Five!

 Dani turned five this week.  Five!  Where does the time go?

It's been quite a year for our not-so-little Dani.

She started Pre-K.  She waits for the bus, with her Super Mario backpack, just like a big kid.  Every night at dinner, she's so eager to tell us about what her buddies did at school, to sing us songs, and tell us about her day.  When we drive around town, she loves to point out her friends' houses, and she's learning how to get places, telling me while I'm driving which way I should be going.

For weeks, she was singing songs in anticipation of her Christmas concert at school.  When the flyer came home, I was scheduled to be in court, but at the last minute, the matter was adjourned so I was able to go.  With some help, I snagged a second row seat.  She walked out with the twelve children in her class, anxiously looking around, and she saw me and Grandma Deb.  She frantically waved, and was so excited to sing to us.  Tears rolled down my cheeks while she sang and danced, "I'm a little snowman, look at me." 

There was my baby, up on stage, at school, in her first concert.

 She's the first one to offer to help, before I have to ask her.

Usually, she's the first one to tattle, unless she's joining in the mischief with Tori and Tommy.

She's quick to laugh, and make silly faces and sounds.

She's getting good at talking back too--Mommy, apparently, is very often wrong, you know.

And she's getting SO BIG--she's the tallest kid in her class, and comes up almost to my shoulders.

And she still wants to snuggle, as often as possible.  But these days, she reminds you more of one of those big dogs who doesn't realize she's not a lap dog, as she piles on top of me on the couch or asks me to pick her up.

 It's hard to believe she's five.

I swear, just yesterday she was a baby, trying to gnaw my face off.

And wow, I had far fewer grey hairs back then!

 It was so much easier back when there was just one.

I had so much time for just focusing on her...and celebrating the silliest of holidays, like her first St. Patty's day photos.

 She loves fiercely.

From the moment we brought Tori home, and she exclaimed "Baby" and kissed her, she embraced the role of big sister.

 And she couldn't wait to do it again with Tommy.

 She usually sets a pretty good example for them to follow.

And she is naturally good at sharing the spotlight.  It's interesting that when she chooses characters that she likes best, it's most often the supporting ones.  She prefers Luigi to Mario, Robin to Batman, Widget to Wubbzy.  She's the first one to hand over the coveted toy of the moment so Tommy won't cry, and to share her goodies with Tori without being asked.  An action not accompanied by please or thank you is nearly non-existent with her.

She changed my life.

She taught me how to love with a depth I did not know I possessed.

She taught me, and continues to teach me every day, important lessons like these:

A walk around the block can be magical if you find pinecones.

The boxes stuff comes in are often more fund to play with than the stuff.

Everything is better with sprinkles.

Always make time for another kiss and hug.

Bedtime songs are way better than bedtime books...Raindrops on Roses is still her favorite.

Getting dressed is more fun if you don't care if your clothes match.

You don't need a reason to turn off the lights and have a glow stick party.

Knock knock jokes don't have to be funny to be funny to toddlers.
All you need is a sunny day and a maple tree seed pod to turn into a unicorn.

 

And the most amazing part is that this is just the beginning.  The beginning of the life of my amazing little Dani.  As much as I selfishly hate to see her to grow so independent, I love to see her roots grow stronger as my little flower reaches for the sunlight.

Happy birthday, Dani.

Where does the time go?

 Our sweet little Tori turned three yesterday.  Three!  I swear, just a few minutes ago she was a wriggly little baby.  A quiet, easy, little baby.  Wow, that didn't last long!

She's our little free spirit.  So often silly, and almost as often mischevious.  When things get quiet, it's not because she's behaving, but because she's getting into something.  And she's just so hard to get angry at, because she is just. so. damn. cute.  It's those eyes.  Those big brown eyes that make you melt a little bit inside when you look at her.  She's the kid that strangers stop you to tell you that she is just precious and adorable.  Because she is.

She can throw a tantrum like nobody's business.  Wailing and flailing like the world is coming to an end.  But as she grew closer to three, she grew closer to the ability to reason.  When you explain the whys to her and tell her how she should be acting, she understands.  She doesn't always like it, and doesn't always do it, but she understands.  And for the zany, middle child, who is always going a mile a minute, she will surprise you with how much she knows, how much she understands.

She knows her letters and numbers to count and by sight.  And big numbers--she will hold up her Urlacher jersey and say, "I'm fifty-four, Mommy."  She will dance around and tell you she has a pelvis, and a patella, and a cranium, and point to them in turn.  She's learning about the body with our leap books, and will wiggle her fingers and tell you they are phalanges.  And, it typical toddler (silly) fashion, she describes what she learned about the digestive system...the food goes in my mouth to my BOOTY!

