January: Things I want to remember

I'm shamelessly stealing an idea from my sister in-law, Dione. She made a photobook about the things she wanted to remember and I loved it. I thought it would be a great idea for a blog post to wrap up our months.
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Things I want to remember:

Sophia making up words and telling me they are Spanish or French or Italian, explaining their meaning as she says the words over and over and uses them in a sentence.

Ava wrapping her arms around my neck and squeezing so tightly she grunts.

Sophia making up silly jokes, which are not at all funny but we laugh hysterically because they make no sense.

The look on Noni's face when she was pulling the string on the popper New Years Eve.

Ava taking a few steps and then lunging for me because she's not quite ready to take off on her own just yet.

Rick having a slow month and being able to spend a lot of family time together. While it was an adjustment in the beginning, it really was great to have him around so much.

My mom's excitement for taking us (well, taking Sophia really....Ava and I just tagged along) on the train ride at the Fountains.

How excited Sophia was to do "Face Time" with the iPad to her cousins and then becoming totally mute when they showed up on the screen.

The impromptu 49er playoff party at our house.

Sophia planting herself in the middle of her cousin Chris and his girlfriend Calla on the couch. Jealous much?

Playing hours of Candy Land and the Owl game, with Sophia legitimately beating Rick and I every time.

Ruger peeing on the photographer's basket of props. He hates the camera and we invaded his backyard with a photo shoot of the girls for an hour or 2. Once the camera was put away, he immediately ran over to her stuff and peed right on it.

Parents coming up to me and telling me their kid talks about Sophia all the time at home. (I hope it's all good stuff!)

Speaking of stuff, Sophia coming over and sitting on my lap and saying, "Mommy, let's talk about stuff."

Dione sending me a picture of Alyssa wearing a shirt with "Sassy" on the front, but also wearing a scarf with the shirt that effectively blocked out the "S" and "Y" in the word.

Laughing so hard at one family member's (to remain nameless because she'd kill me) sweat pants and the unfortunate place a hole appeared. I can't go into detail, but these are things I want to remember afterall.

Father Daughter Dinner Dance III

Before Daddy came home to sweep her away to the annual Father Daughter Dinner Dance, I was able to take a few pictures of the princess. It's really fun to compare how much she's grown each year from the first to the second, and now this year with the anticipation leading up to the dance, it's really cute.

But my princess woke up with the sniffles. And not princess sniffles. The thick snot-nosed, hard to breathe kind of sniffles that woke us up early in the morning and I thought oh no, not today! But the show must go on, because there was no way--well maybe a stomach flu--that she was going to miss out. I'd give the sickness excuse for why she's not in full smile mode in these pictures, but it's not actually true. She's gone from not wanting to smile, to plastering a crazy forced smile that just drives me crazy. OK, it's a stage and I should accept it, but it's so forced and so crazed, I'm not sure these are the pictures I want to look back on. Of course, I don't delete them, but keep them in the archives when the day comes that I'll miss that crazed forced smile. However today I like that I know something you don't know look much better.

Well hello there 2012

This may be the first year in the last 5 years that the focus is not on making a baby, trying to hold onto a pregnancy, or recovering from a pregnancy related trauma. 2012 started off with some major organization overhaul, all because of the lovely new shed that is currently housing everything that was packed away to the gills in closets and random storage areas. This shed set off a chain of organizational events that we haven't seen around here since the big move in. Rick got super focused on making the most of his new space in the garage, which led to the lower lot, which led to the closet, which led to the tax receipts, and so on and so on. I was all aboard until we got hit by some sinus/respiratory funk that derailed all my motivation and completely knocked the wind from my sails.

So here we are 1 month into 2012 and I am exhausted. In my quest to make real goals for the new year, I may have gotten a little too ambitious. It's time to slow down a bit and take it all one step at a time. Barring any end of the world nonsense, I need to remind myself that I do have a whole 11 more months to check off my to-do lists. But man, was I in the zone there for a few weeks. It felt good to accomplish those nagging little things that weigh on your mind month after month. Riding on the high of that sense of achievement, getting caught up in that can of worms, it's easy to want to keep it going. Now that the bulk of the work is done, I'm initiating a maintenance mode on myself to take it down a notch.

