Today we made Vasalopita, Greek New Year's Bread. Jack and Tor helped this year just like they did last year. I used my mom's recipe and I thought of her the whole time. I used to make it with my Yiayia and my mom when I was growing up and then just with my mom.

New Years is a pretty big deal in the Greek culture and Vasilopita plays a really big part in it. At one point today something went amiss and I wanted to call my mom to ask her how to fix it. I told Brian who was watching us and holding Liv and Jack answered, "But you can't call her because your fingers are covered in dough, right?" Funny. I fixed it myself though. She did teach me how to cook well :). She was an excellent cook, so was my Yiayia.

Christmas was hard this year too without my Mom. It was Liv's first Christmas so that made it really nice though. Everything this year was bittersweet -- like dark chocolate, which my mom loved and I don't like at all :). Thank God I had Liv. She made this year so much better. The boys and Brian did too of course but Liv being born shortly after my mom died really shifted my focus in a good way.

Sunday

• @Dorie93950 yeah I got it my freshman year of college, right before Christmas too. He is missing his holiday play & he had speaking part. 4:38am
• @Dorie93950 he is so bummed. He had rx to duracef which is not a cillen but close. Check out my Flickr. In person looks way worse :(. 4:41am
• On way back to jack's doc. Snowing again. 8:39am
• Only slid twice getting here, both in my neighborhood. Nothing plowed but snowflakes beautiful. Prettiest I have ever seen. 9:39am
• Jack's rash is still really bad but not angry red like yesterday. Steroids helped a lot. So final dx: strep throat, mono, med induced rash. 9:42am
• Snow now basically thick heavy raindrops. Not pretty anymore. Leaving doc now. 9:53am
• up in middle of night actually crying d/t ear pain. jack's doc take a look cause it has been a week & seems worse. pediatricians are experts 12:19am
• they see tons of ear infections. she said just bad infection needs to run its course and to keep taking antibiotics & ear drops. comforted. 12:21am
• take, took close enough :) cutting myself some slack. 12:22am
• We got chocolate covered oreo cookies as a Christmas gift from http://www.ladyfortunes.com O-M-G. 5:38pm
• @frankensite "i know" 5:46pm
• Brian wants me to make "mexican food" now. Homemade guac & salsa, grilled chicken w/ mexican cheese blend, sour cream, canned refried beans 6:28pm
• kitchen finally clean though :). this makes a mess. Oh well, that is what kitchens are for right? kids will love it too. they love guac. 6:28pm
• maybe i will mush some avocado up for liv too. 6:29pm
• Canned refried beans looks like cat food to me. But whatever. 7:32pm
• One of my family's top 5 meals http://tinyurl.com/8357ho 8:32pm

Monday

• @cksthree yes it is weird when we don't have our 3 dogs around. Quiet, no walks & we actually have to pick up the food the kids drop. 8:51am
• @Dorie93950 Millennium Falcon hybrid! LOL. Your replies to Brian always make me giggle. 8:56am
• Weird not getting jack ready for school. He feels fine other than rash. Rash got worse again last night. Poor guy. 8:59am
• @veroniquec I hate that too! 9:22am
• Kitchen is not as messy as I thought it would be. Lots of stuff already washed. Thanked Brian & asked when he did them. He said I did them. 9:42am
• I must be sicker than I thought. 9:43am
• Baby sat in high chair eating cheerios by herself for 1st time. Kitchen clean & sparkling. Coincidence? I think not. 10:13am
• She has eaten cheerios before but I have sat right next to her making sure she didn't choke. Could see her this time though. 10:16am
• I haven't met a staircase that I haven't fallen down eventually. Ouch! 11:42am
• @pat212414 we could ask for higher temps. 11:52am
• @Dorie93950 ooohhh good luck Dorie. Love ya. 11:54am
• Wet stairs, my natural clumsiness & ear infection do not a good combination make. All is well though. Body used to it :). 12:00am
• Barkley thinks she is a parrot, not a dog. She likes to sit on the back cushion of my sofa & put her paws & head on my shoulder. 2:27pm
• Heading to school to pick up Tor a little early because he just bit another kid. Joy. 3:19pm
• @sarahgilbert yeah, I set Jack up on gmail about two weeks ago :). 5:13pm
• @doctorparadox obsessively or obsessably :) 5:59pm
• @Dorie93950 good news. was thinking about you! 6:01pm
• @pat212414 i think it is just me and walking, slipped on black ice picking Tor up. Maybe I should not go to Target tonight :). 9:46pm
• Brian getting kids to bed for past hour and a half. Not going well cause both had naps. Rt now Jack is crying & Tor is making monkey noises 9:54pm
• poor Brian. On the plus side I got Liv to sleep. go me! (I nursed her to sleep though, so kinda cheated) 9:56pm
• ugh, forgot to get Jack's new antibiotic today & now cvs closed. called it in for me yesterday, said not to start till today. oh well 10:15pm
• There is not another new Chuck until 2/2/09. ugh. 10:57pm

