4th Birthday Party

As Evie was going to bed last night she said to me, "Mommy, I think it is really great to be 4." She is just a few days into fourdom but I imagine that her birthday party certainly contributes to the continuing greatness of four. We decided to have the shindig in our backyard again, and really lucked out this year. On Saturday it was raining all day and very cold (last weekend it was in the 90s, this weekend in the 50-60s). Sunday the sun came out and it warmed up to the low 70s... just perfect for an outdoor fairytale birthday party! We rented a jumping castle again and of course did the whole pinata thing (obligatory in my world). I bought crowns for the kids to make and they loved playing both in the jumping castle and in Evie's room on her castle bed... but the best part for me was the cake.

Four years after Evie's birth I have finally managed to make a cake I am proud of. (See previous attempts here and here... and last year I didn't even try...) That's not to say that I think I have arrived at my cake apex... oh no I am just getting my feet wet in this world o' cakes my friends, but it is to say that I finally managed to make one that a) didn't have lumpy or crunchy frosting and b) wasn't gray (although I planned for that possibility by making a castle) As you can see I wasn't setting the bar very high. Regardless, the cake was a hit and the towers proved to have many uses, including enabling Evie to eat her piece like a Renaissance-fair style turkey leg... awesome.


The invitation asked the invitees to dress up so Patrick and I figured we had better dress up too. (I of course only managed to score these costumes on Sunday at 1 pm... but better late than never...) So we both ran around as almost (my Mom and Claudia joined in) the only adults dressed up. I looked pretty silly in my costume and think I may need to wear it again and then get Patrick to dress in black with a black flat hat and recreate my favorite Van Eyck painting, which is all I could think of every time I looked at myself in the mirror.

In the end we must have had 20 kids at the house and at least as many adults. It was quite the crowd, and I must admit by the end of the day I was feeling like maybe 25 week pregnant ladies should not spend so much time on their feet (not to mention miss my Sunday nap...) but all in all a great party is worth it!

Happy Birthday Genevieve!

Four years ago today Genevieve Marie Lacroix first made her appearance on this world stage. A brief rundown as told (mostly) by her of her favorites at the ripe young age of four (I interviewed her as we went to bed last night).

Favorite color: "purple and green, all mixed up together" (umm I think that makes black of some sort... but it does definitely seem to be her favorite way to paint... all mixed up together)
What do you want to be when you grow up? "A doctor" (when I asked her what kind of doctor she replied "a doctor of people")
Favorite food(s): mac and cheese and noodle salad (a Vietnamese salad I make with carrots, cucumbers, rice noodles and fancy tofu... the fancy tofu is her favorite)
Favorite drink: Juice
Favorite book: Tintin
Favorite thing to do on the weekend: "Go to birthdays"
Best friends: Lydia, Garbriel, Alexandra, Nanan, Daddy and Scarlett (after I asked if I was her friend she said "oh of course and don't forget Mommy")
Favorite animal: Anteater
Favorite song: Allouetta
Favorite movie: "The one where flies go into space." (aka Fly Me to the Moon, I'd also like to note for the record that we watch a whole lot of Mary Poppins and Hans Christian Anderson by her request)
Favorite toy: Bunny (aka the bunny Patrick fetched for her with the claw machine last Saturday)
If the baby is a boy we should name him: Alexander
If the baby is a girl we should name her: Ixandra (she also suggested the baby, boy or girl, could be named "french fry, because that would be silly")

Birthday week

Genevieve's 4th birthday week officially began on Friday with a surprise birthday party at her school for her and her friend Lydia (whose birthday was this weekend). Evie's birthday turns into a week because this week is spring break for her school so her "school birthday" had to be celebrated ahead of time and her real birthday is on a Wednesday this year making it impossible to have the main event on her birthday proper.


