Merry Christmas Everybody!

We have been enjoying our Christmas Season thus far. As far as Catherine is concerned, the day would have been a success even if we got no further than the stockings. Her stocking was filled with colorful necklaces, a bracelet, and many beautiful barrettes. She immediately put on all the necklaces and the bracelet, then (with a little encouragement from Grandma) distributed barrettes to everyone in the room - I think even Bailey the dog ended up with a pretty bow.


Catherine helping Aunt Jena make a fashion statement:


Uncle Tommy's hair has never looked better:


The next gift she opened was a blue jogging suit, which she insisted on putting on immediately over her pajamas.


She also got a play iron and ironing board (every towel in the kitchen is now beautifully ironed) and an awesome Beatles shirt. Her new guitar stand (exactly like Daddy's) is actually functioning as a microphone for now.


Here's a little taste of some of her performance today. When you hear her singing "Montefornia" it is actually "I'm longin' for ya", the last line of the chorus of "California" by Tripping Lily. Yep, she still loves "California". On Christmas Eve when we were driving between church services I asked Catherine if she wanted to sing a Christmas song, and she said yes, so I asked her which one, and she said, "California!"



At first Catherine was a bit jealous of a toy laptop that Mary got, but then she got her own laptop from Grandma - it looks exactly like a real laptop except it's pink - it has a mouse she can plug in and everything. And we've only just begun - we have two Christmases left with Catherine's great-grandparents and Christmas with my family in Indianapolis this weekend.

Catherine and Mary are both very happy to have their grandparents around, and Catherine has also found a new best friend in Bailey the dog. Catherine looks for Bailey when she wakes up in the morning, takes her for walks (with Grandpa's help), gives her treats when she comes inside, and throws her toys for Bailey to fetch. Mary also thinks Bailey is hilarious, laughing when she barks or trots by.


Catherine and Grandma hanging out, and Catherine wearing her new coat from Grandma.



Mary using Uncle Chris as a pillow:


Mary and Grandma hanging out (Mary just wants everyone to hold her standing up all the time):


Mary all worn out from all the activity:



One of the girls' favorite new toys is not even a present but a decoration. Mary laughs every time Catherine turns on these little dancing penguins, and this morning Catherine busted out with this great Christmas dance:

You Better Watch Out

Santa Clause is coming to your town too...

The Christmas Party

I know I promised lots of pictures of Catherine playing in the snow, but it is rather difficult to get that kind of picture when Catherine has absolutely no interest in playing in the snow. She stepped into it for about 2 steps, then made Michael carry her - she was only willing to walk in the plowed street. After about five minutes she asked to go inside.




So we mostly stayed inside Saturday, which was fine with me because I had a bit of cleaning and setting up to do to get ready for our Christmas party, which was at our house Sunday evening. We were expecting at least 50 people and I think we probably had 50 to 60 in spite of the weather (for those of you who have been in my house, don't ask me how we got 50+ people in here - I have no idea).

We started off the evening with a Christmas Story pageant put on by kids from both churches. Catherine, Morgan and I were angels, Robert and Tristan were the sheep, and Mary was baby Jesus. We have some older kids at the early church in Forestdale, so Autumn and Danny played Mary and Joseph, Nathan was our representative Wise Man, and David had to switch between roles of Narrator and Shepherd. Our guitar player who was supposed to lead us through the songs didn't make it to the party, so at the last second (literally) we recruited Mrs. Bliss who did a great job standing in on the piano. The pageant went pretty much the way you would expect a play put on by a cast with an average age of 5 to go. Catherine spent most of her time on stage trying to remove a string from her slipper, and one of the sheep confiscated one of the Wise Man's gifts and also thought about stealing Jesus' pacifier. However, a wonderful time was had by all. The whole thing is on video somewhere, but I haven't previewed it yet.

