Abby, Zoë and Enzo

I had to take Zoë into the pediatrician's office today, even though I was hoping to be able to wait until Tuesday, when the girls will be having their 4 year check up.  She's having some issues that just got worse overnight and I didn't want to postpone it any longer.  Unfortunately I didn't get the kind of answers that were satisfying to me.  I had been doing lots of research during the day, but the woman I saw didn't give any validity to some things I came up with, didn't even entertain the thought of looking into those possibilities.  This happens to be the same woman who dismissed it when we very first had concerns about Abby and Zoë's tonsils.

So, after leaving the office, and dropping off Zoë's urine sample (she peed in the cup like a pro) at the lab downstairs, we headed over to the pharmacy to pick up Zoë's prescription of premarin.  She also got to get a bag of honey pretzel twists.  I'm just going to wait until the appointment on Tuesday and ask my questions again, since we're seeing someone different.

It seems that since the day she turned four, Abby started asking "what does that mean?" to everything.  Anything she hears us say, anything she hears anywhere, she wants to know what it all means.  I've found that some things can be kind of hard to explain, just common sayings that I have to sit a minute and think about how to explain it.

Zoë's thing is telling me "because I'm four".  She uses it in many instances, here are a few: "I need some prviacy [in the bathroom] because I'm four"  "I like to eat here [at Sake] and can do it all by myself because I'm four now"  Many of the times she uses it stems from being able to do something, such as her jobs with the dishes... because she's four.

Abby and Zoë get so excited when it's voting time.  They love to go with Chris and I and decide even before we get there who they are going to vote with.  We went to vote for the NH primary today, Zoë voted with Chris and Abby voted with me.  Abby kept peeking over to Daddy and Zoë's booth though, I told her that was a voting 'no-no'.  Before we went, Chris asked the girls who they were going to vote for and Zoë kept saying she was voting for spots.  When we were done Chris asked Abby who she voted for and she told him that she didn't have any lost stuffed animals.  That gave Chris an opportunity to explain the voting process a little.  After that the girls decided they were voting for Daddy.

From there we went to the park to give them what little bread we had to offer.  The pigeons were not around, we could see them over on the bridge.  It took a little while, but finally the seagulls began eating what we were throwing out there for them.  We had part of a loaf of bread, unsliced, that just couldn't be broken up it was so hard, so Chris threw it out to the docks.  It landed in the water right next to a dock and a seagull took possesion of it, pecking at it and trying to get it somewhere where he could work on it, defending it fiercly.  After the chunk had been in the water a couple of minutes, the seagull managed to get it and carry it over to one of the docks.  It was so funny watching him trying to peck at it and defend it from the other birds at the same time.

When I woke up this morning, I wondered why our bedroom door was open.  We leave it closed, but not latched, during the night. I had been up at 3:00 a.m. to tuck Abby in and use the bathroom and was certain I closed the door behind me.  When I awoke, Abby was stirring in her bed, sounding stuffy, so I grabbed a tissue and was going to tuck her in, but she was already getting up... and had a tissue in her hand.  When her and I got into the bathroom I put two and two together.  I asked her if she had gone downstairs by herself in the middle of the night.  She said she had.  I was so surprised by this.  While Zoë is more scared of the dark than Abby, Abby still is not too excited about it.  She said that she had just gone down to see if I was at the computer and then came back up to bed.  I questioned her abou the tissue and she said she got herself while downstairs.  I was shocked, not only that she did this, but that neither Chris nor I had heard any of it.

It seems like the sniffles never fully left us.  Abby's have turned back into yucky color and consistency, which in turn is making it hard for her to get good sleep, and the cycle goes 'round and 'round.  She stayed home with Daddy today, while Zoë and I went to church.  We just went to the service, not for any before or after.  When we got home, Abby and Daddy were finishing up a Strawberry Shortcake puzzle.  Then the girls and I played a game of princess go fish before lunch.

Later on Grampy, Uncle Corey, and Auntie Reanna arrived to hang out for a bit.  Abby and Zoë got Reanna and Corey to play Strawberry Shortcake game and Hi Ho Cherry-O with them.  When it was time for bed, Reanna of course did all of the bed time stuff, I even gave my hugs and kisses and then came downstairs while they finished up with reading.  Unfortunately, the girls took a very long time to wind down and ended up having the consequence that next time Auntie Reanna is here, they still have to have me do the night time routine.

