So ends another year

Another year is drawing to a close, and I find my brain absent the list of "shoulda dones" or "wish I dids" that normally accompany this time of year. I'm perfectly content with how 2009 played out, and that isn't something I've been able to say very often before.

We were lucky enough to spend a lot of time with each other, and our family got to travel to some amazing places this year. Even better, we got to share some wonderful trips with some wonderful people in our lives. Not only did we get to see our families (almost every single relative we have, at that!), we also got to take on adventures with some incredible friends, too.

Jason fulfilled some of his professional goals, and I did the same--that has been a great feeling and source of satisfaction for each of us.

We got to celebrate 4 amazing years of marriage. It has been an outlandish, fun-filled, dramatic, loving, joyful, chaotic, nourishing, intense, beautiful journey, and we look forward to many more years together.

We've been able to watch our lovely girls grow and change from babies into toddlers and from toddlers into preschoolers- how amazing that has been!

We've grown our family by one giant mutt who loves each of us and makes us laugh together.

We've been healthy, and we have been reminded of just how fleeting and precious good health is, so this is not something we take lightly.

It has just been a fantastic year, for the most part.

Even in the things that have not been wonderful, such as the situation with Josh, Jason and I have taken comfort in the fact that we are a team, and we have done everything we can to remedy a rotten situation. While the rough stuff has not been easy, we've fought the good fight together and continue to do what we can until one day it may make a difference.

2009 has been the best year of my life so far, but I'm not giving up the pursuit of topping it- I'm living each moment to the absolute fullest. 2010 promises to be just as wonderful.

Christmas Countdown

Christmas cookies baked? Check.

Holiday cards in the mail? Check.

Presents wrapped? Check.

Christmas Day brunch planned? Check.

Trip to see Santa? Fake snow for Santa "footprints"? Reindeer food packaged?

Check. Check. Check.

I cannot believe how quickly this year has passed, and I'm stunned that Christmas is almost here. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of holiday parties, special activities, shopping, wrapping, baking and tying up loose ends.

We took Caitlyn to see The Nutcracker for the first time, and I think we will make it an annual tradition. She loved the dancers, the costumes, the music and the pageantry of a trip to the theater. It was fun helping her get dressed for a big girl date with Mama and Daddy, and watching her face as she watched the ballet was one of those priceless events Mastercard likes to put in their commercials. I cannot wait until both of my girlies are old enough to go together!

Our Christmas Day will be a quiet affair. The girls have a very modest number of presents beneath the tree since we have chosen to take them on a special trip later on in the year. They have what they need, they will get a few extra-special gifts they are sure to love and we will avoiding adding so much excess to a toy closet that is already bursting at the seams. We've decided to continue our tradition of seeing a movie on Christmas Day, and we will spend the rest of the day relaxing at home with each other.

It's kind of nice to make the holidays a low-key affair.

Our Family Pictures at the Beach

I was reading my friend Kim's blog today about her adventures in trying to take pictures of her girls for their family Christmas card. Her description of the process made me laugh because she captured the experience perfectly. In fact, she made me want to share our family Christmas picture adventure because getting a Christmas card picture is quite a feat, as so many parents know.

This year we decided to take family pictures while Chris was visiting, and since we all love the beach, we thought that would be a perfect spot to take pictures. Jason and I have learned a few things about taking pictures with kids.

1. You have approximately 12.6 minutes to get the pictures taken. Schedule an hour session, if you must, but know that the extra 47.4 minutes are gonna be a big fat waste of time.

2. Do not (EVER) put the actual picture-taking

outfits on the kids before you arrive for the session. Even if you don't give them anything to eat or drink, something will be spilled in a prominent location on the garment. Let the kids ride in the car topless, and then slap clothes on them at the last possible second.

3. Have a game plan ahead of time. Don't worry about what the photographer tells you to do. When you get there, run like hell to your pre-assigned places, grab a kid and smile for all you are worth.

4. Do not underestimate the weather. Even if it is 70 degrees out, your child will begin to whine about how he is "FREEZING, and I can't even feel my feet" about 3 minutes in. Yes, the same child who will happily play in 50 degree water, swearing up and down that his lips are always blue.