Tristan, a little lamb:


Robert, a little lamb, going after some early Christmas gifts:


The two little angels waiting in the wings for their debut (this was Morgan's first play and she took her role very seriously, and did a wonderful job):


The cast:



The party continued with Mr. Peters' famous homemade clam chowder and oodles of cookies from all over the Cape. After dinner we were fortunate to get an early visit from St. Nicholas! This seems to have made Morgan's year, but not many of the other kids were excited. Catherine immediately decided Santa should go home and after I tried to sit her on his lap she refused to even go in the same room with him. Tristan ventured close enough to touch hands but still would not sit for a picture. And Robert (St. Nick's own son) was almost as terrified as Catherine! Anyway, we got a big kick out of it all and if nothing else, Morgan probably had sweet dreams of her conversations with Santa last night.




Many people started to make their exit soon after Santa because the rain we got in the afternoon was all going to freeze in the early hours of the night. However we did manage to get in a few Christmas carols before the evening was through.


And Catherine very much enjoyed an early Christmas present from Ms. Rizzio - she loves this hat and scarf:





It was a lovely day, but of course to Catherine, any day she and Mary are wearing "same dresses" is a good day.

Big Snow

For once the experts were pretty much right! We had a pretty significant snowstorm last night, especially for the Cape.



I promise we'll get all bundled up at some point today and take lots of pictures of kids in snow, but for now all you get is trees in snow.

Here Comes the Snow

It has been snowing for about two hours now, and we have a couple inches on the ground. The experts say we could have a foot or so by morning - maybe tomorrow we'll have playing-in-the-snow pictures!

The Day in Video

First, a tribute to Aunt Melanie, who will understand perfectly Catherine's aversion to chunks in yogurt.



Mary chillin in her jumper:



And the result of an afternoon of coloring:

Catherine's Favorite Declarations

1. All things Catherine's! Example: Mamo sent a Christmas card that has a picture of a star over a manger, and I told Catherine that it was Jesus' star, and she said "No! No Jesus' star! Catherine's star."
2. I running! (Variations include "I running with hat on!"; "I running with Mama!"; "I running too fast!" etc.)
3. Catherine do it by herself! This applies to going up and down the stairs, putting her coat on and off, getting in and out of the car, washing her hands, brushing her teeth, putting her shoes on, cutting her food, hanging things on the Christmas tree, writing her name, pretty much everything that she can or cannot do by herself.

Monday Catherine spent the whole day at our friend's, the Norths. She helped Mr. North put up the nativity scene and she came home with a lovely gingerbread Christmas tree made with help from Mrs. North.


Sneaking a bite while I try to get her to say "Christmas tree" (it sounds like "Nistmas tree").



Monday evening in addition to our normal crowd for Bible study, friends Erinn and Kevin with Morgan and Tristan came over for dinner and dessert to celebrate Kevin's birthday. We had a wonderful evening dotted like usual with little spats between Morgan and Catherine, as they are both still learning to share. However they did work together very well to build me a new floor in the basement made out of foam letter blocks - far superior to the old floor of carpet. And it was of course another night of Catherine being up far past her bed time - she's going to start to think she doesn't even have a bed time any more.

Yesterday another friend, Mrs. Bliss, came over and spent the morning with Catherine. It was raining, so Catherine was a little disappointed that Mrs. Bliss didn't bring her dog Tugboat with her this time, but she comes over pretty much every week so maybe next time.

This was Catherine's contribution to cleaning the kitchen this morning.


I have to warn you all in St. Louis that I may be looking a bit like a zombie by the time we get there for a visit. For the last couple weeks Mary has been staying up until 11 or 12, then either Catherine or Mary are up alternately around 2, 4 and 6, at which point we're up for the day. Several weeks of 2- to 3-hour stretches of sleep are starting to wear on me (I dropped and/or broke so many things the other day that Michael asked me if I was pregnant again - apparently pregnancy and sleep deprivation result in the same symptoms).

Raspberries and Horses

We had a busy weekend with lots of parties - hooray for December! Friday night Mary and I went to a Tripping Lily show while Michael and Catherine went to a model train party. Catherine told me all about the trains going "around and around and around" and she also liked the lights. After the train party was over they came and met us at the show. It was at a small coffee shop and we were sitting at a table near the front. Catherine came in in the middle of a song, climbed on my lap, and announced that she liked Demetri's hat and that they should play California. Both Mary and Catherine really liked the music. After the show there was an open mike time, and Catherine was very impressed with two young girls (one playing violin and one singing). She also insisted on standing right next to me while I played a fiddle tune with my violin teacher.

