luci's vote

the girl has spoken. she thinks we should move to disney world.

within a few hours of arriving we found cinderella. seriously, the 15 minutes with cinderella, belle & aurora on sunday afternoon M.A.D.E. the entire vacation for clay & me. the sheer awe on our pea's face was all we needed to know that it was all worth it.
and the boy has an admirer...just don't tell the beast!

a bunch of future posts...

I've been wanting to post on all of these matters, but alas, no time. So for now, I'm organizing my thoughts. Mostly for me. How lucky for you ;).

1. Disney. We leave for Disney World on Sunday. I've been reading & planning like the mom of a Cinderella loving 3 year old whose husband dropped a serious amount of cash to take his 3 year old to Cinderella's Castle. I'm a little overwhelmed by the pressure...can ya tell?

2. Reclaiming the bod. a.I've joined weight watchers.com. Lost 4.8lbs in about 2 1/2 weeks. Wearing some pre-G jeans for the first time. Yet I need to lose much, much more. b. I want to run a 5K. I'm regularly running 30 minutes & walking 20 minutes. And lifting (weights).

3. Annoying health matters. I had 3 cavities filled. What is that all about?!?!?! And I have chronic plantar faciitis...which is making #2b more difficult. Waiting for my custom orthotics. And I get to wear awesome night time ski boot type things called night splints. They are taking some of the fun out of sleeping. boo.

4. Lobbying hard for #3. That's right. I'm putting it out there. We are not so good at the first year. And I am not so good at pregnancy. Yet I can't let it go.

5. Moving. Geez time flies when you are having fun. Spring/Summer of 2012 is coming up quickly somehow. That means kindergarten follows. Colorado? Minneapolis? Portland? Somewhere we haven't even considered yet? And this will [hopefully] be complicated by #4. aka #3.

1-5...to be continued...

I'M the mommy

is lu's favorite new game. "mom...I'M the mommy. YOU'RE the luci. and gusgus is dad." all day, everyday, there is a new mommy in the house. she pretend cooks, she does pretend chores, and she really wants to pick up gus! oh, and at kroger she must have her own little cart now...pretending she's the mommy all through the store, proclaiming it to everyone who smiles at her.

yes, apparently i make this job look incredibly fun, easy & glamorous ;)

so what have we been up to? lots of this lately:

trying new weight watchers tasty treats...

and making valentine's day cookies. the girl loves her a holiday.

she can actually be quite helpful in the kitchen when the outcome involves a baked good. poor thing must take after her mom. today she rolled out the cookies, pushed the cookie cutters down & put the cut cookie on the sheet all by herself. and she did a great job. just don't ask her to get her hands in any dough or batter mix though. she's not interested.



so this afternoon as we were mixing the cookies she was doing the usual "i wish I could be the mommy" bit. so for my own amusement when i dug into the dough i asked her if she was going to do that messy part when she was the mama. her brow furrowed. i poked a bit more. "luci, are your babies not going to get to have cookies? if you don't do this part your babies won't get to have any tasty cookies! not every part of being a mama is fun, some of it is hard work!" and with 100% seriousness she told me that yes, she WOULD be able to do it when she was the mama. that she'd try REALLY hard.

so that was cute.

then tonight as we were getting ready for bed she was doing the whole "I'M the mommy bit." okay, i said.

and she said, "and i'm going to try REALLY hard to do that thing so my clara baby can have cookies." (she's going to have a baby named clara) she said it with such earnestness that it touched my heart. so i decided to spend time documenting it instead of crossing something off of my enormous to do list.

cause it really is my turn to be the mommy. and you only get to be the mommy of 3 year old luci once.

well, for a whole year i guess, but ya know what i mean.

first trip to the er...

another first...a trip to the er this time. the lu, g & i packed up & headed to one of our local stand-alone er facilities last night about 6:45p. fun times, right?!?

yesterday was particularly rough for the lu. i'm not sure if she's spatially challenged, absent minded, or just plain klutzy...but the last & final injury of the day was one in a series of 6 or more that had happened in the prior 12 hours.

she hurt her chin no less than 3 times on the railing of the stairs (picture tiny head propped on hand railing while she decides to step off to another step!?!?!) and i was starting to fear her lil head was going to pop off. every time her chin hit the rail, her head snapped back & her lil body sort of popped right down. dangerous, i know.

