Swan Lake Svirsky Style

Lucy and Josh regularly perform Swan Lake for me and Michael. Sometimes it is with tutus, sometimes in pajamas, sometimes in their Birthday suits. It is amazing to watch and always puts a smile on my face. Josh enjoys a good ballet and isn't afraid to add his own moves, including the bootie smack. I think it is quite avant-garde of him. Lucy has on several occasions told me, "Tchaikovsky is genius." That's my girl!

Some Days are Diamonds...

Growing up when I'd have a bad day my Mom would always tell me, "Some days are diamonds, and some are just lumps of coal." It has always made sense, but motherhood has made this oldie but goodie really resonate. But in the course of a day with a three-year-old girl and a sixteen-month-old boy there could be ten lumps of coal to one, sole, but brilliant diamond. Lucy is amazing, every day she does or says something to bring her one step closer to independence and one step further away from the baby she used to be. She is also in constant conflict with this new, independent self that is torn between making her own decisions and clinging to being entertained and catered to. She has discovered her own sense of fashion that is as eclectic as her, she has taken to her new preschool like it is no big deal and our dear little Lucy has also discovered the art of talking back. The latter of which accounts for the coal.

Lucy's first day of school went off without a hitch. She woke up buzzing with excitement about the day and eagerly found her cube and hung up her Dora backpack. She found the dress up clothes right away and within seconds had on butterfly wings as she explored the playhouse. Michael, Josh and I hung out for a few minutes, clearly not needed by Lucy but enjoying watching our little girl have such a positive reaction to her new school. Three days a week we pack up and head out to school and three days a week Josh wreaks havoc on the Co-op for the five seconds we are in there dropping off Lucy. He climbs into her classmates cubbies, waves big goopy paint brushes loaded with paint around making a mess and tips over the tiniest little things that are out for the big kids to work on fine motor skills. He is in full Budzilla mode and as I run after him cleaning up and rushing out, Lucy barely acknowledges us as she has already settled into an activity.

Lucy's indepencence has gotten more pronounced since she started school. She insists she can go to the potty without help, peeking out the door and yelling that she doesn't need any help as she sits on her perch. She "flips and dips" to get her coat on and is hell-on-wheels on her Princess scooter. Lucy's new sense of independence has also manifested itself in her sense of fashion. She has decided that she loves to wear dresses, particularly fluffy party dresses with her silver sparkly shoes. There is one particular summer, uber-fluffy dress that she loves that she now wears with a shirt under it for the colder weather. She wore it last week and her teacher told me how careful she was not to get any paint on it, apparently she didn't see Lucy sliding down the dirty ramp on the playground face first.

"It's fair," is Lucy's favorite new backtalk phrase. It is funny because she has it so wrong, and she will be absolutely pissed out of her gourd about something and with angry tears in her red little face she yell, "It's fair," with all her might. She also gets this hysterical, spazzy, out-of-control laughter that only means big trouble. She'll be crazy doing something she's not supposed to and then you'll tell her to stop and she gets the hyper, I'm not listening - I'm only getting more out of control laugh. It is so irritating. There are days when I feel like she is in time-out every ten seconds. I also feel like I am threating to take away privliges left and right. Last week I actually told her that if she didn't stop doing something I was going to not only take her Barbie Pegasus DVD and throw it out the window, but throw it out the window AND run it over. Not my proudest parenting moment, but she was being just plain obnoxious. Definitely a coal moment.

Over the weekend we went to a fall fair. They had all kinds of little rides and Lucy was so excited. She held onto her little ream of tickets and patiently waited for the rides. It was a brisk and cold fall day and she had her big puffy down jacket and her too tight hat and mittens from last winter. On one ride she found how to honk the horn and did so for almost the entire ride. She was just so pleased with herself and had not idea how loud and annoying the horn was to everyone else but Michael and I. She insisted on going into the big inflatable, bouncy fairytale shoe and proceeded to get stuck at the top of the slide. Thankfully the nice little teenager working the tickets climbed up to rescue her and send her down the slide, saving Michael or I the embarassment of deflating the shoe in a rescue mission. Even after getting stuck Lucy bounded out telling us how much she liked the slide part of the ride. Josh was just really mad he couldn't go on any rides, so Michael took him to watch the music while Lucy had her fun on the rides. She rode the train and I sat and watched my little girl go round and round on the tiny, little track. Everytime she'd be on the straightaway heading towards me she'd wave and tilt her head back so she could see from under her hat the was almost entirely covering her eyes. The sun was shining, the leaves were on fire and my little girl looked so excited and proud as she sought out my face. She looked like she thought she was the coolest girl on the world, riding her train, waving to her Mom. That was a diamond.

