A Visit with Santa

This past Saturday Grace, Colin, Nanny, and I set out to meet Santa Claus. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, especially from Colin. Grace was a bit shy, but warmed up to Santa pretty quickly. She filled him in on everything she hopes he'll bring her for Christmas this year. She explained that she's been a good girl and is definitely not on the "Naughty List."

Colin sat on Santa's nap for less than a minute, but thankfully the photographer snapped the picture quickly. Colin liked looking at Santa, saying his name, and smiling at him...but all from afar. He was over the whole "sitting on his lap scene" pretty quickly.

We had a fun day...visiting Santa, having lunch at the now mostly deserted Highland Mall, riding the choo-choo train, and getting excited about every Christmas tree and decoration in our path :-) 8 days 'til Christmas, and we are definitely in the holiday spirit!!!

What Easter's All About

There are A LOT of topics that are not easy to explain to your kids - death, homelessness, natural disasters, war, etc. But, as parents, it's our duty to help our kids understand things that we may struggle to understand ourselves. With Easter approaching, I wanted to help Grace, my almost four year old, to understand what we're celebrating. I wanted her to know that it's not just about Easter egg hunts, coloring eggs, and a visit from the Easter Bunny. As I set out to teach her about the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus, I realized that explaining these events so that she could understand them would be a huge challenge.

I got a storybook that I thought would help, and it did, although I had to answer questions along the way about things she saw and heard in the story. Here are a few examples of our interactions the last few weeks:

• When looking at a picture of Jesus with a crown of thorns on his head, "Mommy, that looks like it hurts."


• When we read about Simon helping Jesus carry the cross, Grace responded, "Simon? Like the Chipmunk?"


• After finishing the story, as I was asking questions about what we celebrate on Easter to see if she understood, Grace answered, "Jesus died on the cross." I replied, "Very good. And what happened next?" Grace's answer: "He didn't have a shirt on, and I could see his nipples."

All in all, although she had some silly responses, I think she's starting to understand what Easter is all about. I will keep praying for the right words to explain what will happen in the days to come and why we sing ALLELUIA on Easter morning with such joy! Happy Easter from our family to yours!

Colin says YES!!!

Colin really likes to nod his head YES! He does it with such enthusiasm :-) It's SO much better than when he says no with his full-body temper tantrums!

Big, Big Giant Booty

Sometimes your kids say things that are so funny that you forget to tell them they're not nice things to say. Last night my parents stayed at our house because they had an early flight to PA this morning. Grace was so excited to have Nana and Pop-Pop sleep over. She helped me make their bed, complete with a Tinkerbell bedspread that she knew they would love. As we were all hanging out together, Nana told Grace that she wanted to sit in her Winnie the Pooh chair. This chair is a hot commodity at our house lately, as Colin loves to climb up and sit on it. This often doesn't go over well with Grace who likes to remind Colin that it's "her chair." Grace was not impressed with Nana's desire to sit in her chair and told her she couldn't sit there. I asked Grace why Nana couldn't sit there, and she replied:

"She won't fit."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because she has a big, big giant booty!" Grace answered.

We all laughed hysterically, and I'm not sure we ever got around to explaining to Grace that she needs to be nice and not talk about people's booties. And Nana, you're booty's not giant :-)

We Don't Like the Cowboys

You have to be careful what you teach your kids, right? We all know that. Well, as die-hard Philadelphia Eagles fans, we recognize our duty to teach our kids right (cheering for the Eagles) from wrong (cheering for the Cowboys). During this past football season, Grace got pretty into football, and she loved cheering along with us. We taught her the E-A-G-L-E-S chant and the "Fly Eagles Fly" song that we sing every time they score a touchdown.

We also began explaining to her that we don't like the Dallas Cowboys. This was, in part, because several of our devious friends tried to get her to say "Go Cowboys" and "I love the Cowboys" to irritate us. So in our explanations we told her that the Cowboys stink and that we love the Eagles! No harm done, right?

