Ahhh. . . a Much Better Day!!

After a rough several days with Norah - we had a great day today! The girls got along great all day (Lucy doesn't feel 100% and Norah was very sweet to her!) and Norah was very agreeable most of the day. She had her moments, of course, but we had no major freakouts!!!!

Norah has been wanting to paint, so we dug out the paints and brushes today. I wasn't sure how Lucy would do, but she loved it and she kept her paint on the paper!

So, Lucy's favorite new trick is to fake burp. Norah thinks that it is hilarious, I, however, can do without it. Seriously, I thought that was a boy thing. I'm trying to ignore it, but then Lucy gets right in my face and burps over and over.

We are supposed to have GREAT weather this weekend - mid-50's to 60. Yea!! The girls and I went outside for a little while this afternoon. It was a little breezy so I made Lucy wear a hat - I don't know if it makes a difference, but thought with her cold - it couldn't hurt.

She's the Boss!

As I mentioned in my previous post, Norah was a little grumpy today. On the days when one of the girls is grumpy, they struggle to get along with each other. Today they fought over the little people. Norah gets the people set up into a school or church setting - she makes them talk to each other and has this make-believe story going. As soon as Lucy notices, she goes right over to Norah and either knocks everything down or snatches something away. Norah then freaks out and screams at Lucy and hits or pushes her. They both end up going to their rooms for bedroom time.
This went on multiple times and no matter what I did or said, the girls could not get along. I finally decided that they needed to be separated so I sent Norah to the basement to play. I was working on dinner and I just wanted 20 minutes without fighting. Now let me say that our basement is not a dungeon. Most of the toys (except the little people) are downstairs. Norah starts to go downstairs, but cries that she doesn't want to go down. I verbalized to Norah that I just wanted her to play downstairs while I finished dinner. She stands about halfway down the stairs crying, "But I don't want to stay downstairs all day! I don't want to be down here all day!"
Lucy was standing at the top of the stairs yelling back in this mean drill sergeant voice "ALL DAY! ALL DAY!"
As if Lucy makes the rules, Norah yells back, "No - not all day!" To which Lucy again yells, "ALL DAY!"
I must admit that I was cracking up - which probably just encouraged Lucy. I just couldn't help myself.

She's Never Eating Lunch Again!

Norah was a little on the grumpy side today. She started out happy but as they day went on Norah just got grumpier and grumpier. After a lot of crying and a breathing treatment WITHOUT a movie, Norah ate lunch. She ate most of the food that I gave her, minus 2 baby carrots and a slice of a peach so I gave her a girl scout thin mint cookie. After she ate her cookie, When Norah told me she was still hungry, I told her she could eat more carrots and peaches. Apparently she wanted another cookie and when I told her that wasn't an option, Norah said, "That's it! If I can't have another cookie than I am NEVER eating lunch again!"

Norah's First Sleepover!

Norah spent the night at Savannah's last night. Head over to the Morrison's blog to read the details!! You will crack up!

An Icy Day

As you may have read on Nicole or Alison's blogs, we had an ice/snow/winter storm today. Luckily we didn't have any plans anyway. We were already planning on having a lazy at-home day. Kevin headed into work around 8, but called at 9 to say he was his way home because he wasn't even halfway to work. Yea! We tried to leave him alone so he could get some work done. It was not an easy task for me - the girls wanted daddy's constant attention.

The girls used do-a-dot markers for a long time. Lucy took a morning nap because she didn't sleep well last night.

While Lucy napped, Norah wanted to "have school" (just a quick note, I am going to homeschool Norah for a couple of years - more to come on this in a new blog). Norah has been learning some Bible verses (we are using a book, My ABC Bible verses - totally age appropriate - love it!). She has memorized A-F, so we worked on those today. She also has been wanting to learn to write her letters, so I have been teaching her (capitol and lowercase) along with the verses she is learning. So today she practiced writing A-F. We wrote letters (as in snail mail) & Norah drew pictures to the 2 girls that we sponsor through Compassion International.

