Who’s Your Daddy?

Posted on February 23, 2007 by carrievoris

My short stint as being the “favorite” parent is over. Addison is clearly now a Daddy’s Girl, just like Emma. It’s all Daddy, all the time around here. Now when I pick her up in the morning her first words are “Daddy? Daddy. DAAA–DY!” This was the scene yesterday morning and again this morning, too.

I can’t say I blame the girls, J. does seem to have a gravitational pull that is comparable to that of the moon’s. You just want to be around him when he is around. Plus he is letting them watch the Three Stooges this particular morning, something they will never get from Mommy.

But (okay, here comes the whining and maybe a little stomping of my feet!) it just isn’t FAIR! I want to be somebody’s favorite, too!

I mean, COME ON! Who actually lugged you around for a total of 20 months, pushed both of your *little* 8-pound bodies into this world, spent a total of 2 years nursing you, changed 9,721 diapers (and this is using a modest 6 diaper per day estimate) and have laundered 832 loads of your laundry (again, based on a very conservative estimate of 4 loads a week!)? I coerce you into eating something other than cheerios and cheese, make sure you are clothed most days (ok, the shopping part is actually fun…maybe you shouldn’t count that), wipe your runny noses, dry your tantrum tears with my t-shirt, make sure you take your vitamins and brush your teeth every day.

Ah, who am I kidding? Given the choice, I don’t think I’d want to be around me either. I am definitely not the “fun” parent here.

Meet Temper Tantrum Sally

Posted on February 7, 2007 by carrievoris

Yes, in case you haven’t met Temper Tantrum Sally…allow me to introduce you to her. It seems our little Addie has a temper. I guess you can call it a “terrible 2’s-type” temper. She hates to be told no, she is very vocal, and completely relentless. Why tell me “no, thank you” when you can throw yourself down on the floor and wail, “NO, NO, NO” at the top of your lungs?

It is just a phase. This too shall pass, right? It was only 2 years ago…how come I cannot remember Emma’s? Must be that “Mommy amnesia thing.”

At any rate, here is a pic of us enjoying our sunshine yesterday…happier times.

And a shot of us with Kimmer! We had so much fun having her here. I was especially sad to see her go. We escaped for a lovely “Mommy night away” on Saturday. It was so much fun.

But all good things have to come to an end. Today it was back to the grind. A few more days til J. comes back, I am counting the minutes. It looks like we may be looking for a new place to live this weekend on top of everything else. Our management team doesn’t seem to be too concerned with the dog moving in…and doesn’t seem to care that we are threatening to move out. Maybe it is a ploy to get us (and the noisy kids!) out of the apartment? Hmmm….

Window Gazing

Posted on February 1, 2007 by carrievoris

I was trying to eavesdrop this morning to hear what the girls were talking about while they were lying on the floor looking out the window. I didn’t catch any of it really except when one of Addie’s toys started mysteriously making noise from the living room. Then I heard Emma tell Addie that our house is “a-haunted!”

But here they are just chillin’…

Apparently they found what they were looking for…

Movies, Candy and All Things Good.

Posted on January 6, 2007 by carrievoris

So, here’s a tip: Dora the Explorer, lollipops, and M&Ms are all Mommy’s best friends on a cross-country plane ride and 2-hour car trip.

I never thought I would bribe my children with candy or some sort of electronic viewing pleasure….until I attempted to travel by myself with a 3 1/2 year old and a (nearly) 16-month old, waking them up from their nice, warm beds at 4:30am, making it to the airport and barely getting all of our baggage onto a plane by 6:25am, flying from Los Angeles to Chicago, refereeing a minor lunchtime meltdown and fight over a stroller at Midway airport, and then sitting on a tarmac for 45 minutes…waiting to take the 32 minute flight to Detroit. That is about the point I pulled out the M&Ms.

Yes, we are interested – we have even stopped screaming long enough to shove some sweet, sweet chocolate into our mouths.

And, thankfully, at this point we have taken off and reached the magical altitude when you can turn on approved electronic devices. So the laptop came out and both girls settled into a sugar-induced, Dora coma. Addie even let herself fall asleep.

Success! Ah, Dora – Gracias from the bottom of mi corazon! I may not be winning any mother-of-the-year awards with my tactics, but it sure was a peaceful 29 minutes.

A year of promise and hope

Posted on January 1, 2007 by carrievoris

Although our Michigan football team didn’t hold up any promises or offer even a glimmer of hope that we could win today, I am still certain that 2007 is going to be a great year!

