The first FIVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

Well I was going to do Christmas in one big blog, but I still have pictures to upload from days six and seven.

Christmas was long this year and big, so this post will also be long...and it's pictures will be BIG.
Day one.

Christmas Eve.

The children and I arrive at Nana's house around ten in the morning. I set up my Christmas tree for the party that night and kept the fire going all day. Here's the kids opening their big holiday train.

I moved the tree to this table and set up the train around it that night when we got home. Luckily I had already wrapped presents because I was pooped. But it was a marathon not a sprint...

Day two. Christmas.

Barry's mother joined us for presents Christmas morning.

The kids got a Leap Frog Tag Junior and little kiddie digital cameras.

There was an unavoidable Princess theme this year. I've moved past bargaining into acceptance I think.

Then it was off to Josh and Julie's for a huge Christmas dinner and all around shin-dig. Bumpa's tuna fish dip has Gregory's double dipping seal of approval.

This wasn't a present but Dahlia was having such a blast rocking out like "Hannah on Tanna"

Then Christmas exploded. I don't know who gave what but thanks for everything.

Day Three. Even MY excitement for the holiday was waning at this point.
Day three brought dinner at Mom and Bill's and more presents.

By now, my kids are pros at the opening.

Reading a new book all together on the couch. It's about belly buttons so naturally there was a lot of giggling.

We wisely got all the kids into their new Christmas jammies for the ride home. And snapped a quick family photo. Hot damn. Look at all those kids.

Then I raced home and put the kids in bed for Barry and took the baby to a Yankee swap at a friend's. I think at this point I'm just punishing myself to see how much Christmas I shove down my own throat until I resemble the fat man from Monty Python's Meaning of Life before his wafer mint.

The next night was yet another Yankee Swap at the Alvin's. It seems like I get a lot of pictures of Gregory eating. But in my defense, he seems to eat non-stop at party's such as these.

And there was dancing and music, good food and great people and another car load of presents for the kids. Thank you all.

And who ever picks the "special" number gets to swap with anyone but me!

The great storm of '09

Ok, once again I'm way behind in the blogging. I blame the holidays.

So about a week or so before Christmas we got a ton of snow. Here's the playground out back all covered. Barry and I spent a whole day snow blowing and shoveling a very long drive way.

Here are the kids in the snow. Barry shoveled a nice wide path but they still found it. Go figure.

Dahlia was throwing it and then freaking out when the wind brought it back to her face. That's my girl.

Gregory was just being Gregory. I think the extra layer of pants made him a little unsteady on his feet (more so than usual).

Then we went to Nana's to make sure she could get out and to build her a snowman. Dahlia was all about adding little fist fulls of snow all over him.

Gregory was more interested in staying inside with Nana and all the toys.
We used pool toys and a mini bungee-cord for his face.

Fun was had.

Just to set the record straight...

There seemed to be an overwhelming amount of support for the photo of Dahlia feeding Imogen, and I just wanted to set the record straight. That Gregory loves his baby sister too. And when he's not drunk and passing out all over the house...

Exhibit A: time out isn't very effective when the accused falls asleep.
















And Exhibit B: I was trapped there for hours... not cool kids lay off the sauce would 'ya?

I just realized that he has the pillow over her lower half, and it looks like she has no legs. I assure you that is not the case.

So there you have it loyal following; Gregory is getting in his early Dad practice (you know, when he's not hung over, or hosting tea partys)

Happy Holidays!

Oh Christmas tree oh christmas tree, I'll rip off all your branches.

Here's what we've been up to...
A rare moment of Dahlia giving Imogen her bottle. I only let the kids hold the baby when the other one is gone. So Gregory was out that day with Barry and Dahlia got to hold the baby. Other wise they would fight over it and I'm pretty sure the baby would land on her head.






















And Gregory seems to have grown three inches over night. All of a sudden his pants are staying up on their own (most of the time). My little boy is growing up so fast.

















My mom and Bill came over with Christmas trees for the kids and I to decorate. They had a blast. And after a few days and few time outs Gregory has stopped pulling the ornaments off the tree (for the most part).

Oooh pretty. I put the fake one down where they can touch it. The real one is on top of the computer tower.

The next day I made little stars out of a paper bag and tin foil for the tops.

The end.

A day in the life...

• 3:24 - I wake up sweating after roughly four hours of sleep and apparently four hours of the broken heater working full throttle.
• 3:25 - I run to shut off the heat before the bed with my sleeping husband catches fire.
• 3:26 - I tip toe out to the other room only to see that Miss Imogen is still sound asleep and that it's 3:26 in the morning.
• 3:27 - I go back to bed and try to hurry back to sleep. (never works)
• 3:30 - Gregory is standing next to my bed with his blankie and baby doll (yes my son sleeps with a baby doll). He's all sweaty too, the head of his bed is right next to the other heater.
• 3:32 - I tuck him back in bed.
• 3:40 - I tuck him back in bed.

This was a few days ago, but it sort fits in the story here.

• 5:28 - I wake up to the sweet sounds of hungry screaming baby.
• 5:30 - Get up, put on pants, make bottle, change diaper. (yes I can do all that in one minute. Can't you?)
• 6:00 - Imogen and I are awoken by Dahlia standing at the baby gate crying, because she's up too early and she's tired and she wants me.
• 6:30 - Dahlia and I are awoken from our couch snuggling by Gregory wishing to join the party.
• 6:40 - Vitamins, juice boxes and a pile of generic cheerios.
• 7:00 - I blog about my sleep deprived morning while stopping every other minute to whisper-yell at the children to "be quiet" and "share" and "get off the printer Gregory" in my defeated sick non-existent voice.