After lunch, Lucy went down for another nap and Norah and I made chocolate chip banana bread. Norah is a great little helper - complete with an apron and all. Then Norah went down for her nap.

While the girls napped, I ran on the treadmill and did one of my strength training workouts that I got from my trainer, Melissa. I have had a hard time getting up in the morning to get to the gym - thankfully I have 2 workouts that I can do just as easily at home.

Once the girls got up from naps, we basically just played until dinner and played after dinner until bed. I didn't get a lot done - but I am really trying not to obsess over housework and really enjoy my girls instead. They are only going to be little for a short time and I want to cherish my time with them - isn't that part of the reason that I am at home with them?

Sorry for the semi-boring details - but I know the grandmas like to read about our day!!

Valentine's Day

We had heart-shaped blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Both girls chowed!

Later in the day the girls (well, Norah) and I made a heart-shaped red velvet cake for Kevin.

Look closely at Norah's lip and neck of her shirt - you will notice red frosting:)

Okay, so, I am fairly confident in my baking ability. I LOVE it and it's in my blood (my great-grandfather was a baker) - however, I CANNOT frost/decorate a cake that is not in a 9x13 pan. You'll notice that I added red sprinkles to cover up all the red crumbs that came through as I was trying to frost.

Kevin surprised me with a delivery of chocolate covered strawberries!! Yum!

Good Friends.

On Tuesday, Norah had dance in the morning. Heather invited Norah over to play after dance. Norah loves playing with Savannah! When I picked her up, both girls were dressed up as princesses - surprise, surprise:)

Then, Karen and the girls came over to play and have dinner. Both daddies had to work late so it was a good time for us mommies and girls to hang out. Norah and Kate also enjoy dressing up and pretending to be princesses.

We had Papa Murphy's for dinner. I LOVE Papa Murphy's - mostly because I can pick it up early in the day and bake it whenever we are ready to eat.

Brooke and Lucy

Norah and Kate

Thanks, Nicole!

Thanks, Nicole, for this blog award!

I'm going to pass it along to Heather - who inspired me to start my blog!

Another Cold Winter Day

Once we picked Norah up from school, we did not leave the house - it was too cold! This is what we did to keep busy:

For those of you who are also experiencing really cold winter days - what do you do to help your kids from going stir crazy?

Isn't She Adorable?

I need to start by saying this is Norah's new favorite word - Adorable! She will tell Lucy she is adorable. She will hold up one of her babies is adorable.

We all agree that my niece is truly adorable!! We had not seen Max, Denise, and Contessa since Thanksgiving. They spent a month is Chile over Christmas and then this was the first available weekend for everyone.

Lucy really enjoyed Contessa. I'm sure Contessa has never had such GREAT hugs before!

(notice Denise's face)

Matt, Alison and the boys came over today to see Contessa, too. The kids had a great time together.

Norah's New Favorites

Norah has 2 new favorite shows - she only wants to watch these when she does breathing treatments. This week we have been doing extra treatments so I have had about enough of them.
One is WordWorld. It is kind of cute - lots of spelling and reading. It is on at 10:30 a.m. on PBS.

The other is Super Why! This one also introduces reading skills - rhyming, letter sounds, etc. It is on at 9 a.m. on PBS.

We have DVR so I have recorded about 5 or 6 episodes of each (I actually don't think there are too many more than that because it seems like they are repeated over and over.)

If you have a pre-reader - check it out.

Crazy St. Louis Weather

In case you don't read the Morrison's blog, we have had the craziest weather in the last 8 days!! Last Monday our weather was in the 70's, Thursday night (into Friday) we got 8 inches of snow, and today it was 72!!!

Here are a couple of pictures of the girls.

She's Ready for the Snow!

Lucy did this all by herself. She took her jammies off and put on her snow pants. She was quite proud of herself.

Also, Lucy said her first 3 word sentence - and it was as clear as day! "I want Mommy!"

Lucy Story

Kevin just asked me if I knew why the Romano cheese was in the pack 'n play. No idea - but it is probably the same reason there was a sock in the toilet today.