Friday, January 31, 2014

Yin & Yang


This week has been one of extremes. A string of really low temperatures that (sort of illogically) left the city totally paralyzed. A string of winter sunrises that created a lovely diversion from the paralysis. Necessary but nonetheless routine-busting school delays that created chaos but yielded fun extra sister time in the mornings. Two little girls that have decided that a king-sized bed is an all-hours open invitation to slip in unnoticed between two snoozing parents. A very tired mama (driven likely by the previous statement.) Little moments captured of the kids being their (mostly) wonderful little selves alongside a public admission that things have been a little rocky in the parenting department here lately, with all four of us contributing in some way to the chaos. A wee bit of cabin fever that led to a fun Shining-esque image. A wee bit of letting the kids play photographer and capture things they want to capture. An homage back to the joys of Christmas by a 'tap-dancing' Josie. A snow-covered fairy garden. And snow-covered screened porch (OOOPS)! Frosty windows and frosty car rides to school. An early (EARLY!) rising mama who is now trying to squeeze in workouts before 7am & itty bitty yoginis who squeeze in their own mat time any chance they get.















It's true that we need the yin & the yang, the up & the down, the highs & the lows.  Funny how sometimes the pendulum swings from one to the other so quickly...
...And we're all really just making it up as we go along anyway, aren't we? ;)

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Thus Far in '14



Well, 2014 is officially underway. It's been insanely cold. We've had way more snow (and way more snow days) than usual.  We're back in the full swing of weekly activities and all the good & bad that comes with that.

We kicked off 2014 this year quietly at home.  We let Josie stay up as late as she wanted and she made it all the way until 11:20! (Next year she'll totally make it 'til midnight.)  We spent the night making Rainbow Loom bracelets (oh that !#$*@$&!^! Rainbow Loom) and just hanging out together. It was a great way to wrap up 2013 and kick off 2014...together.



...3 hours ;)

Hey "FourAustins" - we love our new cuckoo clock!
2014 is looking pretty good so far! We have some really fun things coming up this year that we're already preparing for and looking forward to!

A certain someone is turning THREE in March and wants a FROZEN birthday party. Josie & I hit up Michael's 80% off after Christmas sale and bought every piece of snow or ice themed decor they had. That was pretty stinkin' brilliant if I do say so myself.

As tradition demands, our family talked through our resolutions for 2014. Well, resolutions isn't the right word exactly - maybe "renewed commitments." They tend to be much of the same year to year - start juicing every day again, eat around the big table together more, don't overschedule, etc, etc.   But this year we did make one BIG change that has made a BIG difference for all of us!

Lou & I have a long history of staying up way too late. In the past, it's been typical for us to both finally go to sleep in the 12-12:30 range every night. One of the hardest times for us is always the mornings - getting lunch & everything Josie needs for school & the day's activities (swimming class, piano lessons, gym class, etc, etc) and getting everything ready for Bea & her babysitter for the day (where to go, what to take, etc, etc) and getting Lou & I both ready for a work day. This inevitably led to "hurry, hurry, hurry, we're going to be late" which inevitably led to actually being late - or at the very least speeding through car line right before they closed the gate.  The biggest issue is we were just trying to get too much done in the morning. Soooo.... we arrived at the conclusion that we had to start getting up earlier. Way earlier. Before the kids earlier. So now instead of getting up with the kids at 7, we're getting up before them at 6. This way, we are getting bags packed and breakfast made and our first cup of coffee down and first wave of email checked and our showers taken BEFORE we have two groggy, hungry wee ones that need our attention. To make this work, we're also going to bed at 10 instead of midnight. That's made our extra hour of awake-time much less grumpy.  Our mornings - and thus our whole days - have changed immensely. (And that says a lot coming from a SO NOT A MORNING PERSON person like me.)

Here are some more highlights from the first 20 or so days of 2014!

The sunrises out of our bedroom window have been epic...

"Sister School" is back in session...

I've been loosening up restrictions on the kids' use of the iphone camera. It's been fun to watch what they want to capture. Bea took this one of Josie and I doing the week's meal planning one Sunday afternoon. I was genuinely surprised in this capture...

and Bea told us to keep being surprised as she snap, snap, snapped away...

It's been cold....frozen INSIDE of the windows cold...

We started juicing again...

Like I said...

Bea's been more and more interesting in learning "big girl things" as we've been talking more and more about the fact that 2014 is the year that Beatrice will start school! She's very proud of her "work"...

I'm still blessed with one chunk of solid Beatrice time every Wednesday morning when I work on Pacific Time. Since it's been so cold, we've spent a lot of time at home. This is Bea doing two of her favorite things - 1. practicing random ballet moves and 2. starting a sentence with "probably."  Her quote: "Probably this is an arabesque"...

"Dress Up and Do a Frozen Performance" remains a very favorite activity...

Venus the Cat (also known as the reason some people hate cats) has gotten kinder and gentler in her old age...

Frozen is everywhere. Everywhere. EVERYWHERE...

The crazy fluctuations in temperature have meant for heavy snow one day and melted snowmen the next...

Josie's Frozen performances have evolved from running around with random moves to full-fledged interpretive dance with props (and a two year old ballet recital costume.) In this case it was scarves, properly timed to be released during the big moments of "Let It Go"...


The girls both continue to find ways to entertain themselves. It's been a big transition for us and, although we're not quite to the point where we can totally trust those scary "it's too quiet" moments, we're getting closer. And we're typically surprised to happen upon moments that look something like this...



Here are some more photos from some alone time with Beatrice. In this case, Josie was at her older cousin's skating party...





In other "the Schneider sleep plan has vastly improved" news - we FINALLY (finally, finally, finally, seven years later, finally!!!!) upgraded to a King-Sized bed. We just haven't been able to justify the expense but with the help of a family hand-me-down, a local high school fundraiser, a Craigslist mega-score, and a buddy with a truck - THIS HAPPENED!!!!

And now that we have this GIANT bed, if I could go back in time, I'd sell a kidney to have had it sooner...

While I've all but given up entirely on the Rainbow Loom, Josie has persisted and has proven that she has WAY more patience than her mama when it comes to things like this...

As I tend to notice every time a new year pops up on the calendar, time moves soooo quickly. There are days that I wake up and look at them and it's like they've catapulted into the next stage of their growth overnight. It's amazing (and a wee bit heartbreaking) to watch...


We've had fun with friends! And vow to make more space for spontaneous family play dates like this one...




Josie has moved firmly into the 'big kid party' category. In this case she was off to a "half-sleepover" science party! Josie insisted on "dressing up" and this was Bea's interpretation of what that meant....



Josie came home at 9pm and will have her first "real" sleepover soon!
Everyone is enjoying the big bed - day and night...

Our poor, super-desperate-for-a-dog children have taken to full-scale role play with this ceramic Dachshund (that graced my Mimi's mantle my whole childhood & was gifted to the girls by my dad over the holidays)...

Speaking of my parents, the girls stayed with them Sunday night so they could spend the whole MLK Day holiday with them since Lou & I had to work.  The girls had SOOO much fun! Lou and I had a rare Sunday night out together and experienced the luxury of a slow Monday morning wake-up!

The girls got to build a GIANT snowman (email me the photo Daddy-O) and go to the Wright Patterson Air & Space Museum (that they thought was the cooooolest thing ever)!

With that, the Great Freeze of 2014 presses on....

...and things can only get better from here!