Christmas Eve

This Christmas Eve, we went to the early candlelight service at church.  This being our first time at our own church on Christmas Eve with our two little ladies, it was especially meaningful for us to be there.  Ellie was spirited this evening, which made us glad that this was a service geared towards little ones such as herself.  We were reminded again in a simplistically beautiful way about the true meaning of Christmas. How special this was.

My parents joined us for the evening at church and then at our house for a meatball, mash potato, and green bean dinner fit for any Scandinavian family such as ours.  And then, also following tradition, we opened a gift or two, and spent time as a family amidst the twinkling lights of our tree and the contrasting darkness outside.

An attempt at a girls' portrait followed, and at this point, Maja had officially succombed to the bewitching hour and refused to cooperate without her pacifier (note the differences in the pictures below).  Ellie dramatically tried to hold Maja to make her feel better.

And, to prove that Maja can survive without a pacifier and actually like it, here she is talking with MeMo about the evening content as a little clam.

Couch Chillin'

Ummm, excuse me.  Over here...

That's better.  Much better.  See look how comfy I am.  I love to look out the windows, and I can see perfectly upright like this.  In fact, this might be one of my favorite places around the house to chill and hang out these days.  Of course, the crack between cushions helps me to feel nice and supported too.

I'll smile, but just not right now.  You're trying to hard.  I'll smile when I am good and ready
 (which was any time other than when the camera snapped...).

Baby, baby, baby

Babies are apparently everywhere around this house.  Miss E has been finding all sorts of baby dolls around the house and caring for them in a fashion much like she has seen her mama doing as of late.

She holds them close, wraps them up in little blankies, and asks me if I want to hold them, telling me "...but DON'T touch her head, mommy!  Only I can touch her head!"  (hmmm...I wonder where she's heard this before.)

One of her favorite babies is, of course, the infamous Vanessa.  I was asked to take care of Vanessa, and she ended up here next to Maja on the bed for me to take care of both of them at the same time (lucky me).  This led to a photo shoot on the bed. Classic.

I love my ladies (and the humor that comes with all of the babies emerging around these parts).

Juletide Carols: Part Two (We Wish You a Merry Christmas!))

Juletide Carols: Part One (Jingle Bells)

This Weekend

In this busy season of advent, we have been talking a lot about waiting.  Waiting for Christmas, waiting for snow, waiting for dinner to start at the table, waiting for a turn to share.

One thing that we have been waiting for is to see "Clara's Dream" - an abbreviated, kid-friendly version of the Nutcracker, put on by a dance company in Libertyville.  Not knowing exactly how Ellie would react, we thought this might be a good way to ease her in to one of our favorite past-times, going to the Nutcracker during Christmastime.  At first, she was really nervous as she anxiously awaited the opening of the curtains for the performance to begin.  Once it opened, however, she was enraptured by all the goings on and dancing on the stage.  She was hooked.

I, personally, have been waiting for Maja to have more awake, interactive times during the day.  While I don't want to wish away her newborn stage at all, it has been really fun to watch her grow and get more interested in things.  Within the past week, she has really been having more "with it" moments where she stares intently at something (usually a light or something with high contrast), and my heart pitter patters when that staring is into someone else's eyes. 

She is starting to actually enjoy being in/under her activity center (really, that's what its called).  This morning, she was chillin' there, content as could be.

One Month!

As of last Saturday, Miss Maja is one month old! 

We had her doctor appointment on Monday.  

Her stats:

Height: 21 3/4"

Weight: 10 lbs, 5.5 oz.

p.s. The picture below is of Ellie at our church's Lucia Festival.  Check out my mom's post to find out more about the day.  Notice how Ellie has parked herself, uninhibited up in front to get a really good view of the Lucia Pageant.  I didn't know that she was like this until afterwards when someone put this picture on facebook.  How could I have missed this?

Storyteller?

The other day, while I was getting settled for the morning in our bedroom and upstairs, I set Maja in the Moses basket in Ellie's room so they could "hang out" together.  While I popped by in the hallway, I caught Ellie reading to Maja (gotta love a captive audience).  I thought it was especially sweet to see her showing the pictures to Maja along the way. 

So fun to be able to catch this moment with the camera!

Bath Time!

Bath time has become a family affair around this neck of the woods.  When I mention that Maja might just need a bath, Ellie's ears perk up and she wants to get involved asap.

So far, Maja does not seem to mind getting a bath.  She's pretty content as we try to rinse, lather, wash, and scrub her.  

