Christmas!

Ah the fun of Christmas with a child who (kinda) gets it.  We were dreaming of a white Christmas, and as you can see, we got it.  Erica even got an early present of her own little snow shovel.  Sadly, she would still rather use her hands to move snow from the ground to her mouth than use a shovel to move snow anywhere.

Our little girl on Christmas Eve morning enjoying the snow.

Mommy convinced daddy to take Christmas Eve off, so we all enjoyed a snow day.  Here Erica tackles her daddy while he makes a pin-head snow angel. 

Every year we spend Christmas Eve with (G+G)L and family.  Here is Erica showing of her crayon apron that Grandma Mimi got her and her hat and mittens from Grandma Donna. 

With apron, hat, and cat in tow Erica is ready for anything!

Here you can see what Santa Claus left for Erica under the tree.  Santa was so smart and wrapped all of Erica's presents in boxes that just had lift off tops.  That was good, because otherwise we'd still be waiting for Erica to open all her presents. 

Here is Erica on Christmas morning, opening presents from Mommy and Daddy.  Really, this was one of the few times I wished I was one of those people who recorded every moment of their child's life with a video camera.  Every time Erica opened a box, she'd say "Oooo" and sometimes she'd say "Oooo, wow!"  It was so adorable.  Even her lame box of clothes got an "Oooh, wow!"  Of course by the time we thought to record it with our camera video recorder, she was out of boxes.  She did not go "Oooo, wow" with presents she had to unwrap.   (Note, this does not mean under any circumstances that we want a video recorder.)

Christmas afternoon was spent at (G&G)I's house.  Here is Erica in her holiday outfit from Grandma Dyanna.  (Sorry, it's not the best picture of my mom.  My mom and I are notoriously non-photogenic)  You do get the whole glory of Erica's puffy coat and pink shoes though!  The dress was an adorable knit polka dot number. 

Erica's adorable outfit didn't last long.  As you can see from one of the few family pictures my family has taken, Erica is now in a comfy blue sweatsuit, and not sitting in the spot reserved for her.  Also, note the scary green glowy eyed cat.  It was a fun and exhausting Christmas!

Oh, but maybe even better than Christmas was Boxing Day.  Erica got to go sledding for the first time and had a BLAST!  Her friend got two sleds for Christmas and the weather was just perfect for some runs down the hill.  Both girls had a great time, and so did their parents. 

Thus ends another year of the holidays.  I must say, our family was ready to stop, take a breath and get back to normal!

Pre-Christmas Celebrations

We had a wild and crazy December this year.  It seemed like every week we had a different holiday celebration to attend.  Here are some of the highlights.

Daddy and Erica after the lights had been lit in downtown Littleton.  We stood on the side of Littleton Boulevard with Erica on my shoulders or Nate's shoulders and watched the street light up.  When I was in high school and in choir (yes, I know DORK) we used to go down and sing the day after Thanksgiving.  Now I am hoping it can be a tradition for our family.  Santa drives down the street and at each block trees are lit up with white lights.  It is so pretty.  This year when Santa drove by Erica was not interested in seeing him.  The enchantment of Santa from far away and the horror of close up Santa were common themes in our Christmas celebration. 

Here is Erica after my work Christmas celebration for families.  My old boss invites everyone and their families to the office.  We all decorate our doors and cubicles and have a big party.  Then, Santa Claus comes and gives every kid (all 60ish of them this year) a gift.  It's crazy and so much fun.  Erica here is proudly wearing her name badge from the evening.  She got a singing teapot from Santa, which she loves.  She did not love Santa.  Mommy had to go with her to get the present, and there was no time for a photo op.  Mommy hated Santa too when she was a kid, so I really can't blame her. 

Okay, these shots are not Christmas related, other than the fact that they happened in December.  Erica is in love with our cats, and here she is hugging Neko.  Neko will put up with her for longer and longer every time the love fest occurs.  Note that Neko's ears show that she really isn't that happy about this hug.

Oh yeah, Erica loves Neko and, well, Neko tolerates Erica.  I love the look on my smashed cat's face.  Neko runs away and Erica will sit there and scream "Neko, COME".  Someday she'll learn that we don't have a dog, and you can shout "COME" forever, and the cat will only come if he/she wants to. 

An impromptu family shot at some local holiday lights.  We tried to get out and see the sights this holiday season, even though it was really cold most of December.  We are a pretty cute, colorful family. 

Here is Erica at her daycare Christmas party.  She is staring intently at, who else, Santa Claus.  Santa was fascinating and wonderful from this distance, probably 25 feet, but any closer and he got really scary.  Erica developed an amazing Christmas vocabulary this season.  She could say "snowMAN" (accent on the wrong syllable), "present," "Christmas tree," "lights on," and "candle" to name a few.    

Speaking of candles, here is Erica one of the nights we lit the Hanukkah candles.  She would sit in my arms every night (except the one we got home late when we skipped the ritual) and watch as Nate lit the candles.  It was a nice peaceful ritual away from the hub-bub.