We've been lucky not to have too cold of weather so far this winter, but today was sooo cold!  The house heat came on a lot during the night, and when I got up at 5:30 it was still on but the house was still very chilly.  When I checked the weather online it said it was 3 degrees but felt like -14 and that later in the day with the wind chill it would still feel like -15 degrees outside... brrr.  Even though we've had winters with consistently colder temps than this, it was a shock to go from 40's to this.  We stayed inside and played hi ho cherry-o with Daddy a couple of times and then had a boisterous game of Strawberry Shortcake with him too.

After church we picked Daddy up and went to a couple of stores and grabbed some lunch and on the drive home Abby told us that she wanted to take a nap when she got home.  Sure enough, both Zoë and Abby lay down and went right to sleep.  I was going to wake them after 20 minutes or a half an hour, but I wasn't feeling well and ended up letting them sleep for an hour or so.

The girls woke up fairly well, not too whiny, but then of course, since they'd slept for longer than 30 minutes at nap, they took a good while to fall asleep tonight.

The weather warmed up today and even got a bit sunny.  Reanna and Corey came over and we all took a walk into town, dodging snow piles here and there.  Abby and Zoë were pretending that whoever's hand they held was a horse from the Strawberry Shortcake movie "Ice Cream Island", where a bunch of "fillies" live and are all named after ice cream desserts.  They got some noise and energy out, so it was good all around.

We started out the day with game playing today.  We played a cooperative version of hi ho cherry-o! before getting dressed, then we played it a couple of more times, once cooperative and once against each other, with Daddy a little bit later.  Then we also played a princess card game of crazy 8's, which drove Daddy and I crazy because of the amount of cards they suggest passing out makes you have to shuffle the pile a thousand times... next time we'll modify it.  It's so great that the girls got so many games, they are really loving playing all of them and we enjoy playing everything they got too.

My friend Leann and her daughter Dakota were going to Toys 'R Us today so we decided to meet them over there.  Before leaving the house, Abby and Zoë wanted to "shower themselves" so they each got turns in the shower getting cleaned up and then we headed out.  We were early enough to stop into Old Navy, since I had an old gift card I found and had about $5 left on it.  Abby and Zoë behaved very well in the dressing room and I ended up getting a pair of summer Capri type pants for $3.97.  We got in the car to go the short distance to Toys R Us and once met up with Leann and Dakota we began browsing around.  We ran into Kally and her three (triplet) girls, whom I haven't seen in a very long time.  Dakota got a couple of games for her new Leapster, and also picked up some Barbie somewhere along the line.  She was showing it to Abby and Zoë in the baby doll aisle, just before her and Leann needed to leave to get to rumble tumble.  They said good-bye and Zoë told me that she wanted to get one of those talking Barbie's and was very upset when I denied her.  The baby dolls were near the play food stuff and the girls saw a shopping cart they both really wanted and were trying to pull the box off the shelf.  Since that was an item that takes up a little more room in the house, we wrote it down on my little notebook so that we could think about it.  Abby and Zoë both ended up choosing Cabbage Patch baby newborns.  They could not be talked out of these, even when reminded about the idea to get a second writing board.  (They were getting tired and hungry and had one track minds at that point)  So, we took their dolls of choice and headed to the register.  They each paid separately with their gift cards and carried their own bags out of the store.  They were very happy to be making their own purchases and carrying them to the car themselves.  We wrote down the other items that they saw and wanted so we'd remember later. 

After a little quiet time resting, and helping with the dishes, Abby and Zoë were able to get their dolls out of the packages.  They put their hands over their hearts and said the adoption oath, then we read the birth certificates and checked the authenticity of the signature on the babies bums, and they finished up quiet time with their babies... Maci Emilie and Rose Janice.  This evening at bed time, the girls saw the error of their ways in regards to not getting the writing board (not that they'd do anything differently or give up the babies) and I got a long talk from Abby about why it would be a good idea to have one writing board for her and one for Zoë.  They know that they both have money left on gift cards (They had two gift cards each, one from Grandma Cindy and Papa Norm and another from Nonna) so Abby told me that we should just go back tomorrow and get a second writing board... funny girl.

