Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone! We had a great day and I hope you all did as well. I'd love to write a post about - you know - our actual Christmas. But I'm completely and utterly exhausted. December has a way of completely sucking the life out of me every year. Maybe it has something to do with the FIVE family birthdays that fall between November 16th and Christmas Day - all culminating in the mother of all holidays. Every year I swear I'm going to do it better next time - and I always find new and exciting ways to drive myself to drink.

So! Instead you get to see the super fun process that was creating the 2009 MasterWong Unspecified Holiday Card. I have not yet joined the ranks of the smart people who just pick the best family picture from the year before. No instead I need to 1) find the "perfect" holiday outfits for the kid(s) and 2) get everyone posed together for a super picture. I learned this year that the addition of one child pretty much makes the above goals impossible. So after finally procuring a holiday-ish dress for Lily that I didn't hate (thank you Hanna Andersson) and realizing that I was not willing to pay the prices photographers wanted to procure actual digital images - we armed ourselves with Gordon's tripod and tried to do it ourselves.

The experience was - ummm - educational.

We started with Lily - and you know, no one told me that kids get MORE difficult to photograph as they get older. I mean what's up with this new "smile"?


But I guess any smile is better than this:


After a few rounds of this type of thing I looked like this:


Eventually we banished Lily for a little while citing "lack of cooperative spirit" and focused on Quinn. He's easy to photograph if you give him something to distract him - like this stocking ornament. Take note of the white paper tag attached to it please (ooo foreshadowing).


He started chewing on the ornament - and we started taking pictures - because Look! Cute Baby! and At Least It's Not Glass!


In all the picture-taking frenzy we failed to notice what was happening to the paper tag. Here, I'll give you a chance to spot it. Can you top our superb parenting skillz and determine what's wrong with this picture?


Well, we couldn't. Until Quinn looked like this:


And then puked up half of the paper tag from that stocking into Gordon's hand. Sorry no picture of that - even we're not THAT bad (besides, our photographer was busy being puked on).

But even with that bit of excitement Quinn was still totally our photo superstar of the 2009 MWUHC:



We did cave in the end and let Lily have another shot. We never got anything fantastic with her in it. But thankfully she's pretty cute, so we were able to salvage a couple for the card:




And- that's all folks! Hope you had a super fantastic day today! We're heading to New Jersey soon so maybe I'll have some time to play blog catch-up while we're there and the kids are otherwise occupied creating havoc with their cousins.

Turning Three

Boy do I owe Lily a post or what? I feel like over here in LilyPad land it's been all about Quinn lately. Part of the reason for that is there is just too much Lily material lately. I don't even know what to say or how to boil it all down! But our little girl is turning three tomorrow- THREE! So she is very much deserving of some catch-up posts. Let's see what I can do...

First - I have to say that the only reason I'm getting to write anything right now is that BOTH MY KIDS ARE ASLEEP - IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY - AND AT THE SAME TIME. I know - that's a lot of caps. But really, this is a momentous event. Lily has given up napping at home for the most part and Quinn still tends to cat-nap through his day. I had all but given up on having any time to myself at all on my days home alone with them. So really this is glorious - just glorious. I put them both in their bedroom at about 2:20. There was a lot of goofing around with each other. It's funny - how they can totally play/talk together even though Quinn can't get much past "a-goo" yet. I can't wait for the day they can have real conversations in there. And I can eavesdrop on the monitor!

Today we had Lily's 3-year check-up and I was just struck by how grown up she's seeming lately. She totally handled the whole thing pretty much without me. She told Dr. Mahoney how she eats a lot of vegetables "broccoli, carrots and asparagus". And while she does eat a ton of broccoli - that's pretty much her only vegetable. So I'm not sure where the carrots and asparagus embellishment came from! She was very careful to tell Dr. Mahoney that she only has "one vitamin a day". Even though she would like to have more because "they are very yummy - just like candy". Oh but candy - she doesn't eat much of that. She was careful to tell the doctor that too. She got up on the table, cooperated with all the ear/eye/throat checking, marched over to the scale to be weighed and measured. It feels like SUCH a milestone that she's no longer being weighed on the baby scale. Lily is a big fan of Dr Mahoney and was dismayed when it was time for her to leave the room. "Aren't you going to stay with us?" she asked.

