Moving Preparations

One of the things I am looking forward to in our next home is the garage. Our current place has one scary spot in the back, with the potential for a nasty run in with the stairs to the basement if you pull in too far. Any additional cars have to find places on the street in two hour parking spots. And if it rains on grocery day, bringing stuff in is cold and wet. Also, it makes finding a spot for a moving van rather hard. In fact, part of the moving process has been reserving parking for the moving van. It took one hour of sitting on hold, a search of a website and fifty bucks, but I got the reservation permit. Today, I went to print off the posters that warn the neighbors not to park on the street. To do that, I had to track down the nearest Police department, where I was assured that there'd be a kiosk to print the posters. Sure enough, the kiosk was there, and I got all set to print, and the copiers jammed. :::sigh::: I had an immediate flashback to teaching at West and the constant copier jams we dealt with there. I was pretty sure I could fix the problem, but breaking the copier in a police station seemed like a bad idea, so I hesitated. I asked the very nice police officers what to do, and they said it wasn't their set up. Great! Feeling I had the green light, I started following the instructions on the machine and, sure enough, it was the same sort of issue we had back at school. It often resulted from overfilling the paper tray. I felt pretty good about fixing the machine, until the next page jammed too. Frustrated, I called the department of traffic, who owns the kiosk. This time I wasn't on hold for an hour, but the only thing they suggested was going to another kiosk. At this point, Ela was laying on the floor crying for no apparent reason and Lily was whining in her car seat. Going elsewhere was not an option. So I opted for a two pronged approach. First, I wrote down all the information that the printer was supposed to put on the posters with the intention of may be just writing it in myself. Then, I took a bunch of blank posters from the paper tray and set the machine up to try again. It worked! Just like our copiers back at West Forsyth! Who knew that unjamming a copier was such a useful skill. Even better, the copier automatically reprinted the posters that had jammed. I was glad to take the finished products and go. So now we've got the parking for the moving van. Now we just have to get the house ready. Six days to go!

New Year's Top Ten

Lots of people have done top tens about the past year. I realized, though, I've already blogged about those things, so here's the top ten things you can look forward to seeing on this blog in the next year, in no particular order.

1) The big move - We're moving to North Carolina in the next month or so. That will almost certainly make for a post or two soon.

2) Ela - She does so much cute stuff, she will certainly be featured here, along with her accomplishments and activities. On the list of potential topics are potty training and preschool.

3) Lily - Her big sister will be going to preschool, so she and I should get a little more quality time. This might lead to me writing more about her. Milestones that are likely to turn up here include walking (she might even crawl, unlike her sister) and turning one.

4) My Waistline - Once we get settled into our new home, I'm planning to throw myself into a new exercise and diet regime to get rid of the last of the baby weight. My secondary goal is to look and feel better than ever by the time Zack gets back from the mid-east. I'll probably share my progress or lack thereof.

5) A Visit from Zack - Zack will be gone for most of the year, so he probably won't feature here much. Writing about him will only make me miss him more. However, he will get to come back for at least one visit, and I will write about that.

6) Creative Activities - I'm still trying to clear out my yarn stash, so I'll probably post a bit about what I make. I'm also hoping to do more crafty stuff with Ela as she gets old enough to participate.

7) Cooking Adventures - With Zack gone, I'll have more range in the kitchen. This is a chance to try some new recipes without fear of him starving if they don't turn out. :)

8) Dory - The dog has actually already moved. She's staying with my family until we join her. I'm sure her name will pop up here from time to time.

9) Family Fun - Being back in NC will mean having more family close by and more chances to hang out with them. We're all looking forward to that.

10) Lots of Outings - We'll miss the plentiful sightseeing opportunities of DC, but we'll still be getting out and doing exciting things from time to time.

It should be an exciting year! Stay tuned!

Christmas: A Summary

We all had a very merry Christmas this year. Ela is just getting old enough to really be a part of it all, which makes it lots of fun. She got to help her Grandma make cookies for the first time.

Here's the results of her sprinkling duties on the first tray:

Of course, we went to church.  We opted for the children's service on Christmas eve, and the girls looked adorable as usual:

Ela loved the kid's performances, and made it a point to tell them all... loudly... when everyone else was done.  It was great to see all the other kids all decked out for the holiday, too. 

And, of course there were lots and lots of presents:

Santa came through with the blue train:

Zack's been telling everyone that all Lily wants is her two front teeth.  She has the bottom but she wants the top.  Well, she didn't get teeth, but she did get hair:

Ela has mastered the fine art of unwraping, and enjoyed both the unwrapping and the playing this year:

Zack and I got Ipads in preparation for his upcoming deployment. It's hard to pull myself away from this new toy, but there's a lot to accomplish around here. We intend to kind of ignore New Years as we prepare for our upcoming move. We hope all our friends out there had as merry a Christmas as we did!

Zoo Lights

Every Christmas, the National Zoo puts up lights.  This year we went with some friends.   Ela wanted to see the animals, but when she saw what the lights were like, it totally left her mind.  Lily slept through most of the event.  I found it was really hard to take pictures with both people and lights, but here's what it looked like. 

 

 

Clearly, Ela had a super time.

And it turned out that there were a few animals still out and about.  Ela even got up the nerve to touch the donkey.

We had a great time both checking out the event and hanging out with friends. It was an excellent way to get into the Christmas spirit!