Saturday was a day of cleaning and finishing the decorating, and I think Michael disassembled something in the basement.

Sunday was a whirlwind like normal. We practiced the kids' Christmas pageant at early church (I think Catherine is going to be a wandering angel) and we had a good time reading stories and coloring at later church even though we missed Morgan terribly. However Catherine was glad to get to wear the Advent wreath hat in her absence.


After a quick lunch at home we went out to the mall to support a group of carollers from church, and in a great stroke of luck for Catherine, they were set up to sing right in front of the carousel. As soon as we walked in she saw it spinning around with all the lights and said "Catherine ride the horse! Catherine ride the horse! Go around and around and around!". I have to say it was my first time on a carousel in a very long time. As usual when we do something new, Catherine did not look like she was having any fun, but I'm pretty sure she loved it.


Here's a super quick snippet of the carousel ride:



This is what Mary thought of our time at the mall:



We made a quick stop at the warehouse store to stock up on party supplies for next week, then home for a brief rest and out again to a birthday party dinner for our friend Alex (member of Tripping Lily and son of Nick and Athena). Actually, our "rest" involved making cookies for Alex (in the pretty dress of course).


Catherine likes hanging out at their house - they have a dog that runs around and yaps, and an endless supply of Greek cookies. Not to mention the addition of a sparkly Christmas tree and a stuffed Christmas moose doll that was almost the exact same height as Catherine - she played with him for a while then stood him in front of the TV so he could watch the videos. Mary slept for a while, then made the rounds as usual. She also like the little dog, Cody - she laughed every time he barked. And Catherine is getting very good at staying up past her bed time - she didn't get to bed until almost 10 on Friday and after 9 on Sunday. Don't worry, it didn't stop her from getting up before 6 as usual.

Jesus Loves Catherine

The newest addition to Catherine's singing repertoire:



I believe she can also sing several songs from the DVD "Elmo's Potty Time" but they really are not nearly as endearing.

Catherine's Favorite Questions

1. Mama, what you doin?
2. What's this?
3. Daddy, what you doin?
4. Where that come from?
5. What Mary doin?
6. This Catherine's?

Repeat.

Walker Time for Mary

Mary likes the walker more and more every day:

Let Her Eat Cake

Sorry about the short blog hiatus - the Facebook worm ate our computer and it took Michael a couple days to fix it. Since we're reaching back a few days, here's a picture of Catherine and Grandpa before he left.


Saturday Catherine and I spent most of the day decorating and putting up the Christmas tree. Our tree isn't prelit like the new fancy ones, but it has been decorated so many times that it pretty much comes pre-tinseled. Catherine is very impressed with the whole situation: the tree in the house, the lights, the ornaments, and the star. She had a fun time hanging the ornaments up (and taking them down) and she especially liked all the ornaments that were Daddy's. The whole process took rather a long while because Catherine had to hold everything before it could be put up, but most of it got done in the end. We even managed to listen to some Christmas music instead of California. Here's a little snippet of Catherine directing us during decorating:



And here's the end result:



Sunday was a rather full day for us. It started with a long morning of listening to musical Christmas cards.



Then we went to early church at Good Shepherd like normal and Catherine seemed to have a good time. There is one girl in particular that Catherine enjoys playing with at this church and her name is Autumn. Unfortunately for Autumn, Catherine is still in the habit of randomly putting a "b" at the beginning of lots of words (similar to "Bobert"), so the whole car ride between churches she was singing "I want da Bottom!" (she is also in the habit of putting "the" in front of proper names: I want da Mama, I want da Mary, etc). I am hoping that Catherine stops calling Autumn "Bottom" before the boys in children's church catch on - I can only imagine how hard it would be for an 8-year-old boy to let that go.

