Downtown

We had an ill-fated night out seeing the Christmas lights downtown.  Everything went entirely wrong. We couldn't find a parking spot, we had emergency bathroom breaks, we didn't get dinner until 9pm and then we finally walked around to see the beautiful Christmas lights. Even with all of the craziness, we had fun together.  I love this little family of mine. I'm praying for snow so we will have an excuse to stay home and avoid the traffic and crowds until after the new year.

Gingerbread Day

 We had our traditional O family gingerbread house day. We bought our houses at Ikea this year and they were the easiest Ikea product we have ever assembled. Everyone brings their own house and candy to share and the kids go crazy covering as much real estate as possible with sugar. It was a fabulous start the holiday season.

Uncle W pulled Red Fish's tooth while we were at Grandma's house.  It had been dangling out of her face for a few days and the rest of us couldn't take it anymore. I think Red Fish was a little relieved to have the tooth out and she is always excited to have a visit from the tooth fairy.

Thanksgiving

 We spent a couple of days up at the Lake House with Grandma, Two Fish's brother V, his wife L and their awesome kids. The girls loved being with their cousins.  There were games played, puzzles obsessed over, movies and plenty of food.  We couldn't have wished for a more relaxed, fun couple of days.

 My niece E made the turkey with some help from her Mom, L. It turned out awesome as did the rest of our meal.

 New Fish got carried around all weekend by E. She adores her cousins.

I love that my kids get the experience of being the "big kids" on my side of the family and that they get to be the "little kids" on Two Fish's side of the family. It means so much to me that their big cousins will spend time with them and make them feel special.  I know it means the world to my kids. E, E, I and N have set a really great example of how I want my kids to treat their younger cousins and my kids love them to the moon and back. I really hope that this is one of the things they remember most about their childhood, all of the people who treat them with so much love. Cousins are built in friends that my kids will carry with them for life.

Walking The Neighborhood

First Snow

The girls were so excited to see snow this morning that snow clothes were thrown on over pajamas and a tiny snowman was immediately fashioned out of slushy snow.

We had a family party for the November birthdays.  Red Fish was spoiled as usual. 

Night Out

 Impromptu night out with cousins for movies and ice cream.

Seven

 I never knew how fast seven years could go by. This little girl is soft hearted and a deep thinker.  She has an amazing imagination and she continues to astound me with her talents and adventurous little spirit.  She is so excited to try new things. She loves so many people and has a wonderful group of people who have fallen in love with her as well.  She is an amazing big sister. She is generous and funny. She is a great sleeper and knows when she needs to go to bed early. She is an individual and completely unique. She isn't afraid being herself and I hope she will always feel that way.

She received a new desk for her room for her birthday.  It is bright blue.  She is always working on some kind of art project or writing in her journal or doing a project and her night stand just wasn’t working very well as a desk.  We have a big table in the office that holds most of her art stuff but she likes to have some down time by herself in her room sometimes so a desk seemed like the perfect gift.  She loves it.  We had it all set up when she woke up this morning. 

When she woke up this morning, she told us: “When seven took over my body this morning, six was a a little sad to leave because six really liked me.  I felt a little sad to say goodbye to six.”  She is one of a kind.  She is such a funny kid.  She is very creative and says the strangest/funniest things.  Every night when we put Red Fish to bed she asks to be treated as a different animal. It is frequently a bald eagle, a unicorn or a puppy. Tonight it was a bat. How do you tuck a bat child into bed? You ask her to wrap her wings in tight and hang upside down (tuck her into bed upside down with her head in place of her feet) and you wish her luck catching insects in the night. Then you close the door so her bat cave will be dark enough for a nocturnal creature.

Red Fish is a smart, fun girl.  She loves to read books and learn new things.  She loves to do little projects like finger knitting, art and drawing.  She is kind, she is always willing to include her little sister in her projects or include her in her group of friends.  She loves writing little notes to her sister, mom and friends.  She is also sensitive and will go out of her way to help her sister or friends feel better. She feels things very deeply. We have been doing a lot of family movie nights together.  We watched “Honey I Shrunk The Kids” a month or so ago. Red Fish was inconsolable when the giant ant in the movie dies.  She was so upset and felt so bad for the ant.  We felt bad but we had no idea it would make her so sad.  She just feels things very deeply.

Red Fish loves science and we try to do science experiments when we can.  She loves books about anatomy and animals.  She has an insect collection with the bugs pinned down and labeled in a box.  She is so matter of fact about things that a lot of little girls would thing are totally disgusting. We have to check her pockets when we do the laundry so we don’t end up washing a pocket full of worms again.  She has pulled out all of her own loose teeth so far.  She left a note for the tooth fairy the other night that said: "Dear Tooth Fairy, the tooth covered in blood is the new one. You can keep it. Love, Red Fish”  So gross but so Red Fish.  

She is becoming a great little pianist.  She reads like crazy.  Her favorite books right now that she has read herself are the Clementine series (because she has red hair) and the Magic Treehouse series. Now that soccer season is over she is taking piano lessons and going to gymnastics once a week. She still loves rainbows and unicorns.  She is a great eater and always eats a lot of vegetables.  She doesn’t like sweets very much but she does love ice cream. We had ice cream sundaes today instead of cake. She loves sushi and pasta. 

She has a lot of friends at school and in our neighborhood.  She plays hard with the boys and the girls.  She doesn’t like dolls very much but she loves dress up clothes.  She spends her recess at school playing tag and doing the monkey bars.  She has these rough little calluses on her hands because she spends so much time on the monkey bars.  She is looking forward to skiing this year.  She keeps hoping it will start snowing. She says that she wants a sewing machine for Christmas.

Red Fish is in the French immersion program at school. She has two teachers at school and speaks French for half of the day. She is doing very well learning French.  She got the Principal’s Star Student award in school a couple of weeks ago and was nominated by her French teacher.  We continue to be astounded by how special Red Fish is.  Her kindness and intelligence amaze us.  There is no doubt in our minds that she is a very special spirit and we are forever grateful for the opportunity to be her parents.  

Dry Ice Bubbles

 I woke up this morning and wanted to make dry ice bubbles.  It seemed like the only thing to do today. Sometimes I just get an idea and can't give it up until the task is accomplished.  I am a fun chaser. This experiment was much easier than I thought it was going to be and the effect was magical. We spent a solid hour blowing bubbles and juggling them around.

Rollerskating

Red Fish won free passes for rollerskating so we decided to make a family outing tonight to the rink.  It was insanely busy and packed and stressed me out but the girls had a good time. I think I must be getting prematurely old.  I hate the crowds and craziness. The girls

got game tokens and free skates but they mostly used their scooters.

Bookworm

Little New Fish is a reader.  She wants to read to people from the second she wakes up until past when everyone else is ready for bed. She will read anything she can get her hands on.  She reads pictures books, chapter books, junk mail etc. The girl LOVES books.