Our Year In Pictures 2011
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Happy New Year! Best wishes for a healthy, happy 2012!
The Second Day of Christmas
Our second day of Christmas was busy and much less leisurely than our first day. We were expected to be at Grammie and Grandpa’s house by mid-morning, which should have given us plenty of time to finish up our Christmas activities at home, but time does fly when you’re having fun.
Tiny and Buba were up by 7am, but were content enough to play quietly for a bit in their room before calling for T and I to get up and get Christmas morning going. They were both very excited to see their stockings full of surprises, along with the gifts they each had asked Santa for.
our tree on Christmas morning (never did get a whole lot of ornaments put up)
Tiny's gifts from Santa: double stroller, Tinkerbell doll and kitchen toy, and stocking filled with fun surprises
Buba's gifts from Santa: Little People garage, Buzz Lightyear and Woody figures, and stocking filled with fun surprises
Tiny digs right into her stocking!
Santa brought Buba a Laurie Berkner Band video!
Buba exploring his new garage
Tiny mixing muffins in Tinkerbell's kitchen
Buba and Tiny playing together with the garage
Buba takes a turn mixing muffins, while Tiny takes a turn on her own with the garage
Tiny redressing her new Belle princess figure
showing off her Tinkerbell
rockin' out to the Laurie Berkner Band
After a delicious breakfast of cheesy scrambled eggs and bacon, we finished unwrapping gifts from my side of the family- the ones we hadn’t gotten to the day before.
opening the BIG one from Aunt Vickie (a Fisher Price Grand Dollhouse)
So much furniture for the new dollhouse!
TIny opens even more furniture!
Both Tiny and Buba (especially Buba!) were very eager to play with the new dollhouse, but this time, we had to keep them going on to the next gifts. However, we promised that T would assemble the dollhouse the next day (and he did) and that they could play with it as soon as he finished (and they did!).
opening the sleeping bags for their new dolls
Maggie (formerly known as Hally) and Eva having a slumber party with Cinderella, Tinkerbell, and Belle
Buba thanking Aunt Vickie and Uncle John for all the wonderful gifts.
Not long after Buba ended his phone call, we rushed to get everyone ready and off to Grammie and Grandpa’s house. Santa had filled stockings for each of us over there, and there were numerous presents beautifully wrapped under the tree from family, as well as Santa.
opening presents in Grammie's sunroom (ice skates from Santa!)
new puzzles!
Hello Kitty puzzles for Tiny
Tiny opens her new IXL. She has no idea what it is, but thinks it looks pretty cool.
trying out his new digital camera
Yay! A Cars car transporter!
The Play-Doh creativity center looks like tons of fun!
After opening all of their presents and having a little lunch, Tiny and Buba chose a few new toys to take upstairs to one of the bedrooms for quiet time. While they had some much needed downtime, I set up their new IXLs (which they refer to as their iPads). They were eager to explore with them once their quiet time was over, and remained intensely focused on them for about an hour or so while they waited for dinner to be ready. (We’ll definitely be setting some limits on the use of these toys.)
newly "plugged" in with the IXL
already addicted to the IXL
Not long after our very yummy roast beef and Yorkshire pudding dinner, we packed everything up and headed back home again. After unloading the minivan, our living room looked disastrous with all the toys and presents stacked up and strewn about. But we all helped pack away old toys this afternoon, and found places to store all the wonderful new gifts we all received.
I truly was a wonderful Christmas celebration.
celebrations Family Time Tiny & Buba: Christmas presents
by reanbean
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The First Day of Christmas
This morning began the first day of Christmas for our family. Tiny and Buba are very fortunate to receive numerous gifts at Christmastime from family, friends, neighbors, and even T’s colleagues. Because we spend pretty much all of Christmas Day over at T’s parents house, we’ve chosen to have Buba and Tiny unwrap their gifts from T and me, my extended family, T’s colleagues, our neighbors, and friends on Christmas Eve Day.
The morning unfolded pretty much the way we expected it to. Tiny and Buba were given a present, unwrapped the present, and then played with the present. The unwrapping part is now very quick, but the playing time can last anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour. We spent roughly 3 hours working our way through presents this morning, and we still have a decent amount of untouched gifts under the tree. Of course, no one’s complaining. But it’s looking like we may need a third day of Christmas this year.
Unwrapping a gift from T's colleague.
wrestling with the ribbon
playing with new puzzles (Cars and Disney Princesses)
"Look what I did!"
Tiny's fist 48-piece puzzle
a gift from a neighbor
wondering what it might be
Tiny gets a magnetic farm board
Buba gets a magnetic dinosaur board
"Look at my new dress-up costume! I'm a friendly, pink dragon!"
Rrrrrrroooooar!
"What can it be?"
"New Cars shoes!"
"I see Cinderella!"
"I wonder if my Disney Princess shoes will fit over my feetie jamies?"
"I'm the best at putting on the shoes."
"I'm taking her to school."
reading books at "school" to Hally (who might have been renamed Maggie or Mr. Bear)
reading to Eva (who may have been renamed Mr. Tiger)
TGFP!
