Back Blogging: Empire State Building

I know this is old material, but it's gotta make the blog because, c'mon -- it's the Empire State Building. Very cool, I promise. The evening after Thanksgiving (it wasn't THAT long ago, was it??), we decided to take the kids into the city to see some of the Christmas lights and go up to the top of the Empire State Building. 

They love the train, even Natalie, so we headed down to Grand Central, then walked over to Bryant Park, where they set up a huge ice-skating rink, lots of holiday lights and decorations, and a whole village of shops, just for the holiday season. It was really pretty, unfortunately I didn't get a picture. 

But I did get a picture of Minnie Mouse... 

Not a bad gig, if you ask me... Some lady (or man??) dressed up in a Minnie costume and a Snow White dress, to boot. She waves at the kids, then charges Mom and Dad a couple bucks to take a picture with their little darlings. Not a bad way to make some extra cash, eh? Once I get me a Minnie suit, you'll know where to find me in my free time. 

And on to the big event. Pretty cool, eh? I'm glad Brian thought to take this picture, because really, when you get to the top, it's not like you actually get to SEE what the Empire State Building looks like. Especially at night, eh? Our kids were super enthused (read with sarcasm), after the not-so-long-but-not-so-short serpentine line to the elevators...

And then, finally, the views...

Worth the wait, even though it was cold and windy, and dark. New York just looks really good at night, I think...

Looking "up" at the rest of the tower -- turns out they don't really take you ALL the way to the top, but it sure feels high enough, to me...

And down again. In the lobby, they had these really cool Christmasy displays -- not sure if they're there year-round, or just for the holidays? But they were really pretty.

The kids especially liked this one, because the entire "city" is made of candy -- like a giant gingerbread house. Awesome!! (I love Spencer's "smile" here... and Samantha's, come to think of it. Okay, and mine's a little forced, too. ha! But really, we were loving it!)

Brian was smart enough to take a picture of this cool display, highlighting all the "tallest" buildings in the world at the time the Empires State Building was built, and how they all compare...

And he also caught this picture of King Kong...

Seriously, there was a guy dressed in a gorilla costume, standing outside of the elevators on the 66th floor. (They make you change elevators at 66th and ride up another short elevator to the top.) We were standing in line, and we turned around and --WHOAH! Freaky and funny. He didn't say anything, but he looked pretty imposing. Luckily Spencer didn't see him. (He gets really freaked out about "costumes" -- among other things.)

And a few pics of the kids at the top. Natalie looks like she's crying right? Well, I think she was actually just smiling really big. I don't remember her being too upset by the whole adventure....

Spencer on the other hand...

Remember back at the first when I posted a picture of Minnie and me and the kids? Umm... I think that was Spencer's best moment. After that, he just wanted to go home. Part of it was that we mentioned Bryant Park (which is actually just a "square" in the middle of town), and he thought we were taking them to a playground. Oops. 

Another reason for his not-so-happy attitude was that he was sick, but we didn't know it. Poor guy! He was wiped out on the way home, on the train. And by the time we got him into bed, he was running a fever of 103F. We took him to the doctor after a slow, miserable weekend, and found out he had bronchitis, bordering on pneumonia. Not good. 

So, I guess he had a good reason to be a little sad for our outing. The worst of it is that he STILL isn't all the way recovered... He's been congested in one form or another ever since then. I just got him on another course of antibiotics for a double ear infection. We're hoping he makes a full recovery soon -- he's supposed to have a little minor surgery in a couple of weeks here (Jan 23). Prayers for a better boy, eh?




Anyway, that's our story of going to the top of the Empire State Building. Memorable? yes. Enjoyable? sort of. Advisable with three kids at night? ummm... I'm glad we went. Check it off the NY list, eh?

Back blogging: First teeth

Can't believe we're already to the "loose tooth" stage of our kiddos. But it had to happen sometime, eh? So, here she is, our Samantha girl, on November 14, just one month before her sixth birthday... sporting a nice little hole on her bottom row.

