New Years Eve? Maybe even our baby brother's birthday (maybe not?)... but let's celebrate with Mama Zoya's Daddy-ized celebratory blintz'. Yum! Mama had every intention of taking a picture of the actual blintz, but they were so tasty, there was no time...
Chef-in-training Alexander, of course, assisted Daddy... when not showing off Big Liam's hand-me-down wardrobe & special rocks. Production was also paused, briefly when the boy busted out a dream he had about his baby brother last night. Cuteness!
And after we ate the last blintz, it was time for kisses & games on daddy's phone... oh, daddy's phone...
Alexander is somewhat obsessed with a colorful, Russian language book Mama Zoya gave him when he was a baby. He's always asking me to read it to him, and I'm forever telling him I can't read Russian.
"You can read it, because you're a very helpful Mama. You can read Russian," he said this morning.
The power of positive thinking.
Daddy & Alexander spent much of Christmas morning & early afternoon at the kitchen table, rolling & molding the biggest, most colorful sandwiches our family has ever seen. Not exactly yummy, but certainly a wonderful Christmas memory!
Seriously, how lucky are we? A magnificent sponge of a son; a dutiful, doting daddy; and an amazing new adventure waiting before us. Thank you Lord. Thank you Daddy. And thank you too!
Well, technically, this wasn't our first Christmas as a family, but it was our first Christmas at home, just the three (& a half) of us, with presents. What a wonderful way to spend the last few days before Alexander's baby brother arrives!
Daddy & I are so blessed to have each other, a perfect growing pumpkin to play with and a wonderful little baby soon to arrive. We are so lucky, and I'm not sure we could have wished for any more happiness. Life is good!
And Alexander's first Christmas morning at home was pretty fabulous too! Mama & Daddy gave the munchkin a tool bench, just like Daddy's (and already nearly as messy... but Daddy predicted that when he put it together last night...).
Santa delivered a tablet computer & new Converse shoes from Grandma & Grandpa Smith; brought Alexander a remote control digger & Playdoe set from Babuska, Grandpa & Savely; and left an elephant & lobster under the tree from Jenny Brown & Stretch. What a lucky & happy little boy!
We decided that we couldn't take Santa completely out of our American Christmas (Jolly 'ol Saint Nick & his elves are everywhere; Christmas movies, billboards, commercials, spewing from the mouths of grocery store clerks...).
So we allowed Santa to deliver one present to Alexander's bedroom last night. (It is one of Mama's fondest Christmas memories/traditions. Santa sneaks into your bedroom every Christmas Eve to leave a very special lovie in bed for you to find on Christmas morning when you wake up. In Mama's 20-some Christmas' at home with Grandma & Grandpa, Santa always snuck quietly in, left a treat, and Mama never once woke up & saw the fat man.) Although Mama took all of Alexander's toys & stuffed animals out of his bed last night to make room for Santa's present, the kid still woke up this morning, searched out the two blocks he'd taken to bed, and came to Mama & Daddy's room without even suspecting a nighttime visitor. So, we sent him back to his room & told him to look for the present Santa had left him (on his pillow, for goodness sakes!). And the boy came back to our room with a book from his shelf... Oy vey! So, again we sent him back. After 10 minutes, Alexander brought Santa's surprise to our room, BUT he was upset and insisting that the HUGE Shaun the Sheep stuffed animal was not new, but the tiny teddy bear attached to the sheep's paw was new & should really not be attached. Not quite a Santa success, but that's probably good:).
Santa's only other job last night was to deliver a few presents from Alexander's friends & grandparents under our tree.
And Alexander's only job this morning was to enjoy everything! And Mama's pretty sure Daddy, Mr. Doesn't Like Presents, had as much, if not more fun than Alexander this morning opening presents. What a fabulous couple of guys Mama has to love!
Merry Christmas to all of our Wonderful Friends & Family! We love you all & miss you dearly!
And thank you all for all the special treats & perfect presents! Thank you!
The kid woke up on the right side of the bed this morning. After we came downstairs & had a quick cuddle on the couch, he said, "Let's make this party started. Let's make this big party started!"
We put our Christmas tree (house plant) on the train table last night after bedtime with a total of 7 ornament adorning it's branches. We added some wooden Thomas track around the pot and a Little People nativity set under it's branches.
When Alexander saw it this morning, he grabbed Daddy's hand, pulled him to the living room & said, "look at all the presents Santa brought me!" The kid really does set the bar low for us...thank goodness!
This might seem like a few too many group shots...but, they're so hard to get. And pretty soon (January 23, 2012) they'll be pretty impossible to get, seeing that cutie-pie Briele & baby sister Rosie will be moving to the West Coast. Sadness. Luckily, we have a little time left to play before anyone flies off on a jet plane!
Alexander did Santa, so yesterday he took his turn with the elves. Well, actually, much to the boy's delight, "They aren't elves, they're kids!" Which was a much better fit for our boy; when he thought he was about to eat a pancake breakfast with elves, he was looking for every possible way to escape. But once he realized they were just WCDS 5th Graders, the kid was in heaven (via the North Pole).
Alexander ate a couple pancakes, then lined three friendly girls up and said his usual, "My name is Alexander. This is Mama. Want to play with me?" The boy does a great job sharing with big kids, let's just pray this skill soon transfers to play time with his little friends!
During breakfast, some girls asked the kid & his friend Zavier how old they were. Alexander answered for himself, "I am three years old," (usually he says, "fine") and then he told the girls, "We're big boys (brothers), we take care of babies (baby brothers)." (The girls didn't understand the twerp the first time he answered, so that's why there are multiple versions of the same answer.)
It doesn't take long for Alexander to run out of conversation, but yesterday when he didn't know what to say, he said, "Girls, talk to Mama." The girls, of course, didn't know what to say, so Alexander continued, "Mama, what do you want for Christmas?" Did I mention the girls got a good laugh when A answered the same question with, "a pony;" yeah, where did he come up with that? And later he added, "a pony & a girl." Hoy vey.
After breakfast & ball-time, the kids were each partnered with their own elf, and we headed to the classroom for a couple songs, a story & craft time. I'm not sure Alexander's elf really knew what to do with our rowdy boy... she probably won't be asking Santa for a little brother anytime soon!
In the middle of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Alexander got up, ran in tiny circles, stopped & said, "I run like this (run, run, run). But Peanut runs away. He hides under the train table." Yeah, apparently, he finally thought of a new topic to discuss with his elf...
Yeah, I let him eat a sugar cookie... And that probably led to us being the last family hanging out after the party. Playing with dinosaurs. Yeah, it was kinda tricky getting the kiddos back to the car!