5. Don't waste your time telling the oldest child he needs to always be looking and smiling. Because he won't. So you might as well save the frustration and just accept that when you finally get a great shot with the baby smiling, the oldest will be picking his nose or looking in the opposite direction.

6. When the photographer tells you she wants to take some shots at this great tree that is just "right over there," don't go. The tree is a mile away, across muddy sand, filled with bugs and your kids will break down in a puddle of tears before you are even halfway there.

7. Relax. Have fun. Remember that the quirky things your kids do in the photos, like posing like a princess or smirking with nose wrinkled up are priceless bits of their changing personalities that you will never get back.

So, without further ado, our photos:

What day is it??

Things at our house have hit the fever pitch that always comes with the holidays. As if that wasn't enough to keep us busy, we just finished our Thanksgiving visit with Chris, I took the GRE and Jason has finals going on. Add that to the normal craziness that comes with kids, a cat, a dog and working, and, well, I hope you can understand why I have written nothing in a month!

So . . . . here's a quick update:

Thanksgiving with Chris

Jason went out to visit with both boys for a few days before coming back here with Chris for a week of togetherness. The girls were head-over-heels in love with him, and he played his big brother role really well. He is growing up so quickly, and even though he lives primarily in a house that is night and day different from ours, he adjusts so easily and fits in so well.

We spent two days at Great Wolf Lodge, took family pictures and had a yummy Thanksgiving meal.

We also hit up the first Christmas Town Busch Gardens has ever hosted, and a jolly time was had by all.

As per our usual tradition, the Christmas tree went up on Thanksgiving Day, and it was interesting to try to hang ornaments with 3 little kids.

GRE

It has long been a dream of mine to max out my educational opportunities with a doctorate. However, with Jason in the Army and kids to take care of, the timing has always been a challenge. I am in the process of applying to several schools in hopes that I can start once we move next year.

I spent several weeks preparing for the GRE, and I really should have started much, much sooner. But, I didn't make a final decision to begin the application process until October, so I did not have much time. The verbal section never scared me since that comes easy to me. However, the math? Well, that's an entirely different story. Other than the statistics class I needed for my Masters degree, the last math class I took was 10 (yes, TEN) years ago. And I was very frustrated by the review books and their ridiculous math practice tests. In all honesty, I completely ignored the math information for the week leading up to the test because it made me want to cry.

And cry I nearly did when I finally went in to take the test and saw my unofficial scores. Let's just say I shocked myself because I way outperformed what I thought I could do. Glad that's over- it certainly makes my Christmas seem more merry and bright.

Jason

Jason is studying. We have one more week until we get to really spend time with him, and we are all counting down! One more semester of law school left!

Caitlyn

What can I say about Caitlyn? She is a mess. Her current pastimes include playing Spiderwick Chronicles (in which she slays goblins and dances like a fairy), playing Dora (in which she orders "Boots-Lorelei" around on adventures) and cracking me up with her daily litany of observations. She also likes to pretend to be a cheerleader, a doctor, a ballerina, a hiker and a teacher. Just the other day she told me she wants to be a teenager-doctor-cheerleader when she grows up.

Lorelei

Long our quiet little girl, Lorelei has begun to find her voice (for something other than shrieking, that is). She is still the adventurer in the household, and there is nothing this little girl is afraid of. I had to rearrange the living room because I did not want her to plummet to her death, since her daily pastime is to try to scale new heights and reach points never seen by a 16 month old before. She is still a sweet little cuddlebug, and we love her to pieces.

The Animals

What can I say about them? I'm not a huge fan of the cat, and I love the dog. Both like to play with the kids, shed and eat. Oh, and Smoky likes to run through the woods on our family hikes and wiggle his whole body when Jason gets home.

Sleeping girls

After a long day, filled with stress and strife, it takes a while to wind down. A glass of wine, perhaps two, goes a long way in melting away the worries of the day.

However, there is an even better cure. Go into your child's room once she is asleep, and just watch her. See how sweet and innocent she looks, snuggled up with her books and her stuffed animals. Check on your baby, and watch her breathe in and out peacefully. Rub her warm little back, and feel the tension melt away from your body.