 She was sooo excited to lose a tooth, finally. She wiggled it around in her mouth for several days, twisting it back and forth, etc. I tried to pull it one night, before bed time. But it was kind of making me sick, so I told her just to go to bed and it would probably come out the next day.

It did. At school. At lunch, in fact. And... I think she must have swallowed it. She said she was wiggling it around when she was in line for lunch. But then she was eating and noticed it was gone! She looked all around by her lunch bag and on the floor. The lunch monitor even came over and had the custodian stop sweeping so a few teachers could help her look.

No luck. Poor thing. She was pretty sad about it. But then, her teacher helped her write a little note to the Tooth Fairy, explaining the situation. Both she and Mrs. Winter signed it, and Mrs. Winter showed it to me when I came to pick Samantha up from school. (btw -- she ONLY wants to be called Samantha at school, or at church or "any time we're out or people are at our house, Mom." Guess Sammie's a little kid name, now.) So anyway, the Tooth Fairy was very understanding, and took the note instead of the tooth, and left Samantha $3, for all her trouble of losing her first tooth -- and REALLY LOSING it!!

Not to be outdone by her sister, Natalie FINALLY cut her first two teeth a week later, at almost 14 months! Whew! We were starting to wonder if she'd be toothless forever, little cutie. (Actually, my mom tells me I didn't cut a single tooth until 14 months, either, so I guess that was in her genes, turns out!)

 I have tried getting a picture of her tiny, darling little teeth (she cut two at once, yay!)... but she's not very cooperative yet. So instead you just get cute Natalie... tah dah!

Christmas Past

Six years ago.
Pre-blogging time for me.
My first moments of motherhood. Tonight I want to share...

For some reason, I feel like I've been visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past this year. All through the season, I've found myself thinking and reflecting on the Christmas season the year Samantha was born. What sweet, overpowering memories I have of that amazing, new experience of welcoming our first baby into our life. Actually, I may be oversimplifying things when I say it that way. I recall some very tender, wonderful memories with that tiny new baby, but I also look at these pictures, and remember how completely, utterly exhausted and overwhelmed I was!

Samantha was born 11 days before Christmas. Her original due date was December 24th -- Christmas Eve. I was sooo worried I would have a Christmas baby. But nope. Ten days early, on December 14th... I woke up and knew my water was leaking. But I kept my dental appointment (nice to have clean teeth to deliver that baby, right?), then took the Tube over to the hospital. On that last stop before the hospital, I was sitting down when I felt my waters break. What to do? I just stayed seated, hoped no one would notice, then quietly excused myself and left a wet seat. (So gross, I know. But I certainly wasn't up for making an announcement. so...) I walked myself to the hospital, checked myself in, and got some lunch first thing. I wasn't making much progress on my own, so by mid-afternoon I opted for an epidural and some cintocen -- as they call it over there (pit). Brian packed up his stuff from work, went home and got my stuff for me, and came to be with me. He watched a movie while we waited, until I made him turn it off. Ha!

Samantha was born at 10:20 p.m. It was the most beautiful moment of my life. We had decided to have a "surprise" baby, so I didn't even know if she was a boy or girl. And I didn't care. Not one bit. In fact, it didn't even occur to me to ask, as I saw that little baby on my stomach. I was surprised to hear Brian whisper, softly, "It's a girl." Other than his soft whisper, the room was so quiet and still. Samantha didn't cry. At all. She just laid there, looking all around at us. Her hair was bright red, and her lips were, too... so pretty. So tiny. So perfect. The doctor kept telling us she was a really pretty baby, and that her head was perfectly shaped -- like a cesarean section baby.

Wow. What sweet memories of our first baby. First feedings.First baths. First long, endless, sleepless nights. I remember, the night before Christmas Eve, Samantha gave me the best present -- she slept for nearly six hours, in the middle of the night! I felt soooo refreshed on Christmas Eve day. I even insisted we go shopping, so we could buy a little Christmas dress for our baby to wear to church the next day. (We hadn't bought anything in advance, not knowing if she was a girl or boy, remember?) Ah yes, Christmas was a Sunday that year -- maybe that's why I'm having all these memories again? This is the first year since then that we've had another Christmas on Sunday.

