Someone Special Came for Christmas!

Introducing

Maeve Elizabeth

born on the winter solstice,

December 21, 2011

at 5:36 in the evening,

after the first dusting of snow in

nearly a year fell on Chicagoland.

 

She weighed 6lbs. 1oz.

and measured 19.75 inches long

She was born unexpectedly early

at 36 weeks 6 days

by cesarean

to the beautiful sounds of

Sting singing Fields of Gold.

(selected by Dr. Daube from his playlist)

 

 

She is

precious,

pink,

and

utterly perfect

in every way.

 

 

She came home

on Christmas Eve.

 

 

And Santa had

presents waiting for her

Christmas morning.

 

 

But really,

she was the best present

of all.

 

 

Did I mention that Someone Turned FIVE???

Ben turned the big

**5**

 

A whole hand of fingers!

 

His birthday fell on Veteran's Day, a Monday.

So we decided to celebrate on Sunday when everyone would be home to enjoy it.

 

The morning started with presents of course.  The kids can't wait to come downstairs and see what is waiting on their chair when it's their special day.  Ben woke up OBSCENELY early, but since he was five and all, he told me he could totally be patient and wait until Daddy, Jack and Molly woke up to open his gifts.  And he was!

 

 

Just that week, he'd spotted this helmet in a store and couldn't stop talking about it.

He was SO EXCITED to open up the big box and find it inside!

 

 

 

 

After presents, we needed to make his cake. 

I put Ben in charge of cracking eggs, because it's his favorite part.

(you've got to love the facial expressions)

 

 

 

 

The birthday boy decided he wanted a turkey cake.

Luckily, that's precisely what I made him for his first birthday,

so I had some experience under my belt.

 

I think it came out well!

 

 

We also donned our turkey headgear for the occasion.

 

 

 

 After Ben's favorite meal (PIZZA!) we took care of the turkey, I mean, cake!

 

 

Everyone had fun celebrating Ben!

 

 

 

The next morning, on his 'real' birthday, we took some pictures.

Daddy had his first Veteran's Day off in a decade on account of his new position in the company not being directly involved with investment operations.

 

 

 

 

Then it was time for preschool!

Mommy was the volunteer reader for the day

and Daddy was the volunteer picture taker and videographer.

Ben was SO HAPPY to have Daddy come to his school!

 

 

 

I read two of Ben's favorite books from home.

 

LITTLE SUPER from the PaperHat Press

 

 

It's a personalized superhero book with beautiful graphics and an endearing storyline.

I got it as a Groupon last year and it didn't disappoint!

 

 We also read one of Ben's all-time favorites, that he's had memorized since he was three...

 

EIGHT SPINNING PLANETS by Brian James

The kids were great listeners,

and I did my best to be a good reader!

 

 Afterward, Marc and I got to hang around and watch the kids do their thing.

Such good little citizens these four and five year olds!

Helping each other, cleaning up when the special bell rings

(Ben got to ring it this day because it was his birthday).

 

 

 

 

Here's the birthday boy with his teacher, Miss Janet and his buddy Casey.

 

 

Once school ended, the party didn't stop!

I'd promised Ben in lieu of a party that we would take him and a few friends out for an afternoon of fun at the DuPage Children's Museum.  We are members there, so the entertainment was free. We picked up Happy Meals on the way, and for dessert had some cupcakes and sang to Ben for the umpteenth time since the day before.

 

(I'd snuck enough batter and frosting out of Sunday's turkey cake to make a few turkey cupcakes.

Found the decorations at Marshalls for $3!)

 

 

Conrad, Colin and Collin were kind enough to join us, and they were all so good, I almost fell asleep sitting on the bench waiting for them to need me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hard to believe we've got a big

FIVE YEAR OLD

on our hands now.

 

He's not a baby anymore,

and pretty soon he won't even be the baby of the family (sniff!)

 

But as I've told him

(and he reminds me often)

 

No matter how big you get

No matter how grown up you are

No matter where you go or what you do in life,

I'll always be your mommy and you'll always be my little boy.