Her teacher has been planning the event for a few weeks now and I came over too for the festivities (and brought some party hats and skirts for the girls to enliven the festivities a bit). Evie's teacher Isabelle decorated the tables put out glitter, brought cookies and even painted their faces like kitties and Lydia's parents sent in some tie-dyed cupcakes for everyone. The preschool is a pretty small crowd on Friday so after the initial surprise the kindergarten French class came to join in on the fun too. When I came early for the surprise she practically pushed me back out the door saying "No Mommy you can't pick me up yet, there is going to be a surprise!" When I explained that I was part of the surprise she got really excited, it was too cute. I am so lucky to have such a flexible schedule these days that I can just take off and go over to her class for a birthday party (it was also very fortuitous that my 12:30-3:00 class was canceled for the day.)

Language Fair

Saturday was Evie's first Southern Arizona Language Fair, a major annual event for the kids at her school because it is all about kids reciting poems/preforming songs in languages other than English. For the past few months she has been working on a song to sing with her class up on the big stage and a poem to recite by herself in front of judges. She worked really hard and had them both memorized really well. On Thursday at her school exhibition though she refused to sing or recite either one for the parent attendees. Patrick and I really wanted her to give it a try on Saturday, seeing how she had worked so hard on both. We decided that we would give her a little incentive in the form of a trip to Chuy's afterward if she gave, particularly the poem, a try. We sweetened the deal by saying if she tried we'd go to Chuy's but if she did really well we'd go to Chuy's and we'd give her a dollar for games and/or the toy machines. I came well prepared with plenty of snacks (a hungry Evie is a totally unwilling/uncooperative Evie) and she went dressed in her nicest uniform (the only one without copious amounts of stains saved just for such an occasion). The first event was the song. She and her classmates waited patiently for about a half hour while all the other kids at her school performed their songs. This one I caught on tape:



She thought it was pretty cool to go up on stage and was then excited for the solo poem performance. We went to a classroom and then had to sit quietly while another 10 kids before her recited or tried to recite their poems. Most of the kids in her class got too scared but her teacher is so great, she got right up with them and helped them recite it and in the end I think just about all of them made it through at least a little of the poem. Evie was getting antsy and finally, second to last and almost 45 minutes later, her turn was called. I didn't realize how nervous I was about the whole thing until she got up, stood in front of the judges said her name, her school and then recited her poem with a nice big voice and a pretty little accent. The whole thing made me cry (it must be the pregnancy hormones... right?!) We were both so proud of her and it was great to see the look on her face of sheer delight when she was finished for actually accomplishing it. I didn't take a video of the poem, I didn't want to distract her and honestly just wanted to watch her do it more than preserve it for posterity per se.

We of course took her to Chuy's for the full treatment, quesadilla and dollar for games and all. Lucky for Evie her Dad is a savant when it comes to the claw machine and needed only 50 cents to not only get her a stuffed animal but exactly the one she wanted. She is still carrying around that 50 cent bunny and I have a suspicion it will be a favorite for a very long time.

Festival and more

Another fabulously beautiful Saturday in springy Tucson! Evie had the uber kid day: in the morning she went to ballet and then out for a pastry with Patrick and the obligatory stop at a great garage sale to get an entire playmobile collesium for $10, a quick nap with me, trip to Chuck E. Cheese for a birthday party and then straight to the Festival in the Barrio Viejo for some great music. Patrick was the porter for most of the day's activities. I went along for the best part, the festival. (I think Patrick will not volunteer so willingly for the next Chuck E. Cheese b-day, he didn't realize the extent of the garish kidness he was in for.) The festival was great fun, we didn't make it for the full 6+ hours but 3 hours was enough to get in a little chess playing (on a pink board nonetheless), jumping castling (in earshot of the great music), a little disappointment when U of A didn't beat U Conn, some fine hula hooping and of course a bit of dancing to the music. I tried my hand at the hula hooping too thinking the belly would give me an advantage... I was totally wrong.

This was really Evie's first concert (at least the first one we paid to go to where she came too) I think she enjoyed herself.

