying that now for what feels like forever. So any advice on the *throwing* front would be much appreciated.

One nice thing today is that we really enjoyed playing by the Christmas tree since it was too cold to play outside. Finn is totally obsessed with several of the ornaments including a tiny acoustic guitar, a mini-french horn and a little crystal/nativity scene. He will use ANY excuse to take an ornament off of the tree. Usually he's playing one of the ornaments while singing Jingle Bells. Today he breathlessly rushed into the kitchen holding the nativity scene ornament, and said, "It's a HEXAGON!!" As long as we're impressed by his vocabulary he seems to think he can get away with anything. It often works, but not always.

The other cute thing he said earlier while playing on his ABC's play mat. He picked up the 'A' and I said, "What is 'A' for?" I thought he'd say 'apple' or 'ant' since those are the words in his favorite alphabet book. But he said, "A is for AUDREY!" Aww. He always talks about Aunt Sue and Uncle Mick and how "Uncle Mick lives in Japan" and sent him "Japanese crayons" ... his family is never far from his mind. That's how we're going to keep it.

Love to all of you from this very cold place!

holiday photo outtakes

We've been putting off taking a photo for our holiday card and now that Christmas is 2 weeks away decided to get serious. Here are some photos that didn't make the cut for various reasons.

I just think this one is so sweet,

the way Finn has his hand on Tess all protector-like.

Her expression here cracks me up. Wary much?

She thinks her big brother is the coolest, bestest guy ever.

I've had enough, I say. Enough!

(Finn: She's making me look good.)

Sniffles

Everyone in our house has some sort of ailment this week. This morning Tess was fussy and feverish enough to warrant another visit to the pediatrician. She had an ear infection 3 weeks ago and I thought might be more of the same. I feel so badly for her especially since Finn has never had an ear infection!

The good news is that her ears are clear and she just has a little cold. So I'm going to go on the notion that we're all on the mend. Only December! Is this what we have to look forward to? I hope not...

PS can you believe she's already in Finn's Irish sweater? I wonder if he'll notice.

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trimming the tree

I'm really glad that other relatives remember to bring their cameras to important photo-worthy events such as the first tree-trimming in our house. Thanks, Heather for these great pics!

"Hmm, where does this wreath go?"

Happy girl

Finn's input was integral to decorating the top 3/4 of the tree.

It's not that we don't trust him to leave our nice ornaments alone,

but yeah, we don't trust him. He's 2.

Digging gently through the nice box.

Look what is in Finn's stocking!

Thankful

... for many things, most of which were enumerated at our Thanksgiving table last week. It was so nice to be able to host and have family come to us this year, it felt really special. It also felt special to have our kids in their own beds so thanks again, Katy and Dario!

So today: a day with naps thwarted by a car ride that was just long enough for Finn to fall asleep for 20 minutes and then totally fresh the rest of the afternoon. My saving grace as Andrew is on his way home was F's early bedtime. It's 8 pm and they are both asleep so let's not discuss it. Let's just go downstairs to chop cauliflower. But first, a few photos.

Enzo totally gets my love of the butler's pantry.

Finn, Nana and Tess

Heather explaining to her goddaughter how to make Julia Child's pie crust

It was my first time doing a turkey and it was definitely a group effort but whoo, was it good. As far as turkey goes, anyway. It (he? it?) was delicious.

We are lucky to have a baker such as Heather in the family, don't you agree?

Dario, Enzo, Massi, Papa and Finn

Last Saturday night Andrew and Finn braved the cold on Market Street to watch the Parade of Lights. Finn was so excited about the lit-up trucks, I don't think he even noticed that he couldn't feel his feet when he got home!

three monkeys

After giving Tess a bath, I just walked into the tv room and found Finn sitting in front of my computer, saying "I'm trying to get online." He was looking for the 10-minute youtube video of garbage trucks that we watch every day and frankly I'm surprised that he didn't find it. As I'm not looking to encourage my toddler to use my macbook unsupervised, I decided to distract him by posting here ...

SOOO, we have many cute Thanksgiving photos that I'm still going through, and here's one of my favorite photos of Enzo, Finn and Massi from their bath on Friday night. Their expressions betray the energy required to play for 72 straight hours. More to come tomorrow if all goes well!

Next up turkey

Tess is practicing for tomorrow with a piece of bread. She has the squash down thanks to her 2 teeth (almost 3). Such a good eater our little almost-7-month old is!! PS yes this onesie is a hand me down from Finn.

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sick days

happy times

halloween lips

The past few days have been long, to say the least. And did I mention awful? On the plus side, Tess had her 6-month checkup last Thursday and everything was fine except for her screaming in terror from start to finish (stats: 50th pct weight, height, 95th pct head). Then, literally moments after I last posted on this very blog hoping - not bragging, just hoping - for another good night of sleep, my luck ran out. Finn was up coughing, Tess was up - inconsolable. This went on for 3 nights before we took them to the pediatrician yesterday and came to the conclusion that Finn has seasonal allergies (so glad that's all it is, and the kids claritin is helping already) and Tess has a minor ear infection. She started antibiotics and they are already helping too, but of course she can't drink any alcohol for 10 days, haha.

This morning Tess was in her crib waking up from a nap and over the monitor, I heard Finn go in and say, "Hi, Tess, hi. I'm Elmo! Ok, I'll turn on your fan now." The things he says to her crack me up.

pals

Our extremely well-considered decision (ha) to have two children so close in age is paying off as they get older and more aware of each other. It's a lot fun watching them interact now - Finn is so sweet to his baby sister and Tess thinks that he's the funniest person in the world. She really can't get enough of his antics and is always trying to hug him. I took these photos a few days ago before school when Finn asked to hold her and she was so happy.

Finn's current bedtime ritual is to "fold out the sofa like a bed and watch Beethoven/Beethoven/Buddy the Elk (aka Elf)" and that's what we're doing right now, after the closest day to sleeping perfection that parents of a toddler and infant could ask for. Let's hope it continues...

So lovable.

halloween

Don't get me wrong. I think Halloween is fun. It just took me a few days to post this, because for a few days after, I was so freakin' sick of it a break was in store. After stressing about costumes for about 30 seconds, I found these hand-me-downs from Aunt Sue and the girls, breathed a sigh of relief and ... without further ado:

The dragon - or dinosaur!

The Ladybug!

Finn loved answering the door and telling all of the kids "Happy Halloween!" Andrew and Heather took him around our block to say hi to our neighbors but he was only allowed one piece of candy because we are horrible people.

This is the best we could do with both of them. Here's hoping we have a little better luck getting them to pose for a holiday card!