We drove down route 1 in Mass. today to meet Uncle Matt and Caitlin at Fuddruckers for lunch and to drop Nonna off with them.  Before we met them, we stopped at the Salvation Army to see what kind of deals we could find.  The store was a little overwhelming, not ordered by size but instead by color (and gender) so it was kind of hard to find anything quickly.  Once we were done browsing we headed to lunch, where Matt and Caitlin were already waiting for us.

After getting settled, Caitlin and Matt and Daddy went to order the food.  Daddy ordered the girls and I some wedge cut fries, a 1/3 pound burger for Zoë and Abby to share, a huge 1 pound burger for Chris and I to share (should have shared a much smaller one) and a tasty Oreo milkshake.  After eating as much as we could we went over to where the arcades were.  First Daddy and I and the girls teamed up for car races.  Daddy and Zoë were a team and Abby and I were a team... Abby and I came in 8th, I guess slow and steady doesn't always win the race.  Next was motorcycle races.  This time Zoë teamed up with Uncle Matt and Abby and I were a team again.  This time Abby and I came in 1st!  It seems we are better bike drivers than car drivers.  Daddy won his girls some small bouncy balls in a balance game and Caitlin won them a bigger ball in the claw machine!  Then it was time to say good-bye.

We went out to get Nonna's bags out of the car and give hugs.  As Zoë was giving Nonna hugs, she began to get very emotional.  She had tears streaming and lips pouting, voice trembling... oh goodness she was a mess.  I got her in her seat and she was still crying, when Nonna went to give her another hug and dry her tears and Zoë said "I just can't stop crying!"  We got out of the parking lot with Zoë being the only one crying, and she continued this way on down the road.  She was upset about having no more visitors and Nonna not having any more sleep-overs.  She did manage to calm down eventually though.  Later that evening the girls spoke to Nonna on the phone and were comparing how many sleep-overs she was going to have at Uncle Matt and Caitlin's as apposed to how many she had here.  Thanks Nonna for a great visit, and of course for all of the spoiling!

Abby and Zoë were so quiet in church today, they did very well.  Nonna came with us, and during the service the girls and I sat up front and lit the three advent candles for the previous days, since church was canceled last Sunday due to the snow storm and we didn't get to do the lighting then.  Afterwords Abby and Zoë sat with Nonna and I instead of going to jr. church or the play room.  Abby did stickers and coloring most of the time, while Zoë spent the majority of the time snuggling Nonna, and just did stickers towards the end.

For lunch we went to an Italian restaurant, Dante's, which Chris and I have had a gift certificate to for three years!  So, Mommy finally got to go to the restaurant and share it with her family.  Nonna ordered the carbonara with fresh fettuccine, I ordered the gnocchi dish, and Daddy ordered the shrimp scampi with fresh fettuccine.  As an appetizer we had antipasto d’Italiano, imported meats, cheeses, and assorted marinated and roasted vegetables.  They had big coloring/activity books for Abby and Zoë to use while we waited, which did their job of keeping the girls occupied.  The food was delicious!  Nonna and I had both wanted to try the carbonara and the gnocchi, so we switched part of the way through our meals.  Abby and Zoë's favorite by far was the gnocchi dish, they ate so much of it, after trying everything from the appetizer plate multiple times!  I think they might just have Italian taste buds.

Daddy found out about a super sale at Kohl's and I saw one for The Children's Place, so we decided to head out into the maddness to see what kind of deals we could find.  At Kohl's we only looked at stuff that was on the 80-90% off racks.  We got some stuff for Mommy (a couple of tops were under $2.00) and some tops,and two skirts, in size 5's - buying ahead - for under $2 as well.  We made sure pretty much everything was under $5 a piece.  We ended up with 31 items that averaged $2 an item, and one item was a two piece set.

