Merry Christmas!

Christmas was a blast this year! Although we stayed in town we ended up spending two nights at my parent's house so it was a bit like going away. On Christmas Eve we took Evie to see the Nutcracker ballet. It was a definite hit! She tried really hard to be quiet but just couldn't help herself and there were a few hushed whisper questions. After the ballet we packed all of the presents into the car and headed up to my folk's house for dinner. Evie tried to wait very patiently to open her one Christmas Eve present but in the end dinner was interrupted ever 5 minutes or so with, "Is everyone finished yet?...How about now?" Evie had a tough time getting to sleep and our warnings that Santa wouldn't come if she were awake fell on deaf ears. She at one point, rather frustrated, told me that she had enough presents and didn't care if Santa skipped her house, she just wanted to stay up with us. In her typical logical fashion she just refused to believe that if she shouldn't be awake it was OK for the rest of us to be. She did finally (around 9:30) make it to bed and of course Santa didn't skip the house...

Christmas morning was a fun with Santa bringing Evie some doll accessories. The best gift though came from Mina and Papa. A new (to Evie) barn and animals that have been lovingly restored by my parents over the last two years. The barn was originally my dad's. My grandmother Lillian designed it and then had the town doctor make it for him for Christmas. It has seen many years of Mott family play and was in need of new paint, a roof, a new floor (I think) and some other repairs. My dad did all of the carpentry and my mom repainted all of the animals, two of which are made to look like horses my dad had on the farm in Iowa.


After morning Christmas it was time to make the trek up to Phoenix. We all piled in my parent's car and drove to my Uncle's house. The most excited about the trip up was Evie because she remembered from last year that my Uncle (well really his kids) has a trampoline in the back yard. Genevieve spent 3/4 of the time there on the trampoline and we were forced to take turns with her on it. One adult would tire and another would be called to duty. (Patrick at one point tried to jump with his glass of wine... I don't recommend that to the folks at home) When the time came to take a family photo Evie really wanted to have the picture taken on the trampoline so we figured we'd give it a shot. Not the most in focus pictures but pretty fun nonetheless!

Cookies and Winterhaven

I forgot just how nice it is to be in school and have close to a month off! In all fairness I worked this week too but between the furlough day yesterday and the holiday today it wasn't much of a work week. Evie and I have been taking full advantage of our time off to be both productive and utterly slothful. Productivity was Tuesday when friends came over to make cookies with us. Evie had not seen her friend in quite awhile and was so excited to see her that she made her a card and a comic strip (through a game on PBS kids) that day to give to her. The girls played and played for over three hours and, not surprisingly, most of the decorating of the massive amounts of sugar cookies actually fell to the motherly set.

On Wednesday Evie and I tried out her roller skates... for a first attempt it went pretty well for her. She even managed to skate a few feet on her own before toppling over. Then we went out so that she could pick out her annual Christmas tree ornament as well as buy a gift for Patrick, my mom, my dad and my brother. My favorite part of the day was the long luxurious nap that we both took. Thursday was even more lazy. The day started off dark and rainy so we decided to do a movie day. Of course by 10 am, this being Arizona after all, it was beautiful, warm and sunny, but having started down our slothful path we decided to see it through.


Then last night we went to my personal favorite Christmas activity... Winterhaven! I brought the camera with me and then realized its a bit silly at this point because I just take pictures of the same houses/decorations every year. And by the time I realized that really the only point in bringing the camera is to take pictures of Evie we were practically on our way home. The big hit this year (aside from the water display which is always number one with Evie) was the (I kid you not) Caroling for Jesus karaoke set up in one of the front yards, complete with a stage made out of bales of hay. Evie really wanted to get up and sing like her big friends that we were there with, but given that she can't read, and there was no way I was getting up to sing with her (no one wants to hear that) I told her it would have to wait until next year. (Or maybe the year after)

Zoo Lights!

