A Few Things.

A few things happened this morning. Naiya eating her breakfast, Alexia and I eating a mid-morning snack of crackers and hummus, Christmas music in the background spurned me to dance in my chair.  Looking back and forth at each girl for some well-earned (at least I thought) giggles.

Their response?

No giggles.

Naiya shook her head saying, "no, no".

Alexia looks at me in all seriousness and says, "Mommy, please don't dance."

Well then.

And another comment that surprised me this morning. Alexia and I went to go get Naiya up this morning and she asks me, "Mommy, can I hold my sister?" {heart melting}

This is the first time I've heard her refer to Naiya as her sister. Such a sweet thing to see her realize their relationship. Sister, and hopefully BFF.

Oh, and by the way, the detox is over. Life is so much better with caffeine. It ended yesterday. So maybe I could find a happy medium of not having two or three espressos throughout the day. Maybe just one regular cup of coffee in the morning could satisfy.

Go ahead, laugh. All you loyal caffeine drinkers that knew I would come to my senses and be back.

Cheers.

Thanksgiving 2010

We celebrated our Thanksgiving this year with half of Ryan's family at a house on the water that our brother and sister-in-law are housesitting for. There were only five adults (Pops, Ty, Jenna, Ryan and myself) and two kids, one of our smaller holiday dinners. And since my mom-in-law is out of the country visiting Ryan's sister and her family in northern Iraq (Curdistan region), Jenna and I were in charge of the menu.

Our traditional menu included:

Fried turkey, compliments of my bro-in-law, Ty

All compliments of my sis-in-law, Jenna:
Homemade Rolls
Roasted Veggies
Sweet Potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Festive Punch

Cranberry Salad, Ryan's contribution
What I busied myself doing all Thanksgiving morning:
Pioneer Woman's Mashed Potatoes
PW's Pecan Pie
Pumpkin Pie *both pies I used Ina's pie crust, and the recipe makes two crusts!
Homemade Whipped Cream  (minus the rum used in the recipe)
Turkey Gravy straight from the packet!

Here's some shots of our Thanksgiving table:

It was a wonderful meal, and the boys and the little girls jumped in the hot tub as an after-turkey dinner activity. Alexia had been talking about going in the "bath tub" since the last time she was there last weekend. All Thanksgiving morning she kept talking about getting her "swimsuit-underwear" on (that's what she wore the last time) and going in the "bath tub". I'm pretty sure this picture says it all:

Isn't the waterfront view amazing in the background?

After we all had taken a little break and cleaned up, hot tubbed, and caught some of the football game, we had regained our appetite in time for dessert and coffee! Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of my first pumpkin and pecan pie. But those recipes are keepers!

Alexia even warmed up to the dog there at the house, who's name is Buckwheat. (I'm pretty sure I can't say that without giggling). Buckwheat even got close enough to lick her on the lips. Gross, but funny. Alexia just wiped her mouth and said "ach!" in disgust. And later that night Naiya puked on Ryan, I believe because she ate her weight in whipped cream.

But our Thanksgiving was enjoyed, and there are so many things we are thankful for this year.

Hope your family had a cozy Thanksgiving!

Alexia Antics

Alexia is talking so much these days. I love hearing her come up with her own thoughts.

One of her latest is when she's trying to figure out what a particular person is doing:

"What's he she him doing?"

And her infamous "What doin?" has now become "What are doing?" I would say this is one of the most frequent questions I hear from her.

Funny girl.

Accidental Detox

Of all things to come back from the dead and blog about.....this is it.

I have so many blog post ideas running through my head, moments with the girls that have been so funny I knew I had to share, but this is what I got:

I love coffee. I mean, L.O.V.E. coffee. My sister-in-law and I share this thought that if we find out that someone doesn't drink coffee, there's a bit of a let down. As delightful as they are or as much as we hit it right off the bat, a sense of "our relationship will only go so deep" comes across my mind when I think of sipping my hot cup of coffee solo. Okay. Maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but on the flip side, there is such a feeling of nostalgia sitting down with a friend and having deep, meaningful convos. I love it!