she fell or jumped or climbed or swam from the chair to the side table...and hurt her whole torso.

she tripped while walking, looking down at her feet.

she walked into the wall, looking down at her feet.

i really don't think it's her vision. i think her mind is not thinking about her body and what it is doing.

and so i have a talk with her. about being really careful and thinking about her body & what it is doing. i tell her i love her, and i don't want her to get hurt. in an attempt to use words she'll understand, i make a big mama mistake & tell her that if she isn't careful, one of these times she's going to get so hurt she'll break. and that then we'll have to go to the doctor to get fixed. her eyes get super big & immediately i think my attempt to speak at her level has scared the you know what out of her. oops. but i wishfully think maybe it'll work anyway.

but then comes the grand finale. she had just gone potty and was washing her hands getting ready for dinner while standing on her little plastic stool, just as she's done for the last year. i hear a crash and i catch arms flailing out of the corner of my eye. i hear silence (so i know it is bad), and then the crazy, heaving sobbing. i run right over & see the blood welling up in her mouth...she bit her tongue on both sides. i think this is the worst of it. i carry her to the kitchen sink & tell her to spit. it comes out pink...not so bad...or so it seems. then i realize her chin is bleeding. and when i clean it off i see this:

and no i'm not pulling it apart just to take a photo of it. well, actually, i guess i was. but per aunt doctor brooke's instructions. cause what do you do when you have a medical situation you feel ill-equipped to deal with? you call your sister the er doc. and then you send photos using your camera phone of said medical situation.

so when your sister, the er doc says, um, yeah, that could probably use some stitches or tissue glue, you groan (if you are me) & then you listen. it wasn't that deep, but it was wide. for scaring & infection, dr. brooke said we best go. so i take notes on what to ask for and how to handle various contingencies, i feed the kids dinner (they were starving & it was all ready), pack up the dvd player (in case of a wait), and head out. at 6:45p, on a friday night.

and how was the lu, you ask? she was F.I.N.E. fine. wanted to eat her pizza and was laughing & joking. till i told her aunt brooke thought we needed to have a doctor fix her chin. then she lost it. said it was too late, it was bed time. asked if we were going to dr. b. (our pedi). i told her no, it was too late, so we'd have to go to a special night time dr. one that daddy went to once. this, of course, made her feel better. i told her aunt brookie thought mr. special doctor should glue her chin! she loves glue so i thought this would crack her up. it did not. it terrified her. she kept telling me that she wasn't broken & that she didn't want to be glued. that she'd be really, really careful.

parental FAIL.

luckily, our fabulous town in a box rocks; i drive 7 minutes to the first choice er, pay my $25 co-pay and get into the jungle book themed kids room before i can even complete the paperwork they gave me. the staff was awesome & we were in & out in less than 30 minutes.

4 pieces of a tape like substance & some tissue glue later, we are all set. no worse for the wear. should be good as new in 5-7 days. (or new as good, as she says ;) thank goodness for aunt brookie. thank goodness for aunt brookie telling me to ask for tissue glue & avoiding the whole stitches business.

but what i still can't figure out is how she actually cut it?!?! there isn't anything sharp on our sink. she says she hit it on the stool, but even if she did, again, there isn't anything sharp about it. maybe she just hit it so hard it split open?

g stats @ 12 months

g's 12 month well baby visit was this morning.

length: 30.5 inches; 68% percentile
weight: 21 lbs, 12 oz; 30% percentile
head: 18.39 inches; 57% percentile

he's stayed nicely on his own little curve, so that is reassuring. turns out poor lil thing has an ear infection! i had noticed he'd been tugging on his ears, but that really isn't anything new. figured it was just teeth (top two middle have broken through in the last day or two). his naps have been short the last few days and he's had nasty breathe...which now in hindsight suggest maybe there was a problem. he's been a bit fussy off & on, but such is life with a teething tot. i really had no idea his ear was all full of 'thick pus'. poor thing.

he also got his mmr, flow up flu, and chicken pox vaccines. we delayed luci's vaccines, but with our upcoming trip to disneyworld...where there are people & kids from all over the WORLD, our pedi really felt strongly about giving him the mmr before we left. so we did. because ultimately we trust him. i wasn't happy about giving him all of those shots at once, on top of the ear infection, but given we leave in about 10 days this seemed the best option.

he's been a trooper thought...he's a tough boy!

can you say those words?

