Riley and Avery

[Fresh out of the bathtub, hanging their stockings.]

[Preparing treats for Santa (candy cane cookies and chocolate rice milk) and the reindeer (oatmeal, celery, and a carrot)]

[Avery admiring her tube of My Little Ponies]

[Avery was pretty happy with her stocking and probably could have gone without presents.]

[The (empty) stockings that I made the girls this year. I'm not making any more any year soon, that's for sure. The girls picked out their fabrics on their own.]

[Just a cute Avery picture! By the way, Mom, that's a scratch beside Avery's nose, courtesy of Riley, not dirt!]

[The Naked Girls playing with their new toys. Riley's wearing her Huggalugs on her arms. She loves them. She had the "pirate" ones on her legs, but took them off because she was sweating.]

[Riley contemplating her next culinary creation!]

[When it comes to present un-wrapping, Avery turned pro sometime between her birthday and Christmas. She was so involved in unwrapping that she would forget to look at the gift.]

Christmas Eve sucked. It just totally sucked. I hadn't finished the girls' stockings, so I let them take a later nap than normal so I could work on them and then they wouldn't go to sleep at night. I finally got them down at 11 pm, and Avery kept waking up every 20 minutes or so and wouldn't let me go. Then I finally got her to sleep soundly around 1 or 2am and Riley woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep until around 5 am. All I got were little snatches of sleep. I think I could fall over and slip into a lovely coma. At least they both slept for about 45 minutes to start with so I got to put the presents under the tree and stuff the stockings before they interrupted me. One really annoying conversations I had with Riley as she was struggling to sleep so that Santa could come last night went like this:
Riley: Am I asleep yet?
Me: No.
Riley: Well, I was and you just woke me up by talking!
ARGH! And in my acute mental fog, I fell for this about a dozen infuriating times.

Riley and Avery really made out this year. Sometimes you don't realize that you've gone overboard until you see all the presents crowded under the tree. Luckily we have a sparse tree and not all that many branches to get in the way. The treehouse we got the girls is really huge and really well made, standing taller than Riley. Both girls love working the pulleys, but already fight over the large bucket so that they can move the people from one level to another via bucket. Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Allan got them a Ryan's Room Fairyland Forest and the girls love the bright colors and all the fairies. Pulleys must be the thing, because this one has one that goes around the set with fairy chairs hanging from it. Riley whips it around like an amusement park ride. Poor fairies. Of course, we had to get Riley a Littlest Pet Shop playset and Avery a My Little Pony playset. The girls got fairy and princess cookbooks from Auntie Mina, Uncle Brendan and the boys. I thought they would have a stroke when they saw all the colorful treats they can make. When we next have money I'll take them shopping for ingredients. I always feel crass when talking about what I got, so I'll pass on that...

I also got Riley some quality books. She's been choosing really annoying books lately. In fact, I returned her Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand back to Barnes and Noble because I found it nauseatingly written. I simply couldn't read it. The characters were one-dimensional and the plot was unfocused, and oh my goodness, the dialog was unreadable. We're working on Mr. Popper's Penguins now and find that much more enjoyable. Perhaps I should have taught her to persevere, but I also want her to develop discriminating taste when it comes to books. It always baffled me when Rudi would finish a 800 page book, and when I asked him how it was, he's say it sucked. Then why finish reading it? Or like the time I watched Scent of a Woman, and found it so horrible that I physically got sick to my stomach, and yet I kept watching it to see if it got better, and it never did. I guess that's when I learned not to waste my life on sub-standard movies and books. Anyway, for Christmas she received a beautifully illustrated collection of Aesop's fables and The Water Hole by Graeme Base.

Riley definitely has enough toys, so I'm focusing on art and craft supplies for her birthday. What she really needs is an art cabinet to organize all of her supplies and store her finished art. Right now her art is taking up all of the under-cabinet space in our kitchen. I've got a bunch of stuff picked out from Discount School Supply online, so hopefully Rudi's unemployment will go through and we'll have money to buy her stuff. As it is, if we pay the absolute bare minimum on our bills, we'll have about $250 left over for food/gas/etc for the entire month. Which means a lot of going no where and a lot of ramen noodles and plain rice. February won't be so bad, but I'm not getting my VA education payment in January since I barely had classes in December. Well, I had seven days of classes, so I should get a little more than $200, but will need to spend that on books since classes start 1/16. I won't get my full benefits in February either, but it'll be close to $450 so that'll be fabulous. Once I get my full benefits in March, we'll be okay. Until the semester ends again.

Riley's face painted at the Walmart holiday party (not commenting on the quality of the work, but Riley looks cute!)