Tuesday

• Favorite part of Tor's holiday show: when he blew a kiss during "Holly Jolly Christmas" 10:30am
• His favorite part was spinning his arms for spinning the driedal. 10:31am
• Writing out Jack's birthday invitations. Figured it might be a good idea since his party is in about 3.5 weeks :). 2:15pm
• @frankensite Appropriate that you are folding origami Millennium Falcons since you are Han Solo :). 2:16pm
• Then have to deliver some Christmas cheer to my Ob/Gyn & his staff. Without them we wouldn't have these three awesome kids :). Very thankful 2:20pm
• Gave my doc a nice bottle of scotch. He said we made his day. I told him he made our lives. :). 5:55pm
• Trying unsuccessfully to get kids to bed by myself. I want water, I want to go to the bathroom (again), waaa --- and that's just me! 8:29pm

Wednesday

• In line to see Santa. Good thing I brought their leapsters. Jack's rash almost gone from his face. Kids excited. 10:14am
• Mall not very busy (except Santa's line) for Christmas eve. Maybe later it will get busy. 10:19am
• Brian abandoned us to go to Apple store. 10:21am
• Wondering how close to Santa we should be before we wake up Liv. Too close she'll be fussy from waking up. Too far she will be fussy in line 10:29am
• We got the pic. Jack looks shocked, Tor looks angry and Liv is giggling. One out of three ain't bad. 12:21am
• At doc's office with jack. Used to work here, still hear things. Loudly congratulated one doc on his upcoming retirement. Looked ashen. 2:17pm
• He had not told most of the staff yet or any patients. Whoops, had no idea was a secret. He semi-saved situation but not really. Oh well. 2:19pm
• @frankensite I don't think I have ever heard the Cheap Trick Christmas song. Although I did hear Jimmy Buffet's the other day! 6:22pm
• santa needs more caffeine. brian likes weak tea, gotta brew more. santa has lots of assembling to do. 9:26pm
• santa does not like weak tea! 9:29pm
• santa was counting on Starbucks black tea on the way home but it was closed. Luckily Santa has the same tea bags as Starbucks at home! 9:31pm
• @Dorie93950 sounds really nice. Merry Christmas! 10:00pm
• I am blogging, facebooking, twittering because baby will not let me put her down -- teething. Amazing hoe much can be done one handed. 10:44pm
• toy assembly is not one of those things. fortunately boys finally fell asleep so Brian is downstairs now. time to begin! 10:46pm

Thursday

• Just let dogs out in yard. Surprisingly warm. Dogs were barking at what I am assuming are Santa's reindeer. He's almost here! 12:13am
• @mikepropst congrats! Merry Christmas to you and @Paprika :). 12:15am
• i just put a dowel in a screw hole. i was helping. i am no longer allowed to help. yay mr. claus popped it out! 12:58am
• this thing said two people required for safe assembly. apparently they did not mean i should be one of the people. 1:00am
• i have been promoted to supervisor. 1:01am
• well that took over an hour to build. now onto last assembly required toy. yay 2:02am
• Kids so excited and dogs too. Having a merry Christmas. Hope you are too! 9:07am
• Mema, Brian's Grandmother got the kids Toys R Us gift cards. Liv's has a giraffe!! 11:03am
• We were eco friendly this year (lazy) and did not wrap ANY presents. We have lots of packaging to pick-up though. 11:10am

Friday

• At breakfast/lunch with family. Nice 2nd day of Christmas. 11:35am
• Liv is dreaming. She is smiling in her sleep. So adorable. She is such a sweet baby. Boys are playing xbox, Daddy's working, I'm so happy 3:00pm
• Liv crawls like she is a commando & I don't mean diaperless. 3:29pm

Saturday

• @paprika happy birthday! 9:03am
• jack plays trism and rolando way better than I do. he gets frustrated watching me play and takes the phone right out of my hands. 9:20am
• Brian is sleeping in today. Yay for him :). He never sleeps in. funny how once you r a parent, time definition of sleeping in changes a lot 9:25am

He started with fevers a week ago Thursday night and Friday. So he missed school on Friday. Then it went away over the weekend. On Monday he complained of a sore throat, so I took him to the doctor and they did a strep test and it was positive. He has been on antibiotics since. So he missed Monday and Tuesday.

Sometimes with strep you can get mono and the meds that you take for strep can give a horrible rash because of the mono. I saw a little rash on his back last Thursday night. I didn't think much of it because you can get a rash with strep. It got worse on Friday and he had fevers so I talked to the doctor twice. it got really really bad overnight so I took him first thing Saturday.

She examined him and could feel his spleen. That is one of the signs of mono. Also all his lymph nodes were swollen, in fact the ones on the back of his neck you could see sticking out. So she drew blood (you can imagine how well that went) and she sent them to the lab stat. The results came back positive.

By the time you realize you have mono you aren't contagious anymore but he had the horrible rash from the antibiotics. I couldn't send him to school looking like that. Everyone there would have freaked out.

The rash is starting to go away because of the steroids they put him on. I took him to the doc for a recheck today and his spleen is doing better, it shrunk a little. He won't be able to play in recess for about 2 months though because there is a chance it could rupture with rough play.

Check out his rash here and here.

