Happy Lunar New Year!  According to the lunar calendar, this is the Year of the Snake.  This is an extra special year for me because I was born the Year of the Snake (1977).  People born the year of the Snake are thought to be wise, intelligent, and clever.  The Snake is sometimes called “Little Dragon” because it most closely resembles the Dragon, the most powerful and lucky zodiac.  Some of the luckiness from the Dragon rubs onto people born the year of the snake so 2013 should be a successful year for us.  2013 is the year of the Water Snake, an animal that has an adventurous spirit and loves to take risks.  The color of the 2013 year of the Snake is Black.  The Black Snake is said to bring people unexpected changes and instability.

I am very excited this is the Year of the Snake.  I very much feel like this will be a year of change.  Even before reading the details of the type and color of snake this year was, I knew there would be big changes for me this year.  Here’s why.

Out of baby-making, settling into baby-raising.  I take care of two little ones, one and five.  I can say with absolute certainty we will not be having any more little ones.  I love them both endlessly but I am a mama that can only physically, mentally, and financially handle two.  And anyways, ski lifts seat four and rounds of golf are in groups of four…haha.  I am out of the baby-making, all-day morning sickness, breast pumping mindset, and now focused on raising my babies, preschool, ski school.  I want to help my girls become themselves and amazing people.

Finding Our Relationship.  Life gets complicated when you have babies.  Throw in going from a working mama to a stay-at-home mama, starting a business, moving into my parent’s house, and life becomes almost impossible.  I miss having a relationship with my Grouchy Husband outside of grocery lists, car pool schedules, bedtime routines.  I miss our relationship and I want it back.

Finding Work.  Along with not having any more little ones, I can say with absolute certainty, I am a mama that needs to work.  Work is a part of me, it’s something I enjoy, it’s something I miss.

I’m both excited and anxious for this year.
To all my fellow Snakes, I wish you much success in the changes in store for you this year.

Year of the Snake mama,
Chrissy

The girls went outside to enjoy snow storm Nemo this afternoon.  After some snow angels and snow castles, they decided to make a snowman.  My Princess started with a itty bitty snowball and because the snow was so wet, it got big fast.

My Baby used the snow in the air to make her snowball.  Because she was so bundled up, she couldn’t bend down to the snow on the floor.

My sister was in town for Chinese New Year so she helped roll the balls for the snowman.

The first snowball was done.  My Baby was so excited it was so big.

The making of a fine snowman.

Finished!  My Princess did such a good job.  She found the sticks for the arms and pushed in the rocks for the eyes and buttons.  The best (and only) snowman on the block.

Snowman maker assistant,
Dumpling Mama

We headed up to Killington for the yearly celebration for my dad and Uncle Ronnie’s (my dad’s best friend) birthdays.   I had not gone in a couple of years because I was pregnant and then my Baby was too little so I was very excited to see everyone and celebrate.  This year was also a very special year because my Princess was learning to ski so she would be on the mountain with us.  We enrolled her in ski school in the morning so that she could get use to the mountain and my Grouchy husband and I could spend some time snowboarding.  It’s been a couple of years since I was on my snowboard so I was nervous and having babies has changed my body so I have to figure out my balance all over again.  It was like riding a bike so after a few runs, everything came back.  The best part of the day was after my Princess finished ski school, she rode the ski lift for the first time and we got to ski with her down two trails.  It was a feeling of being so proud, her growing up so fast, seeing our family all on the ski mountain together some day soon, all at the same time.

This is what apres ski looks like for a 4-year-old…m&m’s and apple juice.  While eating her m&m’s, my dad told my Princess that this was a special day for him because he got to ski with his granddaughter.  My dad is not a man of many words so this melted my heart.

And of course after a day of skiing, we ate lots and lots of dumplings (and noodles, and brie, and cookies, and wine, and…).  Aunt Cheryl made these dumplings…not bad for a Jewish mama.