My favorite part of the bath: the afterwards when Maja is all dry with a fresh diaper, her hair is downy soft and smells absolutely delicious. So cozy!

Awake

Look, Ma, I'm awake!

See, I don't sleep ALL the time.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Getting ready for Christmas has seemed to start a little earlier than usual. Perhaps, it began this way because our lite FM station began playing Christmas music around the clock in early November?

Either way, last weekend we broke the Christmas boxes (bins) out of hiding in the garage and found ourselves reminiscing and setting our little home up for Christmas time.

This year, Ellie was particularly interested in ornaments and what ornaments she gets to have in her room.  Mostly, anything that is glittery, sparkling, and/or girly in some fashion she claimed as "hers." I gently had to tell her that some of these ornaments, while beautiful, were actually mine when I was a little girl.  I would be happy to share with her, but they were not actually "hers."  She was decidedly okay with this as I am letting her display some of these in her room (pics to follow later).

In the mean time, she got to decorate her very own silver tree with its very own little, tiny, baby ornaments.  Her strategy: find one solid branch and hang as many ornaments on said branch until it can hold no more.  Needless to said, she was into it. I think that she felt pretty grown up and proud of herself.

We tried to include Maja in these festivities, and like usual, she was out for the count.  We gave her a Santa bear to hold onto, which she promptly raised her arm in response to.  Silly lady.

In the spirit of Christmas time, we also made it to the Botanic Gardens (along with my folks) to their Winter Wonderland exhibit.  Basically, it is a foresty wonderland with many miniature trains cruising high and low around many historic Chicago landmarks (mini-sized).

Here is Ellie with the "Bean."  As you can see, she is thrilled to be taking this picture (so is Vanessa).

At the end of the exhibit, you find yourself at a cozy cafe with crafts to create along a wintery theme.  Ellie made her very own cranberry and birdseed feeder with MeMo.

Best to you and yours as you get ready for this holiday season.

First Person

The other day, Ellie sat down to draw a picture of her family.  This is supposed to be me.  The eyes, nose, and mouth are there.  And, if you are wondering what is going on near my forehead...it's eyebrows (whoa, unibrow!).  I believe that the arms/hands/feet are the little lines at the bottom.

Then, she started to draw daddy and said that it was just too hard, so she stopped (he's in the blue).

I can't wait to see what she'll come up with next. Way to go, Ellie girl!

Catching Up

We've had a few visitors around here. Diane and Brianna came to visit our family and take a gander at our newest little family member.

In the mornings, Ellie could not WAIT to go downstairs to get her grandma fix.  Grandma would read, play games, do puzzles, and meet every little whim this almost three year old would have.  Ellie was also enamored by her cousin, Brianna, who is MUCH cooler than regular old mom and dad.

These days, Maja still spends the majority of her days cashed out. She can't manage to keep her socks on very well, so she is sans feet warmers some of the time as well.

Could Ellie be more excited to be with her cousin?

Of course, there was the sisterly bonding time that was also requested.

Funny Girl

We have some interesting adventures and desires that seem to come up on a daily basis in the morning.  Many of these things, while creative, end up with a monster mess that has to be (painstakingly) cleaned up before heading out the door.

Despite the fear and frustration (on my part) about the messes that ensue from these moments of creativity, sometimes I just have to laugh and find the humor in the situation instead of succumbing to being cranky and turning into "Naggy Mommy" which (unfortunately) too often prevails.

The other day, Ellie came down with every purple item from her hair bin and wanted me to put all of them in her hair.  While the 15-20 clips or so were easy to affix to her thick locks, I drew the line at the 10+ of teensy-weensy hair rubberbands that Ellie found that were also (you guessed it) purple.

She really felt glitzed and glammed for the day.  Unfortunately, all of these little clips would not be appreciated at her daycare, so they needed to be removed before leaving the house.

What a funny girl!

12 Days In...

Well, we're over a week in with being a family of four. So far, so good.  We're establishing a new normal.

Yesterday, we put together a swing for Miss Maja - she LOVES it (thanks, Al!).  Since these days she is all about sleeping anytime, anywhere, this is a perfect comfy place for her to hang.  Check out her "Sophie" that Ellie gave her to hold on to as she drifted along in dreamland.

Other than helping out with Maja, Ellie is into the land of imagination quite a bit these days.  Last night, she was Goldilocks and made porridge for the three bears to eat from her kitchen. Vanessa got to play the role of Baby Bear, which made things rather interesting (remember, Vanessa is the pink Cabbage Patch doll...it's sitting on the couch in the picture below). Mom, Dad, and my friend Carolyn got to be Mama Bear and Papa Bear, though it wasn't always clear who was supposed to be who.