Yesterday we were shopping at Sam's and two genuine cowboys walked past us. They were fully decked out in 10-gallon hats, boots, and jeans and looked like they just came from a ranch. As they walked by, Grace blurted out, "The Cowboys stink. We don't like the Cowboys." Oops...I guess she's confusing the Dallas Cowboys with real life Cowboys. We'll need to work on that ;-)

Thankfully, these real life cowboys laughed, as I tried to explain to Grace that they are nice cowboys.

Another Classic Grace Quote

Last night I took the kids for a walk right after we got home. Colin was in his stroller, and Grace decided to push her baby in a stroller. This is a risky move because you never know when Grace will decide that she can't walk anymore because "her legs are broken." Those of you who spend a lot of time with her know that her legs tend to be broken fairly often.

So we walked to the neighborhood playground and were having a great time. Colin enjoyed the swing, while Grace went down the slide at least a dozen times. All was well with the world...UNTIL I announced that it was time to head home to make dinner. Grace refused to walk home. This time there was a twist on her usual broken legs excuse. She informed me that she couldn't walk because she was thirsty and her "legs weren't filled with milk." :-)

Gotta love our little drama queen!!!

Unicorns at the Zoo

Tonight Grace and I were doing "learning time," working on writing letters and numbers. We got to the letter U, and there was a picture of a unicorn. Grace excitedly told me that she LOVES unicorns. We went to the zoo a few weeks ago, and she's been talking non-stop about it. After she saw the unicorn, she said, "Mommy, can we go to the zoo next week to see if there's a unicorn there? Because I love unicorns!"

So. Darn. Cute.

Grace's Valentine's Dance Performance

We are so proud of our little dancer! Grace's dance class had a special Valentine's Day performance today, and it was so adorable :-) We love our sweet, silly, always full of laughter girl! Grace, you are AWESOME!!!

Party in the USA, Performed by Grace Calleigh

Is Grace the next American Idol? She certainly sings with conviction :-) Enjoy her rendition of "Party in the USA." :-)

Grace's Quote of the Month - January 2011

Grace says a lot of funny things...she keeps us entertained, no doubt about it! In January, she was her usual hilarious self, but one quote has kept me laughing.

Grace, Colin, and I were shopping at Wal-Mart with Nanny (Martin's Mam). We were looking for "fuzzy socks" for Grace, as we prepared for some cold weather. Grace wanted warm, fuzzy socks, "just like Mommy and Nanny have." As we searched for the socks, we entered the training bra section. Grace pointed at one of the bras and said, "Mom - I want to buy boobs."

She was very upset when we didn't buy her a bra...she said she needs them to cover her boobies. Just imagine her as a teenager...

Colin Dancing to the 2.5 Men Theme Song

Colin absolutely loves the theme song for 2.5 Men! Every time he hears it, he starts doing his adorable little dance :-) He even sings the last note of the song. (Excuse our giggling in the background...we couldn't help ourselves.) Enjoy!!!

Rhyming Words

I've started teaching Grace about rhyming words. Of course, we're working on the simple ones like boat rhymes with float, shoes rhymes with two, car rhymes with star, etc. We were laughing and having a good time, and I thought to myself, "She's really getting the hang of this!" And then she proved that she understood rhyming words when she said with a HUGE smile on her face:

"MARTIN RHYMES WITH FARTIN'!"

I tried to keep my game face on, but couldn't...we laughed and laughed. Grace was clearly proud of herself! Gotta love her :-)

Happy New Year! Bring on 2011 :-)

Happy New Year from Team Fogarty!

Here's to making 2011 your best year ever! We had a wonderful time ringing in the new year with dear friends last night. Grace was especially excited to have four of her friends come over to hang out and two of them spend the night (her very first sleepover!).

We hung out with friends all day today, and it was the perfect way to start the year. 2010 was really awesome, especially because we added Colin to our family, and we're eager to see what's in store for us this year! We wish you happiness and peace this year. Choose to make 2011 FABULOUS!