The rash looked better when I took those pics. Imagine them angry and red. It was so scary. He has another spleen recheck on the 6th. The rash on his face is pretty much gone now. You can't see them at all in the Santa photos unless you are looking for them.

Tonight I found some of my baby pics Brian scanned awhile ago. Photo #15 reminds me a lot of Liv.

Here is the pic we took of them taking a pic of the kids and Santa

Here is the pic of the boys telling Santa what they want him to bring them tonight.

Check out 2006 and 2007

This is the pic we used for our Christmas cards. All three were smiling at the same time. Do you know how rare that is?

We took this pic Thanksgiving weekend at the Museum of Natural History in NYC.

Here is the 2004 pic and the 2007 pic

Sunday

• Drank lots of 60 year old scotch. I love my friends. Brian is driving is home now. Had too much fun! 1:04am
• Kids party was fun. Hostess of last nights party fell asleep :). Tor & Liv fell asleep on way to Bruce Museum. I stayed in car and took nap. 2:33pm
• Now at pizza place next to little rembrants. Eating then painting Xmas stuff. Drinking lots of water. LOTS of water. No headache today! Yay. 2:35pm
• Lit a candle tonight for the 10 babies I lost http://tinyurl.com/567s6a 8:01pm

Monday

• At doctor's office with boys. They woke up with sore throats today and jack had fevers last week so 10:52am
• Jack has strep throat. Tor does not. Mixed up tests. At first thought other way around but jack's throat was worse. Redid Jack's test :(. 11:38am
• got to tor's school early so cleaned car while waited.threw in trash can. took him in got back to car. no keys. ugh. they were in trash :(. 2:13pm
• well early or late, depends how you look at it. early for normal preschool, completely missed computer class. no prob with brian as his dad. 2:14pm
• tor was too young for computer class first trimester. brian asked me, "Did you tell them that *I* am his dad?" hehehe. I did but didn't work 2:16pm
• At my docs now. I have an ear infection. Back to CVS. Two doc visits 2 CVS visits. Wow. If had to be 1 parent & 1 kid sick. Glad me & Jack. 3:28pm
• Doc called in amoxicillen for me. 1st thought was to have them flavor it grape. Then remembered I am an adult, I get pills. I am so a mom 3:48pm
• At cvs now. One parking spot left. Very tight. Waited 5 min to get really great spot because I am driving Brian's car. YW brian :). 3:52pm
• Rx ready when I got inside. That's a CVS first. Parking lot wait helped I am sure. 4:13pm
• Used TiVo keyword searck to find every Christmas kids show. Kids watching Max & Ruby special and giggling. They don't usually like this show 7:54pm

Tuesday

• @Dorie93950 I was still happy the next day. told Brian I have to only drink very old scotch...no hangover. his answer was just not to drink! 4:40pm
• @Dorie93950 I know, Brian thought he would be fine and wanted to send him to school. Good thing mama is a nurse :) 4:41pm
• @Dorie93950 doctor said they aren't related (HA & ear) but I think they could be. we'll see. My ear really hurt last night but better now. 4:42pm
• Jack got stomach virus last night. It is going around school. Threw up all over himself & Daddy. Hasn't gotten sick since & appetite is back 4:44pm
• Jack wanted to sleep next to the toilet last night. Reminded me of my drinking days. Poor baby. 4:46pm
• Exchanging emails and pics with my biological aunt on my biological father's side. Very cool. I have two biological half-brothers :). Neat. 11:00pm
• I had three biological half brothers but one passed away in the early 90's. 9 years before I even met my biological mother and her family. 11:03pm
• My brothers only live about 4 hours from here. How cool is that? They might not be interested in me though. Still cool. 11:05pm

Wednesday

• Barnes & Noble lets you personalize their gift cards with your own photo. Too cool! http://tinyurl.com/2lj7ry 2:16am
• It's a winter wonderland. Snow already melted off driveway & streets but everything else still covered. 8:40am
• @frankensite yay breakfast food. 9:06am
• Kids at Jack's school made gingerbread houses & decorated them past 2 days. Jack missed cause he was sick. Made chocolate cake last night 2:15pm
• Boys helped & iced cake. Not the same as gingerbread house but better than nothing :). 2:18pm
• Kids are watching Rachael Ray on the Food Network. They LOVE her So funny. Jack met her when he was about 2. My boys love to cook too. 6:50pm
• Rt ear hurt this weekend, went to doc mon, ear infection. Started antibiotics, no pain tue. Started to hurt this am, now killing me. WTF? 10:33pm

Thursday

• Liv pulled herself up to stand next to ottoman. Mama ran to get camera. Liv fell and bonked her head. Bad Mama, bad. 2:18pm

