Baby, Mary, a Camel and a Transformer

Baby is arriving in just a few weeks, and it's no surprise my belly is getting larger each week. Lilly is especially aware of the situation, eagerly anticipating baby sister's arrival. Both she and Claire talk to baby through my belly button and are certain she can understand them. On one night, Lilly told me I looked like Mary, as in baby Jesus' mom. Then Lilly asked where my camel was. When I asked why, she said, "You need a camel to ride to the hospital, mom."  

This morning at breakfast we were talking about the true meaning of Christmas. We asked Lilly why we celebrate Christmas and she said, "It's baby Jesus's birthday." I asked the girls what type of birthday cake we should make for Jesus and Lilly replied, "A Transformer cake, because Jesus is a boy."

Meet Yiddy

Meet Claire's sister, Yiddy. Claire's speech has taken off lately with some very impressive lengthy sentences; yet, when she refers to her sister, she calls her Yiddy. Sometimes it changes to Yilly, but Yiddy rolls off the tongue much easier. So, as you can imagine, Rob and I are in on the game. We have been know to ask Claire, "Where is Yiddy?" When Yiddy hears this, she emphatically says, "Mom, call me by my normal name- Lilly." So, it appears Claire is allowed to perpetuate Yiddy's pet name, but mom and dad must be accurate when referring to darling Lilly.

Regardless, I thought you'd enjoy this little story.

Yiddy/Yilly/Lilly

Hamster Weekend- Take 2

We'd tried it once before- babysitting the preschool class hamster- but it didn't work out well. 

The poor hamster risked internal injuries and death by terrier during her first visit. Amazingly Nugget the hamster survived. Yet, despite all of this, Lilly insisted on another opportunity to hamstersit. So, mom gave in.

This time it went quite well. Lilly and Claire were well aware of the rules...

Rule #1: Dogs must be locked outside before Nugget could be removed from her cage.  

Rule #2: Share.

All in all, it wasn't a bad experience for any of us, including Nugget.

 Still, we (Rob and I) were happy to return our guest to school the following Monday. :)

Gingerbread construction...

Nana bought the girls a gingerbread house kit, and ever since the girls new it was here, they have been begging to put it together. So, since the girls were such big helpers on our first trip to the post office to mail Christmas presents this morning, I told them we could play gingerbread.

Here is their beautiful creation... with a little help from mom, of course.

I am sitting in the living room by the tree on my laptop, and Claire just carried the gingerbread house to me from the kitchen. Walls collapsed, and Lilly was upset. I managed to save the house, and hopefully it will be left alone until it dries. Claire enjoys sneaking the candy, while Lilly wants to eat the cookie itself. I told them we have to wait until Dad comes home.... 

carbohydrate festival here we come.

November Highlights

The month of November flew by in a flash. It's hard to believe we have begun the Christmas countdown at our house. Here are some highlights from the end of November, including the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Lilly's preschool hosted a Harvest Party. Here's pilgrim Lilly about to dive in to a piece of pumpkin pie.

We hosted several friends for Thanksgiving this year. But, before the meal even began, Miss Claire was asleep from all of the excitement.

On Thanksgiving morning, Lilly asked if it was Christmas. She was disappointed with my response, of course, but she was happy nonetheless to help decorate the house the next day. Claire was ultra excited for our tree. Here she is while Dad worked hard to put the thing together. One funny thing that happened was the morning after we decorated the house. Since the tree was up and Christmas was in the air, Lilly ran to our bedroom in the morning and said, "Mom, Santa forgot to leave presents under the tree." So, instead of saying it's Christmas time, we have switched our lingo to say we are celebrating the "Christmas Season." Santa doesn't come until the end of the Christmas Season on Baby Jesus' birthday. Lilly gets it now!

Lilly got in on the action too... both girls loved placing ornaments on the tree.

Here's Claire one more time in her favorite piggie pajamas... She just loves the tree.

 And Sue just couldn't take all of the excitement. She was asleep almost 5 minutes after we started decorating. Lazy Sue!

 Let's not forget the lights on the outside of the house. Thanks Rob for hanging them... the girls LOVE Christmas lights, blow ups in yards and anything that twinkles. Of course, we all agree the BEST lights are the ones on our own front door. Isn't that how the song goes?

 To top off an already busy weekend with zero relaxation except the 2 hours we saw Tangled at the movie theater with the girls, it was time to paint baby's room...

 The girls were eager to assist... but are even more excited for baby sister's arrival in just a few weeks. More photos to come... once the room is done!

 Merry Christmas Season to all of you!

Preschool Photo 2010

Lilly wanted to share her preschool photo with you that was taken at school...so cute!

Here she is, age 4...

Tough Lesson to Learn

Question: Who thinks data is safe in an external hard drive?

Answer: It's not! ... at least not when your external hard drive is dropped on the floor.

Yes, it was a tough, and expensive, lesson to learn at the Z house. Almost 4 years of photos and video were stored on my external hard drive- a safe place, or so I thought. My little red drive housed all of the precious images of my two little children; and in my ignorance, I thought they were safe. But one day a certain husband dropped the hard drive on the kitchen tile. End result- a broken drive- internally broken so it could not even be recognized by my laptop.

Panic stricken and ready to take out vengeance on a certain husband, I called a local data recovery specialist. After about two weeks, increased blood pressure, contemplation of revenge (or divorce), and many heart wrenching thoughts of never again seeing all of my thousands of photos of my girls, the data guy saved the day. He was able to recover the data from the scratched drive... all of the data... all of the photos... all of the video. Hallelujah! Did I mention it cost a small fortune?

In any case, I am now a subscriber to Carbonite, an online data backup company. Carbonite automatically backs up my computer every time I have an Internet connection for about $50 a year- unlimited data. And, I also have a new system of backing up items to my laptop hard drive and new external drive.

So, for all of you out there reading this post, let this be a lesson for you also. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket. And, don't store all of your data in one location (meaning one house, etc.) What would happen if your house burned to the ground? External hard drives are not meant to withstand impact in any form. Thank you data recovery man for saving my marriage and my sanity! :)