We had the full Pasadena/Rose Bowl New Year’s experience today. Last night at midnight we wandered downtown and gaped at all of the crazy, poor people camping out on the street for the parade this morning. I mean, sleeping bags in the gutter, on the asphalt – staking out their spot for a glimpse of the floats and bands. It was insane. I have been to a lot of New Year’s Eve celebrations in a lot of big cities, and have never experienced anything like that. I forgot my camera, so I don’t have any pictures, but trust me it was c-r-a-z-y!

After a stop off at a pub for a New Year’s drink and the walk back, it was pretty close to 2am by the time we went to bed. Three short hours later, I woke up thinking that my neighbors were being extremely rude and loud (like we can talk, I’m sure they hate us and our screaming girlies!) and realized it was the PA system for the parade. The parade runs right down our street, literally through our front yard. So not only was it a little inconvenient to have the street closed for portions of yesterday and today, but apparently the parade provides a free “wake-up call” as well. At any rate, we can’t complain, they did give us free bleacher tickets for the parade, and it was worth every little hassle!

The parade was amazing, the girls were so very excited about it all. Emma loved the bands, Addie loved the horses, and they both loved the floats. They were pretty stunning! So that was a great way to start off the year. I’ll try to post pictures tomorrow, between the parade and game today, Jamie and I took 525 pictures between the two of us. So, yeah, I’ll have to do a little paring down and editing of some of them!

The game, well, that did not have as good of results – but it was fun just to get to go to a Rose Bowl game, and hopefully when/if we make it next year we’ll have better luck.

So the first day of January 2007 was pretty good, all-in-all.

Two little sidenotes, for any of you following the J. and his job interviewing that we haven’t talked to in the past week, J. is officially leaving Playboy in a few weeks and will be taking the job of…wait for it…it’s a good one…

CTO of Digital Media for the NFL.

Yes, the NFL, as in National Football League. How crazy is that?? It is an amazing opportunity for him, and I am certain he is going to rise up to the challenge and be absolutely great at the job. He is the first CTO of the NFL, ever! I am so very proud of him, I can’t even describe it. Like I said though, I am certain that this is going to be a great year.

The other sidenote has to do with the new year, in a round about way, I guess. For those of our friends and family who are used to getting a Emma/Addie calendar for Christmas – they are on their way. It hasn’t been lost in the mail. It is just stuck on my hard drive, unable to print and collate themselves, apparently. So, I am working on them feverishly and hopefully I’ll have a stack of them to bring to Michigan when we leave (ack!) this Friday. Can that be right, in 4 short days??

Already the year is flying by…I hope you all had a very safe and fun first day of January. Wishing you lots of love and happiness in the New Year.

Still Digging Out

Posted on December 28, 2006 by carrievoris

We are still trying to find our living room floor, and some sleep. After trying to get my courses finished this week and dealing with all of the extra stuff going on, I just don’t have anything left for the blog. Sorry. I’ll post some fun pictures of last week, though. And maybe tomorrow…there’s always the hope that we’ll have a very restful and productive day today…and then maybe I can write tomorrow.

Christmas Cheer In the Mail…

Posted on December 21, 2006 by carrievoris

I think it is safe to post our Christmas card now – most people have received it in the mail. And if you haven’t, but you were expecting to get one, well, um…it must still be on the way, or lost in the mail.

So the outtakes are posted on the flickr account, but I was trying to get a fun picture of the girls in front of either the Rose Bowl House or the actual Stadium, to commerate Michigan’s trip to the Rose Bowl on the 1st of January.

As you can imagine, it was a bit more difficult to get 2 girls, looking at the camera with sweet angelic faces, their pretty dresses all spread out nicely with no underwear sticking out, all of their hair lying down clipped back with bows. All right, it was more than difficult – it was IMPOSSIBLE.

So this is the picture we went with this year. An action shot, but I actually decided that I really love this picture. If nothing else you can see just pure joy on their faces as they chase each other. And isn’t that what Christmas is all about?

And yes – this really was on the Rose Bowl “front yard” – I did not Photoshop it in (but thanks for thinking my Photoshop skills are good enough to do that!). No Photoshopping occurred on the actual photo this year – only the Christmas embellishments were added.

We must be doing something (kinda) right…

Posted on December 19, 2006 by carrievoris

In this very commercialized-Christmas kind of world, how do you teach your children what Christmas is all about? I’m sure we’re not alone in this dilemma, but I’ve been particularly worried about it this year – Emma is old enough to start learning this kind of stuff, right?

So we’ve been working on giving, not only receiving. Making crafts for our loved ones. Making cookies for all of our friends and neighbors. And we’ve talked a lot about the real reason Christmas celebrations were started. And on some level, I thought it was all sinking in. And it has been really fun sharing these little traditions with the girls. (I know Addie doesn’t really have a clue, but she sure does love to help with the baking parts!)

