Happy Valentine's Day

Bugs are wonderful!

Sarah came to visit this weekend.  We made Valentine's cookies.  Sarah also gave Ainsley a grasshopper...and she was terrified.  Lucikly, Xander really loves the bug.  Ainsley's torn though--she hates it and runs and cries when it's around, but the idea of Xander having it is also upsetting.  Mostly we just keep the bug put up and let Xander play with it during Ainsley's nap times.

Love Bug!

Yummy!

Ainsley got a few candy treats for Valentine's Day--and an awesome purple monkey.  Xander got a love bug. He felt pretty meh about it.  Oh well...he'll like candy eventually.

Also, apparently all Valentine's Day captions require exclamation points.  Keep that in mind.

While Daddy's Away

Last weekend Sean went out of town for a theatre reunion thing.  I was going to post while he was gone, but then I got paranoid that I was home alone with the kids and thought that posting that to the world wasn't wise--regardless of my privacy settings and GIANT dogs. So, what did we do while Daddy was away?

Day One

Transfixed.

Well first, I had to make some cookie dough for The Cooking Challenge holiday cookies to take to  the Santa party (details below).  Then we decided to watch Christmas shows and eat pizza for dinner.  We started with How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  Ainsley was enchanted by the Grinch.  She did, however, make a stern face at him...she didn't like that he was taking things and breaking things.  She kept saying, "*gasp* OH NO!" when he was bad.  It was cute.

Self-portrait.

The kids and I spent some quality time watching the Year Without a Santa Claus and Charlie Brown.  The three of us sat in my recliner and played.  It was fun. Grandma Parker and Aunt Sarah came over after Ainsley had gone to bed.  We hung out with Xander,who woke up to spend some quality time smiling at everyone.






After Grandma and Aunt Sarah left, I baked some sugar cookies.  In between batches, I played on Facebook and drank a big ole glass of wine.  I hadn't had wine in quite some time, and it was awesome.  I decided to capture the moment--the wineglass (courtesy of Ms. Candace Moore as a wedding gift) and the Christmas tree made me all misty.

Turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself.

Day Two

Saturday brought the Santa Party!  Each year, Karen and Faith throw a party for Christmas.  Sometimes, if he's not too busy, Santa and Mrs. Claus come to visit.

The party is always an excellent mix of good friends, excited children, awesome food, and some wine.


Mr. X enjoyed hanging around with everyone, but Grandma and Aunt Sarah were the best baby hogs!  We got to hang out and eat lots of cookies and cheese and deliciousness.

After a while, we got lucky and Santa and Mrs. Claus showed up!  The kids were very exited.  Ainsley stuck with Faith mostly.  At first, she was nervous around Santa...but then she became more adventurous.  As he was telling his his Christmas story (this year it was the story of the Elf on the Shelf--kinda creepy), she became more inquisitive and wanted to get closer to him.



When it was Ainsley's turn to sit on Santa's lap, she wasn't really interested in talking to him, but she did want to touch his beard and was very interested in what he had to say.  As the other kids took their turns on Santa's lap, Ainsley kept trying to go back to him.  Mrs. Claus gave her candy after she spoke to Santa, but Ainsley didn't really seem to care.  So, she tried to give it to Santa.  He thought it was cute.  I was so proud!

Santa let all the kids sit on his lap.  He also let families take their pictures with him.  While others got their pictures taken, Ainsley decided to go hang out with Mrs. Claus.  She was quite smitten with the Clauses.  Xander spent most of the time in my lap.  He went to Santa quite willingly and didn't mind being in Santa's lap, but wasn't really interested.


Day Three

On Sunday, Mark and Deb came over to bring Ainsley and Xander their Christmas present: an awesome new wagon.  Ainsley was a bit nervous at first.  So, I suggested she put her Christmas toys into the wagon.  Once that started, she was totally into it.  Now, almost two weeks later, those toys remain in that wagon.  She gets really peeved if we try to take them out.



Once she got used to the wagon, Mark took her out in it.  It was entirely too windy and cold to take Xander out, so we stood on the porch while Deb took pictures.  As previously posted, Ainsley loves snow.  However, we discovered that day that she loves snow that's already fallen.  Mark said she wasn't too keen on the snow falling on her face.  If you look closely to the picture at the right, though, you'll see she smiling.

This is the patented Mark "What's going on" move.

Xander enjoyed hanging out in his chair.  He showed Mark and Deb what a big boy he is--walking and grabbing things and nomming on them.

Ainsley played coy and posed for pictures.  I believe this was when she decided to show Mark and Deb her "stars."  This is a handy dandy little toy my mom bought for Ainsley--it projects stars on her ceiling (yellow, green, or blue--she always chooses blue) and plays music.  She LOVES LOVES LOVES this toy.

After a vigorous day of walking around in his walker, Mr. Xander pooped out and took a wee nap on Deb.  He's a non-discriminatory cuddler--though he did take to Deb pretty quickly.





Miss Ainsley spent a good portion of Mark and Deb's visit sneaking cookies.  She started working on a pretty impressive sugar high, but after Mark and Deb left I put her down for a much protested nap.