When we got to church #2, Morgan and her family were there, which was a delightful surprise for Catherine (I had been warning her all morning that Morgan wouldn't be there because they were supposed to be at a parade, but it was postponed due to the freezing rain and snow). The girls had a very good time wearing their paper-plate-advent-wreath as a hat (sorry I don't have a picture of this) and eating animal crackers as always. After children's church Catherine even did a good job sitting quietly with Morgan and our friend Mrs. North because I had to play a song during communion. And of course after church it was time for treats - Catherine saw the chocolate cake on the table, picked up a plate, held it up to the cake server, and broke out her biggest blue eyes and sweetest "cake please?" - who could resist? Luckily all the chocolate smears and crumbs on her dress camouflaged right in with the pattern on the skirt. Note: her nametag is courtesy of Morgan. If you look closely she did a very good job, you just have to read from the bottom up. "CATH" is on the bottom line and the "ERINE" is on the top line.


Sunday evening we had another church service, a baptism service for two of our friends. Catherine really likes churches with pews - o the games we can play! She was very good during the service, although a couple times when there was a pause in the liturgy she declared "All Done!" - I think she was ready for dinner. We had a lasagna feast catered by Athena (of Nick & Athena's), and then Catherine saw the cake. She begged, but I stood firm about one piece of cake a day (all I had to do with think back to the whirlwind of activity that was Catherine earlier that afternoon and it was easy). Before the evening was over Catherine somehow managed to procure free gift baskets for her and Mary from the ladies manning the craft area at the church.

And a quick Mary update: she's all grown up! At least that's what it feels like. In a desperate attempt to have my hands free for a few moments last week I brought the walker upstairs, thinking maybe Mary would just like to be able to sit upright for a while. I wasn't even sure her feet would touch the ground, but after just a couple days she is already moving the walker backward and forward (no turns yet). Catherine thinks it's pretty fun to push Mary around in her "car" - luckily it has a very broad base so it doesn't look like there's any way Catherine can tip it over accidentally. Mary also loves bouncing in the doorway jumper, but this requires constant supervision when Catherine is around because Catherine loves to push and spin Mary in the "swing." I feel like at this rate Mary will be sitting up on her own by the time we see everyone at Christmas!

It's California!

Although "Fluoride please!" and "Catherine hungry!" and "Cold water please!" are all familiar phrases in our house, the single most oft heard request is "Play California!" California is far and away Catherine's favorite song, even better than Twinkle Twinkle. Any time either of us heads towards Michael's office or even looks at the computer (since that's where the music comes from) Catherine runs over and shouts "California! Play California! California Please!" until we give in - Michael actually broke down yesterday and put it on repeat. It's very difficult to get Catherine to sing it on demand for the camera, but she does know all the words. Here is a recent effort:



Grandpa had to work a good part of the day yesterday, but in the afternoon the work was helping Michael move the dryer in the basement, and it was obvious to Catherine that they would never complete such a task without her help. She would take the hammer and hit a nail and say "Catherine working". She also had a very good time hiding screws and screwdrivers in a roll of wrapping paper. At one point she pinched her finger in something (events prior to the crying are a little foggy it seems) and required a band-aid - nothing impresses Catherine more than a boo-boo worthy of a band-aid, especially since Grandpa had a band-aid on his finger too. Catherine is really into boo-boos right now - any time a little scratch or mark on her hand heals she gets upset that her boo-boo went away.

Perhaps the secret to Catherine's quick healing is her natural soap:



We said farewell to Grandpa this morning, but we'll see you all in St. Louis in just a few weeks!

Walking in Grandpa's Shoes

Yesterday was a fun day with Grandpa. He did have to work quite a bit, but Catherine still managed to get him to watch Elmo's Potty Time in the morning (which they are doing again now) and then Grandpa met up with them for lunch at Nick & Athena's after library play group. While Grandpa was doing a little more work in the afternoon Catherine and Mary did some playing:




And here's Catherine conquering the couch:



Catherine sharing her first Christmas card with Mary (thanks Grandma):



Later we had a wonderful dinner at the Indian restaurant in Hyannis. It was Catherine's dream dinner: endless rice (and she liked the Chicken Korma as well).

After bathtime we let Catherine stay up for a little more playtime with Grandpa. Catherine decided that she and Grandpa should switch shoes:



And Grandpa's many years of experience playing fetch with Bailey have payed off in playing with grandchildren as well: