Mom, I'm Concerned About the Toilet

Frequently sighted in our bathroom lately: 

"It's totally dirty! I have to clean it."

Getting Into the Holiday Spirit

The Bub is learning all about the seasonal holidays in school.  They learned all about Hanukkah in school last week, making menorahs and sufganiyot (jelly donuts).  Over the weekend, I casually mentioned getting out our menorah so we could be ready for the holiday.  He stopped and asked, "We have a menorah?!" as if this was a great surprise.  But I guess we had spent the previous week attending to our christmas tree and making ornaments, so maybe that's why he figured we wouldn't have a menorah hidden away.  Then again, he's been telling everyone at school that he celebrates Hanukkah and Christmas, so who knows what he knows.  He asked us at the dinner table, "Have you ever had grahkiss taytoes?"  Nerdy and I looked at each other, each hoping the other one could translate.  "I'm not sure," said Nerdy diplomatically,  "What are they?"  "You know, you eat them."  Since most of the mysterious things he talks about can be traced back to school, and because it was Hanukkah week at preschool, I ventured a guess: "Potato latkes?"  "Yes!  Potato lakas!"

He's also excited by the presents under the tree, which he thinks are all for Grandma.  Hers was the first to be wrapped and put under the tree, so therefore all gifts that follow must also be hers.  I'm not about to set him straight.  Yet, anyway.  This weekend we went shopping for Taylor and Beckett and I asked Sasha to help.  He was happy to help, of course.  For Taylor he found candy just inside the door, a toy fire engine, a toy bus, a toy hot dog truck, and a stick horse that he rode around the store getting in everyone's way while joyfully yelling giddyup, horsey!  For Beckett, he found, um, nothing.  When I suggested we get a certain toy for him, Sasha agreed those would be good and then played with them that afternoon and the entire next day.  And some people say toddlers are self-centered.

When Rainbows Attack

I'm Allergic

--Does Mamu go to your school?

   --No.

--Does she go to any school?

   --No.

--Why not?

   --Because she's allergic to cows.

A Deserving Punishment

Ghost Superman and I were rounding up bad guys this weekend. (G.S. is identifiable by his Halloween shirt and red cape.)  After capturing the big bad guy (Mama-- all bad guys are guys even when they're not), we tied him up face down and put him in the bad guy cave.  Then Ghost Superman went brutal.  He forcefully grabbed a catalog flyer and stuffed it under Bad Guy's face. "Here! Read this advertisement!"  Ruthlessly, he found another one, "Read this one, too!"

Is It Hal Jordan?

Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee...

     he's the greatest of all time....

          The Green Lantern!

                 ...who can button and unbutton his own shirts!

                        How ya like me now???

You're Going to Turn Into a Cranberry

Day 7 of cranberry overload.
What do you mean I have cranberry sauce between my eyes?

Turkey Day and the Zoo

Nana and Zayde hosted Thanksgiving dinner this year as usual.  The hosts, the three of us, and Aunt Margot were there, along with her special guest and Sasha's new best friend, Eileen.  He tried throughout dinner to impress her with his bowl-in-my-mouth trick, then later invited her to his bath, and also thought for a minute that he was going to invite her to sleep with him at bedtime, though Nerdy disabused him of that idea.

Dinner was excellent (no surprise) and the next day we visited the zoo.  Sasha had turkey for the first time and declared during dinner, "This turkey is really good!"  He also enjoyed buckets of cranberry sauce.

Sasha has been asking for some time now to go to "Nana and Zayde's zoo," also known as the Bronx Zoo, a short drive from their place.  Sasha had a blast.  I'm not sure if it was due to the animals or just being able to run around outside with an entourage. 

Or maybe because he was finally able to prove his driving skills.

He was also thoroughly excited to see the tigers.  Of course, as is toddler wont, once we arrived at the tiger exhibit, he was like, "Oh yeah there's a tiger.  So anyway, did you see this cool ball over here? And this big picture of a tiger?  When do we get to see the movie?"

Excellent photo capturing a tiger's curiosity toward its audience.

Sasha's new membership t-shirt which he was proud to wear.

All photos are courtesy of Aunt Margot.

Birthday Cupcakes

The Bub is now 3!  Amazing.  I can't believe only 3 years ago he was a little smushed-up, wrinkly, little creature depriving us of sleep and now he's a walking, talking boy with very strong opinions depriving us of sleep.