Zingers: Breastfeeding

The other day Evie asked me "Mommy, why do babies eat boobies?" I repressed a chuckle and explained to her that they aren't eating so much as drinking (although I suppose a good chomp is why many a child is weaned, but I didn't think she needed to know that nuance)

Best Tuesday Ever

I think Evie just had her best Tuesday ever. Tonight my aunt, uncle and youngest cousin came by to pass on the Mott family heirloom... The Castle Bed. This bed was purchased for my little brother when he was about 5 (I think). Here we are over 20 years later and it is still bringing joy to small kids. It has been passed down through many a cousin of mine and now is entering its next life as the prized possession of a Lacroix kid. I am afraid trying to get Evie to sleep tonight may be a lost cause (for many reasons, not the least of which being we don't currently have any mattresses for it :)

Spring Weekend

Hooray for Spring! We are doggedly determined to celebrate all 2 weeks of lovely spring that we will have in Tucson. (Summer, temperatures at least, generally come around mid-April)


This weekend we went out to a great new (to us) nursery called desert survivors and picked up some new plants for the front yard. Patrick has been mulling over/planning what he would do with the front area for a good long time now and I think he was pretty excited to see it start to take shape. Evie was happy to help, especially when she was informed that mud would be involved.


Other spring-like activities involved getting new chickens. All 10 of our chickens were taken in a midnight coyote raid about 3 weeks ago. It was pretty tragic but really they weren't laying much anyway so it was probably about time for them to go. Regardless the new plan is for each neighbor in the coop co-op to pick up three new chicks and sometime in the next few months, when they need more space, we'll expand their coop and make more "indoor" space for them to keep them safe from marauding carnivores. Evie came with me to the feed store to pick out the Lacroix three. We got a leghorn (not so pretty but big layers and I am all about an abundance of eggs), an ameraucana (because blue eggs are just too cool) and a barred-rock (I let Evie pick one and this was her choice, I learned afterward that apparently this breed is the most friendly). Their names are, in order of introduction, Little Crown, Little Polly and Little Fuzz. Evie named them all (I guess she has finally gotten over her obsession with naming all pets Oliver) and informed me that once they are big chickens we can remove the "little" from their names. With the exception of Little Fuzz they are all pretty scared right now and spend most of their time, especially when a human is in the coop all jumbled up behind the roost like this (I can't tell you the names of the other 6...):


I am already looking forward to their laying days... I have become quite an egg snob :)

Invitation

Since oh just about April 7th last year Evie has been looking forward to her birthday this year. Her ultimate compliment or insult, which we hear about at least once a day, is to invite or uninvite you to her birthday party. I can always tell when she is displeased with me because I will be unceremoniously uninvited to the great event. (I once tried to explain to her that if I didn't come there would be likely no cake or jumping castle but my rationality fell on deaf ears) Well now the day is approaching again and so the threats/offers for her birthday are realistic :) The theme this year is going to be fairytale and all are asked to come to our house and the party dressed as their favorite fairytale character... it is a slight stray from the requested princess theme but I just couldn't do it three years in a row. We were in target yesterday picking out a birthday present for Patrick (she bought him the movie Book of Kells... totally random but he was very excited about it... go figure) and she picked out her birthday/easter/daddy's birthday dress too. Now lets just see if I can keep it white until April 10th when we have her party!

International Day

Yesterday was our second official International Day at Evie's school representing Belgium. Last year my waffles, which I tried to cook on the go, didn't work out so well on account of the lack of electricity (or rather reliable electricity). This year I made them all (all 100 of them) last weekend, froze them and then toasted them as needed. Granted I spent a pretty ridiculous amount of time making waffles last weekend but it did make the house smell pretty darn good and by the fourth batch I had the whole recipe and time for the dough to rise down pat. (I would have only had to make 3 batches if it hadn't been for Evie and Patrick constantly dipping into the kitchen and sneaking off with my fresh-made waffles.)


Anyway the waffles were a success and the new game I made, a card guess the Belgian icon game, while not as flashy as the spinning board last year, certainly worked well and didn't fly off in the spring winds. Evie must have spent 2 hours in the jumping castle and really enjoyed running around with all of her class friends. A pretty good way to spend my birthday if I do say so myself!