Right before Christmas Erica, Daddy and Mommy went to the Denver Children's Museum and she loved it.  (Don't you love it when the perfect Christmas card picture happens too late?)  We got a gift certificate last Christmas from one of Nate's friends and it took us a whole year to use it.  I want to kick myself, because there is a little kids area that Erica would have loved as soon as she could crawl.  Ah well, the family had a great time.

This picture is here because Erica is dressing up in one of her Christmas presents from last year.  Remember this picture from last Christmas eve?   Scroll down to the third picture.  Gives you a perspective of what a difference a year makes!  Nate's cousin Sara gave Erica this hat last year, and now she puts it on herself when she's playing dress up.  

It was an exhausting, fun, overwhelming Christmas season.  Next year I'll have to do a better job of not doing everything, but doing the things that we really enjoy as a family.  It was fun watching Erica understand the season and find joy in friends, family, far away Santa Claus, and candles.  Next year should be so much fun!  She's already singing Christmas carols (the "town" in Santa Claus is Coming to Town and "Frosty Snowman" in Frosty the Snowman.)  By next year, she'll probably drive us crazy singing.  We can't wait!

18 months and Thanksgiving

Oh, how I love you word clouds.  I made a word cloud in honor of the first 18 months of Little Levene (the kid, not the blog).  I find it fascinating that Erica's name is the most popular word in the blog, followed by "get".  In case you are unfamiliar with word clouds, check out Wordle.  Then you can make your own word clouds!

Erica helped mommy and daddy rake leaves in November, and here are some shots of us playing more and raking less.  Erica with Daddy.

 

Erica tackling mommy. "Tackle" is one of our favorite family games.

 

Erica did try to help a little.  Unfortunately, this bucket was filled with wet leaves and water.  Messy!

 

Thank goodness for self timers.  Here's a cute impromptu family shot. Unshowered and sweaty, we make for a happy looking family. We were having fun in the leaves that day!

 

Here's mama and Erica on Thanksgiving morning.  I headed out to run the Turkey Trot this year, and Erica and daddy went to Wash Park to play while mommy ran.  Taking the jogging stroller out for that race just isn't realistic: it is too crazy!  There is no better way to start a day where we eat two consecutive Thanksgiving meals than with a 4 mile run.

 

Thanksgiving #1 was at Great Aunt Dee Dee's house, and it was a beautiful day.  We got to go out and play in the back yard.  Here's Erica gazing up at Gramma with Dee Dee's beautiful yard in the background.

Here is Erica and Gramma on Dee Dee's back porch.

 

After having Thanksgiving dinner #1, we headed to Thanksgiving dinner #2.  Here's a picture of Erica with Grandpa after eating.  They were "rocky, rocky"-ing away the calories.  Erica and Grandpa love going "rocky, rocky" in their chairs together!

Next blog...the holiday season!

Whoa, really late on Halloween

Well, it's amazing how time flies when the holidays are happening and you have a 1.5 year old.  Here it is, 2010 already and I still haven't posted Halloween, Erica turning 18 months, Thanksgiving or Christmas pictures.  I had many times this year where I thought of my mom with two young kids and thinking "how in the heck did she EVER make the holidays happen with two little kids?"  She had no internet to help with shopping, no digital camera to try and get good Christmas card shots, and no lunch hour to run to the mall/grocery store/post office sans kiddos.  Amazing.

Without further ado, here are the pictures of our Halloween this year!

Erica at her Halloween parade at daycare this year.  I was so proud of her.  Other kids saw their parents and jumped out of the parade and went running.  Erica was a trooper, held onto her ring, stayed in line, and shot us a look that says "Oh mom and dad, someday you will pay for this indignity."  I'm starting to have an enjoyable set of daycare Halloween photos.  Remember last year when she hated Skittles?

 

Erica went to her daddy's office to trick or treat (I don't know where those pictures ended up) and then came home to get ready to go out for real trick or treating.  She did some enhancements of her costume with several of mommy's tank tops and t-shirts before we went. 

 

The first time the entire family has dressed up together.  Meet the hippie family, or the 70s family, or Red, Kitty and little Laurie.  Whatever.  Nate's costume was a wig, drawn on sideburns, an actual shirt of my dad's and a nice floral belt I made him.  My costume was a thrift store shirt, jeans I split the leg seams on and put in floral flares (which matched Nate's belt) and Birkenstocks.  Erica's outfit?  That's the best one.  Her pants were my pants when I was her age 34 years ago.  I sewed on the yellow ruffle on the bottom to make them long enough.  Her nanna bought her the poncho (when she was still little tiny) and I made her the rick-rack headband.  A little red t-shirt completed the look, because that's what my mom said I used to wear with those pants.  Yep, those orange, yellow and green plaid pants had two generations worth of wear.