A Real Guy's Guy, Most of the Time

Josh is really a Guy's guy. He laughs when he farts or burps, has been making car noises and has been pushing cars around since he could sit up. He gives me a big belly laugh when I make pretend hurling sounds. I was really amazed at how much "boy" seemed to have been hard-wired into him. It is everything that I've seen and been told about boys.

But Josh still has his sensitive side. He has a fondness for purses, sticking his chubby little arm out straight so I can hang a bag in the crook of his arm. He helps to take care of Lucy's dolls, feeding them bottles and doing "nice, nice" on their heads when we pretend to make them cry. He also is comfortable enough in his little manhood to dress-up in Lucy's Cinderella costume. He'll drag it out of the dress-up box and hold it out for me and grunt at me and will not stop until he is outfitted as Lucy's favorite princess.

Is this a problem, I don't think so. You see at the present, it is simply a matter of inventory. Someday our dress-up wardrobe will expand and there will be Fireman costumes, Cowboys, Football players and all the other outfits that are more appropriate for a boy. But for right now we are knee deep in Ariel, Cinderella and everything girly.

Lucy right now is trying to reconcile gender for herself. She'll say things like "Girls like girl stuff and boys like boy stuff." I try to explain that you can like whatever you want. I remind her of her Superman pajamas and Spiderman vitamins. "Oh yeah," and the lightbulb goes off in her head. Josh hasn't reached that point obviously, he doesn't think anything of wearing a Cinderella costume or playing with dolls - for him it is just all a big exploration of play. I could really give a hoot and holler about him carrying a purse or wearing Lucy's beads. As long as my little, handsome guy is happy then I am a happy Mom.

Lavatory Mom, La-va-tory, Not Potty!

All day long Lucy asks me two questions, the first is, "Who will play with me?" Non-stop all day long. The second question is more of a command than question I guess, "Tell me a story." Over and over. Her entourage of imaginary friends is growing larger each day and last night Lucy told me to hold her imaginary five-year old baby that just came out of her tummy. The other day I asked her if she had to go potty and she corrected me and with great enunciation told me, "Mom, it is the lavatory!" - and then sounded out the word as if I had never heard it. Where does she come up with this stuff?

Since Lucy's school has ended for the summer we have lots of days and hours to fill with summer fun activities. She bounds out of bed in the morning asking, "Where are we going?" I do my best to pack our days with fun-filled activities. We go to the library, we go to the farm, we go to the spraypark, the playground - we go everywhere. I know that independent play has never been Lucy's strength, but if there is an extended period of time where I have to tend to other things than entertaining her, Lucy says, "Humph, who will play with me?" like a child who has been left for hours with nothing but a potato to play with. I almost feel like literally as the smoke dissipated from the birthday candles for Lucy's third birthday my little girl turned into a Mariah Carey-like diva.

Lucy's thirst for stories is like something I had never experienced. It all started with her asking for a story - any story. Next she would give me a topic for a story and I took it from there. The stories mostly revolved around friends, family and Lucy's adventures. I would tell her stories about the time she went to Disney with her cousins Pete, Henry and Charlie. Detailed stories about what rides they went on, who sat where, what they did after the Buzz Lightyear ride. She was beginning to need the specifics. These days Lucy will give me extraordinary circumstances as the basis for her stories. She makes up these scenarios about kind of scary things - things like, "Tell me a story about the time you didn't buckle me in and I fell out of the car." And then there is, "Tell me a story about the time we had a fire and everything got ruined." I usually try to steer the stories to a lighter topic - but if I don't comply completely Lucy gets pissed. I am guessing that these scary stories are a way to talk about fears. At least I hope it is - otherwise we are going to be paying for some serious couch time later.