An even better cure is to lay down with your kids, letting their appealing child smell fill your nose while their warm little selves snuggle up to you for security. This works well when Daddy is out of town, and is sure to take you back to the months when they were tiny babies who would fall asleep on your chest.

Really, it doesn't get much better.

Happy Halloween

This year was, by far, my favorite Halloween thus far. The girls were adorable and polite, and they both enjoyed trick-or-treating.

We went to the local outlet mall as we have done since we moved to Williamsburg because the stores are close together, which means little feet don't get worn out so quickly. Both girls walked the entire time, and Lorelei shrieked anytime we tried to carry her.

Caitlyn was very good about waiting her turn at each store, and she made sure to thank each person for her candy. Once, as we were leaving the store, she said, "Oh no! I forgot to say thank you!" We ran back inside so she could thank the lady for her tootsie roll.

Lorelei took a few minutes to warm up to the idea and fully get what was happening. The expressions on her face when the first few people added candy to her bucket were priceless! It didn't take her long to start charging into stores, loudly announcing her presence and begin to nod her thanks at the bounty of sugary sweets that came her way.

Lorelei was precious and cuddly in her pink flower costume. I can't believe Caitlyn wore that same costume just a few years ago. What cute sisters my girls make!

I am so lucky.

Back when I was pregnant with Caitlyn, I found a web group for moms due in the same month as me. It was fun to talk with people who were experiencing the same symptoms as me, who were decorating, planning and learning about being a parent. It was fun, when the babies started to arrive, to see pictures and celebrate new lives each day. I don't chat with the original group anymore, but several of us spun off and created a private board, and I count these women among some of my dearest friends. We plan meet-ups and exchange gifts--they are an amazing group of women, and I am proud to know each of them.

One of the moms from the original board has faced cancer with her little girl. Her daughter, nearly the exact same age as Caitlyn, has battled cancer since she was 10 months old. She suffered through chemo, radiation, losing her hair and a total hysterectomy before she was even three years old. Happily, she went into remission back in February, but now the cancer is back. This little girl is in pain, again. She is fighting, again. She is living in a hospital, again. Her poor little body has not gone a single week without medication.

I am just crying as I type this because it isn't fair, it isn't right. My sweet girl has been able to run and dance and sing and play and travel and do everything she wants to do, and someone else's little girl cannot. My little girl will likely get to grow up and drive and date and go to prom and go to college and get married. And someone else's little girl might not.

As tough as this is for the little girl, as painful as it is for her, my heart is crushed with the pain and hurt that her mom feels. It makes me feel physically ill to think about, and I cannot begin to imagine what it must be like to live through cancer, watching your precious child hurt.

I am an idiot to get frustrated at the end of a long day. I am incredibly dumb to ever lament the fact that Caitlyn is difficult to get down for a rest. I am selfish to wish for peace and quiet for ten minutes. Oh, I know. All moms wish for those things, all moms need a break.

But, I have had the luxury of taking all of those things for granted, and today I am reminded of that luck, that grace which allows me to swoop up my healthy daughters in my arms.

I am lucky.

Do you believe in magic?

Caitlyn has gotten to an age where she not only immerses herself in imaginative play, she also creates elaborate scripts and works through abstract problems in such creative ways. It is so much fun to watch, and there are times I have to stifle giggles because I don't want her to think I am laughing at her.

She has recently become obsessed with magic- she loves magic tricks, and she really, really loves to make things disappear. At first, I think the draw was the magic wand and the fancy words, but now I think she enjoys the showmanship of it. Anyway, she likes to put on magic shows, and the most prominent trick is to make things disappear. And then, of course, reappear. She has also expanded her magical vocabulary to include exotic made-up words that I wouldn't begin to know how to spell!

Just the other night, she was doing a magic show for Jason and I. She'd grabbed a pair of Lorelei's bloomers, and she was waving a wand, chanting and making them disappear underneath a pillow. After a minute, that trick got old, so she came up with a way to make it more interesting.

As we watched, she waved her magic wand . . .

