Christmas 2013

Susie and I won’t be winning mother-of-the year awards for this Christmas.  We had 4 Christmas parties this year.  I have 3 pictures total.  I thought this was not possible so I told Susie to email me any Christmas pictures she had, thinking she certainly has more—maybe we were using her phone.  She had 3 pictures total, and really only 2 because one was a duplicate of Tommy sleeping!!  In our defense the Holidays were different this year between moving and the absence of Susie’s dad.  We had Christmas at Great Grandma Krumm on the 21^st.  Christmas Eve at Kelly and Dave’s, complete with a visit from Santa.  Christmas morning at our house with our little family and Grandma Morawitz.  And Christmas day brunch at Grandma and Grandpa McNamara’s.  The kids got spoiled by everyone.  The holidays were wonderful, we just don’t have a lot of photographic evidence this year.  Merry Christmas to all!

We took the kids to see Santa at Farm and Home

Maggie decorating cookies at Great Grandma Krumm's

Tommy sleeping in his Christmas pjs

Maggie opening a bear mask from her cousin Reagan

And a Frozen Doll

Tommy opening one of his gifts

 

This is what Susie and I get for the next 30 years:

I Can See You Now

Maggie had her 4 year well child appointment on December 23^rd.  I didn’t take a single photo.  I was so thrown by her vision test that rest of the appointment was a blur for me.  We did Maggie’s height and weight.  Then her blood pressure and pulse.  And then nurse Janet asked Maggie to read the shapes on the vision test on the back of the door.  She started down at 20/20, where the lines are pretty small and started going up until Maggie could read a whole line.  We got all the way to the giant top line and that one wasn’t even right!  And this was with both eyes, not even covering one.  So anyways we left with a referral for an eye doctor.  Everything else checked out wonderfully. Here were her stats:
Growth Percentiles

Weight: 93%ile based on CDC 2-20 Years weight-for-age data.

Length: 87%ile based on CDC 2-20 Years stature-for-age data.

BMI: Body mass index is 17.6 kg/(m^2). 93%ile based on CDC 2-20 Years BMI-for-age data.

Two weeks later we went and saw the eye doctor.  I was still optimistic that everything might be alright.  Susie and I have never once thought she had trouble seeing.  I have never seen her squint.  She has never said a word about her eyes.  Her teachers at school couldn't believe it either because she writes so well.  I was thinking that she was just nervous when she tried to read the chart.  The machine at the eye doctor doesn’t lie.  She has a pretty severe astigmatism for her age.  In fact there was a $10 up charge for the extra thick lenses she would need. :)  She picked out some pretty purple Hello Kitty glasses.  A week later there were in.  On January 14^th Maggie officially started wearing glasses.  She has to wear them at all times, besides sleeping.  There is a chance her eyes could improve over time, not sure if it will ever be enough to be able to stop wearing glasses.  She is doing great with them though and takes good care of them.  She looks so grown up in them.  And it already seems weird to see her without them. 

Picking up her glasses at the clinic

2 eyes or 4 eyes, she is still perfect to us

Maggie's 4th Birthday Blowout

Maggie turned 4 on December 11^th.  I can’t believe she is 4 already.  Maggie is getting so smart and independent but is still sweet and loves to cuddle.  She is more than we could have ever hoped for.  She makes us proud daily.  On her actual birthday we let her open her gifts from us.  These weren’t all that exciting because her big gift from us this year is Foss swimming lessons.  Then on Saturday we had her party with her cousins.  Grandma was nice enough to host.  Maggie really wanted a Barbie cake after seeing Ella’s at her birthday party.  She picked Max and Ruby theme this year.  She has been obsessed with that show all year so it was fitting.  The cousins ate pizza, opened presents, had cake and went sledding afterwards.  I think we get fresh snow every year on Maggie’s birthday party.  On Monday Grandma Morawitz arrived and the birthday party continued for one more night.  Maggie really enjoyed her birthday this year and ended up with some pretty amazing gifts.  Thanks to everyone.   Happy Birthday Buggy!  We love you! 

Don't ask why but Maggie has been begging for her own fly-swatter for a long time.  Dreams do come true :)  She was pumped.

Tearing into one of her gifts from us

Her new swimsuit for her "big girl" swimming lessons we got her

Her Playmobil swimming pool.  I think she played with it for 3 hours straight that night.

A mini cake on the night of her actual birthday

The morning of her cousin party we let her open a new dress

Gift opening

Tommy doesn't usually know what is going on but we have discovered he loves parties.

Maggie got lots of new TEA dresses and leggings from Grandma

Admiring her Barbie cake with Ella and Lucy

Most of the cousins

 

All of the cousins--if you look close Evelyn is hiding behind Ella's hat

 

A cat peeking in the window

Maggie got a new dance outfit for her American Girl doll, "Dolly"

Opening a gift from Aunt Susan

Opening her big gift from Grandma Morawitz

And she is excited! It was Molly.  She couldn't believe it.  So now she has Molly and Dolly, just perfect.

Opening Molly's accessories, how interesting it is that Molly has glasses.

