Happy New Year!

Well, a new year. The first year we are starting together as a family. Greg told the girls, "This year will have 19 more days in it."

Us on new year's eve.


We rang in the new year rather peacefully. The girls chose to celebrate the new year with the British at 8pm EST. We were glad they chose to fall asleep shortly thereafter, and didn't feel the need to wake up at midnight. Greg and I mostly spent the night cleaning. His big project for the last week or so has been cleaning out the garage, and we can now fit a car into it again! Good timing, too, because it's been really cold the past few nights. My project has been cleaning out my craft room. It has been largely ignored for the last year, and even when I moved everything in there, it was kind of in a rush without much thought or planning for functionality. It's not quite done yet, but much closer. I can't wait to get in there again and actually work. And the girls are going to have one rockin' craft kit when they're ready for it, with all the stuff I cleaned out.

Earlier last week (Tuesday, I think), we took the girls for one more trip to see the Christmas lights. Greg and I appreciated the vintage Smurf lights.


Luckily we ran in to some friends while there, and got this great family picture.



The girls are testing out some new hats and mittens from Greg's Aunt and Uncle. The girls weren't sure what to do with the thumb hole, but they stayed warm, and the hats didn't fall in their eyes.



I got a barrette in Becca's hair at some point this week. These pictures make her look SO much older. And yes, she's reading Technology Review (my alumni magazine). A future Engineer?


Another trip to the doctor last week. Daycare called on Wednesday and said that Emma was inconsolable. Ear infection. They aren't sure if the first one just never went away, or if this is a new one, but she's on stronger antibiotics now. She is doing MUCH better with medicine. What finally seemed to have worked for us is just not trying to hold her while we give her the medicine. We bring it in to the living room and sit down next to her or across from her, and she takes it on her own terms. No more drama. Whew.

Anyhow, after the 10 minute nap in the car on the way to the doctor, she was a much happier girl, so we decided to stop at Hobby Lobby on the way home. Emma hung out of the cart the whole time! People kept laughing and asking if she was asleep. Nope, just intently interested in the floor. Thank goodness for cell phone cameras.


After that, it was about time to go get the sisters. Everybody was asleep when we got home.


Love, love, love this picture of Emma and Greg.


We moved one of the white noise machines downstairs to try to calm things down at bed time. Julie found it right away. Turned it on. Turned the volume all the way up. I think she was trying to pretend she was at the beach again.


The grocery cart from Santa has been a big hit.


Julie is our dancer. She loves music, and loves to be able to play music herself, either on the shopping cart or the little doll stroller. She's always liked it, and still loves the music from the exersaucer. She bops up and down to it.

Meal times are slightly improved these days. We're continuing to give them something they can feed themselves first - usually bananas, celery, etc. and then following that with a jar of fruit/veggies. We have started giving them some jarred meat. I want them to get some protein, but they don't seem to want to feed themselves meat yet. Oh, and it's not that "meat sticks" stuff (actually, the jar might say "stix," lending even less credibility). I am hoping it doesn't come to that. Although... apparently Emma ate spaghetti-os at daycare last week. Really, Emma? You won't eat ravioli, turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, or even cheese puffs, but you'll eat that crap? I really hope I don't have to break down and buy spaghetti-os.

Bed time has been a battle again. We had kind of given up on "sleep training," because the girls go to bed at different times every night. I mean, we enforce an 8:30 bed time, but sometimes they will fall asleep earlier, or they'll be ready to go upstairs at different times. We've been trying to put Emma to bed first every night this week, and we're pretty much listening to her scream herself to sleep every night. Sigh.

So that brings us to the first week of the new year... which hasn't gone quite as we had hoped. We are having a hard time getting back into the routine of having no time. Things were pretty smooth over vacation, and we even managed to get a few real meals on the table. Nothing Martha Stewart, but certainly less take out. And this week just feels like things are falling apart all over again.

Becca is sick with bronchiolitis. She's having a hard time breathing, she's coughing, and she had a really high fever (102-104) earlier in the week. She also has an ear infection. Greg or I have been home with her since Monday, and she won't be back at daycare before Monday. We went back to the doctor for a recheck on today (Thursday), and her lungs sound much better. Her fever finally broke on Wednesday. She's on 3 different medicines right now, and she just isn't herself. She's very clingy, doesn't want to play, cranky, fighting naps, and will just kind of space out. Poor thing. Luckily, she is getting better and we are on the mend, but it has been very draining for all of us. Emma and Julie don't understand why they can't play with Becca, why they can't play with her nebulizer, or why she is getting so much attention. We have again given up on the attempt of sleep training, in order to get Becca as much sleep as we can.

I've got more pictures to post, but it's late, and this post has been dragging on for days now.