Matzah Factory

This past weekend, Jason and I took the girls to the Matzah Factory at the JCC.  The kids had fun, but only because Jake and Nathan were there!  I thought it was way more oranized last year!  People were just coming and going as they pleased and didn't know where to go or what to do, but it all worked out. 

Sydney thought it was cool that she got to go up and help make the matzah and Lizzy was just interested in baby Nathan.  But after making the matzah, the kids were able to play dress-up and play in this little tree fort thing...of course my fearless little Lizzy liked that part!  I think she would have jumped out of the tree if I wasn't standing there!

All in all, it was a fun afternoon.  When we got home, Sydney told me she had fun making pizza...*sigh*, I guess she didn't quite get the whole matzah thing!

Mommy's Little Helper

I'm not sure when Lizzy all of a sudden grew up, but all of a sudden she is just blossoming!  She just turned 18 months yesterday, and I can now see why 18 months is significant in terms of development.  She's talking way more, and sings constantly, she even knows her ABC's.

Lately, when I take a shower, she likes to just stand there and wait (weird, I know...I'll have to put an end to that soon).  Anyway, she stands there until the water goes off and says "all done".  Then, she helps open the door and gives me my towel which I always have hanging near the shower.  I usually like to stand in the shower for a minute while I dry off so I don't get the floor all wet, but Lizzy yells at me the entire time, "come on, come on, come on" and she holds her hand out.  So, I get out and she gets my deoderant out of the drawer for me.   Then, while I finish getting ready, she likes to watch tv, so she goes and gets the remote and says, "come on, Yo Backgards."(that's what she calls The Backyardigans).  She has this thing where she always stands right up against the tv and I always tell her she's too close, and every time she says, "oh", and then backs up and sits near my bed.  It's all rather cute.  It's like I have a personal assistant for each move I make. 

I'm sure this whole "come on" thing will get old pretty quickly as she bosses us all around.  She is starting to tell Sydney and the other kids at daycare what to do.  But for now, due to her cuteness, we will let it slide...but only for a while...her bossy and stubborn personality is starting to really shine through as she chucks things she doesn't want across the room or throws herself down to the floor in a fit of rage.  But we'll save that for another story another day!

A Princess Weekend

Every year Jason goes on a road trip with his friends and leaves us girls behind!  But we had plenty of princess fun while he was gone (which was a long time because he had a business trip right after, so he was gone for 6 days).  On Saturday night we went to a Purim carnival which the kids loved, but it was a little chaotic for me!  Thank goodness Grandma Sharon came with us because I spent most of my time chasing around Lizzy!

They had this animal bounce house and Lizzy just thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.  I couldn't keep her out of it.  Lately, she just loves to jump.  She will go up to the couch or Sydney's bed and just say "I want jumpeee, I want jumpee".  So, she was in jumping heaven at this carnival.  It's too bad that the person in charge of this particular bounce house wasn't a very nice woman.  She was getting SO angry at me because I was having such a hard time getting Lizzy out.  And when I finally did get Lizzy out, she just wanted to get back in, so we waited in line again.  But the lady wouldn't let her back in because she said that other kids had to have a chance (15 kids were allowed at a time, so it's not like she was occupying the whole thing).  I thought it was pretty fair that if we waited in line, that she should get to go again, besides it was the only thing at the whole carnival that Lizzy could do.  So, I picked her up and threw her over the walls of the bounce house...the lady really loved me then...not!!  But Lizzy had fun while Sydney and Grandma played games, won prizes, and ate popcorn!  We only got to see Lily and Jake for a quick second due to the chaos...but we had fun!

On Sunday, I took Sydney to see Disney on Ice while Lizzy stayed home with Grammie and Grandpa.  Grandma Sharon bought the tickets and thankfully again, she came with us becuase she spoiled Sydney rotten...there was  no way I would have spent the kind of money that everyone else in that place was spending.  Sydney's lemonade alone was $10...crazy if you ask me!  She also suckered my mom into buying a Cinderella doll and glass slippers.  It really was fun though!  Sydney hasn't stopped talking about it.  She got so excited every time a princess came out on the ice, it was so cute to watch her happy little face!  She is at the perfect age now where she appreciates doing these kinds of activities and she even understood the whole story line!  She's been reenacting scenes at home!

(Sydney and her $10 lemonade)

Fortunately, we survived the rest of the week...it was a long one...but we survived.  Jason brought home a souvenier for Sydney from the American Girl store.  Poor Lizzy didn't get anything!  He bought her matching pj's for her and her baby.  She was extremely excited!  The only problem was that Sydney has twins and Jason only brought home pj's for one of them.  Sydney doesn't quite get the concept of money and has no idea how much these things cost so she was a bit disappointed that the other baby didn't get any.  She asked Jason all night long why he didn't buy two pajamas.  So now, a week later, the "other baby" is sitting on the floor cold and naked becuase she doesn't have matching pj's too.  Sydney refuses to put her clothes back on her, she wants her to have pajamas.  Guess the baby will be naked for a while!!

It's Sooooooo Good!!!

Just a cute little Sydney story...

Last night I decided to make banana bread since our bananas were going bad (and I hate for food to go to waste).  I thought I would add some chocolate chips to it...to me chocolate makes everything taste better!!  So, today after lunch, Sydney said she wanted a piece of the bread, so I gave her one.  She said "oh mommy, this is sooooooo good, I love it", and then she got up to play.  When I turned around, I saw the piece of bread just sitting there with a ton of holes in it.  The little stinker picked out all of the chocolate chips!  I told her she didn't even eat the bread and she said, "oh, I didn't like that part."

We can't have a cute Sydney without a cute Lizzy story, right?

Lately Lizzy is just talking away, but for some reason she confuses wet and hot.  When things are hot she actually says hot, but when things are wet...she says hot.  So, I've been trying to teach her the difference. I've been emphasizing the w...."wwwwwwet."  So now, when I get out of the shower with wet hair she says, "wwwww hot.  She'll figure it out eventually!

I guess I could keep going because she does lots of cute things.  On Sunday's, it's my only day to sleep in.  Jason gets up with the kids and I sleep, it's a great concept.  But sometimes the kids sneak upstairs anyway and wake me up.  Last Sunday, I heard Lizzy saying, "mommmyyyyy, mmmoooommmyyyyy, and the little voice kept getting closer and closer.  The next thing I knew, she barged in banging the door against the wall.  At first I was a little upset because I was supposed to be sleeping, and there she was carrying her little toy teapot and she actually brought a little cup with her too and pretended to pour me some tea.  It was so cute I couldn't be mad.  But then she turned on me...she chucked the teapot at me and then threw my water bottle at me, picked up a candle and threw it at me, etc...basically everything she could find she piled on top of me.  I guess it was funny, but if she were a little older, I wouldn't let that fly!  But for now, I'll just keep on letting her be cute!

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!