Dean at Six Months
Monday, November 20th, 2010
Hello, flirt! This ladies' man knows how to bat the baby blues, coo, and grin until the women swoon; he loves the attention! I can't bring him to Sasha's school without all the teacher's, aides, and administration swooping down to bestow squeezes and kisses and tickles. The mister just basks...BASKS! Dean knows how to play 'em. It's the same at the grocery store or at the park...anywhere we go. Anytime we go towards the car, baby boy gets excited and starts yelping and kicking his chubby little legs because he knows that in a few minutes he will be surrounded by an adoring harem. He had better not be a player thirteen years down the road. No breaking poor girls' hearts! I've had many people tell me that they could steal Dean. Ummm....no need to frighten a mama, okay? We are keeping this handsome, good natured changeling!
Dean celebrated his first Halloween this year, "celebration" being a loose term. He stayed home with Daddy and handed out candy. Unfortunately he did NOT want to wear the duck costume (screams of disgust and outrage). Why did both my kids hate this super cute gender-neutral costume? Between my progeny, it was worn MAYBE a total of sixteen minutes. That makes the cost of the outfit approx 85 cents/ minute. Sigh. Sasha saved the day with a completely improvised costume. She stuck a sheet of Trader Joe's Halloween stickers on him. Yup. I don't know what to title it but this is what he with. Actually, I am lying. He had a blowout and there was an outfit change and there was no hint of Halloween anywhere. Can I be any more devastated; does a nearly six month old not intuit that this is his Mama's favorite holiday? Oh, and I am bringing this up at family get togethers in twenty years.
Dean is a very curious fellow. He wants to play with everything and then lick it. He is fascinated with ceiling fans, kids, zippers, anything with wheels, and every single one of his (and Sasha's) toys. I broke down and got him an Exersaucer and he just loves jumping around in it. All the toys on it have a thick film of dried saliva. But, he has great dexterity and can flip, shake, rotate, and pull the different items. He is very focused on playing. And, he is better able to manipulate his toys now that he can sit up! Can't quite get himself into sitting position on his own but once plopped down, he is up for ten minutes at a time. Baby boy is also very, very close to crawling- yikes!!! Dean is up on all fours doing the rocking motion. He hasn't quite figured out that he need to put one hand and leg forward but is getting there. Given his grasping skills and love of objects, I need to baby proof pronto! All those itty bitty barbie and doll house pieces. Not ready for mobility! Is it wrong to keep a baby penned?
The above picture is my husband's way of caring for Dean while getting the chores done. Cute, right? I guess as long as Jimmy doesn't decide to take out the trash....
I can't believe it's been half a year. It scares me that I don't have much of babyhood left. Dean is getting more independent and cutting into our snuggle time. How can you not want to kiss this 24/ 7???
Sasha at Three Years, 5 Months
Monday, November 8th, 2010
I am really trying to catch up on my monthly blogging. I am scared that I am going to forget all the milestones and events. It is terrifying how quickly the time is passing. Sasha now knows all the months and the names of the week. She has been able to recognize all her letters and is now putting them together- she's really on the precipice of reading. The coloring usually stays within the lines and she has her father's wonderful sense of color (I have saved all 500 of her watercolors). Scissors keep her occupied for hours and she hasn't yet touched her hair (thank GOD). Everything is all about pretend. We play family, pre-school, circus, doctor, restaurant, three little pigs, etc. etc. My role is usually assigned to my by the authoritative missus. And, I get a lot of direction.
Phoenix is still a mecca of blistering heat and it is already November! At this rate, I won't have to buy winter clothes ever. However our unheated pool is now too cold to go in and we have to get outside. My aunt and uncle came into town mid-October (to meet the kids) and they were staying at an ooh-la-la resort near Desert Ridge that came complete with a lazy river and water slide. We invited ourselves over (daily). I was worried that Sasha was too young to enjoy the rides. Bwuahahaha....Sasha laughs at the face of danger. Sigh. She fearlessly flung her tiny body into an innertube and I had INSIST IN A LOUD VOICE that I accompany her down the waterslide (going up the the stairs 54397849894784839 times is an unbelievable workout). Does her body not build up any lactic acid? The amount of energy is unfathomable. My daughter had a blast and it took all matters of persuasion to get her home each day in time for a nap.
We also visited the Botannical Gardens. Sasha was a trooper and endured the hundred plus degree weather (my aunt and uncle managed pretty well, too). I feared a preschooler would have no interest in cactus and desert flaura but fortunately there was a very cute butterfly exhibit. And, there were some hands-on (eduMAcational) activities explaining life of the Native Americans centuries ago. And, I unabashedly bribed Sasha with a promise of a berry smoothie or ice cream cone. However the three mile walk was a bit much and I ended up carrying Sasha most of the way (the state of my poor back!!!). By the time we got to the exit, we discovered that there we had long passed the snack food stand and we had to rush to the nearest McDonalds (so much for keeping my daughter away from fastfood- organic, schmorganic).
Sasha saw her first real play the last weekend of October (we have been to three or four puppet shows, though). I didn't feel that Sasha could sit through an entire performance but I was wrong. Sasha was entranced and loved every second of the musical, Pinkalicious (it's based on a really cute children's book). She refused to leave her seat at intermission for fear that she might miss something. The play was very well done and the actors had decent singing voices and good enough skills. Nona and I also really liked it. There was a lot of cheeky humor for the adults. Sasha got to meet Pinkalicious afterwards (a very sweet and tolerant preteen) and cajoled Nona into buying her a concession stand cupcake. Sasha licked off all the icing and gave me the soggy remains. I am so excited that my daughter might be a life-long theater-phile and I am already thinking about future musicals we might attend. Nona does have tickets lined up in February. I hope it is as good as this one!