Friday

• Started snowing a lot ok my way to urgent car for my ear. Had severe pain overnight. Like unreal pain. Oh & jack has scarlett fever. 11:37am
• Don't like nurse. Called me nik 3 times in 1st min. Ok if friend. Not ok just met me. Then called something "retarded". Big pet peeve. 12:27am
• Loved doctor and rest of staff. Doc changed my antibiotics. Stronger stuff. Almost ready to drive home. Visibility poor about inch on ground 12:31am
• How long will you be on the phone? 3:01pm
• Ugh that was to brian. I am I'm the driveway in the blizzard. Super dizzy. Car full of groceries & Liv! 3:03pm
• Had dr call my new rx to grocery store with covered parking lot. Shopped w/Liv while waiting! 3:05pm
• @pat212414 Scarlet Fever is rare now, but of course Jack gets it. he has my poor immune system. Tor, Liv & Brian are fine :). 6:03pm
• Found my biological brothers blog. No email addy. Left a comment briefly telling him who I was with my email address. He posted tonight 9:26pm
• He thinks I am a spammer/scammer. Can ya blame him? Brian says having the name "niki" doesn't help :). Oh well. Provided a little more info. 9:27pm

Saturday

• Jack's rash is awful. It is everywhere. Took him to the doctor. He probably has mono & the rash is a rx to the antibiotics for his strep. 11:36am
• @mcuban because @jasoncalacanis replied to you by name on Twitter :). 12:19am
• @rjbudke no but whichever recipe you choose make sure you take a small knife & make inch deep slits all over & fill with whole garlic b4cook 12:23am
• Puppy is snuggling under the covers with me Jack & Liv. Even though we are all sick it is still very nice. Tor is playing with Daddy. V cool 12:32am
• I should say snuggling under the covers with me, Jack, Liv AND my iPhone. My iPhone has become part of the family :). 12:37am
• talked to the doc. blood results came back. jack definitely has Mono. rash is way worse, going to CVS to get steroid for him. hope it helps. 7:32pm
• @alexrudloff we had sushi for dinner too. ate it here though, but on the plates you and @gavin gave us. thanks again :). 7:33pm
• Change of plans, Brian's going to CVS & I am going to get kids to bed. Brian worried about me slipping on ice in parking lot. Sweet husband. 7:37pm

David, my ex-bf from forever ago, called me about an hour ago to wish me a happy anniversary. He calls on December 19th every year. So cool. He's a nice guy, we are still good friends. He and Brian get along too. I mean we dated 22 years ago so it is not like he is my last bf before Brian. Brian and my last bf hate each other. I mean HATE each other. I don't talk to him :).

So I met David at one of Colleen and Mel's parties. It was at their apartment on Rosary. He came with John Bortles. I got to talking to him while we played quarters. Wow. Anyway we dated on and off for almost 5 years and we have been friends since. His mom was like a mom to me. She is good to my kids too.

I am lucky I had/have them in my life.

Being adopted, I always wondered where I came from and more specifically *who* I came from. I wrote a blog post about it a few years ago. I had gotten my non-identifying background info on my biological parents when I was in my early 20's. I knew my biological mothers name was Barbara (It is actually Barbara Jo and she goes by Jo) and my biological father's name was Larry. I also knew she was the oldest of three sisters and that he came from a family of six -- four boys and two girls. She was from Endicott, NY and met Larry at a community college in Binghamton, NY.

When I talked to Jo, she told me my biological father's name was Larry Starley. Luckily Starley isn't a very common surname so I was able to locate him in Denver very quickly. The first time I called I spoke with his wife Shirley because he was out of town. I was nervous and didn't know what to say, so I said I was an old friend trying to find him. I called back a week later and told him who I was. He remembered Barbara and the whole story. He told me I had two younger brother's Jeremy and Jeffrey that lived in Binghamton. He gave me the impression he wasn't close to his boys so I figured that this call would probably be it, and it was. I sent him some pics and Christmas cards the next two years but heard nothing from him. I have debated with myself since then about contacting my half brothers or just letting it go. I always just let it go.

Things changed when my mother died this year. We had a difficult relationship to say the least. Her death and my family's reaction got me reflecting on my life and made me really think about contacting Jeremy and Jeffrey.  I told Jo I was thinking about looking for them last week and she found Jeremy's blog. I debated how to get in touch with him. After looking for his email address to no avail, I left a comment on his blog saying who I was and included my email address. I didn't want to play games or omit the truth about my identity. It is what it is.

Of course he didn't believe me. I mean really, if someone left a comment on your blog saying they were a sister you never heard of, would you believe them? He wrote a snarky blog post about my comment, so I left another one :).

Guess we'll see what happens next.

My inner ear and outer ear hurt a lot this weekend so I saw the doctor on Monday. He looked in my ear and it looked ok except for a lot of wax. He cleaned out the wax with warm water and took another look. He said my ear drum was really red and he put me on antibiotics.

Tuesday it felt better. Yesterday morning my right cheek and neck around my ear hurt too, by the evening it hurt a lot. The whole right side of my head hurt. I woke up in the middle of the night in severe pain. I can't touch the area around my ear, forget about lying on a pillow.

I called the doctor this am and am waiting for his call. In the meantime I made a solution for my ear that my mom used to make. It's 1:1 grain alcohol and vinegar. I haven't had grain alcohol since college (jello shots) so I looked online and you can use vodka. Vodka I have :). I just put it in my ear. I hope it starts to feel better soon.

My cousin Maggie did a blog post on her family's Christmas traditions. It got me thinking about mine as a kid.

