Sisters At Play

Something pretty exciting happened last night.  Something that I have been waiting for, and the reason that I wanted my kids to be close in age.  Sydney and Lizzy actually played together ALONE in the basement and were surprisingly really good.

Sydney goes in the basement all the time, but usually by herself.  I always make her shut the door so that Lizzy doesn't accidentally fall down the stairs.  But this time, she forgot to close the door.  I could have sworn that Lizzy was still in the living room playing with her kitchen, but then I realized it was kind of quiet, so I thought I might go look for her.

And then, there they were!  They were together playing in the basement.  I think maybe they get along better without a parent present.  They just work out their own problems and don't have anyone to complain to.  The basement was a little "trashed", but they were having a ton of fun.  They took apart the Rose Petal Cottage, and were both sitting inside of it.  They were playing babies and were pretending that they were in cribs.  I had to catch a picture...they were so funny!  I think they ended up staying down there for over an hour.

So, bad parenting on my part actually turned into a positive.  Now, I won't make it a practice not to know what my kids are up to, but I'm so happy they are finally at that point where they can play and interact with eachother.

Of course today they played together again in the basement...they think it's so cool.  I kept checking on them and Sydney kept telling me to go away!  Lizzy is way better at going up and down the stairs, but it still makes me a little nervous, so I like to monitor her, but I hope this is just the beginning of the great friendship they will share!  Not only did they have fun, but I was able to catch up on my People magazine!

Lizzy Lately

Oh my goodness...when did this kid get so smart?  Lizzy surprises me every single day.  The other day, I was counting as I was snapping Lizzy's buttons on her outfit, and she chimed in right along with me...and kept going.  She can count to 8, which is kind of random, but pretty good for not even being 1 1/2 if you ask me!  I ran down and asked Jason if he knew that Lizzy could count and he had no idea, but was definitely impressed.

Lizzy has always loved singing, but I didn't realize that she knew the entire alphabet.  It's just so crazy to hear this song coming out of her mouth.  Sydney is always singing and dancing with Lizzy, so I wouldn't be surprised if she picked it up from her...it's just so cute.

Another thing that I think is so funny, which I just discovered today, is the way that Lizzy responds to you when you call her name.  If she's in the other room and you say "LIIIIZZZZZYYYYYY"....she responds, "WHAT?"  This is nothing unusual or uncommon, I know...but when it comes out of her mouth and you're not expecting it, it's so funny!

The most common phrase that you will hear from Lizzy all day long is..."I wanna cookie".  I'm not kidding, all day!!!  And so in turn, you hear from my mouth all day long..."Lizzy, no cookie".  And then..."I wanna cookie."  It's never ending...but I would say that she eats at least one or two cookies a day!  The good thing is, that she is usually satisfied with a graham cracker of animal cracker...but her favorite are those Keebler chocolate chip with M&M's cookies!!

Finally, we took the kids to McDonald's today as a little treat because we've been carting them around looking for backsplash tiles which is totally not fun for them and they were really good.  We pretty much never go out for fast food...I think this is the second time they have been to McDonalds.  Anyway, I went to the table to sit down with the girls and as Jason walked towards us with the food...both kids screamed in unison...."WHHOOOAAAAHH" as if they've never seen food before.  And, Lizzy pretty much ate as if she has never seen food before.  I wish I caught a video of her shoveling the food in to her mouth and storing it like a chipmunk.  I don't think another morsel of food could have fit in her mouth!  The craziest thing is that both girls went for the apples first...they definitely don't take after me in that department, but it's good that they like healthy food (unless there are cookies in sight)...I should be better!!