(kind of like in that book "I'll Love you Forever" that makes me cry so hard I can't buy it...except for the part where the mother breaks in through the window of the grown son's house and rocks him in his bed, because that's creepy.  So Ben,  I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be...but I promise not to be creepy about it, okay?)

Happy Birthday to our favorite little buddy.
You've been a great sidekick these last five years,
even if you are an escape artist, a terrible shopper and only recently learned to not hit people before you introduce yourself. 

Your hugs and kisses are magic
and your smile lights up our world.

You are most definitely a super hero in our eyes! 

 

Other Stuff We Did This Fall

Disney was pretty much the focus of our fall this year, but there was some other really cool stuff that happened too!

 

SCHOOL PICTURES!!

I used to send them in blind, depending on the photographer to make things go well.

I learned the hard way that that does not work at ALL. 

Now we have a morning prep session of smiling in the mirror to see what looks good, and what looks WIERD.  The kids can see for themselves what works and what doesn't, and they're old enough to use that information when the moment of truth comes.

 

It totally worked this year!!

 

 

 

You can't even tell that Molly had a snaggletooth waiting to fall out.

It was hinged FORWARD, sticking straight out in front, and could not be coaxed out, or down.

When she smiled big, it looked like this...

 

 

Luckily, our practice paid off and she looked like her lovely self in the picture, instead of Nanny McPhee!

 

HOMECOMING!!

We didn't go to homecoming, but our neighbor Alexa did.

She's a sophomore at Nequa Valley High School down the street.

And knowing that Molly is a princess-loving sort of a girl,

my friend Becky (Alexa's mom) invited us to the pre-homecoming picture-taking.

 

 

As the sign might let on....this was no ordinary event.

Becky should be a caterer, and a decorator!  There were at least 20 kids, and all their parents in attendance.  Becky had a SPREAD set out, and the parents stayed and enjoyed themselves after the kids left.

 

I have a while to wait before anyone in my house attends homecoming,

but you'd better believe I took notes!

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the DRESSES!!

Oh my, these girls looked nothing like we did at Prom.

We looked like 16 year olds playing dress up.

 

These girls looked like supermodels headed to the Oscars!

 

 

 

 

Molly may sneak in and steal Alexa's dress she loved it so much. 

It was PURPLE!  (how cute is it that they matched, and not even on purpose!)

 

 

And it had a BUTTERFLY on the back!  In CRYSTALS!!

 

 

We are so blessed to have neighbors that in the midst of a huge shindig,

a big ole deal for their baby girl...

think of our baby girl, and let her in on the fun.

 

 

SLIMEY PLAY DATE!!

 

Once school started and it was just Ben and I at home,

we got kind of bored with each other.

He needed some buddies to play with,

and I needed some mommies to hang out with.

 

So we came up with a plan.

Ben was the mastermind and I was the details gal.

 

We invited ten of his buddies and their moms.
I baked bought some delicious pumpkin muffins and had plenty of pumpkin spice coffee on hand.
 And we used a youtube video as our recipe

for making a big batch of polymer slime to play with.

 

 

 

I had to shop around to find clear Elmer's glue, but it was so worth it.

(we finally found it at Michaels for $2 a bottle)

 

 

The chemical reaction to turn the two liquids into slime was INSTANT!

 

 

TAH-DAH!

 

 

The fun it created was instant too!

Collin and Colin and Brady and Ben were the first to get their hands in it.

 

 

They were in ooey gooey heaven!

 

 

Even the moms had to try it!

(This is my friend Carrie, whose hair I've been trying to emulate)

 

 

Ben and his buddy Colin were the two most smitten with the slime.

 

 

 

They got the brilliant idea to stick all of Ben's 'guys' in the slime in order to rescue them. 

They also thought to add water to the slime to make it more slippery.

 

Future scientists of America, here is your competition!!

 

 

 

 

I sent each of the boys home with a baggie of slime - we still have ours weeks later, and Ben can't stop talking about making more!