Every Christmas Eve before my Yiayia died in '80 we would go down to her and my Papou's beach house. My uncles and aunts would be there along with my cousins. We had a big family dinner and always opened our family Christmas presents then. We would leave there and then go to my parents best friends' house - Theo Ted and Thea Marion. They had seven kids, tons of grandkids and even great grandkids. It was a full house. Theo Ted would dress up as Santa and give every child a wrapped toy from his bag. When we were really little we really thought he was Santa. Thea Marion would have a huge buffet out. My favorite thing was her mushroom soup. She always ran out no matter how much she made. It was everyone's favorite. After my grandparents died, we would just go to Theo Ted and Thea Marion's house. After Theo Ted died, his oldest son Mike would dress as Santa.

It was a half hour drive from my grandparents house to Thea Marion's house and then about a twenty minute drive home so we would listen and sing with the Christmas songs on the radio. We would find the radio station that played the 24 hours of Christmas. I have lots of memories of singing Christmas songs in the car.

When we came home we would go to bed and Santa would come. George and I tried to stay up and see him but of course we never made it. We would fall asleep no matter how hard we tried. Santa came every year even when we were grown up. Santa never wrapped his gifts because he had too many little boys and girls to visit and he didn't have time. Right around the time I graduated HS, my dad, I mean Santa, started getting us Santa dollars from Publix. They are regular one dollar bills with a Santa sticker on them. He would tape them end to end and drape them over the tree. That was so cool. Christmas day was just for our family and we stayed in our pajamas all day. That was a lot of fun because unless we were sick we never did that.

My mom always did the Christmas shopping. After I read Maggie's post and thought about my traditions I did some research on the web and called my Dad and asked him to get the kids Santa Dollars from Publix for Christmas. He thought it was a great idea not only because he did it with us as kids, but because it made shopping really easy for him this year. This is his first Christmas without Mom and it is difficult for him as you can imagine.

Maggie did that post last Monday and by Friday Jack, Tor and Liv had Santa dollars taped end to end. They are sitting on my dining room table waiting for Christmas Eve. Very cool. I think Papou getting them is even better than Santa :). Papou said he will do this every year for his grandkids.

Sunday

• Just walked the dogs. It's snowing. So pretty. 1:15am
• This am I smelled like baby spit-up. Took shower, changed clothes gave baby bath, changed clothes. We smell like spit-up again. Silly :). 11:17am
• @sarahgilbert kitchen aid mini food processor. Way easier when you only have a few ingredients to chop up. Love mine. 11:19am
• @mheerema Giada from the Food Network says you can eat the coating on the Brie. She was on Oprah. Oprah didn't know either :). neither did I 6:58pm
• @mheerema i had no idea it was edible either. it was on friday. so cool when you learn something new and can share info right away. 8:28pm
• @cksthree it really is super windy. can't believe it. 9:30pm

Monday

• @frankensite, OMG you crack me up. I'm sitting in the car at Tor's school just giggling to myself. Thanks I needed this :). 12:09am
• Fusers 12:14am
• @elleinthecity you can get imaginarium table & train set 4 way > $ & Thomas works on it. Has storage underneath. http://tinyurl.com/5 3:17pm
• Then buy Thomas and a few other trains. My boys liked Aquarium cars. Also buy extra track. little ones knock down bridges and get frustrated 3:19pm
• @elleinthecity problem with thomas at home vs thomas at Barnes & Noble is theirs are glued down. 3:20pm
• @frankensite you are watching too much Chuck :). 3:23pm
• @elleinthecity don't glue yours down though. now that they are older their favorite thing is to create new track routes. Get extra track. 3:25pm
• @frankensite oh, Awesome Dude (that was more Crush). 3:26pm
• Jack forgot backpack at school in bus hall. I wanted to check class 1st. Jack wanted to check everywhere else. Backpack waiting at his desk 4:08pm
• That's ok got self tour of school and urinals in boys bathroom. Tor loved those. We had an adventure. 4:09pm
• @sarahgilbert eat lots of yogurt. Get acidofilos (sp) pills from health store. 4:11pm
• @sarahgilbert thrush very ucommon in adults unless their immune system compromised. So when insurance kicks in get full workup. 4:22pm
• @sarahgilbert ah, not thrush in throat. Ignore last tweet. Vinegar will sting but also helps. OTC fungal ointments are also very good. 4:24pm
• @sarahgilbert clean well before baby nurses again. Vinegar is good foe that. 4:25pm
• @Deidre wow, what a cool car. congrats. 4:35pm

Tuesday

• At the mall with Liv. Got scarves for the boys and extra mittens. Tor lost one yesterday. 3:15pm
• Jack lost a mitten last week. Now there won't be a mad scramble in am. Can give 3:17pm
• Can give second pair and look for lost one later. Less headaches. 3:18pm

Thursday

• Kids ice skating for the first time. Having a blast 4:47pm
• Jack lost his second tooth today & Liv cut her first tooth. Kind of cool. 8:15pm
• Jack can actually sing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" this year! 8:15pm
• Haven't had time to read tweets in a few days. Just read 40 pages of them. My eyes hurt! 9:43pm

