Decking The Halls, Part II

I've been living on my own for a number of years now, and it's taken me some time to build up a collection of holiday ornaments. I've got some interesting ones and thought I'd share. :) 

This first ornament is a gift from my friend Amy, who has the opportunity to travel to all corners of the world with her job. She gave me this wreath of shells from Hawaii. "Aloha" is actually painted on the darker shells, but I think it was facing inward. 

This next ornament was made by Bree while she was at Kindercare way back in 2007. So just about to turn 1. And her teachers caught this great photo of her and have her "popping" out of a present. It's one my very favorite ornaments for the tree. It doesn't hang, but it sits on a branch very nicely.

I received three ornaments from Egypt and they're absolutely spectacular. I love the shape of the perfume bottles, and this is one of them. The fact that it's pink makes it that much more awesome to Bree. I hang these so she can't reach them.

I got these paper stars from Anne - they're from India, and while I don't think they're specifically Christmas ornaments, I put them in the tree because they are festive and I love them.

I got this ornament on a trip to Armenia. I bought several and gave them out as gifts. I actually didn't go to Armenia at Christmastime - it was in April of 2006. Technically Bree's first trip, though I was completely unaware that she was onboard at the time. :)

Please excuse this poor picture of this beautiful ornament from Hawaii - also a gift from Amy.

I'm not sure where Anne picked this one up - possibly Tibet? I know she must have written it on a card enclosed at the time, but I have completely forgotten. Actually, this one could have come from Amy - she traveled to South America extensively in the past few years - I guess I have forgotten exactly where it's from. I used to have an excellent memory for things like this - but there's only so much room in the old noggin by this point. So, this is either from Amy or Anne. From either India or South America. Wow - there's a whole realm of possibilities on this one! (And how embarrassing that I just don't remember!)

I picked up the following ornaments while I was living in Kazakhstan. The two top folks are Kazakh, while the felt bird is Kyrgyz. There was actually a baby bird in the back (there's an "egg" in there as well) but Bree was playing with this last year and the baby bird is no longer anywhere to be found.

Again, excuse the poor photography - these two felt people are Kyrgyz. And can also double as finger puppets. I have two sets because I thought they were just that awesome.

Amy got me this Canadian maple leaf ornament. Also hung high up on the tree so little hands can't play with it and bend it. It's actually filigree and quite delicate - and very beautiful.

I actually found this pickle ornament a few years ago at some store - Michael's, maybe? I got a bunch and gifted them to my friends who live in/around Linwood - the home of the National Pickle Festival.   My 15 year high school reunion was a very casual affair held in the beer tent of the Pickle Festival - where I had a great time and managed to lose my keys. In the beer tent. What a nightmare trying to find them! Luckily for me, someone turned them in. I was trying to work out in my head how I could get my car unlocked and started and get back to DC in time for work on Monday morning. Yeah, not one of my brightest moments, but all's well that ended well.

I know everyone has special ornaments - my mom still has "my" ornaments from when I was a child. I haven't been to Michigan for a Christmas in 6 years so it's been a while since I've seen them. Bree will have LOTS of ornaments that will be "hers" - after all, she even gets her own tree. :)

Decking the Halls, Part I

Can it really be that time of year again? Where does the time go? 

So it's time to deck the halls, which includes both a Christmas tree and a birthday tree. Bree is now as tall as her birthday tree! She'll tell you that with her curls, though, she's a bit taller. :) 

In past years, Bree would take ornaments from the Christmas tree and put them on her birthday tree. Which was no big deal, but I've been looking for non-holiday specific ornaments for her birthday tree. We happened to be out shopping on Black Friday and hit a sale at Macy's - they had a "princess" tree with ornaments on sale! So Bree picked out some new ornaments specifically for her birthday tree.

She has two ornaments of poodles doing shopping activities. While this is winter-themed, I told Bree that the poodle was on her way to a birthday party.

