Our Christmas at home 2011

Christmas came and went so fast this year, and it's hard to believe it's our third Christmas in our home!  Watching it all go by while literally sitting on the couch, came with some good and bad sides to it.  The good part was I was able to avoid the crowds by doing virtually ALL of our Christmas shopping online at home (or sending my poor mom out to hunt for things).  And of course I was SO thankful to not be spending Christmas in the hospital on bed rest or with a premature baby.  (Side note:  Tomorrow I'll be 32 weeks pregnant and haven't had any contractions or any signs that this baby may be coming early so every day gets better!  I don't go back to the specialist until Jan 11, so we'll see what happens then).  Ok, back to Christmas. 

Vince had been speaking for MONTHS about the Thomas Trains that he wanted to get from Santa this year, and when Christmas morning came, he dug through all the presents under the tree until he found any small wrapped items that might possibly be the right size for a train.  He quickly located the three trains that Santa got him, ripped them open like a Tazmanian Devil, and then poof... he was off to his train table in the sun room..... never mind the tricycle, and the wagon that was overloaded with more Christmas presents to open! 

Then there was Zoë, who was content to just poke her finger through wrapping paper and then continue in her daily task of shifting Christmas ornaments from one part of the tree to another... or just completely ripping them off to hide them in another part of the house.  She did eventually realize the potential for the toys that were opened, and with increasing interest she opened and played with her presents..... and she does love her stroller!  (Vince loves the stroller too, which creates a lot of fun when they both want it)

Christmas Eve was spent with the same family as last year, we headed over to Danielle and Kevin's for a wonderful Italian feast.  Max, Vince and Zoë each got to open one present.  It was amazing how quickly the house went from nice and clean, to a mash of ripped up paper everywhere!   Vince and Max got their own fisher price cameras, while Zoë got a fun ball game. 

 Isn't she a little Angel in this dress!

I snuck out again for church that evening, here we are trying to keep the kids somewhat quiet

And some pictures of Christmas morning! Grandma got a nice box of wine from Vince and Zoë

Vince and Zoë finally trying out their wagon, chocolate in hand.  Zoë double fisting her Christmas chocolate treats!

And getting crazy on her sugar rush....

 And so begins the many requests for wagon rides around the house

 finally we made it outside to try the wagon, it was a gorgeous day!  Vince even got a blue lollipop to make his mouth match his jacket

 Merry Christmas! 

We had a wonderful dinner that Nonna and Pop-Pop brought, and it was just a relaxing day of eating and enjoying company.  Unfortunately I failed to get any other pictures of the day... and I'm convinced our family is cursed with picture taking follies, but that's another story.   

An Elf on the Shelf SNAFU

We had a little incident with our Elf Gordon the other day.  Well, he fell off the shelf while I was trying to place a note next to him that Vince wrote to give to Santa.  The whole thing happened as if it were in slow motion.  Me innocently reaching up to lay the note next to Gordon, Gordon falling to his fate, Vince standing there watching the whole time, and his poor little face morphing into a panic stricken mess, while he screamed out "Gordon is down!!", tears streaming down his face. He looked over at me with a face I'll never ever forget, completely perplexed and in crisis.  As if things couldn't get any worse, I then almost violated the greatest Elf rule you could ever break, I reached out to pick Gordon up when Vince shrieked at the top of his lungs that I would make Gordon lose his magic if I touched him.  Yes of course, how could I forget that important piece!  Needless to say, Vince was TRAUMATIZED by the whole thing, and we are still picking up the pieces of what is now known in our family as the 'Great Gordon Tragedy'. 

Gordon, shortly after his fall

You'll be happy to know that Gordon only suffered minor abrasions, and his magic is still in full force.  He did have to spend 2 nights in the North Pole with Santa to get totally healed up, but when he came back to our house he had a note for Vince explaining that Santa had made him all better, and things were business as usual with our house Elf.  There was a little blurb about how Santa wished Vince would listen to his mommy and daddy a little bit better but that was just a minor detail in the note that Vince chose to overlook.  He does mention here and there that he's worried about Gordon, but I think things are slowly getting back to normal.  whew!

