Grouchy Bedhead Video

I pulled out my camera today after Kateri woke up from her nap so I could document her glorious bedhead, but she was being so fetchingly grumpy I had to start taping. I realize that to people other than her immediate family her grouchiness probably comes off as more bratty and less charming, but what the heck. It is scary how much she is learning from her sisters. Whenever I tell her no, her response is always, "Why?" Another bad habit she has picked up from them: she mimics them getting their hair done by picking up the brush, touching it gingerly to her frizzy blond birds' nest and wailing, "OW! OW!" until I give her hair a totally unnecessary spritz of detangler.

A Conversation with Audrey

We were driving home from JoAnns today when Audrey decided to share:

"Last night I had a dream about heaven, and God looked the same exactly as Obi Wan Kenobi."

me: "Really?"

Audrey: "Yes, but Jesus looked the same."

me: "The same as what?"

Audrey: "The same as we see him on the cross at Mass...and do you know what I imagine Mary looks like? She has a white hood and blue clothes."

me: "What does her face look like?"

Audrey: "Well, she has beautiful eyebrows...and I think her eyes are brown. I don't know what kind of shoes she wears because no one know what kind of shoes Mary wears"

Who does Nanny love?

This past weekend Kateri and I took a trip to Louisiana sans Lili, Audrey, and Luke. Hopefully I can write a post about it later, but it was so much fun. Beautiful wedding, beautiful bride, beautiful babies I got to meet and hold for the first time, and way too much fun with my family. Kateri likewise had a ball. Here is what Nanny taught her. She is still a little zonked from her weekend of travel and partying, which probably explains her refusal to blow a kiss at the end...

Lili and Jack

I've been meaning for some time to write a post about Lili's relationship with her best friend Jack. They've always been good buds, from the time they were two fat babies waddling around in diapers, to the two toddlers in the photo strip to the left singing "Casey Junior" over and over again at Disneyland, but as their friendship has grown and developed over the years, it has given me so much joy and not a few laughs...
Last night I opened Lili's lunch bag to find a note she had written to herself taped to the inside. It said "REMEMBER- JACK" in large letters at the top and was followed by a paragraph of what I took to be abbreviated gibberish. When I asked her about it this was the explanation she gave: "Well, whenever I'm in chapel I always am remembering these things I want to tell Jack about, and then at break or lunch I forget, so I am writing myself a note to remember to tell him." The seeming gibberish was a series of anecdotes she wanted to share with him, including her reenactment of Bill Cosby's "Dad is great, give us the chocolate cake" routine that she had recently watched with Luke and I, and a couple of other random stories she was sure Jack would find hilarious.
Aside from her lack of concentration in chapel, the whole incident just made me smile, and then I had to go to my purse to retrieve the note that Jack had given Lili last week:


Here's the front and back
I love how unabashedly outspoken the two of them are with their declarations of platonic love. When they say goodbye, it is often with a brief hug and a matter of fact: "Bye Lili, I love you." "I love you, too." I also wish I had a photo of the image of the two of them at one of the first soccer practices of the season. Everyone was split into pairs for drills, but I think they were the only ones who were unselfconsciously holding hands while awaiting their coach's instructions.
Like everything else with young children, I know this probably won't last...inevitably one of them is going to be teased by some older or more worldly child, but maybe not. I'm hoping that they hold on to their sibling-like affection for one another as long as they can, and that their friendship just grows right along with them. After all, they've moved on from Casey Junior to soccer and Bill Cosby, and they are still just as tight.