This ornament is a lady talking on a cell phone wearing a party dress. We also found a pink purse ornament, hanging to the right of the lady.

And a high-heeled shoe, of course! (She's not giving up the snowflake, which is fine.)

Aunt Amy bought Bree this beautiful pink bird ornament when she was visiting in October. We took a quick trip to "the Christmas store" (aka Michael's) and they already had their holiday merchandise out.

Ever since being followed by the peacock at the zoo, Bree has had a fascination with peacocks and peacock feathers. While this was not from the same tree as the "princess" ornaments, it was on a peacock themed tree at Macy's. So we're using this in lieu of a tree-topper for Bree's tree.

I took some other pictures of Bree standing next to her birthday tree but for some reason they didn't save to the memory card. Weird. It might have something to do with the fact that when I went to take some more pictures I got the message "memory disk full." Seems like Bree took about 100 pictures of Sly, the tv and her dolls, leaving me no more room. I thought I only deleted the ones she took, but apparently I erased everything after these.

Last weekend I put the lights on the house. Getting up on the ladder is my second favorite thing to do this time of year (right after raking leaves). Bree kept asking me to do it after work, volunteering to hold a flashlight for me so I could do it in the dark. Despite that very generous offer, I waited until the weekend to do it. It didn't exactly go off without a hitch, but every year I get a little bit better at it. Last year I broke the stakes that anchored the inflatable snowman so I might put that up after my folks get here and I can get some technical advice as to how to anchor the snowman so he doesn't look tipsy. Last year we'd pull up in the driveway to find the snowman laying on his side in the yard. So I'm saving myself the 10 minutes I spent every night trying to pick up and right an inflatable snowman. :)

I'm going to go back and try to re-take the photos I thought I took earlier. But, the lights are hung, the trees are up and decorated, and all that's left is to hang the stockings and place some Christmas-y decorations around the house. I'm getting there!

Halloween 2011

Last year, the threat of bad behavior put trick or treating in jeopardy. Luckily, we haven't had any of those issues this year. Bree is really enjoying pre-k and the change is really remarkable - she hasn't thrown any tantrums (of note) and is generally good natured these days. 

This may very well be the last year that we'll be able to get away with getting two Halloweens out of one costume. :) That's okay. Bree wanted to be Thumbelina again this year, but I told her that I'd try to make it a bit different and add some glitter face paint.

I picked up some pink and purple glitter face paint and we tested it out last weekend. A trial run, if you will. Given that Halloween was on a Monday, I wasn't going to have a lot of prep time before trick or treating. It was a sound plan, and it was a very good thing we did a test run, because it was later that night, in the bath, that I learned that glitter face paint didn't come out with just soap and water. I rushed to Google "removing glitter face paint" and I found that there were three things that would remove it: 1). Pond's face cream (which I didn't have); 2). baby wipes (which I didn't have): and 3). baby oil (of which I had approximately 3 tablespoons in an old bottle). Luckily for me, the glitter face paint came off with the baby oil, and I didn't have to try to explain why Bree was going to school on October 24th with glitter on her face!

Bree's school sent home a paper plate stapled to a paint stick with instructions to make any kind of mask for the Halloween parade. We had 2 weeks to make the mask, which was really generous for those parents who don't procrastinate. We had ours done by Thursday (one day before the due date) but when we were taking it to school some of our items fell off so I took it back for one more round of hot glue to make sure that everything stayed put. So we made the deadline of turning the mask in by Friday.

Bree picked out some butterflies, some sunflowers, pink glitter paint and purple ribbon for her mask. When it was all assembled & hot glued together, Bree looked at me and said, "what is it?" I thought for a minute and said, "tell everyone you're a fall fairy." That was the perfect answer for Bree. :)

I told Bree that I'd have to see what was going on at work on Monday, but that I'd try to be at the parade. It was blessedly a slow day so I was able to head over and surprise Bree. She was very happy to see me. It was a beautiful day for a parade, and all the kids did great jobs on their masks.

