Privacy, please

Tess is sitting on the toilet and asked me for some privacy, so I'm taking advantage of the next five minutes by posting quickly. The photo of the kids in our snowy driveway was taken last week and thankfully Finn is as enthusiastic about shoveling as I am (for real - some weeks it's the only exercise I get!) We were out yesterday for an hour and cleared the way for the 50' degree weather heading here in a couple of days. I can't WAIT. Even though it's only a respite in winter, it will be a welcome one.

The big news in our house is that our new Vitamix blender arrived this weekend and we've already made a half-dozen smoothies (sneaking in vegetables, heh heh) and fruit juices and WOW. How have I been feeding my family without this thing? Last night after dinner I made peach sorbet, it took all of 3 minutes and tasted delicious. But halfway through her bowl, Tess told me she was "sorbeted out." In her defense, she is on Day 5 of a pesky cold, but still ... I've never been sorbeted out in my life so I'm not sure where she got that one.

weekend trip

We scooted up to Rochester for a quick road trip this weekend and had a great time. This photo was taken at Eastview Mall, which has real stores, unlike our local mall. Tess has a thing for merry-go-rounds so she was pretty much in heaven. Finn is less of a daredevil and prefers to sit on benches. Benches on the merry-go-rounds. Because moving up and down on the horse is too intense. He is a funny kid.

Tess has discovered the art of using the potty to avert naptime. This afternoon she was jumping in her crib yelling, "I need to go POTTY!" So of course I relented and took her to the bathroom, where she had been approximately five minutes before, and ten minutes before that. She asked for some water and said, "I'm going to pretend that I'm a grown up. I'm sitting on the potty. And this is my wine."

Never a dull moment around here!

Super Juniors

Finn had his first golf lesson this morning - that's him in the white shirt. Andrew said he did great despite being the youngest kid there. He now knows more than anyone else in our house about golf.

First pigtail

She was so proud. Maybe by the time she's three she will have sufficient hair for two pigs!

Merry Christmas!

I insist that you have a happy holiday!

We are having a great day and wish you a Merry Christmas from Corning.

"sugar" cookies

While I went to yoga this morning, the kids stayed home with Daddy and made cookies out of their new play-doh (which was supposed to be a Christmas present ... I should learn to hide things better!) We made REAL sugar cookies yesterday and unlike me, they must have been in the mood to make more. Maybe next year we'll try out some of these cool frosting colors!

Merry Christmas eve-eve-eve! says a very serious Tess.

MMMMM!

Granddad jams

Finn loves it when I tell him he looks like granddad in these pajamas. He's even holding the paper for the full effect!!

Silent Night

The first in what will hopefully be a series of impromptu holiday recitals by our little songbird.

Art

I'm looking for a little bit if levity after hearing about sad things happening to good people and lo and behold, I stumbled upon the Sock Santa that Finn made last year in school. I think he needs his own Etsy store.

Transcript

I was typing sneakily while Finn was using the bathroom, because I really wanted to give you an idea of what we talk about every day:

Slimey and Wormey live in a house that's even bigger than ours. They don't know if the public is the right type of buildings that they need if they use cranes, so they use bucket trucks that they just SLAM onto the wet concrete foundation and stick the wood on the concrete and add grout if you want to put tile there. And they build all of the skyscrapers and hotels and Dollar Trees and houses in all of the North Carolina. The New York City. The Corning. They need cranes for all of the skyscrapers. And then on Christmas they eat cake with their family. They celebrate every day with the star on top of the tree and they make the cake and Slimey buys some and Wormey and the others make the cake. All five of them. Wormey, Slimey, their sister and their mom and dad. So that's five. Two and two make four. One and two and two make five. That's five.

bedtime

It has taken years, but we now have some nice bedtime rituals. Finn rarely takes a nap anymore so by 7:15 he is so exhausted that he sometimes asks to go to bed. We've been reading "Charlotte's Web" in the evenings but lately he's been too tired to even listen to me read.

Tess, on the other hand, wants to read books and cuddle on the sofa and say good night to the world and talk about the current phase of the moon with me, followed by fifteen minutes of songs in the rocking chair with Andrew. It is hilarious listening to her dictate what to sing to him ... translations are in parentheses.

