Christmas 2011

We had a lovely Christmas this year!  We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house with my brother's girlfriends family over from Germany.  We even started a game of Risk but, after two hours, had only made it through a few rounds (and this is why my brother can never get anyone to play with him...)

 After a yummy dinner of tamales we, for the first time, went home to our house for the night and did Christmas morning just the four of us.  Santa brought Evie a bike and Izzy a rattle thingie.  He was a bit messy coming down the chimney though and spread ashes in our living room and left a few hand prints here and there too.    The most amazing thing about Christmas morning was that we all slept in until 7:30 because Evie pretty much forgot (unbelievable as that may seem) that it was Christmas and just stayed cuddled up with us in bed until Patrick wished her a Merry Christmas and she realized what exactly that meant.  After presents and breakfast we moseyed back over to my parent's house for more presents and more Rimszas.

  Many of the Phoenix clan came down this year and it was great to have the larger group dinner but not have to travel all the way up to Phoenix.  All in all there were about 25 or so for dinner (about half of the potential I think) and it was tiring but fun. At one point during the day we tried to take a family photo...

In the end both Evie and Izzy of course made out like bandits and Evie is already talking about next Christmas, but must be ready to move on because this morning she asked me where the decorations for New Years are because she was ready to take down her little Christmas tree....

Winterhaven

The fun continued on Thursday with our annual trip to Winterhaven.  It has gotten super cold (for Tucson) so it was a pretty quick, brisk walk around really only a block of the neighborhood because even though everyone was dressed warmly we were all too cold to make it too far.  (Patrick came straight from work and was still in his tie, he was better off though than our friend who also came from work and was still in scrubs...) 

 

There were a number of new fun houses this year and, of course, the favorites: water show house and the gingerbread house.

  

Whew just 2 days now until Christmas, or as Evie has been saying, the Day Of Joy....

Visit with Santa

On Wednesday (it has become the 5 days of fun before Christmas around here) we went to see Santa at the Reid Park Zoo lights.  Evie has been visiting the S-man here for the past 4 years and was quite excited for this year's little talk.  We weren't sure how Isadora would feel about him, but decided to get her dressed up just in case she was a willing participant.  She started to get fussy just before the big moment on the big man's lap but a quick nip of a bottle put her in a good enough mood to catch this photo:

Genevieve gave Santa her letter and let him know she would like a bike (with tassels and a little bag in front) and a baby crib.  Santa let her know that three days should be enough to get that bike made and she was understandably elated.  After our visit with Santa we watched a singing and dancing show.  Well Patrick, Izzy and I watched, Evie ran around in circles in front of the stage.  She ran and ran and ran.  After awhile other kids joined her in running around in circles.  She informed us at one point that running around in circles is a good way to make friends... who would have guessed?

Izzy tolerated the whole experience quite well, she was a little dubious of all the commotion at times but. thank goodness, is returning to her more or less normal self after a few days on antibiotics to treat that nasty ear infection she has had for goodness knows how long.

Cookies!

On Tuesday we had our 4th annual cookie making (but really should be called cookie eating) get together.  This year with 2 new little ones to add to the mix gourmet cookies were not on the menu.  Giggles and lots of cookie (or in the case of the parents, dough) eating was.

After cookies were made we took the opportunity for a photo op with the girls and their new little siblings... a little chaotic but decidedly cute! 

Note that Evie made not one, not two but three wardrobe changes during the course of the 3ish hour cookie making experience.

Little Angel

 Evie had another successful ballet performance this past Sunday, this time as an angel in her ballet studio's annual nutcracker ballet.  I was determined this time around to do my daughter's hair myself so I went out and bought gel and bobby pins galore... well I managed to do her hair half well this time, which is a great improvement over last time when I just threw in the towel.  And this time I had a screaming 5 month old urging me hurry the heck up because she was not happy with anything but being held (as it turns out we took Izzy into the doctor yesterday and she has a terrible ear infection, poor thing).  Anyway I say it was a half successful attempt because the bun looked great for about 30 minutes and then was a disaster...  oh well there is always the next performance.  As for our little ballerina she was not detered by the sorry state of her hair and did a great job with her little routine.  The whole time she had the cutest focused look on her face.  She also really enjoyed watching all the big girls dance after her little bit was through...

