Two for T

This past weekend we celebrated T's second birthday at Adrian's dad's house. Since T pretends that everything he plays with, from stuffed animals to fridge magnets, is a rocket ship, we decided on a rocket theme for the party. I made a rocket cake and cupcakes, and Adrian's dad decorated with a bunch of rockets he made from mailing tubes. The rockets were placed on the mantle, counter top and tables. They were even suspended from the ceiling with balloons. It was so cool!



With Oo positioned ready to help, T blew out all the candles by himself.



He then delightfully ate a cupcake in his usual fashion (without lifting it up from his tray). And then I gave him some chocolate decorations from the cake to give him that extra sugar boost he would need to skip nap time and stay awake through the end of the party. (Horrible, I know.)



The gifts were generous -- toddler sports gear, cool duds to wear, a book and video. His favorite gift was definitely the "dop-der" that my dad gave him. Happy Birthday little guy!!

Bathroom Reading Material

Today I was preparing Oo for watching the inauguration on TV tomorrow. Not only do I want to view the traditional ceremony myself, but I want Oo to perhaps one day remember that she saw history in the making. (And, truth be told, I also don't want hear whining because we're not watching "Super Why" or "Word World.")

I told Oo that we would be watching some different shows tomorrow, that I want to watch the inauguration of the next president. I explained what "inauguration" and "ceremony" meant, and I explained again what a president does. I reminded her about the day we went to the polls, and about how presidential inaugurations are the result of the voting. I described how both the old and the new president will be in the ceremony to show us when one president's job ends and the other one's job begins.

I tried to make it exciting for her -- again, because it is an historical event (and yes, because I don't want to hear whining). Ready to show her any of last week's newspapers, I asked her if she wanted to see a picture of the guy who was going to be the new president.

She replied, "No, that's alright. He's always smiling at me when I'm trying to go potty."

Location, Location, Location

T: Here! Here!
(I have no idea why he was yelling this.)

Oo: (sitting several feet away from him) T, you're not here, you're there. If you were here, you'd be here. And if you're there, you're there.

T: I here! I here!

Oo: NO YOU'RE NOT!!

(And on and on it went. While I stood in the kitchen giggling.)

O Blog, Where Art Thou?

Holy moly! It's been 5 weeks since my last blog entry. That's a long time, especially since the past 5 weeks have been so full of holidays and events, decorations and cake, visiting and gifts. There's no way to reasonably re-cap it all, so here's a quick summary:

St. Nicholas' Day
As our tradition goes, St. Nicholas brought each of us a new Christmas ornament. But rather than including the usual cookies and candy with our ornaments, St. Nicholas surprised us with new Christmas books and CDs. Oo got "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and immediately fell in love with it. T got "A Pirate's Night Before Christmas," which reads, "The stockin's were stuck to the bowsprit with tar, In hopes that Sir Peggedy soon would be thar."


Oo's Birthday Party
Inspired by her Halloween costume, Oo chose a dinosaur theme for her party. The cake had a waterfall and a volcano (I turned a cupcake upside down and added frosting lava). When Oo saw it she squealed so loud that the windows nearly broke. The "Happy Birthday" banner had a typo, which was first discovered by T. No lie! I hung the decorations the night before the party. Watching me put the banner up, T read aloud, "H - A - P - P - P..." Sure enough he was right.

Oo's Actual Birthday
Adrian took the day off, and we all went to lunch together. Chocolate chip pancakes for lunch -- Oo and I were in heaven! Then while T napped and I proofed, Adrian took Oo to see her first movie in the theater -- "Madagascar Back 2 Africa." In the morning, Adrian prepped Oo on movie theater etiquette. At the matinée, they were the only two in the theater, which made it tempting to ignore theater etiquette. But the two of them assured me they behaved very well.

Santa Sightings
Our neighbors are good friends with Santa, so he makes a special trip to their house a few weeks before Christmas every year. Last year, Oo wanted nothing to do with Santa. (see Santa waving in the background in last year's picture)


But this year both kids were delighted to sit on his lap.


Every year on Christmas Eve afternoon Santa also rides down our street on top of a fire truck. This year he was inside the truck, barely visible, as the truck sped down our street. A bit disappointing -- the event prompted Oo to write a new blues song -- but we tried to remember that Santa had a very busy night ahead of him.

The 5 Days of Christmas
We went to 10 places to visit with friends and family over the course of 5 days -- the "Oo and T Holiday Tour" as I like to call it. Yet, there were still some very dear friends we couldn't manage to visit. We all received wonderful, wonderful gifts this year. Oo loves everything she (and T) received, but she raves most about several pairs of warm, snuggly PJs. That's my girl! My brother-in-law and sister spent months making T's present -- a rocking motorcycle. It's amazing, and words can't do it justice. Neither can this picture, but it's the best one that I have on my computer right now.


New Year's Eve
We toasted the New Year at 9pm at our friends' house, with all of our kids there. There were yummy nibbles, plenty to drink, and noise makers galore. Oo and her friends wore sparkly tiaras and giggled like crazy. For me, the highlight of the evening was taking a bite of the cake I had spent more than a day making -- I was given some very cool baking/decorating books for Christmas, and I just HAD to try out some of the ideas. Oo and T tried many, many times to grab a bite of cake while I was doing the decorating, but to no avail. We all had to wait until "midnight."


Currently
The kids and I all have colds that we caught at some point during the holiday visiting, but Adrian is fine (I call him Captain Immunity). And after a completely sleepless night with Oo and one teeny, tiny, little complaint she made about her ear, I followed my instincts and took her to the doctor yesterday. An exam of the left ear... yep, gross goo inside. An exam of the right ear... whoa!... blood red inside and very inflamed... surely a source of great pain. Poor Oo. We're right back to where we were before the holidays -- with an ear infection.

But it's not so bad being right back where we were. Yeah, the ear infection part stinks, but it's nice to have life back to normal. Normal schedules, normal obligations, normal bedtimes. But wait! Truman's 2nd birthday is just around the corner. There are invitations to mail and a cake to design...