Second Child Syndrome

Yeah. I don't think we ever let Julia do this, or let her get to the point of thinking to do this, but this is what I just saw when I looked up. I'm counting the days til it's the crib she's climbing out of!


And, oh the drama with Julia! Last night we had a battle to keep her in bed (it's neverending). And, last night she wore a nightgown to bed. She usually wears regular top and bottom jammies, so while we were reading in bed she kept pulling it up over her knees and down-up and down. It was very exciting(I'm going somewhere with this). So, after the 200th time she came out of her bedroom I stood at the door and held it shut so she could not get out (maybe not the best move, but, well-anyways). SO, she proceeds to scream that she has a mean mommy, Mommy is not her best friend anymore, and she does not want to wear the special nightgown!!!

I torture her. I really do! What do you think therapy will cost in, say, 10 years?

So sweet........

Loon Mountain

We had an absolute blast this weekend with our good friends from Connecticut. Auntie Ying, Uncle Wei, and their 3.5 year old son Andy (they also have a baby Bryan who stayed home with the nanny-ahh!)came up for an exciting weekend of tubing at Loon. Andy loved it, Charlotte loved it which surprised the heck out of us, and Julia went down once, climbed the hill again to go down, and refused. She wanted a snack. It turns out she was very afraid of going down the little hill, so it was not much fun for her (no amount of coaxing got her down), but it gave Charlotte more ride time, and she loved it.

I cooked what turned out to be a fantastic dinner of pork dumplings, beef lo mein, chow mein (courtesy of mother-in-law), and we had tons of yummy fruit and dessert. The girls had a ball playing with Andy who was so well behaved and a pure joy to be around. Julia, on the other hand, started being quite the freshy (said things like "what do you care" to me, and kicked snow at me!-and, an ode to my sister-she now will reply back with "whatever" at times!). Julia ADORES Andy, and it was literally heartbreaking when they left and we had to explain she would not see them tomorrow. But, we'll see them again soon. They played doctor and house quite a bit. It was so cute.

Chris and I had a blast going down the adult tubing slope, and, according to Wei I tube much better than Chris who went at a snail's pace ;-).


Enjoy the pics!

Where do I begin?

Tonight Chris was supposed to have school, but ended up coming home around 9 after being held up late at work.

I had a great, relaxing evening with the girls. Everything is always (mostly) fine til after storytime with Julia. Then we do cuddles. We had fun cuddles tonight. We laughed a lot together-the best times. This is when it goes downhill.

See, cuddles end, and I leave the room. As I descend the stairs I hold my breath praying I don't hear the thump of a 3.5 year old getting out of bed. This always ends badly. Sure enough-THUMP. This time she needed her princess light on. Next time she needed water. She drives me crazy! So, in the midst of her last escape attempt Chris gets home. He tells me he'll take over. Fine. I should see it through to the end, but at that point I accept defeat.

Chris does his thing with her and leaves her room. He comes down to tell me that she told him his shirt was "treddiblle" (terrible), and not to wake her up in the morning wearing that shirt. He was wearing a button down shirt. He's almost always in a sweater or pull over with just three buttons down. Well, fine. Our fashionista expressed her opinion. Ixnay on the button downs. So we thought she went to bed.

Chris and I were in the living room, and we hear the dreaded thump. We expect her to be in the hallway creeping into our view. She always seems to think if she does it slowly we won't know she's there. She's always wrong. So anyways, we did not see her or her shadow. I go upstairs and see her light is on. I also hear her reading out loud to herself (or reading whats she's memorized from "Five Little Monkeys Bake a Cake". I motioned for Chris to come up so we could both enter and reprimand her. This, again, is where we failed. Chris goes in and sits on her bed while I am in the doorway. She takes her book, places it next to her, and says to Chris, "What are you doing in here?". Ok. She's 3.5. We stifle our laughter and ask her what th heck she thinks she's doing, and why she is reading when she should be asleep. Her answer was PERFECTLY LOGICAL AND UNARGUABLE(is that a word?)! "I read so I don't cry because if I cry I wake Char-Char." What the heck do you say to that? So Chris again told her now is the time to be sleeping and not reading, and she folded her arms over her chest and gave Chris such a look that we both lost it. Hysterics. Thus, we 100% failed in getting any lesson across to Julia.

She better get into Harvard. She is too smart for her own good!

I love you.....to a point!

I witnessed just how far Julia's love and generosity would go the other day. I picked her up from school and she was beyond excited to show me this heart she made for Chris and I. It is very cute, and inside it are Hershey's kisses. So the conversation went like this:

"Mommy, look what I made you! A heart for Valentine's day!"
"Oh wow, Julia! I love it! You made that for me and Daddy?"
"Yes, Mommmy!"
"You did such a great job! Did you make it all by yourself?"
"Yes, Mommy!"
"And, is the candy for me too?"
"We can share".

HAHA! She is so my kid!





Oh, and we got male kittens, but they are still princesses! This is how I found them laying on the couch. Odie must have rolled into the tiara!

Seriously.........

I seriously could not be more in love with this child. I love her with all my being. She is the sweetest and most loving child ever. We are so lucky! (and a little funny.......I just put an old pic of Chris up from his college graduation, and he is in his cap and gown. She asked me if he was a pirate! LOL!

Armenian X-Mas Party

Let me start this by saying Mommy is the musical chairs champion! That's right! No, I did not beat the kids. It was a mommy competition, but I did beat about 15 other women, and I did it fair and square (well, it truly was not my fault my last competitor fell on here bum when I took the seat for the last time!).

Now onto the important stuff....

The girls had a ball at the party. Charlotte spent most of her time on the dance floor lifting her dress and exposing her belly, and playing with two little balls she pulled off the X-mas tree decorations. Julia made instant friends with the other little kids, and they had a blast running around together. Santa made an appearance and Julia was beyond thrilled. Santa came up to me afterwards and told me how cute Julia was, and she asked him 65 million different questions (are you going home? where are your reindeer?....etc....). We had lots of fun and look forward to going again next year.













And, pooped afterwards at memere and Poppy's

The things they do..........

So Julia was taking her shirt off in the living room last night. We're really emphasizing dressing and undressing yourself around here, so she seems to equate that to stripping down naked as soon as she walks in the door. So she comes over to me with one arm sticking out of the top of her shirt (still working on the shirt goes "over" your head and not down your waist) and she raises her arm up, points to her armpit and says, "Do these stink?" HAHA! That stemmed from her seeing Chris and I using deoderant and us explaining to her that it is to make sure you don't smell. She kills us!

Charlotte had a nice little melt down last night. Complete with laying on her belly on the kitchen floor and kicking her legs. Why? Because Daddy asked her for some cuddles!! That would piss me off, too! ;-)