Brenna Speak

Of course, I feel I need to post a Brenna picture too!  Although she has not made her own version of any Christmas songs yet, Brenna continues to crack us up with the things she does make up!  For example, calling Riley her "mommy" and asking her for help with things instead of me!  Also, she frequently insists on being called "Elmo."  Riley is usually Elmo's friend "Meghan" (not sure where that came from), I am Snuffy, John is Telly, and Maisy is Cookie Monster!  She will only refer to us by those names.  Sometimes Riley is "Elmo's mommy."

I also love her adorable pronunciation of certain words.  I still remember being sad when Riley would start to say words correctly!  I want to write down as many as possible with Brenna so we don't forget.  I think my favorite right now is how she says "Happy Burs-day" (especially cute when being sung!) and how she says "dayad" instead of "dad."  She is sitting watching a movie right now. Maisy came over and she said "Aw!  Maisy wants to watch wiss us!" She also likes to ask if she can wear a "skuut" (skirt) and "shuut" (shirt).  Riley told her that she was going to write her a note and she said "Aw! Sanks Riley!"  She also likes to say "Mama, will you read me anuzzer book?" at nighttime.  While she can now correctly pronounce "here ya go," she used to say "hee-lah-go" and we still sometimes say it that way. :)  There are more that I am probably forgetting and I will hopefully remember to write them down if I think of them!  But for now I am happy to have the chance to document these precious little pronunciations that we love.

As I am writing this I am reminded of when Riley used to say "salaping dressing" instead of salad dressing.  We also still say that sometimes.

Riley's 12 Days of Christmas

Riley's 12 Days Of Christmas

Here is a festive picture of Riley with Santa to go along with the Christmas post.  Brenna would not go anywhere near him!!

Riley's favorite Christmas song is the 12 Days of Christmas.  So today, she decided to make up her own version.  Here it is....

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me... a playground hanging out in the mulch

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me... 2 pregnant ladies and a playground hanging out in the mulch!

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me... 3 Christmas trees, 2 pregnant ladies, and a playground hanging out in the mulch!

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me... 4 munching dog-las, 3 Christmas trees, 2 pregnant ladies, and a playground hanging out in the mulch!

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me... FIVE TIRE SWINGS!!!!! 4 munching dog-las, 3 Christmas trees, 2 pregnant ladies, and a playground hanging out in the mulch!

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me... 6 lamp posts lamping, FIVE TIRE SWINGS!!! 4 munching dog-las, 3 Christmas trees, 2 pregnant ladies, and a playground hanging out in the mulch! 

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me... 7 rope ladders roping, 6 lamp posts lamping, FIVE TIRE SWINGS!!! 4 munching dog-las, 3 Christmas trees, 2 pregnant ladies, and a playground hanging out in the mulch!

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me... 8 napkins dancing, 7 rope ladders roping, 6 lamp posts lamping, FIVE TIRE SWINGS!!! 4 munching dog-las, 3 Christmas trees, 2 pregnant ladies, and a playground hanging out in the mulch!

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me... 9 ladies dancing, 8 napkins dancing, 7 rope ladders roping, 6 lamp posts lamping, FIVE TIRE SWINGS!!! 4 munching dog-las, 3 Christmas trees, 2 pregnant ladies, and a playground hanging out in the mulch!

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me... 10 advent calendars adventing, 9 ladies dancing, 8 napkins dancing, 7 rope ladders roping, 6 lamp posts lamping, FIVE TIRE SWINGS!!! 4 munching dog-las, 3 Christmas trees, 2 pregnant ladies, and a playground hanging out in the mulch!

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me... 11 yummy pancakes, 10 advent calendars adventing, 9 ladies dancing, 8 napkins dancing, 7 rope ladders roping, 6 lamp posts lamping, FIVE TIRE SWINGS!!! 4 munching dog-las, 3 Christmas trees, 2 pregnant ladies, and a playground hanging out in the mulch!

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me... 12 disgusting pickles, 11 yummy pancakes, 10 advent calendars adventing, 9 ladies dancing, 8 napkins dancing, 7 rope ladders roping, 6 lamp posts lamping, FIVE TIRE SWINGS!!! 4 munching dog-las, 3 Christmas trees, 2 pregnant ladies, and a playground hanging out in the mulch!