Thank goodness for puzzles!
I woke up this morning feeling overwhelmingly sad and missing my mom. I can’t really say why today was the day, but after almost 10 years, I know that my grief is often heightened around Christmastime. I was feeling way too sad to try to tuck my feelings back into the corners of my mind, so I had a good cry and then did my best to try to get on with the day. After all, I did have two kids who needed to be dressed and fed.
Fortunately, I had made plans for the kids to spend some time in the playroom at the gym so I could get in one more workout before taking a little holiday break. That at least got us out of the house for a bit. I wasn’t surprised by how distracted I was during the step class. It clearly was not my best workout this week, but it felt good to get moving, and I left the gym feeling better than I had felt when we’d arrived.
Still, back at home with several hours before quiet time, I knew that I was not in the mood to play pretend games or read book after book. My heart just wasn’t in it. I needed to come up with something that Tiny and Buba could do peacefully on their own.
Puzzles!
Both Buba and Tiny are into puzzles big time, and I can hardly keep up with their desires and requests for new ones. I’d just recently pulled out some large floor puzzles that we’d picked up over the summer, and they were so excited to have the chance to give them a try.
I have to say, I’m really quite impressed at how focused they both get when working on a jigsaw puzzle. They have their strategies down, and they just keep trying and trying until they make it all work. They mostly want to do it all by themselves, so even when I see that they are frustrated, they often decline any assistance from me.
They worked on these puzzles for over an hour- putting them together, taking them apart, putting them together again, trading puzzles and starting all over. While they worked, I finished up the last batches of Christmas cookies, and enjoyed the quiet time in the house to just be with my thoughts.
And fortunately, my sad mood passed and the day ended much better than it began. Tomorrow we will begin celebrating Christmas by opening gifts from my side of the family (way too much to do gifts from my family and T’s family on the same day), and I’m pretty sure it will be a joyful day for all of us. I’m excited to see Buba and Tiny tear into their gifts and to listen to them play happily with all their new toys. Tomorrow will be a good day, for sure.
reanbean Tiny & Buba: gymnastics camp me time school vacation
by reanbean
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Drop and Shop Gymnastics
Buba and Tiny’s last day of preschool for 2011 was last Friday, December 16th. That meant that we had an entire week to get through before Christmas with no real plans or set routines. Fortunately, the gym where Buba and Tiny take gymnastics was offering a three hour “drop and shop” gymnastics session for kids ages 3 and up. And, amazingly, it was completely affordable- just $15 per child per day. Since both kids are still loving gymnastics, I jumped at the chance to give them two days of fun gymnastics activities and myself a three hour chunk of just me time.
Yesterday, after dropping the kids off, I headed straight to the gym for my Zumba class. Normally, I have Tiny and Buba with me on Wednesdays, and they play in the gym’s playroom while I workout. They can only take about an hour down there, so I usually rush off to retrieve them once the class is over. But since I didn’t need to pick them up from the playroom this time, I decided to stay a bit longer and tried out some of the African dance class as well. Today, I headed down to the gym again, but did my own workout and didn’t stay quite as long. After a tough workout and a quick shower, I headed out to a (much needed) haircut appointment. And then finished up my free time with a delicious coffee treat from Starbucks. The whole experience was quite nice and well timed. It was the perfect preschool substitute experience we all needed to make it through an otherwise long and uneventful week.
Gymnastics update: Last spring, Tiny’s coaches really wanted to put her into a group for advanced preschool gymnasts. I was kind of on the fence about whether or not I wanted her to be in the group. The timing was really bad (the class took place during the kids’ nap time), and I just wasn’t sure I wanted her to be in a group that would involve mostly older kids. Still, we said okay, and started the year with her in the advanced group and Buba in a boys only group that met at the same time. After just one session, I made the decision to switch them back to regular old 3-year-old gymnastics. I could tell after just one class, that the class time was going to be a big issue for us, and Buba had a really hard time not being in the same group as Tiny. I don’t regret either decision one bit. I’m glad we gave the advanced and boys only classes a try, and I’m very glad that we switched back to a standard morning time gymnastics class. The kids are very happy with their coach and the other kids in their group, and I’m not at all worried about whether or not Tiny is progressing at an advanced rate or not. For now, it’s just all about getting some exercise and having fun. And both Buba and Tiny are getting a whole lot of that!
Trimming the Tree
Last Friday, fulfilling a birthday request of mine, T put up our tree and we let the kids start decorating with the little stuffed ornaments we bought last year. I intended to add more ornaments over the weekend, including the ones Tiny and Buba chose themselves the day we visited Santa at the mall, but it just didn’t happen. Our tree is still pretty bare, but Buba and Tiny have been having lots of fun taking the ornaments off and redecorating to their liking. I know I’d be much more nervous about this activity if we had more of our special and fragile ornaments on the tree, so I’m kind of glad that we didn’t get around to putting the others on. I’d like to put up just a few more, perhaps on Christmas Eve, but otherwise, I think it’s just fine the way it is.