Morning Routine

Patrick and I have found that somehow, no matter how early we get up, the mornings are always a bit harried.  This is because no matter how early we get up we always can't quite get ourselves to stop the lovely part of the morning (aka sitting around in our pj's and drinking coffee, usually with Evie on his lap and Izzy on mine) until about 7 am or sometimes as late as 7:15.  This always leaves us a 1/2 hour at best to get ready for school and work.  Luckily for both of us though there are some efficiencies to be had.  The first is Evie usually gets herself ready (and is generally ready to go out the door long before either of us).  The second is Izzy's usually easy-going temperament, which most mornings allows me to let her sit in her bouncy chair while everyone else runs back and forth in front of her frantically getting ready.  The other little part of the morning routine now is Izzy sitting in her baby seat with me while I do my hair (I had to get my hair cut in a serious, and if I do say so myself, rather sassy way, which now means I actually have to spend a whopping 5 minutes doing it every morning)  Izzy just tolerates the bouncy chair part of her morning, but clearly enjoys "helping" me do my hair.  She sits in the little chair and just smiles at that pretty little baby in the mirror (don't worry I never leave her by herself there) 

Oh and in case your wondering what happens on the days when Evie is feeling uncooperative and/or Izzy doesn't want to just sit and watch the world go by... well on those days I just don't get out of the house until 9 am at the earliest and generally need to stop for another cup of coffee :)

5 Month Izzy!

I'm not gonna lie to ya, the 4 weeks that took Isadora from a four month old to a five month old have not been easy.  She went from a great sleeper (and yes we all knew that wouldn't last) to a pretty miserable sleeper.  The exact cause of this transition is not clear but I am pretty darn certain it is not due to any teeth.. given that it is pretty uncommon for a kid to teethe for 2 months straight and see no tooth emerge.  The most likely culprit is the series of colds the poor thing has had for now 2 months straight.  Early in the month she also adopted the habit of not just screaming but screeching... at. the. top. of. her. lungs.  These outbursts were so sonorous that they caused Patrick and Evie to hide in the bed under as many covers as possible.  I myself would have been there too if it weren't for the fact that after the first dozen or so I had all but lost hearing in my right ear.  Fortunately the screeching has subsided and is now only an occasional visitor.

 On other, more positive notes, Isadora started the month as a liquid only girl and now is a solid solids eater.  So far she is all about the classics, rice cereal and yams.  She is decidedly anti banana and the jury is out on avocado.  She loves the rice cereal so much that she literally gets shaky with excitement when she sees you come over with it and protests (loudly) if you take a break to oh say get a bite of your own food.  She is a pretty good tripoder but is not quite rolling over yet (although between when I started this blog and today when I am finishing it she has rolled over 3 times...)  And the best thing about Isadora right now is the huge heartfelt smiles she gives everyone and the little giggles she emits when we do things to make her laugh.  Genevieve is by far the favorite giggle inducer.  These smiles and giggles more than make up for the sleepless nights but nonetheless here is to hoping that the next month, while Evie (our own personal typhoid Mary) is out of school, we can eliminate the cold factor and all get a good night's sleep!

Thanksgiving

 We had a lovely (and warm!) Thanksgiving.  Lots of just hanging out as a family o' four in the morning, a great little walk around a park and, of course, fabulous dinner with my family in the afternoon.  The girls were dressed in matching type outfits but of course I didn't manage to actually get a picture taken of the two of them together.... oh well maybe next time the planets align and I convince Genevieve to wear what I want her to and not what she wants to wear :)

Smiley

Isadora's favorite two things: nightly massage time and her yellow blankie...

Patrick just doesn't buy it...

but I think Izzy and Evie are still dead ringers for one another... they even both have that drool problem :)

 

What you cannot see in these pictures is that Izzy's eyes are now decidedly hazel.   And don't think this means that I think they are similar in any way other than their babyish good looks because they are decidedly not!