"i made a parallelogram today, mom. and a trapezoid. they are tricky ones. can you say those words, mom?"

the boy gets his first haircut

the before...sweet lil wings over the ears... and lil fly away sprouts on the back left side of his noggin...

he was SUCH a big boy!!
he didn't cry or fuss...not even once!
not even when she brought out the trimmers!

and the after...one clean headed lil guy

from the back

i had little to no interest in getting his hair cut but clay has been anxious for months to get his hair 'cleaned up'. but i must admit...it looks pretty good.

he looks so much more grown up to me now!

random catch up

the lu's preschool & activity break is over & we are back in our routine. man how i love me some routine. i'm not a super scheduler, but get me off of my routine and i feel like a fish out of water. i'm still contemplating my new years resolutions...the usual trite lose weight, work out more, get more organized, blah blah blah... although there is greater meaning behind each of them, so maybe i'll actually be more motivated for success this year. i'm in the goal & incentive planning stages for the most part, although i did sign up for weightwatchers.com last night. day 1 was not a total failure so that's a start.

the girl is SUPER happy to be back at school & gymnastics & dance. she was 'sure very missing her friends and ms j and ms l ' (her teachers). she's also super excited about our upcoming trip to cinderella's castle in a few weeks (aka disneyworld).

and re: the boy. in the last week the boy turned one (the birthday post is on its way). and took his first steps on saturday...3 steps to be exact. and several times later that day he took 3 steps. and then once 4. he repeats everyday, but never more than four steps.

he's also stopped eating with the appetite of an adult. he now eats as much or less than luci. which worried me at first, until i realized he certainly couldn't go on eating at that rate (8 mini waffles for breakfast, WITH baby food or yogurt) or he'd be a michelin baby incapable of moving soon. i'll chalk it up to a growth spurt.

i suspect his top front two teeth are coming in. the drool & clear runny nose are seriously out of control.

basically, we've been doing ALOT of this:

she's thrilled to be out, just annoyed at my picture taking.
yep. that's how we roll down here on december 30th. in a sundress that has been named her "4th of july dress". i made her put on those ridiculous looking tights for reasons that seemed rational at the time. just seemed crazy & wrong to be out in late december in a sundress. there are some things down here in south texas that i may never get used to. but really she'd have been fine. i was hot.
and he probably was too. thus the bare feet.

he's a handsome lil fella, if i do say so myself.

the boy turns one

first cupcake...he didn't really know what to do with it at first!! his very own daddy bear...it was a big hit!

on 12.18.10, the boy turned one.

it is hard to believe.

his birthday was on tuesday. on saturday took his first few steps. he's only taken a few since then, never more than 5 at one time. he's a deliberate lil thing. drops to the ground & crawls when he realizes he's getting shaky.

we celebrated on sunday the 26th before clay went back to work & grandma & grandpa pierse went home to indiana. just a small celebration in he afternoon with cupcakes. no 1st birhtday plates or anything of that nature. he didn't seem to mind, but i do wonder if this much more laid back approach with #2 will make him mad someday. after cupcakes we opened gifts & he was delighted with more cars, trucks, and a daddy bear.

other notes...

-still taking 2 naps a day, anywhere from 1 hour to 2 1/2 hours. 90 minutes a piece is average. he does well skipping the afternoon nap, but if i try to skip the am nap he usually just literally falls asleep on the go & is impossible to wake (forget about him sitting up in the cart at Target).

-he's usually an early riser...pre 7a.

-size 4 huggies lil movers.

-still in 12-18 month pants, 12-18 month or 18-24 month shirts. 18 month pjs...he's about to graduate to the 24M though. sniff, sniff.

-just got his first pair of big boy shoes. they open up really wide because the diameter of his foot makes most shoes impossible. size 4.5.

-he's still drinking 3 bottles, 6 oz each. i thought i'd have him off of this by now, but man i'm lazy these days.

-he happily drinks water out of a cup, but looks at me like i have 6 heads if i give him cow's milk in a cup. the exception is if the cup is luci's....he'll drink anything out of luci's cup.

-he loves, loves, loves his sissy.

-he claps, he waves, he dances. i think he's shaking his head no, but i'm not 100% sure of that. he also signs 'all done' and 'more' about 80% of the time.