But he's still my little baby that makes me smile.  Or laugh.  Like when we walk past the laundromat and he calls it the washamo-mat.  Or when he tells the walnut, "I'm gonna eat you, nut wall."

We're having a birthday party for him tomorrow.  To my surprise, we've invited 4 families to join us in our hovel-- now that's love-- to have a celebration.  Balloons, streamers, cake, the whole nine yards.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for lots of "sharing nicely" and "keeping our hands to ourselves."  Sasha's pretty good at the former, but not so much with the latter.  (We're having our very first parent-teacher conference after Thanksgiving, so we'll get to hear more about that.)  Let the festivities continue!

And to all the people who had disappointing or non-existent Skype conversations with the birthday boy yesterday: let's try again another day.  I think being the center of attention for an entire day was overwhelming.

Also, I did make birthday cupcakes and as promised, here's a photo.  (Note to Carrie: Yes, that's Wilton tip #233.  Certainly not as cool as a rainbow cupcake, but still kinda cute.)

Third Year Stats

The Bub had his third year check-up and here's how he measures up:  39 inches tall and 36 pounds.  No wonder I can't carry him very far anymore.

While at the doctor, he also picked up a 24-hour flu bug.  So yesterday around 4 a.m. he started throwing up and then spent most of the day not keeping anything down.  But by evening, thankfully, he was feeling better and today he ate a huge breakfast and went off to school, literally ribbiting and quacking.  Though it's almost 60 degrees, he insisted on wearing his wool duck hat with his froggy rain jacket.

He's very excited about bringing cupcakes to school tomorrow for his birthday, though it's giving me anxiety.  He's insisting on Green Lantern cupcakes.  I refuse to attempt anything difficult.  So I googled "green cupcakes" and he wasn't excited by the results.  Until he saw a giant cupcake about a foot tall, then he saw what exactly he wanted.  Right.  I'm betting that whatever I make, he'll be happy just because it's sugary.

Fall Foliage Fun

Some photos of Sasha with his best school friend Annabelle, playing yesterday in the park.  After trying unsuccessfully to fool the geese into eating gingko leaves, they built a big pile of leaves and got down to business getting dirty.

(Pictures courtesy of Annabelle's mom.)

S is for Sasha

The Silver Surfer has become fascinated with letters and words and always wants to know, What does this say? What does that say?  (Pardon me?  You thought he was the Green Lantern?  Please, that was SO Monday.  For a kid who wouldn't remember to eat if he wasn't reminded, he has a surprising capacity to remember a pantheon of superheroes.)  He's been identifying letters everywhere he sees them. I love that he's excited about it and wants to learn about words.

Of course, he's most familiar with the letters in his own name.  But whenever he comes across a lowercase typewritten "a" instead of the preschool-familiar handwritten "a," he calls it six.  I never thought about it, but they are almost mirror images of each other.  The same with a capital J and the lowercase t.  Intrigued, and wanting to help him learn, I downloaded an app for my phone that lets kids practice writing a letter over the one displayed on the screen.  He loved it for 5 seconds until he thought it was way better just to make a huge messy scribble on the screen and squeal with laughter at his mischief.  Just as funny the 30th time as the first time.

This morning he was reading the back of my t-shirt and asked Mama, "What does that say?"
"It says American College of Nurse Midwives."
"What's a mitwice?"
"A midwife is someone who helps a baby be born.  Like when I was pregnant with you inside me, Mamu and I had a midwife to help us when you were born."
"Oh.  Yeah, and when you were a baby inside me, Mamu and I had a mitwice, too."

I was reminded me of another recent conversation that tipped off his lack of comprehension to comic effect.  Occasionally Nerdy and I will tell him a story about "when I was a little girl..."  One day Sasha and I were in a fancy kitchen store and he pointed to a funky utensil and told me, "When I was a little girl, I had one of these."  "Oh, really?" I asked.  "Yes," he answered as his attention was drawn to another interesting dish, "and when I was two little girls, I played with one of these."  "Oh, really? When you were two little girls, huh?"  "Yes," he responded again, and again shifted his attention to something shiny, "and when I was three little girls, I had one of these things." "Wow.  And now that you're a big boy, do you want to quit shopping and go outside?"  "Yeah."

And what's the deal about being a big boy?  I always thought people who used that term for their kid were making a big deal about something that really wasn't.  Are you a big boy if you can use the potty, or are you just toilet-trained?  Are you a big boy if you can sleep in a bed, or are you just sleeping in a different bed than before?  Well, you can file that in the What You Thought You Knew Until You Became A Parent file.  Sasha is so invested in the big boy appellation that he will actually get mad and correct me if I dare to call him "my little boy" or "one of the little kids."  He absolutely loves being Big.  It's like he graduated to a higher plane of consciousness at 2 and a half years old.  So don't mess!  He is now big.  B-I-G.

Trick or Treating

Sasha went trick-or-treating tonight with his friend Annabelle the Scary Tiger.  I think neither one of them could believe the awesomeness of it.  Walk up to someone's door, say "Trick or treat," and then people give you candy!  But they needed each other to brave the front door, not one without the other.  Adorable!  They inspected each treat as they went along, building their candy vocabulary.  Sasha saw a Hershey's Kiss for the first time and after admiring its shininess, popped it in his mouth, foil and all.

The Green Lantern

The Green Lantern may have a cold, but that won't stop him from saving the universe from destruction!

He also may have temporarily forgotten his oath to protect us all from evil, but I'm sure he'll remember it once again, probably after he gets some Halloween candy in his system.

Business Opportunity

Superhero Prosthetics Corp.

The Particular Toddler.Or, The Little Dictator.

I know it's a toddler thing to be bossy and easily obsessed, but when does it enter the Twilight Zone?  I may have to rename Sasha's baby book Tales of the Bizarre.

Every morning when the Bub wakes up, he calls for us to come and pick him up and carry him back to our bed.  Why he can't just get out of his own bed and walk to ours?  He tried and tried again, but couldn't make it work with his little arms.  Because he doesn't travel alone.  Each morning when I'm beckoned, I find him meticulously stacking his three prized pillows into a neat column, all upright and facing the same way.  (Remember Piggy and Sister Piggy?  They've been joined by a purple Hippo.)  Then I pick up him with the stack in his arms and carry him to the next room.  Recently, he's been telling me to carry him "like an elevator," whatever that means-- I believe it means to put him down with a crashing sound, but I'm just guessing and so far that appears to satisfy him.

Upon getting in our bed, he demands that Nerdy and I ditch our own pillows and lay our heads on the new arrivals.  Nerdy must remove her pillows from the bed completely.  But we can't just casually lay our heads down.  Oh no!  First, he carefully determines in the dark which one is which, then hands them out: Sister Piggy to Mamu, Piggy to Mama, and Hippo to the dictator.  They are set down, heads facing out, tags on the right, fluffy side up.  Hippo must be placed in the exact center of the bed. Only then we are allowed rest peacefully while he drinks his cup of milk.

Sometimes the orderliness is totally unfathomable.  One day we built Batman and Superman out of Legos.  Here they are:

As usual when Sasha is involved with Lego-building, things fall apart frequently and must be repaired.  Predictably, Superman had a Humpty Dumpty moment and had to be put back together again.  But, as you can plainly see from the following before and after photos, I did it WRONG.  The creature on the right is clearly a ROBOT, and NOT Superman.  The obvious difference, worthy of hysterics, is that the robot has a small-to-non-existent forehead.  Duh.  How could I have confused the Superman (36 Legos) with the robot (35 Legos)?

Fortunately for everyone, Sasha's need for perfection can at times be fooled by his own cleverness.  When we had an early birthday party for Sasha during the visit from the Wisconsin contingent, he received both a Spiderman mask and a Captain America shield.  After the party was over, he was wearing both when he sat on the floor and complained, "There's a ploblem."

"The ploblem is, I can be Spiderman and Captain America, but Spiderman isn't one of the Avengers."

We agreed that Spiderman was not a member of the Captain's posse.  He was perplexed, but it was time for bed, so that ploblem would have to be dealt with later.  By dawn the next morning, he had it all figured out.  He crawled into our bed with the shield and the mask, announcing that he was now Tony Stark.  (I forgot to mention this part of the morning bed routine: he is Tony Stark a/k/a Iron Man, I am Tony's friend James, and Mama is Tony's other friend, Pepper.  We have to have at least one conversation in character.)  "I'm Tony.  I'm wearing Spiderman's mask and I'm borrowing Captain America's shield.  [Pause.]  For a lot of, lot of days."  Ploblem solved.

Photos from Carrie

Grandma, Aunt Carrie, and Taylor Visit

Yay! Our Wisconsin peeps came this weekend for a fast and furious visit to the Big Apple. Because our apartment is too small to host overnight guests, they rented a nearby apartment so they had room to spread out and be comfortable. And the place was very cool! (If you love all things real estate you can check out the pics if you want: http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p909357.) it was a great spot for us to gather in the evenings while Sasha and Taylor mind-melded. Yes, it's true, they got along so well it was actually freaky. They played school, superheroes, and most often, tackle football/wrestling and we intervened maybe twice from Thursday to Sunday. Truly amazing.

On Friday, we went to the American Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaurs (http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/wld/). Very cool science! Most of the exhibits and information were way over the heads of the little ones, but I enjoyed it. And apparently, Sasha loved it, too, since he asked over and over again all weekend to go see the Really! Big! Dinosaurs! We may have to purchase a membership since his age is no deterrent to loving the science museum. Taylor was enthralled by the large North American mammals exhibit, with bears, wolves, coyotes, bison and deer. Did I mention bears? I also wanted to see the blue whale that hangs from the ceiling, but it was closed when we went to see it. Not that it mattered: Sasha was more excited about telling everyone that it was closed and showing us the rope than seeing the whale itself.

 On Saturday, the plan was shopping, with a final stop at FAO Schwartz. Wow. Now I know why it has such an outsized reputation. Because everything about that place is outsized! Totally overwhelming, but in a good way. We found lots of fun things and Carrie bought a huge bag of goodies for all the kids, including lonely Beckett who spent the weekend at home with Daddy, carrying a picture of Taylor around the house, asking, "Tay tay? Tay tay?" And of course every one of us bought an overpriced bag of nostalgia candy from the sweet shop.

The high point for Sasha, however, cannot be overstated. He got to meet a real, live Spiderman and Iron Man. And have his picture taken with them! And give them high-fives! In all the time he has been alive, I have never seen him like that. Like in the cartoons where he has stars in his eyes and a dreamy, this-can't-be-real cloud around his brain. He could not even speak. Seriously. He was napping when we got to the store, so we all anxiously waited for him to wake up so we could see his reaction to meeting real superheroes. We took him to the photo-taking area to meet them and he just stood in awe until it was his turn. Finally, he got to walk up to them and shake hands and pose with them. He did whatever they told him to because I think his brain had shut down due to overstimulation. He even did the "big muscles" pose with the two of them which was SO CUTE. After the photos, he zombie-walked away until Iron Man asked for a high-five goodbye. Then he gave them both high fives and we walked away. Shortly after, he tried on a Captain America mask and shield, then looked over to the superhoeroes, and dreamily told me and Nerdy, "I'm Captain America. I want to show them." We didn't really know what to do about this request, but thankfully Iron Man saw Sasha from across the room and waved at him as if to say, I see you Captain America, fellow Avenger, and you are awesome, too." Fortunately, that was satisfying enough for the Bub. Then we ran into the REAL Captain America downstairs and Sasha waved and shouted, "Hi Captain America! Hi Captain America!" but to no avail because CA was distracted by another mission. The only reason we were able to leave the store without tears is because the superheroes were on lunch break as we left. Phew.  And the huge lollipop helped, I'm sure.

Taylor was a great "cuzi" watching out for Sasha and making sure he received a satisfactory amount of superhero supplies from Aunt Carrie. Of course, the good-naturedness may have been due in part because her lip gloss addiction was well-fed for the entire playing, shopping, train-riding extravaganza. I think she put on one bottle's worth of lip gloss per day. One has to keep up one's glamorous appearance for a trip to the Big Apple! Special kudos to Tay for being a easy travel companion, a good sport about all the New Nork busy-ness and for being a responsible older cuzi.

Since I took almost none of my own, I will post photos whenever I get some from Carrie.

My Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades

Twinklin' Stahs? Fuggedaboutit

School, Week 2

Since my last post, we've had some more rough mornings at school.  Thursday and Friday mornings were clinging, tear-filled, forcible goodbyes.  So we feared what would happen this morning after a weekend filled with lots of family time.  We started out on a good note. Sasha got dressed without a fight and said a happy goodbye to me on his way out the door.  After donning his cape, of course.

And then, on to school.  One block from school, he asked Mama to carry him.  This was not a good sign.  In fact, while doing some internet research on how to help preschoolers adjust, I found one person who suggested not carrying them to school because it makes the parting even harder and undermines the "big  boy" aspect of going to school.  I don't find that convincing. Nonetheless, when Sasha asks to be carried, it's usually because he's tired or needs some love; neither of those reasons are going to help ease the transition.