Isadora at 4 months!

Wow has four months really gone by already? (For that matter has 4.5 years really gone by already?!)  Izzy has become decidedly more opinionated in the past month and is not content to just hang out and let the world go by all the time.  One of her favorite things to do is to face out toward the world in the moby or baby bjorn.  In fact the past few nights I have found that this is the only solution to her rather colicy self between the hours of 5 and 7.

Isadora has discovered the power of her lungs and exercises this power with large bursting screams, either of delight or frustration.  The frustration usually comes from being left on her tummy, a state that she is not a fan of and has not quite figured out how to escape yet.  She is still just about the smileiest (I am sure that isn't a word) kid I've met and that smile just melts her other Lacroix household member's hearts.  Isadora appears to be a tooth prodigy and seems to be on the verge of her first teeth... or at least I hope that is why she was uncharacteristically waking me up so much this week.

She moved into her big baby crib this month, so she went from seeming gargantuan in the bassinet to itty-bitty in the crib.  Her daytime sleep is still spotty and her nighttime sleep is not as fabulous as it once was (I think she is getting so big she needs to eat at night just to maintain her weight :)  but she is at least doing a minimum 5 hours at a stretch which is good by me.  Izzy is definitely the kid who likes to sleep in, even now at 8 am she is still asleep while Genevieve decided that she would get up at 5:45 this morning.....  She is a definite fan of her thumb and/or first two fingers and loves to put them in her mouth and suck on them all the time.  My favorite thing that Isadora does these days is what I call her naked baby dance:  Every night I give her a little baby massage as part of her bedtime routine and this makes her just about as happy and cooey as I have ever seen her.  But more than anything being totally naked makes her dance!  She uses her strong little legs to push her body up and down and squiggles all around all the while laughing and talking.  I am not sure what it is about being totally naked that makes her so happy but I really should film it for posterity because it is hilarious. 

Halloween (the real deal)

Halloween was hectic but fun.  Genevieve was a witch (for whom we could not find a hat... that I of course finally found last night on the floor in her bedroom) and Isadora was a tiger.  We carved our pumpkin at the nth hour because the pumpkin carved the weekend before was rotted by the beginning of last week... I wish I had taken a picture of it, by far the best I have ever done, thanks to last years splurge on Williams and Sonoma pumpkin carving tools, which I didn't even get to use last year because we never carved a pumpkin... so there you have it, progress in the work/life balance... this year we managed to carve a pumpkin!  Well to be honest I started the second one and Patrick had to finish it because friends started arriving at our house and Izzy was preforming her usual 6ish I act like I am hungry but by god don't you try to feed me (aka colic) meltdown.  Oh and the pumpkin didn't end up lighted because we didn't have a candle in the house...

 Anyway Evie had a great time trick or treating with her friends, including her best friend, who went out trick or treating for the first time this year and definitely got a kick out of the festivities.  Most of the adult crew held down the fort with beer on the front porch and I took Izzy around in the pack with me.  I made the mistake of wearing high heeled boots, good thing Genevieve only wanted to go around the block.  I think this "family" picture (Evie insisted her friend be in the picture) pretty much sums it all up... 

Halloween Take 1

Halloween, much like Christmas, seems to be a multiphased event when you have a child.  In Evie's world first comes the Halloween at school (usually a week or so before the real deal because of their fall break), then comes the neighborhood Halloween in the park and then the real night o' sugary spooky fun.  (With generally a trip (or two) to Valley of the Moon peppered in between.)  Well the Halloween season has officially begun with yesterday's Halloween parade, trunk or treat and party at IST.  Evie is reusing the princess costume my mom made last year and repurposing it as a witch.  It was perfect because I already had the hat and so all we had to do was go buy tights (one size fits most... aka fits no one) and a broom.  I decorated the Subaru and was a trunk for treating... it was a little bit of a strange thing to stand at the back of my car and hand out candy but the kids got a kick out of it for sure!  I brought a costume for Izzy but it was just too darn hot for it, they just don't make costumes for kids who live in the desert, so she just hung out either in the ergo or in her car seat for the trunk or treating.  Hopefully it will be a bit chillier for the actual event so she can go as a tiger.  What a great start to the 2 weeks of Halloween :)

