Behind the Zoo

Cool Uncle Tommy has a friend, Kim, who is a keeper at the Children's Zoo and offered to give us a behind-the-scenes tour, so on Wednesday we pretended like it wasn't raining and headed out. It turns out the rain wasn't really a factor because "behind the scenes" of the Children's Zoo is actually all inside, where they keep all the animals that are used for the shows and educational talks. We got to see, hear and pet quite a few different kinds of animals.

The first thing Kim pulled out of its cage was a 35 pound American Boa. Uncle Tommy was immediately rethinking his involvement in this tour, but the girls thought it was pretty neat. They didn't hesitate to pet this or any of the other animals we saw.








After we saw all these animals from the Children's Zoo the rain let up enough for us to visit a few animals in the zoo at large. Catherine and Mary really liked the penguins and puffins, but they always needed a boost to be able to see over the wall into the tanks. Luckily there were lots of offers.





And we of course cannot be within striking distance of a carousel without taking a ride. At first Catherine was really concerned that this particular one did not have any seat belts, but she did ok with Uncle Tommy behind her.

Outdoor Fun

At some point during the past year Michael lost a bet with his cousin Dane (something to do with football). When Dane and family came up to have Christmas with us, they collected on the bet: Michael had to go geocaching. First they had to get him suited up.

Special t-shirt:



Lanyard:



And finally, the GPS.



They selected a cache in the park in the backyard and returned a while later with a couple princess stickers for the girls. I guess it was a success!

Grandma had awesome snowsuits waiting for the girls when we arrived and Catherine made sure to get plenty of use out of them before the snow melted. She LOVES sledding. They started out on the little hill in the backyard.





Mary was content to stay nice and warm inside until she heard that Aunt Jena and Uncle Tommy were taking Catherine to the park. She couldn't miss that! I really was content to stay nice and warm inside so I don't have any pictures of the park, but I heard that Catherine went down the giant hill (she called it a mountain) six times and Mary went down three times. I'm a bit surprised Mary went down at all - it is a rather big and fast hill - she must have had a lot of faith in Aunt Jena!

Happy 3rd Day of Christmas

The midwest welcomed us back with a lovely winter scene outside and a house bursting with family inside. We managed to miss any major weather throughout traveling (although I hear the Cape was somewhat buried under snow this weekend) and our friendly stomach virus was kind enough to let Daddy travel in peace. However that little favor apparently came at a cost: it attacked him rather violently the first night we were here, but stayed true to previous cases. After about 12 hours he was fine and was able to enjoy Christmas morning with everyone on Sunday.

The kids were absolute champions for the traveling. They had a 4am wake-up, 1.5 hours in the car to the parking place, transfer to the shuttle to the airport, crossing busy airport streets, escalators, wait in line to check bags, wait in line for security, boots and backpacks on the conveyor, through the metal detector, boots and backpacks back on, to the gate, wait for boarding, 3 hour FULL flight, wait wait wait to get off, walk to baggage claim (little hiccup getting on the down escalator), wait for bags, across more busy airport streets, GRANDMA! GRANDPA!, wait for car seats to be installed, more driving, GRANDMA'S HOUSE!

Aunt Jena, Uncle Tommy, Aunt Sunny, Uncle Chris, Bailey, and Lyla were there to greet us. The kids all took a very necessary nap in the afternoon and were able to enjoy the big family Christmas dinner that evening. Michael Jr is holding fast to his antisocial phase but I'm hoping we'll be here long enough for him to warm up to Grandma and Grandpa at least. Catherine and Mary couldn't be happier to have extra company (Mary's typical response when I ask her if I can help her with something is "I want Grandma!").

So at this point we have had the big Christmas dinner, Christmas morning (a day late) at Grandma's, Christmas 2 with Gigi and Pawpaw and the extended Rennier family, and Christmas 3 with Mamo and Papa. I have only random and sporatic pictures of all three events (I tend to get really lazy with the camera because there several other (and better) photographers in the house). You'll have to keep an eye on Ramblings by Steve and Living in La La Land (in the sidebar) for more pictures and videos.

Surveying the Christmas morning stash.




Reading Christmas cards with Grandpa.



Mary opening a present with Aunt Jena.



She liked it.



Michael Jr trying to destroy Catherine's beloved flower headband.