-i declare "hi" to be his first official word. he makes lots of sounds (mamamama, dadadada), but he says "hi" appropriately with the wave very often. his "hi" sounds more like "haa", but it is definitely hi.

-bath night is every other night for both kids. after that he gets a bottle, reads a book, and goes down without much trouble.

-he's still on prevacid, but i'm thinking about giving it ago without it once this month's supply is gone.

-still anemic, but just iron deficiency based. after 3 months of iron supplements 2x per day he's supposed to be good to go.

-loves to rough house with his dad & big sis.

-if he's crying & you start to bark like a dog or meow or make animal noises he'll usually stop.

-he's still the snuggliest, sweetest lil guy. not unusual at all for me to sit down on the floor & have him just randomly crawl over & wrap both arms around my neck for a nuzzle. sweet boy has captured my heart...that is for sure.

happy birthday big boy. we sure do love you!!!

a year ago tonight

our family looked like this.

my boy is one tomorrow.

the shortest year of my life has been filled with the longest days.

some were better than others.

sometimes the beauty & joy of it all overwhelmed me with gratitude.

sometimes the sheer volume of 'giving' that two small children require exhausted me to ugliness.

we struggled. we persisted. we prevailed.

we are closer than ever because of it.

to quote Ben Hie Hei from my current read (thanks brooke),

"The reward is in proportion to the exertion."

and without question,

the greatest exertion of my life has yielded the greatest reward.

creating a family with my husband for our children.
thank you husband, for creating our family with me.

it's not perfect, but it's ours. and i wouldn't trade it for anything.

Christmas 2010

was FUN. grandma & grandpa pierse came down which seemed to elevate the whole holiday...everything seems more special when you share it with family.

so thanks again grandma & grandpa.

as the lu would say, "we very miss you already."

clay & i stuck to our plan of 3 gifts from us (including santa) since baby Jesus received 3 gifts. the kids get one big gift from santa, one book about Christmas from santa, and one gift from mom & dad. then they get spoiled by their cousins, aunts & uncles & grandparents.

the before...post santa, pre-wake up.

the boy got a chair of his own. he has been fighting with luci over her chair for months now.

but no longer!

and the girl got her purple bike.

she was happy, i swear.
a bit overwhelmed i think, but happy.

and another favorite gift...the scooter from grammy & grampy that is in that big box.

and one of the boy's favorite gifts...a big, giant, super soft dog from cousin austyn, uncle ben & aunt chelsi. he puts his head down on it as if to hug it often. sometimes he plops right down on the whole thing & moves his whole body so that it looks like he's swimming!

luci named the dog fred.

gus got up first, but grandma got up with him before clay or i heard him (thanks grandma). later (7ish?!?!) luci came in our room and said, "we got presents! i got a bike!!". clay & i jumped up, put on our glasses & headed downstairs. we/santa were just as excited to give her the bike than she was to receive it. she loved it, but really just seemed sort of overwhelmed by it all. and in true baby/toddler fashion, gus just seemed happy to be along for the ride.

it was a blessed day, for sure.

a few firsts

playing outside with sidewalk chalk, at 9am,

she in her bare feet & he in his pjs...

ON THE SECOND DAY OF WINTER. we've made sugar cookies lots of times,

but this was the first time that she wanted to roll out the dough.
g's first whole cookie. with frosting to boot!
see the frosting on his teeth?

marked with a G...so we knew it was his...
and today, the big boy had his first pb&j for lunch.
and lived to tell :)

********

UPDATE

********

and tonight, for the first time ever, the girl told me she didn't want a book.

"no book. just prayers."

what?

many nights i'm beat by book time & would welcome a break.

but tonight she was sad...missin her dad.

and anxiously looking forward to her grandparent's arrival.

she's super excited & a little overwhelmed i think about Christmas.

and just i wanted to snuggle & comfort her.

and she said no thanks.

the first...but sadly i'm sure, not the last.