Its...

a baby!! The verdict from the 18 week ultrasound is that the newest Lacroix is of sound body... all the little parts that are supposed to be there are there and they look the way they are supposed to. The ultrasound was really cool. For whatever reason we didn't do this mid-pregnancy ultrasound with Evie and it is really nice to know that so far everything is going the way it should. Of course this is the point where most people find out if it is a boy or a girl, but we decided to keep it a surprise (and you'll notice Nicole none of the pictures reveal sensitive parts :) Patrick's boss asked us this week why we didn't want to know. I came up with a couple of reasons... the surprise got me through those last few weeks when you just want the whole thing to be over with, its one truly wonderful surprise you can have in life and it doesn't really matter for us anyway because all of our 0-3 clothes are gender neutral anyway because we didn't find out with Genevieve either. But really I think it boils down to Patrick's rather honest response "It drives people nuts when you don't find out." Regardless I promise y'all will be among the first to know when Baby Lacroix (who I lovingly refer to as Lentil) joins us.


The most interesting part of the ultrasound to me was how Lentil's legs were sooo long compared to the rest of her/him. Throughout the whole thing the feet were either in his/her mouth or up over Lentil's head. Not exactly the fetal position.

Evie came along with me for both the appointment with the midwife and the ultrasound. She was uncharacteristically shy with people who wanted to talk to her but I think she enjoyed it. (I know she enjoyed getting to leave school early, its all she could talk about for a day before and two days after) I don't think though that I'll bring her along for subsequent visits, not too much to see and she, being 3 (oh my gosh almost 4) is definitely of the class of if I can't see it it doesn't interest me nearly as much.


I think this has got to be the best part of pregnancy. I have enough of a belly to look like a pregnant lady and I am regularly feeling the baby move, which is both comforting and fun.

Valentine

Evie and I had a great Valentine's Day! Genevieve, who now lives from holiday to holiday, spent time last weekend making valentines for the kids in her class. (Luckily it was a small class... if it were much bigger we would have had to start a few weeks ago because I found that she was interested in making maybe three at a time before she was off to do something else) For each valentine she decorated the outside and inside and gave me something to say on the inside. The captions ranged from "I am so glad your birthday is the same as my birthday" to her friend with a birthday just 3 days away from hers, to "I really love you" or "I super duper love you" There is one boy in her class with whom she has become really good friends. She wanted to do his valentine first and I had to cut her off on the pirate sparkles for fear that there would be none left for the others.

Also last weekend Patrick cryptically informed us that we needed 50s outfits for our Valentine's Day outing. The three of us went down to 4th avenue to a thrift/costume shop and found just the thing. I picked up a red poodle skirt and leopard scarf and Evie found a poodle sweater and white skirt with a crinoline. Then on Monday when I got home from work (eking in right on time from a 12 hour day in Phoenix) Patrick informed us that we were going up the street to the Loft cinema for a valentine's day sing along presentation of West Side Story. It was a lot of fun! Especially because without the lyrics I wouldn't have been able to sing more than one line in "I feel pretty" or "Tonight" I am afraid we were in such a rush to get there on time there is no pictorial evidence of our fun, but take my word for it, with my now obvious pregnant belly I looked pretty awesomely ridiculous in a red poodle skirt!

Tintin

The obsession du jour in our house is the Belgian comic Tintin. For Christmas Patrick's mom bought us a beautiful pop-up version of a Tintin story. Evie started requesting it as an every night reading (it was in French so Patrick was on the hook as the storyteller) and so Patrick decided to branch out and pick-up another one to see if she would like the stories as much with more words and less pop-up bling. It was a resounding success. Over about a week they read all of Tintin in Tibet and have in subsequent weeks moved through an Asterix and Obelix (another Belgian comic) and then Destination Moon. They are now almost finished with the Broken Ear. They have become such voracious readers of them we may have to augment our Tintin library soon. Now those who have read these before might note that they are not exactly material for a preschooler, among other offenses, Captain Haddock drinks too much whiskey in just about every volume, with the worst being the circa 1950s depiction of race and foreign cultures, but I think Patrick feels it is an important part of her heritage. :) (I think for now we'll avoid some of the more un-PC volumes like Tintin in the Congo and Tintin in America) Regardless, it is now a morning, noon and night activity in our house to sit around and read Tintin. I calculated it the other day and the two of them are spending upwards of an hour each day reading the stories. But the interest goes beyond reading time, Evie even likes to go back through them and "re-read" them herself. More than once in the past few weeks I have found her in her room giggling to herself at some aspect of the slap-stick humor from the cartoons. She tries to get me involved by bringing me the English versions we have "Mommy, you can read English can't you? Good, you can read this Tintin with me." I guess my lack of french won't keep me from comic reading/bedtime reading for long :) As Evie likes to quote "It looks like I am in the soup again"