She's pretty much potty trained, because the reward of playing on Mommy's tablet is incentive enough to get it done. 

Adventurous in every way--from her love of broccoli, "ninos"  (tomatoes) and every fruit and veggie imaginable--to leaping in the pool, jumping on the bed, and never letting discretion be the better part of valor.

If she wakes up in the middle of the night, she ends up in my bed.  But unlike her big sister, who is happy with her own pillow and her own space, Tori insists on sharing my pillow, on snuggling so closely to me that I can feel her breathe on me.  As she starts to fall back to sleep, her arm always reaches around me as she snuggles up tight. 

Everything Tori does, she does intensely.

And her little brother adores her.

We all do. 

 For years, I've been close to an old Italian man--he's in many ways like a great grandfather to me. I bring the girls to see him every few weeks.  His name for Tori is "estrella", for star.

How fitting.  Our Tori is a star, a shooting star, bright and blazing, grabbing our attention and filling our lives with light.

And she's been doing it for three years.

Three years.

Love you, Tori.

 

Tommy is ONE!

Daddy baked a cake, went shopping for presents--and the big sisters even got presents too!  A first birthday, from Tommy's perspective.

Wow, this ladybug kitchen timer is really neat.  I sure like to play with it.  Why is everyone singing?  It's really distracting me.

Daddy took my toy away.  This sucks.  What's this thing in front of me?  It's awfully squishy.  Maybe I should just smear it around for a little while.  Hey, this is kind of fun.  Is it paint?  Am I drawing?  I should put some in my mouth maybe.

This paint stuff's pretty tasty.  But it's more fun to smear all over.  Thanks Daddy!

Little Dude is one today.  My last baby, isn't really a baby anymore.  He's running full-on into toddlerhood.  I swear, it can't be a year already...I just brought him home from the hospital.

He's our inquisitive little guy.  He never stops making noise, but really only says "da da".  He loves his sisters and they love making him laugh.  He can shake hands, and Tori almost taught him how to high five tonight.  He's almost as big as she is, and is just absolutely enamored with her.  While he's a bit slow in the talking department, he's got amazing dexterity.  He has never held his own bottle--despite the fact that he is a complete chow hound.  He refuses to hold it and will wail in anger until you acquiese and feed him.  He's great about playing on his own, unless he wants your attention, in which case, you must drop everything to pick him up, feed him or play with him.  He's so LOUD--screeches of happy and wails of frustration.  I often wonder what people walking by must think--I am guessing they refer to our house as the crying baby house.  Tori's in the 2 year old "I did not get my way so I will sit down and scream at the top of my lungs" phase.  So it seems like someone is always screaming in this house--and if it's not angry babies, it is the back and forth happy shrieking that kids do for no apparent reason, other than to torture their mommy.

As I unpacked some 2T clothes for the little dude tonight, it hit me.  He's the last one.  No more babies, just little people starting to grow up here.  I'm not packing things up anymore, but bagging and boxing them to pass on to another mom, because we won't need them ever again.  No more bouncer, or walker, or exersaucer.  Pretty soon, we'll say goodbye to the high chair, as Tommy will have a place at the dinner table.  I thought as I contemplated these things, I would be wistful and nostalgic, but truly, I'm not.  I'm excited about the promise in little Tommy (and Tori, and Dani) about the people they are becoming and their next "first".  I can't wait until he can talk back to me, and say "mommy".  It's going to be a great year, for Tommy, and for all of us.

How do they do it?

Holy crap. Two kids alone is HARD WORK. How do single moms do it? How do people who have 3 or 4 or 5 or more do it?

Big Man went back to work, so I come home from the day job, say hi, he goes upstairs to sleep, and then I'm on mommy duty. So far, Tori's been amazingly fussy and mad that I am in charge, so she makes sure to scream her head off. Dani, cute as ever, just wants to go outside and play and have the attention of somebody...so it ends up being a delicate balance of songs, and snacks and playing Tori peekaboo to get Dani to settle down and not be jealous of Tori or lament the loss of daddy who is sleeping.

But holy crap she is so smart and so much fun ......And I can't figure out why McScreamy decided to become screamy again............hope it ends and is just a product of the different schedule. I snapped a pic before she went to total screamy meltdown phase.

There you go--unedited. (MILF I am not.)

But we ultimately work out the Dani time with SKYPE calls to grandma and grandpa and lots of mickey mouse vids.....

Peeps from my past life--can you believe this is me????????????

It was good while it lasted.