The girls adored Sami.
This was my Baby’s first time in Killington.  She stayed inside Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Cheryl’s condo the whole weekend and had the time of her life.

Both girls had such a great time.  Though they were the only kids, they didn’t have any problem finding people to play with.

Me and my girls.

The girls and their dada.  My Grouchy Husband always has to remind me that I cannot say they are “my” girls when they are also his.

The new couples at the Killington birthday weekend.  Sami and her new husband Mike.  My sister, Kimbie, and her fiance Mike.  It was sometimes a little confusing with so many Mike’s in the house.
Tired after skiing but still smiling.  I was upstairs taking a nap.
The birthday boys (and non-birthday granddaughter) in front of their birthday cake.  This was an ice box cake Aunt Cheryl made and it was unbelievably delicious.  She told me the recipe and it’s super easy so I’m going to give it a try.

The birthday boys with their birthday gifts…which are usually something “Star Trek” or “Old Guys Rule” themed.  This year my sister bought them engineer t-shirts.  Only engineers (which they both are) could be so excited and wear with so much pride.

Happy Birthday Dad and Uncle Ronnie!
Thank you Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Cheryl for hosting another wonderful celebration!

Chrissy xoxo

 

This week at ski school we had a special visitor…Dada!  My Grouchy Husband works a lot so anytime he can be with the girls they are just besides themselves thrilled.  And I’m thrilled to have an extra set of helping hands.  Ski school starts with helping my Princess get her gear on.

My Baby waits patiently for her sister…

…and waits.I try to grab a picture of the girls smiling.

My Princess giving my Baby some pointers on skiing.  After two lessons she is experienced enough to do this…haha!

My Princess was so happy to have her dada with her at ski school.  He stood outside for most of the lesson watching her go up and down the magic carpet in the cold.  The things only dadas will do…

Today was my Princess’ first day of ski school and she was fantastic.  She started out the day a little nervous but she had her “edgie wedgie” (little green elastic clipped to the tip of her skis to keep them together) to give her a little bit of confidence.

The class is tiny with only one other little boy and Catherine the ski instructor.  Catherine has great energy and super attentive to her two students.  I’m really happy she will be their teacher for the next six weeks.

She caught an edge and was going to fall…

but with grace and skill never touched the ground and stood back up…I like to think she gets that from me.  My Grouchy Husband would of course disagree.

All smiles at the end of her lesson.  I love smiles.

My Baby was the biggest cheerleader.  Literally, the “biggest” in her snow pants and double jackets.  The pants were so puffy her jacket wouldn’t go past the middle of her chest.  She wanted to ski so badly.  I can’t wait for the day the girls are both out on the mountain.

Proud mama of a first day of ski school graduate,
Chrissy

 

Christmas started the weekend before at Aunt Bernice and Uncle Mark’s house in the Berkshires.  It’s great to be away with my Grouchy Husband’s family celebrating the holiday, catching up, and of course eating.  One of the first things Aunt Bernice does when she gets to the house is put up the Christmas tree.

The girls were right at home in the Berkshires.  They love spending time with Cousin Jill.

Cousin Jason and Ilana’s new dog, Roxie, joined us for her first Berkshires Christmas.  She is such a good puppy!

The girls were active participants at present time.

My Baby somehow ended up in one of the present boxes.  Anything is possible for a 16 month old!

The girls had so much fun opening their presents.  My Princess realized this year how wonderful it is to get presents.  It’s not that she didn’t like them before, this year it just came together for her…getting a gift wrapped in fun paper, the anticipation of what’s inside, finding a fun toy to play with or new clothes to wear.

Cousin Jason, Ilana, and Jill loved watching My Baby open her presents.  Babies are sometimes the best form of entertainment.

My Baby was obsessed with the gift tags.  She would stick them on her dress.

Then unstick them from her dress…

And stick them on the tree.

And then clap for doing a good job.  Hooray!

