Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Kauai
After a LONG flight we have arrived to bliss. We plan to spend an entire week going no further than our feet will carry us or toddlers will allow, whichever dominates.
Poppie is downstairs sleeping off the trip and the rest of us are getting our hair tousled by the sea breeze.
Poppie is downstairs sleeping off the trip and the rest of us are getting our hair tousled by the sea breeze.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Next up
We came home from Bainbridge last night. It was a fun few days over at Nana and Papa's house with too much sugar, presents and people (if you can ever have too much of those things at two). It seemed awfully quiet, just the four of us in our little house, but good.
Finn had some issues going to bed so Daddy let him come out and help us put away our Christmas decorations and de-ornament the tree. Finn protested a couple of times to the dismantling of things and both Nick and I couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness at a completed Christmas. It made me wonder what next year will hold. Will we be in this house? Will Poppie be walking then? Will we be talking about another baby? Whoa. I will stop there.
Finn asked first thing this morning to 'go back to Nana's house, pleeze'. Nope, sorry buddy, but we will see Nana and Papa later. 'Lay-ter,' he repeats, trying it on for size. 'Nana come Finn's house, later' he adjusts. Actually, little guy, we are going to see Nana and Papa tomorrow and then we are all going to get on an airplane and go to a hot beach where you can dig in the sand for a whole week! And guess what, there are friends there! Yay! Finn exclaims, and we talk about that for a while.
On the way to school a bit later, he screams at me that we are going the wrong way. 'No, Mama, go dat way, dat way!' Confused, I ask him where we are going. 'To the airport, to go on a plane up up up to hot beach with diggers and my friend.' This one doesn't miss a beat and he has a better sense of direction than either of his parents combined (and we aren't half bad).
So, tomorrow morning, the Hall clan, the Blakey grandparents and Uncle Daniel all board a plane for Kauai, where my mother's oldest friend Margo and her family are all gathered for the holidays. Margo has an equally robust grandson Finn's age and I have no doubt those boys will be tearing it up on a beach all week. Meanwhile, Hall parents shall be peacefully enjoying a week of Vitamin D and each other before the new year kicks off to a busy start. Should be exactly what the doctor ordered for all.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Merry Christmas!
Our dancing doll in her new Christmas clothes (thanks Grandma! thanks Uncle Gerad!)
Christmas made even more magical
By the presence of deer in the front yard this morning. His favorite animal. The same one that helped Santa fly and deliver a digger and a stocking full of fun last night. Oh, my, what a magical world. 
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Sleep, or whatever you call it
Finn, our baby cheetah who ate every two hours, round-the-clock, never-miss-a-meal, thank-you-Holt-family-genes until he was 16 months old (no joke, this kid went through 24 ozs of milk in the middle of the night until very, very recently), was his mother's definition of normal.
Until Poppie was born.
She is so utterly civilized in her daily routine, it makes me want wrap my poor new-mother self of two years ago up in a big soft blanket and say 'there, there, this too will pass' and know that it is true. I used to listen to the mothers from our baby class talk about their 4,5,6 month olds giving them a night or two or seven per week of complete sleep-through-the-night rest and it would make me cry with envy.
And once the tears started, Nick would take pity on me and send me downstairs with the fan on loud and take Finn andthree four bottles of pumped milk for the night while I slept like a madwoman.
But those days are over. For now at least. Sort of.
Poppie wakes up in the morning and goes to sleep at night. She eats during the day and only occasionally snacks at night, typically allowing me 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. She plays when she is awake and goes to sleep easily when it is bedtime. She is pretty much a new mother's dream of a 3 month old.
Unfortunately, the cheetah still hasn't mastered the art of sleeping through the night and makes frequent forays into mother's den at all wee hours to see what mother and the new kitten are up to.
We're sleeping Finn, go to bed, I will say. To which he will turn on the light to see if our eyes are closed.
And this will continue a couple of times before I lose my gentle cat mother touch and slam the cheetah's bedroom door shut for the night. Which leads to him wailing and me feeling like a terrible mother who knows she will be much, much more terrible with no sleep so it must be.
Last night Nana spent the night and witnessed firsthand the cheetah's nighttime ritual. When she asked what he was doing up, he explained to her that he was hungry. Which led to feeding him and the conclusion that the door must not only be shut, but a bowl of food placed in there so he can settle his night hunger.
