Legs falling out of the ceiling

>Well I finally did it. After years of carefully walking on roofs and in attics, I finally fell through the ceiling. Its something I've worried about for years, but recently thought little of as my confidence has turned to arrogance. So today, only 2 short hours after returning from Orlando, I marched up into the attack and promptly fell through. Well, not completly through, my legs up to my waist fell through. Regardless, it was enough to cause a freight in our house and to leave a fairly sizeable hole in our hallway ceiling. Man I'm dumb. Sorry to Sarah for having to deal with such a dumb husband. The good news is that I'm unhurt, no one was below when the incident occured and the hole has already been patched with new drywall. A couple of layers of joint compound and some paint and we'll be good as new. Here are some photos:

Before:

















After fall:

























After initial patch: (finish work to be done later)

Orlando for Christmas

Ahh, Orlando. Sun, warmth, and Disney. It's a magical place for this and many other reasons and as such we decided to escape the harsh Maryland winter and venture down to meet Grandma and Grandpa Sivitz in the land of orange groves and adults dressed as cartoon characters. Our trip began on Christmas Eve in a less than magical manner as our plane was delayed by over two hours because our pilots hadn't slept enough. When they finally awoke from their slumber to guide our plane, they explained that they'd been out partying in Cancun until almost 2am (meaning that their previous flight from Cancun was delayed by mechanical difficulties) and all the passengers with their Christmas spirits high quickly forgot about the delays and missed connections.
Christmas cheer was so high that one passenger excitedly quipped "U.S. Airways isn't making the best impression today" when told that connecting gate information would not be announced on the plane and would have to be devised by reading the TV monitors inside the terminal. The Sivitz family was under slightly less duress during this time as our connection (one that Sarah is quick to point out we should never have needed) didn't require us to change planes.
So in order to keep the mood festive, Claire decided she'd lightly and repeatedly kick the passenger in front of her. The lady didn't seem to mind that much, although Sarah did point out that she received several grinchlike stares from the battered passenger.

Anyway, we finally made it, met Grandma and Grandpa at the airport and headed out to our hotel in our brand spanking new rental with only 15 miles on it. More on this later, but let's just say we didn't return it in such a pristine condition. (I digress, but for those of you in the 4th-6th grade, the literary technique I've just used is called "foreshadowing") .
We stayed at the lovely Marriott Grande Vista Villas that was quite literally the 2nd biggest Marriott resort in the world. With 1600 rooms on a sprawling campus complete with many pools, a golf course created by Nick Faldo, several lakes, and ample children's activities, the only bigger Marriott is just 5 miles down the road and includes 2400 rooms. Suffice to say, Orlando is a big tourist destination. During a conversation with one of the hotel staffers , we learned that during the "low" season, the hotel is still 75% booked.

Enough about the hotel, let's talk about the Orlando Magic. Well, not the basketball team, even though the recent shakeup and arrival of the prolific Gilbert Arenas and Jason Richardson could make for an intersting blog topic. What I mean is the magic of Orlando. The magic created by good ole Walt Disney himself. Who could have imagined those many years ago when he first drew a picture of a mouse that such a simple gesture would transform not just a sleepy farming city in Florida, but would capture the hearts and minds of children and adults around the world. The amazing theme parks, the wonderful characters, the exciting venues.
All of these things and we choose to see exactly 0 of them. Well, that's not entirely true, we did venture to the Disney Boardwalk and downtown disney where I (Brian) did manage to summon up some magic and win Claire a nice Pitt basketball by making a ball fit in a rim entirely too small for comfort. Instead of the Disney experience we choose mainly to partake in relaxing, eating, and enjoying our resort. Claire particularly liked the "Maze" which was a nicely done indoor play area. And it was a good thing it was indoor too as the weather showed us some of its magic. On Christmas day it was very nice 73 degrees under sunny skies. We took advantage of this by sunny on the sand beach, dining poolside, and taking a dip in the heated pools. This was by far the warmest Christmas any of us had ever spent and unfortunately turned out to be the warmest day we'd spend in Orlando.
After Santa packed his bags and headed for Fiji for a few weeks off before preparing for next year's XMas, father winter showed his strength by blowing in a cold front of record setting performances. We had the pleasure of experiencing record low nighttime temps in the 20s for 3 consecutive nights and the lowest high temperature on record of only 49 degrees on December 27th. Still good times were had by all. The Ellicott City Sivitz's really appreciated having Grandma and Grandpa around. Sarah and Brian thank them for their generosity in letting us spend some time to ourselves, and Claire for getting to jump on the bed and play hide and seek with the willing grandparents. Thanks again Grandma and Grandpa!



And now for the foreshadowing part. Well now its not foreshadowing anymore, in fact its not even shadowing, its more telling at this point. Remember that pristince car, well someone grazed the bumper as they parked. Apparently they didn't realize they did this, as they left the car parked ridiculously close to ours and when we called the hotel security to get the owner's information, they explained to us how the 75 year old grandmother had stood outside and watched as the car slid effortlessly into the parking spot without hitting our car. Her statement was backed up by two nice silver paint streaks on their side at suspicously the same height where two patches of silver were missing from ours. Oh well, "it is what it is" as the unshaven driver of the vehicle explained to us.








