Ornaments

We have made the transition to Valentine's by putting out some decorations, but we have not yet been able to pry the singing Elf out of Gracie's loving hands.

She loves this little Elf. She looks for him at every waking moment, and we get to hear his cheerful singing a few thousand times per day. He may or may not be around next Christmas, but we can only make good on that veiled threat if she loses interest long enough for him to... disappear.



We have also repurposed the Lindsey-tradition Christmas tree. We couldn't just limit this gem to a few weeks at Christmas. No sir! It is now prominently placed here:



And, we made it seasonally appropriate by adding some Valentine's ornamentation. Voila!

Snack time

"Moose, where are you????" from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.

iPad

Why does Apple tempt us so?

See the iPad here.

And read more about it here.

Sesame Street smiles

Random

Getting her shot

Daddy games

Skip has introduced a new game to the girls. He takes various stuffed animals and small toys, places them on top of the ceiling fan blades, and then turns on the fan, sending the objects flying.

In motion

Being Sleeping Beauty

Playing al fresco

Get yo' purse!

Tuesday night (or, more specifically, Wednesday morning), Lauren awoke at 2:15am. I stayed with her for a while, went back to bed at 3:08am, and then got back up at 3:27am when she cried again.

You see, she couldn't sleep.

Understandably, she was frustrated by having to lie in her bed. She proceeded to quietly play until 5:30 or so when she drifted back to sleep -- at which time I showered and started the day. Wednesday was a very busy/important day at work; being well rested would have been helpful.

I realize that there are those early-bird-gets-the-worm types, those disciplined souls who arise at 3:30 or 4:00am each and every day of their lives. (In fact, my dad's alarm clock sounded at 3:30am for years.) God bless them. But, I would argue here that those people have settled into those routines and have adjusted by going to bed at an hour that affords them enough sleep to function. Since we typically do not get up at 2 or 3am, we were up until 11:30pm the night before. Long story short, we were staggering about Wednesday on no sleep.

In fact, I was so ill prepared to put one foot in front of the other that when I got to work a coworker mentioned that she was stopped at a traffic light beside me that morning. She blew the horn and waved, but... nothing. It just didn't register.

Anyway. We managed to schlep through Wednesday (again, important/busy day for us both) and crash Wednesday night. I made a deal with the girls that if they would go to sleep, STAY asleep and NOT WAKE UP, that they could both wear ***PINK*** shirts the following day and that we would run errands (that's a big deal around here).

Miraculously, they kept their end of the deal, and we're a little more functional today.

Here they are ready for their pay off:



Pink shirt? Check.

Pink bows? Check.

*Pink purses? Check.

Errands included Target, the library and the United States Post Office. And, I'm pretty sure I would have noticed if anyone had blown the horn or waved to me. :)

*As the picture indicates, we rarely leave the house without purses in hand. In fact, when we start making our exit, Lauren usually shouts, "Get yo' purse, Gracie!!!!" Contents include 1) Cinderella camera, 2) Sleeping Beauty mobile phone, 3) sunglasses and 4) usually some type of contraband, such as Chapstick or lip gloss.

Morning smiles

Don't call it a comeback...

The girls staged their "comeback" at the park today. After weeks that included illness, frigid temps (relatively, of course) and rain, Skip, who was off for MLK, was able to take the girls to the playground this afternoon.

Finds: your local library

I am a huge fan of the library.

We have a serious reading habit to support. After a number of years, we finally figured out that we could avoid the $100 Barnes & Noble expense -- that we could have our reading experiences for...free. We like free. Love it, in fact.

The girls, on the other hand, do not always grasp the idea of books being returned. They, like all children, like repetition, and therefore, get a little cranky when their books are returned after a check-out period of three weeks.

A nice compromise is the library book store, where duplicate copies of books or slightly damaged books are sold to the public. Since any book that passes their hands is instantaneously "slightly damaged," this works out well.

Last week, I picked up all of the below books -- 8, in total -- for $2.00.

WooHOO!

Nap time

Napping from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.

Bookish

This kind of week

Winter break

We have been hibernating for the last couple of weeks... updates to come soon.

13

Alabama 37, Texas 21

Cross your fingers

Or, rather, hold up four fingers during the 4th quarter to show support.

"I got a Niiii-kon camera... I love to take a pho-o-tograph"

Six years or so ago, Skip and I took a trip to NYC. Living in separate states, we had traveled a bit here and there. Since neither of us had invested in any type of camera, I documented some of these trips with disposable cameras, usually picked up spontaneously in tourist areas. At any rate, during this NYC trip, we explored Rockefeller Plaza. While discussing the inflated price of all the disposable cameras we had purchased, we ducked into a strategically placed camera store. We were met by an array of salespeople, eager to sell us the very latest in digital cameras.

Being "old school," we quickly explained that we were looking for a film camera. Film. Yes, film. F-i-l-m. They literally shooed us to the back of the store, where a small -- but impressive -- selection of film cameras remained. (Think about it: we wanted to start taking pictures right away, and there was no time to research the purchase, get familiar with the camera, etc.) So we paid next to nothing for a very decent film camera.

About three years ago, we finally took the plunge and purchased a (drumroll) digital camera, and we were pleased with it. Since the girls' birth, we have probably taken 5,000 pictures or so, and we have simply exhausted the camera, although it put up a valliant fight.

For Christmas, Santa brought the family a nice camera, one that is worlds above those disposable cameras and one that makes that first digital camera shudder uncontrollably. Film is not an option at all with two very fast moving three-year-olds; digital makes the most sense, as I usually only capture a tiny section or ear, or maybe an arm, as they are running away. Being able to delete really helps to defray expenses.

Since receiving Santa's very generous gift, we have been stuck singing the chorus of Paul Simon's "Kodachrome," because we can sometimes be goofy like that. When songs get stuck in your head, it seems logical to actually listen to the lyrics. In doing so, I have no idea what this song is about, and after reading the Wikipedia entry regarding this song I am somewhat certain that the author has no idea either. For example, he was going to title the song "Going Home" but changed it to "Kodachrome" because he liked the word. Granted, it is a great word, but the chorus and verses seem discordant.

To summarize, we have entered the digital age, and we are singing songs we do not understand. 2010 is good so far.

Future travelers

Please don't stop the music

Michael sample from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.

Little black dresses

Pink