Isaac 6.5

Isaac also celebrated a half birthday in the past few weeks.  He still can't accept that his younger sister has a birthday before him, but we're working on that.  He is doing great in first grade and loves school.  He is still struggling a bit being the youngest, but has made great progress in reading, writing and math.  We recently had his parent-teacher conference and his teacher couldn't believe the strides he is making.  He does get easily distracted, so we agreed to put him on a "sticker system" where he gets either a happy, neutral or sad face depending on whether he finished his work in school.  After the first week, he was so focused on it, he finished all his work and got happy faces every day.  He's growing a lot (we had to buy him new ski boots mid-season!), and is ridiculously observant - nothing gets past him and he forgets nothing, which keeps us on our toes!  He's starting to understand the value of money as we also instituted an allowance system where they both earn $2/week if they make their beds, fold their pajamas, and bring their dishes to the sink after meals.  They can also earn extra for doing other stuff - Isaac loves shoveling and bringing in the garbage cans and Cate loves getting the mail.  He just used his allowance to buy his first toy (a Beyblade case) and was beyond proud that he used his own money.  He's very independent (prefers showering on his own over baths), but still loves to cuddle and twirl my hair (and Caitlin's hair, and his own too now that his is so long!)  Speaking of long hair, Samson loves his hair and won't even consider getting it cut short.  We've agreed not to force the issue as long as he brushes it every day and let's us get it trimmed every once in awhile.  Here he is at the recent trim - he made me promise she wouldn't cut too much and watched the lady like a hawk the whole time.

Here are some pictures of Isaac from the last few months. Shoveling the sidewalk and testing out skiing with poles for the first time since his instructor decided he's old/good enough. Also Isaac in Karate during his test to earn his orange belt.  He loves Karate, but we constantly need to remind him that he's not supposed to use it on his sister :)

He and his sister are at the perfect age where they are best friends 90% of the time, and they laugh, come up with fun games, and wrestle, and 10% of the time they can do nothing but fight.  They have very distinct tastes, and Cate is more likely to go along with Isaac's choice for TV (Beyblades, TenKai Knights, Avengers) than he is to go along with hers (Barbie, Princesses, Doc).

Here are some pics of Isaac reading, doing his homework with Bill on "Isaac's laptop", and at his "person of the week" presentation at school.  Bill and I both made it to watch, and he was adorably shy, but did a great job in explaining how much he loves skiing, the monkey bars, legos and sushi :)

 

Bill is still the Cub Scouts troop leader which has been a huge time suck, but also really fun to watch.  The kids take all the rituals very seriously, and are working hard to earn badges.  So far they've taken a trip to a firestation, gone to see a basketball game, visited a non-profit distribution center and built derby cars for a big race. 

Cate at 4.5

The time continues to fly and I have no clue where the days have gone.  Life is busy, but ski season is exceptionally busy since we head to Winter Park on Friday afternoon every other weekend.  Not complaining, we're lucky to do it and we all love it, but the lack of leisurely weekends has impacted my time to do blogs!  Although there are many other events that warranted blogging, we recently celebrated Caitlin's half birthday, and so it seems a blog is overdue.
Cate continues to amaze us with her wit and diva-ness.  She loves all things pink and purple, knows the words to all the top 40 songs and dances at any opportunity.  She has pretty much mastered reading, and is determined to catch Isaac in math.  She's still napping, but our days with that are definitely numbered.  She negotiates over EVERYTHING, but does it with a very sweet smile.  Here are some pictures over the past few months that capture her personality and some recent activities.

At 39 pounds, she weighs herself every morning hoping for that last pound that will get her out of the carseat and into a booster.  So close!  She also loves nail polish, her preference is a different color on every nail :) Finally - the obsession with tiaras continues...

Caitlin loves to help out with dishes, although the end result is a very wet floor and questionably clean dishes.  She also loves any animal she encounters, especially dogs.  

Cate has made GREAT progress at skiing this season.  On Saturdays the kids take lessons and on Sundays we all ski together on the blues.  She takes her time, but holds her own on all the blue trails and insists on getting on and off the lifts by herself.  

The kids have started karate, and both of them love it.  After a couple months, they have already moved up a belt!  Cate is one of the smallest in the class, but she keeps up and has a great knife hand block and round house kick.

Finally - just some cute pictures.

The tradition: measuring height every 6 months.  The kids count down to the day :)

Holidays!

We started off the Hanukkah celebration a little early with the Reiss's and the Samburs.  The kids had a blast with latkes, brisket and dreidels, and the first of many presents.  

