Rhythm pulses through her veins. Melodies fill her brain. Her days are filled with music and dancing. A day without dancing isn’t a day worth living as far as she is concerned. She is a musical soul.

Dancing to her favorite Dragon song

There isn’t any one type of music that she gravitates towards, although a good beat does seems to help. The only requirement for making the list is that the song speaks to her and makes her want to dance. If she can’t not dance to a song it will become an instant favorite and very quickly makes its way onto her iPod. Her favorites range from Gwen Stefani’s The Sweet Escape, to Adele’s Rolling in the Deep, to Forbidden Friendship from the How to Train Your Dragon Soundtrack, to OneRepublic’s All the Right Moves, to Led Zeppelin’s Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, to Eminem’s Like Toy Soldiers.

Her musical tastes are beautifully eclectic. And, there is just no swaying her opinion, no matter how hard her daddy tries You can’t convince her she doesn’t like a song once she has developed a taste for it and you can’t convince her that she likes a song that hasn’t spoken to her. She usually knows the very first time she hears a song whether it is a keeper or not. There is no telling what her next favorite is going to be either, she will hear a song on the radio or in a movie or something, it makes her want to dance and is an instant new favorite.

I love her love for music. I love how she sings to her self a random times throughout the day and will just start dancing to some tune playing in her head. I’m pretty sure there is always a song playing in her head.

I can already see the love pass between them when they look at each. I can already see the inside jokes they will have. I can already see the tag team approach they will create to cause trouble for their parents. I can already see a lifetime of friendship. These two seriously adore each other.

Maya has been waiting and waiting for the day when Anna would be able to play with her, and although Anna still just mostly watches her play, Maya loves these moments. She is patient with her and teaches her. She loves to read her stories, she loves to make her laugh and she loves to talk to her about her princess and pony toys. As Anna gets bigger they are playing more and more together. These two are going to cause a lot of trouble together, can’t you just see it!

Maya can make Anna laugh better than anyone. Sometimes all she has to do is look at her and Anna will burst into giggles Anna, in turn, can make Maya giggle. They get each other going, it is so fun to watch. They compliment each other. Maya the performer and chatty one, Anna the observer and quiet one. They will have each other’s backs, I love that. My two beautiful girls. Best sisters, best friends.

Our pets are a part of our family. Often times they are our babies before we have actual babies. They are often our children’s first friend, and the bond they form together is a strong and beautiful one. Sadly, a child’s first experience with loss often comes when the family pet dies. Talking to your children about the loss of their beloved friend can be difficult, especially when your child is experiencing death and grief for the first time. The age of the child is going to play a big role in how they perceive the loss, handle the grief and how best to talk to them about the death of a pet.

With two aging kitties in our household, age 14 and 13, and a little girl who grows increasingly attached to her kitty buddies every day, this is a topic I have worried about, researched and considered quite a bit. Last week one of our kitties became very ill and at one point it was looking like the end may be very near. Luckily, her condition has improved and it looks like she’ll be around for a little bit longer. As I was back and forth to the vet and busy administering the medication necessary to hopefully improve Miss Laura’s condition I couldn’t stop thinking about how I was going to talk to Maya about all of it. I tried to play over the conversations in my head many times. We talked to her about the fact that Laura was very sick but I didn’t mention the “D” word because I didn’t want to unnecessarily worry her until we knew for sure what was going on.  I did, however, do a lot of research so I would be a little more prepared if/when the time comes.

How a child handles the loss of their pet friend is going to vary, just as how we adults handle loss varies. Some children may not appear to be affected and carry on much as usual, this is particularly true for children too young to really understand death. It is normal for children to cry, have changes in mood, appetite, and behavior after the loss of a pet. It is normal for children to ask a lot of questions and even sometimes wonder if something they did caused their pet to die. Children don’t generally understand the permanence of death until around age 7 or so and children younger than that may continue to ask when the pet is going to come back. The most important thing you can do for your child as they grieve for their pet friend is to be there for them, to cuddle with them, talk to them and listen to them. Talking about how they feel and letting them ask as many questions as they need to is very important.

One of the big worries for many parents is how best to explain death and what happens after a pet dies. How to talk to your child about this is going to depend on their age and your beliefs. The best thing you can do is tailor your conversations to your child’s age and understanding of death and to your beliefs as a family. Your child’s questions will be a big help in determining what they understand will help lead the conversation in a good direction for them.

