An afternoon at the park

So I got brave today and took BOTH girls to the park. Its only a few streets down from us but with as jumpy/fidgety as Star is about being on a leash and away from home, its always an experience to have her on the leash. Today proved to be a good day, as Freyja decided that she wanted to walk Star around the park. So instead of playing, she was content just leading or following the dog around. At one point they got tangled and Star got away...only to come and find me and beg to go home. But over all the girls had a good time in our coolish weather. Freyja got to swing for a little while as well and watch some boys bury eachother in the sand. Star was thrilled to finally get to go home. She almost ran the entire way, dragging us with her. At one point she was leading Freyja to the exit of the park trying to get her to go home with or without me! At least Star knows her way home... I can definitely see more trips to the park in our future as the weather gets warmer!

LEAPERS!!

And here I was thinking that I had the only child who would NOT imprint to a toy! I found this little guy at Barnes and Noble today thought he might bring a smile to my fussy little child today and sure enough the two have become inseperatable! David took him into her after her nap today (not that she slept today...) and bounced it over the crib to her and she fell in love instantly! I took her to the mall with me to get her out of the house for a bit and she DEMANDED that Leapers come with us (he was named by the TY Beanie company, not us), then at the mall he HAD to come in with us we were NOT leaving him in the car. So apparently elephants and tigers and other odd assortments of stuffed animals just weren't "it" for her, but now she has her little frog prince!

I think this picture alone sums up her entire Christmas experience this year. Once shown how to rip through a package she was able to desimate all paper in the way. This music kit I think was by far her most favorite gift, she's been banging around on it or some part of it most of the evening. Though the table and chairs have seen their fair share of activity as well. Like David she can't sit still more than 2 seconds, so she'll sit in one chair then pop right back up and move to the other...then she bit the head off the green crayon and that brought the fun to an end for the evening.

She and David just finished "brusha brusha-ing" so its time for me to go do my nightly routine and tuck the youngen into bed. Lord knows if she'll even sleep tonight with as much fun as she's had today and all the toys she's gotten!

Happy holidays to all and to all a good night!

I put up the tree!

FINALLY!! I know...but how many times can one mother say NO TOUCH in a single holiday season without wanting to A)burn down the tree, B) chop off little hands or C) all the above and pull out all of my hair.... This child of ours I swear is an octopus, I don't know where the extra appendages came from but I think there's about 12hands and about 24feet which would explain how she can demolish a room in 0.02seconds and zoom off laughing all the way. Did I have this much energy as a child?

Next year we are going to try a different approach to the holiday season. Not to mess with anyone else, it will just be something in our own home and you are invited to participate if you would like. We are going back to the pre-christian celebration of the season and are going to give the Yule traditions a try. I will be learning more about it in the months to come and will report on what I know so you know what to expect.

"Santa" got all of the presents wrapped last night and they are now patiently waiting in the guest room for Christmas morning for their annual march out to the tree to be ripped through by the whirling dervish. She had so much fun with her presents at mom and dad vh's house I figured I'd wrap half and put the other half in bags to give her a little variety on how to open them.

Enjoy the pictures...more to come in few days!

Christmas with the van Hooses

Tonight we had Christmas with mom and dad vh since mom leaves in the morning for Kentucky to see her mom. This is Freyja's first Christmas where she's been interested in the gifts and what's going on. She loved the tree and mom vh put childproof ornaments on bottom so she could pull them off and not kill anything important. I think over all she had a wonderful time! We all received wonderful gifts and had fun being together. Its nice to be home and close to family (most of our family anyway) so that we can celebrate and be close together whenever we want.
Mom and Ed are coming over on Christmas Eve so we'll have another Christmas then with them. Then it'll be just the three of us for Christmas morning when Santa comes to see Freyja.
Happy holidays to you all! We love you and hope you all have a safe and happy holiday with those that you love and hold dear. May the new year bring happiness and joy to your lives and 2008 keep all its hardships behind us.

So today we continued our baking from last night. Mom stayed over last night so we could make goodies for Christmas since we're having an early one with mom and dad vh Sunday (they leave Monday for Kentucky) and then have Christmas eve with mom and Ed. Freyja took up post with her pot and wooden spoon and proceded to beat the daylights out of some of her "snackies" that we put in the pot for her (puffs, mm's and other little stuff). She sat and watched me put together the baklava today and would say "oooo, whats this?". She doesn't say it very clear but its obvious that's what she's trying to say. Very cute!

We've learned to brush our teeth!

So I've decided to start keeping a blog of what's new in our lil ones life so that anyone who wants to keep up can tune in and see what she's up to now. This way instead of just having pictures to rely on, you'll also have a blow by blow of some of her cuter moments.

We've been brushing our teeth in the evening as a family for a while now and just recently Freyja has really started getting into it. We taped a video of her this evening to show her enthusiam. As soon as you say "are you ready to go brusha brusha?" she's off down the hallway and jumping at the babygate to our bedroom waiting to get into the bathroom. She runs across the room, grabs her little step stool (mine from my own childhood) and climbs up to start brushing. I've started singing a little tune to her as she does it...I think its from "Grease" or maybe Ren and Stimpy...don't really remember... But as soon as the video loads on YouTube I'll link it up on here so all can see.

Our love to you all! I hope you'll tune in and keep up with our little "bug's" life.