An Eventful Weekend

Finally...we signed Sydney up for swim lessons at Goldfish swim school.  She is so petrified of the water...it was just time.  She looked really cute with the goggles and everything and kept giving me a thumbs up (all of the parents stand behind a glass wall and can come into the swim area for the last five minutes of the lesson).  It was Sydney and two little boys and they sat on the ledge, each taking turns with the intructor.  Sydney was always last, so I knew what was going to come by watching the other two first.  This was the most basic lessons...for total beginners, so they did things like floating on their backs while being held, kicking, and pretending they were monkeys as they moved along the pool holding onto the edge.  It was going just great, until I saw the instructor dip the first boy under water.  I was thinking...."oh no", Sydney is going to freak out!  She HATED going under, but she never would have done it for us!  You'll be able to tell which picture was taken after she went under.  She was all proud of herself in the end.  She said she had fun but she doesn't want to come back (which means she was pretending she had fun).  She IS going back though, she needs to learn to not give us the death grip every time we enter a pool!  We'll see how she does next week!

Now for the fun stuff..(but not according to anyone else).  We are getting granite countertops...yayyyyyy!  I've been wanting them so badly!  We can't afford new cabinets, but they aren't awful, so everything should flow.  We also had to pick out tiles for the new backsplash!  It was actually kind of hard...I know what I like, but it's hard to figure out what really goes together.  We have to live with it and love it and it's tough to know if you're making the right decision.  Hopefully we did...I can't wait to see the final product!

In the midst of all of this, I went out with some girlfriends that I went to elementary school with.  Although some people are against Facebook, I can only thank Facebook for connecting me with people that I would never have spoken to otherwise.  It was so awesome to see how everyone has grown up and matured and in another sense has never really changed at all.  It was great to catch up and I can only hope that my kids meet some amazing friends when they are young and maintain those friendships into adulthood.  I moved out of Southfield at the beginning of 4th grade to West Bloomfield.  And although I spent most of my years going to WB schools, the people that I met and the friends that I made in Southfield made a bigger impact on my life than WB.  Of course I met some great people at WB that I am still friends with, but I am thankful for my great childhood and the great people that I met. I think what I liked about Southfield was that everyone just seemed to be friends.  There weren't any "groups" or "cliques".  That wasn't the case at West Bloomfield. I hope to see these people more often, it was a great mini reunion!

And last but not least, I received a recipe for Jason's Grandma's famous challah and I was determined to make it.  It's quite the process and it took up most of the morning, but it was kind of fun.  I make banana bread and stuff like that all of the time, but this was the real deal...yeast and all...I even had to roll it out and braid it.  I didn't have bread flour (to be perfectly honest, I thought flour was flour and didin't know there were different kinds...but there are!) so I used all purpose flour and I think it turned out pretty darn good.  Now, I'm curious how different it would taste if I actually used bread flour, so I might have to give it a try again sometime soon...afterall, I've already eaten half of the loaf...so it's not going to last very long...that's my biggest downfall...bread...can never turn it down!

Two Princesses

I really think I have a couple of princesses on my hands.  And, I think that my kids think they are princesses.  Although Lizzy is only 16 months, she likes to wear her princess pj's and always tries to put on Sydney's heels.  Today was a day fit for a princess!  Although, we didn't do anything too extraordinary, the kids felt like princesses.  First, they both woke up in their favorite princess pj's...I always think kids are cute in the morning!

Next, we went to visit Jason's Aunt Thelma who was in town from Arizona and staying at the Hotel Baronet in Novi.  Jason's brother Jeff as well as Karen, Kylie and Joby met us there from Frankenmuth.  There was a bunch of us there so we all congregated in this room that had tons of drinks and snacks and the kids thought it was pretty cool that they were just helping themselves and were given whatever they wanted.  At one point I turned around and noticed that Sydney was chilling at the bar with Kylie and Joby and the bartender watching cartoons and eating pretzels and popcorn and drinking Gatorade...rough life, huh?  It was kind of funny to see her sitting at the bar...but it was only our family in the room, so it was okay!  We spent about 4 hours there...so a lot of snacks were consumed!

After the hotel visit, Jeff and crew came back to the house and we ordered pizza and the princess activities continued.  Sydney put in her princess music and Kylie and Sydney dressed up and were dancing the entire time.  Lizzy even put her little tutu on to get in on the action.  Sydney is always happy when she's dressed up.  She always says, "mommy, how do I look?"  I tell her she looks beautiful and she gets the biggest smile on her face and says, "oh, thank you."