I finally found a perfect little pink dress that was probably going to drown our newborn, but I didn't care. I was proud of it. We went home, and this darling, unpredictable newborn did not sleep. At all.
All.
Night.
Long.
Oh what a Christmas Eve we had, Samantha and I. Brian's brother, Reed, was living with us at the time, and I was so afraid my crying baby was waking him and/or Brian... I went downstairs to the couch, turned on the Christmas lights and a Christmas CD. For hours, I held my little Samantha, and cuddled her, rocked her, nursed her, etc... hours and hours. I remember feeling so exhausted, yet loving the feeling of holding my baby with only the Christmas lights and music. I loved thinking it was Christmas Eve, and here I was with my tiny little baby -- yes, a little like Mary, I thought.

Samantha loved looking at the lights on the tree, loved Amy Grant's Christmas carols, loved nursing me sore, loved being rocked at an extremely awkward angle right in front of my body perpendicular to me... all this she loved. But she didn't love sleeping.

In my journal, I think I recorded that she only slept about 1 1/2 hours total between 11 p.m. and 8 a.m. -- only sleeping in 20-minute intervals. Which meant I didn't really sleep AT ALL. Finally, at 8 o'clock, as the sun was rising, we both drifted off to sleep. We missed church, and I cried and cried all Christmas day. Scott and Alicia called to tell us they were headed to the hospital to have THEIR Christmas baby -- and I slept through the call. Then I cried about that. Then cried about missing my family and spending another Christmas away from home. Then cried about having to nurse again. (ouch!) Mainly, I was just exhausted, I know. But I thought it was crummy trick to have a newborn at Christmas. ha! I kept sniffling, saying, "I hate that it's Christmas and I feel like this!!" Poor Brian and Reed. What to do with a hormonal, sleep-deprived new mother? They mainly left me to myself, and made me delicious soup for Christmas supper.

And, of course, Brian took his turns holding our little angel, as often as he could...

Oh, I look back now and wish I could tell myself to embrace that Christmas Spirit for that day. Remember the sweetness of that tiny, innocent little baby. Let Brian take more turns, like he wanted to. I wish I could tell myself to just savor it all, even though I thought that's what I was doing -- take more pictures, take more moments to look at those tiny red lips and itsy bitsy toes. Let her sleep on my stomach, if that makes her happy. Let her sleep in my bed sometimes, if that makes her Daddy happy. Let Jenny show me how to swaddle her properly -- much earlier than six weeks! Let that nursing consultant come back for a second round even though I stood her up accidentally that first time -- it's her job, after all. Kiss those perfect cheeks even more, and breathe in that new baby smell even more. Write it all down, make more paper memories, because she'll want to hear about them, all.

I loved that Christmas, (even the part where I was crying and sad), because I was finally, for the first Christmas ever, a mother -- what I always wanted to be.

Goodnight, Ghost of Christmas Past. 

And goodnight, tiny newborn Samantha of six years ago... 

Thanks for the memories.

 

Christmas, lovely Christmas.

It was a lovely holiday, even though we're far away from home. It all got over too quickly, -- my only real complaint. What I liked about this Christmas was that I didn't feel a lot of the stress I normally feel surrounding the whole month of December. I shopped earlier than usual, and -- thanks to Brian -- had most of our presents wrapped BEFORE 11 p.m. on Christmas Eve. It was nice. I still felt a bit overwhelmed and frustrated from time to time, but not that frantic, over-the-top kind of stress I sometimes seem to develop at high-intensity moments, like Christmas.

We had a little Christmas Eve party at our house with a couple of families we know from church. Let's be honest, isn't Christmas Eve mainly about the food?? Oh, we had some delectable-ness going on at our house... bbq wings, layered salad (the kind with bacon and peas), ham and cheese rolls, dill dip and veggies, slushie drinks, caramel turtle brownies, almond fudge on shortbread, peanut butter fudge, gingerbread cake... I'm sure I missed some other wonderfulness (but you can bet I didn't miss sampling ANY of it, abundantly, that night!!)

