Saturday, May 26, 2012

Eat my dust!

As an early birthday present for her fifth birthday Erin received a bike from Grandma Olia and Grandpa Vova. She's been begging for one for a long time and even learned to ride one without training wheels a couple of weeks earlier. She's been borrowing her friends' bikes the entire month of  May. Her friend Jasmine turned out to be a great teacher!  In just a couple of days Erin went from training wheels to no training wheel and just a little bit wobbly. Going extreemly fast of course!
Finally she does not need to wait for a turn on a frien's bike anymore and is a proud owner of her own set of wheels. The training wheels got removed the next day after the photo was taken. Erin insisted!

By the way after falling off the bike and getting a bump on her forehead, Pook does not argue about wearing her helmet anymore. In fact she came to me after the incident and accused me of not making her wear it. Ha! this four-year-old has a short memory!

Danny adores Erin's new bike and tries to take a spin on it, though those efforts do not go past his attemps to set it upright. After he gives up Littel Moneky jut spins one of the wheels. He is more successful with the trike and the three-wheeled scooter. At this point he is too short to peddle or push hismself, but he surely tries. For now I push him around-he rides like a boss and I get a back ache!

Erin and her friends have races around the block and go way too fast for what should be a legal speed limit for kids their age. Anyhow, biking season is here and is very much enjoyed!

Ta ta for now!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Makeup anyone?

Erin got to my makeup. No need for comments here... The photos are rather self explanatory.


Ta ta for now!

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

End of the year recital

Today Erin had her dance recital. It was at UVU Regan Theater. Enjoy!

She and her friends got to perform on a real stage with lights and curtains. You do not hear this in the video, but when Erin came on stage, she tried to spot me in the crowd. After not succeeding she just yelled for me, ha ha!

My favorite part of the dance was when all the girls began doing jumping-jacks, though I am pretty sure they were not a part of the original choreography. Erin just did her thing and danced away. She particularly put her heart in the final bow! This was the part she practiced the most at home.

Our little dancer enjoyed the entire experience and we loved watching her. Besides Andrew, Danny and I aunt Theresa came. That made it even more special for Erin. After her dance I got Pooky and she got to see the rest of the show. Surprisingly it was very enjoyable. Though of us all Danny enjoyed it the most! He was very enthusiastic when it came to applauding. He also cheered and I suspect if he knew how, he would whistle.

At the end of the performance Erin got to return to the stage and receive a rose. Funny enough by the time our ballerina came back the poor flower's stem was broken in at least three places. Though what else do you expect when the flower is being twirled like a baton. At home I shortened the stem and it was like new.

Aunt Theresa gifted Erin two dollars for her stellar performance and Erin currently feels very rich. I feel very rich to have my wonderful Pooky ( I know! this was a cheesy thing to say, by deal with it! I feel cheesy, he he!)

Ta ta for now!

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Catching up (part II)

Yes! This is my boy sporting yellow cupcake PJs. The exact words that came out of Andrew's mouth when he saw Danny ready for bed were: "I am sorry Danny!" Fortunately our little guy could care less what he sleeps in. Anyhow, I am going to buy him some manly sleepwear.

I guess as I have not posted his 18 month old well visit update from January I might as well do it now before he turns two. He finally began gaining weight and height. He made it into 3,41% for his weight of 21 lb - a great improvement from 0.4% at 12 months. His height was 31,5 inches landing him in 26% , that is from 5% at 12 months. Our little dude is growing. How he is doing it I do not know as he seems to adhere to a strict milk diet. It is his main food on par with pretzels and raisins.

He is still outrageously picky about what he consumes. Naturally, he will never turn down ice cream or chocolate. Occasionally, and I mean once or twice a week, he will eat dinner, the rest of the days he eats breakfast and pecks at his lunch. Despite that I have a hope for this little boy as Erin went through the same stage. Now she eats broccoli, green beans and as of today carrot sticks. One food he usually will not turn down is  mama's fired rice.

Danny slowly inched into the tantrum territory. He loves throwing himself on the floor wailing. My boy gets very offended when I meet this behavior with laughter. This child also began resorting to violence when he feels his rights and wishes are not being respected. As of recently he began biting. It is very rude to sneak behind mom and attempt biting her bottom, very , very rude (yes, you may laugh here). I lost count of how many times Erin has been bitten by this little piranha. He even managed to bite Pooky between her shoulder blades one time. Now that takes some skill! Of course we are working on stopping this naughtiness and I am seeing some progress.

Danny is my little helper in the kitchen. Any time he sees our dishwasher opened he hurries to get the soap from under the sink and bring it to me. Then we fill the soap compartment together. Next I return his closed soap bottle and he puts it back where he found it. To culminate this ceremony we fight over shutting the dishwasher's door. The Little Monkey insists on putting that soap to good use immediately and attempts to shut the door and push the button. I have to literally put my foot down on the door as it is usually not full enough to run it.

He also learned not to get garbage out of the trashcan and even throws away empty baggies, his diapers or spits up his apples. Have I mentioned how he eats apples? He requests one every day. He chews every bite very diligently and afterwards spits it out. He finally began doing it over the garbage can to save me some extra work. Now that it is warm outside I just send him with his apple to the back porch. Danny also knows how to use a vacuum. Though half the time he just vacuums himself. He discovered that he does not like the sensation of having his fingers being sucked into the hose.

Danny got to experience his second ever visit to Great Clips where he lost his beautiful locks. They were just getting too long and I have to admit that around the house I would even put a clip in his hair to keep it out of the eyes. This is what he looks like now. It took three women to get the job done. I held him on my lap, one of the employees was trying to read him a book and the third was doing the cutting. This communal effort finally paid off and my Danny was sheered like a ship. He screamed bloody murder the entire time, but did get a sucker at the end for his suffering.


Danny used to like watching Yo Gabba Gabba, but has recently converted to Sesamie Street. He is an Elmo fan! He says Elmo's name and also mama, dada, Ein, bite (as "another bite of food"), apple, banana, kashka, yukky, cracker, thank you and a lot of gibberish. While I mention his favorite shows, I should also mention the show that terrifies him--Ice Age. Erin and her friends were watching it one afternoon and he just began crying when the tigers attacked the village and tried to get the baby. Poor boy was so distraught.

Speaking of Thank you! Just like Erin at this age he helps me unload the dryer from inside. Danny climbs in and hands me clothes saying thank you every time I take something from him. This boy also likes to be in charge of what he wears. He pulls things out of his dresser and demands I help him put them on. For some reason he always chooses things that are too small or that are PJs.

Danny is definitely his father's son and is into computers and games. He loves to pound away on the keyboard and loves to hold console controllers. He even has his favorite Wii controller. Every time Erin plays something he is right there next to her with his it cheering her on.



So here he is my handsome blondie-sweetness an dterror in one, though way more sweetness than terror!
Ta ta for now!