Caitlin was signed up to bring in snack and dreidels to her class for the first day of Hanukkah.  We spent lots of time making cookies shaped like dreidels, menorahs, stars and macabees, but in my effort to save time, we squished them a little too close together in the baking tray.  Fortunately, they still tasted good, but Cate's classmates had to take her word for it on the intent :)

We got the whole fam together for a Hanukkah celebration at Alli's for the first official night.  We lit lots of menorahs, sang Hanukkah songs, and then everyone sat down and closed their eyes and held out their hands for gifts.  Still unsure why that tradition continues, since all Hanukkah presents are from specific people (as indicated by the cards!), but it's still fun.  As always, the best part was the kids running around, laughing and admiring each others' gifts. 

We continued lighting candles and doing small presents every night - the kids got books and games, pajamas, and fun toys and wered to hear that the fun had to stop on the 8th night.  Fortunately for them - Christmas was only 1 day away. Unfortunately, we had to postpone the big, official family Hanukkah party at Kristin's due to flu, ear infections, and other maladies - I'll post those pics when we reschedule the party in late January.  We continued lighting candles and doing small presents every night - the kids got books and games, pajamas, and fun toys and were sad to hear that the fun had to stop on the 8th night.  Fortunately for them - Christmas was only 1 day away.

We decorated the house for the holidays the day after Thanksgiving.  This year, the kids were big enough to actually help put the ornaments on the tree (and most stayed on!).  As always, the best part is taking out the ornaments and talking about the memories from each one (kids' handprints, wilson, stuff from Bill's childhood).  This was the official kickoff of the holiday music mix on Spotify - to continue relentlessly until New Years.

Two weeks before Christmas, the Elf on the Shelf made his first appearance.  We had been talking about him for days (as had all the kids in I &C's classes), so when the kids woke up and saw him on the chandelier, they were squealing with excitement.   They got to see Santa in a few different places leading up to the big day, the most authentic was at a Stapleton breakfast with Grandma Gerri, and the kids both actually smiled for the picture!

Cate woke up with a barky cough the morning of Christmas Eve, as soon as we heard it, we knew she had croup.  Thankfully, the doctor's office was open for business, and we headed in with a grateful bottle of wine for confirmation of the diagnosis.  We were in and out pretty quickly with a script for steroids, and went back to the house where the preparations were already underway.  Thankfully, other than the cough, Cate felt fine.

Grandma and Grandpa had arrived a few days prior and we enjoyed some pre-holiday down time before the big day.  It was a smaller crowd this year, with Evan and Adrienne at her parents' house and Alli and Chad bailing because Sebastian wasn't feeling great, but the chefs still went all out creating a feast, and it was delicious.  The kids got dressed up in their holiday outfits (beyond adorable) and Cate requested a special manicure in Christmas colors, which, to my surprise, came out great!

Dinner was delicious, and afterward, the kids worked with Daddy and Aunt Ray-Ray to make cookies for Santa. Having learned our lesson, we spaced them appropriately, and all the shapes stayed in tact through baking!

Then they picked out the two most perfect cookies, counted out 9 carrots, and poured the milk so Santa and his reindeer wouldn't leave thirsty or hungry.  They also wrote him notes (we love you, Santa) and then set them out right in front of the fire.  When I asked them to pose for a picture, I noticed that they were chewing... not sure all the cookies and carrots remained on the plate, I think there was some quality testing going on!

After an unsuccessful trip outside to search the sky for Santa, the kids decided he might not come if they were awake, and finally agreed to go to bed.  At that point, we brought all of the (many) gifts up from the basement, and Grandpa went to work putting together the new air hockey table to surprise the kids when they woke up.    

The kids were up before 7, and went systematically from room to room waking everyone else before they headed down to see whether Santa came.  They were very happy to see all the gifts set out and tried their hardest to get everyone else situated so they could start opening.  After a few hours of gift opening, we had a delicious brunch and everyone started playing with their toys before nap time.  Here are some pics of the kids opening gifts, and the adorable card Isaac made for us as a gift.

The next few days after Christmas were a blur of pajamas, puttig together and playing with new gifts, and lots more food.   Bill's Aunts Barbie and Michelle (and her dog Zoe) came for a visit, and Evan and Adrienne came home, so we had a few more feasts and enjoyed lots of fun family time.

Overall a great couple of weeks - now we're ready for Vegan month to lose some of the weight we gained with all the celebrating!