Hopefully tonight we will have a happily sleeping Daddy-Mama-little kitten while the wild cheetah is in his lair with all the things he needs to sooth his wild night ways!
Until Poppie was born.
She is so utterly civilized in her daily routine, it makes me want wrap my poor new-mother self of two years ago up in a big soft blanket and say 'there, there, this too will pass' and know that it is true. I used to listen to the mothers from our baby class talk about their 4,5,6 month olds giving them a night or two or seven per week of complete sleep-through-the-night rest and it would make me cry with envy.
And once the tears started, Nick would take pity on me and send me downstairs with the fan on loud and take Finn and
But those days are over. For now at least. Sort of.
Poppie wakes up in the morning and goes to sleep at night. She eats during the day and only occasionally snacks at night, typically allowing me 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. She plays when she is awake and goes to sleep easily when it is bedtime. She is pretty much a new mother's dream of a 3 month old.
Unfortunately, the cheetah still hasn't mastered the art of sleeping through the night and makes frequent forays into mother's den at all wee hours to see what mother and the new kitten are up to.
We're sleeping Finn, go to bed, I will say. To which he will turn on the light to see if our eyes are closed.
And this will continue a couple of times before I lose my gentle cat mother touch and slam the cheetah's bedroom door shut for the night. Which leads to him wailing and me feeling like a terrible mother who knows she will be much, much more terrible with no sleep so it must be.
Last night Nana spent the night and witnessed firsthand the cheetah's nighttime ritual. When she asked what he was doing up, he explained to her that he was hungry. Which led to feeding him and the conclusion that the door must not only be shut, but a bowl of food placed in there so he can settle his night hunger.
Hopefully tonight we will have a happily sleeping Daddy-Mama-little kitten while the wild cheetah is in his lair with all the things he needs to sooth his wild night ways!
Monday, December 19, 2011
Good morning world!
It's an exciting week! Finn is almost through his advent calendar (which he LOVES and is a perfect thing to get toddlers engaged in Christmas) and we are looking forward to Nick coming home late tomorrow.
Then it's a little bit of work and a little bit of play and lots of family gatherings!
Hooray for almost Christmas!
Then it's a little bit of work and a little bit of play and lots of family gatherings!
Hooray for almost Christmas!
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Two new things that happen when you're two
Do you know what a coucou is? We didn't either, but in Alaska, after spending some time with his Colombian nanny, Finn started to call his pacifier coucou. Spanish for pacifier is chupeta which somehow got translated to coucou in Finnspeak.
Anyway, several mornings ago, Finn was playing on the floor in our room where there is a perfect coucou-sized hole in the wood floor (my guess is the previous owners had it put in to run cables or something from the basement). What do you do when you're two and 1) have a coucou in your hand; and 2) there is a hole in the floor?
Uh, oh. Oh, no! Says Finn. My coucou in dat hole!
The nanny spent the better part of a dramatic afternoon trying to fish it out with all sorts of different tools in Finn's presence to no avail. The next 24 hours were a bit rough everytime he wanted it, but once I reminded him where it was, he settled. And now he doesn't ask for it anymore. Husband Nick has a similar story shared by his parents where he spit his out in the ocean and watched the waves take it, shrugged and that was that. Easy peasy.
Next big milestone we were trying to reach? Potty training.
We did elimination communication with Finn from a really early age and that combined with cloth diapers created a baby that was only soiling a few diapers a day, mostly at night. At six months he was more potty trained than he was at 23 months. How does that happen that your infant it more potty trained than when he is a toddler? Lazy parents I thought, until I spoke to some friends who were more diligent than we were and had the same results with their tots.
This summer we tried and tried to make potty training fun (and it should have been easy considering how much time the boy spent naked and outdoors), complete with all the latest potties and books and songs. But alas, it became a bigger fight than we could handle. And then Poppie was born and we forgivably both said to hell with potty training, at some point he will get uncomfortable enough or want to be big and do it himself.
Which is exactly what happened.
Finn typically removes all lower clothing and diapers the minute he gets home from school and refuses to be clad unless we bribe him with going outside. But then he started to tell me he had to go to the bathroom and that led (within a week or so) to just going by himself and not making a big deal of it.