It took no time for Erica to get the hang of trick or treating.  She was a little shy the first two houses, but once she realized what was IN her little orange pumpkin the routine was as follows.  Erica gets out of the wagon, and we usually have to put her too big shoes on again.  She walks up to the house with great determination and when her turn comes she says "Trick or Treat", understandable only to momma and daddy.  She then says "Dee doo", for "Thank you" and turns around saying "wagon, wagon, wagon." We get her back in the wagon and she proceeds to pull her candy out of her bucket and start eating it, wrapper and all.  By the time we get to the next house, she's demolished the candy she got at the last house enough that she's ready to go again.  It was such a fun night!  

 

The flotsam and jetsam of trick or treating.  (Yeah, we didn't always get her shoe on before she headed up to trick or treat.)

Here you can see the pure joy and candy coated teeth involved in the trick or treating process.

 With the fun of Halloween behind her, Erica can focus more on dressing up the pure joy of it.

Happy New Years!

Snow!

So before we get to Halloween, yes I know I've been dragging this out for weeks now, I have SNOW DAY  pictures!  Nate was out of town during the days work and daycare were closed, so I had a whole lot of time to take pictures. 

Here is Erica, getting ready to go outside and help me shovel.  Note I managed to get the dreaded boots on her little feet.  I think she was as sick of being in the house as I was. 


Oh yeah, Erica's managed to figure out the toddler smile.  Can you believe how much snow we had? 


Here's the closeup of the toddler smile. We've got years now to enjoy this.  I've seen 3 year olds who still do this. 


Oh yeah, snow still tastes good, even if there is a foot and a half of it. 


Erica loved walking up and down the shoveled driveway, sticking her hands in the snow as she walked along. 


Right before we came inside, Erica decided she was going to help mama shovel.  Mental note, need to put a toy snow shovel on her Christmas list. 


Erica's favorite new toy: the stool!  I made cookies one of the snow days, and brought the stool up to the counter so she could help me make cookies.  Now she drags the stool all over the house.  I've vastly changed the "babyproofing" landscape with this.  Look how happy she is though?  And she's so cute as she says "stool, stool, stool" dragging her new found height around the house.  


Thankfully grandma and grandpa made it over the second snow day.  Erica and I were running out of things to do to entertain each other.  Grandpa showed up and they put numbers on their heads....


While grandma and mama made a Halloween gingerbread house!  It was a fun couple of hours that kept everyone sane.  


Here's a closeup of the back of the gingerbread house.  Mom and I made the spider out of junior mints and toothpicks.  We are SO talented!


Do you believe that Halloween pictures are next???

Still more pre-halloween pictures

So it turns out, I have more pre-Halloween pictures before we get to the actual Halloween pictures! First off, we have Erica at a birthday party with ponies! Oh yes, daddy took her to this party. He is such a good daddy!


First off, Erica gets to eat cheetos, hotdogs and olives (oh, wait, those are grapes) with a fancy hat on! Fun fun!


Then, Erica gets to brush her hair....with the pony's brush. (Horse-head got a bath that night.)


Erica touched the pony, but she didn't want to ride the pony. No surprise there. If Erica had 3-4 hours to get to know the pony, watch all the other kids ride the pony, and be sure the pony was going to be a safe and fun experience, she probably would have done it. However, there wasn't that much time, so she opted out.


The next day, on Daddy's birthday, Erica and her friend went to the pumpkin festival at Chatfield. Here they are checking out the wagon that hauled them around. I think this picture is adorable. Can you tell these are the kids of 4 engineers? I can just hear their little brains: "You know, this would be a much smoother ride with some shocks. I think I can get that screw out and get these sides off so we can get out and get to work!"


Erica was forced by mommy to ride in this odd "barrels drug around by a tractor" ride. Miracle #1 was that I fit in that barrel. Miracle #2 was that Erica didn't have a breakdown during the ride.


Here Erica is trying to get the first pumpkin she saw. We didn't end up getting the half ripe pumpkin, as much of an effort as she gave here.


As you can see, Erica's first choice was much nicer than some of the other unripe half frozen rotting options. Lovely pumpkins...


Erica used the wagon full of pumpkins to teach herself lessons of inertia. She'd get the wagon going and get all excited and stop to admire her handiwork. Then she'd go to start pulling again and couldn't get the wagon going. Here she decides that standing up is her problem, and she'll get the thing moving if she sits. The pumpkin festival was great fun! Erica left saying "Alpaca, alpaca!" in honor of the adorable fuzzy yarn sources at the fair.


Erica with daddy on his birthday! Happy birthday daddy!


Erica with mommy before the Scream Scram race this year. Two Halloweens with Erica, two Scream Scram races. Remember last year? I think we have a tradition. A very annoyed teenager took this shot for me. She was quite put out that I bothered her, but at least I got a picture of us other than the dark finish shot the official race photographers got.

So I think there is one more pre-Halloween set of pictures (snow days!). Hang in there!