Christmas Day

My sister Karen, my niece Amelia, and their friend Stacie were in Maine for Christmas at my Mom and Julian's house. We all had a wonderful time, if you exclude the part where everyone rotated being sick.

Here are just a few pictures, I am much too cobwebby in the head to run much of a commentary.

I do have to ask, though - whose kids are these and how did they learn to act like this? This is just about the only picture I have of Christmas morning at our house. Santa brought The Littlest Pet Shop, just as he was instructed. Thank you, Santa.

Karen and Mia

Grandy and Bubby. Incidentally, Grandy is 62 years old and Violet is 62 months old. Guess who thought of that one?

A rare sweet picture of the Mama with a sleeping babe.


Cousins being sweet.

Cousins being sassy.


And I don't quite know what this thing is, but the kids love them. Stella and Violet each got one.


Stella got several different types of glorious crayons which thrilled her.


And someday I may get a chance to wear my nice orange vest. Once the kids take it off, that is.

Our Sweet Amelia

It has been brought to my attention that, unbelievably, there are no pictures of Violet and Stella's cousin Amelia on the blog. None! And I really have no explanation for this besides to say it never occurred to me that such a huge oversight was even possible. My sister, Karen, and I go to great lengths to make sure the girls see each other at every opportunity. They live about 11 hours away by car, so this is no small feat, but it is well worth the effort. The girls will see each other again this Christmas, and I will be sure to post new pictures afterwords. But for now, to those who don't know her, I introduce the adorable, impish, ineffable...Amelia.

Amelia was two months old when Karen was chosen to be her mother. After months of waiting she got a call on a Thursday afternoon telling her to come pick up her new daughter. The. Next. Day. My mom, Violet and I made the trip to Maryland in record time to meet her. She was an adorable little hurling bundle of joy, right from the start. (Seriously. That girl could Vomit.) She still sucks those two fingers when she sleeps, too.


Easter at my Mom's house. It is so funny to look back at the kids. Violet in a dress? With barrettes?? And Amelia still looking like a baby. She was about 9 months old.

Stella was not quite three months old, but already almost as big as Amelia.

Here is one of my all time favorite pictures. Amelia is such a hoot. Her Mama is a hoot, too. So I guess even if the apple falls far from the tree, it will roll over to where it belongs.


The wee apple and her tree. (insert heart emote here)


Amelia LOVES her cousins. Yum!

One day while Amelia was visiting and napping on the bed upstairs (which she surely wouldn't do now!) Violet disappeared with a bowl of yogurt. We found her up on the bed, spoon feeding Amelia, both of them happy as clams.


Christmas 2007 at my sister's house. More cousin love. Stella was really not at all happy about being in that dress. But that's a mother's prerogative, isn't it?


Amelia was so much more about the Sesame Street wrapping paper than she was about presents, I think.


We spent an entire week with Amelia over April vacation. As you can see, while still cute, she has turned slightly more impish as well. She is just shy of 2 years old.

All three girls smiling. You have to be quick with the camera for that sort of thing.


One of the things I love is watching Karen do Amelia's hair. It is entirely fascinating. Even more fascinating is that she can sometimes do it while Amelia is asleep. Karen put these (twists?) in just for me by special request. Lovely.


Amelia was born on Independence Day. On her birthday last year we all went to the parade in Washington DC. While it was fun, I can't say I recommend it in 90 degree weather with 5 kids in tow. But didn't they look just smashing, though? The extra kids there are Kate and Emily who love down the road. Amelia LOVES Kate and Emily, as does Violet.






Now these pictures aren't mine, so please don't rat me out. But lookee here. Three adorable cousins, all smiling. I will have you know Karen and I worked our HEINYs off to get this picture. While the photographer stood there exercising his index finger.


Most of what we got looked like this. Which is cute in its own way.
Now, if anyone has not had her fill of Amelia pictures (and let's face it - who would really admit that she had?) you will need to wait a week or so for the next installment. We are impatiently awaiting the arrival of Amelia on Sunday night.

Ah, but lest I forget this gem. Karen brought Amelia to see Santa this week. Amelia was less than enthusiastic, but Santa - the Santa of all Santas - got on the Floor to Play with her. How cute is this. Amelia is just about two and a half.

Our Unexpected Adventure

Waifer was having flashbacks this weekend. It has been a very long time since he has ridden on my lap in the car. To be precise, since we traded in the truck for a soccer mom car. So you may wonder (as he was wondering) why he was riding around on my lap. In the Civic, no less. The CIVIC!

It was because our specially-ordered, fancy-schmancy snow tires for the Mazda had not come in before this happened:

Yes, people, for those of you looking at this (meaning, those of you with actual electricity in your houses), we had a big old ice storm here. Excuse me while I pummel you with pictures of the amazingly beautiful and incredibly menacing ice.

We knew there was going to be ice when we went to bed on Thursday night, but what can you do but snuggle in and keep your fingers crossed? Sure enough, Friday morning came around and we had no power, just a dazzling view. It didn't take us long to decide we would be foolish to stick around a freezing cold, dark house trying to entertain the kids. So in just over an hour's time we managed to get everything we could possibly need for - say - a week and a half - into the car. (Except clothes for Violet. Either we just plain forgot them, or she thought she was going to pull a fast one on us.) With nowhere else to sit, Waifer found a cozy spot on my lap and settled in for the drive to the Roy's house in New Hampshire. They didn't actually have power either, but they do have a woodstove, and it was so much more fun to ride it out with them in their nice warm house.

There was plenty of fun to be had with dress up, crafts, pretend food and horses. Brenna and Eva have this amazing new bedroom that their parents seem to have conjured up out of thin air (and - oh -a really elaborate roof remodel, too). They are both dancers, so there is a wood - dance floor? Stage? Rehersal area? in their room complete with the mirror and a barre. Awesome. And four horses.


Stella continually cracks me up. Check the shoes. Can you believe she could actually walk in those things? And the backpack. If it were up to Stella, the world would be made of fancy shoes, backpacks and lollypops, with an occasional caryon thrown in.

And I love this pictrue of Violet. I love the stillness, the concentration, and yet look at those hands go.

Waifer and Nulee got into the act, too. At one point most of us had 'triops' eyes a la Violet. Nulee and Waifer go way back. In fact, if I were to say Waifer has a best friend, it would likely be Nulee, and much to their dismay, we humans have not been diligent enough about doggie playdates.

We all took a trek over to the neighbor's field Friday afternoon. Here is Stella with her godfather, Steve. I love that she loves her godparents.


And those crazy girls rolled down a hill. Again and again. I mean, yeah, it looked like fun, I suppose. If you are 5. But a little crunchy for my taste.



The scenery was just breathtaking.




There's nothing better than a surprise vacation with good friends. It wasn't quite what I had planned for the weekend (actually, I had a wisdom tooth extraction planned, so all the better), but it is nice to remember that life is not just about daily drudgery. It is nice to be spontaneous, and shaken up a little. It is nice to experience, and have our children experience, those important bonding moments that make some friends more like family.