 

And a new dress from Aunt Susan

Trinity Christmas Program

On December 13^th Maggie and Tommy had their Christmas program at Trinity.  Maggie’s class sang 3 songs and Tommy’s class played angels.  Both Grandma and Great Grandma Krumm came to watch so the kids were excited about that, well at least Maggie was.  As soon as she walked out on stage and it got quiet she yelled out “Where are you Grandma”.  And then started smiling and dancing in place when she found her in the audience.  It was one of the cutest things I have ever heard/seen.  We have some good videos but they are large so I need to edit them down.  For now here are some not-so-good pictures. 

Maggie was the letter "S" in one of the songs

Tommy making his entrance as an Angel

 

Tommy wasn't sure what was going on but there were no tears

Maggie talking with Great Grandma Krumm after the show

Maggie with her grandmas, I requested a pretty smile, this is what we got.

Our Little Tree

We were just going to skip getting a real tree or putting up our big fake tree this year since we were going to be moving on December 20^th.  The rental house was so tiny that we honestly didn’t have room for a big tree and who wants to set it up just to take it down again to move and then set up again at the new house.  Well Maggie asked just about every single day, starting after Thanksgiving, about when we were going to get our big tree.  Susie and I eventually felt bad enough and decided the kids needed a tree.  After school one day I took the kids to Home Depot and let them pick out a 3’ pre-lit tree.  No assembly required.  Maggie wanted a big light up star for the top and a box of bells to hang on it.  Both kids loved the tree and looked at it every day, even though there wasn’t much to look at.  We had 3 ornaments on it, (the 3 new ones we bought this year—1 for each kid and a family one…it’s a tradition), bells, and star on top.  Once we moved me set it up at the new house too. 

Maggie hanging the bells we bought that night

Maggie was very proud of the color changing star

Maggie's Trip to MOA

For the past 2 or 3 years we have let Maggie pick something fun she would like to do with one of her mommies for birthday.  A special "get out of daycare/school" for the day with no brother to slow her down.  This year as with every other year she has picked going on rides at MOA as her special treat. Mommy Susie took the day off of work and her and Maggie hit the rides and the popcorn stand.  They both love popcorn so I heard it was quite the battle to get their hands in the bag and a race to eat it... :)   Happy pre-birthday day, Maggie!

 

 

 

Milestone Mania!

We reached two big milestones: Tommy is walking (well running by this point) and Maggie no longer has training wheels on her bike.  Tommy officially joined the 2-legged club back in October, right before his 13 month birthday.  Fast forward to now and he is fast on his feet.  Loves to run with items in his hands and loves to get chased.  He no longer wants to ride in carts at the store which can be very frustrating for both of us.  He looks like such a little man when he walks.  These video were taken a long time ago when he was first figuring it out.



 

 

I am so proud of Maggie!  I swear I never pushed her to learn to ride at bike a such a young age, just merely gave her the tools to do so and encouraged her to practice.  This spring/summer I bought her a pink strider balance bike.  At first she would ride it in the hallway of our house maybe a couple times a week.  Then she kind of got over it and went back to riding her bike with training wheels.  Sometime mid-late summer she found an interest in her “pink bike” (the strider again) and we started going for real long bike rides but on the balance bike.  So that meant she was pushing and gliding with her little legs for 2 miles.  This fall after moving into our rental house in Hudson we started riding the balance bike to the park almost every day after school.  It was like her balance “clicked” one day and all of a sudden she was pushing and gliding a full city block at a time.  That in itself made me very proud.  Then on December 1^st, which happened to be one of the last bearable days before the snow and cold rolled in full time, Maggie woke up, ate breakfast and said to me,  “let’s take the training wheels off my blue bike”.  I have taken the training wheels of several times in the past and it usually lasted for 2 minutes.  So once Tommy went down for a nap we went out and took her training wheels off and I literally held onto her for 3 seconds and she was off and doing it by herself.  I am pretty sure I was screaming.  I was so proud of her.  She instantly had it all figured out.  It took maybe 10 times of going straight up and down the block to get brave enough to try and turn but she eventually did it and it became second nature to her.  That evening we let her ride her bike to the park for the first time ever without training wheels.  Now that the ground is covered with snow, I only hope she doesn’t forget how to do it when spring comes.  Maggie makes us so happy and proud each and every day. 

Earrings!

She did it!  About two weeks ago, I picked Maggie up from school and out of the blue she said,  “I am ready to get my ears pierced.  Can we go get real earrings?”  At first I was skeptical we have been in piercing places several times and not been able to close the deal.  I think it was a Thursday night and we would normally never venture out a work/school night but she seemed pretty serious so I thought we should strike while the coals were hot.  We dropped Tommy off at home with mommy Susie and headed to Claire’s in Woodbury.  I was giving her pep talks the whole way and reminding her how proud I was of her.  Once we arrived, she picked out the earrings she wanted and climbed in the chair.  She seemed nervous but stayed strong.  They gave her a bear to squeeze and did both ears at the same time.  Maggie didn’t even shed a tear.  I am pretty sure I made a worse face then she did.  It looked pretty painful.  I let her pick out several pairs of earnings and she got to bring home the bear.  She has since named her Curly Shirley.  The first few days of cleaning and turning them were a battle with lots of tears.  Just recently she willing lets us clean them and touch them.   The bummer is she lost an earring on Thanksgiving and by the next morning when we realized one was missing, the hole had already closed.  We ran back over to Claire’s hoping they could pop it back in but they said the hole had closed completely.  So she has to wait a week and get it re-pierced.  I hope she is just as brave the second time around.  J