"Abracadabra (insert more magical gibberish here)! Make these (winding up her little arm and scrunching up the bloomers) panties DISAPPEAR!"

With that, she threw them into the bedroom, ran over and slammed the door.

"Ta Da," she smiled. "Now no one can see them!"

The wind up and the throw were hilarious. I wish I could convey the concentration and effort that went into making those panties disappear. Caitlyn was delighted with her trick, Lorelei was delighted with Caitlyn and we were delighted with the whole shebang.

These girls amaze me each day!

Boston in the Fall

Be warned- this is long!

Yes, I hear ya. Another trip. With kids. What are we thinking? Yada yada yada. It's what we do!

When we moved to Williamsburg, we made a list of all of the places we wanted to visit while we were here. Places are slowly being marked off our list, and our time here is growing short, so we were both happy when I found cheap airfare to Boston since it was a destination we really wanted to visit.

I must say, other than checking out a couple of books about Boston and asking advice from friends and family, I really didn't ever get into the full-on, Nazi-esque planning mode I am well known for- this trip was meant to be a laid back perusal of the city, and it was the perfect approach to a great place. Luckily for us, this laid back approach could not have been better timed because we had a few curve balls thrown at us on this trip.

It all started when we got to D.C. the day before our plane left. We planned to meet up with our friend, Kevin, for dinner, and then stay in Baltimore since we had an early flight the next day. We met Kevin at the Air and Space Museum, and Caitlyn was particularly thrilled- she loves Kevin, AND she loves planes, so this was a big hit.

However, 5:00pm rolled around (I like to call it the witching hour), and the girls were cranky, hungry and tired. After much walking and looking around, the boys were hunched over the iPhone looking for a Chipotle that should have been right there, when I decided to just ask someone. We ended up at a Legal Seafood, where everyone had a good meal.

We said good-bye to Kevin, then headed to Baltimore. Or, we tried to head to Baltimore. I, sadly, assumed that Jason knew how to get from point A to point B since we'd done it before. I also, mistakenly, assumed that it would be pretty easy to find the loop we needed, even if Jason didn't know. Wrong, Ashley. Wrong on both counts! After many twists and turns through the Mall area, Jason planning to just pull over and buy a GPS and me telling him to just ASK someone, we did manage to find our way and laugh.

Our next obstacle came the next morning at the airport. We were talking with another couple traveling with two young girls, and their mom was telling me that they are good little travelers, too. We were swapping stories about rough flights, and the other mom told me about two times that her girls threw up on a plane. I laughed that we hadn't had that happen yet.

About 4.6 seconds after I uttered those fateful words, as we were lining up to board the plane, Caitlyn threw up. Everywhere. When Jason turned her to take her to the bathroom, she threw up again, all over him.

We quickly got her cleaned up, and luckily we knew exactly what caused it (not an illness), so we were able to make the flight.

Once in Boston, we took a few moments to figure out the T, and we were off to our hotel. We stayed at the Boston Park Plaza, and all I can say is thank goodness for priceline because I got an incredible deal on a spectacular hotel that was in a great location. Our room was large, and we were right by the Public Gardens.

Since we arrived in the middle of the day, we decided to check out the theater district and the area around our hotel. We strolled through the Public Gardens to take some pictures, and we spent a lot of time being amused by the giant squirrels that would take food from our hands and feeding the ducks in the pond.

We wandered into a few shops, and Jason bought a Red Sox hat, and then schooled Lorelei on the finer points of baseball.

We also picked up a copy of the book Make Way For Ducklings because the girls were enthralled by the statues in the park, and we ended up reading the story no less than 20 times during our 4 day stay.

We also meandered through Boston Common, and ended up stumbling upon the famous Cheers pub. Jason wanted a picture, and Caitlyn wanted to swing on the fence in Mary Poppins fashion.

We ended the day with a quiet walk through Beacon Hill, one of Boston's most beautiful (and affluent neighborhoods. It was gorgeous.