Let's see, I think Goga was probably the first. I can't really recall when I first started hearing about Goga, probably around a year-or-so ago. There are some things about Goga that change with the day, but for the most part Goga is a girl older than Lucy that goes to preschool and has a baby brother named Josh and a mother named Carol. I think I know someone like that. Then Goga's friend Weeki started rearing his or her head. I probably know the least about Weeki, other than he or she hangs with Goga a lot of the time. Then Lucy stated talking about Katie the babysitter coming over. Now there is Anna. Lucy talks to her on my old cell phone quite a bit. Lucy is all broken up because Anna just moved to New York apparently. Oh, and many days it is Anna's birthday which requires multiple calls in which Lucy has to serenade her imaginary friend with Happy Birthday. It is difficult to keep them all straight, but the deep and involved stories are endlessly entertaining for Michael and I. Lucy is very aware that they are her imaginary friends and will tell us if we try to play along and say something like, "when is Katie coming over?" Lucy looks at us like we are crazy and tells us there are her imaginary friends and laughs at us.

Lucy's personality is so strong, her imagination is so vivid I am in awe of her. We explore, we go on adventures but it is hard to compete with whatever is swirling inside of her little head. I wonder if the world gets as much as a kick out of her as we do. She is exhausting but at the end of the day, kids in bed, I sit down after finishing up putting away the toys and books that have seemingly exploded and say to Michael, "so today, Lucy ..." and we re-tell Lucy's antics with a tired but happy smiles on our faces.

Three Going on Thirteen and the Man on the Move

I have been a slacker these days when it comes to writing. The kids have been keeping me busy and two kids sleeping at the same time during the day is still a rarity. By the time evening rolls around and the kids are in bed all I have the brainpower for is crappy reality television and reading fine literature like US Weekly. But as Lucy's third birthday nears and Josh is starting to walk on his own I feel like things are happening so fast that I'm missing the point of what I set out to accomplish with my little blog.

Right around the beginning of March Josh decided that he wanted someone to walk him around constantly and if you dare stop he would pull a "plank" and proceed to scream his handsome little head off until he was up and walking again. Thankfully he eventually started crawling. When he started is was kind of like Houdini. You would see him a few inches from where he had been a second ago, but it was difficult to detect actual movement. He would sit on his bum and pull himself along with his beefy little legs. This progressed into a crab crawl and now he can crawl on all fours. He's also cruising along quite happily, babbling to himself. He is getting braver these days and will strike out and walk across the room on his own. The first few times Lucy was genuinely awestruck. She asked Michael and I if it was "magic." She claps for him when he walks and tells him he did a good job - most of the time. Sometimes Josh walks across the room for the sole purpose of taking Lucy's toy, or trying to get some of her cheddar bunnies. Those times Josh's walking is not quite so well received. It usually comes with a shrill, "No Buddy," and a shove, to which Josh replies with a scream as loud, if not louder than hers.

Josh has lots of new party tricks these days. He can clap, wave, dance, hold stuff to his ear and pretend it is a phone. It is pretty funny all of the things he has picked up along the way. He is very pleased with himself when he does his tricks and often looks to big sis for her reaction, which is usually a roar of laughter. He makes motor noises when he drives toy cars and trains around and tries to climb on whatever he can. At the library he prefers to scramble toward the electrical outlets and at home is constantly pulling open drawers and cabinets, constantly on the verge of crushing his fingers. He is all boy. He is into everything and will not sit still for much these days. He is a man on the move.

Lucy is almost three, but at times seems kind of like thirteen. She is so sweet and cute these days and so torn between being my baby girl and my big girl. We went to the Museum of Fine Arts a couple weeks ago and Lucy walked around with her red sparkly shoes and her pink, furry Strawberry Shortcake purse. She hollered, "Is that a Monet?" through each exhibit and had us roaring with laughter. She liked the whole grown-up ness to the museum and had a great time. When we were getting ready to leave I put on her coat and very non-chalantly Lucy unzipped her purse, got her binky out and popped it into her mouth and zipped it back up, like someone would get their keys out. It so perfectly summed up where she is at right now, it was so sweet.