A Truce in the Sleep Wars

We've been doing a bit of traveling, and every time I go to my parent's house, I'm reminded of how much progress we've made on the sleep front with Ela.  One year ago at this time, every sleep time was a battle.  I was exhausted just by the thought of the hour I would spend on an average night trying to get our eldest to sleep.  Then, she would sneak into our room as soon as we went to bed and keep us awake thrashing around.  It was always worse when we traveled, which is probably why I'm reminded of it when I put her down in her own bed at my parent's house.  Now, when she curls right up and I get to go downstairs and be social, I'm always extra grateful, but back then, my night effectively ended at 7:00 when I started putting her to bed. 
When Lily was born, I was determined that she would learn to sleep in her crib.  I never kept her in a bassinet in our room, even, for fear that I'd be tempted to just bring her to bed.  I think my regular mid-night trips to her room were somehow soothing for Ela, because she started staying in her room when she'd hear me coming down the hall every few hours.  For a few months, Lily was the one keeping me up, and Ela took a break. 
Lily, as it turns out, is a child who sleeps, for the most part.  At two months, she began sleeping through the night, and I could have danced for joy.  I haven't had regular, full nights sleep since Ela was born.  I was not expecting to get them again until both girls move out.  Lily gave me hope that may be I could expect a little better sleep a little sooner.  Then Ela began amping up her midnight battles again.  She kept leaving her bed, bedtime was a battle, and I was getting really, really tired. 
Then, in August, I stumbled on some advice from another mom on a list serv I'm on.  She spoke of magic words that had revolutionized bedtime at her house.  The magic words were, "If you stay in bed, we will leave your door open."  At the beach this summer, we tried them. 
I don't know how we lived before the magic words. 
It took remarkably little time for Ela to figure out that she'd rather have the door open than closed, and that she could get that by staying in bed.  We had to close her door a few times, but it's been months since we've resorted to that now.  Bedtime goes so smoothly, I don't even really mind her stalling tactics anymore.  And even her stalling tactics have gotten less serious now that she knows she can get to us any time she needs in the night.  This little bit of freedom has made her a much more reasonable sleeper. 
We use our new magic words both at nap time (which we call quiet time) and bedtime, but here's the catch: I know she doesn't stay in her bed when ordered.  At quiet time, I can hear her toodling around upstairs.  I suspect she leaves her room on a nearly daily basis.  I find evidence of her trickery all the time: open drawers in her room, doors that I know I left open are suddenly closed, or toys that were on the floor are in her bed.  Once I even found evidence that she'd been climbing my chest of drawers, though not enough to punish her.  The thing is, there's no screaming, and I can close off my room to prevent further climbing, so I really don't mind that much.  Also, when I come up stairs, she always runs right back to her bed so as to "not get caught."  The part of me that wants to be a perfect mom worries about what I'm teaching her by not trying to catch her in the act, but the more realistic part of me recognizes several things. 1) I am getting more sleep, which will lead to better parenting for the most part and 2) breaking rules is part of growing up.  She learned very quickly how and when to break this one, and I think we're all pretty happy with the results.
So now I get some quiet time every afternoon, during which Ela may or may not sleep, but certainly leaves me alone and I can listen for her from right below.  Lily sometimes even graces me with a nap at the same time, which means I get a little Mommy time right in the middle of my day.  This has greatly improved my morale. 
And every evening, we go up for bedtime confident in the knowledge that by 8:00, Ela will be secure in her bed, and if she chooses not to sleep for another hour after that, it won't cause extra crankiness in me.  Either way, I'm not likely to see her again until 7:00ish in the morning, when she decides that it's safe to leave her room and come wake me up. 
All this is amazing progress for Ela, and I'm very proud of her.  Lily doesn't sleep through the night all the time, but the fact that she'll sleep in her crib gives me hope that the battles for sleep won't be as fierce with her.  Also, now we know the magics words.  If only there were magic words for potty training, too...

She Remembers a little more...

This weekend, Santa was hanging out in the Eastern Market, so we took advantage of the beautiful weather to go see him.  Ela was excited to be going, and did her little happy dance when she saw him, but then we asked her to get on his lap.

She was less than thrilled. It was all we could do to get her to open her eyes and take her fingers out of her mouth for the picture.  Lily was highly tempted by that white beard, but didn't actually get up the nerve to pull on it.  We snapped our pictures, thanked Santa for his time, and went on our merry way.
All the way home, Ela talked about her blue train.  Apparently, Santa will just know that it's what she wants without her actually telling him. 

She Remembers...

We've started talking about Christmas in our house.  Ela is at the age where I never really know what she'll remember from holidays past.  We've also been working on days of the week, so at the beginning of this week, I told her that we'd be going to see Santa on Thursday or Friday (I learned no to delay this during her first Christmas).  Ever since I mentioned it, Ela has been talking of nothing else.  This is really surprising to me.  For one thing, she apparently remembers who Santa is.  For another, last year she was terrified of him.  Our picture from last year is of her looking absolutely miserable (but not actually crying) in his lap. 
Apparently, the fear is gone now, and every day she asks to go see Santa.  The funniest part is that I don't think she knows what Santa does.  She just knows that he's a part of Christmas.  I think she's seen him in some of her shows on TV, but she apparently doesn't associate him with presents yet.  In the car today, she was again asking to see Santa, so I decided to see what she knew.  The conversation went something like this:
Me: What are you going to ask Santa for for Christmas?
Ela: Please! 
Well, she's got good manners, right? 
Me: Ela, Santa brings good girls and boys a present on Christmas.  What will you ask him to bring you? [and then I started leading] Would you like a train, or a dolly, or...
Ela: Ela wants train.
At which point I'm relieved, since that's what Santa was planning to bring her.
Ela: Ela wants blue train.
Uh oh.  I guess Santa's shopping list just got a little more complicated.
Me: Okay, then you'll say 'Santa, I want a blue train please.'
Ela: Santa, Ela wants blue train please!

Now that our rehersals are complete, I guess I better take her to go see Santa soon!