Let Us Be Thankful

It's the thankful season. We are all thankful for so very many things this last week or two each November. I'd like to think I'm thankful every day . . . but we all know that we should stop and be grateful more often than we are.

So let me take a minute to show you what I am thankful for today.

Today, I am thankful for preschool holiday parties. There is nothing like little homemade treats (allergen free, usually) on tiny festive paper plates, followed by a little craft that all the kids are way too busy to bother to finish. I love holiday parties at the preschool. In this thankful season, I'm very thankful for my darling girls who let me share in the fun with them.

What's Up

Life around here is busy. Computer issues (thank goodness Jim fixed it) and a sick Meg have kept me from blogging or even checking email for the past several days. I just logged on for the first time in 3 days. Believe it or not, I've not checked my email since Saturday. I was starting to have real withdrawal symptoms.

Anyway, here is what has kept us so busy since last we met . . .

I kept my sunglasses.

Some lady came to my door selling cleaning products (Clean & Simple -- consider yourself warned!). She came at the worst time of day . . . I was trying to get the girls ready for bed . . . but I was too nice to slam the door in her very pushy face. I ended up with some ridiculous cleaning products that I could easily live without, and I felt bad for about 2 days for spending the money on the product. I was so embarrassed -- what was I thinking?! Jim has forgiven me, but I'm still trying to forgive myself.

Jim left for a Sunday-Thursday trip. And when he returns on Thursday night, I'm off for a weekend trip with my dad. Just the two of us, taking some time to ourselves to enjoy each others company and kinda put some of 2009 behind us. It will be a very nice weekend with my Daddy. (Though I'll miss Jim and the girls a lot.)

Meg and Kate both have survived some serious chest congestion over the last week. They have not been "sick sick", just coughy, wheezy, and whiny. No real fever, just not quite themselves. And this time, Meg was the one who got the worst of it. Blech. But hey -- I learned that kids can throw up when the mucus in their chest gets to be too much for them . . . who knew?

Kate is the hostess for the Thanksgiving Feast in her MMO class on Thursday morning. And by Kate hosting . . . I really mean that I am hosting. Must make orange rice krispie treats tomorrow for the affair. I had one heck of a time finding Thanksgiving themed plates/napkins for the shindig . . . seems like many stores go straight from Halloween to the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Thanksgiving, stuck smack in the middle of two very retailer-lucrative holidays, has apparently become the red-headed stepchild of seasonal merchandise.

Nana and Papa Dahlby arrive this weekend (while I'm away) for the Thanksgiving week. In preparation for their arrival, I have used my aforementioned too-expensive all-purpose cleaning product to clean my stove top, my oven, all my baseboards, my blinds, and my carpets. I guess new products plus the motivation of having my in-laws land here for more than a week is a good thing . . . by the time my cleaning lady comes and goes on Thursday afternoon, my house will be really very clean.

We have officially kicked off the holiday season at the Dahlby household. We tagged along with some friends and went to check out Santa at Phipps Plaza last week. NO -- we didn't see him yet -- we just checked him out from afar and started gearing Meg up to actually sit with him this year. And while we were in the area . . .

we rode the Pink Pig. In November (okay, in early November). It was awesome . . . the girls loved it, and there was no crowd. Too early or not to early, you can't argue with doing something when it's easy.

And speaking of holidays too early . . . we put our tree up last weekend. Okay, that one I'll give you . . . I know it's early. But with me leaving town for the weekend and Thanksgiving banging on the door as soon as I return, it just seemed like we needed to get the tree up or risk not being able to do it as a family (just the four of us, I mean) during Thanksgiving week. So last Friday night, we ate take-out and decorated the tree while watching Frosty the Snowman on DVD. It was a great night.

The early arrival of the Dahlby tree allowed me to dig out the Holiday jammies I had purchased on super-clearance at the end of last season. They'll get to wear them for a few extra weeks . . . so see, I'm trying to make the most of my money in some areas. :)

And that's what's up around here.

Am I Cool Enough?

Am I cool enough for these glasses?

I found these today, and I'm wondering if I can pull them off. If so, Jim wants to wrap them up and give them to me as a Christmas present. (Less shopping for him, less returning of items for me!)

What do you think?

Working Girl

I've been working some lately . . . soliciting some shoots because I miss being behind the camera. This time of year is so busy for photographers, and I've endured it for the past 3 years in a row. I complained the whole time about how hard it was to work and handle the girls. This year, I backed way off the photography to save myself from exhaustion . . . and it feels strange NOT to have a lot of work to do.

And when I look at my images, I miss the work even more. I love doing this. I'm so lucky to have a hobby that helps provide our family with a little extra 'fun money'. And I'm so lucky to have a hobby that -- dare I say it? -- I'm good at. Taking pictures makes me feel good.

Here are my favorites from a couple of my recent shoots . . .

Hours of Entertainment

I had a large piece of white backdrop paper left over after a shoot this weekend, and I decided to put it to good use. The paper had been scuffed up quite a bit, so it was no longer useful in photographing . . . but it sure did make one monster piece of coloring paper. When taped to the kitchen floor, the girls found it to be hours (okay, maybe an hour) of entertainment.

Meg drew herself. I love that she has a head, a face, purple eyebrows, arms, hands, legs, feet, and shoes. (For those of you in Early Childhood Ed, you recognize that this is quite a milestone! It's fun to see what I've learned about in school happening in my very own children.)

Kate just drew and drew . . . until she got bored, then she decided to move the furniture around.