I think Uncle Chrst put the mini dog Lyla in a box and was enjoying her inability to find a way out. I think.



Sock Mittens.



Michael Jr discovered the rocking horse Grandpa made for Uncle Chris. He's a big fan.



Telling Grandma something very important.



Or very funny.



We love Grandma.

Merry Christmas!

Catherine and Mary would like to wish you a Merry Christmas by "reading" the Christmas Story for you:

All Virused Out

Our family was dominated by this stomach bug this week. Catherine was sick all night Tuesday, lounged around all day Wednesday and was fine by Wednesday dinner. Mary was sick all night Wednesday and through lunch Thursday, but seems good to go now. The baby and I were simultaneously sick all day Thursday, but we both managed to keep down some water and cheerios before bed and had a good night's sleep. I'm finding it difficult to stand up for any length of time, but I think we're over the worst of it. The only one still standing strong is Daddy - let's hope he doesn't come down with it during either of his two Christmas Eve services today.

I'm way behind on getting ready for our trip, but I've got all day to rally enough energy for laundry and packing. I guess it could be worse - this all could have started on the plane instead of a few days before...

A Warning

Since we're always traveling for Christmas we decided to give Catherine and Mary their Christmas present from us early so they would have some time to play with it before we go. Here's a little video of them opening their gift. Please keep in mind: about half an hour before getting to open this, Catherine was looking for clues and I simply told her it was something she wanted. She replied that the only thing she really wanted was a scooter and that box wasn't big enough to be a scooter.



I'm mostly showing you this to temper expectations, because honestly I was a little disappointed at first by this little show. If this is their reaction at home (where they rarely hold back anything) to a present I am positive they love (besides telling me it was they only thing they wanted, they have both been playing with it pretty much non-stop for a week), I wonder if they even crack a smile at the various Christmases we have scheduled next week! I am sure they are going to love all the company and all the gifts; they just inherited their dad's inability to have fun opening presents. Too much pressure.

Christmas Tree + Baby =

Trouble.

If anyone is in the mood to throw up a prayer on behalf of our family, you are welcome to join me in this one:

Dear Jesus,
Thank you for our piano bench, without which the heavy-laden, seven-foot Christmas tree would have landed squarely on Michael Jr's head when he pulled it over.
Amen.

Michael was completely unscathed and unphased. I jumped from my desk when I saw the top start to go over out of the corner of my eye, but of course could not get there in time to catch it. Michael just sat next to the piano bench in his new Christmas tree tent happily jingling the ornament he managed to pull off. He ended up with nothing more than the tiniest scratch on the side of his forehead from a branch, and that is mostly faded already. So we redecorated the tree this morning, minus a few broken ornaments. And Michael is officialy banned from that side of the room.

Before felling a large tree.



He's so happy that he can reach the piano keys standing up!



Post-felling a large tree. The little scratch on his head is gone now, and that's as close as he'll be getting to the tree.



Besides my heart, which is still beating slightly irregularly, Catherine was most affected by the Christmas tree toppling because one of the ornaments that broke was her favorite (the one she was hugging in a recent picture). And she was in no mood to take that kind of disappointment because she had been up sick almost the entire night. Her total food intake today was one cup of water/juice and about four crackers, but she hasn't thrown up since 4am and perked up quite a bit this evening after spending most of the day on the couch. Would it be foolish to hope it was just a 24-hour thing and nobody else in the house picked it up? Probably, but I'm going to anyway.

Mary for her part was a little bit lost without Catherine to play with - she wandered about the house most of the day finding new ways to get in trouble, and old ways to wear underpants.

Christmas Dance

It's all Christmas music, all the time here, per Catherine's request, and where there's music, there's dancing. They seem to be having a little trouble with the technicalities of the twirl...

This Post is About Boogers

If this picture grosses you out, you've probably never had kids.



Kids get sick a lot. And sick kids come with boogers. And if you're thinking "why don't you just wipe his nose once in a while?" you've probably never had kids. Because it only takes about two times for them to learn what it means when you come at them with a cloth or tissue, and they protest. Loudly. Emphatically. Plus their little noses get red. Redder.

Although I think for the most part kids are better at being sick than adults. We like to be miserable whenever we're sick, but unless a kid is truly feeling awful, he's likely to be perfectly happy with a stream of boogers running down his face, into his mouth, and drying on his nose and in his hair.