Mama agreed to carry him and when they arrived, Sasha said good morning to his teachers (an improvement) and walked in by himself.  Nerdy said he hesitated in the entryway for a minute, as though deciding whether or not this was going to be okay with him. Ultimately he chose to agree: he gave Mama a kiss and hug goodbye, and she was out the door within 5 minutes, leaving a happy Bub in her wake.

Happy to Report

Yesterday's trip to school was slightly better than Monday.  He started putting up a real fight once it came time for the shoes to go on and the screaming didn't last long.  By the time we were in the elevator on the way out of our building, he had settled into a steady cry.  Once again, agonizing for everyone, although I'll admit to being slightly amused by the huge yawns interspersed with the tears.  He slept a terrible night, refusing to go to sleep until late in the evening, waking up crying in the middle of the night, then again before the crack of dawn-- up for the day at 5:30.

When we arrived at school, Teacher Tiffany met him at the door and tried to take his hand down the stairs into the schoolroom.  He refused, and wouldn't say hi, though a smile cracked.  Once inside the door, he ran off to go play with his friend Margot on the floor while Nerdy and I were reassured by the teachers that he was fine the previous day once he calmed down.  Apparently, he didn't calm down very easily, which as most of you know, is highly unusual for him and further broke my heart.  Then he was all smiles and gave me and Nerdy big hugs and kisses and a cheery "Goodbye!"

Here I have to commend the teacher who dealt with him: she held him, took him into the bathroom and washed his face with a warm cloth, then when he remained unhappy, she asked him if it would help if she drew a picture of his family. He said yes and she drew a little stick-figure drawing of a little Sasha with a mama close on either side.  He helped draw the sun and other background flourishes. (Maybe.  That's what the teacher told me, but when I asked Sasha if he drew that, he said, "No. Some other kid did.")  Then (apparently*) he asked that it be put on the wall.  It had pride of place as the only thing tacked to the corkboard when I arrived in the afternoon.

*I say "apparently" because I am just now realizing that I will never have a real idea about what goes on at school.  I only get to speak with the teachers for a few minutes every day and Sasha is a brick wall of silence about anything related to school.  When asked-- about snacks, naptime, activities, teachers, friends, etc.-- he only says, "Let's talk about that later."  Like a mantra, "Let's talk about that later."  Finally, Nerdy tried cornering him into an answer, "When's later? At dinner? or tomorrow?" And what does the stinker answer? "Umm... Saturday."  He doesn't even know what that means, but apparently he knows that it's a long enough time into the future that by then we'll forget what it was that we wanted to know.

So when I picked him up in the afternoon, I got one of those heart-melting hugs when he saw me, jumped up, and ran across the room into my arms, yelling "Mamu!"  And the teachers said he was perfectly happy all day.

And this morning, no crying! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!  Well, a few tears over the choice of t-shirt, but he walked all the way to school with Mama and a smile, and when he walked in, his new friend Mia ran up to give him a hug and he gave her one right back.

Sorry to Report

Today was not a good day for Sasha on his first full day of school.  He was perfectly fine while getting him dressed this morning, but when it came time to put on his shoes, "No."  Would he like to wear his green shoes or his sandals?  "I'm not going to choose because I'm not going to school." But school was fun last week!  "I don't want to go to school, I want to stay home and play with my toys and with you."

Uh oh.  We expected resistance, but not today, not before he's even experienced a full day there.  I had to carry him out of the apartment while he cried and clung furiously to the doorknob. He proceeded to cry all the way to school (5 blocks) and into the building.  Even seeing all the kids who were there having fun didn't matter.  The teachers tried cajoling him into staying.  I showed him the sandbox (with dinosaurs!) they had set up and he paused through the tears, but when I tried putting him down to play with it, forget it, he wasn't that interested after all.

Finally, Nerdy and I just said goodbye and handed him over to a teacher. The agony.  I believe tears were shed all around.

After I picked him up and we arrived home, I told him how proud I was that he stayed at school and had a good time (according to his teachers) even though he was crying in the morning.  He said, "Well, even though I was good today, I don't want to go to school tomorrow." Then we had some good playing-on-the-floor time with cars and little people which unfortunately ended with 15 minutes of bashing my guy with each of his superheroes and Toy Story people in turn.  If you aren't familiar with his collection, that's a lot of bashing. And before bed, he reminded both of us again that he definitely does not want to go to school tomorrow.