Bed Rest Field Trip

Today I snuck out of the house for a little while so I could attend Vince's first ever school concert (and regain some sanity)!  I'm SOOO happy and grateful I was able to attend his holiday concert, and I have this high risk pregnancy to thank haha!  I would have otherwise been at work today, and Vince would have missed having a parent to wave to in the audience.  He didn't see me at first, and was just waving blindly to everyone like the teacher was telling him to do.  But when he saw me, his face lit up like a little Christmas tree, and then he would wave to me in between each song.  My heart would melt each time.  Such a special day!
The poor little girl that stood next to Vince stared blankly into the audience, with her hands in her mouth, and was frozen with stage fright the whole time.  At one point Vince decided to break her freeze and he attacked her hat, which sent her into a small tailspin of a melt down.  It was all quickly remedied by an intervening teacher and some Christmas bells that were passed out to each kid for the song Jingle Bells.  

There's nothing like watching your 3 year old belt out Christmas songs, and I couldn't have been prouder.  He did want to skip all the songs and get right to "Holly Jolly Christmas", which is his specialty.... and when it was time for that song Mrs. Ward let him announce it because he was bugging out with excitement that it was actually time to sing it. Leave it to us to have the only child not wearing a nice Christmas outfit... although the guitar shirt is pretty cool I must say

 On the home front, I've reduced our family to having to wear matching Christmas pajamas... I can't help it, these two look so cute!  Mike and I have a different set of matching pajamas... I'll spare you the picture.

They typically use the fireplace to stage their shows

The Weekend Trike-a-Thon

My friend Danielle held a toddler trike-a-thon at the local roller rink over the weekend to benefit Toys For Tots Foundation.  The idea was to make a track for the kids to tricycle around, hoping they'd stay in between the cones.  I didn't get the pleasure of witnessing the madness, but Mike came home with a few cute photos of Zoë on the track, and Vince being a grumble bug and refusing to participate.... while appropriately wearing his Pop-Pop's bah humbug Christmas hat. 

Vince said...

Here's a couple of things that Vince said recently:

At Church yesterday, I brought Vince to the front of the Church for children's time. Vince was the youngest kid there, as most of the other kids were 5 and older. The reverend told a story about making your own reality, and asked the kids if they had any goals. Vince raised his hand, and when she asked him what his goal was and put the microphone up to his mouth, he answered: "Uh...., Santa Claus is coming to town."

Tonight he said to me in a funny voice: "Daddy, I'm going to drive you crazy."

You already have, kid, you already have.

A Very Happy Birthday! (from the couch)

My couch/bed rest update:  not much has changed in the last couple weeks, although I do go to the doctor again today for another check.  We'll keep our fingers crossed for no changes!  I don't feel any different, aside from being COMPLETELY OUT OF SHAPE, TIRED, and pretty lethargic ALL THE TIME.  It's a little hard to not get into a weird and depressing funk about yourself when all you do is plop on the couch all day... but I'm holding on to that small fact that I'll NEVER be able to lounge this long again after this is over!  I've gotten sucked into Amazon.com and watching the daily/lightning deals that they have (thanks sister-in-law!)..... and am proud to say that I've constructed a wish list on Amazon for the whole darn family (including our unborn 'baby boy silvestro')... with the ability to see all our wish lists after just searching for one of our names!  (do I have too much time on my hands?....)  it's turning into a good spot to put items that I like and don't want to forget about.  After 5 more weeks of this, my own personal wish list is going to be 5 miles long, watch out Mike!

