Christmas Baking

We did some cut-out cookies this morning.  I said to Alice, "HEY!  You wanna help me bake some cookies?"  Oh yes.  She did.  "Yes!  Cookies!  Alice eat cookies!  Alice help!  Alice roll!"  The guys are much more go-with-the-flow when it comes to helping out.  They sort of fade in and out and do what they feel like, while chanting COOKIE! COOKIE!  Not so much like Cookie Monster, more like Animal from the Muppets.  The girls tend to want to be right there the whole time and stick their noses in every part of the process.

So we had a big discussion about keeping fingers out of mouths while we work with cookies.  I knew that would be my biggest challenge.  Several of my friends very seldom have an empty mouth.  And it was true.  We washed hands at least five times during this.  Quite an ordeal.

I did each child's initial, and then some assorted shapes.  B!  B for Alice!  Well no.  That's not B, and your name doesn't start with B.  But A for effort!  All the kids know some letters, and some can sing the ABC song, but it's still a crapshoot about whether they'll call the right one at the right time.

 So Alice helped.  Alice rolled.

 Alice pressed.

 And then Mater rolled.

 Mater chose cutters.

 Remy rolled.

And Alice cried piteously at my betrayal.  After all, I asked HER to help bake.  The boys weren't even in the kitchen at the time.  This was our special thing and we were going steady and how DARE I let those stinky boys have a turn.

And then we washed hands again.

And rolled and pressed more cookies.  Stars.  "Star!  Alice eat the star."  Well, maybe you can give this one to your mama!  "Oh!  Mama eat the star!  Mama bite.  Mama eat.  Star for mama."

I let them eat the tiny bits that I cut out of the middles of the letters- the A and B and P and all those.  They're annoyed that's all they get right now, but hey!  Cookies for families!

Merry Christmas.  I love and appreciate all my families so much.

The New Normal

So it's just me again, the way it used to be, except it's totally different now that I've had Kanga here so long.  I miss her, for so many reasons.  The companionship, the humor, the shoulder, and oh my, the cleaning.  :)  Having her leave right at the time Merryweather started has been extra challenging because I'm getting used to having a newborn again with less help all at once.  It's not overwhelming in terms of the kids- six is not a problem for me.  But the toddler and infant schedules tag team each other and most days there is very little time for straightening up.  Things are not neat and tidy at 5:30, and I'm a lot more tired at the end of the day and hate to face my kitchen for dinner when it's messy. 

And there are less crafts.  I like doing crafts.  I miss doing them with the kids, especially at holiday time when I feel like I should be sending home reindeer and snow and fun treaty goodness.  But we're cooking a lot- they're helping me with meals a lot more since there's not a second person to keep them busy in the playroom.  It's a lot of fun to answer questions and tell them all about our food.  I'm sitting on the floor in the playroom a lot and just talking with them, and singing, and building blocks and reading books and what color is this and what letter is that and what sound does it make and and and....  we're definitely having fun.  I'm still figuring what things to switch around to make it work more smoothly, and I expect to be back in the craft groove soon.  Hopefully Merryweather's schedule will be a bit more consistent at that point too.  Right now she does whatever she likes- you get to do that when you're two months old.  Not knowing when she might be awake or hungry changes our schedule daily, but it's all good. 

 O'Malley is crazy in love with her.  He's about the same age now that Duchess was when big sister Aurora was here, so it's funny to have this relationship again- one of my kids and one of the Sleeping Beauty clan.   He was beyond proud when I let him feed her for a minute the other day.

Then she farted.  And not only did it shake the couch, the stench would make you flee the county.

 So he's yelling, "MAMA!!!  Come get Merryweather!  She tooted and it is SO STINKY!!"

I was right there, of course, but I was laughing too hard to rescue him immediately.

I was telling my hubby one day last week that I needed something exciting and somewhat physical to do with them since we're not venturing outdoors these days with a tiny one.  He reminded me that we own a parachute.  OH YEAH!  I completely forgot about it.  They had such a good time.  Alice especially loves it.  We sing songs and shake and push and pull.  

 Of course they kept wanting to sit on it and hide under it too, which is fun.  We also bounced balls on it, and worked lots on the gross motor skills with holding the handles and how much to move your arms to make it do different things.  Remy was funny- he kept wanting to wear the handles around his wrists like bracelets and then they would slide right off as soon as the others started to shake.  I couldn't get a picture because it was happening so fast.

 Merryweather approved.  She's just starting to give me regular smiles.  LOVE that I caught one.

Alice and Lady are starting to be excited about clips and bows.  Alice calls them "hair pretties", which is a term that we've all appropriated very quickly.  This morning she was quite pleased with her purple sparkly flower, and I dug one out of Lady's box for her to wear too.  Consequently, Mater hit the floor in a full body tantrum.  The man needed a hair pretty.  He wasn't buying the argument that most boys don't wear them, so I found him one too.  I figure it won't kill him.  A pink hair clippie is good for improving the soul of every boy, right?

And then all was right with his world, and the three of them chatted and patted each other's heads and praised their loveliness.  He wore it about ten minutes and then it disappeared.  I still haven't seen it.  I'm putting my money on the couch cushions. 

Schedule Recap

While I'm thinking of it, here's the plan for the holiday:

Closed Monday and Tuesday, December 24-25.

Open the rest of that week, December 26-28.

Closed the entire next week, December 31- January 4.

Monday January 7 my flight gets in at 10:40 am.  Either my hubby or Mrs. Potts (Chip and Belle's mom, our regular sub) will be covering the morning til I arrive.  I was planning on having that be a Kanga morning, but obviously now I'm making other arrangements.  :)  Didn't want to have to close yet another day on top of the week prior.

File Under: Best Thing I've Heard All Day

So Kanga called me today on her way home from work.  It's very weird to even say that.  Day one went well- she likes her coworkers, got to go out to lunch, and didn't change even one poopy diaper.  (Very different from my day!  Although I do enjoy the people I work for.  :)  ) 

She worked in the filing room this afternoon, getting acquainted with some of the clients and whatnot.  She said at one point she just felt everyone stop working, and looked up to find everyone staring at her.

*the first thing I thought was OH NO!  I was kidding when I said that about passing gas in your next job!!!*

And a nice man leaned over and said, "Did you know you're singing while you work?"

Well, no.  She didn't realize that.  And what was she singing?  "There's a party in my tummy!  So yummy!  So yummy!"

complete with head movements.

my work here is done.

Thankfully she does great work even with a party in her tummy.  Bring on day two!!