Sasha broke her bed rail this month. At first I was going to write scathing reviews of the product on the Toys-R-Us website but Jimmy convinced me to back down. I guess the rail isn't made to be a climbing structure but it should be able to withstand the antics of a three year old, right? Anyway, she fell out of bed once (screams galore) so we placed her three foot teddy bear next to her and haven't had a problem since(cheapie that I am, I do not want to buy another rail). Plus, she loves to cuddle Teddy and refuses to sleep without him. It's going to be a pain to lug that thing if we travel.
Preschool continues to go very well. She has her playmates and loves to be chosen as one of the days' helpers. I don't hear enough details about the classroom activities when I pick her up. She is more keen on reciting what she ate for snack and who was put in the thinking chair. Sasha also likes to recount who broke what rules. Fairness is of utmost priority. So, we get to hear, "That's not fair" on a regular basis. Oh, and, "I don't care". She also has tacking on "M'dear" to every response which makes me smile. Her reasoning makes me laugh. Instead of asking me to do something, she goes about it circuitiously. "You can do blah, blah, blah if you waaant."
How about I just kiss you instead?
Sasha's Halloween 2010
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays- candy & dressing up: what's not to like? This was the first year that Sasha really understood what it was all about and she loved every bit of it. It was so much fun sharing in her enthusiasm. She loved all the spooky decorations (I even went to the after sales to buy some to hang around our house next year) and paraphanelia. Sasha decided early on (late August) that she wanted to be a bee. I think this was because of all the bees she had seen by our pool this summer o maybe it was a desire to be able to sting people. I don't know. Anyway, it was a pretty easy costume to find unlike my friend whose daughter insisted on being a bobcat.
Sasha had a blast trying her hand at pumpkin carving. Aunt Beck was in town so we bought two. Not surprisingly, Sasha was excellent in scooping out all the pumpkin innards though she would only employ the spoon (Beck and I had no inhibitions about getting gunky and used our hands as it was much more efficient). Sasha also drew the face onto the pumpkin and the eyes, mouth, and nose were discernible enough. I did the actual carving (three is a bit too young to handle a knife, right?) which was difficult due to our extremely dull knives and the effort it took to follow Sasha's markings. Once carved, we placed candles in the jack o lantens and displayed them outside. Sasha was immensely proud of her creations.
Her preschool had the most amazing celebration the Friday before Halloween. All the kids got to dress up and walk in a parade for all the older kids to see (the elementary school does not don costumes). Evey girl in her class had a different costume while 2/3 of the boys were in super hero costumes. The childen loved stutting their stuff.
After the parade the kids got to stay outdoors to play games like the sack toss, bowling, running though an obstacle course that included a trampoline, etc. They split the class up into four goups so that the volunteers (like me and Nona) could shepard them and allow them to burn off some energy.
Then we all headed to the petting zoo which was amazing. The owners of the farm animals really knew how to deal with three year olds. They only had two rules: don't run and don't pick up the animals. The childen were able to follow this well enough. The zoo had tons of animals like a llama, a calf, geese, rabbits, a lamb, and the best: baby pigs. They were about the size of a man's hand and so cute, all black and fuzzy. I wanted to steal one by putting it in the pocket. Sasha and Nona were also in love. But, Jimmy would divorce me if I showed up with Babe... By this point it was getting very hot (I wouldn't be suprised if it was in the high nineties) and the preschoolers all started shedding their costumes. Guess who was stuck hauling around various parts of the kids' getup for the rest of the morning? Sasha's classmates have very little modesty and were not hesitant to strip and thow discarded items at me. Grin. So, we headed towards the grassy lawn in back of the school fo a scavenger hunt (more candy!). Sophia's daddy was dessed as a Scarecow and scared a few of the kids.
Lastly, we trooped back to the classroom and enjoyed cupfuls of applejuice (we were all overheated) and spookily decorated cupcakes. The rugrats decorated cookies (mainly slurped the icing and sucked up the sprinkles), painted little wooden pumpkins, and played even more games. Needless to say, Sasha refused to eat any lunch (she was stuffed from huge amounts of processed sugar and hi fructose corn syrup) but took a nice long nap. The celebration did exhaust her.
Then over the weekend, we had two Halloween parties (Sasha mixed it up by wearing last year's fairy costume to one of them). On Sunday, Sasha and I left the boys to hand out candy at home while we went trick-or-treating with one of Sasha's buddies fom preschool. Sasha was thrilled with all the lights and decor (especially the ghosts and skeletons). She had no stanger fear and boldly knocked on doors and screamed trick-o-treat at the top of her lungs. He exuberance and enthusiasm did not flag at all so we managed to walk around for three hours. Sasha walked the entire way which must have been over two miles. She collected ungodly amounts of candy 3/4 of which I sent to Jimmy's work the next day (I also helped myself to quite a few pieces- bad me). The girls truly had a fabulous time. Especially becauseIi was a softy and allowed Sasha to two fist her lollipops. Actually at one point, I think she was enjoying three suckers. It surprised me that Sasha had no interest in the chocolate but loved the gummy candies. Lucky me because I love the fun sized Snickers etc. Sasha was exhausted by the time we got home and slept very well. All in all, this holiday was perfect and I can't wait for next year!