We started our trick or treating at 6pm and lasted about an hour. Then the bucket started getting too heavy, and Bree was slowing down. So we went home, turned on the porch light and handed out candy. It's actually hard for me to say what Bree enjoyed more - getting candy or giving candy. When she handed out the candy to the kids - no matter what the age - Bree would say, "I LOVE your costume!" and "Happy Halloween!" and occasionally "Thanks for stopping by!" It was awesome. We didn't get a lot of trick or treaters, fewer than 40 total, but it was nice to be able to give out some candy.

We had a great Halloween. I'm looking forward to next year already. :)

School Photos 2011-2012

When we had Bree at Kindercare, one of the things that I especially enjoyed was the fact that Lifetouch came every 6 months to take pictures of the kids. When we switched her to a home daycare setting, we were responsible for making appointments to get pictures taken. Gasp! The horror! Seriously, trying to wrangle a toddler at JC Penney's where they want you to pick out your photos right after having the pictures taken - not my idea of a good time. (Especially after they keep you waiting for over a half an hour and your kid is just DONE with it all.) 

I am so happy that we're back in a situation where I don't have to schedule appointments to get pictures taken and all that comes with it. Yay!

All of the poses they sent are fantastic (says the extremely biased parent). Bree insisted on being first (as she does with everything) and so her hair was still wet from the morning spraying/detangling. Possibly the only thing that I wish were different about the pictures. Oh, and that her fingernails were actually either re-polished or not polished. Oops - my bad. Didn't realize that her hands might be visible.

I posted some pictures of her first  haircut on Facebook - I'll post the series here as well. Her hair just got trimmed and shaped - it was getting a bit fuzzy around the ears. It's hard to believe that her hair, when wet, is down past her shoulder blades in the back!

The Perils of A Skinny Minnie

Got this note from Bree's teacher today. So, uh, yeah. The perils of being a wee one. 

Bree Takes On Pre-K

Bree started pre-kindergarten last week. She's got a full week under her belt at this point. Last night was Parent Orientation, and while I was there, I took the opportunity to snap some pictures of things that Bree has said in class or offered up during participation. 

The first picture shows what the class answered about friends. The first question was "Who is a friend?" For some reason, Bree answered "Be helpful." Maybe she was answering how you can be a friend? I don't know. 

The second question was "How can you tell someone is your friend?" Bree answered: "Sometimes I go to my friends house." I'm thinking she was answering along the lines of, "friends will invite you to their houses." Although I keep telling Bree that she can't have anyone over until she cleans her room! :) 

The last question was "What do you do to be a friend?" Bree answered "Say hello." 

 

Home living. Oh my goodness. Let me tell you about home living. But first, the teacher had a piece of paper where the students could fill in the rest of the sentence that starts with "I like . . . . ." So Bree said, "I like playing in home living." That actually should have said, "I am obsessed with home living." Because it's ALL I HEAR ABOUT.

Home living is the section of the classroom that has a little kitchen, a little table, a baby doll sized high chair and  a baby doll sized bed. There is a child-sized broom and mop in home living as well. Bree wants a home living section in our house. I told her that our entire house is home living, but she's not having any of that.

There are only 4 children allowed in home living at any given time. Bree was heartbroken the day she was asked to leave home living because she was inadvertently #5. Bree was also outraged at the injustice done to her friend Madelyn in home living - Madelyn was just using the restroom when Callie W. came into home living and took Madelyn's place. Madelyn couldn't come back into home living upon her return because there were already 4 children in home living. THE HORROR. Bree was actually quite upset about this and all the talk about taking turns made absolutely ZERO impact on her. God help the child that takes Bree's place if she ever has to go to the restroom. Actually, scratch that. Bree will hold it for hours rather than abandon her place in home living.