Mommy and Daddy

Genevieve decided to brave our closet and dress as Daddy:

 

And as Mommy:

Theories (or rather hypotheses) of Elevation

The girls are asleep and Patrick is out of town so really I should be working/studying, but instead of such productive activities I find myself contemplating a new theory (well really a hypothesis).  This hypothesis is not a great unifier of the world nor a fabulous contributor to science as we know it, but make no mistake, it is critical to me.  About a month ago elevation became very important to Izzy.  Now I am not talking about the sort of elevation she achieved in a trip to the cabin or a jaunt to Brazil.  This elevation comes from the simple fact of a parental figure standing up.  Patrick and I have found that Isadora greatly prefers her lot in life (when she is upset) when it occurs at oh at least five feet above the ground.  In other words, when she is fussy we must be standing up.  When I discuss this with others they offer me all sorts of opinions to the origins of said phenomenon: "you must rock her more when your standing" "you hold her more securely when your upright" or the converse "you must be giving her more freedom when you're standing."  All of these alternative (and somewhat contradictory) theories have caused me, as has happened in the past, to borrow from my other job (in this case that of the student who is taking a methods in research class) to try to ascertain an answer.  So... like any good scientist... over the past few days I have conducted a series of experiments.  The first involved holding Izzy more tightly to my chest, like I might when standing, when she was fussy.  That having no noticeable effect, I tried holding her more loosely, and in both cases she howled until I stood up.  The problems with small (albeit random) samples aside, there seemed to be no correlation between the tenacity of my hold on her, because by god did she continue to scream. I then tried rocking her (in a rocking chair nonetheless) like I would standing and .... nope still screaming.  I will continue to search for alternative hypotheses because, as of this evening, Izzy has decided that not only does she prefer I stand when she is fussy (aka tired) she also would like a vertical mom when she is breastfeeding, and while I might be able to accommodate this request now, I most certainly will not be able to do so when she is 20 some odd pounds!

The 3 Month Old Izzy

The 3 month old Izzy is a bundle of happiness.  She is constantly smiling and cooing at just about everyone she meets.  She doesn't seem to be perturbed by much, except for when she is extra tired and cannot fall asleep.  Then the only thing that makes her happy is for you to be standing up and carrying her with her head on your shoulder.  You must be standing up, sitting just will not do.  (This was a bit problematic on our nearly 60 hour journey to and from Brazil... as you might imagine.)  She is all about her newly discovered hands and loves to bring them up to her little mouth and try to suck on them.  The result is a large and loud slurping sound that can be heard across the house.  It is one of the best ways to figure out that she has woken up because otherwise she will frequently just hang out in her bassinet for a bit staring at the ceiling.   She is a one in a million baby for many reasons but perhaps the biggest outlier is her sleep.  She goes to bed at about 8 pm most nights and wakes up at 6:30 am... and trust me this has nothing to do with me.  She is not, however, a good napper and will only nap for more than 45 minutes if she is in a carrier or being held and sometimes even then she is not too keen to sleep for more than a short stretch.  She clearly loves her big sister because she has more than once stopped fussing and started smiling and cooing when Genevieve comes over to talk to her and play with her. 

6 things

6 things (3 each) about our girls that give me joy right now:

Isadora: the happy, intoxicated way she looks at me when she is breastfeeding; her big toothless smile and cute little giggle; and her warm head that is so nice to nuzzle.

Genevieve: the cute and creative songs she sings; her genuine kindness for others; the way she is learning so much about the world and how she loves to share that love with Patrick and I.

OK and two bonus things that I love mostly because they make my life that much easier :)  Evie gets herself dressed every morning for school (sometimes without us asking!) and Isadora sleeps for between 8 to 10 hours a night... one is a welcome permanent addition to the way our house operates the other I have no hope for maintaining in the long term....but that is OK too.