The best present over: The huge box that the presents came in from Grandma and Grandpa. Note that the box has a "doorbell" hanging on it.

The girls' idea of decorating the tree involves hanging ALL of the ornaments on the branches that they can reach.

I'm getting impatient for Christmas. All the wrapping is done and now I can't wait to give the girls and Rudi their presents! I got Rudi an iPod nano for Christmas, before he was fired. He told me to take whatever I got him back to the store, but I had already opened the iPod and uploaded pictures and music to it, so there goes that. Which is fine because we haven't exchanged gifts since Riley was born. Plus, I'm tired of him buying a new disc-man every month, only to have them break a week or so later. Then I get to hear him cursing in the middle of the night, and the *click*click*click* of him changing the batteries and the *click*click*click* of him taking batteries from the remote controls and every other battery-operated thing to try them to see if they work. Then, if I'm really lucky, he'll tromp downstairs to get the battery recharger and I get to hear that *click*click*click*. Then more cursing and such, all at 3am. Not cool. I got him a hard case for the iPod, so hopefully he won't manage to break it. And perhaps it will get him to go to the gym more often, which in itself is worth the cost of the iPod. I hope he likes it!

Ugh, I'm so far behind on blogging! I still have to post tree-decorating pictures, as well as pictures from our trip to the Electric Safari at the zoo. Better get cracking...

The tree decorating pictures will have to wait since we've been slowly doing that over the course of days, and usually the girls aren't dressed in a way that Grandma would approve of!

So we piled the kiddos on the car on Wednesday and drove out to Woodland Park to Pike National forest to legally chop down our own tree. The permit was only $10, so you can't beat that. There was a lot more snow on the ground than we had anticipated, so we couldn't hike too far in for a tree. I went in with the idea of purposely getting a tree that did not look like a lot tree. I wanted a tree that looked like a real tree. Rudi is going around looking for a lot tree. I finally convinced him on a sparse-looking tree with dozens of pine cones still attached to it. It was about four or five feet too tall, but he chopped it down and cut it down to size at home.

Next year we'll go a little earlier in the cutting season and bring our snowshoes. We also decided to get the girls their own snowshoes next winter. Riley will definitely be big enough. We'll see about Avery, she may still need to be worn.

So I sold my three books back to the school for a whopping $130!! Holy cow, UMBC never paid that much. Especially considering that I bought them on Amazon for $75 total! Sweet!

We've been filling out applications left and right. I am pretty much willing to work anywhere, but Rudi is being more picky. That's fine with me. If I work for a month or two it'll give Rudi time to find something that he doesn't hate everyday. It's actually been nice having him home, for once. I guess it makes a difference that it wasn't really his fault that he got fired, and that I'm not mad at him for it. When money starts getting a little tighter, I'm sure things won't be so rosy, but we're not letting it kill our holiday spirit. There's a brand-new Costco opening up about two miles from our house. It's supposed to be a great company to work for, like they practice what they preach, unlike Walmart. If Rudi can get in there, we'll be golden. But I'm not sure exactly when they are opening, I think about a month or two. Definitely within 12 weeks, since you can't apply for a job there until the store is 12 weeks from opening. I just don't know if we can wait 12 weeks for Rudi to get a job. Hopefully it's much less.

I filed an unemployment claim against Walmart. I'm sure they'll fight it tooth and nail and we'll get nothing, but at least I'm trying. In Colorado an employer can fire an employee without cause, but as far as unemployment goes, unjustified firing is the same as laying off. Otherwise, all companies would just fire employees without cause rather than laying them off and having to pay unemployment.

I am filling out an application at Mountain Mamas Natural Foods. Hopefully I'll be able to get a job somewhere. Anywhere.

I just thought of something. Being in the paralegal program, we get free unlimited access to Westlaw, which is the premier online database for cases, case history, and precedence. Most law firms cannot afford Westlaw because Westlaw charges lawyers $36 per minute to use their database, and the lawyers usually turn around and charge the client about $60 per minute for the research. Holy cow, my access to Westlaw is golden. I could probably get hired by a law firm now as a legal secretary now just based on my access to Westlaw! By the time my Westlaw access ends I'll be a full-fledged paralegal. Oh yeah! Not that I'd do it, but just because I could...

Just a quick one to gloat about my straight A's!! Yeah, I rock!

PPCC 21355 ACC 101 Fundamentals of Accounting PPCC Online Campus A
PPCC 22242 PAR 115 Introduction to Law PPCC DownTown Studio Campus A
PPCC 24252 PAR 116 Torts PPCC DownTown Studio Campus A
PPCC 22329 PAR 127 Legal Ethics PPCC DownTown Studio Campus A

To be honest, I think the accounting teacher graded on a curve. I'm pretty sure I had a rock-solid B. Two-thirds of the class dropped out, so I'm pretty sure she just gave me the A. Not that I'm complaining...