So now I go to bed with dread in my heart.

School Post Script

School is hard work!

First Day of Preschool

Sasha's first day of school was Wednesday!  It was only for 90 minutes and both Moms were there, so not a big deal, but he got to meet the teachers and the other kids.  He was surprisingly shy around the teachers and didn't pay much attention to the kids.  But Thursday, Day 2 (another 90 minutes with parents), he got friendly with the kids and paid no mind to Mama.

Today is his first big day going alone.  We're very excited to see how it goes, and so far we haven't got a phone call.  Today is only a half-day and I'm sure he'll be happy as a clam.  I am worried about next week, though, when he faces the shock of full days away from home, that this isn't a one-time special event. I know I'll be feeling the pain. I just hope is very social nature will carry the day and he'll decide that being around other kids all day is way better than hanging out with Mamu.  Maybe some kid will be just as eager as Sasha to play superheroes all day long.

First day of school pic!

 

Sesame Place Weekend

We've known since April that Sasha would be starting school this week.  And because we figured it will be a difficult adjustment, we decided to do something special for him on Labor Day weekend. We were the best parents ever: we took him to a theme park.  Sesame Place, to be specific, located just outside of Trenton, New Jersey.

Sasha had an absolute blast.  The place is basically a water park with lots of water slides, pools, and things that squirt water. They must hold the world record for The Most Inventive Ways to Get People Wet.  Sprinkling flowers, water wheels, gurgling fountains, buckets that dump water on you, intentionally leaky hoses, even a giant squirting rubber ducky.  Here's the Bub waiting for his turn down the slide with Mama. (I didn't think a life vest could be so cute.)  He didn't seem to mind at all the hour-long wait for the 9-second ride.  In fact, he wanted to immediately wait in another incredibly long line to go on a different slide, but we persuaded him to try something without a line.

 

He was also excited to see Elmo and Murray in person.  And he desperately wanted to go in the fake Sesame Street buildings facade, though ultimately he settled for getting Big Bird's mail.

 

We spent much of the second day in the toddler pools.  Amazing how much fun one foot of water can be.  Sasha loved to show off his "swimming," pulling himself around by his arms while his legs floated.  Around and around a sprinkling archway, he pretended to be Iron Man, then a mermaid, then we were all a mermaid family.  The two bigger mermaids preferred to sit on the edge of the pool, but that was fine with Sasha as long as we continued to be impressed by his amazing swimming abilities.

Of course, we made a couple of rookie mistakes. Like FORGETTING TO TAKE THE STROLLER. Major oversight.  Also, we foolishly thought Sasha would sleep well after his days playing in the water and sun.  Wrong.  He partied like a rock star at the hotel, staying up late and getting up early.

The trip was pretty much exactly what we hoped for.  A theme park bonanza followed by an extra day spent in the hotel pool, where Sasha spent many hours being held above water by one of us or by a little white buoy. He shed tears in the car when he realized that we were going home to Brooklyn and not back to Sesame Place-- or the hotel.  Sad, yes, but evidence that he had tons of fun.

Fashions by Maureen

I've been wanting to blog this for a long time now, and finally here it is.  I must brag about the talent to which I'm so closely related.  Sasha's Great Aunt Maureen is one of the world's unsung artists.  She is a woman of many talents, one of which is fashion design.  Witness: the extended wardrobe dreamed up and created by her for Sasha.  (For Taylor, too, though I don't have photographic evidence.)

We've received at least 2 boxes in the mail of beautiful, handmade clothing, of superb quality and custom fit for the Bub.  I have waited this long to post so that he could model them all.  He's had to grow a few inches and waited for seasons to change, but now he has officially fit into everything.  Here are some samples.

Note to Maureen: Thank you for the gifts of time and talent.  As you can see, they've been wonderful gifts for the parents and the boy.  Now... when are you opening your own shop?

Faux sheepskin jacket and elf hat (with matching mittens).

Shorts, and oh yes, the hat.  Outrageously adorable.  There's a coat to match, but alas I couldn't find a decent pic.

Yellow button-up: a lively pattern for a lively boy.  The monogrammed hat again.

Stuffing interesting things in the pockets of his froggy vest.

Sporting shorts in Hong Kong.

Shorts for spring

and summer.

Silk shirt, unparalleled fashion.

Karate pajamas!

Not really!
(Taylor has a matching set.)

Superman replaces his red tights with Fashions by Maureen.