2010

Well, it's a new year. I don't have any pictures of our Christmas festivities, because I didn't take any. They wouldn't have been very pretty. After spending 6 consecutive Christmases miles away from my side of the family, I was so excited that my parents would be with us in Phoenix. I was so looking forward to sharing all of the little traditions that have sprung up in our own little household during one of my favorite times of year. Christmas Eve Mass, all the anticipation and excitement of leaving cookies and milk for Santa, brunch on Christmas morning in our PJs... Sadly the one tradition that Fate decreed we introduce my parents to was the only one I loathe: sick kids at Christmastime. So instead of sharing mimosas and cinnamon rolls, we all got to share a stomach bug.
My poor parents... Luckily the bug was short-lived and we got to sandwich some good times in between bouts of nausea. My Dad sent me some of his pictures:

Audrey and Lili received their beloved American Girl Dolls from Santa, and Luke spent the rest of the following days finding tiny American girl accessories on the floors and furiously reminding his daughters of how hard Santa must have worked on that tiny horrifically overpriced barrette so they better take good care of it!

All kidding aside, we are so thankful for the many blessings that 2009 brought. Life with these three girls has been so sweet, we can't wait to see what 2010 will bring. Happy New Year everyone!

Christmastime is here

We are getting ready for Christmas here at the Speier household. The girls are trying their hardest to be good, and for the most part succeeding. Gaudete Sunday always seems to bring the recurrent argument of who gets to blow out the pink candle in our Advent wreath, and Audrey got her feelings hurt when Lili was unable to stifle her giggles during Audreys uber-falsetto rendition of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" tonight, but they are doing pretty well all in all.

They girls set out their shoes for St. Nicholas to fill on his feast day.

We also got our tree. As per tradition, after the tree is trimmed, the youngest gets to crown it with the angel.

Kateri was thrilled with her task, and we thought she was able to grasp the concept of what she was supposed to do...

...maybe she just wanted to give her Daddy's arms a workout...

...but once she got up there she just kept putting the angel on and pulling it off again while we all begged her to leave it on top of the tree.

She just couldn't let go.

So finally Daddy had to give his arms a break...

... and Audrey had to do the honors.

Middle Child Syndrome?

Something nice has been happening over the past few months. I guess it is the silver lining to Lili's ever-increasing commitments to school, soccer, and other big-kid pursuits. As much as we miss Lili during the school day, her absence has allowed a tight friendship to blossom between her two little sisters. Part of it must be the fact that Kateri is now undeniably a toddler, and can play and be bossed around. When Lili is home and done with homework, she and Audrey are usually engaged in a nonstop round of make-believe that usually involves at least four costume changes and several re-arranging of the furniture to facilitate a scenario that has usually been dreamed up by Lili. When Lili leaves, however, Audrey turns to Kateri for a playmate and becomes helpful, patient, and downright nurturing! As a result, she has become Kateri's hero. Kateri wakes up every morning and the first words out of her mouth are "Au-jah, Au-jah." I usually try to finagle a few more minutes of sleep by offering to nurse her, but she pushes me away, backs down off the bed and staggers into the girls' room to see what her idol is up to. (Lili is not too crazy about this preference, but you get what you pay for, and Audrey has put in the time.) I am sure everyone has heard of "middle child syndrome," where children sandwiched in between the celebrated firstborn and coddled baby feel under appreciated, less loved. Just ask my brother Joe about it...I'm sure he has some anecdotes he's been holding on to for the last quarter-century. (By the way, I am also a middle child, but I am the only girl, which apparently cancels out any negative effects of birth order.) The point is, middle children are supposed to get the short end of the stick in some ways, but I think Audrey is lucky. She gets to be a little sister and ask Lili how to spell things and she gets to be a big sister and show Kateri the best way to construct a stable tower out of blocks. Maybe I am wrong, and in the years to come she will curse fate for saddling her with such a lousy slot in the line-up.

But when a finicky 15 month old prefers you to everyone else in the world...how can you not feel loved?

P.S. I am sorry about the runny-nosed Kateri picture. I have looked at other people's pictures of their kids with runny noses and thought..why don't they just wipe their kid's nose before they snap the picture? But if I had done that, Kateri would have protested violently and their charming little moment coloring together would have been over. If I knew how to photoshop a runny nose away I would. Obviously it didn't bother Audrey. She planted a loud smacking kiss on those slobbery lips anyway.