Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving definitely snuck up on me this year!  (That is probably because I have been in a black hole of written exams for my PhD for the past two weeks... but the upshot is at least I passed!)  I am so thankful this year for so many things.  Above all I am thankful for my family who are going above and beyond to help me do this PhD.  Everyone asks me how I do it, and the answer is with their support.  Had it not been for Patrick and my Mom in particular over these last two months I would have been (more of) a wreck and most likely would not have passed even my written exams. 

 Thanksgiving itself was glorious, complete with pony rides and a little target practice.  (And of course canned cranberry sauce... must have canned cranberry sauce).  Evie enjoyed the opportunity to play with my cousin Melissa and jump on her trampoline for what must have been a total of 3 hours and Izzy enjoyed the opportunity to get to know more of her family.  After dinner my folks took the girls so Patrick and I could do black Friday shopping at Kmart (on Thursday night, which was just cruel) for a local charity and managed to make it home by 11:30 pm.... ugh....  but interesting nonetheless.  I cannot believe that now Christmas is just around the corner, really, how does time go by so fast?!

Halloween 2012!

How does anyone possibly coordinate 4 people (especially when two are of the small persuasion) for a photograph where everyone looks not only at the camera but semi-decent? Clearly this is not a skill we had for this Halloween... the fun that was had in our attempt at a family photo shoot comes through though (I think)

IST Halloweeen Party

Decorated subie... not too bad for putting it all together an hour or so before the event!

The week o' Halloween has begun with a bang!  Last night was the annual Halloween Party at Evie's school and it was even more fabulous than last year!  Here are a few photos of the pre-festivities, and I would like to note for the record that Izzy kept her gnome hat on for over an hour!  (I didn't get any photos of actual festivities because I was too busy passing out candy and chasing after a certain gnome.  :)

Genevieve and a few of her French class friends before the parade

 

Gnome in little car.... awesome

Izzy dictionary and pre-Halloween

 Izzy is starting to communicate with the world in a semi-recognizable format.  Here is her current vocab, partially in Spanish and partially in English:
agua - water or really any other liquid... but usually water
bawoon - ballon
baba - bath
boo - book
bbb - ball
bye bye
(yes those last four often can only be understood in context) 
carro - car (in spanish)
gato - cat (also en espanol)
up
nie-nie - night night
maman - mommy (it sounds like she is saying it in french but I am pretty sure that is just a coincidence)
dada
huevo - egg (in spanish)
aht -hat
poo poo - what is sounds like...poop
nanno - bananna, or really any fruit
evie - sister (but I have only heard her say it once so I am not sure it counts)
dider - sister
At least 3 of these I just noticed this morning because I was paying close attention for the purposes of recording them :)

In other news... Saturday morning fun with the girls... prepping for Halloween, everyone wanted to try on bits and pieces of their costumes:

We decorated the house (and the flamingos)

Then played in the backyard (hooray for weather nice enough to spend our morning/early afternoon outside!)

Belief (in oneself)

While driving in the car this week the following conversation occured:

Me (in response to a question about who was going to pick her up that day): . . . well I am busy because I have to work hard to do well on my big test, which is making me nervous.
Genevieve: Mommy, let me tell you something.  Something that the judges don't want you to know.  You have to keep this secret away from them, OK?
Me: Sure I can keep a secret.
Genevieve:  The big thing that the judges don't want you to know, the secret for your test Mommy, I know this... all you have to do is believe in yourself.
Me: Genevieve, not a truer phrase has ever been spoken, thank you.

Ahh from the mouth of babes, or perhaps not so babes, that is pretty gosh darn wise.  (Oh and don't ask me why she thinks my professors are judges, I think it is a little combination of my and Patrick's work... speaking, or writing, of which... that reminds me of another great zinger in recent weeks.  Genevieve informed her babysitter that when she grows up she is going to be a lawyer-hydrologist-artist.  Not sure exactly where a lawyer-hydrologist-artist works but it sounds pretty good to me!)

Fashionista

Izzy likes to accessorize.  She is particularly fond of scarves and my shoes but this morning she decided she really needed to put sock on her hands... didn't get a picture of that one but it was pretty funny!