Next we went over to Maine to avoid the mall and went to the Children's Place outlet, where they were having the same sale as the regular store.  Nonna and I went in, while Abby and Zoë hung out in the car with Daddy, eating their McD's apple pies.  We got a couple of pairs of winter tights and a pair of waffle-knit leggins, and used the girls' 20% off birthday club cards.  All of this, and Nonna wouldn't let us pay for a single thing, not even the pies!  Thank you Nonna!

We got up and got all set to get in the car and drive down to Boston to pick Nonna up from the airport.  Her flight ended up being delayed a couple of hours, so with Abby and Zoë still in their pj's, I got them in their snow gear and they played in the snow while Daddy cleared the snow.   We left a little later and when we got down there she was in the baggage claim getting her last bag when I saw her.  The airport was so busy!  On the way back to the house we stopped to get a bite to eat for lunch and then Abby took a snooze on the rest of the way home (Zoë had fallen asleep on the way down). 

When we got back, we got the girls settled in, then set up with a Strawberry Shortcake movie, which they stayed home with Nonna to watch, while Chris and I went to the store.  The girls had a nice time snuggling with Nonna and then later in the afternoon Auntie Reanna stopped by, dressed to the max like an elf.  We said good-bye to her just before dinner and after dinner Daddy and Nonna played  the Strawberry Shortcake game with Zoë and Abby, then they had some more reading and finally got ready for bed.

Abby and Zoë had a great time playing in the snow today.  We waited until a break in the snowfall and then got out there to play.  Abby and Zoë were having races, starting at the car and then running up to the fence and rolling down.  They made some nice snow angels, got "snow rocks", which they were taken with, and got lots of energy out running around the driveway while I shoveled.

We've got some sickies going on around here.  It seems like just head colds, but it has the girls cranky during the day with nose issues and heads being stuffy.  It's making night time sleeping difficult too, with the dry air and not being able to breath through their nose, not to mention post nasal drip, they get these coughs and dry throats.  I wanted to take Zoë and Abby to rumble tumble today to give them a chance to move, but they just weren't feeling so well, especially Abby, who had an upset tummy and at one point during the day went to toot but ended up with a runny mess instead.

We played the Strawberry Shortcake game again though, and this time Daddy played.  We had a lot of fun all playing the game together.  The girls also enjoyed a nice rinse off in the shower and then a soak in the tub this afternoon.  We're supposed to get some more snow overnight and during the day tomorrow, so hopefully they'll be feeling well enough to get outside a little bit.

With colds and a lazy day, we were couped up in the house today. We did enjoy some game time, playing the strawberry shortcake hide 'n seek game, as well as watching their new movie from Grandma Cindy.  A late arrival birthday present, Strawberry Shortcake: Cookin' Up Fun.  The girls are still enjoying the newness of all of their gifts, which is nice on days like today.

Abby and Zoë have been telling us for months now that it's going to snow on their birthday.  They're pretty good, because sure enough, today we got a good dumping of snow, just in time to have snow on their birthday.  We went into Wal-Mart this afternoon when there was no snow falling, Chris and I commented that we thought we saw a few flakes as we were going into the store, but when we came out of the store there was over an inch on the ground, the parking lot untouched.  Zoë and Abby can't wait to get out and play in the snow.

Not only is this the newest word Abby and Zoë have learned (from a new movie, "Larry Boy and the Bad Apple") the girls are experiencing a lot of it!  They've had birthday (and Christmas) presents arriving to the house and they want so badly to open things right away.  Today, a package from Nonno Ernie and Martha arrived with a wrapped gift for each of the girls, and a gift bag for each with a couple of small wrapped items and a book.  Daddy was out when the presents arrived, and I told Abby and Zoë to talk to him about the presents when he returned.  When Daddy returned, Abby couldn't get him into the living room fast enough.  She was trying to bargain with him from every angle she could think of, to be able to open the gifts immediately.  Abby and Zoë were very upset when they were told that they had to wait TWO days, some crying ensued, but stopped pretty quickly when Daddy threatened to send the presents back... silly Daddy.

In the middle of the night Zoë, in her sleep, all of the sudden yelled, "Mommy, teapot!"  She alerts me to the teapot like this during the day when it begins to whistle, and I guess we were having some tea in her dream.  It was so funny though, Chris and I were trying to muffle our laughter.