After presents all of our full stomachs attempted to eat dessert.  The Winter Wonderland cake was so beautifully decorated.  My Princess made an apple crisp (last pie in the rectangle pan).  It baked while we were opening presents and smelled wonderful.

Christmas day began in Westchester.   The girls waited patiently for everyone to get up in the morning and my brother to come up from the City.

And within minutes all of the presents were opened and all over the room.

My Grouchy Husband worked the night before.  He stayed awake long enough to see the girls open up most of their presents.

After lunch we headed to Uncle Billy and Aunt Alice’s house in Brooklyn.  This was our Asian-American Christmas dinner…lobster Cantonese, Chilean sea bass in a ginger scallion sauce, shrimp with snow peas, spare ribs with black bean sauce, vermicelli rice noodles, corn casserole, and prime rib.

Chrissy xoxo

After sending last year’s holiday card after the new year, I promised myself I would take care of the card this year right after Thanksgiving.  I can usually disguise my chaotic disaster of a life by wearing makeup, having the girls in clean clothes and hair bows, and remembering to pack the diaper bag.  When your holiday card shows up after New Year’s, there is no disguising the fact you didn’t have it together enough to send a card out the 30 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  But that was last year…now it’s this year and a few days after Thanksgiving, we took the photo for the holiday card.  I chose to take the picture outside because of the natural light (thank goodness it was warm that day).  My Grouchy Husband had to go to work so we had exactly 7 minutes to setup and take the picture (mission impossible?).  The setting for the photo was my Princess’ outdoor kitchen.

A test shot.  As you can see everyone is in the holiday spirit (haha).  Could my Grouchy Husband be any grouchier?

How can he be grouchy holding this cutie pie?

A test shot.  A few adjustments need to be made…camera angle, camera zoom, my backside!

It was a miracle, it only took three shots to get the perfect picture.  Hooray and Happy Holidays!

A Happy Holiday Card on Time Mama,
Chrissy xoxo

The day a woman conceives she enters this invisible battle ground between working and stay-at-home moms.  It’s not a physical battle, rather a battle fought with judgement, and we have built a glass wall between ourselves.  Working moms are judged because they are not the primary caregiver to their kids.  Stay-at-home moms are judged because they have made the choice to leave their careers and be at home raising their kids.  It’s unnecessary and we as women and moms need to stop judging one another and start supporting each other’s child raising decisions. We all love, love, love our children and only want the absolute best for them.

I was a working mom and now I’m a stay-at-home mom.  People ask me all of the time which is harder and the truth is both are equally hard.  When I was working, I had more time to myself at work, but when I came home, it was a whirlwind of tasks, activities, and quality time with my baby.  Now that I’m home, I still have to do the whirlwind of tasks, activities, and quality time with my babies but I have the whole day to do it all and I don’t have the option of canceling or rescheduling any of them so that I can have a few minutes to myself.  Working moms, stay-at-home moms, all moms feel the same way…tired.

Love a very tired once working now stay-at-home mama,
Chrissy

 

This is a typical lunch with my Baby.  She doesn’t talk yet so I have translated her grunts, ooohhhs, and aaahhhs.  I probably should have named this post Spaghetti Shower.

“Mama…I really love spaghetti”

“Can I please have some more”

“Mama…I see something outside”

“Mama!  Look it’s a bird.”

(Me thinking) I can’t look outside right now because all I can think about is how dirty your hands are.

“Mama…I don’t know why you didn’t look outside.  The bird was so pretty.”

“Wow…my hair feels funny with spaghetti sauce in it.”

“Boy do I love spaghetti!”

“Mama…can you please look outside?  The bird is back.”

“Mama…the bird, the bird!”

“Wasn’t the bird so pretty!”

I actually attempted to clean the spaghetti sauce off my Baby with a wash cloth but quickly realized that she needed a full on bath.

Love a mom who should have looked at the birds earlier,
Chrissy