My Morning with Buba
Last Saturday night, Tiny threw up big time after dinner. She’d been fine all day, and had no temperature when I checked after we’d clean up the yucky mess, so we really weren’t quite sure about what was going on. She slept through the night, and woke up Sunday morning hungry for breakfast. We figured it must have been that she ate something that didn’t agree with her (I’m thinking it was the beef jerky sample that she thought was bacon when we were shopping at BJ’s earlier.). She was feeling fine and acting just fine, but just to be safe, T and I decided that she should have a stay-at-home day to be sure there weren’t any more surprises to come.
There was no real need to keep Buba home, though, so I decided that we should have some Mommy and Buba time. The sad truth is that neither of my kids get much one-to-one time from T or me. And even sadder is that when we do have a chance to do one-to-one time, it often works out to be mother/daughter, father/son time. So, this time that I had to spend with just Buba was quite a treat.
I had some errands I needed to run, but I wanted to make things fun for him. So, after a quick trip to Carter’s, we popped into the L.L. Bean next door just to ride up and down the escalator. We also stopped to peek into their giant fish tank, and took ride in the elevator before heading off to do more errands.
Next up was a quick trip to Kohl’s. We were in and out in a flash, so we walked just a few doors down to the dollar store. Both Buba and Tiny have been heavily into jigsaw puzzles lately. They’ll sit with a puzzle for a good long time trying to figure it out, and more times than not, they are successful (up to 24 pieces). The puzzles have been great activities for quiet time, but they’ve done the ones we have so many times and have become hungry for some new ones. The dollar store seemed to be a good place to look. It didn’t take long at all before we found several Disney themed 24-piece puzzles. Buba chose a Winnie the Pooh puzzle and picked a nice Tinkerbell puzzle for Tiny. He also found new bouncy balls, Mickey and Disney princess number puzzles, Cars and Disney princess bath books, and wash cloths. At $1 a piece, it hardly seemed worth it to say no. And he was having such a great time picking out little treats to take home to Tiny. Fortunately it didn’t take long for him to want to leave with his goodies. We spent about 20 minutes and $16 before heading back towards home again.
I spend a lot of time with Buba practically every day, but nothing comes close to the way it feels to be with just him and do the kinds of things that make him happy. I know that life will only get busier with work and school and the kids’ activities, but I hope that we’ll always remember, every now and then, to stop and take the time to have these little dates with our kids. And I’m sure the busier we get, the more important they’ll be.
Santa Shops at Market Basket
It’s true. Tiny and I saw him with our own eyes.
We were making our way down the bread and cracker aisle, when we saw Santa coming up the aisle towards us. I can’t remember if he was was wearing khakis or jeans, but he had on a bright red collared shirt underneath his everyday jacket. We’re not sure if he was trying to pass for just the average shopper, but his white hair, beard, and of course, the signature Santa hat definitely gave him away.
As he came closer and closer, Tiny watched with eyes wide open, drawing closer and closer into me. Just as he approached, she whispered, “Is that…”
But before she could finish, Santa reached into his jacket and pulled out a tightly wrapped candy cane. “Merry Christmas,” he said in a low voice meant just for us to hear. Tiny beamed as she looked at the candy cane with wonder and exclaimed, “Thank you, Santa!”
And just like that, he continued quietly on his way, unnoticed by the other grown up shoppers quickly working to fill their carts and be on their way. He had come and was gone in only a minute or so, but the happiness he gave to one little girl lingered on and on.
Yes, some day there will be questions about Santa, and there will come a time when the truth will have to be told, but not today. And not this holiday season. For now, we’ll enjoy being wrapped up in the fun and the magic of believing in Santa.
Ostracized
Tiny and Buba’s preschool teachers recently introduced the class to the book Abiyoyo, and Tiny is completely obsessed with the story. She talks about it almost every day, and both she and Buba were very excited to have me read the story to them (and a few of their classmates who snuggled up with us) on my helping day this past Monday.
Tonight, Tiny and I had the following conversation…
Tiny: And Mommy, the magician and the boy were ostracized (using the word from the book)!
Me: Oh, really? What does that mean? (I ask, testing to see if she really knows.)
Tiny: The people in the town were mad and they said, “Go away and don’t live near us anymore!” (Her summary, not word for word from the text.)
Yep, she knows. That’s one smart cookie I’ve got!
Stop Grapplin’ Me!
Buba is a kid who loves, loves, LOVES to talk a lot of nonsense. It’s been well over a year since the nonsense talk started, but it seems to be even more free flowing theses days. He drops a lot of nonsense words and phrases throughout the day, but my favorite of them all is “Stop grapplin’ me!” This seems to mean stop picking on me or stop bothering me or stop trying to make me do something I don’t want to do. Really, you have to hear it in context to know for sure which meaning is intended.
Sometimes I’ll hear Buba yell, “Stop grapplin’ me!” and I can’t help but laugh. Other times, he says it and I just want to scream out of frustration.
It’s most likely a phase- here today, gone tomorrow. But who knows, maybe it will catch on and will end up in the Urban Dictionary one of these days.