Goggles: circa March 2012 - December 31st 2012

Unfortunately we closed out 2012 with the death of Goggles, whom we suspect had an intestinal blockage possibly related to a calcium deficiency and definitely exacerbated by yesterdays's power outtage.

R.I.P Goggles! Charlie loved you very much.

Sledding

We took the kids to a golf course around the corner for some sledding -- the hills were perfect and Charlie proved to be good at steering so he was able to take Amelia down himself without running into any sledders. Here they are!

What To Do With Your Lizard When You have No Power

Cold blooded Goggles was not a happy camper with the power out. Here he is warming up with towels and a hot water bottle :-)

First Real Snow In Two Years

Ok so we did get the first real snow in two years, enough to knock the power out for a few hours anyway. And hopefully enough to do some sledding later on!

Chuck E Cheese

We braved the inclement weather and took the kids to Chuck E Cheese tonight; it was Charlie's request and since he was pretty much cooped up all week between me being sick and Mike working from home, we figured he deserved a night out.

Unfortunately we realized about an hour into the evening that a) 200 tokens was going to take a long time to get through and that b) the light snow outside had turned into a raging blizzard.

Fortunately Mike found a game for Charlie that ate tokens very rapidly and Charlie happily stayed there while Amelia rode a mechanical horse over and over that was considerably slower at eating tokens but nevertheless got the job done. We finally got the kids out of there after Charlie turned in all his hard earned tickets for what else-- a bunch of rubber lizards.

Halfway through the drive home the snow turned entirely to rain and once we got into Quincy there was no snow at all! The forecast is still for 5 to 9 inches overnight but I'm not busting out the sled just yet! I'll believe it when I see it.

Here's Charlie happily racking up tickets at his favorite game at Chuck E Cheese.

Milkshake With Mommy

I was home with Charlie today since it is his winter break. Unfortunately, thanks to the stomach bug I came down with yesterday it wasn't exactly the day off I had planned. We were supposed to meet Heather at the Children's Museum; instead I spent the morning mostly sleeping while Charlie watched "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" and played with Goggles & his snake hook (yes I did check that Goggles still had both his eyes when Charlie finally put him back,) I rallied at 11am and showered just in time for the cleaners to arrive so Charlie and I went out to lunch to get out of their hair. Now we are home, I am back on the couch and he is outside looking for salamanders... Here he is with his milkshake at lunch :-)

Christmas Snowball Fight

Christmas Video 2012

Christmas Morning

Video to follow!

Santa's Helpers Are Turning In For The Night

Christmas in New Hampshire

We had a wonderful day celebrating Christmas with Grammy & Grampy, Uncle Phil & Aunt Sue, cousins David, Andrew and Kyle, and Uncle Tom today. The kids were thoroughly spoiled with presents and candy. Here are some pictures from the day:

Christmas Confections

Peppermint bark, fudge & more peppermint bark...

Swimsuit Model

Thanks Grandma!

Girls Night Out

Good Big Brother

Blonde Curls

Here is Amelia beaming after her haircut today; she got her bangs trimmed and some more layers put in to try to maximize those curls!

Holiday Concert

Clifford Marshall had their kindergarten/1st grade holiday concert this morning. The kids put on a very cute show! Here is the 1st grade class singing "Up On The Rooftop/Hey You." Charlie is conveniently right under the star in the back row.

Movie Night

We took both kids to see a movie -- Rise of the Guardians -- for only the 2nd time since Amelia's been born. Aside from the fact that Amelia had to get up four times to use the bathroom, the kids did very well. That, and the fact that the matinee price at the Hingham Shipyard is only $6/ticket, means we can start taking the kids to see movies again!

Here is Amelia, mesmerized by the movie & popcorn...

Imaginary Friend Update

Despite the fact that Amelia claimed to have eaten Cinqo a few months back, we are not free of the imaginary friends. In fact, they seemed to have multiplied.

Now in addition to Cinqo (who has morphed from an orange mouse to a purple squirrel) we also have Beepa, who is a yellow duck.

I know the whole imaginary friend thing is cute and all, but I am here to tell you that the inconveniences are growing!

Apparently Beepa's bed is in the middle of the bathroom floor and Cinqo's bed is in the middle of our bedroom floor (or is it the other way around?) and this means that I routinely get admonished for stepping on somebody-or-other.

