Santa!

Last year I took Erin to see Santa at the mall. She was so excited about it on the way there, but chickened out when it came to climbing into his lap.

She did it this year! Pook was very shy and would not answer any of his questions about her name or age, but she had a ready answer for " what would you like for Christmas". She wanted a pink scooter. Fortunately enough this is exactly what mama stashed under the bed, hehe.
Danny got to sit on Santa's lap too. He made no requests. In fact he was zonking out at the time plus he is a 5-months-old person who is not into presents.


This Santa, by the way came to our ward's Christmas party. If I would say that it was a super-duper fun party than I would lie, but Santa made it all worth it. Seeing smiles on kids faces makes any party enjoyable to me. It was a sweet little gathering, plus I didn't need to make dinner. I personally dined on deserts and Erin tried to swindle my chocolate cake!

Anyhow, Danny is hinting that he would like to get ready for bed, so I am outta here!

Ta ta for now!

A very gregarious child

This is what our pediatrician called Danny (aka Little Monkey)-gregarious. Had to google the word to find out its exact meaning ( paper dictionary-shmikcionary is a thing of the past).

gre·gar·i·ous/griˈge(ə)rēəs/ meaning: Fond of company; sociable.

So there you go! Besides being irresistible cute our babe is also very gregarious. He loves to giggle, talk and grace everyone with his smiles. Danny's overall development is where it is supposed to be and is even ahead in some areas. Little dude can turn from tummy to back, that skill he developed due to his dislike of tummy time. Though comparing to Erin's hate of tummy time he loves it. Erin used to burst into tears and screamed her head off the moment she was plopped on her tummy.

Other than that our monkey likes to grab things (like the hair of the head within his reach), go for walks, stare at a certain blanket, chew on his hands and just be around people, oh, and watch TV.

Though he reached about 12 lb in weigh he is still lagging behind on charts comparing to an average bouncy baby boy. Danny made it into 1.39%. He is 24.5 inches which puts him into 19.19% and his head circumference of 15.5 inches puts him into whooping 1.02 %. But as our pediatrician stated "We worry about the big heads, not the little ones".

Overall his progress is steady and pleasing. More likely than not he will be a tall lad as he doubled his height percentile since the last visit.

At the moment Little Monkey is not too happy as two of his bottom teeth are coming in. Despite that he remains mostly smiley and giggly. Erin kept holding his hand today while he was having a good cry about his sore mouth and kept telling him that it was okay and that his teeth will grow and it will be just fine. To me she kept calling her brother "poor Danny".

I am very pleased to see those two developing a relationship. Erin talks to Danny and he beams back at her and grabs her finger (or hair) or she grabs his hand. They chatter together and lay on his exercise mat kicking at the toys hanging above. Of course they already get into fights, at least Miss Erin does, Danny-boy has no idea what is going on. Overall Erin is a wonderful big sister.

Well, my tired brain is starting to shut off. Sleep was not a very widely available to me commodity last night. Danny kept waking up every two hours and Erin paid me two or three visits last night (not sure if one was in my dream), oh and the beeping fire alarm wanting a new battery did not help. So ta ta for now!

Christmas photos

This morning we did a little Christmas photo shoot and here are the results. Danny did not stay in a good mood for too long so I did not get any good shots of him alone. We'll have to make an attempt number two later. Erin on the other hand, is quite a little model.





Oh, and we finally got a large Christmas tree, no more of that 3 foot tall nonsense for us. Of course we had to add to our selection of tree decorations including a star tree topper. There were too many to choose from in the store so we just told Erin to decide which one she liked the best. Yeap, she chose the tackiest one, he he. By the way, a 10 minute long debate between two adults over which star to choose can be ended by a 3-year-old in a matter of seconds. It went perfectly with the rest of our Christmas ornaments and lights!

I should probably mention that I got to make my first Thanksgiving dinner this year. We have always gone to aunt Theresa's but this year they went out of town for a wedding. I have to say that I appreciate her cooking and all the thought and work she puts into every feast. All you women out there who pull together a huge fancy dinner in a sparkling clean perfectly decorated for the occasion house, you are my heroes!

I made sweet potato casserole (Sweet potatoes are actually white and chalky, yams are orange and sweet. They are not the same thing, so people! quit calling yams -sweet potatoes and confusing us foreigners, who are not sure which ones you mean in the recipe), stuffing, fruit salad with orange cream dressing, lemon pepper green beans (yumm) and dill carrots (also yumm). We had ham instead of turkey (have never been a fan of this fowl. I just don't like the flavor). It was juicy, mouthwatering and just tasty (m-m-m-m-m!) We also had rolls, mashed 'tatos and some scrumptious pies made by Emily. My favorite was a pumpkin cream. I could probably eat one all by myself, it was soooooooo delicious.