Sharing...

a popsicle....

Oh and in case you are one of the 5 or so regulars... between now and December 10th when I sit for my oral exams (written exams will be second two weeks of November....) blog posting may be on the lighter side, or at the very least on the less verbose side :)

Little things

Izzy in her favorite (and frequent) element... agua

I keep thinking to myself that there are all of these little things about Isadora right now that I don't necessarily remember about Genevieve when she was the same age.... but that doesn't mean they weren't there.... my memory for those sorts of things seems to be getting worse and worse :)  So for the sake of posterity here is a list of "little things" about Izzy:

- Every night before she goes to bed she drinks 8 oz of milk, generally if she doesn't get a chance to finish it all she doesn't go to bed easily and/or wakes up around 11:30 pm for the rest of the bottle.  While she drinks this milk she usually starts out squirmy and sometimes the best "cuddle" I can get from her is her laying on the floor with her head on my lap and me holding the bottle for her.
- Izzy loves to dance and will pick up her feet and stomp as well as dance around in little circles when she gets extra excited.
- When she laughs it is frequently a little like a hissing sound that then erupts into normal laughter.  She has many different types of laughter, from the hiss to the giggle to the guffaw, and most are heard constantly throughout the day.
- For some reason every morning when I put her in her car seat she looks up at me, smiles and says "agua?"  (not sure if she is asking me for water or asking me if I am going to work....)
- As soon as Patrick (or now Evie) starts to sing the "bath song" aka:  It's bath time, its splash time, its unbelievably fun time, she gets super excited, squeals and makes a b-line for the bathroom.
- When she investigates things she doesn't sit down on the ground but squats, sometimes for long periods of time, and with remarkable balance.
- She loves to come running up to you and crash into your legs and give you (or rather your legs) a big hug.
- When she falls asleep each night she either sticks her little bum up in the air or sprawls out on her back with her arms outstretched and her legs in a V.

I just know there are more... I'll have to keep paying close attention and do a second edition soon :)

Football Season!

U of A football season started last night... and this year we are back into living the luxe life in the skybox owned by Patrick's work!  Really the skybox is the only option at all if you are going to bring a don't-you-dare-make-me-sit-against-my-will 13 month old, who thoroughly enjoyed toddling around the place and then mercifully fell asleep on my back in the ergo at around 8:30 pm.  Given that it was a holiday weekend, and there were extra tickets, we were even able to bring a couple of extra folks along, including my brother who "accidentally" wore a shirt with ASU colors.... The girls didn't quite make it all the way to the end (Patrick got home around 1 am) but made it until around 11 pm, which is pretty good for small fry!

Agua

Izzy has started to say a few real words here and there (real meaning understandable to someone other than the immediate Lacroixs and something other than mama or dada)  Her first official word is (drum roll please) "agua".  Not only is it her first word, it is her favorite word, either that or she is just really thirsty all of the time.  Pretty much all day long now she toddles around the house either asking for agua or saying it while holding out her water bottle for you to take the agua back from her, or because what she really wants is a bowl full of agua to splash around in.  I must admit I take quite a bit of pride in the fact that my daughter's first word is water, although I am not sure what it says about us that it is in Spanish... 

The Huachucas

In a continuation of the whole get in lots o' fun while I can :)  we went camping in the Huachua Mountains last weekend with a bunch of families, mostly folks from Genevieve's school.  The girls had a lot of fun in the woods and our new tent finally got to get some use outside of our backyard.  We even got a nice cool rainstorm (which just happened to occur while we were putting up the tent but hey who doesn't like a challenge).

Izzy required constant vigilance... because she is decidedly a toddler now.

Evie wouldn't let me take any photos of her... this is the best I could get... Evie and the Cheese Poofs

Calm before the storm

This photo has almost nothing to do with post.... but it makes me happy and I am low on the good photos right now.

Each fall people who live where it is cold prep their homes for the winter (right, they do that don't they?) sealing doors, making sure the snow shovel is at hand.  I guess we do something similar to that here before the summer.... make sure you know where the kiddie pool is, spend the last few days in March when the temperature is just right outside....