****************

FINAL UPDATE

****************

sweet girl came down at 8:45p...still awake.

i asked her if it would help if i went to lie down with her for a bit.

she said "thanks mom."

i put my hand on her cheek to help her relax.

she reached up & held my hand in hers.

and fell asleep in less than 5 minutes.

feeling so, so blessed tonight.

did you know

that my baby is almost one?

seriously...how can it be that nearly an entire year has gone by...

it's hard to wrap my head around it.

dad is trying to convince him that boys don't wear headbands.

even if it IS snow white's headband.

he begs to differ.

first ever photo with santa

this is the first year the lu would sit on santa's lap...or at least stand by him. we tried last year but could only get close enough to wave without a meltdown. and while i think photos of children hysterically crying on santa's lap are precious (i might be sick & twisted?!?!?), i didn't pick that battle (you know, the one where we spend $20 to make our child cry at Christmas) with my ever practical dear husband.

but this year she was up for it. sorta. it's totally off center because clay was on the other side of santa, convincing luci that santa was, in fact, safe...

she told him she wanted a purple bike. and we were about a half a block away when she said, "silly luci! i forgot to tell him i wanted roller skates!" we went roller skating for the first time two days later for a birthday party...and she hasn't mentioned wanting skates since (see future yet-to-be written post on ice & roller skating this year for the first time).

gus didn't cry...he was just skeptical. but he'll pretty much do anything that luci will do...he definitely takes his cues from sissy!
and here is my attempt to create a frame for under $5 to house said santa photo each year. this paper is a bit too busy i think...but it'll do for this year.

Luci's First Christmas Performance

1. the camcorder function on a camera does not replace an actual camcorder.
2. i do not have a steady hand.
3. our girl is T.I.R.E.D. as noted by the big ole yawn captured just as i started recording. i think she's still catching up from last week (5 days of 101+ fever).
4. i'm very proud of myself for keeping it together & not turning into a sobbing mess. (in the dictionary my photo is next to 'easy cry'). if a room full of small, joyful children singing Happy Birthday to Jesus at Christmas time doesn't make you tear up you must not have any Halvorson blood in ya. ;) luckily g served as a good distraction (you can hear him fussin in the beginning).
5. i am SOO blessed.

lu is the one leaning on the railing...ya know, the one with the giant open mouth yawn? so tired she couldn't be bothered to stand up apparently! she was really worked up about the show this morning before school. scared was the word she used...but during the actual performance she looked fairly apathetic! she didn't do any of the hand movements but did sing all of the words...to songs i hadn't heard her utter a word of before today. maybe they learned the movements last week (she missed both wed & fri cause of the fever)? maybe she had stage fright? who knows. regardless, as i told her over & over today, seeing her up there singing about Jesus & Christmas made my heart SUPER happy...

she comes by it naturally,

i'm afraid. just ask my nhhs girls.

"mom! when i laugh SO HARD, i try to pee!!"

poor thing...

her daddy's sick girlie

so yesterday afternoon the lu told me REPEATEDLY she was cold. and it was in the 50s, so i figured her texan blood just found it to be quite chilly. i took her to the gym even though she didn't particularly want to go (she never does, but then always has tons of fun once there). she looked a little off when i picked her up. then at dinner she didn't eat, and asked to be covered up with a blanket while she sat at the table. and yet her dense mother still didn't get it. i just thought she was tired because she'd been getting up super early.

then came bath time. and when i went to put her very warm-to-the-touch, goose-bumped lil self in the water it dawned on me that she had a fever.

yes, 102.6. poor sweet thing.

so i gave her some tylenol. medicine, i called it. she responded, "mom, i don't need medicine. i need to go to villa (the gym)."

strange, i thought. but i let it go.

at 5a she started crying and i went & slept in her bed with her until almost 8a (amazing how much faster the morning goes by when it starts at 7:30a instead of 5:30a or 6:00a). again, i gave her tylenol. to which she again told me she needed to go to villa. i asked, "do you mean the doctor?" and she said, "no, villa...that is where you & dad go to get healthy & strong."

ah, so true sweet girl. your dad couldn't be prouder that you associate the gym with being healthy instead of medicine. you may whine for your mama when with dad, but you sure do seem to internalize dad's way of thinking as the answer to life's questions. it's a good plan...he is a smart man. he married your mama after all!

not our christmas card photos

the lu had little interest in our christmas card photo shoot this year
we saw a lot of this
and more & more of this

as the shoot went on.

special thanks to my fabulous friend amanda who humors me every year by capturing my crazy family. it's always one of the best christmas gifts i receive and probably the only one i'll cherish forever.

(unless those diamond earrings are coming this year honey. i promise i'd cherish those too ;)