christmas 2009

christmas this year was really awesome.......casey was pretty big into santa claus this year - she got it a lot more than i thought she would.........well, she didn't get that he was the one who brought presents, she just knew he was a pretty important guy around this time of year.......she points out "santy" everywhere - from books to the mall santa to the one on her pjs......and she likes to point out the "reineer" that accompany him as well.......
we left cookies, milk, and carrots out for santa and his reindeer on christmas eve........
and on christmas morning we had lots of fun opening the gifts santa left us.......casey opened her little people airplane first and really would've been content to just have gotten that.......she loved it and kept going back to it even after opening other gifts we got her........we got her a radio control car, a tea set, some tub toys, and some books........unfortunately it was a little harder to shop for molly........she can't really play with too much at a month old.......but we found her a couple little things that she can play with in the upcoming months.......
then it was off to nanny and grampy's to open some more gifts........santa left a little people farmhouse and a toy baby carriage for casey there........and some clothes for molly........
finally we travelled down to grammy and grampy's house in north attleboro for yet more gift opening and dinner.........santa left us all a lot of gifts there - most memorable was the toy grocery cart, wooden blocks, and really annoying talking elmo doll........
we got a new dishwasher and 4 slot toaster and a recycling/trash center........i know i've officially kissed my youth goodbye when those were my favorite gifts!........well those and the andre agassi autobiography which i'm dying to read.......
it was a really fun day overall, although casey had a tough night sleeping christmas night.......probably a combo of being overtired and overstimulated all day.......but luckily that only lasted one night.......and she napped for almost 4 hours the next day so she made up for it quickly.......

first concert

casey had her first concert about a week before christmas.......it was the conclusion of a 3 week music course offered at the fore river clubhouse for toddlers........the first week, there was a musician there that brought a keyboard and taught the kids some songs - not much singing, mostly dancing and hand gestures which was still very cute.......second week, they practiced and made some instruments (beads inside little water bottles, and decorated paper towel tube rhythm sticks) and holiday cards.......and the last week, they performed at the elderly center near marina bay........it was really cute - all the kids dressed up in their christmas-y clothes.......and casey got into her first toddler "fight".......other girl was 2.5 years old and bigger, but casey held her own in the shoving match.......that's my girl!.......here are some pics of the concert.......

big girl bed.......

so casey is officially transitioned into her big girl toddler bed.......we picked new years day as the first night to try her out in it - figure might as well start 2010 off right, right?........put her in and not a peep - all night........naptime the next day, same thing........nighttime that night, same thing.......after 11 days, i'm pretty confident saying that bedtime has gone 100% awesomely.......there was one night that steve put her to bed and then we peeked in a couple hours later when we were going to bed and she was asleep bent over at the waist with her feet on the floor and her upper body on the bed.......but still no problems that night, steve just got her lower body in bed and that was that........naptime hasn't gone quite as well, but still not bad at all - out of 10 days of naps, i'd say 7 went fine........we've adjusted our naptime routine a little and so i think we're pretty much out of the woods there too........
i wonder if potty training will be that easy.........=)

if only.......

if only i had 5 more hours of the day after the kids went to bed, i'd write posts about all the super cute and memorable things that the kids do every day so i'd have a really awesome log of their childhood.......i feel like i'm missing recording things and won't remember them........

our little angry girl.......

while casey might've been the happiest baby on the planet, i think molly's the polar opposite........not that she's a bad baby or anything (she does her fair share of crying, but not overly so), it's just that she seems angry, or at the very least annoyed, most of the time.......when she gets really angry her face kind of wrinkles up and she's got this sort of permanent "angry line" between her eyes that's there even when she's not angry at that moment......today was the first day that she looked at me without a look of "who are you" ingrained on her face - she looked up at me almost like she kind of liked me a little today........only took 3 weeks for her to kind of like me........not quite the smiley ham her big sister is.......you gotta earn this one's smile........

my little artist.......

so i think i finally got casey into coloring........i really pushed her a couple months ago to like crayons........she really didn't want anything to do with them, well other than eating them........but i persisted (guess it's the art major in me) and she has finally warmed up to them........we got her a little easel and some coloring books a while back which she regularly uses now, and i noticed today that when she colors, she colors just the faces of the people/animals in the pictures........weird, i hadn't noticed it before now, but i went back through the coloring books and nearly all of the ones she's colored on all have colored faces but no marks anywhere else really.......hmm, i'm sure that means something - like she's gonna be a politician/salesman someday......she definitely loves people so it doesn't surprise me........

whacker......

ok so while casey clearly loves her little sister, she's been trying our patience lately because she insists upon whacking molly at seemingly every turn........it's really like a jekyl and hyde kind of thing - one minute she's patting her gently and kissing her, and the next she's yanking whatever molly's laying on over and giving her a good solid whack to the head.......i've tried yelling, to which casey just giggles........i've tried time outs, which casey thinks is a game.......i've tried being patient and reminding her to be gentle, which lasts about 1 minute until she does it again........so i enlisted the help of every mom we know with multiple kids.......we got a lot of replies and some great ideas, so i'll be trying those out over the next few days and weeks........one we've been trying is to give her positive reinforcement when she is gentle with molly - giving her a kiss and hug and saying how good of a big sister she is and how proud of her we are........i still haven't figured out the best way to handle it when she isn't so gentle.......but hopefully it's a phase we (especially molly) will get through soon.......