While Ainsley napped, I started wrapping some Christmas presents to put under the tree.  Once Ainsley woke up, she started to help.  She particularly enjoyed picking out which paper to use to wrap the presents. She also picked out the tags.  When I wrapped presents for her (that had already been boxed, of course), I'd tell her to pick out a tag.  Then I'd say, "To: Ainsley, From: Momma and Daddy" as I'd write on the tag.  When the present was for her, she'd say, "FOR MEEEEEEEEEE?!?!" with a great glimmer in her eye and joy in her voice.

Once the presents were wrapped, it was Ainsley's job to put the presents under the tree.  She was very serious about her job.  Also, notice the penguin wrapping paper.  I made a point to congratulate the me who bought that paper on December 26, 2009, on clearance for the foresight to know how much Ainsley would love penguins this year.




As I bring this baby to a close, I wanted to show this hilarious picture of Xander looking at Ainsley's food.  It was after taking this picture that I decided it was time to move Mr. X up the food chain from formula and rice cereal to level one foods.  This week, he's eating squash--and LOVING IT.

Being Thankful

Had I thought about this blog post before 10:00 tonight, I'd have taken more pictures to document the day.  As it stands, I figure I'll just toss out some of the random memories I have from today.  Background: my sister Jill and her boyfriend Joe came to have Thanksgiving with Sean, the kids, and me.  Ainsley and Xander dressed for the occasion.  Ainsley's shirt says:  I'm thankful for 1. Mom and Dad 2. Yummy Turkey 3. Football.  Xander's onesie says:  Daddy loves me more than football.  So, yeah, football is integral to our holiday.

Two Green Beans
I made two different green bean dishes today.  Jill and I love the classic green bean casserole.  Joe and Sean do not.  Beyond the green beans, our menu consisted of turkey, Stove Top, yams, mashed potatoes, crescent rolls, cranberry jelly, and gravy. Sean requested another vegetable beyond potato/potato.  Can't say I blame him.  So, I made all-day green beans and green bean casserole.  However, I forgot to pick up the all-day green beans fixins--all of them.  Even the beans. So, I sent Sean to the store to get the fixins while I worked on turkey prep.  When Sean goes to the store, we generally exchange several texts.  His text to me today: "Ah, Thanksgiving. The only day of the year you see this many men shopping for groceries."  Hee! To the right is the meal that my daughter ate.  Or should I say didn't eat.  She was so excited by the visit, all she wanted to do was show Jill and Joe her toys.  See commentary below.

Smurfs and Snoopy
While I was getting the food together, Xander slept in his swing and Ainsley watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  She was particularly drawn to Snoopy.  I tried to get her to check out the Smurfs, but she didn't really care.  She did keep pointing out the "chickens" every time a turkey appeared on screen.

JOE!  JILL!  Come on, guys!
When Ainsley has company (and make no mistake if you come to my house, you're Ainsley's company), her main objective is to boss her company around.  Because she's cute, she gets away with this.  But I find it particularly charming when it works on people who I normally wouldn't expect it to--like Jill's boyfriend Joe.  First, it must be known that Joe is an awesome guy.  He's kind, polite, funny, and, most importantly, loves my sister and treats her well.  Ainsley loves Joe.  When he's around, she'll make him play, read, rough house, whatever she wants.  And Joe's a willing participant.  It was sweet to watch her give him hugs.  It was hilarious to watch her discover his cartilage piercing.  She was fascinated that he had one ear pierced and the other not.  She just kept running her fingers along his ear back and forth from ear to ear.  He let her do this for about 5 minutes.

Mmmm cookies!

When we were decorating our Thanksgiving sugar cookies (turkeys, owls [Ainsley's choice], and acorns), Ainsley sat in Joe's lap...where she proceeded to sneak bites of cookie.  I'm no fool; I knew that she'd get a cookie in the decorating endeavor.  She snuck two for sure.  Also, Ainsley "decorating" cookies entails her dumping the small bowl of sprinkles onto one cookie.  I like to think of it as the Super Cookie.  Joe deemed it necessary that the Super Cookie be eaten right away.

Jill brought Ainsley some books that she'd gotten from a friend.  The most valuable of these books was a magnetic Barbie doll set thingy.  Basically it's modern paper dolls set but in magnet form.  Ainsley deemed this AWESOME.  Notice how she's holding the book away from Xander.  She does not want him near it!  Xander, of course, doesn't care.  Mr. X spent most of this holiday giggling, MMMMMMMmmmming, and nomming.  He had his first bite of non-rice-cereal food: mashed potatoes. He ate two or three small bites, but he wasn't really into them.

After Jill and Joe left to go home, I put Xander into his Thanksgiving p-jammers.  At this point, Ainsley decided it was time to play Tickle Tickle with Xander.  Of course, anytime A gives X attention, he goes C-R-A-Z-Y!  He'll giggle and giggle.  I was able to catch some of it.  Her method was to take her Lorax (Ax) and Seabee and tickle Xander's belly.  He would then laugh hysterically.  It was genius.



The visit really tuckered the kids out.  They had such a good time with Aunt Jill and Uncle Joe.  The playing and the laughing and the tickling and the couple bites of turkey we could convince A to eat should make for a wonderfully restful night.