Haircuts

Alena had the great idea to cut her own hair Wednesday after preschool.  She cut off most of her bangs to 1 inch, then butchered some side hair.  She was very proud of the haircut, but it was driving me crazy looking at it.  She said that her bangs were in her eyes and that the hair "fell out."  Then she started carrying the hair around in a ziplock bag like a trophy.  I think the stylist did a pretty good job of making it look decent.  As long as this never happens again!  I thought it would be a good time to introduce Nora to a haircut while big sis was doing it.  She actually did a great job!  She sat pretty still and didn't scream. It probably helped that "Lady and the Tramp" was playing on the TV. Her hair is so pretty and not too mullety so we just got her a little trim.  There are no after pictures, because she had to go straight to her nap (and it is barely noticeable.)

Dressing up

Alena's favorite thing right now is dress up and pretending.  Nora's favorite thing is anything Alena does.  Here are some of the costumes they have worn this month.

Fairy (Periwinkle from her favorite move, Tinkerbell and the Secret of the Wings.)

 Baby Skirt (Super Girl and Blanket Boy not pictured)

Fairy Princess Crystal

Annie with the birthday girl

Ladybug Girl

Little Annie

First snow

 We had the first snow of the year the week before Christmas.  They were calling for up to a foot of snow.  We lucked out and got more like 5 inches.  It started snowing at 6pm the night before and Alena really wanted to get outside to catch a snowflake on her tongue.  The next morning we woke up to a blizzard.  The girls still wanted to go outside and they had to be dragged back in.  Nora does not like walking in the snow.  It is hard to manage with her little legs and she is always falling down.  She also does not like sledding.  She really does not like being photographed in her little red snow suit. The novelty of snow wore off quickly.

Christmas

We had a great and busy Christmas.  Alena and Nora opened presents at two Christmas parties, Aunt Julianne had a baby shower, and Grandma Dee celebrated her 60th birthday!  Best of all, we got to see all of the cousins, aunts and uncles.  And no one was sick!  Nora was excited to hear that there was a baby inside Aunt Julianne's tummy and did her best to pamper her by making sure she was always wearing shoes.  In just a few months there will be two new babies, ending Nora's reign as the youngest of the Ossmans.  She is ready to meet her cousins!  Nora's favorite Christmas present was a new baby doll.  At the end of the day, it is always puppy though.  We will miss Nora saying "sansa, ho ho ho," now that the season is drawing to a close.

Alena's Christmas wish to Santa came true and she received her fairy wings and her fairy dress.  She really loves them.  Her name is "Fairy Princess Crystal."  Alena also got a new big girl doll named Sandy who has lots of outfits to change into.  Grandma Diane sewed most of the outfits.  She even sewed princess dresses for all of the girls, including Sandy!

Nora being cute

Nora is very excited for Christmas.  She is in love with Santa!  He sent her a video which she insists on watching whenever the laptop is out.  She can say "Santa" and "ho ho ho."  She is also very interested in Christmas cookies.

Nora Lou Who

Christmas town with a few extras.  Nora insists that Noah from Noah's ark is also Santa because of his white beard.

Babies having babies!

Preschool performance

Alena got to sing in two preschool performances this week.  The kids sang some holiday tunes for parents and grandparents to enjoy.  The group had kids from 2-5 years old, so there was quite the range of abilities and attention levels.  Alena did a great job!  See her in the back middle?

Santa Claus

This morning we had our traditional breakfast with Santa at Hy-Vee.  Nora didn't want to sit on his lap, but Alena took up quite a lot of lap time.  He must have been asking her some hard hitting questions according to her expressions.  Alena was so excited to see Santa!  She decided last night that she would wear her purple dress with the ruffles to impress him.  She asked him for fairy wings and a fairy dress.  When I told her to tell Santa what Nora wanted, she said "probably the same thing as me." Which is probably true.  Nora finally showed some excitement when the elf brought out the bowl of candy canes.  She grabbed a handful.  Fortunately her big sister was there to make sure all but one went back into the bowl.  Santa invited the girls to come back on Thursday night when he will be reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and serving hot cocoa and cookies.  What lucky girls!

Christmas tree

We got the tree decorated tonight.  Alena did a great job of putting ornaments on, and Nora did a good job of taking them back off again.  Ruby has taken a lot of interest in the tree.  She is on a reign of terror right now.  In an effort to chew on foam bath toys, she jumped onto the bath frog that holds the toys and knocked it off of the wall.  Twice.  Good luck, Christmas tree.

The girls helped put the tree skirt out

The Christmas cat.  Ruby is too fast for a camera.