I turned 38 on Friday (whoah!), and what could have been a pretty quiet and uneventful birthday turned into an evening with great surprises, awesome cake, and good friends that came over to hang out!  Mike organized some friends to come over and surprise me for cake and ice cream around 7pm (now I understand why he kept nudging me to actually wear some real clothes that day haha!)  It couldn't have been any better!!

Earlier during the day I searched on the web and scouted out every place within a 10 mile radius of our house that gave away free meals on birthdays, so after the nanny took the kids for the day, my mom drove us to the Abington Ale House for my free lunch!  It was the first time I could use my new seat belt bag that Mike got me for my birthday too!  I was ecstatic to get out of the house, and had a great lunch with my mom.... and a few other people sitting in booths around us who were celebrating their birthdays too! 

my complementary birthday cupcake

 

my fun seat belt bag, from Harveys seat belt bags.  I love it!  You gotta give credit to Zappos.com website, they have little videos you can watch of models walking around with whatever item you are shopping for, very helpful!  

My two delicious birthday cakes!  Cookies and Cream ice cream cake on the left, hand made by my super talented and thoughtful friend Danielle.  The cake on the right is from our near by fabulous German bakery Konditor Meister. A very decadent chocolate cake, I've only ever had them for work birthdays!  Vince ate that ENTIRE piece of fondant on top of the chocolate cake.... I'm still shocked he didn't get sick.

 Thanks to Maggie we got at least one decent family photo before everyone got crazy...

Bed Rest: Week 5

Today marks the end of my 5th week of bed rest.  I'm happy to report I haven't had this baby yet, and things appear to be remaining stable and it's less likely that I will deliver a dangerously premature baby.  Last week the doctor said that he thought things hadn't changed since my last examination, and I was ecstatic to hear that I could wait 2 weeks before another visit.  Prior to that I had been going weekly once I left the hospital.  I will see him again on Monday, when I will be 29 weeks pregnant.  We'll keep our fingers crossed for no more changes.  If I can get to 34 weeks pregnant before having this kid, than he'd be less likely to have to go to the NICU at all, or maybe he would just have to go for 24 hours of observations.  I would also be able to deliver at my regular hospital (their NICU will only take babies born as young as 34 weeks gestation). 

So that being said, I have about 5 weeks left of pure bed rest... and I'm starting to freak out because I STILL haven't gotten around to finishing up (or starting!) Zoë's baby book!  Honestly!  I must be the poster child example for procrastination!!  Here I've been sitting on the couch/bed for over a month and I keep finding "other things" that I need to do before I get to the baby books.  It sounds like a joke!  I am proud to say however, that I just finished the last episode of Season 4 of Mad Men, and am now a complete zombie in the way of netflix streaming.  I've also managed to do over 90% of our Christmas shopping online, and have found some interesting deals that only someone with ridiculous amounts of time on their hands would be able to find on the internet.  That being said, I can't wait to get my free toaster oven in the mail that I was just awarded today ;) 

Now if I could somehow just get over this no paycheck thing... I think I'd be OK staying home (provided someone still comes and wisps the kids away for several hours during the day).  I've started inquiring to all the wonderful people who have been stopping by and offering help.... asking if they could just keep coming even after I'm done with bed rest and have our third child on hand.  We'll be outnumbered!  I think I'm going to savor the next weeks of bed rest, settled in knowing that I'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO DO THIS AGAIN....  

This Just In...

Heard just now from the upstairs bathroom: "Hey Lisa! We are having our first 'stop touching me!' moment".... 

Apparently Vince was trying to grab the train that Zoë had in the bathtub, Zoë cleverly waving her arms around to keep Vince from getting it, batting his hands away... pushed him, and he screams what I fear is probably the first of many times we'll hear that lovely phrase. 

Bring on Christmas

We didn't waste any time getting into the Christmas spirit after Thanksgiving.  Luckily we had some helpers, as Mike's sister came for a visit!  Vince and Zoë had fun decorating the house with their Auntie Lisa, Uncle Neal and Noelle and Andrew.