Happy New Year

As I sit here New Years Day I realize that I have not been good about keeping up this blog.  So in true January 1st spirit, I want to update in a positive and optimistic-about-the-new-year sort of way.

As a preface, I want to address reality for a moment.  Let's face it, parenting is hard.  Our library frequently has parenting books on hold for me (and for John).  It seems that kids are hardwired to do exactly the opposite of everything we say, but we certainly don't want to be telling them to do all the wrong things.  There are so many evenings when I think I need a frontal lobotomy, or at least a bottle in front of me. :)  Every day it becomes more clear why there are so many parenting books out there for us to check out: there just aren't any easy answers.  Yes, we all love our children an immeasurable amount but how do we convert that love into good parenting?  I guess that will perpetually be at the root of every challenge.

But back to being positive... While I certainly don't want to ignore our parenting challenges, I want to focus on the positive for purposes of this blog (or at least for the new year post!).  This year brought a lot of happy memories for us.  We spent a lot of time with our family despite the fact that we are scattered along the east coast (Buffalo counts as east coast, right?!).  This included lots of visits from family and trips we took to go visit them.  Riley absolutely loves seeing her out of town "friends."

Brenna was born on August 2, which makes her almost 5 months old already.  She is such a wonderfully happy and sweet baby; she smiles so much and has recently started laughing a lot.  She can roll over from her belly to her back and is almost sitting up on her own.  We are hoping that the new year will bring some longer sleep intervals overnight.

Riley has changed so much in the last year it's incredible.  She makes us laugh (and makes Brenna laugh!) all the time.  She really loves Brenna and is very sweet with her.  She likes to do impressions, reenact scenes from her favorite movies and shows, and find new and interesting ways to sing the word "no."  At some point in the middle of the year we realized that she can read and she really seems to love it.  Her favorites are Pinkalicious and pretty much any Dr. Seuss book.  She also loves to color, draw, and give check-ups with her doctor's bag as "Dr. Riley."  As for other activities, she still loves dance and more recently seems to want to swim and ice skate.  She really seems to like everything we sign her up for, which makes it hard to decide what to do.  The only thing she didn't really like that much was soccer!  She talked about it as if she liked it, but when it came to going out on the field to play in the cold weather, she was frequently unhappy and just wanted to play on the playground.  She still talks about it, though, and we will most likely try again this spring.

I hope that is a good enough update on the girls right now.  I also hope to have the time to update more often this year.  Wait, I'm being optimistic, I AM going to update more often!  As I reflect on last year, I can't help but think of how blessed we are to have these amazing girls and amazing family and friends. 

Lastly, you know I couldn't blab this long without a picture or video so here is a quick video taken recently that I think is cute.  Riley was reciting The Night Before Christmas (I think it actually was the night before Christmas, too) and Brenna was laughing so we turned on the camera.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone reading this!  I wish you all the best in 2012!!

Wizard of Oz Party

Because the girls' birthdays are so close we decided to do one party to celebrate both birthdays.  Especially since Brenna is only turning 1, and didn't put up much protest.  A few months ago, Riley watched the Wizard of Oz (actually it took about a month for her to watch it from start to finish, but she really enjoyed it in parts for a while and kept calling herself Dorothy).  Anyway, we decided on a Wizard of Oz theme because that was what she asked for most often.  Again, Brenna did not put up much protest.  Once that was decided I looked at a LOT of stuff online for Wizard of Oz party ideas.  It was so much fun to plan!  I have never done this much for a party so I thought I would share it here and just in case someone comes across this looking for ideas, maybe it can help!  I took ideas from many people and websites, but here is what we did...

First, we got a roll of yellow table cover roll (100 feet) and rolled it out starting from the front of our driveway and put a sign next to it that said "Follow the Yellow Brick Road."  I used blue gingham paper and cut out 1/2" strips to make a border on white cardboard that I got from Michael's.  Here is a picture of Riley with it.

All the kids and parents followed the yellow brick road through a balloon arch that we were able to put together at home (well, Gramie and John did that!).  We just got the balloons (with helium) and bought a clear decorating strip from PC and threaded the balloons through the strip.  Here is a picture of Riley walking with her friend Audrey towards the arch.

When the kids came in, we had them all find their red ruby flip flops to decorate.  We figured since it was the middle of July, that would be a good compromise.  Plus we had boys coming to the party so we didn't want to do "slippers."  Here is a picture of the flip flops and one of a basket of ruby red socks that we got for the younger siblings (aged 4 months - almost 2).  The kids also decorated their own gift bags (I got plain white gift bags from Michaels).