We attempted a little nativity play with the children. It wasn't our best ever -- two wanted to be Mary, two wanted to be an angel, no one wanted to be Joseph, the shepherd didn't want to wear a "hat", innkeeper kinda wanted to follow Joseph and Mary on their walk through Bethlehem, Natalie wanted to steal the baby Jesus from his manger (or add extra "babies" to join him), and we didn't even attempt to add wise men. But hopefully the kids got a something out of it. And they looked cute, for sure!

Christmas morning was quiet at our house. The picture above is from just before the kids woke up. I set my alarm for 8 a.m., thinking for SURE the kids would be up long before it went off. But nope. We ended up having to wake them, so they could open presents before we had to get ready for church. ha! I guess our Christmas Eve party wore them out!

It was a really sweet Christmas morning. Skates and art stuff for Samantha, a dump truck and cement mixer truck for Spencer, a big slide and a back pack and baby doll for Natalie, pillow pets all around ("Santa read the back of my mind about the Pillow Pet" was Samantha's exact quote.)... Happy kids! One fun gift... I got a HUGE stuffed bear from Costco for Brian. It was something we saw way back in October, and he just thought it was soooo cool -- a big ol' bear. So, I got it for him when I was grocery shopping with just Nat and Spence. Well, that very day that I bought it, when Daddy came home from work, first thing Spencer said to him was, "we got you a big bear from Costco as a surprise, Daddy." Nice. I had even hidden it away in the attic, where I was SURE Brian wouldn't find it. Oh well. It was really for the kids, anyway, right? I just thought it would be funny for it to be for "Daddy" on Christmas morning. :)

Brian got me/us a GPS for Christmas. Can I please say that again?? We got A GPS!!! HOORAY!! I'm so proud of him for taking my very blunt hints all month long, and coming up with EXACTLY what I wanted. :) (No more crying, helpless, lost, frustrated Kamber, wandering aimlessly around NY! whew!!) He also got me some other very thoughtful gifts... MAC make-up and gift card, a nice zip-up sweater, etc. And in turn, I picked up on his "we should get a Kindle" hint,, and got him a Kindle. Surprise! And some clothes (boring). And a CD.

The day went like this...  

wake up. open presents with the kids. I shower while Brian makes breakfast for the kids. I eat peanut butter fudge for breakfast, again. hurry and get everyone ready for church. cry (just a tiny bit) on the way to church because we're running late and I'm supposed to play the organ. miraculously arrive 5 mins before the meeting is set to start and breathe a sigh of relief and an apology to Brian for my stress and tears. play the organ for the first half of the meeting then let the bishop play for the second half since no one let me know in advance that there was a "program" I was to rehearse. go home and play with Christmas toys. make a delicious green salad and head to the Anguses for a very festive, fancy Christmas dinner complete with ham, pork, lamb and turkey, stuffing and sweet potatoes, and frozen berries in our ice cubes (so fancy my kids didn't know what to do with them, ha!), and cloth napkins and Martinellis and Australian pavlova. mmmm!! a sweet moment watching Natalie sit on Kerry Angus' lap, eating pavlova and waiting very expectantly for every "next" bite. a little Christmas program with some singing, stories and a lovely Christmas prayer. a cartoon video about the birth of the Savior (still to scary for Samantha, who couldn't bear to watch wicked King Herod). home again, home again for a few more minutes to play with toys before bed. quick "Merry Christmas" phone call home. early bed night for me -- 11 p.m! Brian kept talking to his parents and sister for a few more hours before turning in. A lovely Christmasy day. Kinda sad it's all over.

The day after Christmas we were lazy slugs, living on leftovers and fudge, playing with all our new gifts, etc. We went for a walk around the neighborhood so Samantha could try out her new skates. She is a bit daunted, sad to say. "I'll NEVER get the hang of this!" -- was her final comment as we headed back in the house. But I bet she'll try again soon. She's not one to stay daunted for long, we know! Here she is with Natalie, right after skating practice ended...

