To: Harper, From: Marielle

As a parent, you know that those moments when everything has gotten quiet in your house typically mean that your child, or children, are up to something. We had one of those this week. We were all in the living room and had just finished up a session of gift wrapping. Marielle was running around entertaining herself, Harper was playing in the exersaucer, and we had just flipped on a Tivo'd episode of The Soup. Then, the silence came, or, should I say, the realization of the silence. We looked over to our two girls and found Ellie gift tagging Harper. Harper thought it was hilarious.

One Part Dance, One Part Stage Fright

Several weeks ago we had enrolled Marielle in a pre-dance dance class at our local rec center. You may recall the post about her initial apprehension about going it alone in class. Well, after many lessons as well as practicing the routine with Mom, all of Ellie's hard work led up to last weekend's dance recital. 80's was the theme and Uptown Girl was the song. We've been looking forward to her rocking a side ponytail for weeks! She looked awesome.

Viv went back stage with Marielle to get ready before the routine, while the rest of us anxiously waited in the front rows - thanks to Jossie for getting there early and fending off other parents in order to hold seats for all of us. Marielle's class was the opening act and watching the huge curtains open to reveal such tiny dancers was a sight for sure. Marielle was shocked to see so many people staring up at her.


In class, we had been struggling to get Ellie to watch the teacher who would stand to the side and go through the dance routine to help the girls along. Each week she would do her own thing instead of watch the teacher. Needless to say, Ellie often wasn't doing the right moves, if any at all. Two weeks ago, on the way out of class, Vivian said to her, "Marielle you have to watch the teacher. You have to pay attention to what she's doing." Marielle looked back at Viv, and in a dejected tone said, "Mom I tried really hard." Viv melted.

So, if not watching the teacher was a drawback, you can imagine what would happen if you threw a little stage fright into the mix. Yes, little Marielle stood virtually paralyzed on stage. I took many, many photos, but I'd say most of them looked identical to the ones in this post. In Ellie's defense many of the girls looked similar to her, and the few that didn't let the crowd bother them didn't really follow the teacher's lead. However, as most of you have already concluded, this was the beauty of it. We were watching their first recital, and it was exactly what we had hoped it would be! As the song progressed, we saw Marielle loosen up a bit. We saw her knees start to bend as she began to bounce, and then I think I even saw a shoulder shake. When it was all over, the crowd erupted into cheers, and we saw Marielle crack the biggest smile. She kept standing on stage soaking it up after most of the other girls had left the stage. Her teacher had to round her up and usher her to stage left.

Fun at Pottery Barn for Kids

Pirates or ninjas? Apparently pirates

I've been meaning to tell you to ...

Check out PC's Blog post about his recent military operation in Bangladesh. And by "military operation" I mean military humanitarian aid operation. I think that the major media outlets in America cover the military, but I don't think they do a great job of showing all of the positive things that our servicemen and women are accomplishing around the world. He's got additional links that go into more detail about support they gave to the people of Bangladesh in the wake of Cyclone Sidr.

Trains and Track Suits

Last weekend we got together with Geoff, Colette, and Alex so that the kids could exchange gifts with one another. After exchanging countless Gap and REI gift cards, we and the Pierz's came to the realization that Christmas, among friends, should be about the kids now that we have them. Drews, you all are excluded from this relatively new rule as being overseas has limited the consumer habits that all Americans are entitled to (curse all companies that don't ship to APOs). For you guys, it's gifts for the whole family until you're back stateside.

The kids had a great time playing together. They played catch for a while, did some chasing, and eventually settled into playing house. The playhouse always seems to be their favorite. They spend a lot of time ringing the doorbell and letting each other through the door. One of the last times we visited, they spent twenty minutes taking turns flopping out of the house's window like stunt men (and women . . . or should I say stunt boys and girls).

Alex got the girls matching Nike, velour track suits; one pink and one purple. They are, by far, the cutest track suits we've seen to date. Nice job Alex. Knowing that Alex loves his train table, the girls got Alex some Thomas the Tank Engine friends. Marielle and Harper will also be the first to tell you that you can never have too many PJs, so Alex got some dinosaur PJs as well.

The Holidays are Here

We've put up our Christmas Tree, and this year, Marielle helped put ornaments on the tree instead of just trying to take them off. She was really excited about it. Viv handed Ellie the ornaments and twenty minutes later we had a two foot by two foot patch of tree where all the decorations ended up. Viv and I later evened out the tree. Since then, we have caught her playing with the ornaments a few times, but, altogether, she has been a lot better at leaving the tree alone this year than last. The one ornament she can't seem to keep her fingers off is a little ceramic Starbucks cup. Hmmmm, future coffee drinker? Perhaps. At the time, the tree was devoid of any gifts so we thought Harper might want to chill out underneath the tree. Her eyes lit up instantly. She was mesmerized by the lights and ornaments while she played with her feet. She's been doing really well reaching for things, so it didn't take long for her to go for the light strand after which she was moved to her Bumbo.