Nora's words

When Nora went for her 15 month check up, the doctor asked home many words she spoke.  I said about 20 and she said that was a lot and they only expect 3 or 4.  So then I thought I must have exaggerated.  While trying to get back to sleep last night, I counted Nora's words. I counted 26 but there are probably a few more.  She is 17 months, and most of these words are pretty easy for us to understand:

puppy
baby
mommy
daddy
no
yeah
uh oh
more
bye bye
hi
pee pee
Alena (A-ya-ya)
mama
papa
bottle (bah bah)
bath
shoe
nose
bird
beep beep (trains and alarms)
meow
night night
thank you (tane tu)
cheers
all done (ah dah)
book

Her favorites are puppy (any animal can be called a puppy, and her best friend is her stuffed puppy.)  Mommy has been a longtime favorite.  Up until a couple of months ago that was Daddy's name as well, even though she knew how to say Daddy.  She is always saying and signing "more."   She isn't clear on the concept that you can't have more unless you have some to start with, so she will say "more" to anything that she wants from food to toys.  "Uh oh" was one of her earlier favorites, used only when something was done on purpose.  Dropping food on the floor accidentally does not warrant an uh oh for some reason.  And "baby?"  Any kid in a stroller is a baby, no matter what age.  Also used to refer to her many baby dolls.  "Baby" is always said with much excitement.

Hugs

The following is repeated constantly in our house with many variations.

Start out with a fun idea: "Sit on my lap, Baby Nora!" 

Alena takes it too far: Forced into playing pat a cake.

Nora gets fed up: Nobody forces Nora to do anything!

Garden helper

I got some good work out of Alena the other day.  We cleaned out the garden to get ready for spring.  Alena raked the whole thing while wearing her Annie dress.

Nora is 18 months

Nora and Alena both headed to the doctor today for their check ups.  Nora is up to 20 pounds, 1 ounce, and 30 inches.  She was very indignant about the whole process.  Alena even did a dance for her to improve her mood to no avail.  The only saving grace for the appointment was they had two nurses, one for each girl.  We were out of there in record time!  And both girls checked out great!

Two of her favorite things: Puppy and a cell phone

Playing doctor is much more fun!

Halloween

Alena started out the day with a Halloween parade at preschool.  The kids had some great costumes, but no one had a wig quite like Alena!  We went trick-or-treating with Grandma Dee and Grandpa Ed while Grandma Diane handed out candy.  Grandma Diane made Alena's cool Annie dress, and even made a red fleece jacket to wear when it got cold.  The weather was a little chilly but pleasant.  Nora really got into the feel of everything and carried her candy bag the entire time.  No one was allowed to touch Nora's candy!  She did a great job of saying "thank you" and waving goodbye to everyone.

Pumpkins

We carved our pumpkins last night.  The previous night, Alena and Daddy worked on face designs for her pumpkin.  She wanted triangle eyes and nose with a scary mouth.  Alena is an old pro at gutting pumpkins as they did it last week in preschool.  She does not quit until all of the seeds are out.  She is excited to roast the seeds and eat them.  I carved a Cinderella face which Alena thought turned out pretty well.  Nora played with Legos during the carving because we didn't think she was quite old enough to use a knife.

Birthday party

Alena had a great party with the family.  Check out the enthusiasm for receiving these gifts (Alena's preschool teacher said that they were having the kids express different emotions last week and Alena's faces were cracking her up.)

Cinderella Barbie from Tillie.  She has always wanted this!

Cupcakes with Mrs. Potts and Chip!

 Iron Man!  I really wanted this!  A surprise gift from "Batman."
Isn't that convenient for Daddy that Alena really wanted an
action figure?

Nora claimed Alena's new shoes and her Ken doll

The whole group

Alena's rainbow cake, as requested

Alena is four

Can you believe it has been four years?  Alena has been living it up for her birthday.  Yesterday at preschool she got to wear the birthday crown and everyone sang to her.  For supper Brielle and Kaelyn met us at Godfatherss where Alena enjoyed her favorite, pepperoni pizza, with frosting pizza for dessert.  And tomorrow she is having a party.  She should be birthdayed out after all of this excitement.

Alena was an enthusiastic present opener.  She loved her new Barbie.  When I asked her what she would name her, she replied, "Love Barbie, because I love her."  She apparently will fit into the Barbie family well.  According to Alena, she will be Rapunzel's big sister, Maribelle will be the littlest sister, and Kylie the mermaid will be the mommy.  She was also excited to get the Annie book.  When Daddy bought it off the internet he didn't realize that it was the entire movie written out.  It might take two hours to read, but the pictures all come from the movie so I think it will be a success.