I found several websites in my research last week that provide great information about how children display and deal with grief and how best to help them through their grief.

•  The Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement
• The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 
• Family Corner.com

When I look back on this holiday season I’ll remember one thing for certain, the plague that invaded our family and just wouldn’t go away. The Christmas plague of 2011 is a doozy and it holds in to you with its germy little hands and just won’t let go.

Maya was the first of our crew to be infected (I’m guessing she picked it up from school). The Thursday before we were to leave for our Christmas vacation she spiked a fever before going to bed but seemed fine the next day so we figured (or rather hoped) it was nothing. Saturday night in the hotel the evil plague reared its ugly head. She was super stuffed up and coughing all night, had a nose bleed from all the stuffyness and the dry heat in the hotel room, threw up and had crusty eyes. I should have known then that this thing was a doozy but I continued to live in hope that it would go away as quickly as it came. No such luck. The poor kiddo is still sick. She has been battling this god awful cold virus for 3 WEEKS. Today the doctor diagnosed her with a sinus infection and she is now on antibiotics so hopefully it’ll be gone soon.

Each of us has had our turn with the plague. Anna was the luckiest of us and was only sick for about a week. Lorne got it a few days into our trip and was sick the whole time we were on vacation. I thought I was going to be the lucky one when I didn’t get infected while we were away, even though I had to share a room with my little germ breathing family. However, the day after we got home I started to feel it setting in and it has gotten worse every day since then. Last night I even had a high fever, I haven’t had a fever in forever. And, today I took my first ever “sick day” from my stay at home mom gig by making Lorne stay home so I could maximize how much time I got to spend laying on the couch today and could have an extra pair of hands to help take care of the girls. This is definitely the worst cold I’ve had in a really, really long time.

Hopefully, fingers crossed, this crazy plague is on its way out and we will all be healthy again in the near future. Until then, I”ll leave you with a cute picture of the adorable Miss Anna, because she is just so darn cute it would be a crime not to share her with you

On December 17th we woke bright and early to start our Christmas vacation. We loaded the car with all the stuff necessary to travel with two small children (which is A LOT), and headed up to Canada to spend Christmas with our families. The girls kept themselves busy as we were getting things ready so we could head out the door.

The drive went so much better than I ever could have imagined. Given that Anna is not a fan of being in the car I had visions of us driving for hours and hours with a screaming baby in the back seat. Instead, Anna surprised us all and did really well. She fussed and cried occasionally, but for the most part entertained herself very well in her seat.

We spent the first week of our Christmas vacation with Lorne’s family. Maya had a ton of fun playing with her Uncle Cliff and Aunt Emma. The girls were totally spoiled and except for the fact that Maya, Lorne and Anna were all sick with the Christmas Plague of 2011 we had a wonderful time.

Christmas Eve we said goodbye to the Mitchell clan and headed to my brother’s house to spend the final week of our trip with my family. We hadn’t seen my family in a year and a half so it was so wonderful to spend time with my mom and my brothers. Maya had a blast playing with her Nana, her uncles and her cousins. Anna wowed everyone with her constant smiles and laid back ways.

After a fun filled two weeks with our families we packed up the car with all the stuff our girls got for Christmas, boy were they spoiled, and headed back home. Christmas vacation 2011 will go down in the history books as the year we all battled the neverending Christmas Plague of 2011 and the year Maya decided to talk about poop, toots and stink endlessly Good times!

Tomorrow morning, bright and early (well not too early) we will be hitting the road. We are making the trek up to the Great White North to visit our families for the holidays. I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone. I am not, however, looking forward to the travel part of it. But, since they haven’t invented a teleporter yet I guess I’m stuck with the travel part of it *shrug*.

Since we’ll be traveling with a baby who still enjoys eating every 2-3 hours we’ve decided to break the 14ish hour drive into 2 days. Breaking it up is nice in that neither day will be too crazy driving wise. But, at the same time, it is nice just to get it all over and done with in one day. I’m hoping Anna does well on the trip. She has, recently, started tolerating her carseat a little better. She certainly doesn’t like it by any stretch of the imagination, but she doesn’t cry as much now and can entertain herself a bit with her toys back there. Hopefully there isn’t too much crying so we can all maintain our sanity. The night in the hotel could get interesting too. Hopefully we all get a little sleep.

Today I’m busy packing and organizing, 100% sure I’m going to forget something. Hopefully it all fits in the car!

