timeless

Admittedly my style for the Pi'bears tends more toward hip and sporty (GAP-ish, if you will) than frilly and smocked (quite the style below the Mason-Dixon line, I'm finding). Exceptions can always be made though and when my friend Christi loaned us this amazing wool Rothschild coat that her daughter had outgrown I almost melted. It's so classic and gorgeous. I'm almost afraid to even put Sarah in it - it's just that beautiful. She wore it to church on Sunday with her Christmas dress underneath and I couldn't resist dragging her out into the cold to snap some pictures.

The best part for me is that I think she can still get another year's wear out of it. The best part for Sarah is that it comes with an adorable matching hand warmer that she's positive is a purse perfectly sized and made expressly to hold her beloved granola bars.

I should mention too that Christi also has an adorable almost one-year old little guy who she keeps in some pretty stylin' clothes as well. And guess who's getting the hand-me-downs? Ephraim's closet is looking pretty swank these days. :) Thanks girl!

eve and morn.

Christmas Eve...



Christmas morn...(looking tentatively around the corner to make sure the Big Guy wasn't still hanging around)



Santa was good to her, delivering a dollhouse, playdough toys, and some things to help mommy with the housework (THANK YOU SANTA!). So why is her favorite "toy" still the basket of Christmas cards? She's so two.

Hope you all had a fabulous holiday. I'll have more pictures to share soon!

parenting decisions that would horrify my former self: part one

I'm titling this part one because while currently I'll only be addressing one horrifying decision I'm quite sure more will surface along the way. Stay tuned.

Many of you know that I taught kindergarten for four years before becoming "just a mommy" (in the words of my dear sweet Gabe). I loved teaching and, forgive me for tooting my own horn just a bit, was pretty good at it. (toot!toot!) In particular I loved teaching five year olds to read. Scratch that. I loved teaching five year olds to love to read. Nothing lit up my world like seeing the joy and pride in the face of a little one with a library book under her arm that she could finally read for herself.

Before I confess my horrifying parenting decision here's something else you should know about my book-loving self. In June of this year I had a children's book collection that topped the 1,000 mark. And they were all numbered and entered into a searchable database on my computer (just a little something I like to call the DeeDee Decimal System). Sadly, our new house wouldn't accomodate all of my books so I had to downsize to about 750. We're certainly not lacking in books.

One of my greatest hopes for my babies has been that they would love books as much as I do. So far Sarah has not disappointed. She passed the obsession mark long ago and drives us bonkers all day, everyday with some variation of the same demand: read books! I have no doubt that she would gladly trade in all of her toys if it meant she could keep just a handful of her favorite stories.

So yesterday as I was nursing Ephraim and trying unsuccessfully to discipline Sarah's so-typically-two-year old self (wow is it hard to get her to do what I want when I'm strapped to a chair with another human strapped to me...does anyone else have this problem???) I had a revelation. Prepare yourself because it was not my finest moment. I know, I thought to myself, I'll take away all her books. All. her. books.

Ay-ay-ay. WHAT?! As I'm gathering up the zillion stories that are scattered around our house I realize what a dumb idea this is. Who punishes their child by taking away something so inherently good for them? I might as well deprive her of dinner. Or give her some broth without any bread. Not to mention how long it takes to take away all her books. Dumb, dumb, dumb. If one of my little kindergartners had waltzed into my classroom and announced that mommy had taken away all of his books I would have been appalled. Maybe even making a mental note to ask about it at the next parent-teacher conference.

So, there you go. My confession. My Part One. More to come I'm sure. Anyone else care to share just to make me feel better???

I'm happy to report though that I'm not above regrouping and changing courses. Sarah now has all her books back and this is the current scene over my shoulder as I'm typing...



Always the voice of reason, Brent steered me in the direction of the American Academy of Pediatrics website for some more reasonable and productive discipline measures. I'll be sure to try those next time. :)

who loves bathtime?

Contrary to what they tell you in the hospital about drying out your babies skin and babies not getting dirty and blah, blah, blah, we're a bathe-our-babies-every-night kind of family. It's not really that I'm insistent that they be sparkling clean all the time but I just feel like it keeps them in a nice routine and gets them settled down for sleep. Sarah has always been a great sleeper - even as an infant - so we've just kept the bathtime routine going for Ephraim too.

Every night since we arrived home the hospital Ephraim has pitched a fit about the bathtub but last night - BREAKTHROUGH! He cooed and kicked and pursed his little rosebud lips (I swear that's a precursor to a smile) and didn't even slip down into the tub and inhale water as I snapped a million photos. Wasn't that nice of him?





Gosh I just love this kid. He's seriously so sweet. At the risk of jinxing myself I'll just go ahead and say that he's even...easy. A textbook baby, for real. When Sarah and Caroline were babes Samantha and I use to guffaw when the literature said crazy things like "put your baby in his crib drowsy but awake." YEAH RIGHT? What baby does THAT??? Um, don't hate me...but Ephraim does. Now that I've put that out into the universe I'm sure that he'll turn into Mr. Colic today but at least we enjoyed his sweet, sleepy nature for the first four weeks of his life!

hello me

Today I'm reintroducing myself. To myself. I'm hoping this marks the reemergence of the me I know and love. Tomorrow Ephraim turns four weeks and it feels like a blur. It started with round one of The Stomach Virus That Ravaged Our Family but took on even more speed when Little Dude had not yet regained his birth weight at two weeks and sent mommy into a panic (I'm such a freak, I know). Then round two of The Stomach Virus That Ravaged Our Family came knocking and we were a mess again.

