Waiting for Santa

"... the children were nestled all snug in their beds while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads..."

Their loot all under the tree waiting for Christmas morning... Daddy still has to put together Maja's big gift... a little kitchen :)

The night before Christmas

Tonight is Christmas Eve and we celebrated with a traditional Polish meal of barszcz with uszka (red beet soup with dumplings) and fish (all made from scratch by Mommy... yeah I do cook, even if it's just once a year, lol). This year our friend Joe joined us along with his Mom and two sons

According to Polish tradition, Santa comes on Christmas Even so we opened a few presents. Maja was really excited about her Bee buggy from Grandma and Grandpa and her new stroller and baby from Mommy and Daddy

Isla also got to open one of hers... a super soft bamboo velour blanket (we love these!)

Kids' Got Jokes

So I am sitting at the table right now with the Wife and Maja.  Although I can slave for literally minutes cooking a wholesome meal from a box, my precious daughter has decided that not only does Mommy have to feed her, but that her doll has to try everything before she will.  Reminds me of Cousin Ryan refusing to eat anything the dog wouldn't eat.  I am pretty sure he has still never eaten a bean.

As an update, I think she has taken to her new profession as an insult comic.  She just refused a bite, then grabbed her foot and stuck her big toe in her mouth and made the "mmmmmmm" sound.  The nerve of this kid!  "My toe tastes better than your cheap-ass generic box meal".  We will see who gets the last laugh when every boyfriend she ever has gets met at the door by the creepy dad who wants to go to the movies with them.  And I heard wearing a hat backwards will make you blend in with your child's peer-group.  Right Dude?

How sweet are these two??

Maja @16 months

I thought it's about time to give a little Maja update

Words she can say:
- Daddy
- Isla
- Hi
- Yes (I'm pretty proud of the fact that she can say "yes" before she can say "no")
- All done
- Santa

Her favorite things are:
- elephants
- blocks
- kissing Isla
- climbing on things
- helping in the kitchen

She has a new awesome sleep pattern... she now goes down at 6:30pm and sleeps in until 7:30-8:30am. Another great thing is that she can put herself to sleep. I needed the rocking chair in our bedroom for when I'm up with Isla at night so I knew things would need to change for Maja so in the last few weeks I started working on getting her to sleep without the chair. She still needs to hold/pinch the back of someone's hand when going down in the evening, but if she wakes up around 5am or so, she stands up for a couple of minutes and lays right back down and goes back to sleep without needing anyone. Sometimes we do need go give her a paci if she can't find it but I showed her that the bunny that sits in the corner of her crib holds her pacis so now she goes straight for the bunny when she wakes up :)

Christmas photos

These turned out much better :). Maja was in toddler heaven since she never gets cookies.

 

 

 

 

 

Fun in the snow???

Maja's first snow experience didn't excite her too much but I'm hoping she likes it better tomorrow when we pull the sled out:

She didn't make it out the door far before she fell

 

About to take a face plant into the snow

She wasn't amused

Then she did it again

Now, that got her mad

"All done"

Christmas is just around the corner

Our tree is up and I found the best way of keeping a toddler away from it... just attempt to take their picture next to it and they'll run off screaming. These are the only fairly decent photos that I was able to get of Maja... even Isla wasn't impressed. Hopefully my next attempt has better results

Snowstorm

We are having a snowstorm right now and so far we've gotten a HUGE amount of snow. I can't wait for the blizzard to stop so Maja can go outside and play

I took this photo in the morning... all of this snowed overnight and more came down since then. Over 16 inches already

Daddy got the car stuck coming home from work this morning so he had to clear the driveway to get it into the garage:

Kosmo "the sissy" attempted to go out, made it to the end of the deck and run back just so he could pee inside :(

Sisters

Maja just turned 16 months and Isla is already 3.5 weeks. Each girl hit some milestones this week. Maja started putting herself to sleep and now sleeps in until 7-7:30pm. No more early wake ups (well, she does wake up around 5 or so but puts herself back to sleep!).  Isla on the other hand smiled for the first time this week and yes, she does have a cute little dimple, just like Maja. One of these days I'll get proof for you :)

It's funny to see how different they can be:
- Maja hated being swaddled from day 1 and Isla loves it
- Maja could site in a dirty or wet diaper all day if you let her but Isla will start screaming her head off if you don't change her the second she poops
- Maja disliked her infant carseat with all her little might and Isla doesn't mind it at all which makes things easier this time around given we have quite a few activities and places to go to with Maja

Maja still loves her baby sister and is actually becoming a problem at times because she wants to touch her and say hi to her constantly and after I'd spent quite some time putting Isla down to sleep, it really isn't fun to see Maja run up to the bassinet yelling "Hiiiiiiii, Hiii Islaaaaaaa" as loud as she can.