When he wakes up, he takes his lower jammies and diaper off, throws the diaper in the garbage (good boy!) and comes and says good morning. And them he goes to the potty when ever he needs it. Simple as that.
So, Daddy, if you are reading this, your son is almost potty trained and we have gotten rid of his dummy for good. How's that for progress in the past two weeks?
xoxo
Anyway, several mornings ago, Finn was playing on the floor in our room where there is a perfect coucou-sized hole in the wood floor (my guess is the previous owners had it put in to run cables or something from the basement). What do you do when you're two and 1) have a coucou in your hand; and 2) there is a hole in the floor?
Uh, oh. Oh, no! Says Finn. My coucou in dat hole!
The nanny spent the better part of a dramatic afternoon trying to fish it out with all sorts of different tools in Finn's presence to no avail. The next 24 hours were a bit rough everytime he wanted it, but once I reminded him where it was, he settled. And now he doesn't ask for it anymore. Husband Nick has a similar story shared by his parents where he spit his out in the ocean and watched the waves take it, shrugged and that was that. Easy peasy.
Next big milestone we were trying to reach? Potty training.
We did elimination communication with Finn from a really early age and that combined with cloth diapers created a baby that was only soiling a few diapers a day, mostly at night. At six months he was more potty trained than he was at 23 months. How does that happen that your infant it more potty trained than when he is a toddler? Lazy parents I thought, until I spoke to some friends who were more diligent than we were and had the same results with their tots.
This summer we tried and tried to make potty training fun (and it should have been easy considering how much time the boy spent naked and outdoors), complete with all the latest potties and books and songs. But alas, it became a bigger fight than we could handle. And then Poppie was born and we forgivably both said to hell with potty training, at some point he will get uncomfortable enough or want to be big and do it himself.
Which is exactly what happened.
Finn typically removes all lower clothing and diapers the minute he gets home from school and refuses to be clad unless we bribe him with going outside. But then he started to tell me he had to go to the bathroom and that led (within a week or so) to just going by himself and not making a big deal of it.
When he wakes up, he takes his lower jammies and diaper off, throws the diaper in the garbage (good boy!) and comes and says good morning. And them he goes to the potty when ever he needs it. Simple as that.
So, Daddy, if you are reading this, your son is almost potty trained and we have gotten rid of his dummy for good. How's that for progress in the past two weeks?
xoxo
Christmas shopping
We took the light rail downtown and saw the merry go round, Santa in his little hut and the gingerbread village. It was a fun morning!
Friday, December 16, 2011
The Nutcracker
My ENTIRE life I have wanted to go to the Nutcracker Ballet. Every since I was really, really little it has been on my top holiday wish list. Perhaps because I grew up with three brother and a mother who does not count ballet as one of her favorite arts, I never went as a child.
That changed when I met Nick. He caught wind of my obsession and surprised me one December with tickets to the PNW Ballet Nutcracker. I cried.
The evening we were to go, a major snowstorm blew into Seattle and the whole city shut down. The ballet was on, however, and Nick and I walked to the show in long winter coats and soft scarves, huddled together in the hushed snowy quiet. The show was everything I had dreamed of, only better. It was snowing outside, I had this amazing husband, we had decided to start trying for a baby (Finn) and I was at the Nutcracker. It couldn't have been more magical.
Needless to say, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker is of my alltime favorite holiday soundtracks and I have never heard it on a glass harp before. Check out this amazing video:
May the holiday spirit be vibrant in your home this weekend...
xoxo
That changed when I met Nick. He caught wind of my obsession and surprised me one December with tickets to the PNW Ballet Nutcracker. I cried.
The evening we were to go, a major snowstorm blew into Seattle and the whole city shut down. The ballet was on, however, and Nick and I walked to the show in long winter coats and soft scarves, huddled together in the hushed snowy quiet. The show was everything I had dreamed of, only better. It was snowing outside, I had this amazing husband, we had decided to start trying for a baby (Finn) and I was at the Nutcracker. It couldn't have been more magical.