Get used to more frequent blog posts...Big Man is returning to work tonight. He and Dani are upstairs sleeping right now and Tori's in the swing, so mommy has some free time! It's going to be quite an adjustment for the both of us--we are both going back to being sleep deprived in our own ways, and spending much less time together.And, I will look on the bright side and say that I get a king sized bed to myself all night, instead of lamenting sleeping alone. The cats will be pretty happy to have room to get back on the bed again.

I also told Big Man that he needs to take more pictures--I am always the one with the camera in my hands, and have very few pictures of me and the kiddos!

Tori is quickly earning the right not to be called McScreamy anymore; we may have to change it to McSmiley.

We've introduced Dani to crayons, and have a budding Jackson Pollack on our hands. She totally favors her right hand for drawing; I was hoping she'd be a lefty like me.

I need to take a minute and tell you how totally amazing little Dani is. She can identify the colors: red, blue, yellow, green, purple, pink, black, and orange and say them by name. She can visually identify and say by name about half of the letters of the alphabet (a random assortment of those easier to identify, and all of the letters in Bears Football as Daddy is always wearing something that says Bears). She will walk up to something and point at the letter and say "B" or whatever the letter is. She can visually identify about half of the single digit numbers, say them, and can count to three. She can also make most animal noises and is using multi-word phrases. She also knows most body parts, from hair to toes, and can point to them and say them.

She loves her books, and her current obsession is Mickey Mouse. She loves when I sing to her, or tell her rhymes, and she tries to say them or sing them along with me.

Every day, I think it can't get more fun, and it does.

Bubbles and Rain.

Dani sitting with the angry whopper. It's so rare that Dani's sitting still and McScreamy isn't fussing.

I got home from work tonight, and quickly got changed to take Dani outside. She was asking for "bubbles" and holding the cool bubble blower that Auntie Barbara got for her. Don't you know that two minutes after we got outside it started to pour! Dani didn't mind, which is funny, because she screams if water gets on her head in the tub! So after a few minutes, I yelled for Big Man to get the camera...and here you go. She had a blast.

They are both getting so big!

Surprise!

We pulled up at around noon.  Gram has "the macula" (aka macular degeneration) so I knew she wouldn't recognize us until we actually got to the doorstep and she heard my voice.

Happy 90th, we said, and meet your newest great-granddaughter!

To say she was surprised was an understatement.

She couldn't get Tori in her arms quickly enough!

She was a great sport and wore her "Birthday Princess" hat we brought.  Aunt Barb, Uncle Dick, Lisa and her family showed up bringing ice cream cake!

And, Auntie Barbara brought this awesome bubble shooter!  Dani had a blast!

Packing 2 babies, two diaper bags, two tote bags, a portable crib, and mommy and daddy into a car, gas, tolls, food on the way, and nearly 8 hours of driving.

Celebrating someone you love's 90th birthday, priceless.

Totally worth it.  Happy Birthday Gram!

New camera, just playing around.

So, I've barely read the instructions, but have fired up the new camera...it's a Nikon Coolpix L110.  Super zoom and tons of features, although I must confess already that I wish I had the dough to spring for a digital camera with a lens you can adjust with your hands, by turning it in a circle, old skool style, but, the ol' wallet isn't there yet! 

Anyway, I went to a Chamber of Commerce event tonight, and brought a few balloons home for Dani, who was thrilled, yelling "balloons", and even Tori was fixated on the bright colors.

Dani and I played around with the camera this morning---she wouldn't sit still!

Unlike Dani, Tori, at 8 weeks old, does the sitting still thing pretty well.  It's amazing how different she looks in different pictures and poses, like a different baby.

I am really looking forward to better photos and videos with this new camera...now I just need a new laptop to use it! 

Don't shoot!

Instead of daddy-Dani matching shirts this Father's Day (last year I got them Batman t-shirts), this year we went with Dani-Tori matching outfits for the Big Man. It was all part of a plan that Dani cooked up.

We went with the cop theme (read the onesies).

Here's Dani telling Tori the plan...(Tori, we are going to play cops for daddy, okay? Just do whatever I tell you to do.)
(Now Tori, since you're just a baby, I need to give you a gun safety lesson before I can let you hold your gun. Never put it in your mouth, okay-like this-don't do it.)

(OK, now I will hold my gun pointed at the bad guy and you keep yours at your hip Tori, because you are just backing me up on this one.)
(Now, you get to be the bad cop Tori, yell at the bad guy, then I will be his friend and he will confess. That's a great angry face, Tori!)

(Hey Tori, now I will put my hands in the air, just like a bad guy and then you can practice cuffing me. You're pretty good at playing this cops and robbers game.)

(OK, now Tori, make your toughest face and pretend you're punching into your palm. Good work! Nobody's gonna mess with us!)