Bree announced on Tuesday morning that she was going to ask her teacher where they bought the home living section so that we would know where to buy it. In the car on the way home, Bree announces to me that "they bought it from the furniture store. So now you know where to buy it." When I asked Bree where on earth we would put the home living section in our house, she said, "well, probably the living room." Yeah, who needs a couch & a recliner, anyway? Right?  However, since she's clearly so into home living, I'm buying a child sized broom and mop and I plan to put that girl to work!

During Parent Orientation, the teacher told us that on day 1, she told the children that it was her job to keep them safe. And that it was their job to help her keep them safe.  So she asked them what they had to do to help her keep them safe.

#1 on the list is an offering from Bree: "Not to get into trouble." When Bree saw this picture she said, "Mommy, I WAS FIRST!" Also note that Bree had an addendum to suggestion #2 from Izzy, "Don't touch sharp stuff" - like a "sharp pencil!"

Bree has a second recommendation on the list: "Be careful with scissors." I had to smile that the teacher spelled it "Bee" because it was from "Bree." :)  The other suggestions are excellent and it's great that these actually came from the children themselves - good to know that Bree's not getting into some kind of Lord of the Flies situation at pre-k!

The last picture is their schedule for most days. Next to the schedule you can see "Our Friends in Room 12" - there are 13 girls and 7 boys in the class. You can only see the girl side of the poster.

Bree gets dropped off around 7:30 (sometimes closer to 8:00 if traffic is particularly bad) - she's a full day student, meaning she's there for before and after school care. Nap time (quiet time) is between 1 and 3. There are various enrichment programs that come to the school, and Bree is participating in dancing (Mondays) and soccer (Thursdays). Other options are a Spanish language class, art class, Tumblebus and I think a music class. Bree started her dance class on Monday and she liked it. I think that soccer starts this week, too.

We're off to a great start so far. :) Can't wait to see what the rest of the year brings.

Fool In The Rain

So, okay, yeah, I know. Three blog posts in a single evening when I haven't posted anything at all for the whole month. It's been a bit busy here and I just haven't taken the time to update (this is where you say "DUH" either in your head or out loud).

The next set of pictures were taken during a rain storm last weekend. It was still warm out, and there was neither thunder nor lightening, so I let Bree go outside to play in the rain. She was hilarious - a dancing fool. A dancing fool who had a lot of fun!

Bree & Her Daddy

When Scott was in the States for his home leave, he and Bree got to spend a really wonderful day together. Bree has been waiting for him to come home so that they could go out in "the boat" again. (Among other things that she talked him into.) :)

In previous outings, Bree would ride with Scott as he has much more patience with her than I do, especially in a kayak. Because Bree inevitably wants to be in control of the paddle.


She was a very good listener and they had a great time together out on the water.

For dinner, Bree and Scott made an awesome Chef Boyardee pizza - it's "their" signature dish. Again, Bree helps with putting ingredients into the crust and helps to lay out the pizza. They both have a great time making pizza, and of course, eating it. :)

Daddy's Girl & Her Daddy

Hose Repaired, Hose Used, Hosed!

When my folks were here in July, my Dad repaired the hose bib in the back yard. So now we have water for the back yard.

The new switch only has to be turned to a 90 degree angle to turn it on and get water flowing. This is much to easy for Bree to turn on. Much. Too. Easy. I have to make sure that whenever she goes outside she doesn't go near the hose. Because she will turn it on.

Bree loves to create mud and play in the mud. As these pictures clearly demonstrate.

But I don't exactly stop her every time she wants to make mud. Because, really? Mud is kind of fun when you're four.

The whale pool that we used to have has a hole in it. Since the hose was broke, we didn't get anything to replace the pool. Next summer we might get something - a sprinkler at the very least.

At the very least it will be something that has the ability to generate a lot of mud. Because how else could Bree have this much fun in the back yard?

Tree Swing!

Bree had a request of her Papa: a tire swing. We have a good sized tree in the back yard that is perfect for a tire swing. Papa brought a large rope with him from Michigan so all we needed was a tire.

