Everyone Has To Pitch In.

One disadvantage to working remotely is that I lack the support staff that would typically help me wrangle the thousands of pages of documents generated in litigation.  So instead of neatly filed documents, I have boxes and stacks of documents tucked into many corners of our home.  Although I don’t have an at-home paralegal, I do have this tiny stand-in (or sit-in as the case may be). 

There’s a fine line between filing and eating.  Apparently, lawsuits are tasty business.

It’s like having a paper shredder, except this particular paper shredder is of the two-teeth variety.

I’ve Got The Joy.

For some reason that I can’t exactly put my finger on, I have been relishing every moment spent with my children even more than I usually do.  To be clear, on an average day, I am borderline obsessed with my children (hence the blog).  I think everything they say/do is hysterical and photograph them ad nauseum.  But for the past week, I have felt especially grateful for them, for my family, for my life.  They haven’t been especially well-behaved or extra obsequious, so I will just chalk it up to joy.  Joy to have two children that are healthy and, in my fair and objective opinion, exceptional.  Joy to get to watch their lives and personalities unfold before my eyes.  Joy to have a life marked with the laughter, squeals, chatter, antics, triumphs and small tragedies of the two girls I love the most.  Today, I am perfectly content in my contentment.  And here are the reasons why.

 

Fingers Cautiously Crossed.

We are having trouble figuring out the crazy weather around here.  Here’s Avery last week playing in the snow.

And here we are a mere one week later playing outside in the park with little to no outerwear. 

Really, Avery was playing, and Claire was diligently attempting to eat sand. 

We are quietly, secretly hoping to ourselves that maybe we’ve seen the last of real winter weather.  I’m sort of afraid to even type it because I don’t want to jinx it.  [Sidenote: Yes, I absolutely believe in jinxing.  Anytime I remark how anything related to the children is going well, said children immediately undergo some kind of meltdown.]  We desperately  need some sunshine, and I somehow don’t think we’re going to make it anywhere tropical anytime soon.  So we are hoping, praying, wishing to find those rays in our own backyard. 

We want less of this

and more of this.

Anatomy of a Heart Party.

Right before Valentine’s Day, AJS hosted a party for the kids in our neighborhood.  It was somewhat of an impromptu affair.  We had all been so busy at the end of January, but, once life slowed down in February, we decided we had just enough time to pull together a kid party.  We hosted 13 children and their parents for a Valentine’s Day Social. We went simple with the decorations – your typical crepe paper and balloons motif. 

We also went simple with the food – light on the entrees and heavy on the sweets – perfect kid fare.  PB&J and raspberry cream cheese clubs plus pigs in a blanket for the kids and chicken salad croissants for the adults. 

On the sweet end of the table, we served bright red cake balls, Valentine’s cookies, cookie bark and chocolate, sprinkle-dipped marshmallows.

As for the entertainments . . . you guessed it . . . simple (are you sensing a theme?).  We rounded up beaucoups of dollar store jewelry with which the girls adorned themselves, pushed all our living room furniture against the walls, and put on some music for dancing.  This also explains why I have lots of pictures of the food, decorations, etc., but barely any kid pics.  The kids were all in motion as soon as they hit the door, so all my pictures turned out blurry.  Here’s one blurry pic of Avery – mid-dancing, decked out in accessories.  

As some of her guests arrived, Avery said “we have accessories over here.”  Such a polite hostess.  The dancing was a smash hit for about an hour, and then they hit Avery’s room and played with every toy.  Her room looked a bit natural distaster-ish afterwards, but it was totally worth it.

Life.

Here are a few pictures of what we’ve been up to the past few days.  Yep, you guessed it – what we’ve been up to is the business of babies.

Getting a donut with her dad.  Even Cinderella needs her sugar fix.  You may not realize it, but this picture is history in the making.  Avery has never before consented to have any donut but a pink one, but that day – sprinkles!  Just like that, change can happen.  Of course, this was her third donut, and the first two were pink.  Three donuts may be setting off your “bad parent” alarms, but she only eats the tops off the donuts.  Not sure if that makes it better or worse.

Avery helping get Claire out of bed after her nap.  You may notice that Claire looks a bit uneasy about Avery invading her territory.  Claire knows that nothing is sacred around here.

Brunch with the family on Sunday.  Avery is giddy – Mickey Mouse pancakes and bacon do that to the girl. 

A father-daughter(s) trip to PBK.  Avery takes a relaxed approach to shopping.

You may also notice that Avery’s sporting a newly chopped ‘do.  She got a haircut last week, which was overdue as her nickname around the house was Crystal Gayle.  It looks cute, but what you can’t see is the ragged chunk in the back caused by excessive wiggling. 

That is our weekend in a nutshell, holding, feeding, entertaining the tiny girls who live in our house.  We hope your weekend was as pleasant as ours!

A Happy Valentine’s To You.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you, friends!  We hope that, however you’re celebrating this day, it is fabulous. 

Monday Morning Confessions.

On the rare occasion that Claire and I have one on one time without Avery, we try to make the most of it.  As a second child with an older sister with a strong sense of self, Claire already is aware of the pecking order.  She also knows that Avery will not let her come within a city block of any of Avery’s toys without me absolutely forcing Avery to share with her.  But don’t worry, Claire gets hers.  It is possible that I might dump out a tub of Avery’s favorite toys and let Claire go to town while Avery is asleep.  And if I did do that, I would also have to de-slobber them afterwards because I am guessing Claire would try to shove all of them in her mouth.  If I was ever to do that, this is what I would imagine it would look like. 

Moving in for the kill, happy anticipation plastered all over her face.

Victory is hers – Pluto is her first victim (hypothetically, of course).