Needless to say, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker is of my alltime favorite holiday soundtracks and I have never heard it on a glass harp before. Check out this amazing video:
May the holiday spirit be vibrant in your home this weekend...
xoxo
Thursday, December 15, 2011
25 different ways to wear a scarf
Super cute video and worth the watch, ladies and fellow scarf-wearers...
This morning I am wearing The X.
xoxo
This morning I am wearing The X.
xoxo
Monday, December 12, 2011
Poppie is three months today!
Our darling little girl is three months old today! She feels like she has been part of our family forever, so it is hard to believe that it has only been three months.
Back to this baby though.
I didn't think that we could have two gregarious children in a row, but it appears that Finn has met his extroverted match in his little sister. She loves people and is happy to go with anyone (just like her brother. And the dog for that matter. Is this trend worrying?). She smiles and coos and only cries when she is ready for sleep, hungry or angry at being left on her back and ignored for too long.
And Finn? He is doing great as an older brother. And great in all other regards too.
Poppie is doing great in all respects and hitting all of her milestones ahead of schedule, except for the blasted tummytime which I plan to make the nanny do so I don't have to suffer through her tears of frustration (did I tell you we got a nanny? she started today and is wonderful!). Poppie is a whopping 25+ inches long and finally hit the 12 lb mark, which is huge for her, but not in terms of where she came from (9.5 lbs at birth). Aside from the slow weight gain, you would never know she has galactosemia. And on the galactosemia note, our genetic results came back (a long while back) and we are not genetically capable of producing a classic galactosemic child, which means Poppie's variation is as bad as it will get for Hall babies (which bodes well for the future of more Hall babies in the family, ahem, Mr Hall, you are not done yet).
Happy three months, baby girl. We are happy you're here!
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Shhh...
Because these little mites of ours are too wee for screen time (except the occasional round of Postman Pat on the iPad at 5:30 am when Nick and I are too tired too care and need the extra 18 minutes it provides) I can safely post their Christmas gifts.
We are trying for homemade, or at the very least, recycled, gifts this year and I have had a lot of fun making things that I hope everyone will enjoy and love. Which brings us to this doll for Poppie. Her name is Rose. She was made this weekend between naps from little scraps I had around the house.
Lest you think me more originally creative than I deserve, I first saw this doll last year (worth pressing play and watching the slideshow) and thought if I ever have a daughter, I will make one of these dolls for her. And take my girl to Paris and have Nick take lots of lovely photos, but first things first, 1) must have a girl; and 2) must make the doll (done and done, now for the Paris part...)
Poppie is a bit young for a shabby chic rag doll that is probably a little too fragile for a toddler, but I am not convinced that I will ever have time again in my life to tackle a project such as this so carpe diem.
*Cute aside: Finn saw this doll and was a bit ruffled that it was for Poppie and asked that I make him one too because he needs a guy for his digger.
We are trying for homemade, or at the very least, recycled, gifts this year and I have had a lot of fun making things that I hope everyone will enjoy and love. Which brings us to this doll for Poppie. Her name is Rose. She was made this weekend between naps from little scraps I had around the house.
 |
| She is actually about as tall as Poppie |
 |
| Here she is without her arms yet. Her arms attached with little caribou-bone buttons that Nick and I bought in Juneau a couple of years ago |
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| Her body is made from a flour sack tea towel that I dyed with Nick's tea |
 |
| This is just one outfit, I have another one in the works |
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| Her hair is an old sweater that I felted years ago to make mittens and had stored safe from the moths in the basement |
Poppie is a bit young for a shabby chic rag doll that is probably a little too fragile for a toddler, but I am not convinced that I will ever have time again in my life to tackle a project such as this so carpe diem.
*Cute aside: Finn saw this doll and was a bit ruffled that it was for Poppie and asked that I make him one too because he needs a guy for his digger.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
My little monster (who has been an angel lately)
Can't hold still long enough to get a non-blurry shot but if I don't post some blur you'll never see this one because he's all move and blur these days!
Happy boy doing well at school, helpful to his mama, caring to his sister and loving everyone who comes to visit. 18-24 months were the hardest for this boy, we are looking terrific in our twos so far....
Happy boy doing well at school, helpful to his mama, caring to his sister and loving everyone who comes to visit. 18-24 months were the hardest for this boy, we are looking terrific in our twos so far....
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