Good times, good times!

Sisters!

Ellie has been very eager to do things with her baby sister.  Luckily, she doesn't seem to realize that Maja is not reciprocating much in Ellie's enthusiasm but is willing to go along with things anyway without too much complaint.

We gave Maja her first bath the other day, and Ellie was up front and center assisting in the washing.

 Yesterday, Ellie wanted to show Maja her letter magnets, and this time Maja had the up front and center role for Ellie's tutelage.  As seen below, Maja seems very interested in learning about letters.

As per Saturday ritual at our house, Ellie gets to watch Angelina Ballerina and eat Lucky Charms.  Upon much insistence, Maja needed to join Ellie in the Angelina Ballerina TV experience.  This entailed Daddy's supervision with Maja sleeping across his and Ellie's lap.

Many people have been asking how Miss E has been doing with her transition to being a big sister.  So far, it has resulted in a few hyper days and moments, but it seems to be that we're settling into something good around here.  Let's keep our fingers crossed about this one!

Crazy things can happen on Halloween night...

Pre-Game: Carving the Jack O'Lantern

Ellie could not have been more excited to carve her very own Jack O'Lantern with her daddy on Halloween.  When I picked her up in the afternoon from daycare, she was twitter-pated talking about what it would look like and how she was going to cut it and put a candle in it.

She liked the experience overall, but did not enjoy the goop inside the pumpkin very much.  She much preferred to pick out the seeds and put them in the bowl while daddy dealt with the messy stuff.

In the end, we ate the cooked seeds and got ready to go out for our afternoon/night o'fun.

Game Time - Let's Trick or Treat! 

Miss E was escorted by daddy and two other neighborhood kids and their daddies for trick or treating.  This year, she was little red riding hood, and insisted that she wear her fuchsia shoes while out on the town gathering candy. 

I manned the door for a while, but developed "miss-out syndrome" and left a bowl of help yourself to one piece candy out for trick or treaters.  I took a little stroll along with my two lovelies and got to be in on the whole trick or treating experience firsthand.

Post-Game: Surprise Ending

After putting our dear darling to bed and waiting for the last of our neighborhood trick or treaters to subside, Jed and I went to bed unaware that only an hour later, we would be awakened by a new little one ready to enter our lives.

My water broke about 10:30pm, and we found ourselves checked into the hospital by 11:30pm.  Maja Helen entered our world around 3:30am, and our lives will never be the same.

Our family of three is now a family of four.  It's still hard to believe.

 

Our little bean was 8 pounds, 13 ounces and just over 21 inches long.  She has dark hair, dimples, dark blue eyes, serious jowls, and rolls abounding.  We can't get enough of her.

Sleeping Success!

We finished! We've got a solid sleeper on our hands and in our lives again! 

At first, Ellie needed to be constantly reminded to go to sleep so she could get a sticker added to her chart the next day. 

Over time, we tried not to make as big of a deal on the chart as we didn't want her to be so completely dependent on this as motivation to get it together and go to bed. 

And then, she has actually forgotten some mornings that she could put on a sticker.  It has taken about 10 days for her to get through the last four or five squares because of this.  And now, our lady has finally finished and can get the ICE CREAM treat that the last square held.

Way to go, Ellie!  Way to go papa for this idea!  Way to go mom and dad for getting our nap/bedtime sanity back!

Early Halloween Party

In an effort to make sure that we were able to celebrate Halloween before baby's arrival, we scheduled our annual Halloween Party at the condo to be a bit earlier than usual. 

So, last Friday night the date was set and we met together for fun and festivities at MeMo and Papa's house.

Ellie has a red riding hood costume, but said that for this party she wanted to be a ballerina.  We had a tutu.  We had ballet slippers and tights.  We had ribbon for the hair.  And, we were able to use our imagination to create a "crown" that was apparently a necessity if one wants to be a ballerina.

MeMo and Papa were spider woman and spider man.  It is a little hard to see from the picture below, but actual fake spiders adorned both of their head pieces and clothes.

Apparently, my belly was too bulbous to fit into the costumes at hand, so I became a SuperHero of some sort.  Super Prego?  Super Baby?  Super Mommy?  A leopard "S" is all I needed in addition to my pink piece of cloth tied as a cape.  Jed was my king, and how regal he looked.

What a fun party it was! From story time books to songs to games, we had a blast!  Happy real Halloween coming up soon, everyone!