Bree and Papa went to a tire store and they walked out with an old tire. When the tire was first installed, it would brush the ground after Bree got in and sat down for her ride. Every time she would scrape the ground she would yell "Touch down!"

Papa raised the tire swing a few inches so that she wouldn't scrape the ground. This brought back all sorts of memories of the tire swing that Shaun & I used to swing on when we were little. Bree wanted to know if I sat inside and Uncle Shaun sat on top. I told her that we did swing like that - leaving out the part where Uncle Shaun would take every opportunity to step on me on his way on & off, and how I would grab at his legs and pinch them. She doesn't need to know all that. :)

Yes, she's wearing her rain boots. She loves these boots and wears them all the time. She even wore them out to run errands today. Some things just aren't worth the fight. :)

Here's two videos of her with her tire swing. One with her riding inside the tire (her preferred method) and one riding on top of the tire.

Future Pop Star Diva

Bree loves to sing Katy Perry. It all started with a Wii game that she played at daycare. It's a dancing game, and "Hot and Cold" was a lot of fun for Bree. So we'd play the video on YouTube so Bree could dance to it. Then Bree started remembering most of the words.

"You change your mind like a girl change a hose."

"Cause you're hot and you're cold. You're yes and you're no. You're in and you're out, you're up and you're down. You're zack and it's white. You're wrong and he's right. We fight we kiss up, we kiss and make up!"

Not the exact words, but just about. And that's what she sings over and over and over and over again. But the dance is what gets me - it's so darn cute when she does it.

But I was late to the party, and now Bree has moved on to "Firework," also by Katy Perry. So now I can't get her to do the whole "Hot & Cold" dance anymore. She did do some of it for me before dissolving into giggles and the 4 year old propensity to substitute silly words: "You're hot & you're . . . tree!"

Enjoy.

I tried to embed the video, but it didn't work. Click here for the link to watch it on YouTube.

Beach Weekend

We were lucky enough to get an invitation from some friends who were renting a house down on the Outer Banks. I left work early, picked up Bree and hit the road. We were down there by 5 pm. Bree was on the beach by 5:10.

I think I may have mentioned a time or two before that Bree LOVES to be outdoors. In any kind of weather, for any length of time. On Saturday, we were on the beach by 9:30am, and we didn't head in until 6pm. There was a brief break for lunch and reapplication of sun screen - but Bree played outside for HOURS. She loved playing in the surf. I did have to get in the water with her to show her just how cold the water was - she kept begging to go in the water so she could try out her new boogie board. After she got all wet, she decided to save the boogie board for another time and just play in the surf and sand.

After getting wet, Bree wanted out of her bathing suit for a while. She'd had enough of water and wanted to play in the sand. Bree and Cole had a great time playing together on the beach. Cole at one point was imagining that he was an astronaut who landed his spacecraft on some other planet. Bree was in charge of rounding up the space dog (who really wasn't all that into being a space dog. He just wanted to chill.)

Cole would call Bree his girlfriend, and Bree would call him "that little boy." They played very well together - playing hide and seek in the house, playing Angry Birds together on the computer, and they found a use for Bree's boogie board:

When we went out to dinner on Saturday night, Bree actually tried THREE steamed clams. It was actually funny - Bree had one (on her garlic bread just like Mr. Steve ate his) and like it. She had another, but thought that didn't taste very well. So she had a third, just to make sure that the first wasn't a fluke. I was impressed that she ate three. Heck, I was impressed that she tried one!

On Sunday, it was a raining morning, so it actually wasn't too difficult to get Bree to leave. If the sun had been shining, I suspect that she would have screamed all the way home. Both Cole and Bree were upset to say good-bye, but we'll be getting together again.

It was such a treat to get away, especially to such a tranquil place like the ocean. How fantastic to sit on the beach, watch Bree play in the waves, and just enjoy the sun and the soothing sounds of the waves. Loved it.