Blizzard!

Yes it's icy and windy.  Sasha's been obsessed about snowmen lately, so we tried to go outside and build one mid-storm.  It was horrible, with icy shards whipping our faces and snow that refused to form even the smallest snowball.  I thought pipsqueak would be disappointed, but instead he asked for his scarf to be pulled up completely over his face, right up to his hat.  Snow?  Not interested.  But Aunt Margot was determined enough to make a snowbush for him to enjoy.  For 5 seconds.  And then we all escaped inside.

Photos courtesy of Aunt Margot.

Happy 2nd Birthday!!

I know, I know, this post is way after the fact, but I couldn't let the Bub's second birthday pass without some acknowledgment.  He even had two birthday parties!  The actual 17th of November, however, was spent on a plane.  Sweetly, the Hong Kong customs agent looked at his passport closely enough to wish him a happy birthday.

Amazing red velvet cake by Zayde.

I love this picture.

So...

...many...

...presents.

Safety Tip #97

When taking out the trash...

...always wear appropriate footwear.

How To Get Out the Jitters After a Nerve-wracking Cable Car Ride

More from our Hong Kong trip: an impromptu dance party at Ocean Park. 

In Praise of Flannel-Lined Pants

What genius invented children's flannel-lined pants?  They are so perfect, especially when it gets really cold but doesn't snow all that often.  (Who wants to wear snow pants anyway?)  Since returning from balmy Hong Kong to a cold snap with highs in the low thirties or upper 20s, the Bub has been wearing nothing but pajamas-on-the-inside, rugged-on-the-outside pants deluxe.  And let me give thanks where it's due: Great Aunt Mollie, Great Aunt Maureen, Nana, and Moms have all contributed to this wardrobe favorites pile.  I'll post a pic when I can capture one.

Hong Kong Visit Pictorial

Helping Fro eat "dog food."

The renowned Ball Room.  Every parting ended in tears.

Sasha's birthday party!

Meow

Roar

Catching the train at Ocean Park where we also saw pandas.

School morning crisis: Maya's sock got dirt on it.

The Mad Stickerer and her willing victim.

Haircut cheerleading by Mama.

Yes, I know, I'm simply fabulous.

    

Olympics contender, 2025

I love my new red shoes.

The beloved Ah A'iss.

Playing in a tide pool.

    

Our last night in HK and the first night of Hannukah.

Autumn in Prospect Park

Today's Stats

Sasha got his 2-year check-up today. 36 inches tall and a mere 29 pounds. I'm guessing that the small weight gain is the price of low-fat milk. His pants sure fit better. He's also very healthy. And strangely obedient with the pediatrician.

And for fun, more vocabulary from today:

Look, Mamu, little tayds! Watching a group of school kids walk down the sidewalk.

Highdeen in tardet. Hiding in the closet.

Dah la la. Gorilla.

And yesterday:

Lady Gaga! Bad Romance! Correctly identifying the song playing in the auto mechanic's garage.

P is for Pood

Some of my daily chuckles:

One, two, tree, poor, pive, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, fourteen, nineteen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty!

Listen music on Peter! peter = computer.

Pupu pider = purple spider.

Daya, all PINished. = There, all finished. He's always very emphatic on that first syllable.

No pit daya. = Doesn't fit there (referring to puzzle pieces).

T-Rex cooking pood. Cooking apples. Panda eat pood. Eat bamboos.

Mamu hurt neck. It bleeded. Mama hurt pinger. It bleeded. (These after I zipped his neck into his jacket and after Nerdy cut his fingernail too short. Poor injured baby.)

Too hebby! Too big. And too hebby.

Jammin'

Jamming on the guitar. Some translation for extra humor: after the Mamu song, he introduces his next number, "Now, candy song."

The candy song has a backstory. A few minutes before this video, he was allowed a piece of candy from Aunt Mollie's Halloween package that he had just opened. After finishing it, we had this conversation:

"More?"
"No. Only one."
"More candy?"
"No. One piece is enough."
"More candy please?"
"No."
"WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!! CANDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I suggested that we sing a sad song about how we want more candy but can't have it, and started strumming and singing. Amazingly, this worked to distract him. And to make this video even funnier.

Bathtub Misery, Exhibit A

That Wasn't So Bad, Was It?

One of the worst tortures the pipsqueak endures is a shampoo.

To start what Carrie calls the The Seven Fights of Bedtime, the wind-down bedtime routine begins with a bath.  Knowing this is the beginning of the end of the day, he usually runs away crying as soon as we announce the nightly bath.  The protest lasts while we wrestle him out of his clothes and into the tub, where he stops crying the minute we get his feet wet and he sees the bath toys.  But then soon enough, bath is over and it's time for the dreaded shampoo.  In an attempt to make it faster and therefore less painful, Nerdy and I team up to hold him still and keep the soap and water out of his eyes.  Resisting all attempts, he screams bloody murder the whole time, "NOOO, NOOO, MAMU, NO!  MAMA, NOOOOOOOO!!!!!"  It's outrageously dramatic.  Once I have him pinned between my knees and the washcloth over his eyes (or in the general vicinity), Nerdy washes his hair at lightning speed.  Of course, he writhes and cries through the whole ordeal which makes it really hard to keep the soap out of his eyes and the water out of his nose.  And no amount of reasoning with him will induce cooperation.  Immediately after we finish washing his hair, Hulk Hogan/Mr. T team-style, he stops, turns calmly to us and says, "Oh. That wasn't so bad, was it?" and smiles a cherubic smile.  Seriously.  After every shampoo fight.

As you can guess, he didn't come up with that phrase on his own.  I said it to him once after the shampoo match, and now that vaguely creepy sentence is repeated back at me after every hair wash.

Then we all move on to the Diaper Changing Table Take-down.

The Puzzler

The boy loves his puzzles.  He has quite a few, though he's graduated from the chunky puzzles and peg puzzles to regular jigsaw-style puzzles with interlocking pieces.  Because I have nothing better to do right now than show you, dear readers, the path he's taken, I'm posting images of them here.  He can't actually do the spaceship 48-piecer, but he'll try to put the spaceship area together before he finds an interesting dustball to investigate.

Currently, however, he can't get enough of this amazing set we found at a stoop sale in our 'hood.  It's a set of 6 cardboard puzzles, 9 pieces each, with beautiful and simple images.  They are also very well-designed for a child's eye with colored borders and simple but contrasting backgrounds.  At first, he did them all, over and over again.  I used to ask him, "OK, which one is next?" and he'd get excited about choosing one.  Then after a few weeks, he decided that he loved only Peacock, and would put the peacock together over and over, announcing, "Peacock! 'gain!" "Peacock, Mamu, 'gain!" And now Bear has been welcomed once again into the fold, and occasionally Elephant or Turtle.  He may be fickle, but he does not mess around once the puzzle has begun.  Intense concentration, start to finish.