Anyway I also found myself using a calm before a storm to prep and get my ducks in a row.  This anticipated storm is seasonal, of sorts, it is the start of the Fall semester.  This is going to be a Fall semester like none other so I am taking extra precautions, like actually putting caulk around the windows instead of just that weird saran-wrap stuff.  My foul weather isn't really foul at all, it is perhaps better described as intense.  My plan for this Fall is to take one class (watershed hydrology), continue my part-time (30 hours a week) work and study for and take my comprehensive exams.  Obviously (or maybe not) it is this last one that ups the whole intensity ante and I would be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to it... because in my sick nerdy way I am.  But by god I need to be "prepared"  So over the last month I have been taking it extra easy and doing some life "weatherizing" in the hopes that it will make everything just a little bit less stressful.  (And here I have to give serious kudos to Patrick who, having lived through last fall and that stress, suggested the first two moves)  And yes the first three things taken together more than subsume my salary but if it allows me to thrive instead of just survive this fall by god it is worth it!

1) For the past three weeks I have had my groceries delivered to my door.  At first I thought only rich people did this.... but with some way to get free delivery every time it is all kinds of affordable.  Not to mention not having to spend an hour getting groceries with two grumpy kids makes this a borderline priceless option.  I gave myself 3 weeks to get in the groove with it and it now takes me t-minus 10 minutes to do all of my grocery shopping.

2) Accept the fact that I cannot work as hard as I want or need to and still pick up the girls both days at 3:30 because lets face it folks it is impossible for me to go back to work or studying at 7:45 pm when they are both in bed because I am ready to be in bed too.  Having accepted this fact we have decided to find a college student to pick the girls up for me three days a week, thus giving me 9 more hours each week to study and work.... nine whole hours!!

3) Embrace my inner slacker when it comes to housecleaning.  Well, OK I did this years ago, but all the same it is important to lowering my stress level.  This means if anyone wants to come over to our house it will have to be on Thursdays, because that is the day we have someone come by the house to clean.  And I may just need to buy extra undies for the whole household because I gaurntee laundry will not be completed in a timely fashion.

4) Work as hard as I can to make every moment I spend with the girls and with Patrick a quality moment.  Last week, for example, I was pretty darn tired and on my own because Patrick was working late and then went to exercise (two things he has needed to do all week) but irregardless decided to on a whim take Evie and Izzy to Peter Piper Pizza because it would be fun.  And you know what?  It was!  I think if I can make good on the idea of time together as always quality time, e.g., my e-mail is put away, no mindless web surfing, I will have gained an important skill irregardless, not to mention the immense satisfaction of time well spent with the people that matter the most.  (Don't worry Patrick this doesn't mean I will stop watching bad TV with you, because that really is quality time :)

Weekend of outings

On Saturday Evie and I went to a special Mars lander event/exhibit downtown, while Patrick stayed at home and  "helped" Izzy nap.   It was fun to go out to a nerdy science exhibit with just Evie so we could talk about the things she was seeing and she could spend 20 minutes dropping round objects into flour to make craters without the need to move on to keep it interesting for her little sister.  (We both learned a lot about craters, we can age them for you and give you some stats on which one came first... oh and dropping a tennis ball from on high makes a wonderful mess with the flour.  I also can now definitively tell you the difference between an asteroid, a meteor and and meteorite, something I always thought I knew, but by god now I know for sure). 

Then Sunday I took both girls to the Children's Museum while Patrick went into work for a few hours (I think he decided he "had" to work when he heard me promise to take Evie there... while it may be Evie's favorite place in Tucson I must admit that neither of us are terribly big fans... it is always chaos and just about the loudest place I can think of... and it always seems to bring out the worst in children... buuuut Evie loves it soooo much so we swap out every 4 months or so taking her.... and it was $2 science Sunday so I figured we really couldn't go wrong) 

This was Izzy's first time there as a mobile being and she enjoyed it quite a bit too. She spent most of her time on top of the "garden" (a cute little exhibit with three tiers of rows with spaces to put the fake veggies in) planting carrots in the rows and trying to figure out how she could get a peach wedged in the garden as well.  Although I do think she too was a bit overwhelmed by all of the noise and disheartened by the children who would just take things from her and unabashedly push her out of the way  (as a side note, I have decided one of the best ways to judge a kid is by how they treat the youngest of their kind....)  Unfortunately I didn't think to bring along a camera for the second outing, so Izzy's first of I am sure what will be many forays into the children's museum world will have to remain in our memories alone. :)

First Day of Kindergarten!