We had the dinner at aunt Theresa's house so I had no clean up before or after the get together. Now that's the way to go! It was us, Burke, Emily, Evelyn, Mary, Chet, Natalie and Nathan. It was a delightful day! I would say more about it, but my brain is not cooperating, so I will leave at that.

Ta ta for now!

Halloween

Both Andrew and Erin dressed up this year. This is how Andrew went to work the Friday before the Halloween. It is too bad he did not win the costume contest at work , cause the annoyance of that black makeup all over his face ought to have been rewarded in my opinion, he he. By the way, according to the costume package my husband dressed as an Emperor of Evil.

Even though Andrew was tempted to dress my sweet child as a side kick to the Emperor of Evil, Erin chose a pirate costume. This is where you say: " But, Sveta, this clearly does not look like a pirate! Unless that pirate is wearing a tiger camouflage for some bizarre reason." After Erin chose to be a pirate, she changed her mind in favor of a Cat in the Hat getup. After which she grabbed of the shelf a tiger suit costume and would not let go of it. So, hence a tiger. However, Erin is tall and I mean TALL. Her average age group size costumes just don't fit. Which is by no means a tragedy, taking in the account that the store made Halloween costume manufacturers find the cheapest, flimsiest fabric existing, slap it together, shove it in a bag , print a label with a better looking version of the costume and ask for my arm as a form of payment. What you see down bellow is a deluxe homemade tiger suit with the price tag of 10 buckos and 2 days of my time in lovely tiger print thick fabric ( also can pass a s a zebra) suitable to be worn in any kind of weather. The tail attaches with velcro for car riding convenience.

As you might have noticed Halloween was on Sunday this year. Which means we went trick-or-treating on Saturday. The entire day it looked like it might rain and it began to pour at 4 p.m- the prime candy begging time. Bah! So we went to the mall , which turned out to be a nightmare. It would be an understatement to say that the place was crowded. The sardines in a can have more wiggle room than poor little tigers, butterflies, princesses, skeletons etc. had that day sandwiched between the big people. The crowd circulated in an orderly line through the hallways stopping by very FEW stores handing candy out (Now that was a shocker! The mall advertises trick-or-treating every year, but there were so few stores participating and Build a Bear even had an audacity to give out fliers instead of candy, he he.) Andrew grabbed Erin and raced around to collect what could be collected ( I love this dude!). Danny and I followed in a stroller trying not to run people over in this mad dash. We are not doing the mall ever again. EVER!

We were done in about 45 minutes and it stopped raining so we decided to go knocking on doors. The problem was that mama in a hurry did not grab a jacket for the tiger and the Emperor of Evil. Going back home was too far as we planned to hit aunt Theresa's neighbourhoods. So I phoned and arranged for a loaner jacket ( Thanks Christine!) for the Tiger. The Emperor of Evil had to man up and pretend it was warm.

Erin was adorable and super excited. Andrew coached her a little, but at some doors she would tell him to stand on the sidewalk, he he. She was also polite wishing Happy Halloween at every door. Danny and I followed in the stroller. He napped! We all had so much fun. I don't know why, but I love Halloween. It is just a fun day!

Off course we made our annual pilgrimage to the Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving point. It was a neat afternoon, though it was too bad we got there late and it started getting dark pretty soon. We stayed for a couple of hours. We did not go into the maze this year, but I don't believe anyone was too disappointed on that account.

Erin raced a pig. She was selected as one of three volunteers because Andrew held her up high while madly waving her arms. The dude in the overalls promptly noticed their enthusiasm. Too bad that our pig did not win. The prize for that would have been a pig's snout that I do not doubt Erin would put it to a good use. Our loot was a spider ring.

Some photos in a princessy pumpkin carriage and on a horse puling it.

What a cutie!

I love Danny's expression in this one.

Danny and I decided against climbing into the giant chair this year as he was strapped into the front carrier on me.

We did a hay ride, a wagon ride, went through a blow up dragon (That freaked Erin out a little bit, or at least she tried to take every emergency exit we passed to get out of there), Erin jumped in the bouncy house and played in play houses (that was her favorite), we watched a chicken show, and roamed through a kiddie maze.

No photos of this year's pumpkins as they shriveled and began looking like toothless mouths before I got around to taking their photo. I'll be more prompt next time around. Erin ended up with a flower and polka dot design, Danny had a boat, waves, the sun, clouds and seagulls on his and I had a traditional face. Andrew did not get to his pumpkin on time. I hollowed it for him, but it went bad before he had time or a desire to carve it.

Note to self: do not let hollowed out pumpkins sit around the house, especially on the dinning table. Cleaning goo and yuckies is no fun.

Danny is waking up so ta ta for now!

In our neck of the woods or our life with a 3-year-old

Here are some of Erin's pearls:

"Danny stop screaming! I can't hear Word World!"

"Mama, stop screaming at me!" usually said when she notices that my fuse is about to blow.