Later today I get to drag three kids to the doctor's for the baby's one month check up.

This pretty much sums up how I'm feeling.

Story time, haircuts and Halloween.

Dahlia tells stories now... it's pretty much always the same, but I love how serious she is about it.

Things have been pretty crazy here what with new baby and more diapers and less sleep. Dahlia's given up on potty training (at least for me that is), Gregory decided to turn two a little early this year, and all the TERRIBLE that's included with that. And sweet little Imogen likes to sleep all day and party all night.

Here they all are with Aunty Cheri. This is mere minutes before the umbilical cord tearing off incident. Long story short: it was awful! There was blood and tears. She has since been to the doctor and is fine. Perhaps there will be photos of her healed button soon

(it's almost 1st bath time)

So needless to say I haven't been jumping out of bed in the morning to dispense vitamins and cereal as promptly as I might have before the new addition. So one morning when I finally flopped out of bed this is the scene I stumbled upon in the hallway.
"It's cool mom, take your time. We're having a coloring party." (those words were never spoken, merely implied)

The other day Gregory got a long overdue haircut. He's even curls all over now, and looks just like me in college when my hair was growing out. Here he is getting a candy corn reward for sitting as still as anyone could really expect him to.

Friday night we went to Ocean Edge for some Halloween Crafts and games. Here are the kids with cousin Zoe eating some spooky cookies they decorated themselves.

And here's Dahlia in a Mummy wrapping contest with Zoe. She totally should have won, just as Gregory should have won for best costume (in his age group). But they judged by audience noise level and I guess we didn't bring a big enough cheering squad.

Then on Halloween we went over to Darcie and Ron's house and let the kids go around their neighborhood. It was kind of a bust, not many people handing out candy but they had fun and went right to sleep for Barry while I stayed at the party with Imogen.

Here's Dahlia dragging Uncle T.J. to the next house. She knew what was up. She'd been talking about trick or treating for days. The next morning she asked us if Halloween was over. Barry and I told her yes, it was. Her next question was "Is it Christmas now?"
priceless.

It's a Girl! ! ! !

Our story begins with Wednesday night. Barry and I have always prepared for a new baby by having a little date night just before our due date. Since we've always had a scheduled procedure this has been pretty easy to do. So my wonderful husband read my mind and got us The Proposal to watch. It was cute, even crowded around the computer screen. The only problem was I was having contractions. Nothing serous or at least I was doing a very good job to down play them. It was only happening every other hour or so. This of course put Barry on high alert, where as I said a little prayer that my water wouldn't break in the night, put it out of my mind and went to sleep.



The next morning I got punched (actually kicked, but we'll get to that part later) in the cervix as I was stepping into the shower. So I said to myself..."humm" and washed my hair. Then I proceeded to run around the house like a mad woman cleaning for a surprise visit from her in-laws. Barry had to literally take some dirty socks out of my hands and escort me to the car. Side note: I think "Nesting" should be listed in the Big Book of Crazy. In my effort to not make a big deal out of the fact that I was in labor I started announcing turrets-style the time on the clock when I felt a contraction, so that we could keep a eye on it. I don't think it was until after we had stopped for Dunkin Donuts for Barry (another Due Date tradition) that we realized they were three to five minutes apart. I said another little prayer similar to the last only more about Liam's borrowed car we were in. Then I talked Barry out of getting pulled over on purpose in order to get a police escort to the hospital. I wish I were kidding. I did consent to calling my doctor's office to let them know I was in labor. They said my doctor was already at the hospital and they would put me right through. I did stop long enough to take this picture Thursday morning. I'm usually not a fan of "belly"photos, but I had never been this big before and we were all a buzz to see how big this baby was going to be.

So we got to the hospital, Barry wheeled me up to Maternity. I got checked in, went to my room. Got the monitors on. Had some one fuck up an IV in my wrist with the biggest needle ever! They checked me and said I wasn't dilated at all so no worries and no rush. Got prepped for surgery and went in. The spinal tap went smoothly. Barry stood up and watched the whole thing go down on the other side of the curtain. After a few seconds of being pushed on so hard I couldn't breathe I was told there was a butt coming out of me and she was pooping. And Miss Imogen Grace Viprino was born. Barry and I decided on the name right there in the O.R. Later Barry told me all about how they had tried to turn her so she'd come out head first, but I think I'll spare you all that little story. Let's just say my insides feel man handled.

I swear I'm wearing a hospital gown here I'm just not sure why it's being camera shy. So nine pounds and thirteen (and a half) ounces. Twenty and a half inches long. Imogen was the biggest baby in the nursery. I think she scared a set of five pound twins who thought she might steal their lunch money. She skipped preemie clothes and new born diapers all together.

This is her getting burped by one of the nurses in the middle of the night. What a great smoosh face. Get a load of those cheeks!

Here's Daddy and big brother with baby Imogen. Gregory and Dahlia are in love with her. They want to help hold every bottle and burp her. I bet Dahlia would try to change her diaper if I let her.

Dahlia came with Grandma (Barry's mom) and Zoe to visit. I'll have to get some better pictures of all the kids together some time. We had lots of visitors. Here are a few.

My mom.

My stepfather BillBarry's grandparents.
My Dad and stepmother Carol.

Liam, Imogen's godfather.Darcie, Imogen's godmother.Her husband Ron. Isn't he a natural? (wink)
And here's one more of her sweet little chubba-face.

And because my mom never got to see her awake before she went out of town for work I took a little video of Imogen when she had her eyes open for all of fifteen minutes. Lazy baby.

Thank you to everyone who came to see us. And to our family too far away, we hope to see you all very soon. Thank you for all your well wishes. I'm going to go take a nap now... zzzzzzz