I think as an act of independence from this four week vortex last night Brent joined me in making dinner (our first time since the birth) and then cleaned the house from top to bottom. As I fell asleep last night I knew that when I woke up things would at least look normal again. And they did. And now after carting Ephraim to the pediatrician for a weight check this morning I'm officially declaring my own independence from the vortex because I now have a fatty - 8 pounds, 11 ounces!

So hello me! It's nice to remeet you. In case we lose each other again here are some things we should know about each other that might make the refinding a bit easier:

- I take pictures. A LOT OF PICTURES. Which means that the 20-30 photos I have of baby E over the last four weeks is simply not acceptable.
- I blog. It's my outlet. Once a week just isn't going to cut it.
- I like to drink tea with sugar and milk.
- I do things on time (most of the time). Sending Christmas cards out days before the holiday and barely getting teacher's presents delivered to school before they close the doors for the break just isn't my style. Don't let it happen again.
- I'm a better friend/daughter/wife/mother/sister than my December record has shown. Or November for that matter. Let's kick off 2008 with a tad more thoughtfulness, how 'bout it?
- I enjoy being a mommy. No amount of stress or worry should overshadow that.
- I'm a happy person. So move over baby blues.

Good. So now that myself and I have been reintroduced let me tackle number one on that list!



(what is it about babies and lights? Like little moths to big flames...)



And for those who have been asking baby E is still in need of a nickname that sticks and warrants blog renaming. So far we work with Little Dude, Baby E, Snugglepuppy, Oh You're A Great Little Guy, and Baby Brother on a regular basis but nothing's official yet.

my apologies...

Don't you hate when a blogger you really enjoy makes an off-handed comment like "I'll be posting again in a day or two complete with pictures of the Shertzers who are headed here for a visit" and then fails miserably to follow through? Gosh, I sure do. Check out Amy's blog though for a nice recap of our visit. (And then congratulate her on her awesome marathon run!)

In an effort to sway you from getting exasperated with my failure to follow through I'm offering this list of reasons why I'm a lame-o blogger this week:

- we're currently dealing with our second bout of stomach nastiness since baby E's birth. Lovely.
- thrush. Even better.
- our house is infested with mice. Nasty.
- Christmas is in how many days? I'm so not even close to ready.
- I miss the Shertzers.
- I miss the Clarks.

I hope to be back to my regularly-scheduled happy-go-lucky self soon. I hope, I hope, I hope.

come on...elf-rybody's doin' it!

Okay, I realize that probably the only person who got a giggle out of my little title is my mother-in-law who loves punny jokes just as much as I do. Still, you have to admit, it was pretty cute.

Check out our wee little elf family...

And just because I'm in the holiday spirit I thought I'd share what I'm doing for Christmas packages this year. In the middle of the night the other night I decided I wanted to wrap all of our Christmas presents in newspaper. Not sure why but I did! So I set out on a three-store search for the perfect ribbon and then went to town. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out...and I didn't have to pay a dime for wrapping paper. (Just don't ask Brent what I spent on the ribbon!) I claim I'm "going green" but really I just liked the challenge of turning newspaper pretty!



I'll be posting again in a day or two complete with pictures of the Shertzers who are headed here for a visit. YAHOO!

1 toddler + 5 nights away = too long

Our girl is home and I could not be more thrilled. I swear, waiting for the car to pull in the driveway last night was worse than waiting for Christmas! My in-laws were so wonderful to take Sarah down to the beach with them for Lily's birthday but I think we all overestimated Sarah's (and my!) staying power. They ended up coming back a day early and I was seriously thrilled. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face last night as I watched her play and then again this morning listening to her try out all her new words and phrases. She changed so much in those four days away! Maybe it's just my mommy imagination but her face is fuller, she's taller, and she's now putting together quirkly little sentences like this gem this morning: "Oh! Somebody had a toot! It's SARAH!" Somebody? When did she learn to say "somebody"?

So here she is, Princess Pigbear herself, back at the table playing colors. All is right with the world...









Baby Ephraim was glad to have her back too...there was no one to pile legos and letters and books on top of him while she was gone.



(awesome door hanger courtesy of Mandy)

our son.

We took advantage of our day without Sarah yesterday and grabbed some "official" shots of Ephraim. I think I waited a bit too long to get the nice snuggly, curly newborn shots that so many photographyers execute so beautifully but I'm still happy with the ones we did get. And check out Brent's mad skills too! I don't end up in the photos too often and I was thrilled with the shot he got. I probably could have done without the double-chin (and considered photoshopping it out) but then decided I earned that puppy with 9 months of hard work...it's stays! At least, it stays for the photo. In real life, it has to go. :)







Happy Sunday everyone! We'll be headed back to church next week so for today we'll just enjoy our cozy, quiet home.