Until this week. All Emma can think or talk about is the stupid Butterscotch pony at Target that “Santa is going to bring me.”

Me: “But Butterscotch lives at Target, there isn’t room for a pony here at our house! I’m not sure Santa would take Butterscotch out of Target if that is where he lives.

E: “It’s ok, Mommy. Butterscotch can live in our living room by the Christmas tree. Santa will bring it to me.

Needless to say, I’ve been feeling a little defeated the past few days. She is obsessed about it. And it is disheartening – especially because I know she is going to be very disappointed on Christmas morning. (BUT, Santa will NOT be bringing a Butterscotch, no matter how disappointed she is. The pony is quite dumb…takes up a lot of room…and costs $249! For a stuffed animal that neighs! I don’t think so.)

So…yeah, I’ve been thinking that maybe the whole Christmas idea was a little lost on her. Maybe she is too young. Maybe next year.

And then there was this afternoon. Somewhere along the line, through all of the talking we’ve done, the books we’ve read, or the DVDs we have watched, Emma learned the real “Christmas Story” and did a pretty good (and funny) job of re-enacting it for me. This is how it went…

Emma was “riding” on one of her stuffed bears into the hallway, with her blanket over her head and another bear tucked up into her shirt.

E: “Bye, Mom! I’m going to Bethlehem.”

M: “Oh, why are you going to Bethlehem?”

E: “Because I am Mary and I’m riding my donkey to have a Baby Jesus be born.”

M: “Oh, how do you know that it is a Baby Jesus?” (I asked this because we have also been talking about Aunt Meesh’s new baby-to-be, and we don’t know if it is a baby girl or a baby boy, yet.)

E: “Because the Angel came and told me that it has to be a Baby Jesus.”

(Fair Enough! I’m slightly excited at this point…something is sinking in!)

M: “Ok, then. Let me know how that goes.”

Then she turns around, lifts up her shirt and the bear pops out and falls to the ground.

E: “Mom! I had a Baby Jesus! We need to wrap him in waddling clothes!”

So we did – well, not “waddling clothes” but an old blanket.

E: “Okay I have to go put him in the hay so the kings can come see him.”

And off she went with Baby Jesus. My little Virgin Emma.

Then, later in the day Baby Jesus became Toto, because she was then playing the role of Dorothy. I made the mistake of telling her to pick up Baby Jesus and she said,

“Mom! That is Toto, my puppy!”

But I at least feel a little vindicated that she knows there is more to Christmas than just Santa.

Random stuff for a rainy day…

Posted on December 16, 2006 by carrievoris

It is raining in Southern California today! Not just a little, either. We had an all-out, rainy, chilly, perfect for hot cocoa, kind of day. It was nice. Tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same so the girls and I will be baking!! This weather really does help with the Christmas spirit, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here.

The girls, preparing for the great rainstorms!

Before all of the rains yesterday I took a few pictures of the preparations for the big parade. This is our front yard…

Bleachers as far as the eye can see..

It is going to be so much fun. I can’t believe the parade marches literally through our front yard! And we got tickets for the Big Game, too. (Go Blue!)

And two final pics today – just because everyone keeps asking me. Yes, the leaves (some of them) do change color, and some of them fall off the trees, too. But, remember when I took this picture it was the middle of December and nearly 70 degrees. Even if you miss a little Christmas snow, you can’t beat SoCal weather!

If one picture says a 1,000 words…

Posted on December 13, 2006 by carrievoris

…then I’m “photo-ing” my blog tonight. I’m tired. I’m sure you don’t really want to read an entry from me when I can’t even remember what day of the week it is. So here is our day in review via photos…

(Yes, it is exhausting to marvel constantly over how cute these two are! Maybe that is why I’m so tired tonight?)

Give it to Addie, she likes anything! Yogurt for breakfast anyone? This was before the bowl went on the head as a “hat”. Yogurt is good for the hair though, right?

We met some friends for a picnic and some playtime in the park. Emma is trying so hard to be about 2 inches taller. They were also playing “store” and selling their lunches to each other under the slide. Emma got quite a bargain…she bought her own pb&j sandwich and apple juice box for “only $50, Mama!” My little shopper!

Addie was not so interested in the “pahk” today until after she had sampled all of the picnic food.

Emma trying to shimmy up the tree and find a coconut. Little does she know, it is the wrong type of tree.

M & M on this cool little ball. This “cuteness” moment lasted for about 30 seconds before all hell broke loose and they tried to push each other off and claim the ball for their own. Didn’t get a picture of that, since I was trying to diffuse the situation.

And finally…Addie finished up the day strong. Eating again, and making a huge mess, the two things the girl does best!

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Category Archives: Girls