1st day of school picture by the front door.... remember Mom when you used to take these of Brendon and I?

How did we get to the point where Evie is at her first day of Kindergarten?  Is she really old enough for this?  I feel like it was just yesterday that I was feeling like she was "too" big because she was all of three and old enough to start at IST! 

Evie on her very first day at IST... so little and cute!

Well time keeps marching on and indeed today Genevieve began her formal school career.  I outfitted her with a new shirt and fancy new hippie (read not Disney) backpack and lunchbox and kind of brushed her hair (I offered, multiple times, to "do" her hair... she wisely refused) 

At 8:15 am Patrick, Izzy and I saw her off, and she was decidedly excited.  She is in the French class, taught by M. Drame and there are a whopping 8 kids in her class.  When asked about her first day she proclaimed that it was "wonderful, but Mommy you forgot my hat, sunscreen and art shirt"  (I was clearly so focused on the exciting new backpack that I neglected the details.)  After school today she went to her new "big kid" aka Kindergarten and 1st grade ballet class too so it was indeed an eventful day!

Investigator

There must be a word in the English language for someone who really enjoys figuring out how things go together.  A person (in this case of the little persuasion) who is fascinated by how the tops of things match on certain object and not on others, how things of different sizes sometimes fit inside and sometimes don't.  A matcher?  A toppist?  A space specialist?  Well regardless Isadora is one of those people.  She will sit for seemingly ridiculously long periods of time (i.e., 10 minutes, hey as a percent of her total life it is not insignificant) investigating the relationship between tops of objects and their bottoms.  Yesterday I gave her an empty milk jug and she put the top on, took it off, checked out the inside, put the top on, took the top off, looked for water to put in it (she is always looking for a way to incorporate water into everything she does), got angry when I took away the dog water dish, put the top on.... well you get the idea.  Now maybe this is a typical 1 year old behavior but I certainly don't remember Genevieve doing this.  Well, at least I certainly wasn't as fascinated by Genevieve doing this.  So important question (haha) is what sort of career does a Toppist have?  Perhaps she'll be the one to finally design a top for a portable coffee mug that it is impossible for me to lose!

Pippi Longstocking

This week was Evie's last week of camp before (gasp) she starts Kindergarten.  On Wednesday camp had a Halloween in August day and Evie wanted to dress up like Pippi Longstocking. Hooray for the library's books on tape for long rides to the cabin, I thought she was going to dress like a princess at every opportunity for the next decade!  She put together the costume by herself and insisted on adding the monkey for Mr. Nelson and the "horse"  I did the hair and makeup and must say I think it was my best attempt at doing her hair yet.  (Mind you the bar is set pretty low, see exhibit a and exhibit b)  Maybe there is hope for Izzy yet, that is of course assuming she gets more hair :)

NYC!

 

 Last weekend Patrick and I took a whirlwind trip to New York City to celebrate his sister's b-day.  We left early Friday morning and came back Sunday and probably slept a sum total of 6 hours the entire trip.  It was far from a relaxing get away from the kids but it was certainly a lot of fun.  I honestly cannot remember the last time I went to 4 different restaurants and/or bars in one evening, which some how for me is the marker of time well spent.  The highlights of the trip were an amazing wine bar owned by a friend of Vivian's (i.e., great food and wine at a pretty discounted price), going out to the Statute of Liberty and Ellis Island at 8 am after about 3 hours of sleep and way too much indulging in the discounted champagne the night before (see previous sentence), an amazing birthday dinner at a place fancy enough to have a madame pee pee, and finally (most importantly) getting to spend time with Patrick's sister and her fabulous friends.  I think it took both of us until about Wednesday to recover but by god it was worth it!