New Toddler Fashions

Al, we are about to throw you under the bus. Just know that we love you, and couldn't appreciate more how helpful you were last week, and know that you did a great job. We hope that you're great sense of humor will allow you to persevere in the face of such a heinous outing by us.

Last week Al came up to our house and watched Marielle for us. He took her to dance class for us which was good since she only has one more class before her recital.
She was a little apprehensive about class - probably because we weren't there - but he talked her through it and got her confidence back. He later spent the morning with her back at home. At some point after getting home, Al changed Marielle and decided to get her into some "regular" clothes and out of her dance outfit. Al went to her dresser to grab some clothes, but Marielle stop him saying, "those are Harper's, my clothes are in there," pointing to the closet. This was a big ol' lie. I'm not sure why she did it, but she convinced Al that Harper's stuff in the closet were hers.

Well Al grabbed a shirt and pants, got them on our daughter, and then realized the grim truth. At this point, however, Marielle was dressed and extremely happy with her outfit (consisting of a 3-6 month top and maybe 9 month bottoms). So at this point, he did what any great grand parent would do ... he let her rock the outfit since she was really excited about it. When we got home, and before we saw our daughter, he joked, "Well you may not like the clothes I picked out, but at least she's not naked." We all had a good laugh, and all continued to let Marielle rock Harper's puny clothes. After all, they were Marielle's at one point.


Al, thanks again for coming up!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

Since Thanksgiving happened over two weeks ago I won't linger too long on the subject as the statute of limitations for blogging after-the-fact has probably expired. In other words, Thanksgiving, as yummy as it might have been, is OBE (that's overcome-by-events for those of you who aren't around acronyms all day). We've got Christmas tree decorating and toddler fashions to still cover from the last few weeks.

We spent the day at my parents' house watching the Macy's advertisement that is the Thanksgiving Day parade. Throughout the day, the girls got lots of attention from Oma and Opa as well as Opi and Susan, and we finished the day with a great Thanksgiving spread and coffee and apple pie.

Updates to the Sidebar

First off, I'd like to announce that Al's Photography Blog has been added to the link list at right. His blog replaces my shortly-lived mobile blog which never really took off. If you'd like to pay your respects to the mobile blog, or say goodbye to the mobile blog, click here. Now, if your concerned about how you'll get your fill of mediocre cell phone photos, rest assured that I have you covered as I have tied my cell phone to this blog for the occasional mobile posting.

Al's Photo Blog has anything but mediocre photos! He recently purchased a nice DSLR and has been getting out on the weekends, weekday evenings, and any other time he can to capture some great photos. He's got a great eye, so check him out.

In addition to new link above, I've made some minor changes to the order of the links. Anna, I'm gonna come right out and say it. "You've been bumped to the bottom of the list." I know it's rough, but you haven't had a new post since March :) PC, be careful because your last post (July) is almost as old. I actually think that's the only change.

Birthdays for S2

Where S² equals Sarah and Sophie. There combined birthday was last month, but I think, by this point, everyone is used to the annoyingly long lag that can occur from event to post in our little corner of the blogosphere. So please indulge us.

Although we didn't manage to have the presence of mind to photograph our dinner with the family for Sarah's portion of the shared birthday, we did manage to document a tradition we set in motion last year for Sophie. Said tradition consists mainly of getting her a burger at the Sonic drive-in We liked the idea that your dog is allowed to dinner at Sonic since, you never really leave your car. Our two young girls both began melting down while waiting for the car hop to bring us our food, so we modified the tradition slightly by coming back home to eat. So as you can see in the first photo, Sophie showed remarkable restraint while we sang Happy Birthday to her (Marielle took it upon herself to blow out the candle end). Then the next picture, taken approximately 8 seconds later, shows Sophie having completely devoured her special birthday meal. Note the look of awe on Marielle's face, or is it shock . . . or both. Next year I will have to take pictures in burst mode so that we can see the eating in all its "wolfed down" glory.