A conversation between Erin and her two friends while I am upstairs feeding Danny and can not interfere:

"Guys do you want ice cream?"

"Ice cream time! Ice cream time!" that lines is chanted by all three while I hear spoons clanking and freezer door open and slam (note to self-do not leave ice cream on the bottom shelf) shut. Than I hear some sort of scuffle and can't quite tell by the conversation what is going on. Next,

the two friends in offended tone of voice:

"We are going home, Erin!"

"Wait guys! Wait!" the front door slams.

"Wait, it is apple time!" door slams again and Erin's voice coming from outside continuing attempts to lure her friends back with apples. After a fail Erin returns home and stomps upstairs to complain about the injustice of it all. Apparently she opened the ice cream carton and discovered that there was only enough for her, so she stuffed it all in her own mouth as fast as she could. As you can imagine the friends felt slighted and left!

Erin and I spiderwebbed our front porch, though a couple of storms since than riped most of our work off (Elmo is wearing princess Jasmine doll's dress, Erin was getting him ready for the nursery in church)

We were making some Halloween crafts (I'll have to take a shot of the final result later) and I fashioned this super-duper apron to protect Erin's clothes. It did the job. Here Pook was trying to make a scary face, but it turned out to be a cute face instead.

Erin discovered that she likes painting. Her artwork looks kinda cool.

A couple days later the painting craze continued, though painting on paper became passe and she moved into three dimensional art.

So it does not seem to be all about Erin I'll report on Danny's visit to his pediatrician for 2 months check up. He is doing great and is 10 lb and 22 1/2 inches. The slight crosseyedness is normal and as long as one of his eyes does not look to the side while the other one looks forward we are fine. Poor baby got his first dose of mass vaccination and was not happy about it. He developed a little fever from the jabs, but other than that it went well.

Ta ta for now!

10/10/10

I had to write down today's date this afternoon and it occurred to me that today is 10/10/10- a special date and a special day. Today Danny-boy received his name and a blessing during the sacrament. Papa gave the blessing and uncle Gibb, Burke and the bishop stood in the circle with him. He (that is Danny, not papa) did not cry and was awake. Though I do not entirely remember what was said I remember that the words were beautiful and sweet.

Andrew blessed Daniel to be surrounded by good examples in life and be a good example to others, be a worthy Priesthood holder and use it to serve those around, listen to Heavenly Father's council and follow it. I know that my baby is going and has already touched so many lives for good. Our little monkey is nothing but joy to us. Everywhere he goes he puts smiles even on gloomiest of faces. I feel so blessed to be his mama (even when I wake up at 5 am with an awful crick in my neck after having fallen asleep in the rocker while holding him).

We did not have that many people to invite to the blessing and I was a little bit sad seeing so few standing by Andrew after seeing stampedes of male relatives coming to bless other babies every fast Sunday. I envy it sometimes. I wish we could have parents, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles galore in the area for just such occasions, though than I would most likely not appreciate having all those relations as much. Isn't it ironic that to greatly appreciate something you've got to experience the lack of it? My almost entire family resides on another continent and Andrew's in other states.

But I am so blessed to have my non-blood relations, uncle Gibb and aunt Theresa. They have accepted me as their own so many years ago and have since been there for me. I will always treasure their friendship and love. And I am grateful for Burke, who has long ago earned a title of My Missionary (a term mostly understood and known by LDS converts) and friend.

So it does not matter whether you are surrounded by a huge or small family as long as you are surrounded by those whom you love.

Elmo fans

Danny-boy sat through his first Elmo's World segment of Sesame Street today. I know, I know two months is way too young for becoming a slave to TV, but Erin was watching it and he could not stop staring. So here they are:
Erin insisted on sitting next to her brother and brought over her booster seat. I love the expression on Danny's face on the second photo. It is priceless, he he!Today was a fun day! Erin and I got to do some dancing, playing, coloring and even some zucchini fencing (I think the last, judging by Erin's laughter, was her favorite). After the fencing was over we shredded our weapons and put them in the freezer for some zucchini bread later. Later Erin got to play with her two friends, and (Oh my gosh!) there was no fighting and everyone shared (or did not want any of the toys the others were playing with). Though at some point I came downstairs and discovered the sliding door in the back wide open and not a soul in sight in the back yard.

Hence, I strapped Danny into the carrier-backpack thingy and of we went looking for Erin and her guests. I tracked them down to a construction area where they sat on a pile of pebbles and played house. Erin and Jasmine were cooking, than serving the results (piles of pebbles) to Alliyah who actually put them in her mouth and spat them out. She said it was okay because it was a pretend food. You've got to love 3-year-olds! I had to interrupt their fun as I found this activity unsanitary and corralled them closer to home to play house in a more suitable location.

What will tomorrow bring?
Ta ta for now!