 

All dressed up for Vivian's Birthday..... Photo's courtesy of Patrick's phone :)

No chickens in the tutu

I am afraid the "sibling honeymoon" has come to an end.  Yes we had an entire year of relative sibling harmony in the house, and we count ourselves lucky.  Now that Izzy is mobile and opinionated (in other words wants what she wants darn it and has legs that can get her there) the honeymoon is over and the conflict has begun.  In an attempt to balance Izzy's desire to be everywhere her sister is with Evie's desire to play and not be disturbed by her baby sister with the need for Evie to learn to share her stuff and space with Izzy we have made a new "rule"  Once a day Genevieve can say the secret code phrase and Izzy has to be removed from her room.  This code can only apply to her playing alone in her room and only once a day.  We let her come up with the key phrase and she decided on "No chickens in the tutu."  Don't ask... I have no idea what that means or where it comes from.  Of course Izzy's response to the code word, or really being extracted from Evie's room, is loud protest but this way she only protests (for this reason) once a day. 

Although the negotiating for toys, attention, and time to talk (well in Izzys case babble or scream) has become part of our days now there are still plenty of sweet sisterly moments.  Like this one this morning...  I was trying to film Izzy walking (yes Izzy is walking!) and Evie got upset and wanted a video of her.  I told her once I was done with Isadora I would take a video of her.  Once she got going with it she decided she wanted Izzy to be a part of her show....

Mina and Papa Camp and a Cabin B-Day

Last week Genevieve went to perhaps the best camp ever.... Mina and Papa camp up in the woods.  She spent the week doing craft projects like painting bird houses and making stepping stones and outdoor activities like canoeing, swimming in the river, making mud castles and swinging on a bag swing that my dad made for her. Izzy, Patrick and I were pretty jealous of her camp time so on Thursday night after work the three desert bound Lacroixs hopped in the car and drove up to meet Evie.  We then got to spend three days together enjoying the cabin: afternoon rains, "pets", scrabble games and canoeing on the beaver pond. 

Geneveive's temporary pet, a horn toad, and what was supposed to be lunch for him... a hissing beetle.

On our canoe trip (Izzy stayed with Mina and took a nap for that one) a beaver swam right under the canoe in just 2 foot deep water, very cool.  We even managed to get Kita to canoe with us, instead of swimming around and under the canoe, for a bit.  

 On Saturday we celebrated Izzy's 1st birthday a little early with a few presents and a carrot cake.  I made the exact same cake for Isadora that I made for Evie's first birthday.  This time though I had to cook it in a tiny convection oven and the frosting wasn't "crunchy" like Evie's was (I ran out of powdered sugar and substituted regular sugar for Eve's cake)

 The cake was enjoyed by the birthday girl... who I still think bears a striking resemblance to her sister....

Isadora Vivienne Lacroix is 1!!

Today, at 9:40 pm to be exact, Isadora turns 1 year old.  It has been a remarkable year for her and for the rest of the Lacroixs.  It was decidedly a challenging year for us all, but by god if it did not have its shimmery shiny moments that I would not trade for the world!  I think it took me almost a whole year to get used to the fact that I have two amazing kids, and now I cannot imagine our world any other way.  So here is the first ever, now to be annual, "interview" with Isadora:

Favorite book(s): Les Couleurs (but only when read by Patrick), Where is Baby? and Snuggle Puppy.  She has started grabbing books, and these in particular, bringing them to us and then opening our hand and putting them in our hand.

Favorite Food(s): shredded cheese, seaweed (because it has the consistency of paper, her real favorite food) and pasta (or at least she likes to feed pasta to the dog)

Favorite color: Brown (because everything I put on her becomes that color, I finally bought a cute brown shirt for her last week, I think she will be wearing it every day until she grows out of it.... OK well maybe I'd better wash it every now and again so maybe not every day)

Favorite activities: dancing to music. banging objects together and following around Genevieve around... oh and laughing she loooves to laugh.

Favorite element:  water... duh she is a Cancer baby.

Favorite (well really only) words: Dada, Mama (yes unlike Evie she says Mama at one year), dooo (aka dog), uh-oh, and yum yum (usually in reaction to food)

Best Baby Tricks: applauding for herself when she puts something in a container or when you say "Bravo!" and dancing when you say baila, Izzy, baila.