These days Josh's mobility has been tough for Lucy to deal with and her reaction in turn has been to seek attention with ear-splitting tirades against however we have wronged her. Sometimes it is not letting her eat microwave popcorn in front of the TV for breakfast (how dare we right??) or sometimes it is telling the story of Barbie Fairytopia and using the wrong name (the elaborate labyrinth of names and plots from Barbie movies in my head is a bit scary). Regardless of the trigger we have seen Josh's new mobility take its toll on Lucy's little world. Things are getting better and you can already see the spark in their eyes when they play together and have fun. Usually the games they love to play together have a fine line of hysterical laughter and big tears. Last night they were playing race, they'd crawl and then crawl into each other head on and then laugh hysterically. It was one headbutt away from disaster, but everyone was having too much fun to justify ending it.

We are glad summer is here and looking forward to many new adventures with Goose and Buddy. This summer we may actually even get to the beach! It won't be long before Josh is totally on the run and dishing it out as much as he is getting it these days. The adventure continues.

Nuggets of Wisdom - Chicken Nuggets That Is...

Okay, there are a few things that I have learned that were not quite covered in parenting books and I figured that just for kicks I would share them. Some of the things seem like common sense, but you have to consider that most days of parenting and motherhood offer many "christened by fire" learning experiences that you couldn't quite predict until you were knee deep in the moment....

- It is not a good idea to allow your toddler to play her recorder in the car on the way home from the baby store where you bought a sling because her newborn brother didn't want to be put down and you were feeling guilty that he was taking all the attention so you bought your toddler a recorder.

- Allowing a two-and-a-half year old to continue the finger painting project you began together while you put the baby to sleep is not a good idea.

- Nemo on Ice sounds is a great idea if you like spending $10 for a snowcone in a plastic Nemo cup, $10 for cotton candy that comes with a neon orange Nemo hat that you must now regularly wear. Nemo on Ice is a good idea if your child likes big, giant, scary skating sharks and creepy, pale skeleton fish and you like to leave events at intermission.

- Being up close in the second row of a show is great except if it is Nemo on ice.

- You will eat things scraps of things that your children discard because you are in the middle of taming the toddler madness, or you are somewhere where these is no place else to discard the food item in question. Like grocery shopping when your toddler demands a piece of ham and she gets it and it is too thick and gross for her, and there is nowhere to put it - or time to find a trash because you just waited 30 minutes for it to be your turn at the deli counter - so you eat the rest of it so it will be gone, even if it makes your stomach turn.

- Lollipops have magic powers and M&M's are a gateway candy.

- There will be times when you turn on the TV at the end of the day and watch it blankly for an extended period of time before you realize that you are watching a kid show. Or in turn, you will be in the car alone and find yourself signing along to the kid music that is still playing.

- Children like to listen to the same song over and over so it is good if you can make that song something you like every now and then. But be cautioned that sometimes this can backfire, like when you get your toddler stuck on Gwen Stefani's "Wind it Up" which she calls "Hey Ya, Hey Ya" and then you look at US Weekly together while she sits on the potty for hours looking for pictures of Hey Ya, Hey Ya Gwen.

- You will tell so many stories that you will scrape the bottom of the barrel at times for content. Like telling a story about Swiper the Fox stealing macaroni salad. That was pretty close to rock bottom of the story telling.

- You will lie to your pediatrician. It may be about a pacifier, how many vegetables you kid eats or something else, but at some point you will omit certain things or avoid certain subjects.

I could go on and on, but I won't. At some point you start to go with your gut and do what you have to do to try to keep everyone happy. Lucy has eaten lollipops, drank juice, had a breakfast that consisted of nothing more than a cookie and a slice of ham. Josh likes to snuggle in his crib with his lovey over his eyes and his feet sticking out of the crib slats. Is this how I pictured life as a Mom, no. My kids were going to be champion breastfeeders, never drink juice and watch five minutes of television per week. I was a much stricter parent before I ever had kids.