Anyway, so now that my affection for coffee is out there, onto my dilemma. I usually accidentally get addicted to caffeine and then detox once I realize it. But since my second child came along, it's been an ongoing year-and-a-half necessity. Which I really am fine with. I'm comforted to know that I am not alone amidst the mama community. Especially with nights like last night, where Naiya was up two or three times wanting to be cuddled in our bed. Which I swore I would never do. But each time she made it into our bed, she rolled around and flailed and babbled, and Ryan would scoop her up and put her back in her crib (which is a pack 'n play in our walk-in closet).

But in the last month, I was a bit annoyed at my addiction. While traveling or being at the mercy of someone else's early morning routine, I found it extremely high maintenance to suffice my need for it. Does anyone else have this problem? For example, I went to visit my grandparents in sunny Palm Springs, CA and they happen to drink decaf each morning. Faithfully drink decaf every morning. But me? I went as far as to bring my espresso maker (goes on the stovetop) and my aerolatte for lovely, milky foam (which I left there..argh). I even thought about bringing a bag of espresso ground coffees, but thought that might be crossing unhealthy coffee-drinking boundaries. But I also ran into being let-down every morning because I didn't have my Coffeemate creamer. My love of my coffee life. Anyone that knows me well, knows my affinity with creamer. And not just any creamer. Only Coffeemate. But all of this accomodation made me a bit aware of my caffeine problem. And coffee snobbery, but that's another post for another time.

So moving on to this last Tuesday morning. I've started meeting with my sister-in-law Jenna, and good friend, Bailey every Tuesday morning at 6 am for a Beth Moore bible study (on the fruits of the spirit). Well, I would normally wake up a tad earlier to squeeze in a cup of coffee before leaving the house. But I slept too long and was left to hope and pray my sis-in-law would have found her way around the house she is housesitting for, in order to brew a pot of coffee. She delivered! And as we sat and drank coffee and talked about what was going on in our lives, I found myself wanting to close my eyes and curl up for a nap. As not to be rude, I kept my eyes open, but knew I had that blank stare going on. I had no idea why I was that tired, and then it donned on me. "I wonder if I'm drinking decaf?" So I went to warm up my cup of coffee and inspected the coffee bags out on the counter. Two bags: Dunkin' Donuts and Seattle's Best. I looked a bit closer to see the tiny, tiny green decaf printed on the Seattle's Best. Then hollered to see which coffee was used. She said, "Seattle's Best, isn't it good?!" Then we all laughed hysterically at the fact that it is decaf and I've been all but falling asleep on the couch because of it.

But I took that as the first step of my detox process. No caffeine for me in two days. I've been exhausted and had some headaches, but hopefully they will pass. They better. I've even taken naps the last two days in the afternoon. I don't remember the last time I took a nap! I sit with my decaf espresso though, and hope to be free from caffeine's bondage. Okay, not really. But I would like to have the alternative of being able to drink caffeine when I've had a rough night, but not need it on an every day basis. We'll see how that goes.

Off to Work She Goes.

Alexia has been a daddy's girl for most of her life. In distress, she would crawl past my open arms to get to Ryan for comfort. But in the past month she has taken pretty well to waving goodbye from the doorstep to Ryan as he drives off to work. Throughout the day she'll often remind me that "Daddy's workin". And I'll nod my head to affirm that she is correct.

Just a couple weeks ago, she was putting on her boots and looking for her hat, which I thought was just a game of dress-up. The sliding door was open and she was freely walking in and out of the house, saying "bye mommy" every time she stepped outside. Not paying too much attention, I responded with a "bye Alexia" every time as well. But one time, she got all up in my face (I was on the computer), and said "Mommy. Bye." So I finally looked her in the eye and asked, "Where are you going?" Hands in her pockets, she said, "I go to work. Bye!"

And then she came back in again all puckered up for a goodbye kiss.

And then she continued to walk away saying, "Bye Mommy" and waving with a look in her eye that said, "No seriously, I'm really leaving this time." 

To say the least, she's quite intrigued with the whole process of Ryan getting ready for work and then leaving. 

It's less traumatizing for all of us now that she has embraced Ryan leaving for work every day. But it's also sad to see her being all grown up.