Also, the past two nights Amelia has been relaying Cinqo's and Beepa's ever growing Christmas list, which includes a hat and drums for Beepa and a ball for Cinqo... Or was it a ball for Beepa? Either way, I am really not sure of the gift giving protocol for imaginary friends (I'm thinking imaginary gifts for imaginary friends?) and if I twist my ankle trying to avoid an imaginary bed I won't be happy!!

Christmas Card Retrospective

In honor of mailing out our Christmas cards this afternoon (and in honor of downloading a $3 collage app for my iPad), here is a collage of the Robinson Christmas cards from 2006 through 2012 :-)

Christmas Collage

I promise I'm not going to go collage happy. Sort of. Almost. Maybe just a few :-)

A Little Girl's Heaven

Hello Kitty underpants!! Her reward for an (almost) accident free week!

Check Mate

Charlie just legitimately check mated me, with just his queen and his bishop. Not sure if this says more about his chess playing skills or mine...

New Computer, Take Two!

After a week of trying to resolve problems with our new Dell (namely countless crashes) we packed it up and exchanged it for an iMac. So far, so good! And with the revelation that we now have 2 iPads, 2 iPhones and an iMac , I guess we are officially Mac people :-)

Not The Day Off I Had Planned

So today I had taken a scheduled day off; the plan was to have my friend Katie come over in the morning and help me wrap Christmas presents (I HATE wrapping Christmas presents while she apparently likes it, and also she tells me, it helps assuage her guilt over the copious bags of hand me down clothes she has received from Amelia over the past few years). In the afternoon I was supposed to go over to my friend Valerie's house, where we were going to assemble the dollhouse that is one of Amelia's Christmas presents and that Valerie tells me takes 3 hours to put together (she has one for her daughter.)

Instead of the above Christmas wrapping/assembling extravaganza, Amelia woke up at midnight with a fever and complaining that her ear hurt. She was then up all night in our bed, a miserable feverish wreck.

So this morning after I got Charlie on the bus I cancelled all my plans and took Amelia in to the pediatrician where they confirmed that she has a nasty ear infection. Since Amelia is the world's WORST medicine taker the prospect of trying to get amoxicillin into her 2 times a day for the next ten days is pretty much abysmal. The pediatrician suggested mixing it with all sorts of concoctions, which I tried with her motrin this afternoon (pudding, dr pepper, extremely strong strawberry lemonade) with Amelia taking not one sip/bite of anything because she is totally on to the whole mix-the-medicine-in-something-routine.

Finally, with her fever back up and clutching her ear, Valerie came over and me, her and Charlie held Amelia down and got a dose of motrin in her after first desperately trying to bribe her with Oreos, ring pops and M&Ms.

Wish us luck that Amelia gets considerably better at taking medicine over the next few days :) And that I somehow get the Christmas wrapping done... Valerie took the dollhouse with her this afternoon and said she'd just do it (OMG thank you Valerie!!) and Katie is going to attempt to come over Monday and wrap some presents on the sly while I distract Amelia and Kyla.

Oh Right...

Is this why I gained 7lbs over the holidays last year?

We Mailed Our Letters To Santa Today!

Children's Museum With Katie & Kyla

Amelia and I met Katie and Kyla at the Children's Museum for a play date. We had a great time and the weather was perfect! Here are some pictures:

Potty Training Breakthrough!!

For some reason Amelia seems to have magically gotten on the potty training bandwagon this week. She has started spontaneously excusing herself to go to the bathroom and has been in underpants all weekend with only one accident yesterday and NONE today, including successfully using the potty twice while we were out to dinner. Go Amelia!!

(And yes, it was absolutely necessary to take her picture on the toilet in the restaurant's bathroom for this blog post.)

Gingerbread Cookies

So Charlie and I won't be winning any contests for our cookie decorating skills but they sure tasted good!

He's Baaaaack....

The Elf On The Shelf has joined us once again for the Christmas season! And I told Charlie that if he is up at 5am again tomorrow morning looking for the Elf's hiding spot, I will be asking Santa to find the Elf a new home :-)

Christmas Tree 2012

Early Christmas Present

Here is our new family computer, a Dell all in one with a touch screen & Windows 8. Since its been 7 years since we bought a computer, we are excited!

Just Enough Snow

We have just a dusting, but enough to put us in the mood for some Christmas tree decorating tonight! And trust my kids to find a way to have a snowball fight :-)