Big Man--you're the best daddy and husband; we love you sooo much--on Father's Day and everyday!

And Happy Father's Day to my dad, the bestest grandPA!

Dip, a Dani guest post.

Hi everybody, Dani here. I wanted to tell you about something I learned! Have you ever heard of ketchup? It is super yummy and you can dip your food in in and it makes everything taste all ketchupy and yummy. It even makes your fingers taste yummy. At dinner tonight, mommy and daddy let me have my own bowl of ketchup.

It was so yummy I rubbed it on my arms and face so I could lick it off. Some might have gotten in my hair too, and on my clothes. I heard daddy tell mommy that it was a bad idea for mommy to give me my own ketchup, but he was wrong--it was a great idea! Afterwards, mommy made me go in the shower with her to get the ketchup off. I sure love ketchup!

And, look at this--Tori's not crying. In fact, she was smiling at me so I took this picture. She still cries a lot, but when she smiles it makes me happy. Almost as happy as my own bowl of ketchup.

Older sister wins, today.

Tori spent some awake time on the couch today, snuggling with Dani's stuffed chicken. I wondered how well Dani would handle Tori's first time with something of Dani's. To date, Dani hasn't been too interested with Tori, other than to say baby, or kiss her, but the attention span is brief. Here's Tori with Dani's chicken. Dani notices that Tori has the goods and tries to grab the chicken!

Mommy tells Dani to share with her sister. Dani says ok, looks to be sharing per mommy's instruction.
Dani tries to distract mommy with shows of affection for the baby. Dani, the girl with the ulterior motive. Dani says, SUCKA, I got the chicken!!! (Tori smiles at the irony...she really just wanted Dani's love and didn't care about the chicken.)

Fun times.

Weekend wrapup.

The weekend was kind of a washout, but Dani and I spent some time outside on Friday evening. She's talking up a storm, and keeping us on our toes.

I took some videos outside--I've been trying to get her to master saying "grandma" and "grandpa" for my folks' visit in a few weeks.

And in the front yard:

Here, Dani had just woken up from a nap, ad I plopped Tori into her crib...it looks like they are sharing secrets.

I know they are going to have so much fun together when Tori's a little older!

A typical dinnertime.

Took some videos at dinnertime tonight, of our fun little circus. Dani, the perpetual star of all videos, is 18 months old today. Can't believe how fast the time flies. It seems like just yesterday that I was blogging about little Miss Fussy, and talking about Dani as the fussy one..instead of Tori. Now, she's tearing through the house, talking her head off. She charms the pants off of everyone she meets, and laughs all the time. She's got a hair trigger temper, but can be distracted into giggles quite easily. I adore my Dani.

Tonight, Dani decided she liked ketchup, so Big Man put a little bit on the high chair, and instead of dipping things into it, she leaned over and just put her face right into it and licked it up. OF COURSE, as soon as I got the camera, she decided she didn't want to do it anymore. But, there's still much cuteness to be seen in the two vids.

Here's the second one, a few minutes later...little miss chatterbox.

She certainly makes our dinnertime entertaining!

One month stats, a Dani guest post.

Hi everybody, Dani here. Mommy said I could do this post about my baby sister, Tori. She just had her one month doctor's visit, and as I suspected, I still win. More on that later.I'm pleased to announce that Tori is 9 pounds and 14 ounces and 20.5 inches long. I'm also pleased to announce that, back in the day, at my one month visit, I was 10 pounds and 1/2 ounce and 21.5 inches long. Clearly, I win. I'm the bigger, badder baby! (mommy's note: Tori was almost a pound lighter than Dani when born, and is clearly the winner in the weight gain category)
So, please join me as I raise my bottle to the best little sister ever. I love you Tori, even if you cry all the time. I can't wait until you are bigger and less fussy and can play with me. But remember, I'm the big sister, so I am always going to be in charge.
Kisses for you, my favorite little sister. (Now, hurry up and grow and play with me. And, stop crying so much, okay?) Really, could you please stop crying so much? I am sure I didn't cry this much back when I was a baby. Even my kisses don't make you stop crying.

I took this picture of Tori and mommy this morning. Tori was fussy and wouldn't smile for me, but mommy smiled!

I know you guys probably don't believe me, but Tori is fussy. Way more fussy than I was when I was a baby. If you don't believe me, just watch this. It's really like this all the time. I think that is why mommy says she doesn't have time to update this blog anymore. So, readers (grandpa) don't blame me for mommy's failure, blame Tori. Always blame Tori.

Anyway, to my little sister, Tori....it's on. Keep working hard to get big and strong so we can play. Just remember that I'll always be the bigger, stronger, sister...so you better do what I say!