I Cried Mom And You Didn't Come

Today was a big day for our little or should I say big girl. Marielle started preschool today. We feel like interaction with other kids Marielle's age would be great for her. Recently she has been telling us that any child that she passes by that is close to her age is her friend. We thought that signing her up for preschool could give her the social interaction she was missing as well as provide her some challenging activities throughout the day. Well I took her in today and initially she was all excited. The minute we got to the classroom she saw that everyone was doing art and she went and sat down and said "Bye Mom." Apparently the rest of the day didn't go so well. The teacher said she would play then be sad and cry and little and then play again. She also said that she asked for her mom several times throughout the day. I was told that during nap time the teaching assistant rubbed her little back until she went to sleep. Thank you teaching assistant. At the end of the day Marielle could not have been more glad to see me. She was happy when I got there sitting at a table and talking to other girls, but the minute she saw me she started crying and came running. In the car on the way home she told me "I cried Mom and you didn't come." She seemed to know just what to say to make me feel horrible. It was hard to come up with anything good to say in response. I just told her that big girls go to school on their own, that it is more fun that way, but that Mommy would always be there when she got home. The good news is that I think she enjoyed her day despite her crying. As soon as Marielle got home she just talked and talked about the different stuff she did throughout the day. Art and reading and playing on the playground and cooking pretend soup in the play kitchen. Anyway, I was both happy and sad today that my little Marielle is becoming such a big girl. At least she still loves her mommy.

Halloween

Halloween was celebrated three times this year. First we went to a Halloween party in Connecticut with my dad and his wife Meredith. Everyone had to dress up, so the adults all dressed up as pirates. Do you like Marc and I’s makeup? Marielle was a bee and Harper a lady bug. I think they make some pretty cute bugs.














When we came back to Colorado on Sunday we went to Boo in the Zoo with Geoff, Colette and Alex. Alex, as can be seen in the picture, was Tigger, he had a pretty cute bounce to go with his costume.
The kids had a lot of fun at the zoo, once they got out of their we haven’t napped long enough funk.
The highlights were the train ride and carousel ride, Marielle rode a tiger and Alex a zebra.









On Wednesday went trick-or-treating at Marc’s parents’ house. Marielle dressed up in her bee costume and Harper dressed up as a sick infant. Harper even added a cough to her costume to make her sick kid costume convincing. Good job Harper : ) Marielle initially had fun trick-or-treating. She got good at knocking and then reaching her little hands into people’s candy bowls to pick out a treat. After a couple of houses though Marielle started acting tired and cranky so we headed back to the house. Once there we decided to go show her to her great grandfather. Right as Marc was putting her in the car she puked, she puked huge, all over Marc, all over the driveway. I guess Marielle also wanted to dress up as a sick child or rather a sick child dressed up as a bumble bee. Well after Marielle threw up she got a well needed bath. While Marielle was in the tub, Harper was in the shower with me. We tried to help her throat with the steam from the shower. It seemed to help and on Thursday Harper was much happier, still sick, but happier.

Our First Vacation as a Family of Four

We started our trip with a three and a half our plane ride to NY. First of all, I have to give mad props to our girls. They did awesome!!! Harper was either happy awake and playing or asleep and Marielle was entertained drawing with her Magna Doodle and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the new portable DVD player we got. She fell asleep at the end of the plane ride in the most uncomfortable position that Marc and I had to take a picture of. The car ride to Connecticut was also nice and pleasant. Harper, who hates the car, did great and slept the whole time. On Sunday we went and worked out. I ran as fast as I ever had with the help of the lower altitude, hello 9 minute mile. (I know that I am slow) On Sunday evening we went to Meredith's parents house for dinner. Meredith's parents made a great chop suey (sp?). Marielle kept saying "ummmmm this is good" and "yummy" throughout dinner, so no one was worried that she didn't like it. On Monday we went out on our own to the beach in Bridgeport, CT. We were later told that the area was not the nicest which confirmed what we had suspected from our drive from the freeway to the beach. In fact, Meredith even gave us the green light to call Bridgeport the "Armpit of Connecticut," Regardless, the girls had a fun time because the beach was nice.

Marielle loved playing in the water and collected some seashells. Harper spent her first beach day sleeping.
After the beach we went and got some Nathan's hotdogs at a local mall. See picture below . The next day we went to Manhattan to see my dad's work and eat some Korean food. We also took the girls to FAO Schwartz. Marielle played on the piano for the second time and was actually able to light up the piano lights (last time she didn't weigh enough). On Thursday we went to Mystic, CT and went to a museum, which was basically a preserved historic seaport village. It was really neat. Marielle had fun just running around the village going building to building.


On Friday we went to Boston. Marc and I both thought that Boston was a really neat city. It was much cleaner than how all the movies depict it and it had lots of cool things to see. We choose to go to the New England Aquarium, which Marielle loved. She thought that the Penguins there were the coolest and couldn't get over the fact that there were people in the water feeding them. On Saturday, we went to Harvard for breakfast and then drove back to CT for a Halloween party. All in all it was a great trip. We really enjoyed seeing my Dad and Meredith and can't wait to see them again.