It was a fun project. I left it over night, and the girls were delighted to pick up where they left off after they ate their breakfast this morning.

Have I mentioned how much fun it is to see them playing together?! Aside from a few, "Kate's drawing on my side!" outbursts, they have colored together and seem to enjoy every minute.

Mental note: find more activities they both love. Not only is it great for them, but it is so much fun to sit back and watch.

The Christmas List Begins

"Mommy! Mommy! A purple princess bike!" Meg exclaimed as we wandered through Target one October afternoon.



Naturally, I was as excited as she was to see a purple Disney Princess bike. (No, I'm not kidding.) What could be more perfect for my oldest daughter? I contained my excitement and admired the bike with Meg.



"I want to get it, " Meg told me.



"It's the time of year when we start thinking of things we'd like to ask Santa for as Christmas presents, Meg-a-loo. That would be a great present to talk to Santa about," was my response. After all, I'm certainly not going to fork over $70-some-odd bucks on a Tuesday afternoon for her purple princess bike . . . but, at the same time, I do want to get it for her. I know she'd LOVE it.



"Okay, Mommy. I can tell Santa about it. When I see him. And I can tell him he can get it at Target," my super-smart kid replied.



Well, Meg . . . Santa found your bike this weekend at Costco for $10 less than Target. And he cannot wait to deliver it to you on Christmas Eve.

A Year Later

If you go back and read my blogs from one year ago, I think you can hear the stress, depression, and anxiety I was living through as I settled in to our life with two young children.

But this year, one short year later, life is so much better. It's a whole hell-of-a-lot easier with regards to taking care of the girls, and I'm a whole hell-of-a-lot better equipped to handle our family and all it entails. Funny -- with my dad's cancer and my mother's death this year, it's really been one of the worst years of my life. But with regards to my immediate family and my day-to-day life and responsibilities, it really has not been bad at all.

I remember how hard it was to get through the evenings last fall and winter. Everything took soooo long . . . and I had to do sooooo much because both of the girls were still very young and dependent on me. I had to spoon feed Kate, dress Meg, wash them both, dress them, nurse Kate, put them to bed. The evenings here are still very hectic, but they are getting easier every day. Dinner is not the marathon it once was . . . we all eat the same thing for dinner every night, and everyone feeds herself. Granted, sometimes I don't finish my plate because I'm refilling milk glasses or offering seconds to Kate (my BIG eater), but at least I'm not spoon feeding anyone or holding anyone in my lap. Meg is becoming quite a helper at dinner time -- putting dishes in the sink, cleaning up toys in the living room while I clean up the kitchen. Kate is learning to eat at the table (without the use of her high chair tray), so pretty soon we will all just sit there together and enjoy our meals as one happy family.

I can throw both girls in the tub together, wash and dry them, all in about 20 minutes (longer on some nights if I let them play while I relax for a few minutes by the side of their tub). Meg can get out of the tub, dry herself, retrieve her jammies, and put them on all by herself . . . all while I take care of Kate. Meg's ability to dress herself has been the BIGGEST milestone when it comes to our evenings . . . I'm so grateful that (for whatever self-motivated reason) she decided she was ready to start doing that. Kate does not have to be nursed anymore, so I can just jammie her up, sweetly rock her for a minute or two, they lay her down and off to sleep she goes. I read Meg a few stories, then it's lights out for her, too. Bedtime is really an entirely different process than it was one short year ago.

One year has made all the difference. There are many, MANY things that are easier . . . and a few things that are still kinda tough. We do have to have TWO of everything now -- two lollipops, two juice boxes, two snack cups. When we get ready to go somewhere -- especially now that the weather is cool -- there is a lot of shoe-tying and jacket-zipping to be done. And two totally mobile, very curious girls in a public restroom is a little harder than it was when Kate used to just hang in a stroller. But I think it's a trade off . . . and I would totally trade our 'hard' things now for what was once REALLY hard.

I survived the year with a newborn and a two year old. Now I'm loving my year with a one year old and a three year old. I hear it just gets better and better . . . which will make it harder and harder for us to go back to the beginning and have another baby. Ahhhh, but that is a conversation for another day. A conversation I've told Jim I'm not ready to have for at least another year. For now, I'm just going to enjoy these girls and the things that life throws me.

Happy One-Year-Later to Me!

Autumn is Busy

ALWAYS. Our busiest time of year. At least I recognize this now . . . it's barely November, and I already find myself saying, "I'll do that after the first of the year." The fall just flies by, so I might as well enjoy it and put stuff off until 2010. What's the hurry, anyway?!

This weekend was one of those busy weekends. Friday I got to visit some high school friends . . . I dropped the girls off with my dad for the weekend, then went out to dinner with some of the girls down on the south side of town. Saturday afternoon, Jim and I capitalized on a Meg-and-Kate free afternoon by doing a little Christmas shopping and taking a nap. Jim and I attended a college friend's wedding on Saturday night, which was awesome. Sunday (today) Jim is retrieving the girls from Newnan, and I have a photo shoot in about 2 hours. Like I said, a busy weekend.

When I look ahead in our calendar, we have more busy weekends ahead . . . and when I look back, I remember our October was pretty crazy. How did I manage to do all of this last year -- with a new baby and my photography career in full swing? I'm just glad I survived . . . and so glad I backed off of the work so that I could spend my busy fall with our family. I would hate to let this time fly by and miss out on things like Saturdays at Costco with Jim or Sunday mornings with our girls. In our busy season here, I'm feeling pretty lucky.