Trains at the Hershey Antique Auto Museum

Our good friend Cindy met us at the Hershey Antique Auto museum this afternoon and treated us to tickets to see the train display and the museum decked out in lights and Christmas decorations. Owen LOVED the trains! He cried big tears when we had to leave. (The lady had to actually shut them off so that we took the hint that they were closing up, ha!)


Thank you so much Cindy! So great to see you and catch up!

Christmas cookies!

This morning we baked Christmas cookies with Gigi! She found an incredible recipe for spritz cookies and Owen did a great job of decorating with the sprinkles. :)


At one point when Grandma and I were cleaning up (Vivi napped the entire time we baked), Owen was also cleaning up - a marble game that he had been playing with. He proudly showed me how he fit all the pieces back into the box (completely on his own - if you know me, I would have just shoved them all in the box - this shows how much he is like his father.)

Visiting Gigi in Hershey

Today we packed up and headed to Hershey for a few days to visit Gigi and my friends Amy and Rochelle who was home for the holidays from CA. The kids did so well on the drive there. I stocked a reusable shopping bag full of books and a few little toys and stuck it inbetween the two car seats. Owen was able to reach the goods and even gave Vivi a few things to play with when she woke up towards the end of our drive.

We had lunch with Gigi when we got there and then took a quick outing to Chocolate World which both kids loved. Gigi made fried chicken and fresh veggies for dinner and then it was time to head over to my parent's condo for bathtime and bedtime. The weather was so dreary, but we were so glad to be able to spend time with my Grandma.

Christmas playdate & Vivian's first ER visit

It was a good and a bad day. First, the good. My old college suitemates and I all have boys and thought it would be fun to get them together for a little Christmas playdate. Mindy offered to host and the kids looked so cute in their matching GAP Christmas sweaters.

The boys played with Lucas' train set and checked out the Christmas tree while the mommies caught up. Mindy had some cute crafts for the kids: gingerbread men ornaments which they decorated with sparkly dots and stickers and wreaths made by threading Fruit Loops onto pipe cleaners.


After crafts, Mindy made an awesome lunch: reindeer fluffernutter & PB sandwiches, pretzels and fruit for the kids and chicken salad on croissants for the moms. Cole let us borrow his highchair, and stupid me put Vivi into it without buckling the seatbelt thinking, "I'll just remember that I don't have her buckled when I go to take her out". Uh, yeah. That didn't happen. Poor baby fell out of her highchair and landed facedown on the rug. She cried right away, I scooped her up and started crying myself for being so ridiculously stupid. She calmed down after a few minutes and I packed up the kids to head home and call the doctor. I knew from past experience when Owen fell once when he was around 18 months, that the main things to watch for were vomiting and loss of consciousness, and she had neither. But I was still extremely shook up over it and was watching very closely the entire drive home.

I called the pediatrician when we got home and spoke with one of the nurses. Vivi was following me around while I spoke to the nurse and she could be heard giggling in the background. The nurse told me she was likely just fine, it was an accident and to try not to beat myself up about it. She said it was okay to put her down for a nap, but that if she was sleeping longer than 2 hours, to gently wake her to check on her.

Vivi slept for about an hour and 45 minutes before I got anxious and woke her myself. She woke up in a good mood, and I strapped her in her highchair to give her and Owen a snack. As she was munching away at some grapefruit and Cheerios, I kept looking at her eyes and thought that her one pupil looked slightly larger than the other. Another call to the pediatrician and they said to bring her in to the ER right away.

Of course I freak out at that point. We jumped in the car and headed over to the hospital. It took about 15 minutes to get checked in, and the nurse looked her over. The doctor came in and checked her out, but Vivi was upset by the entire situation and was crying so they couldn't get a great look at her pupils. They recommended we do an MRI just to double-check that there wasn't a skull fracture because of the fall. She cried through most of it, but did surprisingly well during the scan. The doctor told us that they have a state-of-the-art pediatric MRI machine which emits the lowest level of radiation necessary for the picture, which was reassuring.

Took another thirty to forty minutes before we had the results. Owen was entertained the entire time by a cart of books in the hallway, and Vivi just wanted to walk around the room and check everything out, even with the little toe heart rate monitor thingy hanging off her foot. I knew everything was okay when I saw the doctor's face as she walked towards the glass door of our room to tell us the news. Everything checked out fine, thank GOD.

By the time we got home it was 7:30pm and as I fed her I noticed Vivi had developed the beginning of a black eye. :(

I cannot stop thinking about what happened and am just so thankful that she is okay. Things can happen in a split-second. I'm trying to forgive myself, but in reality, I don't know that I ever will. I am trying to remember that I am a good mom who made a mistake, but with my Type-A personality, it's challenging. Especially now with the constant reminder when I look at my baby. I'm hoping she'll be more forgiving of me than I am of myself. I hope that anyone who reads this post learns from our experience and always, always, always uses the seat belt buckles on the highchair. I know I will.

2nd annual Christmas playdate with the Southworths and the Taeschners

Since last year's Christmas playdate, we've added two more babies to the mix. And in only about 8 weeks (or less!) we'll be adding another. :)

This year Molly & Tim hosted and they made a delicious lasagna in addition to an artichoke dip and Kel & Matt brought an Italian platter to munch on before dinner. We had fun chasing the kids around and watching football before the craziness of the gift exchange took place.


We took the customary "kids on the couch" picture. Ben and I look forward to taking our turn to host next year.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Today was Grandpa's birthday! To celebrate, we met up at Ozzy's for dinner. Yesterday Owen helped me pick out his gift: an indoor remote-controlled helicopter! Just what he needed/wanted! :)

Happy Birthday Grandpa ~ we love you!

Little ballerina

Shhhhhhh!!!!!

Don't tell Vivian, but she's getting this cute purple tutu for Christmas! (made by yours truly thanks to this tutorial.)

Love me some chubby little legs in a ballerina tutu! :)

Teacher gifts

Today Owen helped me make homemade sugar scrub for his preschool teachers as part of their Christmas gift baskets. We used the recipe from The Krazy Coupon Lady's website and I think it came out pretty well. We scented them with almond and coconut extracts. They smelled yummy! Owen had a ball mixing up the sugars. We put it in a jar and tied it with a pretty holiday ribbon.
I forgot to take a picture of the finished basket, but we also included a Nivea Lip Balm/Gloss, a set of chocolates and homemade chocolate-covered graham crackers with crushed candycanes on top. (You can never have too much chocolate, right?)

We'll give them to Miss Karlene and Miss Jessica tomorrow on his last day before the 2-week holiday break.

J is for Jellybean

Me: "Owen, why aren't there any jellybeans in the sixth jar?"
Owen: "I guess somebody just ate them."

Vivian's First Year video

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