Christmas 2008

Christmas...Hanukkah Style

A quick report from Day 4 of our Christmas celebrations! We've had an awesome time watching Christmas unfold through Millie's eyes. The Steinbeiss gang was all here for a week...we hit the beach a few times, took turns making big dinners for each other, watched The Polar Express no fewer than three times, and had a great Christmas day opening gifts and brunching at the Hotel Del Coronado. It took all day for Mils to open her gifts and we even saved a few for her to open the following day! She and Simon were really blessed with lots of thoughtful, loving gifts.

We joined the Greer family via webcam for the traditional reading of Luke 2 and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas last night and again today for the exchange of gifts. Lots more wonderful presents and catching up on each others' holidays. If we can't be together, Skype is a pretty good alternative. Millie and her cousin Kaitlin both stood in front of the cameras and showed each other their new, matching dolls. So cute!

The Greer Uncles tell us to expect more fun items to arrive in the mail over the next few days. Whoa. Millie's going to think she needs to open a present for her day to be complete. It's looking like we could make this Christmas stretch a full eight days! Now the storing and re-arranging of toys begins. What a fun dilemma to solve.

Making Cookies

When I was little, one of my favorite Christmas traditions was making sugar cookies with my Grandma King. It was a flour-y, sticky, chaotic production that resulted in great fun, festive cookies, and four kids on a crazy sugar high . This year my mom brought Grandma's cookie cutters and carried on the tradition with Mils (but with much more delicious results!). Check out the fun!

Christmassing like crazy!

We are officially parade obsessed. Can't get enough of them. Same thing for fun Christmas movies on the DVR, non-stop Christmas music and break-and-bake cookies (those awesome kind that you break off a block of dough and wait 15 minutes for piping hot not-homemade-but-close-enough cookies). We'll even turn out for a little neighborhood tree-lighting or a few holiday parties! It's been a fun season around here, and I think it's actually just getting started for us. My family started arriving today (baby brother/Uncle Maffer is already here; Uncle Monkey/Mike and Yammy & Poppa arrive on Saturday), so there is lots more celebrating to come.

Amazingly, Millie seems to be able to keep track of who is arriving on the "big errplane" each day. But for some reason, she also thinks that some of her friends from DC are also joining us this Christmas. She brings me a little photo album with their pictures and asks to see or talk to them. "Talk to Caedmon? Talk to Taylor? See "Eeena (Katrina)? Grace at?" It's fun to watch her process all of her memories and heartbreaking to tell her that we won't be seeing her friends next week.

Here we are, Christmassing our fool heads off...

Yes, I obviously posed him for this shot. But I've walked in on Millie shoving this hat onto Simon's head at least a few times. She goes for Casey's head, too, but Casey's caught on to the game now and is just too fast!

Making our escape to Christopher's command Christmas party.

Jules and Mils at the Kensington tree lighting festival.

Dad and Mils getting ready for Silent Night

The Sponge

My mom has always commented that Millie seems very aware of what's going on around her...she really doesn't miss a thing. Millie proved this last night. We've had lots of rain here for the past two days (the newscasters are excitedly calling this a 'winter storm'!) and there has been some flooding, mudslides, etc. The news last night covered a pretty dramatic rescue of about 50 horses from a ranch that was completely flooded. The horses had to swim to safety in water that was over their heads. Next thing we know, Millie has gathered all of the ox, donkeys and sheep from our nativity sets and carried them into the family room. She announces that "the cows are swimmin''! So funny.

And today on our way to the airport we were listening to Christmas music (as usual) and Millie announced that she "No like that one. Want Santa Baby." Ummm...excuse me? I'm almost certain that I'd take ANY other Christmas song besides Santa Baby, even Feliz Navidad (the offending song, which I don't mind at all). Well, exept for that Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer one. I had no idea she was listening that closely. I guess my gangsta rap days are over.

December 5, 2008

Over the past two years, I can't even begin to count the number of people who have told me how fast these years with my kids will fly by. I've heard that these years, while my babies are still babies, are the best, sweetest times in life. And if I really think about all that I inevitably start to feel sad, because I just can't stop time. Seems like every time Millie wakes up from another nap she knows a new word or a new song or has decided to do something 'all by herself'. Simon is already five months old! It's awesome to watch their little personalities change, but I always wonder...can they possibly get any cuter than they are right now? Yes. Unbelievably, the answer is yes.

So I am always mindful of really soaking up this good stuff. When I start feeling like I am just 'getting through' a day, I try to step back and remember that I won't always have these little miracles running around my house. Yesterday was a really great day, a day that I'll want to remember for a long time. Nothing spectacular happened. Nobody won the World Series or was elected President. It was just a regular day but we really made the most of the time we had together.

It started out with a picture perfect power walk along the beach with Julie and the kids. Short sleeves and smoothies in December! YES! We ran a few errands and then had lunch together. At some point yesterday Julie taught Millie how to sing "Away in the Manger" (so cute...the sound of hearing Millie sing "the little lord Jesus" in her hilarious little accent just melts my heart). Dad came home early from work, just in time for us all to pack it up and head down to Coronado Island for a Christmas festival and super-fun parade. We spread a blanket on the grassy median, shared some pizza slices and watched the neighborhood parade until it was time to head home and climb into bed, tired, festive, and happy.