And here's one of Nat, in her big puffy pink coat, which she loves, and which makes her look even more adorable than ever, if that's even possible...

In the evening, we took a drive down to Brooklyn to check out some fancy Christmas lights I'd seen listed on someone's blog. Dyker Heights Christmas lights -- an entire neighborhood in the Italian sector has gone CRAZY with Christmas lights. And we loved it. The kids convinced us we'd enjoy it a lot more if we got out and walked around to see the lights. So we did. And it was worth the cold hands and runny noses. It was my favorite Christmas treat of the season, I've decided. I leave you with this bunch of photos, which really deserves its own post (but isn't going to get it tonight)...

(Yes, the kids were in their pajamas. Smart parents, eh?)

Kinda hard to see (below), but there are 30 foot-high nutcrackers in the background of this picture. They're real. Some lady standing next to us said she heard they were brought in with a crane!!

Giant Santa... almost a little bit scary, but cool, too. I like Samantha's quizzical look.

A more distant shot of the nutcracker house..

Three happy kids, ready to head home, fall asleep in the car, and be lifted carefully into bed by mom and dad at 10 p.m...

Pictures with Santa

 I already mentioned our ward party, right? It was really nicely done! They even had Santa Claus come for a visit. With free professional pictures! So fun!! Brian took the kids in to get their pictures and visits with Santa, while I was helping out in the kitchen. Samantha wants... a lot. Dollhouse (where will we put it??), sled, skates, teddy bear, umm.... Santa will have to look at his list for the rest.

Spencer wants a dump truck and a digger. And Samantha always instructs him that he should also ask for "some surprises," because, "you never know!"

Sadly, it looks like Natalie did not get a visit with Santa. Poor Brian was trying to manage all three kids while I was helping out in the kitchen. So, I think Nat stayed relegated to the stroller. Too bad. I LOVE seeing babies' FIRST real encounters with Santa. ha ha! Am I morbid? I think it's so funny how they usually start bawling like crazy. 

We may be trying to take the kids to meet the REAL Santa down on 34th Street in the City tomorrow, so Natalie can have her chance to shine. We'll see. If not, well, at least the kids got some really cute pics, eh?!

My favorite new gingerbread

I've fallen in love with this recipe. My friend's mom made these for a little "ladies' night" jewelry party we had last Christmas. I asked for the recipe then, but didn't get around to making this lovely little treat until just a few weeks ago. Oh my! I think I've made six batches, for various occasions, so far this month. I now have the recipe memorized, and have bought a new, bigger jar of molasses to continue my addiction. I know I said I wouldn't make this into a foodie blog. But trust me, you'll want to try this one... It's just that easy, and that good! 

(We put m&ms in ours, just to make it festive. Red hots would be better, but CVS had none.) Enjoy!!

Quick Ginger Snap Bars

1 c. sugar    

1/2 c. oil    

1/4 c. molasses    

1 egg      

Mix the above ingredients together, then add:
2 c. flour    

1 1/2 tsp baking soda    

1/2 tsp salt    

3/4 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp ginger

3/4 tsp cloves

Divide dough into two balls. Roll each ball into a log about 12 inches long. Put both logs on one large cookie sheet. Flatten each about 3 inches wide, sprinkle with sugar, bake 9-10 min at 375. Bars will spread to fill up the cookie sheet. Cool a little and cut into bars while warm.

(Thanks to Ann McDowell and her mom for this one!!)

Not Blogging

You may have noticed -- I'm not blogging these days.
Just busy, you know?
And I never can find the camera to upload pics. And one computer is broken.

But if I were blogging, I'd blog about some of these things, in depth...

-- Samantha turned six. I am so excited to have a BIG six-year-old girl!! She's so cute and already seems so grown up. To me, it seems like she's been six for the past several months anyway, so I'm glad she finally gets to BE as old as she's seemed. ;) She had a great birthday -- got to wear a birthday crown at school, got to bring in treats (well, fruit, actually -- no REAL treats cuz everyone's allergic, apparently). And she had a fun birthday party with friends, followed by a fun party with family. I definitely have to give her a full post tribute. Soon. I promise.