The week of Christmas fun continued on Monday with a trip to the zoo to see zoo lights and the S-man (that would be Santa) It has become our tradition that this is where Evie gets her picture taken with him every year. My folks watched Evie on Monday while I worked and as we were leaving we asked my Dad if there was anything Evie should ask Santa for him... he said he'd really like some Phillips screwdrivers. So when the time came to sit on Santa's lap Evie excitedly jumped up and when he asked what she wanted she replied, "Well, my Papa would really like a screwdriver." Santa thought that Papa was Patrick and smiled at him and said, "Not the type with orange juice right?" Evie gave him a "duh" look and said, "No the real kind." She then proceeded to tell him what she wanted, which just happened to be a new stroller for her dollies because the other one keeps breaking. Sweet! Two years in a row she has asked for exactly what Santa had already procured for her!

We met a bunch of friends at the zoo and had a blast talking and drinking hot chocolate. Evie didn't see much of the lights because she became fixated (big shock) on the band and all she wanted to do was dance. She must have danced for an hour and a half of the two hours we were there! Unfortunately she just moved too quick for me to get any decent pictures of her busting a groove...

Nutcracker Take 1

On Sunday the week of Christmas fun began with Evie's dance studio putting on a very informal dance performance that included songs from the Nutcracker ballet. It was a cute little party of sorts on the big stage so all the dancers could get used to it before the real show this June. Evie of course relished the opportunity to wear a tutu and be on stage both for warm-ups and for her 15 seconds of dancing fame. She then sat in the audience with me and watched the rest of the dances. At the end all the kids came on stage and took a bow and received a little baggie of goodies. It was really sweet and totally worth the risk of missing her nap, which turned out OK for us... but of course it is always a gamble.

The second chance at the Nutcracker will come this Friday when we take her to the "real" ballet... her very first. Needless to say she is just a little bit excited.

Ohh Santa

Whew emerging from the finals fog... How the heck did I think it was a good idea to pick three classes all with huge 20+ papers as part of the final? It was either hubris or stupidity... or maybe they are truly one and the same. Anyway I am happily on the other side of my very first semester as a PhD student and also happy to say that it was pretty darn awesome and I can't wait for next semester (Although I am choosing my classes next time in so small part on the presence of a final paper...) I am so very fortunate to have Patrick and my parents to help me, without them this simply would not have worked at all.


Anyway we have been slowly but surely getting into the holiday spirit around here. The first of the holiday wonders is always the visit from Santa at Patrick's work. You may recall that Santa generally arrives on a Harley, well this year the Harley was "in the shop" (aka Santa's girlfriend no longer works at Patrick's firm) and so Santa came in an ice-cream truck. Oh yesss not only does he bring presents for the boys and girls but some real frozen sugar treats straight from the north pole. His truck even plays calming classical music to call the kiddies for their treats...


Well generally Santa requires the assistance of Patrick to pick up a toy for Evie (he is a busy guy at this time of year you know) and Patrick had bought Evie a pillow pet (a strange obsession around here that I don't quite know the origin of) a totally reasonable little gift from Santa. Well on the day that the presents had to be well present, Patrick forgot said pillow pet and ran out to get a substitute. In a moment of utter weakness and ridiculousness he purchased a life-size groovy girl complete with little bands on her feet so that she can dance with Evie. Wrapped up it looked a bit like a sarcophagus. As you might imagine this toy was quite well received and has since needed to go just about everywhere with us... buckled into the car next to Evie, tucked in at night next to her etc. etc....Ohh Santa.

Invention?

They say that necessity is the mother of invention (right? don't "they" say that?) Well the lack of a hairbrush in the Lacroix household (don't think were that bohemian, its not that we don't own one, just I can never seem to find one when I need one) has led to a great discovery. Evie's quite fine and rather snarly hair, even after a nice bob haircut, gets these nasty tangles that are very hard and rather painful to sort out. The other day I couldn't find a hairbrush, so in a feeble attempt to make my daughter quasi presentable I reached for a hair curler that I bought many moons ago at the suggestion of my hairstylist and have yet to really use. Well they have a use now! They are brilliant for painlessly getting out Evie's tangles. Granted it takes awhile, but given how much time I used to spend fighting her protestations, I would say I have gained a good five minutes on my morning. Not to mention one less battle to be fought. Awesome.