Yesterday I took the girls to see Santa since I had been procrastinating and needed to get it done before we left. Maya had a blast and talked Santa’s ear off. Anna was determined not to crack a smile for the lady taking the picture and burst into tears moments after the first picture was snapped when the lady tried to tickle her. Oh well, at least the first shot was a good one

I hope you all have a great weekend. Please keep your fingers crossed that our weekend of driving, driving and more driving goes smoothly.

Every Christmas since Maya’s second Christmas we have made a gingerbread house with her. I usually buy the pre-built one that you just have to decorate since it is the decorating with candy part that Maya enjoys the most. Each year we have so much fun making our little gingerbread house. And, each year they look better and better.

Maya’s favorite part is probably when she get to sneak candies as she watches Lorne get the house all ready for her job, the placing of the candies. Plus, she likes when she gets a few tastes of icing since Lorne usually sneaks a few tastes and can’t get away with it without letting her have a taste too

Anna couldn’t really be of much help this year, but she did have fun watching all the action. I’m sure next year she’ll be right in the middle of it all causing trouble.

Maya was pretty happy with the finished product. I think this is the best one so far. It looks pretty darn good!

Every year since Maya was born I have been determined to do photo Christmas cards and every year I end up procrastinating and then just sending out plain old regular cards. This year I was determined not to procrastinate. I was determined to send out adorable Christmas cards of my beautiful girls to all our friends and family.

And guess what…I did it. I took some pictures of my girls dressed in their pretty Christmas dresses in front of the tree, made a photo card online and ordered the appropriate amount. The cards should be arriving today or tomorrow and will be promptly mailed out to our dearest friends and our family so they can enjoy a little Christmas cheer care of my lovely little girls. I’m so proud of myself for not procrastinating this year. I’m so glad I finally got my butt in gear early enough that I won’t have to send out generic Christmas cards again this year.

The photo shoot was chaotic and crazy but I did get some really cute shots of the girls. Here is a little sneak peak at some of the adorable shots I got (and these aren’t even the ones that made the cut!).

Now that I’ve managed to do it once I’m going to be determined to do it every year. Let’s see if I can keep it up

I knew this day was coming, eventually. I had hoped I’d get a little more time, maybe even another year or so. More time to figure out how I would answer it. No luck, it came out of the blue, when I wasn’t expecting it at all, and it hit me like a ton of bricks.

The other day we were talking to Maya about the people that make up her extended family. We started talking about the fact that her grandparents are our parents. Lorne was asking her if she knew who his mommy and daddy were, she answered Gramma and Poppa. I then asked her if she knew who my mommy was. She responded with Nana. Then it came, the question I’ve dreaded pretty much her whole life, the question I never wanted to have to answer. “Mommy, who is your daddy?”, bam, ton of bricks to the chest.

I stalled as I tried to come up with a 4 year old friendly answer, because the real answer is too much for me to swallow most days, let alone a 4 year old. I simply said that my dad wasn’t with us anymore. I said that he got sick a long time ago and he wasn’t here anymore. It took a lot of conscious effort on my part not to cry.  She looked at me for a long moment, I wondered what was going through her little brain and waited, holding my breath for more questions, but they didn’t come. She just moved on to a different topic and that was that.

I know one day she’ll have more questions. I know each time those tough questions come they are going to stop me in my tracks, but I’ll answer them as best I can. And one day when the “he got sick and passed away” answer no longer cuts it and when she is ready, I’ll share the whole story with her. I hope that day is a long way off.

Christmas is my favorite holiday. I have such fond memories of my Christmases growing up. Many wonderful family memories warm my heart this time of year. My mom was a big Christmas decorator. December hit (well usually the later weeks of November) and our house was transformed into a Christmas wonderland. Pictures on the wall were replaced with Christmas decorations, the tree was put up (a couple of years there were even 2 trees!), Christmas goodies were baked, Christmas books filled our book shelves and Christmas music filled the air.

I always get excited when Thanksgiving arrives because it means I get to start decorating for Christmas This past weekend our house went through the holiday transformation.

Christmas lights were put up.

The tree was put up and decorated.

Bits of Christmas cheer appear in little places throughout the house.

The box of Christmas books has made its appearance, it didn’t take long for them to find themselves scatters around the family room floor.

Soon the sounds of Christmas music will be heard in our house almost daily and the smell of Christmas baking will fill our house. Looking forward to the weeks ahead as Maya and I make a few Christmas crafts together and we make our annual gingerbread house.