We had the kids decorate at the beginning of the party and put them aside to dry during the party.  Once all the kids were there and done with decorating, we took them in the front yard to play the Witch's Broom and Yellow Brick game.  The kids got in 2 teams and did a relay race pushing a "yellow brick" (shoe box covered with yellow paper) with a broom.  They were very cute with this.  Here is a pic.

While we were in the front, some helpers in the back cleaned up the craft table so that we could use it for dinner.  We went back and played another game called melt the witch.  John painted a picture of the witch with watercolor paint and we gave the kids water balloons to throw at her.  If you ever do this, make sure to use "water balloons"!!!  I didn't know that they are different from regular balloons!!  So it took a lot for them to pop.  It was still a lot of fun though! :)  Here are a few pics of that.

While the kids were doing that, some helpful adults were bringing out the food.  I won't post all the pictures but here are a few and a list of what we served.

Out on the table for when guests arrived: 

Scarecrow stuffing (pretzel sticks and veggie sticks)

Over the rainbow fruit salad (shown)

Auntie Em's Garden Veggies and dip

Yellow Brick cookies (vanilla wafers)

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! (animal crackers)

For drinks we did a melted witch punch (shown), and then had labels on coolers: 

Munchkin water (8 oz water bottles for the kids)

Tin Man Oil Cans (cans of beer)

Professor Marvel's fantastically refreshing elixir (wine)

(After we had done all the labeling we thought that it would've been funny to label the beer "liquid courage"!!)

For Dinner we had: 

Flying Monkey Macaroni (Pasta Salad)

Sandwiches for the kids (shown):

Glinda's wand-witches (PB&J) and Tin-Man Hearts (cheese)

Sandwiches for the adults (shown): 

'Wich of the East (turkey and cheese)

'Wich of the West (chicken, roasted pepper, and mozzarella)

And of course, I can't forget the cake!!  Lots of work but I love how it turned out.  Although if I were to ever do something like this again, I would use much smaller lollipops (if at all).  The rainbow is made from rice cereal/marshmallow.

Last, I have to put a picture of the girls (the best one I could get of both of them).  You can see the cake behind them with the different layers all the colors of the rainbow.

This was so much fun to do.  It's such a great theme - lots of ideas to tie it all together!!  I don't know if I will have the energy to do a party like this again soon, but I hope to be able to again someday!! :)

Reading

I have been thinking of what to make this post for a while and I think the most impressive thing Riley does recently has been "reading." Sometimes I think she definitely knows certain words, but I know that probably a majority of it is just memorizing her books because she will start reciting books randomly in the car, at home, etc. Either way, it's just so amazing how quickly she changes and learns new things!! I thought it would be cool to show Riley reading an ABC Book recently, and to go back and look at Riley reading an ABC book about 8 months before.

The first video was recorded on January 14, 2010. Riley was 18 months old.

The second video was taken last month, on September 16, 2010. Riley was 26 months old.

Singing

So someone asked me the other day what Riley's "new thing" was. After thinking about it for a while I think that her newest accomplishment, in my eyes anyway, is that she has really been singing a lot in the last couple of months. It gets better everyday, too, and it seems like everyday she either starts singing a new song or sings more words in a song she already knows. I guess I should mention that I use the term "singing" a little bit liberally because a lot of times it's more of her just saying all the right words with not much of a melody. But we still love it. :)

We are trying to get more on video, but usually when she notices one of us taping her with the camera, she says "cheese!!!"

Anyway, here is a little video of her "singing" the ABC's.

Reading the map

A few weeks ago we bought 2 maps at a store in Huntington Village. One of the United States and one of the world. We thought we would put up the one of the United States first, to introduce her to the idea of our country.

She was immediately drawn to it and wanted to know what it was all about so we started showing her some states. For example, "We live in New York. This is New York." Then she started pointing to other states and we told her what they were. And last week we realized that she knows all of the states, Puerto Rico, and the Canadian Provinces! She is such a little sponge!!! We are so proud of her.

Hopefully we will get a video of her reading all of them in one sitting but obviously it takes a while and this video is already 4 minutes long. I added subtitles because the sound quality isn't fantastic and I know that not everyone has the ears of her mother and father. :)