Thanksgiving and more...

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner over at my parent's house. Lots of family and tons of yummy food.(My favorite as always was the mashed potatoes). After our nice big dinner we took a nap and then headed downtown to see Cirque du Soleil. It was a late night for Genevieve but she, just like the rest of us, thoroughly enjoyed it! As we were leaving we were all talking about our favorite part and when asked Evie told us her favorite part was "All of it". I'll take that as a good decision to bring her along. We went back to my folks house and camped out there for the night.

Patrick had volunteered to get up at 4 am and get in line at the one and only Kmart in Tucson to acquire 40 mp3 players for kids in foster care at St. Nick's here in town. They were on sale for $10 a piece and a first-come first serve basis necessitated the early morning land-standing fun. Somehow he convinced me that he just had to have my assistance and so I hauled myself out of bed too. We arrive at Kmart about 10 minutes until 5 am just as they were passing out the last of the fliers for the "super-deals". When the guy came past and said "Last coupon for the super deal on a camera" I just couldn't resist and took it. Patrick gave me a crazy look but hey if he was getting me up so early in the morning I was going to have some consumer fun too. So they open the doors and the mad dash to the electronics began. Some people were just a little too crazy but most were pretty nice (for 5 am). It was chaos getting into the mostly blocked off electronics section and when we did, the mp3 players were nowhere to be found. Patrick fought his way to the front to ask about the players (and get my cameras... uhh yes cameras) for me. When he eventually made it to the front the first guy told him he had no idea what he was talking about and the other said the sale wasn't until Saturday. Now Patrick had received his marching orders from very well-researched folks so he was pretty sure it should be Friday. I grabbed one of their fliers and found the mp3 player that was indeed supposed to be on sale that morning. Well armed with this evidence Patrick fought his way to the front again and sweet-talked one of the clerks into going to get it. Not just that but going with him to the backroom to count out his forty and get it.... Ahh nothing like persistence.

That experience was so exhilarating, and seeing how it was only about 6 am, we decided to go to the mall that was nearby just to check it out. We started in a favorite shoe shop of mine (I actually got Patrick to go in a shoe shop... clearly he needed more coffee or less adrenaline) where everything was 30% off. Then, having picked up some lovely new shoes for each of us, we wandered until we found Banana Republic where the whole store was 40% off. We both went a little crazy and must have tried on half the store (I can't remember ever trying on something that wasn't on sale there) and as our piles of stuff added up we looked at each other and pretty much simultaneously proclaimed our Christmas shopping for each other finished in one fell swoop of exciting new clothes. To top it off I opened up another credit card with them (I am a serial opener of these cards.... I have found if you open them, pay it off and then never activate the card you can go back about once a year and do it all over again...) which ended in a whopping 55% everything. Wahoo. Totally ridiculous.

We made it back to my folks house by 8 am and decided that we mine as well continue the day of gluttony by going to a movie and mom was amenable to watching Evie more so that morning we also went out to see the new Harry Potter movie. Too fun. We made it back home around 3 pm and everyone crashed and took a nap. Patrick ended up napping right until this morning.... about 17 hours... I guess all the excitement took its toll.

East Coast Fun

Last Wednesday we headed East to DC (and then Baltimore too) to visit with Patrick's family. I had veteran's day off from school and cheap tickets were found so we just couldn't resist the opportunity! It was a lovely time both in terms of the company and the weather! Evie now gets just as excited about riding on the plane as the trip itself thanks to a little (and oft reoccurring) holiday we call Plane Day. Plane Day involves complete attention from Mom and Dad, periodic presents and food that would not normally be part of the diet, what kid wouldn't get excited?


On Thursday I had the opportunity to meet up with friends from when I lived in DC and meet their newest additions. We chose the National Zoo as our forum and as is per usual it did not disappoint (although I didn't manage to make it to the reptile discovery center, my favorite part of the Zoo) Thursday afternoon I met back up with Patrick and Evie who were hanging out at Patrick's Mom's great new place in SW near the waterfront with Patrick's sister Vivian and our two nephews Pete and Dylan. That evening we took the bus (which turned out to be a bit of a long ordeal... long enough to merit a taxi ride home) to Georgetown so Patrick could show Evie where he went to school.