Sedona

Last weekend we went on our what has now become annual trip up to Sedona. Patrick has a conference there every year so we get a free (and swanky) place to stay and it gives Evie and I a chance to hang out and have fun just us girls. Last year I had so much fun taking her to the Gap outlet and then hiking that I had my heart set on a repeat. The first attempt, on Friday night, to walk over to the outlet was thwarted by Evie's rather upset tummy and other unmentionable tummy issues. I was a bit disappointed but not too much so because I was still living off the wondrous happiness and calm from the massage I received that afternoon. Fortunately on Saturday Evie was feeling better so we were able to make a trek over to the outlet where Evie picked up a new super girl shirt and crazy pink skirt (the shirt made it out hiking... the skirt I vetoed).


After our shopping jaunt we hopped in the car and drove to bell rock where this year we decided to hike up instead of around. Evie did a good job hiking and rock scrambling. She got really excited when higher up on the rock she found "snow" (aka ice) and decided to try her hand at ice skating. She did OK for a bit but then, not surprisingly, fell on her bum. A late lesson for the small child, ice is slippery, but hey in her defense she does live in the desert. All in all it turned out to be a lovely trip (as it has been for the past three years now) and I think we are all looking forward to next year already :)

Notes from Home

About 5 months ago Evie told me that sometimes at school during the day she gets sad and really misses home. She also indicated (and I was a bit dubious I must admit given she is the queen of excuses and negotiating) that this is why she is sometimes not such a good listener... she "was just too sad to listen well" In search of a solution we had a talk about what I could do to make her less sad and be a better listener at school. She thought about it for a few minutes and then came up with the idea that I could put a special note in her lunchbox every day so that "I know you still love me". I imagine there is another kid at her school who gets notes and that gave her the idea. Regardless, I thought it was a great solution so for the past five months I have been putting notes in her lunchbox (almost) every day (Yes there have been a few harried days when I forgot, and needless to say she noticed their absence...thus proving that I am indeed not a super mom). The best thing about it is that many of the notes make it back home and so now I have a fair collection of them and just reuse them from week to week. This, if she has noticed, she doesn't seem to care about because I haven't heard anything about it. She has a new teacher this semester so I lost a bunch in the first two weeks of school so I am having to replenish my supply. But the best part about it is that she came up with the solution and it really seems to help her. She has had fewer "bad listener" days and will frequently comment on how happy the little notes make her. I must admit that they make me happy too.

Holiday

Monday was a holiday for Patrick and I but not for Evie. We took advantage of it to spend the day on a date (of sorts.. parts were decidedly practical and un-date-like) It was a lot of fun but it made us both realize just how much we genuinely enjoy having Evie around too. Certain elements were more fun, breakfast out and the trip to Home Depot to exchange an electric dryer for a gas one (yes we have lived here for 3 years and didn't realize we have a gas dryer until we had already bought an electric one and brought it home). The real highlight of the day was something that would have been just as fun, if not more so with Evie. In the afternoon we took a 6 mile hike in Sabino Canyon. Patrick and I took the tram to the end and then hiked back along a lovely trail along the side of the canyon back to the visitor center. It was pretty far up along the side of the mountain so the hike itself was probably best done without her but during the afternoon out she was certainly missed. I remembered at about this point in my pregnancy with Evie taking a hike on Mt. Lemmon so I thought I'd have Patrick take a picture of me on this hike... I do think though that the belly at this point still just looks like I had too much for lunch...or maybe just too much to eat over the holidays :)

Pregnancy 1 versus 2 (Edition 1)

So even though it has been a few years now since I last found myself in this state I have already identified some definite differences between a first and second pregnancies. Some of these are likely due to inherent differences between the current and former inhabitants of my womb and the others are because the former resident is decidedly a factor in everything I do. The first, and unfortunately most notable, is just how much sicker I have felt this time. Now some of this could be post-delivery amnesia because I'll admit I didn't take very good notes the first time....I am this time... there will be no convincing myself that the whole pregnancy thing is all NA beer and roses after the fact again. But I really do think that this babe is rougher on me than the last. At my appointment with the midwife today I was telling her this and she asked me if it was the same father as last time (which it is Patrick, don't worry) because she had a few moms to be recently swear that this is why they felt more sick with one versus another and she thought that was interesting and has been asking around about it.