Buddy

I feel like I most of my entries are about Lucy, which seems unfair to Josh. It isn't that Josh isn't up to great things these days, but it just seems like from the moment she gets up to the moment she goes to sleep, Lucy's personality fills the apartment, leaving little room for anything else. As I have written many times before Josh has largely been along for the Lucy ride. These days as Josh becomes older and his happy little personality is shining through more, Josh is starting to claim his stake in the antics that go on here in the Svirsky household.

Josh for the most part, "Buddy" as Lucy has dubbed him, wakes up a pretty happy camper. I hear him rolling around in his crib, babbling and cooing away. He says "mamma" and "dadda" now, not with any meaning, it is just babble, but it is still nice to hear. Lucy loves it when I try to teach him to say "Lucy" or "Lulu". When you say her name he will turn his head to look for her. When she is not within eyesight Josh is definitely aware that his sister is not there. If he had it his way she would be in front of him, entertaining him all his waking hours of the day.

The other day Michael took Lucy sledding and they spent some time just sledding in the driveway. Josh and I watched from our second floor window. We'd see Lucy whiz down the driveway in her cute little purple snowsuit and Josh would smile and twirl his feet with excitement. We would tap on the window and wave and he would squint his eyes, almost seeming proud of his adventerous big sister. Then Michael would come down the driveway and Josh would get even more excited, babbling away. Then Michael would pull Lucy in her sled back up the driveway, out of sight for a moment and Josh would start crying. First a little quiver of the lip, then a full on wail. Then the purple snow bunny would sled back into sight and the happy feet would start twirling away, Buddy was happy again.

Josh is starting to eat some teeny-tiny bits of real food now. He is a big guy and always hungry. He has mastered the pincer grasp which is a big developmental milestone. Last night he actually picked up a grain of rice that Lucy has placed lovingly on his high chair tray, asking him in her high pitched Mom-like voice, "do you want a piece of rice Buddy?" He studied the little grain of rice and then picked it up and ate it and then shot us a look like he was all that and a bag of chips. When you walk through my kitchen these days you crunch your way through the land mines of puffs and cheerios that are everywhere. I think Josh is probably on the same track as Lucy as far as eating. By the time she was nine months old Lucy was done with baby food. I think Josh will be the same way.

Josh is a solid sitter now. He can sit up and reach around him and grab toys or whatever he can within reach. He is drawn to the cordless phone and the clicker like they are the best toys ever. Once he manages to reach something he struggles and struggles for Lucy usually decides that she NEEDS whatever it is the poor little guys just huffed and puffed his big old trunk to get and then he cries. Lucy usually conceeds, and all is well again, but she must remind him every now and then that she is older, bigger (who knows how much longer) and faster.

If he is on his back Josh like to grab at his feet and take his socks off and eat them. He thinks this trick is hysterical. When he is on his stomach his tries to push off, but only manages to push himself backwards. Sometimes he'll lay down and try to throw his big meaty leg around to gain some leverage for movement, but he doesn't really go that far. If you leave him in a room, sometimes you will find him several feet from where you left him. He isn't moving a whole lot right now, but you can tell he wants to. At night Lucy and Josh have their nekid, pre-tub time and we make an obstacle course in a circle around Josh and cheer for him to crawl. Lucy and I do the old Medfield High "Go Bananas" cheer and hope it inspires Josh into crawling. Lucy pats Josh on the back and tells him, "I'm so proud of you Buddy."

Sometimes out of the blue Lucy will say things like, "I love my baby brother, he will always keep me company," and I can't believe my little girl can be so wise. The other day she asked if she could keep baby brother. And forget about it if someone gets too close to Josh for Lucy's comfort. One day we were at the library and a little toddler girl walked up to Josh and picked up his binky. I thought she was going to throwdown right then and there. She quickly rushed to Josh's side, grabbed the binky and told the little girl that it was her baby brothers. She made it clear she would defend him and his binky with whatever it took. I was proud.