On Friday morning Patrick, Evie and I headed down to the mall (which we walked to from Nicole's place... how cool is that) and took Evie to the National Gallery. If you ask her what sort of paintings they have there she'll tell you "Pictures of Mary and baby Jesus" (We didn't make it much beyond the Renaissance paintings before it was time to meet up with the rest of the family) We then met up with the rest of the crew and went to the Air and Space Museum. We spent an hour or so checking out the planes and even took Dylan and Evie on a flight simulation. As soon as the door closed Evie freaked out and wanted out of the simulator. It took 3/4 of the ride for me to convince her that it was OK. Then, the moment the door opened she turned to us and said, "I wasn't really scared, I was just pretending." Awesome.


Friday evening Patrick and I took Dylan and Evie on the train to Baltimore which was a lot of fun. It felt like pretending we had twins for a few hours....two quite well behaved ones I might add. That night in Baltimore Dylan introduced Evie to his favorite babysitter and we went to the Baltimore Museum of Industry for a benefit. On Saturday we went out to a wonderful brunch at Uncle Eric's restaurant and then down to the harbor for dragon boat rides and fun. Before we left I tried to do a photo shoot of the kids with their cute matching outfits we bought in Georgetown but failed pretty miserably at the great Christmas card shot. Better leave that to the professionals in the future. Although I did get one really good one of Pete. (I'll send them along to you Vivian) (You know, having tried to take photos of the cousins before you'd think I would have learned my lesson) By 2 it was time to hurry back to DC to make a dinner and see my old boss Jay and his wife Carol and Patrick's good friend Cameron. The next morning we were up bright and early for another round of "Plane Day" It was a whirlwind tour but a fabulous one!

Ohh Groupon

About a month ago I finally jumped on the cool-kid bandwagon and signed up for groupon. Up to this point my purchases have been pretty practical, movie punch card for Casa Video and a family membership to the Desert Sonoran Museum. Last week I made a decidedly impractical purchase, a coupon for Build a Bear. This purchase was motivated as much by my own curiosity as a desire to provide my child with another stuffed animal. So on Sunday we printed the coupon (Evie carried in her purse) and headed off to the mall for a bear-building extravaganza. I must admit it was pretty fun. Evie got to pick a bear, put a heart in her, give her a giggle sound and then press the peddle to fill her with fuzz. Once fuzzed she took her bear, now named Suzianna, to the wash station and then, and this was clearly the best part, to pick out an outfit. No great surprise, we now have a Cinderella (complete with glass slippers) bear residing in our house. We then filled out the birth certificate, put Suzianna in her box and headed home. On the way out to the car we were talking about how Evie just made a bear all by herself and she commented "Wow, Mommy that makes me like god."

Digits

One of the first things I remember from after Evie was born, upon discovering that our baby was a girl, was a totally sleep deprived and deliriously happy Patrick commenting in his best Texan voice, "Well I guess I'd better get a gun." I remember chuckling to myself, too tried from the whole birth thing to protest.

Well a firearm has yet to be acquired (and its OK Gerry, no Christmas gifts required :) but the boys are already knocking. Yesterday when I picked Evie up from school she ran up to give me a big hug, and then before we could leave rushed back to the table and grabbed a little piece of paper. The teacher told me that a little boy named Michael at her school had torn a piece of paper out of his notebook and then came running up to her for a pen. On this little slip of paper he wrote out "his number", gave it to Evie and told her to call him. Apparently (I learned this from Evie on the way back home) the two of them hit it off because he has a boy bear that matches her girl bear and they need to arrange a marriage between the two bears. Oh my.