Friday

• Jack home from school today with fever. Made his favorite soup, avgolemeno yourvalakia for lunch -- Greek meatball & rice soup w/egg & lemon 12:56am
• It is actually Jack's favorite meal. It is Brian's favorite Greek meal I make. My favorite Greek meal is Dolmathes (stuffed grape leaves). 1:03pm
• just ordered from Pea Pod for delivery tomorrow am. With three kids, I LOVE Pea Pod! I mean I really LOVE Pea Pod. 2:23pm
• ok, back to writing christmas cards. sent first batch of about 30 out this am. only have about 100 more to do :). that is just my list. 2:25pm
• still have to get Brian's list although I do have a lot of his list already from last year :) before he decided to do his own. 2:26pm
• he ended up NOT doing his own list last year :(. 2:26pm

Saturday

• Put kids to bed at 8. Fell asleep with them. Got up around 1 finished Xmas cards. Jack awake with fever, eating cheerios with daddy. Liv bf. 3:04am
• Teacher told us at conference that in all her years of teaching she has never seen a child in K create such complicated pattterns. So cool. 9:43am
• Liv is getting too big for baby bathtub so gave her bath in kitchen sink. I have lots of pics of me in kitchen sink. Now she does too :) 11:45am
• Boys went outside w/ Daddy to play on swingset. Jack laste 2 minutes. Tor still out there. It is 28 degrees but TWC says it feels like 18. 4:38pm
• So Tor lasted about 5 minutes. 4:40pm
• getting ready for christmas party. actually put on eye make up. can't remember the last time I did that. seriously. maybe two summers ago? 6:14pm
• i put on make-up 2 or 3 times a month and i will put on normal mascara but not eye shadow, liner and thick mascara. Jack likes it. 6:17pm
• plus wearing blood red lipstick. that is what jack liked :). 6:18pm
• @Dorie93950 aw, thanks dorie. 6:41pm
• 25 degrees outside. Car doors were frozen shut. Just had to tug hard a few times and listen to (ice) cracking noise. 7:34pm

Sunday

• woke up today to snow falling outside. The boys were so excited. Now it is raining :). 10:43am
• Got a great pic of the kids in front of the dino Christmas tree at the museum. Just uploaded it to Shutterfly & ordered my christmas cards. 10:46am
• Getting Christmas tree & decorations out of the attic today, got cards, boys gifts from us and Santa taken care of. Doing great this year. 10:49am
• @zeldman Hope you all feel better soon. 10:49am
• @cksthree yes, your laptop :). hehehe 11:38am
• @cksthree have you ever heard of a netbook? they are actually smaller than a normal laptop :). 12:12am
• @cksthree I knew you had one :) 1:56pm
• Eating lunch at City Limits before grocery shopping. Liv sitting nicely in high chair - not falling over like a weeble. 1:58pm
• I think Liv matches. She has multi colored flower shirt, blue jeans with green frogs & brown & white giraffe jacket. Brian thinks otherwise. 2:19pm
• @Starbucks ooohhh you have kids hot chocolates? My boys will be thrilled. 2:23pm
• @Starbucks today my 5yo son was using the word "bucks" instead of dollars. I asked if he learned that at school. My 3yo said no at Starbucks 2:32pm
• Screwed up my order at City Limits. Kids done so no time to remake it. So now having sushi at Whole Foods. Not bad trade off. 4:15pm
• @Dorie93950 very close...pickle :) 10:11pm
• @Dorie93950 giraffes do go with everything and green frogs matched green flowers :) 10:12pm
• @pat212414 no it is fear because I always wait till the last min but with little baby anything can happen to mess me up if I do that :) 10:15pm

Monday

• Liv's 8 months old. I have now known her for 16 months. http://tinyurl.com/pregtxt She completed our family. We all adore her. lucky girl/us 10:33am
• baby chewing on puppy's ears. puppy ignoring her but looking at me like "not anoyher one" puppy just turned 4 last wed. older dogs stay away 12:55am
• older dogs stay out of liv's reach when she is awake. cuddle with her when she sleeps. puppy stays with her all the time. they are all sweet 12:58am
• Just got rickrolled for the first time. Thanks @jenleo. Btw, Cora is adorable. Congrats. 8:49pm
• @cafemama congrats on not being pregnant, yet :). Did you know @tertia is? 8:56pm

Tuesday

• Watching an unfunny segment on the Today Show about a book that teaches you to be a do it yourself doctor. 8:49am
• @Tertia I love the Bee Gees :). 3:05pm
• I have had the headache from hell for 6 days now. Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon in bed. Made drs appt for tomorrow. 3:08pm
• You know I am sick if I am going to the doctor. Besides the ob/gyn for pregnancies I never go to the doctor. I can heal myself :). 3:09pm
• advil & tylenol don't touch this headache. sleeping is the only thing that works and the baby wakes me up every few hours, so not v helpful 3:11pm
• someone asked me today if I was sick. I said yeah, i have a headache, they said, well you look really sick. great, look sick from headache. 3:13pm