We put up the tree today, so I'll post pictures of that later...didn't want to wait for photos to upload to share the news on my grades.

So, we got a little bit of snow recently. Not too bad, it's just really cold out. When did I become a snow-hater? I vividly remember playing happily in the snow as a kid. So when did this happen? I mean, I HATE snow. I know I should be taking the kids out sledding and such, but did I mention that I hate snow? And Avery is a little too young to really enjoy playing in it. She just stands there, heaven forbid if snow actually falls in her hair or if she gets a snowflake on her cheek. Colorado snow is so dry that there's really nothing yo can do with it. We tried in vain to make a snowman (okay, I didn't try all that hard, but I know defeat when I see it). The snow just doesn't hold together. Perhaps when it starts to melt a little bit, the snow will get more moist and hold together.

So I've been in a cooking slump. Sick of everything that I normally make and without enough time to find a recipe that interests me. Now that I'm done with school (YIPPEE!!) I've been browsing recipes. So yesterday I made luau chicken with a side of coconut rice. Holy moly, totally delicious. And it smelled so good while it was cooking. Mmmmm...I'm heating myself up some more now. We had some dried apricots that no one was going to eat, so I diced some up and put them in to cook with the rice. Nice. Different in a good way. The luau chicken did call for green peppers, which Rudi despises. I usually need to cut them big so he can avoid them, or cut them tiny so he doesn't notice them. I chose big this time.

It was nice yesterday not to have to do any school work. I was barely on the computer at all. Well, I did check in rather frequently to see if any grades have been posted, but I was only connected to the internet for a few minutes each time. Well, obviously I'm on the computer right now...On Sunday I was literally on the computer from when I got up on the morning until 1am, working on my accounting projects. Literally. The kids were running wild like little heathens. It felt so good to hit the mattress that night. So happy to be done with Accounting. I am doubting that I was able to finagle an A, but if not, it was a hard-earned B. What kind of idiot takes accounting as an elective anyway? I should have learned my lesson when I took calculus as an elective at UMBC. Duh. If a class is going to be hard, it might as well be interesting. Next semester I'm taking Native Americans of North America, an anthropology class. I've been told by professors that I need to take anthropology classes, based on how I debate issues. They said it would be interesting to me. We'll see.

Riley went througha little jag where she wasn't very interested in tea, so she wasn't getting her chamomile/lavender/catnip infusions for a few days, and I really noticed a difference. So I guess it's working. Her evaluation with the developmental pediatrician is next month, so I want to get this just a little under control. Rudi would be totally okay with medicating Riley, as long as it makes his life easier. I'm totally NOT okay with it. In order to avoid marital strife, I hope that this guy will have alternative ideas as well. Rudi puts a lot of faith in medications and modern medicine. He's okay with not vaccinating anymore, but this thing with Riley really drives him crazy. He is her father, so I have to take his ideas seriously, but I hope he doesn't advocate medicating Riley.

Oh, I think Rudi returned a library movie to Blockbuster, so I have to go give them a call. It's Avery's favorite Care Bears movie.

So Rudi has been taking Riley and Avery to storytime at the library every Wednesday evening when I'm at school. Recently she's learned a lot of holiday-themed finger-plays, which is fine by me. But she's also been learning a lot more about Santa than I feel comfortable with. I don't know for sure if she learned it at storytime, but I know that she's not learning it in school, but perhaps she's learning it from kids at school...Anyway, she's all over baking cookies for Santa and leaving carrots for the reindeer. And I've never been comfortable with the idea of asking Santa for anything. It just rubs me the wrong way, it's greedy. Especially since we've already finished gift-buying for Riley, so what if she asks for something we didn't get her? I'm fine letting Riley determine what she wants to believe in, and if she choses to believe in Santa that's fine with me. But now all she talks about is Santa, and what cookies we are going to leave for him, if we have carrots for the reindeer, she's writing "letters" to Santa, and even wrote him an invitation to her birthday party. It's going way too far. I don't feel comfortable actively deceiving her. I'm at a totally loss at what to do. How do I explain to her that Santa isn't going to come to her birthday party? I have never taught her a thing about Santa because I wasn't sure if we would do the Santa thing, but she's picked it up like the plague.