By the end of the night, my two princesses were pooped out!!  Lizzy went right to bed, and Sydney had to watch a little episode of Sleeping Beauty on my phone, but then went right to sleep.  It's tough to be a princess! 

So, although we didn't do anything really spectacular, it ended up being a perfect Saturday spending quality time with family and sometimes those simple kind of days are the best!

Disney World

Well, I did it.  I got on a plane!  Everyone knows how much I hate to fly, but I didn't want Sydney to miss out on Disney World, she has been talking about it for the past year, and I couldn't let my fears get in the way.  Fortunately, it was a short flight, and I took some Xanax, so I was manageable for Jason (ha!).  I'm not about to take off to Italy or anything, but I survived the two hour flight!  Sydney didn't even seem to realize she was on a plane, she just sat there like an angel and watched her movies.  Lizzy, on the other hand, was a litte restless.  She was bouncing back and forth between Jason and I, and wanted to walk in the isles.  I also think her ears were bothering her because she kept holding them.  So, what do you do when Lizzy is bad?  That's right...give her food!  She ate pretzels, brownies, cookies, and chips and they kept her quite content!

We stayed at The Sheraton Vistana, where my Dad has a time share and it was really nice!  They had a ton of pools and the rooms were really nice!  The kitchen was fully stocked with dishes, and even had granite countertops, a dishwasher, toaster, etc.  It was nice that there was a living room, so once the kids went to bed, we weren't confined to one room!  However, bed time came later and later each night, so I followed pretty closely behind after they went to sleep.  No one told me how drained I would be from going to Disney World...we had fun, but man was I tired each day!

The first day we went to The Magic Kingdom, Sydney couldn't even hide her smile.  When we first got there, I kind of didn't get all of the hype!  Every ride seemed dumb to me!  I thought there would be characters walking around everywhere and there weren't.  But after seeing Sydney's face, I slowly began to understand the swarms of people and the reason why Disney World isn't hurting for business...it's ALL about the kids.  Seeing Sydney's face after she met Mikckey and Minnie and all of the princesses (especially Belle, her favorite) was priceless.  I have never seen her happier and it made it worth it to wait in hour long lines just for her.  Lizzy was at a difficult age (1 1/2).  There wasn't a ton for her to do and she spent a lot of time in the stroller.  However, you obviously couldn't bring the stroller into the lines, so we also did a lot of holding her and I don't think my arms have recovered yet.  It makes for a very long day when you have to hold someone who doesn't want to be held and who also goes without a nap.  Towards the end of the day, we bought some really large lollipops (because Sydney saw a kid with one and HAD to have one) and Lizzy was completely happy and satified.  We wondered why we hadn't purchased them 7 hours earlier!!

The next day we spent the day swimming and buying tennis shoes for me.  I forgot to pack them and wearing heels at Disney is not ideal...people must have thought I was an idiot!  I couldn't remember what I packed since my Dad drove all of our luggage down so we didn't have to check them on the plane...it made it a lot easier on us! 

The day after that, Jason and I took Sydney to The Magic Kingdom alone while Lizzy went shopping with Grammie and Grandpa.  It was much easier with one child!  She was just so happy and we pretty much bought her everything she wanted, which isn't usually the case.  She was just so in love with everything, we couldn't say no!  The one thing she REALLY wanted was a Belle dress, especially since Belle gave her a kiss.  She kept talking about how she had lips on her cheek from Belle...so happy!  However, the Belle dress was pretty popular and they only had a size 8 and 14...way too big for a 3 year old.  She was devasted, but wanted a dress, so moved on over to the Cinderella dresses.  They didn't have her size either, but had a 6, which kind of fit her and would give her a little room to grow.  But we wanted to get her Belle since she loved her the most and we told her we would find it somewhere online and have it shipped to our house.  She would have nothing to do with that.  She obviously likes instant gratification (like her mommy) and was dead set on getting the Cinderella dress "right now".  So, we got it...we're suckers!  All day we had a song stuck in our head from Pirates of the Carribean..."Yo ho yo, a pirates life for me."  While Jason was paying for the dress, I sang to Sydney..."Yo ho yo ho, a Cinderella dress", and Sydney sang back, "Ya ya ya ya, because they didn't have Belle."  I was like, darn!! I knew she wanted that Belle dress more.  But she ended up loving the Cinderella dress and if you ask me, she looks more like Cinderella anyway!  It all worked out in the end.