Everyone took a trip to the Enchanted Village and got to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas.  Mike told me the whole way over in the car, Vince was reciting everything he wanted.... over and over.  But when he saw Santa, he went blank and just stared at him, while Zoë started wailing. 

left to right: Andrew, Vince, Noelle, and Zoë

This will make a good card!

 Bath time for everyone!

 And last but not least, Zoë got her first hair cut over the weekend too!  She did good and now has cute little bangs

Thanksgiving on the Couch: 2011

I must say I'm getting very used to the chaos and shenanigans going on around the house, and not being able to lift a finger to help out with any of it!  By the time I can actually get up and do anything to contribute to the daily routine of keeping the house going, I'll be totally fine with never keeping it organized again!  This crash course in letting go of my OCD is working, after about 2 weeks I think I'm cured.  That's better than medication!

I've enjoyed seeing a lot of this however

Yesterday we had 8 adults and 7 kids over for our pre-ordered Summer Shack Fried Thanksgiving Turkey meal.  Fried Turkey=yum!  Everyone contributed with extra goodies and tasty side dishes and it ended up being a really fun evening, and the kids had a ball playing with each other.  One of the favorites to play with was the box that the meal came in.  Forget spending exorbitant dollars on toys this year!  All you need is a cardboard box and the kitchen tupper ware.  

 Our Fried Turkey Dinner:

At first I had this completely irrational vision of how I wanted things to pan out.  The adults would all somehow be able to sit at the table at the same time to enjoy the meal, the kids would sit altogether at the kitchen table (and actually eat), and then we would all take turns saying what it is we are thankful for.  Yeah.... slap me upside the head quickly.... what was I thinking!!?  The reality was just as fun though.  I think my mom and I were the only ones that stayed in our seats for more than 5 minutes at a time, and I don't think the kids ever sat in the kitchen for any length of time until it was dessert time.  I ended up settling for everyone playing musical chairs between the kitchen and dining room, kids agreeing to eat a spec of broccoli only after being promised candy after wards, and Vince loudly declaring that he's thankful for trains.  

Our little girl looking like Cindy Lou from Whoville

Our best at getting the little ones together for a picture

Of course no Silvestro Holiday would be complete without our beloved neighbor Mary, who came over to entertain the kids in a little Ring Around the Rosie

Ring Around the Rosie:


And last but not least, let us introduce our Elf, Gordon (affectionately named by Vince, after one of his trains).  He was sent from Santa a few weeks ago to watch over Vince and Zoë, and to report back to Santa if they've been good or bad...  I told Vince about him ahead of time, and he immediately got spooked at the thought of someone watching over him.  He started looking around the house with wide eyes, crying and mumbling something about not wanting an Elf hiding around the house to watch him.  Oh don't worry, they are friends now.  Everything was made better after Gordon came back from visiting Santa one morning.... and had a ring pop to deliver to Vince as a small token of good wishes from Santa that Vince was being a good boy. 

Halloween and One More Farm Visit

But first, some random cute pictures from the park this weekend:

The kids wearing the hand knit sweaters my mom made

I really need to get the rest of October posted before Thanksgiving in 2 days!  

A few pictures from Smolak Farm, with our friends Marcus, Amy, Aaron and their new little one Maris! 

 Vince insisted on multiple rides in the tractor, while Zoë protested otherwise after one ride

Vince was a firefighter and Zoë was the dalmatian for Halloween this year.  Mike and I dressed up as Ketchup and Mustard but I'll spare you those pictures. 

Vince giving fist bumps to the grim reaper who gave out candy

I'm sneaking in a picture of Mike dressed as Mustard.... I escaped the camera! 

On the home front, I visited the specialist yesterday and he gave me the good news that he feels my cervix is still stable from last week.  I'm 26 weeks pregnant now, only 8 weeks to go before we are in the clear!      

Here's a cute one from my hospital stint, Vince helping the Nurse listen to baby brother's heart beat