Andrew: What would you like me to sing?
Tess: WISE MEN! [I Can't Help Falling in Love with You.]

A: What would you like next?
T: MAMA PAJAMAS. [Me & Julio Down by the Schoolyard.]

A: Ok, last song...
T: Holy Child (yawn, thumb in mouth, so very drowsy.) [Silent Night.]

Good Night.

Tree trim

We had a nice and busy holiday weekend. Ate turkey, begged for more of aunt heather's pie from cousin emily, had great family time, slept in a bit (all the way to 7am) and put up the tree! Also went to the glass museum sale and are getting geared up for the Christmas season. Please pray that our tree remains upright for the rest of the year. These kids are worse than kittens!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you all a lovely and warm holiday.

seriously

[3 pm, in car, listening to "Exile on Main Street" ... again. Per both kids' request.]
Finn: Is this four guys?
Me: Yes, it's four guys.
F: Is one of them a drummer?
Me: Yes. He's a serious drummer.
F: (quietly) I'm a serious drummer.

little mayor

We often call Finn "the little mayor" because some of his personality traits lead us to believe that he'll have a future in public service - the winning smile, the great head of hair, never meets a stranger (unless stranger is walking a dog in which case, sayonara), his ability to delegate ("Stand there on that rug; I have a few things to tell you while I go to the bathroom") and negotiate ("I only need six pieces of candy. Ok, four. Ok, three it is.")

However, I've realized before and was reminded again today while in the kitchen making soup and listening to this conversation through the window, that he probably won't get too far thanks - and thankfully - to his complete and utter inability to lie. Then again, he's only four. There's time to learn.

Daddy: You guys need to stop throwing rocks into the lawn. I mean it. Finn, did you hear me?
Finn: It was Tess's fault.
Tess: I'm so sorry, Daddy. I threw the rocks.
Finn: (sigh) I encouraged her.

Sundays

The kids love Sundays because it means a "day off" from the drudgery of everyday life in the coal mines and garment factories. We are going to be outside ALL afternoon enjoying one of our scarce almost-70 degree days.

Here is a photo of Tess in song. She loves to sing... We are still working on the words to Silent Night though as she keeps talking about the holy child in danger.

This morning Finn burst in at 7:01 saying, "can you believe we all slept in til seven-zero-zero???!!!" It was pretty great actually!

City Trip

We went down to New York City last week for a quick visit (pre-Sandy; thank goodness and also, we are sad for our friends without electricity or even worse, their homes). We had a fun if not very relaxing few days, saw lots of friends, though not as many as i had ambitiously planned to see, and of course top billing goes to Aunt Heather for watching the kids while I got m y haircut and now feel like myself for the first time since 2009.

First subway ride (appropriately, the 1 train - also my first subway experience.)

First cab ride.

Aunt Heather helping Finn with his first papaya hot dog.

Madison Square Park!

Loving the big city playground.

We stayed at Andrew's cousin's apartment, a full-service building with a PLAYROOM that had a BALL PIT! Finn said that his favorite things about NYC were, in order: The ball pit, the skyscrapers and the Lincoln Tunnel.

Brooklyn dinner parties are TOUGH WORK.

Halloween!

Our very adorable snowy owl and very happy crane with wrecking ball had a super fun Halloween! The weather wasn't great but we went to see a few neighbors, now I'd like another excuse for them to wear these costumes ASAP. Thanks to Mimi and Papa for their costume-making talent.

Last-minute crane fix with Snowy Owl.

I love the Owl's pose in the background.

Snowy Owl <3 p="p">

Happy Crane!

They look the same, but...

Me: We are all going to New York City tomorrow and we're going to see lots of friends! And we will go to parks and see the High Line.
Tess: (gasp) The High Line?! GREAT!!!!
Finn: I'm going to stay home and play trucks.

serious princess

This might be my new favorite picture, despite her quasi-sullen expression. Thanks to my friend Jennifer (mom of the little girl with the princess birthday party) for forwarding this one along.