The next day (I keep saying next day because I totally lost track of the days on vacation, I never knew which day it was!), we spent it swimming again.  So, we pretty much went to theme park every other day which was perfect for my tired arms and legs.  Sydney and Lizzy loved the kiddie pools and wouldn't even venture into the adult pools (I think that's a sign that my kids need lessons), but they had fun and that's all that counts!  That night we went to Downtown Disney which is basically restaurants and stores!  Grandpa bought Sydney and Lizzy really cute pajamas!  Sydney got Belle pj's...yaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy...she was thrilled and couldn't stop dancing!  Lizzy got Sleeping Beauty and it was like she knew how to walk like a princess.  She was holding out the sides as she walked...the kids kept me smiling the whole time!

The last day we all went to Hollywood Studios which was a lot more fun for Lizzy. Sadly, the camera stopped working that day...but we had the video camera with us! There was a Play House Disney show that both kids loved and they were able to dance and move around (which is why Lizzy loved it).  Lizzy is all about singing and dancing these days.  She lays in bed forever sometimes just singing...it's really cute.  Right now her favorites are the itsy bitsy spider and baa baa black sheep (she likes to say "yes sir, yes sir").  There was also a Beauty and the Beast Show, Little Mermaid,etc., all of Sydney's favorites.  Sydney was dressed in her Cinderella dress that day, which I told her not to wear because she would get hot and want to take it off.  But she promised she would keep it on and wouldn't complain.  But I secretly packed capri pants for her because I just knew!  And like a good mother, I was right (I love to say that I'm right).  There was a Honey I Shrunk the Kids play area which was not condusive to a Cinderella dress!  She kept saying, I want normal clothes, and luckily I had them and all was well!  She was scared of the large climbing net maze at first (but she's always scared of everything), so Jason literally threw her inside sreaming and crying and she came out laughing and smiling saying "I want to do that again"...and so she did....again and again and again! There were many other fun activities, but I could go on and on forever.  Basically, the everyone had a ton of fun...Sydney got ANOTHER toy (Buzz Light Year from Toy Story) and it was the PERFECT way to end the year!

We flew home on New Year's day!  I'm looking forward to a great year ahead.  While we were on our trip, Jason got a call that he was the 1 of 20 out of 700 people that got to keep his job.  That must be a sign that this will be a great year!

Haircut

Right before we left for vacation, I decided to take Sydney to get her hair cut.  She has never had a real hair cut at a salon, Grandma Polly has trimmed it a couple of times, but this was her first "real" true hair cut!

Before Picture

We went to a place called Sweet and Sassy in Novi, which was complete with a runway and all.  Both Sydney and Lizzy had a lot of fun working the runway...future models?  At one point, Lizzy walked right off the runway and was walking mid-air until she hit the ground.  Of course she cried, but I laughed because it reminded me of a model taking a spill....what's that word...schadenfreude....taking pleasure in other peoples' pain...anyway, I found it funny!

Sydney was so cute.  They put a glitter star on her cheek, put in a Princess movie (at Sydney's request) and cut away.  It was the first time that I had seen her hair really straight and I loved it so much.  Too bad I can't get it to look like that.  I do like her curls, but they can get straggly and kind of messy, especially during the frizzy winter months. I thought Sydney would freak out when they turned the blow dryer on since I never use one on her, but she was a champ!  At the end both Sydney and Lizzy got a sucker which always makes everyone happy!  They even gave me Sydney's locks to keep...hopefully I won't lose them (I probably will).

After