Merry Xmas to all and to all a good night!

It was a dark cold night...

It snowed last Thursday and we Sivitzes were beyond excited about playing in the white stuff. Claire stood at the window and waited anxiously for Daddy to get home from work, chanting "daddy snow, daddy snow". When he finally arrived, coats, boots, hats, and gloves were donned and then out we went at 7 o'clock. I have to apologize about the poor lighting in the video...hopefully you can see the smiles on our pink snowbunny's face. It makes it all worth it even after a tiring day at work.

Santa came early!

That Santa is a smart guy. He knew that we're going to be out of town over the holiday so he stopped by our house last night. As I was carrying Claire down the stairs this morning, I told her that Santa had come and she started to get upset! Let's just say that this year's photo op with the jolly big guy didn't go so well, hence the idea that he had been in our house was very disturbing to Claire. I had to reassure her that Santa was already gone and she wasn't going to see him. At that point she had glimpsed the tree and presents, and all was forgotten.

Claire loves her new choo choo set, even if she tends to treat it as if she is godzilla. She stomps all over it in her attempt to move Thomas along the tracks.
















Somebody's become a pro at unwrapping things.
















Here she is with her new kitchen! Claire set to work immediately, cooking play food in the microwave and oven.
















Hooray for cinnamon rolls! We should eat like this for breakfast every day.


















We're saying "ta-da", in case you were wondering. It's basically like magic -- the fact that I baked and decorated sugar cookies.
















We got our act together by dinner time. We cleaned up, took family photos, delivered cookies to the neighbors, and went out for a tex-mex christmas dinner. We toasted ourselves on our first Maryland christmas. (Claire loves clinking her sippy cup with our glasses)
















Group hug!
















Claire got her first taste of a candy cane. It was a success.
















At the end of the day, I'm writing this blog and reflecting on what a good time we had. Claire's probably in bed, asleep, dreaming about all the sugary treats she ate today. Once a year, my dear, once a year.

Made for walking

We recently purchased a treadmill for our basement, with the hopes of maintaining some level of fitness during the next few cold cold months. It seems that even Claire is getting some use from the treadmill. She takes great pleasure in arranging her dolls on it and pretending I don't know what. In the case of these photos, I think she and her gang are taking a nap on the treadmill.

Cookies

When Claire's watching Sesame Street these days I can occasionally hear her laughing. It's usually when she sees cookie monster eating something he's not supposed to be eating, and parts go flying and he makes his classic "num num num" noises. We've been hearing "cookie" alot in our house since we've done some baking lately. I let Claire help me unwrap hershey kisses to go on some peanut blossom cookies, and while she was helping there were at least 4 runaway candies that made into her mouth before I declared that she had done a good job helping Mommy and now was all done. Since the cookies have been baked, we have had to limit her to one cookie after dinner provided that she finishes everything on her plate. This is working out great so far! The sheer determination of shoving everything into her mouth and then swallowing is far too entertaining for me. There's usually a moment where you can see the panic on her face because she's basically gagging on all the dinner in her mouth, but then somehow she manages to get it all down. And then how her eyes light up when she sees the cookie...can we keep this up for the remainder of her life? Will there be severe health issues if she has one cookie a day? We'll make sure she gets her apple a day too.

Tummy troubles

This morning as I was connecting with friends all over the country through facebook, I was astounded to see so many status updates about stomach viruses. It must be the season! Poor little Claire has not been excluded. Friday was a TERRIBLE day of constant head-butting between me and my daughter. It was one of those days where you wonder "will we ever get through a half hour without a time-out?" Every little thing made Claire scream, and I was beginning to wonder if she was starting PMS early. But as it turns out, she was sick! I discovered this when she vomited all over her crib, clothes, and elephant doll while passionately boycotting a nap. (Screaming and jumping in her crib like it's a trampoline.) I highly suspected that the jumping had irritated her tummy, but all signs pointed to illness when a fever started that night. And then it was two days of me feeling severely guilty about Friday's lessons in discipline, while I babied Claire and medicated her much to her delight. (the kid LOVES her tylenol and motrin) Thank goodness she's fully recovered and back to being a perfect angel. Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration.

Parenting is such a roller coaster sometimes, but I sure am enjoying the ride.

Getting ready for Christmas

We're finally getting the cold cold weather that we expected from our first east coast winter! Claire and I have pulled out the Christmas decorations, and we spent last weekend trimming our tree. Daddy went a little crazy buying lights for our yard. He was like a kid in a candy store at Home Depot! The end result is quite nice, I must say.




Claire helped Daddy string the lights on the tree, and she took great pleasure in "hanging" ornaments (more like setting them on the tree).


Somebody has discovered the usefulness of pockets.


We are now the proud owners of an inflatable snowman.