Dora the explora

It has been awhile since we've updated on the Lacroix happenings... and for good reason because the happenings have been many.  I've been away from home for more or less two weeks now and little Izzy has been along for the ride.  Her first adventure was up to Flagstaff because I went to the AZ Hydrological Society meeting to present a paper and accept an award.  My Mom came along with me that time to help watch Izzy while I was at the conference.  (I brought up my camera but didn't manage to take even a single photo...)  Then we were home for two days and off again... this time on the big adventure that has been almost a year in the making.... Potro de Galinhas, Brazil for the World Water Congress!  I did bring the camera for this adventure but really didn't take too many photos because I was at the Congress for a good part of it and then also just spent too much time enjoying the scenery :)

Isadora was an awesome traveler!  It took us almost 30 hours door to door to get there and about the same to get home and she really just rolled with it.  Most importantly she continued to sleep about 8 hours a night the whole time.  This was a miracle for Patrick and I because man were we exhausted when we got there and poor Patrick had a cold for the first few days of the Brazilian babysitting adventure.

Of course all of this adventuring has put me way behind on my work so I'll leave it with just the photos of the trip for now... perhaps to elaborate later because as you can imagine there are some stories behind these photos!

Isadora at 2 months

I cannot believe it has been two months since Izzy was born!  The past month has been less eventful in terms of travel but much more exciting in the personality development department.  Isadora is showing herself to be a mellow, quiet observer of the world.  Very little disturbs her, although she has started to cry some when she gets tired just before she passes out and falls asleep.  More often than not, when she is awake, she is just sitting there staring out with her big still undecipherable color eyes.  She doesn't sleep very well during the day but will sleep anywhere from 6 to 8 hours in one stretch at night.  She loves to smile at people, or at seemingly nothing at all and is totally utterly fascinated by lights and ceiling fans.  She has a pretty good repertoire of noises that she uses to get her point across, my favorite being the coo that almost sounds like a laugh.  Her hair is getting lighter, especially in the front where her hair whorl is.  We took her into her two month appointment a week early so she is probably a bit bigger than this now but at almost 2 months Izzy weighed 11 lbs 2 oz and was 23.5 inches long.  Finally and perhaps most importantly Izzy and Evie are a great pair.  Evie likes to cuddle and entertain Izzy and Isadora is just utterly fascinated by her big sister and smiles her biggest toothless grin whenever Evie "plays" with her.

Labor Day Weekend

I am afraid that my time to post is severely diminished of late.  Every time I have a "free" moment I feel the overwhelming urge to try to get ahead on a reading or two for school or to sit and watch 30 Rock... one productive, one highly entertaining, but neither good for furthering the online story of the family.  Well regardless here I am now at almost 9 pm on a Friday night, both girls are asleep (or mostly asleep... I hear Izzy making little noises in the other room) and Patrick is still at a conference (so no potential distraction via 30 Rock) and I have finally found the time to put up some pictures from last weekend.

Our long labor day weekend was pretty chill.  Isadora went to her first football game last Saturday night and she was a champ.  Evie did a great job of staying up late (it was a 7 pm game) and not straying too far from our assigned seats in the bleachers.  We now have season tickets in the stands, and although I think we all missed the half time cookies from the skybox, overall it was a lot more fun to be out and amongst the crowd watching the game. 

Izzy also made her first, albeit very brief, visit to the zoo.  We pretty much went there, let Evie run around in the little splash park part of the zoo and then came home again because it was just too darn hot.

At some point in the weekend we went shopping for clothes and Patrick just "had" to buy a video game that he could "play" with Genevieve.  (Really it was a matter of him wanting to play a video game and us not owning any that would be OK for a 4 year old to sit and watch)  He chose a fancy new (?) Mario Brothers game and he and Evie had a lot of fun playing it "together" on Sunday night.  At one point I was running around doing something (some chore I am sure) and set Izzy down in the baby chair thing near where they were playing.  As I walked back into the room I realized how ridiculous that looked and just had to take a picture....