Josh is getting a little snuggly these days. As hectic as dinner and bedtime is thse days it is one time of the day when you can really see the connection between Lucy and Buddy. She helps me feed him, after he finishes she pulls his socks off and smells his feet and says, "PEEEEEUUUUUUUUUHHHHHH!" as loud as she can. Josh just does his big goofy laugh. Now Lucy and Josh take their bath together. Lucy tells me she will be too lonely if Buddy doesn't take a bath with her. Josh will splash his big meaty arms, look a bit stunned and then burst into a big fit of laughter. Lucy is fuled by his giggles and splashes wildly and it makes him laugh even harder. Water in his eyes, slightly scared but ultimately thrilled with his big sister's antics Josh loves it. It makes a big wet mess, and is quite stressful - but in the end it is priceless.

After his bath Josh gets into his snuggle jammies and I comb his hair - he has a handsome little part now. I make a bottle and I take him into his room and he has a nice nightcap and a good snuggle. He rubs his little lovey over his eyes, every now and then rubbing it on my face out of fairness and drifts peacefully off to sleep. It is a nice way to end the day, a little one-on-one snuggle with my guy that is along for the Lucy ride.

Merry Christmas!!

Before I had kids, holidays passed by in a blur without much distinction from one year to the next. Not in a way that implies they were not special or meaningful, but a way that is without a frame of reference. I remember the Christmas I was pregnant with Lucy distinctively. She kicked like crazy when she heard my nieces and nephews going bonkers over opening presents. The next Christmas I remember her awake at all crazy hours of the night, sitting with her and looking at the Christmas tree, her first tooth peeking out of her gums shortly thereafter. Last year I was pregnant with Josh and had become slightly manic about getting Lucy this specific stuffed Elmo which so opened on Christmas morning to look at at shake her head and say, "no" repeatedly until I put it out of her sight. This year it all came together and the guy with the big red suit and Christmas in general made a big impression on Lucy.

These days it seems like right after Halloween the stores and the population in general sees Thanksgiving as a speed-bump that just happens to be before Christmas. And by Thanksgiving, stores are decorated to the nines, the radio has certain stations that go to an all Christmas music format and the machine that makes kids ask for certain things has already put the master Christmas plan into motion. I think we started talking about Christmas at the beginning of December. Nana and Pappa had gotten Lucy an Olivia Christmas book which she immediately adored. And by the second week of December our bedtime routine was reading The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and Olivia Christmas. We talked about what Lucy wanted for Christmas and from the beginning she pretty much stuck with her guns and would say, "a camera and a xylophone." Michael and I asked her what Josh wanted and she would say, "bubbas."

We got our Christmas tree early this year so we could look at it and enjoy it for a long time. Lucy liked looking at all the ornaments and "helping" to hang them on the tree. She called them "toys" just like her father and made the whole crew of the little snowman nativity set talk to each other and play. Lucy and I went to the Cape to visit Nana and Pappa and looked at the lights and the Christmas display at The Cape Codder hotel. There we had dinner and then waited to see Santa. As we were in line waiting Lucy was definitely suspicious about how things were going to go down. When it was her turn, she sat on Santa's lap and told him in her nervous voice that she wanted a "camera and a xylophone." She had her "I am repressing showing how scared I am right now," smile on her face as Santa's helper wrote what she wanted in Santa's big book. Then she got her first candy cane and it made the whole experience worth it. Who can blame her for being a little wary of Santa, he's big and hairy and sneaks around peoples houses in the dead of night. One of my nieces used to make her parents block the stairway with a chair on Christmas Eve to be certain Santa couldn't get up the stairs.

Josh got his first tooth and first ear infection right on cue around Christmas. He was pretty mad to have his first pearly white painfully poking its way through his tender gum. He'd chew on the chilled teething toys I'd give him for maybe two seconds before Lucy would rip it out of his hands overcome by curiosity. Both of them got dragged around while I did my shopping. We braved many a public restroom and I used my Dunkin Donuts bribery tactics when all else failed. I still somehow managed to wait too long to order the kid digital camera for Lucy. I found it online, only to log-in to check on the shipping status to find that my order had been cancelled because the camera was out of stock. Flash forward to me ranting to some poor customer service lady about Santa and camera and xylophones. I bought a book for my niece at Borders with Josh screaming full tilt and Lucy tossing things into the stroller basket as I shopped, she is fast but I can usually keep up with her. So far we still have a clean record. I brought the book home and discovered as I prepared to wrap it that I bought the Spanish version. Good times.

