Christmas Preparations!

Our little chef was really into making cookies with Aunt Kelly this weekend! He didn't ever stray from her, although his best friend Olivia was not that interested. She made just a couple and then went to play in his room. But H stayed with us girls (me and Kelly) and helped roll the dough, "squeeze" the cookie cutters into the dough and then help to take out the shapes which always ended up into us having to reuse it to cut again. Nevertheless, it was so much fun to watch him and see how interested he was....I am hoping that this turns into a love for cooking. Can't wait for him to cook us a meal one day soon!

Here are some pictures of the day.

There are plenty more of these and they are all great! We also decorated the tree earlier that week and here are some pictures of that. He was directing Daddy on where to put the lights while sitting on his potty. Best view in the house!

The lobster was the first ornament that we hung on the tree. He kept putting it on and then taking it off. I think he was fascinated by the eyes.

Keeping a close watch on Daddy from his potty - making sure every light is properly on!

Olivia stopped by to put the finishing touches on the tree.

H smiling for the camera! He closes his eyes when smiling.

Halloween

We had a lot of fun going to the Park Slope Halloween Parade with Olivia and Noah. Mommy worked from home that day so that she could get H ready and go out in time for Trick or Treating. At first, H didn't want to put on his Mickey Mouse costume which he adored previously, so Mommy and the nanny had to get him into it by first watching some Mickey Mouse cartoons and singing the Hot Dog song that Mickey Mouse and all of the Disney characters sing. After a few rounds of that video, H was excited to be Mickey Mouse.

The nanny and H went out Trick or Treating for 30 minutes or so around our neighborhood, she was eager to show him off. She says that everyone wanted to see him, I guess he is well known around the stores that they visit- one of the men in the fruit store calls him "Double Trouble" and H will sometimes say that that is his name. He always gets free bananas when he visits.

Once they came back from Trick or Treating, he had a pretty good stash of candy in his pumpkin bucket. He asked me "What is this?" as he lifted a Butterfinger candy bar and Mommy said, it is a shaker, like in music class. So H started shaking it and was happy as a little clam! Our goal is to not have him taste chocolate or candy for as long as possible since once he does, we are sure he won't stop! He didn't have any of the candy that he collected that night and we were very proud.

Here are some pictures of us going around in Park Slope - they didn't give out as great a selection of candy as Bay Ridge. Perhaps the store owners are overwhelmed with the amount of children there so they have to give out lower quality candy- Daddy was super disappointed! He wanted to get some good stuff but we ended up with some weird candies including Chinese candy from the nail salon. It seems that everyone Trick or Treats in stores now, we didn't go to any homes at all. Maybe next year we will do it in our building, where hopefully the good candy is (for Mom and Dad!).

 He had to watch the Mickey Mouse video a few times to get into character! :)

 Still watching on Mommy's iPhone.

 Aunty came by to join the festivities...it is hard to get his attention and to look straight at the camera.

 He is the smallest one in the bunch.

 Walking into the hair salon, Slope Suds....and he actually said Trick or Treat!

 He immediately wanted to see what he got, not that he wanted to eat, just curious...didn't realize that he has to keep moving.

 Not too happy! Daddy wanted to keep Trick or Treating to get better candy.

 H picked out just one tiny candy, a Hershey's kiss...even after the man said take a bunch, H was happy with just one.

 At the nail salon.

 Super tired but excited to be getting on the train.

Here is Mickey looking at one of his favorite things, the Subway Map!!!

Happy Birthday to Daddy!

We celebrated Daddy's birthday over a few days since it fell on Columbus Day weekend. Since this post is over a month too late, Mommy can't remember all of the details but I know that we went to Ikea with Olivia and Aunt Kelly to start off the celebration. We had breakfast there including Swedish pancakes, which are like crepes and lots of eggs and sausage. Of course, H ate sooo much while Olivia only tasted a bit of egg or pancake and said she was done! H kept eating and eating and eating. At one point, Mommy got sidetracked talking to Aunt Kelly, and H just pulled the plate over to himself and started feeding himself with a big fork, he just couldn't wait for Mommy.

The next day we went to a local BBQ restaurant with Dedo to celebrate Daddy's birthday. H loved BBQ food - just like his Dad!

Then we came home and had an ice cream cake from Carvel ready for Daddy. It was nearly H's bedtime but we had to sing Happy Birthday and blow out the candles. H was sooooo excited to sing and see the candles, having practiced all week and weekend. But, we lit all of the candles, very many of them since they spell out Happy Birthday, he ran into the living room ready to sing until he saw them and backed away, saying "Fire! Too Hot!" He is very cautious now since he did have a little burn from the pipe in the kitchen, he now listens to us when we tell him not to touch something or not to go near the oven. Anyway, once Mommy and Daddy started blowing out the candles, he was okay with it and got closer. He just wanted to grab the letters, the "R train", as he calls the R letter is his favorite and he wanted that one right away!

Here are the pics of us with the birthday boy!

Here are also some shots that we took while Daddy went to work to prepare Daddy's birthday card which had a theme of "I want to be just like Daddy"! That is all Mommy has to say to get H to put something on, if Daddy wears it then H will too.

Columbus Day Weekend

This is a long weekend for us and we couldn't be happier! We really need the break although it has been one of our busiest weekends. It also happens to be  Peter's birthday which we have been celebrating each day, in small ways.

On Saturday, we went to IKEA with Olivia as we thought it would be a bad weather day, but it turned out to be gorgeous. Regardless, the kids had so much fun running around, jumping on the beds, and of course, H found his favorite - the stairs! He can spend hours on the stairs - I actually tried to see how long he could go on the subway stairs later that day, but after an hour he tired me out and I had to take him away. He is going to have some powerful legs!

After IKEA, we went home to take a nap (all of us since we were exhausted from the night before going to see the movie Gravity...we came back home around 1am). In the afternoon, we stayed around our neighborhood, of course had to go to the subway station, just to play around to see the maps (now he knows the difference between the bus map and the subway map)...he can also point out where he lives and which stop is ours.

At night, we had a small celebration for Peter's birthday, where he opened up his presents and birthday cards. H was asleep during this but we are planning on another celebration on Monday where H can proudly sing Happy Birthday to Daddy (he has been practicing although most of the time he ends it with Happy Birthday to Henry....good enough!)

On Sunday, we met up with Ryan and Olivia (and their parents of course) in Park Slope, specifically in a new restaurant near our old place, on the same block that just opened up. The Turkish restaurant is enormous, has outdoor and indoor space, and most importantly a kids playroom. Although H stayed in the playroom for a little while, we was so excited to see his friends and run around the place. He was also very active in singing with the pillow guitar, here is a video of his performance. (We have to get him a "real" toy guitar for Christmas/his birthday!)


http://youtu.be/kPyQjhEHFz0