[OK so I started this Monday with the two kids asleep, but then Quinn woke up - shocker]

AND now it's the day AFTER Lily's birthday and this post is not really going anywhere quickly. So! Happy Birthday Lily. I can't believe you're three. You're growing up into such an awesome little girl. I hardly have the words to describe it. This pat year you've grown from a toddler into our little companion. You are a great lunch date, museum-buddy, kitchen-helper and storytime cuddler. You've embraced your role as big sister with such vigor. I love watching you take care of Quinn. I love when you tell me that you have a "long long long story to tell me. Yup, very long". I love when you come running into the room and say "Mom! Mom! I have TWO Questions" I miss being called "Ma-ee" and wonder when I became "Mom". I love how you chatter constantly when we're in the car. I love that you love holiday decorations and Christmas lights. I love seeing the world through your eyes. I love that I can still comfort you, even though you are so very brave now. You give us the gift of yourself, every day. We are so lucky and so thankful. Happy Birthday to our little girl.

Quinn: 7 Months

Mom's pretty late on this 7-month post of mine - so I decided to take matters into my own hands. After all I'm SEVEN MONTHS old now - I think I can handle blogger. Besides, she's way distracted lately - something about birthdays and Christmas and whatever - just give me more of that food lady and stop the whining. That's my department.

Anyway - my seventh month has been pretty good. I still like hanging around with Mom - she's pretty cool.

 

But really, I just like the ladies in general. You should see me work the room. I had the entire Somerville High craft fair in the palm of my hand just by flashing some smiles around. Here I am with my Auntie Megan rocking the "babylegs" that my Auntie Dory made me. I mean seriously - I make this look good.

 

Mom's always talking about how my teeth need to hurry up and just show up. But so far - they're staying hidden. I still like chomping on my hand or whatever else I can shove into my mouth. I'm still drooling a ton too - and Mom still hasn't gotten the hang of actually putting bibs on me to deal with that. I've given up on her and just gotten used to it.

 

I've been working on my pouty baby-model look. What do you think? I so rock stripes. And this sitting up thing - that's so 6-months. I'm a pro now.

 

I like to laugh too - a lot. I love it when people play silly games with me. I find that if I sit around and look cute long enough someone will come over and act like a total fool. It's the best. Here I am at the head of the Thanksgiving table. I totally got Grammy to come goof off with me. I've got her wrapped too.

 

So have a I mentioned how much I love food? I LOVE IT. And really, I don't care where it comes from - boob, bottle, spoon - it's all the same to me. JUST GIVE ME MORE. Sometimes Mom and Dad let Jeh Jeh feed me. It's kind of fun. But one time, Mom left the room while Jeh Jeh was feeding me. And that was a DUMB MOVE. Hasn't anyone told her it's not smart to leave the 3-year-old in charge of the baby? Anyway, Jeh Jeh went and put the pears just a little too close. I was able to snag the bowl and HURL it across the room. Pears all over the couch. I did it for Mommy though - she hates that couch.

 

Everyone always says I look like my Dad. What do you think? I'm cool with the idea - I mean I could do a lot worse, you know? My Dad rocks too.

 

I'm sure my Mom would have more to say - she talks a lot. Something about her going back to work this month... oh yeah - now I spend a couple of days a week at Kathy's house. Kathy is awesome. She thinks I'm the bomb. She holds me all day and there are three big kids for me to watch and hang with. I'm enjoying making my Mom look bad. I never complain there and often take two hour naps. Heh Heh.