Woodland Adventure

Last week was quite the fall break. We went up to the cabin (I only stayed until Tuesday because I had too much work to do and an exam... why can't U of A take a break like preschool?) with, at max capacity, three other families. At one point, I wasn't there for this beautiful chaos, there were 9 kids on the Blue ranging in age from 3 weeks to 8 years. Needless to say Evie was in heaven with so many kids to share her woodland kingdom with her. There were hikes, beach parties on the banks of the blue, much zip-lining and a few trips up to the lollipop shop in Alpine. (One of which, apparently, ended in Evie purchasing a lollipop the size of her head... you see the madness that occurs when I am not around?!) In the end it was a whole lot of fun and quite the way to say goodbye to the cabin for the next four months.

Happy Halloween

For the second year in a row we had a mini-gathering of friends over to our house for a little potluck and some trick-or-treating fun. I didn't manage to get any pumpkins carved this year but did find some bat wings to make a costume out of and, lucky for Evie, her Mina made her another fabulous costume. The trip around the block yielded much candy... not quite sure what to do with it quite honestly. I am also happy to report that for the first year since we moved into this house there was no 7:05 emergency run to Walgreen's because we ran out of candy. (I also opted out of the hippy stuff this year, and went for plain old chocolate...I am sure the neighborhood kids were happy for that)


There were some pretty great houses this year and Evie got scared once or twice. By the end though she was proclaiming herself a big brave girl and self-assuredly strolled up to what was the kicker of all scary houses last year... our neighbor puts on this great ghoulish costume and just sits on his step...very...very...still. She was not quite brave enough to face that one outside of between my legs. At another house each kid was required to tell a joke. Evie had to think about it a bit, but here is what she came up with:
-Knock, Knock
-Who's there?
-Nobody...
It made me laugh, but I am pretty biased. Evie got pretty into the joke idea though and started asking the kids who came to our house to tell her a joke before she would divulge any candy. She was so into her costume that she took it off to drink water and eat candy (she came back out of her room totally redressed herself, not to bad, the shirt is about 2 sizes to small and was on backward but other than that...) At the end of the evening Evie told Patrick that that was the best "hike" she had been on all week. I tend to agree, hikes with periodic stops for candy are pretty hard to beat.

Halloween parade

Evie's last day before fall break was quite the event... complete with a Halloween parade. Evie wore one of her many princess costumes for the event. The fabulous princess dress that my mom made for her wasn't quite ready yet (you'll get to see that one this weekend). Basically the parade consisted of all the kids walking around the school picking up what had to be the world's healthiest trick or treat "treats" I've ever seen... pretzels, granola bars, erasers, playing cards and one stop with (gasp) chocolate :) Ahh nothing quite like a like-minded community. Although I think if I bought pretzels to pass out this Halloween this year I'd be ridiculed out of the house, so I'll just have to get the organic lollipops again... oh wait, no one wanted those last year and so I still have plenty, sweeeeet.

Zingers: Pits

"Oh Mommy, I really need to take a shower" as she raises her arm and walks toward me.... "Just smell my stinky pits." (Of course her "pits" didn't really smell... and where did she learn that word/association?)

Listen well...

A haunting sound has filled our nights for about a month now. Imagine you are three and it is almost eight, you've read your stories, brushed your teeth and are nicely tucked into bed when the distant joyfully eerie sound of the ice-cream man is heard. Its enough to drive a small child to tears... oh the injustice of it all! Once the truck came through early enough so we could try to find it, but alas after many minutes of running from one end of the block to another we couldn't locate the source of the sound. The whole situation was so tramautic that we had taken to playing music at bedtime in no small part to mask the torturous tunes.

About a week ago Evie was going to bed later than usual, such that pjs we donned and stories were read but the critical step of teeth had not been brushed. Patrick came home about then and Evie rushed out to see him when the call to ice-cream arms was heard. I, seeing out best chance yet at ice-cream goodness, had Evie jump into the passenger seat of the S-2000 with Patrick while I ran to shut the door. The three of us thereby set off on an ice-cream man chase. We first went right (its difficult to tell where those tunes originate) and stopped to ask some walkers if they had seen said ice-cream man, they indicated they had last seen the van of sugary goodness back behind us. U-turns were made, other walkers were queried until finally we caught up with the elusive beast (and this van really was a beast) about a quarter mile from our house. A small (it was 7:45 after all) treat was purchased and much satisfaction was felt all around. I do, however, still play music most nights to silence the sadistic sugar-man who still insists on visiting our neighborhood at 8 pm every night...