Wednesday

• At CVS pu my rx for headaches. Dr said I puzzled him. V reassuring. Drew blood for CBC, SM7 & Lyme. Find out on Fri. 5:09pm
• Dr said I could have this non narcotic med while breastfeeding. Pharmacist said no way. Great. Oh well. Back to plain Tylenol and Advil. 5:13pm
• @dorie93950 well that will be a merry Christmas. Had mine out in hs. Brian has had to have all his out as long as I have known him. Refuses. 5:18pm
• @sarahgilbert oohhh I love doing that :) 11:45pm

Thursday

• 1:09am
• They = > 1 liar. 1:10am
• My gmail contact list is forbidden to me right now. It says that & says it's a 403 error. Great. I was just going to start christmas cards 12:23am
• ok today head is worse than ever. I am going to go get med dr said was ok w/ breastfeeding but pharmacist said wasn't. going to trust dr. 4:23pm

Friday

• I don't have Lyme disease. Yay! 9:19am
• we have some woods behind our house. We threw our pumpkins back there for the deer & 2 does are happily munching away rt now. So cool. 11:04am
• Tor loved seeing them. Took pics for Jack to see. 11:07am
• @Dorie93950 was too sick to get it last night and Brian was too busy. He surprised me with it this am. going to take it after take Tor. 11:10am
• @Dorie93950 can't drive if I take it. Would rather drive with kids in car with headache than with barbiturate. 11:14am
• @cksthree Thanks :) 11:15am
• Yes, deers carry ticks that carry Lyme disease but the deer would be in the woods pumpkins or not. Why not have happy full deer. 11:16am
• @Dorie93950 you are the last person I would have thought would use xmas instead of Christmas :). 1:00pm
• @Dorie93950 well one of the last people. bestemor and nanette would have been in my list too :). 1:01pm
• Took pill at 1:08pm. My head feels awesome. Can't wait until 5:08 when I can take another. Wow. What was I thinking listening to pharmacist? 3:39pm
• @Dorie93950 ha I knew you would have a reason besides Twitter for it. You are good! 3:40pm
• Exactly 30 more minutes till next pill. Hope I sound like someone headache free for 1st time in 10 days and not pill junkie. Fear latter. 4:40pm
• It's ok though. I don't care what you all think as long as my headache does not come back. :). 4:41pm

Saturday

• @frankensite I'm slow this am. I'd get "too much Frost not enough Dickenson" but don't get Nixon. Dick nname for Richard, get my 2 jokes? 8:31am
• Whenever I hear the word Frost I think of Robert? Doesn't everyone? 8:39am
• Just finished volunteering at the craft festival at Jack's school. I was in charge of tie dying station. Had a blast. Pills helped. 11:57am
• every night tor begs me 2 make chicken paprikash. tonight i have all ingredients incl chicken that needs 2 b used. 2night he is screaming no 6:07pm
• baby wearing complicated outfit with tights. just changed a pee diaper 10 min ago. diaper needs to be changed again. not pee this time. ugh. 6:13pm
• Brian just lit fire in fireplace. kids thrilled. he is explaining to kids that duraflame logs are easier than real wood. ah nice memories. 6:19pm
• Kids asked how santa fits down chimney. I told them it's like when the roach squeezes himself into Wall-E. He looks too big but he fits. 6:27pm
• Santa/roach explanation got a "cool" from the kids. I can't believe the things I come up with. 6:28pm
• I think it's a good thing OJ is going to jail. He will prob have better luck finding Nicole & Ron's killers there. 9:07pm
• He wasn't having a lotta luck finding them on all those golf courses. Maybe this was his plan all along. Wow not an idiot, he's brilliant. 9:10pm
• @zeldman so is it joe or Steve? 9:13pm
• Ok one boy asleep. one more than off to target with girl. 9:15pm
• made chicken paprikash and chirke salata (cucumber salad). House smells like a nice hungarian home. kids loved it, so did we. 9:59pm
• being (previously) engaged to a hungarian guy (as in born there) has its benefits. out of everything i make, this is everyone's favorite! 10:03pm

Sunday

• Baby is natural heater. Last night I was cuddling with her to get warm and tonight dogs are. 12:58am
• Moved dogs to foot of bed & told them I loved them. Brian said he loved me back. We both giggled. Running joke since we had 1st dog Duncan. 1:14am
• @Deidre you have the coolest cards! 8:15am
• Liv is really sitting and supporting herself. Wow. 5:04pm
• And she fell over. No crying either. 5:07pm

Monday

• @researching watching the Rockettes, looking at the tree and skating rink, Top of The Rock and that is all we know for sure. NO shopping. 10:55am
• Getting lots of organizational stuff done by working on stuff about an hour a day. Today it was while Liv napped & Tor ate pistachios. 3:11pm
• Pistachios, are my favorite thing right now. Tor sat quietly for the whole hour just opening and eating them. He didn't eat that many either 3:39pm
• MY favorite thing for me are pomegranate seeds. Can't get enough of them. 3:39pm
• @pat212414 I know. I should have thought of this years ago with Jack. 8:51pm

Tuesday

• Excited about The Shield series finale tonight. 6:59pm
• here we go, it's on 10:01pm