See, there was nothing and everything special about a day like this.


Kisses on the boardwalk






Millie pushes Si...all by herself!



She loves Pho...and is actually not bad with the 'sticks'

Superchargers

Here we are, covered in sunscreen and decked out in team paraphernalia, ready to cheer on our San Diego Chargers. Jealous of my authentic LT jersey? (thanks, Joshua!) Once again, my sister Jules hooked us up with awesome tickets to the game on Sunday. We were very very close to the field (and also very very close to the stinky, belligerent, drunk guys beside us). We had a great time and were extra grateful for the San Diego weather. No way could we have done this with two young kids in any other city!

Movie Night

Not sure if it's the all-you-can-eat popcorn, the snuggles on the floor with Dad, Mom and Si, or the staying up past her bedtime, but Mils has really taken to our movie nights. Here's a peek at Friday nights at the Greers:

Not a movie night shot, just a cute one of Simon!

I was runnin'....

A little video of Mils on the move, Forrest Gump style (if she's goin' somewhere, she-is-runnin')

Crazy pants, before the full-body tackle of her little brother:

A stunned Simon, post tackle:

Fall 2008 Photos

Daddy's Home!

WoooHoooo! Christopher has returned to us after an eight day trip to the middle east. Good news all around: he had a GREAT trip and the rest of us are still alive and loving each other! I now have an even more profound appreciation for my mom, who did this once a month with us four young kids when my dad was flying in the Air Force and for all those moms who are doing this while their husbands are deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Tough stuff.

While he was away the kids had check ups at the doc and both are super healthy. Simon is four months old today. He's long (27"/90th%) and lean (14.6#/50%). Millie is also right on track and almost three feet tall!

Our Millie-phant and Simon-o-lantern

What a fun night! Millie LOVED trick or treating....the adventure of climbing stairs, meeting new neighbors, practicing her thank-yous. She loved all the pumpkins and decor along our journey, too. What she did not love, what put an end to our trick or treating actually, was the neighbor handing out candy wearing the SUPER scary mask. Yep, that's all it took to send us home for the night. Thankfully my mom had homemade chicken and noodle soup and apple pie waiting for us. It might have been over 80 degrees here, but we really made the best of this awesome fall evening.



Story of the costumes:
Millie's adorable elephant costume was a gift from our friend and Christopher's mentor Jo Anne. We've been waiting months and months for her to wear it. Then this totally amazing butterfly/fairy costume came in the mail this week from my friend Amy. Millie loved it instantly and has been wearing it (or asking to wear it) non-stop. It's big enough to save for next year, I think. Simon, on the other hand, was a victim of his mom's hopeless craft skills. Oh, I had all the materials and equipment to make him the cutest little peanut to coordinate with his sister's elephant, but the execution of the plan was disastrous. Thus, the last minute (but still cute) pumpkin outfit.

Millie checking on her brother in her fairy costume

The Zoo!

My mom has a big birthday coming up in a few weeks, so we had a joint celebration for her and Mils at the San Diego Zoo. This was no ordinary zoo trip, though. This was a super-special, VIP, 'behind-the-scenes' tour set up by my sister (who seems to know the right people here in SD). It was awesome. My DC friends know that I have...ummm...'issues'...with zoos and am not usually a fan. But when you get kissed by a Sea Lion and feed leaves to giraffes and stand just feet away from a polar bear you can't help but be amazed by the experience.

After the zoo we ate a fish-taco picnic at the beach

One? Three? TWO!

Here she is...our incredible two year old Millie:

We are in a birthday celebration marathon and having the best time. My WHOLE family is out with us. Yammy and Poppa are here from Maryland and the Uncles are in from Colorado. We even got to celebrate with Gamma and Gampa Greer via the webcam on Skype! Here are a few photos from Saturday (her actual birthday):

Checking out her new bike

With Julie and Mike at the neighborhood Halloween parade

Serving up cookies and sandwiches (aka hamburgers and hotdogs) at her new kitchen

Two funny things about this picture: it's pitch black outside and she's still playing, and check out all her new animals that she has lined up at the bar!

So it occurred to me that we should be practicing the answers to the two key questions she's been getting from strangers:

1) What is your name? Answer: "Mee-eee" (if you say it out loud it does kind of sound like Millie);

2) How old are you? Answer: One? (nooo...you're not one); Three? (nooo...you're not three); Two! (yes...you're two!). I think she knows the correct answer and she's just messing with us at this point.

It has never been more fun to be a mom. Millie is so funny and happy...I love watching her dance around the room to the Sesame Street theme song or the iPod commercials; I love that when she wakes up and remembers that her house is filled with extra family members she runs out to my sleeping brothers and screams "UNCLES" really loudly in their faces; I love that she is giving real kisses and extra tight hugs...not just to us, but to her friends at the park, their parents, our friends at church...; I love all the hilarious things she is picking up from listening to our conversations ("Oh goodness!"; "It's so exciting!"; "I hook you up" (with more drink, a new diaper, etc.); "Love you baby/honey/babe."); and I absolutely love how much she adores and protects Simon. It all just keeps getting better and better.