Zingers: Fixer and Stickers

Two zingers:
As the flower comes off a new thrift shop princess find (I think I have already expended more than we paid for it in fix it hours) Evie says as she hands the flower and dress to me: Mommy, mommy, fixing machine!

While making a picture for Patrick: I am going to put lots of stickers on this so Daddy knows that his child loves him.

Princesse Genevieve

As observed by her preschool teacher during dress-up last Friday:

Kittens and Creations

First the kittens: so being the suckers we are (well really Patrick) we acquired not one but two new kittens this weekend. We went to get just one but Patrick and I both liked the one that Evie did not pick more and.... so... there you have it, a three cat, one dog and 11 coop chicken family. (I think the second kitten reminded Patrick of his favorite cat from when he was little, Headly) We once again allowed Evie to name them and after Oliver was vetoed she decided on Frere and Jacque... a homage to her favorite song. So here they are the newest Lacroixs:



Aside from copious amounts of time watching kittens play, Evie has been making some pretty awesome creations. Today alone are three notables. This morning she put some playdough in a little basket, coated it with plastic beads and then started to weave this elaborate tale about how it was a nest and the plastic beads were fairy seeds. We then placed (at her request) the fairy seed basket out by the front door where they could "be happy outside but not get too hot."

Then after school today she went out back to play in the yard while I made dinner and called me out to see here "wedding cake" (What you couldn't tell?) She then arranged our patio for the wedding... it still isn't clear who the lucky couple were... After the cake she came in a drew me the most awesome picture yet... and I say this not because it is particularly pithy, its just a self portrait, but because I think it is the first time ever she has drawn something that I could so easily determine what exactly it was! The scribbles at the top are her current version of her name, apparently she really likes v's.

For those of you who would like to know about my state of affairs... I am getting into the routine of school work, regular work and Mom work and starting to really enjoy myself. I have, however, realized that higher education, especially of the PhD type, is a really, truly selfish exercise. Hours and hours of time spent by yourself reading, writing and learning about all sorts of fascinating things that most people really don't care to know about. (This is of course unfortunate for those who are subjected to time with me because they have to listen to me dribble on about all sorts of esoterica) So let this be a warning to any potential out of town guests... you might just find yourself subject to my waxing poetic about the coolness of qanats or the beauty of biological soil crusts... and yes Patrick will accept your pity.

Zingers - Siblings

After watching three little baby hamsters play at school the other day Evie turned to me and said:

"Mommy, I don't want a little brother or sister, I would like a little brother pet instead. I think a little brother pet would be much better."

Labor Day 2010

We spent a lovely labor day up at the cabin. My folks took Evie on Thursday and Patrick and I joined them on Friday. Patrick and I had a fabulous time driving up sans Evie... we played the music loud and drove fast, two things that she decidedly prefers we do not do.


I had quite a bit of school work to do (two whole books to read and an abstract to write) but took enough down-time to go to the annual Christmas Bazaar up in Alpine. We got there early and as a result picked up some mighty fine homemade ornaments, pot scrubbers and a hat and bag for Evie. Back down at the cabin my dad was laying concrete and so we decided to get an impression of Evie's hands. It occurred to me afterward that the last time we tried this she was like two months old. Well much like the last time it was a pretty messy endeavor, except this time we could explain to her just how it had to be done and were able to try at least 5 times and get it right without her melting down. It seems like just yesterday that we had the "Plaster Disaster" and it is so funny to me that we intended to retry but didn't get around to it until almost 3 years later... it must not have been a priority.


Evie had a lot of fun doing the now typical (how happy that makes me... that she goes up to the cabin enough to have typical activities!) cabin stuff... playing in the sand, making forts and getting very messy. We won't be back up again for awhile but I am already looking forward to it!