Enough about cleaning house. 2012 has also started out with lots of reflection. I get this overwhelming sense of love and contentment that hits me out of nowhere lately. The other night I was washing bottles and listening to Rick, Sophia and Ava playing in the living room, and I wanted to cry tears of joy. It's this new emotional me, I guess. Right at this moment, I'm happy. Even with the self-inflicted Project Organize, I couldn't be more content. I'm so used to looking forward to where I want to be that its taken some time to adjust to that feeling of just being in the here and now. My new motto for 2012 is "Be Present."

Sophia says...

I'm not sure if Sophia is picking up on old sayings and just interpreting them in her way, or if she's just that funny, but here are some words of wisdom in the past week:

"Mommy, watch: I can run and chew bubblegum at the same time."

One morning when the local news was on, they showed a picture of Michele Bachmann and Sophia says, "Mommy, that lady is running for President of the United States. But she's not in very good shape."

And on another patriotic note, "Mommy my blood is red and that means I'm an American."

Our goldfish Cleo died the other day. I told Sophia that Cleo died and she said she wanted to send Cleo to heaven. I found a cardboard jewelry box and she decorated the box with stickers and artwork, and asked for something cushy for her to lay on. She took the box and said, "get in the car mom, we gotta drive to heaven."

And Sophia may not be a ballerina one day, but she's going to be a mean breakdancer.

Ah Christmas...

As much as we played up to Christmas, boy did it happen insofastseedoflightandthenitsover. I have mixed feelings about this. I really want to enjoy it. But I also want to shape it. I'm trying to figure out how to do both. And at the same time, I am so happy to say good-bye to Christmas the very next day. I want to de-clutter and un-decorate. I feel the need to clean out the dust-ridden decorations and pine needles (which are like little needles of death for a crawling-everything-goes-in-your-mouth baby). I had these images of Ava getting this awful cough which were followed by x-rays that showed a pine needle lodged in her lung that caused a tumor, which caused permanent damage...see where I'm going here? Yeah, p.s.y.c.h.o. I think we made out unscathed, by the way. And apparently I've been a very good girl. My letter to Santa must have made some waves in the North Pole. Ava's 2 front teeth came through the day after Christmas, with a palpable relief felt by all (OK, really felt by me.) And as of today, my amazing 8x10 shed built by Rick sits proudly next to the house, half full immediately following completion of the roof. You better believe I expunged the contents of 2 closets, garage shelves, and the heater closet (I was informed it's not the smartest move to store woven baskets and table clothes in a closet where the heating unit is also present) quicker than you can say "Merry Christmas." Rick is lobbying for some space and, lalala, I can't hear him. Santa also catapulted me into the 21st century with an iPad. I've been very unplugged from technology since trying to get pregnant with Sophia. I was literally up all night for the next few nights trying to figure out how the iPad was going to sync into my life and make it all organized. And then I got sidetracked by trying to beat Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja. Rick and I are waging a very competitive war for highest score, and it's getting ugly. I also downloaded a book on iBook app. As if I couldn't sink further into the iPad blackhole. So with all levels of Angry Birds completed with 3 stars, currently on top with the highest score of Fuit Ninja, and having just finished the John Grisham novel, I am coming up for air before I discover that there really is an app for everything my heart desires. We have yet to figure out if this thing is pure poison or pure nirvana.
But enough about my spoiled bratness. Sophia loves her dinosaur and she brought it to Show and Tell for her first day back to preschool. I realized that her first bike wasn't all the rage, in fact I never knew it wasn't intuitive to know how to pedal. But it's work in progress. Let's just say that Sophia and Ava are loved and spoiled and they are playing with every toy, all a big hit. My heart is full right now and I am very content. I am so very blessed, and even without toys and the iPad (well, I'm not sure I could give up my iPad right now) I am so grateful for our families and friends and the kid's cousins, and I could go on and on. But I will end with some pictures to recap our holiday fun.

We made Reindeer food to lure in the fleet

Christmas Eve with the girls literally climbing the walls

Christmas morning at Noni and Papa's

Ava is so close to walking

We've been cruising the halls lately.

Be back soon to update on our Christmas recap...