Wednesday

• We are still sitting here in shock after watching Family Meeting, 12:41am
• seriously it is like we are glued to the couch. 12:52am
• Keisha lost her phone at school tonight. Just checked my messages. Someone found it and called me to let me know where to get it. So v nice. 1:59am
• @rjbudke My guess would be your mom loved it and your dad did not :). of course it is just a guess :). 2:58pm
• I think my head is going to pop off. My cousin just sent me a pic of The White House with a watermelon patch instead of the rode garden. WTF 4:56pm
• I just don't get it. How is this funny? Who sends this stuff? Seriously. I wanted to write back with that but Brian said he wouldn't get it 5:07pm
• so i just sent: "Seriously, stop sending me these racist emails. They are not funny. They are extremely offensive." ugh. 5:10pm
• @sarahgilbert it's at times like this I think to myself, "Thank God I am adopted" :). 5:12pm
• @Dorie93950 he sent out same text, no pic 4 mo ago... 5:21pm
• @Dorie93950 I said: "Wow. Had to check the date on your email to make sure it wasn't sent in the '30s when people found racist jokes funny." 5:22pm
• @Dorie93950 guess he didn't get it. 5:23pm
• Driving into Manhattan. Traffic is horrible. Standstill on Deegan. 6:30pm
• @Dorie93950 you really made me giggle out loud. Ha you know me so well. I was playing Bejeweled. 6:54pm
• Flew down west side highway. Traffic was for GW bridge. Now on 56th. Will only be 15 min late for reservation. Changed from 6 to 7. 7:09pm

Thursday

• Dinner was great. Liv slept the whole time. Everyone crashed. Now my turn. Excited about parade tomorrow am. 1:22am
• Parade was awesome. Check out Flickr photos on my blog. 5:07pm
• Standing outside of The Plaza with Liv. One day we will have tea here. 5:08pm
• Outside St. Patrick's with Liv. Very thankful for the family I created. I feel blessed. 5:23pm
• In times square 5:54pm
• At Duane Read. Accidentally foul 6:15pm
• Accidentally found Jean Nate. Totally reminded me of my Yiayia. What a nice memory smells can invoke. 6:20pm
• Getting Green Tea at Starbucks. 6:35pm
• This was the best Thanksgiving ever! We have great friends. I have a wonderful husband and three great kids. I am very thankful for my life 7:00pm
• My ex-boyfriend David left me a message wishing me a happy thanksgiving & said I was his fave ex-gf ever. Brian is so proud of me :). 7:18pm
• Tor woke up with red angry welts all over his legs. Wonder what he ate that did it this time. Daddy at drug store. Poor kid has my allergies 7:57pm
• May have to drive back to Westchester. Forgot Rockettes tkts. 9:02pm

Friday

• The jonas brothers are staying at our hotel. Crowds of young girls behind barricades are outside the lobby. 9:52am
• Just saw Rockettes and tree. Now at Top of the Rock. 2:59pm
• @Dorie93950 it helped a lot welts went away but a few came back this morning so gave him more. Thx. 7:57pm
• @cafemama I was going to go with Liv last night but took a nap. Then woke up and decided to to this am but pressed for time taking Liv. 8:01pm
• @cafemama can't leave her since she is bf. Just enough time to go and come back. No time to stop & nurse. So Brian went home instead. 8:03pm
• Walked home with Liv. Stopped at whole foods for brown rice sushi and pomegranite seeds. Boy are they expensive already seeded. Dinner yummy 8:09pm
• Also got kumquats. Every thanksgiving as kids we used to steal kumquats from my aunts backyard neighbor. Thanksgiving tastes now complete. 8:11pm
• Steal kumquats from her kumquat tree :). 8:32pm
• @Dorie93950 mothballs reminds me of my grandparents too. 8:33pm
• Daddy demonstrating how rockettes half kick with bent knee and them full kick. All kids incl Liv practicing their kicks. Very very funny. 8:35pm
• @Dorie93950 it is more filling. Brian and I said the same thing last time we got it. 8:37pm
• @Dorie93950 I LOVE Ginger 8:39pm
• I don't eat cranberry sauce. Brian does. This am I put a slice of cranberry sauce on a roll with ham for him. Just told me it was so gross. 8:41pm
• He actually said it was the grossest thing he has ever eaten - cranberry sauce was shooting out everywhere. Description had me in tears 8:43pm
• Of laughter 8:44pm

Saturday

• Boys took cab to Rockefeller Cntr then took Subway to movie. Liv & I walked it all with stroller. Past two days have been magical. So happy. 1:58am
• Going to Museum of Natural History. Wanted kids to see movie Night at the Museum before this trip. No time. Thur afternoon found it on HBO 10:53am
• Now kids really excited about seeing everything they saw in the movie. So very cool. 10:55am
• @Dorie93950 I had no idea it would be gross. Kind of like first time I made him a P&J sandwich. It weighed like 2 lbs. But I can cook well. 10:59am
• Happy Birthday @JasonCalacanis. It is today right? 1:55pm
• Just got our Christmas card pic 3:48pm
• Leaving the city. Had a great time. Best Thanksgiving ever. 6:32pm
• We are home. It is nice to be home. Tor and Liv feel asleep on the drive. 7:05pm
• just finished turkey soup. yummy. even brian liked it and he is not a soup kind of guy. 9:04pm