-- Samantha was in her first school holiday program. It was so fun to see our girlie up there singing her little heart out. She knew ALL the words, and sang with great gusto. One funny thing... when they opened the curtains on the stage, all the kids were on the risers being so still and reverent, and all the parents in the audience were WAVING, almost uncontrollably, at their kids. It was so funny to me. Isn't is supposed to be the other way around? But no, those kids kept their composure, for the most part -- only three or four of the 100 kids that were up there actually waved back. Samantha didn't... not even once the entire program. But she did acknowledge that she saw us and our waves, with a bigger smile, an eyebrow raise, and a small upward tilt of the head. So proper, our little stage lady!!

-- Spencer is doing better at night. And is doing somewhat better with some of his other anxieties, as well. He still wakes almost every night, but is getting much easier to settle back, for the most part. Thank you so much for all your advice -- I've tried some of it and have found it very helpful. We're seeing progress, which means a lot.

-- At church this past week, we had our ward Christmas party. My good friend, Lindsay, was in charge of it. I wish I would have taken pictures of it, because it was really fun!! It looked really elegant and festive, and the food was delicious. They had a variety show, and Brian and I were on the program, believe it or not. You don't picture us the stage-y type, I bet? Well, we were actually the first act -- a magic trick, where we made a ba-dana disappear. hee hee. You'll have to ask the kids about it, they still can't stop talking about it, and keep asking me to retell them how we did the whole thing. (Brian told me to pick up a bandanna, but I picked up a banana, instead...)

-- The season is moving right along, and I have eaten more gingerbread than any one lady of my age should consume in such a short time. Seriously, I never even liked gingerbread until this year. I have found my perfect gingerbread recipe, and have probably made six batches of it in the last two weeks. Sooooo good. I will have to share the recipe. (When I'm blogging.)

-- My mom had back surgery. The big major kind where they used words like "grinding bone" and "locked vertebrae."  It's a long, slow recovery, but she's doing really well. I got to go home and see her for a few days at the first of the month -- just Natalie and me. It was a great trip, though I hate to see her not up to her normal, best self. She's in my thoughts and prayers so much right now.

-- My parents like a fun book series that parallels "Pride and Prejudice." They introduced the series to me a few years ago, and I really enjoyed it, too. (It basically tells the tale from Mr. Darcy's viewpoint.) Well, my dad has read the series multiple times (yep. my DAD... the Louis La'Mour lovin' cowboy guy). I decided to get them the series on CD, so my mom could listen to it while she's laid up, and my dad could also listen to it while he drives around (which he does a lot). But they don't have it on CD. So I made my own recording for them. ha! I sound kinda nerdy trying to do all the voices and get the inflections right. But it's been kinda fun. I gave them the first book when I went to see them (7 full CDs), and plan to give them the other two for a Christmas gift.

-- For the rest of our gifts, I think we're almost finished. Hooray!! We have amazon.com to thank for a lot of our fun gifts we're giving (and receiving) this year. Nothing quite so personal as a package brought to your door, right?? :) I'm proud to say I've actually sent most of our Christmas cards this year. That's sayin' something, ya know?!?

Welp. That's all the time I have right now. My bed is calling me. And so is the ham soup that I left on the stove, that needs to be redished and put in the fridge for the night. So...
g'night, y'all.

I hope I'll be back to blogging for REAL sometime soon.

Problem with baby dolls

Samantha was getting into bed tonight, and, after prayers and hugs, she cuddled up next to one of her favorite dolls. I was about to leave the room when she said,

"You know what the problem with baby dolls is, Mom?"
"What?" I asked her.
"I just can't stop nibbling at their cute little plastic hands and feet." 

With that, she picked up the doll and gave her a nice nibble on the toes. I don't know why, but it was just so funny to me. Gotta love my little five year old (soon to be SIX)!!

ps. Thanks for all the comments and ideas for helping our little frightened Spencer boy. We're still working through it -- some nights are better than others. Last night was NOT better. But tonight (so far), seems to be pretty good. I do appreciate the support and suggestions!!