These pictures are from Walmart's holiday party. Riley got her present from Santa, then sat on his lap, then went back because she forgot to "read" him her list, then went back because she forgot to invite him to her birthday party, she wanted to go back to tell Santa about her canker sore (but we dissuaded her that time), then she went back to give him a hug and a kiss, then she went back to say goodbye, then she went back to give him her cheesy smile. Before we went there, Riley kept asking if it was going to be the real Santa or a fake Santa, and I didn't want to go there, so I put the question back onto her. Then she said "I know how we can tell if he's fake. If he can't even stand up, then he's fake." And it dawned on me that the fact that someone would pretend to be Santa never occurred to her. She thought it would be a Santa that wasn't even a person.

Avery was horrified of Santa (and she said earlier that she was going to ask him for a Care Bear) she clung to be saying "scared! Scared! Home! Home!" Poor little thing.

By the way, Avery can count! I didn't hear the whole series, because I was just happening by when I heard her. She was pulling pencils out of the pencil cup and putting them in her hand. I heard her say "five, six, seven, eight" then she stopped because she noticed I was watching. Smart girl! I'm sure she learned that from Riley because Riley is a number-oriented person, for sure. I don't know what number she started with or how far she could have gone, but that was a surprise!

I have snow pictures, but I think I'll save them for the next post!

Just a quick one because I'm really angry at Beco right now. They must have their heads in their butts or something! Shortly after buying the Beco, I unbuckled the shoulder straps to do a front carry with Avery (since she was sleeping) so that I could cross the straps inthe back. Well, I forgot all about the chest strap and one half of it slipped off the end of the strap. So, for a whopping $8.50, I order a replacement from Beco. I get a payment confirmation from PayPal, but no receipt or confirmation or shipment notification from Beco. So I wait two weeks (actually I forgot all about the order with all the holiday shopping and such) and receive nothing, no communication, no chest strap. Meanwhile, I realize that Dani at Baby Cotton Bottoms has them in stock and I just could have swung by. So I shoot off an email to Beco saying that I needed a reply by Thursday (last Thursday) or I'll dispute the charges. They send me a shipment notification last Thursday, saying it was shipping via USPS Priority Mail with 2-3 day delivery. No apology, no personal communication, just an electronically generated email. Well, it's a week later and I don't have the chest strap yet. So I look further into the shipment notification and track it online, and it turns out that they merely generated a shipment label last Thursday, but didn't actually ship it until yesterday. I swear, nearly four weeks to receive a chest strap! Argh!! I think I'm going to refuse the package and reverse the payment and just buy local from Dani, just to spite them. Beco has been a craze for a while now in the babywearing community, so no "growing pains" excuse will fly with me...

Just had to vent a little!

We celebrated Avery's birthday yesterday. It was a blast. Avery still does not quite "get" unwrapping presents. Christmas will probably teach her. Rudi got her a cake on Sunday, since he works right next to the bakery. I asked him to take a look at the cakes and what they had, and he bought one instead. So we were under a time-crunch to have the party before the cake went bad. Also, he's only off on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so those days are our only options. Avery loves the doll, and the doll clothes and cloth doll diapers we got her also fit her other dolls, so that's a bonus. She loves putting the doll in the cradle that Grandma and Grandpa got her and kissing the baby goodnight. The My Little Pony baby that Auntie Mina and Uncle Brendan sent was a big hit too. It's funny, the pony talks, and no matter what it says, Avery always says "no!" or "uh-uh!" She's such a mean mommy.

I've been pretty hard-core about not putting up decorations before Avery's birthday, which was another motivating factor for having her party a few days early rather than a few days late. We are going to Woodland Park to Pike National Forest next Tuesday to cut our own tree. Permits are $10 and you have to hike in and find a tree, cut it down, and drag it back to your car. Sounds like the stuff movies are made of. If the weather next week is anything like it's been this week, it at least shouldn't be too cold. I'll most likely wear Avery and Riley will just have to hike. Rudi might be able to carry her in, but he'll be dragging the tree out. If there's snow we might bring the sled and I can pull Riley while wearing Avery...

I'm having a really difficult time thinking of presents for Avery for Christmas. when I was wrapping presents, I found that we had several for Riley and only two for Avery, a My Little Pony playset and a book. I searched Oompa for literally days and could only find a puzzle, so that's on it's way. I did order fabric to make aprons for the girls, but that doesn't really help me even out the gifts, because I'm making one for each of them. Rudi got Riley a digital kids camera which she'll go ape over for sure. I've wandered around Toys R Us, Target, Walmart, and two independent toy stores and just couldn't find anything for her. None of the other doll stuff really fits with our parenting style (baby doll swings, car seats to carry the baby doll in, etc.). She loves the train set we have, but I bought it at a yard sale, so I don't think I'd be able to find accessories for it. Ugh, I just don't know.

I'm supposed to be studying for finals, so I'm going to go do that now. And wait for the pictures to load.