The other major difference has to do with dealing with a second pregnancy while parenting your previous one (aka the first born). For the most part Evie is delightfully helpful and understanding but there have certainly been some adjustments and fewer "peaceful" pregnancy moments thus far. The best example is yoga. Just this week I have started to feel better and have decided it was time to get my act together and start doing yoga again. When I was pregnant with Evie I did yoga just about every day at home and went to a class at least once a week. My home practice was this wonderful calming experience, quiet and generally involved nice smelling candles and the like. My yoga practice this week looked something like this:


In case you cannot discern what that is... that is my yoga mat in my office with all the couch pillows piled around it and numerous dolls thrown into the mix. I suggested to Evie that I was going to take a few minutes to do some yoga and she enthusiastically requested to join me. For some reason in her mind the best venue for this exercise was my all too small office and I didn't think it would be too crowded. Little did I know that her version of yoga involved a multitude of pillows and dive-bombing onto those pillows with my yoga mat as the launch pad. So there we were, me trying to do downward facing dog and Evie belly flopping onto her pillows... ahhh peace and serenity. Now I recognize that if I want peace it really needs to be between the hours of 8 pm and 6 am but the problem is I want to be sleeping then too. Oh well, even though it wasn't the most serene yoga experience it did leave my heart feeling light and happy because I was able to stretch, and quite frankly Evie is such a cutup that I laughed more during that 20 minutes of yoga then I did for the whole of the day leading up to it.

Difficult subject

How do you discuss death with a three-year old? This, unfortunately has been a difficult question for me these past few days. We have all been touched in some way by the recent tragedy in Tucson and it doesn't seem appropriate to even try, as if I could, keep it from Evie. I, like many of her constituents, have personally met Representative Giffords on multiple occasions and, also like many others, consider her to be one of the brightest stars in an all too cloudy sky of Arizona politics. She is an inspiration and role model for me. When I found out what happened I couldn't function I was so shocked and sad.

But my question remains how best do you explain such a thing to such a pure and innocent soul? Ironically she has provided me with more comfort than she knows. She is not unfamiliar with death because of a beloved cat that past away last year. At that time we tried to give her comfort by talking about souls and some general description of god. This seems to have helped and stuck with her. On Sunday when I was particularly upset, I couldn't mask my emotions at all. Her response was to come up to me, hug me and tell me that it was going to be OK because "all of those poor people who were hurt are now having a party with god." I am certain that it is just one of many times in life when my daughter will teach me something.

Look out world...

Consider yourself forewarned... About 10 weeks ago something "happened" to me. It's presence has been suspected for a few months now and was confirmed last week. Exhibit A: a fuzzy picture of a semi-amorphous being floating in a black sea somewhere in the vicinity of "mommy's tummy"


This small life has been the source of much fatigue and nausea in me and much excitement and planning in Patrick and Genevieve. At this time I am pretty sure the condition is not catching, but it is most certainly expanding. The little life is expected to arrive in the heat of summer, round about mid-July. I guess we had better finally invest in AC.

Oh and in case your interested I have discovered the "best" method for returning to your pre-pregnancy weight... pregnancy! For the first time in three years I am the weight I was when I got pregnant with Evie... What?! you don't want join my weight loss program? I can't imagine why not...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Ours started off on the right foot with a trip down to San Carlos Mexico with some friends. None of us in the group made it til midnight to actually ring in the new year but I for one really can't remember the last time I did :) It was a bit cold but Patrick managed to get in a brief swim (after which he couldn't feel his extremities but hey..) The kids got in plenty of beach time and a massive sand castle/volcano was even constructed.


Here is to hoping that 2011 is as fabulous as 2010 was!