I'm already feeling bad about writing a post about boogers. But, you know, honest reporting and all that.

Not a Mystery Alarm At Least

***Aesthetic Warning: puffy eyes, red runny noses, and chapped skin abound in the photos in this post.***


Michael has been out of town the last couple days, so it's no surprise that the house had some tricks for me. No mystery alarms, but also, no heat! We woke up this morning to 57 degrees, which honestly is only about five degrees cooler than we normally keep it at night, but still, it was cold. So I turned the thermostat up a bit, and then a bit more, and a while later a bit more, and it was still cold. Three sick kids, a cold of my own, and an unusually hectic week at work, with no Daddy, and now no heat. This isn't actually funny anymore.

Luckily, it was just that the pilot light was out, and the heater has very detailed instructions on how to relight the pilot, so I was able to get the heat back on and we're all fine. I do have to say though that, even though I read the safety panel and followed the instructions very carefully, and there wasn't the slightest hint of gas smell anywhere in the house, I still had a moment of hesitation before striking a match next to a gas-fired appliance that was for one reason or another not behaving exactly as it was supposed to.

Fortunately for me, the kids, even though sick, are behaving much better than the house. There was a small incident today with Catherine climbing onto and jumping off of her play kitchen, but the collision of her knee with her face upon landing deterred her nicely from trying it again (I believe the parenting experts call it "natural consequences").

Other than that, the girls are doing a pretty good job at entertaining themselves. Yesterday Catherine found a project in one of her magazines, a curly-top paper crown, and she proceeded to follow the picture instructions, even relaying them to Mary, and they completed their crowns almost entirely on their own. They were pretty excited.


Princess Mary on her throne.


You probably can't tell, but today they were wearing their crowns upside down, which they thought was hilarious.


When we first put up the Christmas tree, I attempted to employ a "no touching the ornaments rule" because I was afraid they would take them off, run about the house with them, and lose the hooks where Michael Jr would find and eat them. When I realized that rule was way more trouble than it was worth, I just moved things around a bit so all of the ornaments on the bottom half do not have metal hooks for hanging. Now Catherine and Mary spend hours undecorating and redecorating the tree (and playing with the Dora ornament in their doll house).


Ok, she can reach a little higher than I first calculated. That whole row of "hook" ornaments has been rectified.


Catherine is not smelling the wonderful scent of our fake tree. She is hugging her favorite ornament.


Michael Jr is probably feeling the worst out of the three, even though he has been sick the longest, but he has had some random bursts of energy over the last few days. He thinks jumping is the funniest thing he's ever seen. When Catherine and Mary start jumping, he laughs so hard he can easily fall over if he's sitting on the floor.


He also had a good time helping me cook lunch today. His favorite thing to do when I'm cooking (besides pushing over the flour canister, slobbering the clean dishes in the dish drainer, and throwing measuring cups) is suck on fresh herbs. He has long been a fan of cilantro, not so much of parsley. I think today was the first time he tried basil.


It could be his new favorite.

Christmas Party Time

With three kids stuck in the house most of the day, and a fair amount of parties and traveling sprinkled in there, someone in the family is sick pretty much all winter. Has anyone out there ever managed to avoid this? Michael Jr came home from Pittsburgh with a fever, cough and nasty congestion. His nose is still really stuffy now, but he seems to be on the upswing. Unfortunately Catherine and Mary both completely tanked near the end of our Christmas party yesterday evening and were in bed at 7 with fevers, coughs, and stuffy noses of their own.

They were able to contribute to the annual kids' Christmas pageant before they started feeling bad. Mary was a supporting angel with Morgan, who was Gabriel and read lines for the first time. They did great!




I assumed Catherine would want to be an angel as well but she informed me she was going to be a shepherd and Michael was her little lamb. She was extremely pleased with her choice and an excellent shepherd.



You certainly can't blame her for failing to corral her rambunctious little lamb, who crawled out basically on cue, then pulled off his sheep hat, chewed on it for a minute, and crawled over to the corner and proceeded to pull a whole shelf of books down. (Sorry I don't have any pictures of the sheep hat - he was too fast).

We all had a wonderful time watching the pageant, singing carols, and consuming large quantities of punch. Plus it was the perfect occasion for Father and Son to debut their matching bow ties.