Sisters!

When my parents brought my brother home for the hospital, it took me about a week to declare war on the little guy. We didn't arrive at a state of truce until some time around when I left for college. Sure, we'd occasionally join forces to protest some parental injustice, but it was always an uneasy, short-lived alliance.

Given my past of intense sibling rivalry, I was expecting the same from Phoebe. It has been a really neat surprise that (so far) she actually really loves being a big sister. Granted sometimes her methods of expressing that love are a little less than ideal, but they are (usually) well intentioned.

Every day when Phoebe gets home from school she immediately starts asking to hold her sister. Phoebe's cuddles can get a little intense, but Eleanor is typically a good sport. I imagine that Eleanor will grow up to be an adult who loves rollercoasters and bungee jumping due to all of her early experiences with thrilling snuggles from her big sister.

[Disclaimer: Eleanor does seem to enjoy this most days. Really.]

Toes!

Did you know babies have toes? Eleanor didn't until very recently. She has been pretty amazed by this discovery.

What are these things???

OMG - I think they're ....

.... TOES!!!!!

Two Babies

The cats never really wanted much to do with Phoebe, I am guessing the 4 months of non-stop screaming had a lot to do with that. Danger seems to have warmed up to Eleanor though - perhaps literally - I think the fact that she is a tiny baby furnace has a lot to do with Danger's new found love. The last few weeks he has started cuddling up with us when I rock her, and he often joins us for Eleanor's middle-of-the-night meals. Here are my two babies getting some pre-bedtime cuddles last night.

Christmas Cookies

"Christmas Cookies" might seem like an odd title for a blog post in the middle of March, even  more so when I admit these photos are of cookie decorating in 2012. I am going through the pictures on our camera little by little in an attempt to organize them and to make it easier to share them with family and friends. I am still trying to figure out the best method for sharing, but for now I have a shared Flickr site. If anyone has any other suggestions, let me know.  I was swayed by the free terabyte of storage :)  As I slog through the photos, I'll post some of them here too.

Back to cookies ... Christmas cookie decorating was always a fun family event for the Lockwoods and that's a tradition I'd like to continue with our girls. We didn't get around to doing cookies in 2013 (I'm using the new baby excuse for that one), but we went all out in 2012. We had the neighbors over and let the three kids go to town with sprinkles and frosting. The results were pretty much what you could expect - lots of licking of fingers, knives, etc and we had to wash the kitchen floor about 20 times to get the last of the sprinkles up. It was definitely worth it though and the kids had a great time.

At first, Phoebe wasn't too into the whole thing

Ian was pretty serious and was very careful with his decorating

Emilio's technique was more free-form

Phoebe finally got in on the action

The artist at work

Cleaning fingers between cookies

Getting serious about maximum frosting in minimum time

The sweet results

I am looking forward to 2014 cookie decorating, and am hoping we can have Gramma Joyce come help us out! Uncle John would be welcome too, as long as he promises not to repeat the "anatomically-correct gingerbread man incident of 1998". I really do love cookie decorating, and hope that we'll be able to make some fun family traditions around the holidays as our girls get older. I have some of my Grandma's old cookie cutters, and this will be the first year I use them to make our cookies so this year's decorating will be especially sentimental.

Saturday, March 8

We have lots of news and pictures to share, but I am having a hard time finding the time to keep the blog updated. We'll do our best, but I think part of having kids is having less time for stuff like blogging ... or showering. Right now I'm making alphabet pancakes and playing Moose with Eleanor while we wait for everyone else to wake up. So, all I have time for is to post a quick video of a mostly-naked baby eating her toes. Enjoy! Happy weekend everyone!

Cash Register!

I am pretty sure that Phoebe thinks that the UPS man works for my mom since he is always bringing presents from Gramma.  In fact, whenever Jeremy or I gets a package, Phoebe is pretty confused by the situation. Last week I got a book for work and the box was waiting for us when we got home at the end of the day. Phoebe didn't believe it wasn't for her and made me open the box in front of her. I think she is still wondering why Gramma thought she wanted an Operating Systems text book :)

A few weeks ago, my mom noticed that Phoebe really liked playing "grocery shopping" so (after clearing it with me) she let Phoebe pick out a cash register on Amazon.  Phoebe was super excited "it's just like Target!" were, I believe, her exact words (note to self - take fewer trips to Target).

The cash register has been a HUGE hit and Phoebe often makes Jeremy or I "shop" for items we already own. The register also has some learning games built in and Phoebe has really taken to one called Money Match where the register gives a number and the kid has to enter it by pushing the correct buttons on the keypad. [As an aside, every time the cash register says "welcome to Money Match" Phoebe yells "it said MOMMY match" and giggles like crazy.  I guess that passes for a joke in three-year-old circles]  Phoebe has been playing a lot of Money Match and has actually gotten pretty good at two digit numbers.  I tried to get a video but instead of highlighting the educational features of the cash register, I think this tends to highlight the craziness of my toddler :)

You can also see her offering to type 0 for Eleanor (since Eleanor is zero years old). At least she's "playing with" her sister.  Thank you for the fun toy Gramma!!