A few days before Christmas we had worked ourselves into a kind of cooking and baking frenzy. Lucy and I made cookies, cut them out and decorated them to leave for Santa. I remember one morning putting red sprinkles on a sugar cookie angel. I looked at the clock and it wasn't even 8:00 a.m. We made white chocolate chex mix and both proceeded to eat it until we (and by we, I mean just me) were totally ill. I sweated and stressed over our lack of a Christmas card photo and using lollipops as my currency bribed Lucy into cooperating on one snowbound afternoon. We trekked out into the snow to pick them up, getting festive tins so we could deliver our chex mix to neighbors. I mustered all every ounce of holiday spirit I had and it was fun but exhausting.

One of our new traditions that we started last year is going to this little park in Nonantum and walking around and looking at the lights. They have a big mailbox for letters to Santa and a sleigh and reindeer that you can drive. This year Lucy and Michael worked diligently to write Lucy's letter to Santa. Lucy and her Dad wrote down what she and Buddy wanted and she randomly included people and things that she thought would be appropriate for Santa to bring. It was pretty funny and nice. We got everyone bundled up in snowsuits and boots and mailed her letter to Santa, drove the sleigh and then went to Dunkin Donuts for munchkins.

On Christmas Eve we hung around, made more cookies, went sledding and then got Lucy and Josh into their matching reindeer footie pajamas. I know, I have become that Mom that dresses her kids in matching jammies, but I just couldn't resist. They looked so freaking cute I don't regret it for a second. Lucy and Michael got to work on a letter to leave with Santa's cookies, thanking Santa for all of the presents and wishing him a safe trip. We left him egg nog, cookies and carrots for the reindeer. Every now and then we would look out the window for Santa, Michael would run into the other room and jingle some bells and Lucy would put her hand to her ear and eyes wide with excitement say, "I hear him." It was pretty magical. Everyone went to bed and Michael and I decided that we were too tired and had too much wrapping to finish to make the fancy prime rib dinner that we had bought for our Christmas Eve dinner. We drank wine and ate more chex mix and we wrapped presents and talked about how fun it was going to be to watch our kids in the morning. It was a great night.

On Christmas morning we had ourselves a good flop around in the big bed and then walked into the living room to see what Santa had brought. Lucy was carefully checking things out, immediately spotting the candy canes he'd left for her. She and Josh set out to the business of opening presents and helping Michael and I open ours. She got fun things like a cowbell and miscellaneous percussion instruments so we could have some serious jam sessions. Santa also knew Lucy's fondness for CVS shopping so he brought her some hand soap and toothpaste which were equal crowd pleasers. Every time she washes her hands after going potty she proudly tells me that Santa brought her the soap and how much she loves it.

After we played at home we packed off for the rest of the day and night to visit our families. At my sister's house Lucy joined in the mix with her cousins and had a blast. She and Josh were piled with so many presents they were a little overwhelmed, but happy. Josh looked around and smiled and cooed in his little striped suit with the reindeer on the butt. Lucy ate a piece of chocolate cake that was as big as her head. We went to Babu and Dedu's for dinner where Lucy played animal bowling and ate salty fish. Josh just sat and smiled and made goo goo eyes at his Babu. When we left, everyone was asleep one minute into the two minute drive.

The next day it looked like the house had exploded with toys. We played, and we played hard. Lucy and Josh had a wonderful Christmas. When all was said and done there is something just magical about Christmas for kids. I remember as a kid waking up on Christmas morning being totally convinced that I had seen the glow of Rudolph's red nose outside of my window and heard the reindeer on the roof. That ability to believe in something so pure and so good is what I want to pass onto my children. The idea of a season where people do good things and give because it is a nice thing to do. You see family and are as excited to watch them open what you have gotten for them is as exciting as opening your own presents. The best presents really is seeing the excitement in the eyes of you children, that is what Christmas is all about. That and being able to eat chex mix and drink wine for dinner and it being perfectly acceptable.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!