Our second day dawned clear and cold, the perfect day for our trek on the Freedom Trail. We bundled up the girls, and set off for a 2.5 mile journey through history. Taking it slow, we managed to see all the sights along the trail, enjoy a delicious lunch and soak up the quiet ambience of Boston. While Lorelei was content to ride snuggly and quietly, Caitlyn enjoyed dictating from her stroller throne, and there were several times during the day when she pulled out the map and barked things like, "Mama, go down the blue and then turn on red. Attached to that is the road, and that's where we go."

Among other things, we visited two graveyards, the State House, Paul Revere's house and the Bunker Hill Memorial.

Let's talk about Bunker Hill (of "Don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes" fame). You are able to climb to the top of the tower, home to 294 winding stone steps to enjoy a 360 degree view of Boston and the harbor. That doesn't sound too bad, right? Jason and I took turns, not wanting to carry the girls, and I went first. 294 steps is a heck of a lot more than I imagined it to be. The views were great, but I was glad to get back to the bottom where I could rest my weary legs. Working out on a Stairmaster is not quite the same as climbing real steps.

After a ferry ride back to downtown, we walked to P.F. Changs to enjoy a quiet dinner while Caitlyn slept in her stroller, and Lorelei entertained us with chopstick antics. She was so happy to have our undivided attention, and it reminded us of our early days of parenting when we only had one baby most of the time.

Our third day was cold and damp-- the perfect atmosphere for a trip on the train to Salem. Getting to the station was an adventure in itself, but I am proud to say we did it with nary a misstep. I am utterly fascinated by the Witch Trials, so it was incredible to me to be able to see the Witch House, the Memorial and the hill where 19 "witches" were hung by religious zealots.

We enjoyed another stroll through the Public Gardens, along with stops to feed the ducks and squirrels. After dinner, the girls and I settled in while Jason explored some of the city on his own.

Sadly, our departure day arrived with Caitlyn protesting that she wanted to stay in "Fauston." It might be more heartbreaking if she didn't say that at the end of every trip! We explored Newbury Street, where we bought a set of watercolor paintings for the girls' room that detailed the duckling statues in each season. We headed to the public library to gaze at the massive marble foyer. Caitlyn and I explored the upper floors, where she wanted to know who Galileo and Plato were after I read off the names carved into the walls. Lorelei enjoyed looking at all of the books, and both girls were very respectful of those who were reading.

Finally, we headed back to the Gardens for one final visit with the ducklings. We fed ducks and squirrels. Again. We climbed on the statues. Again. We played in the leaves. Again. It was bittersweet to leave behind the park that felt a little like home, especially when we said good-bye to one of the dog owners we'd seen each day of our trip during our park jaunts.

Boston tops the list of my favorite cities. The people are friendly without being boisterous, and the history is crushing and omnipresent. Before we left, I read somewhere that Bostonians live history every day, and I can see now what the writer meant. Everywhere you turn in Boston, there is an integral part of American history, and it is nestled right in among the every day facets of life.

The colors were truly awe-inspiring, and the backdrop of red, orange, yellow and brown was intense and lovely. There were times we didn't know whether we should gather the leaves up and toss them with joy, or simply stand and marvel at their beauty. Of course, we did a little of both.

As we headed to the airport, I felt sure our adventure was over, and I began to think about all of the things I would need to do once we got home. Little did I know we had one more adventure in store.

When we checked in for our flight, we ran into the family we'd seen on our way to Boston. We exchanged stories, and they were so glad that Caitlyn had not been ill again during our trip. Our flight was very bumpy, and Lorelei was inconsolable during our final descent into Baltimore. She fussed like I have rarely seen her do, while Caitlyn sat in stone cold silence as her unease with the landing grew. As soon as the wheels of the plane touched down, Jason handed Lorelei to me, and she promptly threw up. Yes, she did. No, I am not joking.

Luckily (for everyone else), she mainly got me, and we were able to clean up quickly. Jason and I honestly just laughed. Lorelei was fine after that, so we were relieved, and it was just unbelievable that on a single trip, both of our girls vomited in close proximity to the plane.

When we ran into the other family at baggage claim, I told the other mom, and she and I just laughed about the fact that neither of us will ever tell a story about throwing up at the airport again.

What a trip.