This is my favorite.  You can’t tell, but she is trying to cram every inch of Ray (firefly from Princess & The Frog, bien sur) into her mouth.  This is the last picture because I had to put down the camera and de-firefly her mouth.

Of course, those photos were just reenactments to make the scenario come to life, for artistic purposes, etc.  We would never actually do that.  Claire is a very skilled actress.

Avery-isms.

Avery says things on an hourly basis that make me laugh.  Some of these would not be amusing coming from an adult, but are hilarious (to me at least) from the mouth of a three year old.  So here’s a quick rundown of her recent quotes ‘n quips.

“For my next birthday party, I want a Prince Charming party because he is really handsome.”  On a sidenote, I object to this one since it seems like we just finished cleaning up from her third birthday party.

“I asked Claire if she wanted me to share this toy with her, but she is not answering me.”  Convenient.

“I think Claire is almost grown up now.”  Seems unlikely.

“My mom ripped your top, Cinderella, but we can pretend that it’s okay.”  I must admit, I did rip Cinderella’s top.  Clearly, we don’t let anything slide around our house.

“Have a good nap, mommy.”  She says this to me almost daily when I put her down for her nap.  I think it makes her feel better to think that I am taking a nap, too.  And, no, I didn’t tell her that.

“Do you remember yesterday when I was two?”  This is the lead-in to many different conversations about things we did when she two.  As for the “yesterday” part, everything in the past is “yesterday” to her.

“I’m going to go to the zoo with Lily while you do your homework, mommy.”  She told me this one just this week as she was leaving with her nanny.  I guess she thinks my job is homework?  No idea.

“When I grow up, I want to be a mommy and have a baby of my own and name her Belle.”  Hopefully she will make some stops along the way, college (boomer), job (POTUS?), etc.  Lucky little Baby Belle.

She’s also constantly using words she’s heard in books that take my by surprise, e.g., “Cinderella exclaimed . . . ”  A few months back she told me she was going “to dine al fresco” when we were preparing for a picnic.  That is a direct Fancy Nancy reflection – parents of daughters, you know what I’m talking about.  Hearing what Avery has to say makes me excited to hear what’s on Claire’s mind, although I have learned that these somewhat silent baby days can be golden (like when Avery tells me her dinner is “gross”).

Cute, Crawling Claire.

We have been so swept up in the daily whirr of life that I have neglected to mention a few milestones in little CCS’s life.  This never would have happened with Avery.  When Avery was a baby (and a toddler, and a kid), we documented every breath that came from her mouth and likely publicized it.  Avery rolled from back to front? Call the press.  Avery rolled from front to back?  Perhaps a celebratory dinner is in order.  Avery looked at me adoringly?  Let’s get that baby a new toy.  We never would have delayed to tell you about a milestone in Avery’s life.  Ah the plight of the second child, Claire.  It’s not that we love you less (what’s not to love?) – we love you just as intensely but filtered through a veil of fatigue. 

Back to to the big news.  Claire is crawling.  In the midst of my crazy work schedule over the past few weeks, Claire transitioned from furious scooting to bona fide crawling.  Fortunately for this mamma’s fragile heart, she made this transition on a Saturday, right in front of my face.  She has been on the brink since well before Christmas – rocking frantically, belly crawling across The Blanket.  I cajoled, sweet-talked, and incentivized the hooey (and yes, “hooey” is a technical term) out of that baby to get her to do it, but she was having none of it.  

And just in case you’re thinking what I was thinking, I basically made Jerrod sign a sworn affidavit that she had not secretly started crawling during the week while I was gone.  Although if he was ever going to perjure himself, this might have been worth it because I think he could sense that I might not handle it well if my precious baby finally started to crawl while I was away.  Nothing can ever be sweeter than having a front row seat to my babies’ milestones and picking them up and kissing their chubby faces, aglow with accomplishment.   So Claire has checked another box off of her “to do” list, and I have logged another memory into our shared mommy-Claire history. 

Daddies. Daughters. Adorable.

I have been sitting on details of a quite adorable event for too long now, and I must share.  About a week ago, Avery and Jerrod went to a Daddy-Daughter Dance.  Yes, the cuteness potential was incalculable, and it delivered.  We forgot about it until about 4:30 the afternoon of the dance, at which time we told Avery that she and her dad were going to a dance that evening.  I was not sure if Avery would be excited, want to go, not want to go, etc.  She immediately asked to put her party dress on and wore it until they left for the dance approximately two hours later. 

And, there was a sizeable pre-dance commentary.  She talked non-stop about how she was going to a ball.  She immediately dubbed herself Cinderella and Jerrod, Prince Charming.  She told me that I was the fairy godmother because I gave her the party dress.  Perfectly sensible.  The best part was that she said that Claire was Gus the mouse (the chubby mouse from Cinderella for you non-princess followers out there) because Claire has a big, fat tummy (Claire objects).  I was pleased with how this particular role play shook out, but was less pleased with the role distribution when she switched to Sleeping Beauty about 30 minutes before the “ball.”  She naturally was Sleeping Beauty, Jerrod was Prince Phillip, but I had to be Malificent.  I asked her if I could just be Sleeping Beauty’s mom, but she said “no.”  Avery giveth, and Avery taketh away. 

After all that build-up, we put the finishing touches on her ensemble, and they were off.  The excitement was palpable.

If you made me predict how the evening would unfold, I would have said that Avery would have observed the dancing for about an hour or so and then would have consented to dance by the end of the night.  Not so.  Jerrod said she hit the floor the moment they arrived at the dance and that he had to drag her away for a brief dinner break.  I think there was a bit of a scene when they left.  Jerrod said that she danced with every girl there.  Who knew?  My daughter the dancing queen.