The Santa Picture!

Last year, Santa got a hi-five, this year, it was a race to see if he could get there faster than lightening. Ché was very excited to hand Santa his letter, and tell him that he wanted "toys and trucks, and cars too!"

We then had to explain that Santa doesn't give you those things right then! haha!

Pictures

I was looking for something else when I ran across these pictures. I had to post them even though they were taken at Christmas time, and it is now almost March.


The 1st time Ché and Nadja ever met was Jan. of 2007. He was not walking so of course was of no interest to Nadja. I mean, how can you play with a kid that doesn't walk. (BTW, she had just turned 2 that previous Nov.) They had met since then, and became closer friends due to mobility. Apparently after a few meetings Nadja would ask when cousin Ché was going to play again. We live about 3 hours apart, so a day time trip just isn't the most doable with toddlers.
This Christmas I think both kids were excited to see each other again. These were taken at Ché's Aunt Sharon's house. Aunt Sharon is Nadja's grandma. Clearly Nadja and Ché just can't stand one another.

So this was the attempt at getting both kids to look at the same camera and smile. At least they're both looking...

After the attempted photo shoot this happened:

Ché is fascinated with babies, and Romana was not missed. He played with her, entertained her while she sat captive in the exersaucer, and generally just stared at her, when he wasn't chasing or being chased by Nadja.

Good Times. We can't wait to see them again soon!

On the 5th Christmas Visit...

We have returned from our 5th Christmas.
We packed up the car and set out for the long journey to Roselle, Illinois.

As many of you are aware, a trip to Illinois to visit Mike's relatives never goes by with a trip to here:
Who can resist stylish Swedish design at an affordable price? We ended up buying quite a few things which include new dishes (rectangle... how cool is that?), a trash can for the car, and cool adjustable lamp, and some other small things, but the highlight of the IKEA shopping trip was:


Yes, it's a pillbug, and yes, it's mouth unzips to store all those cool toddler things.
On the better side though, we got to visit Ché's very cool cousin's, Nadja and Romana. As far as girls go they are the coolest.

The toddlers, Ché coming in at 2 years, and Nadja coming in at 3 years had their warming up period where both hid behind prospective parents legs, but 5 minutes later you thought they'd known each other their whole lives.
Some memorable quotes from the evening include:

1.)
Ché: gibber jabber garbaldygook
Nadja: What?

2.)
Nadja eating a piece of pizza, Ché comes up and stares at her while she is sitting so nicely at the table
Nadja: Mom why is this kid staring at me?
Said kid (Ché) walks away...
Nadja: Hey little man where are you going?

3.)
Two toddlers playing with one train (We all know this ends badly, right?) and they both want the engine, even though there are 6 cars, and Ché lightly hit Nadja because of frustration, and greediness...
Nadja: Hey (to anyone that would listen) Ché hit me in the face!

We only wish we lived closer!


Now, on to those pictures that I promised:


This is Ché helping to decorate our BEARS Tree. Everyone has a tree with orange and blue lights right?


Daddy and Ché playing in the snow. Who'd thought he'd love snow so much. Getting the boots on is a lot harder than I remember from being a child


Another snow picture:

Perhaps the most shocking to us this Christmas, is that we've been home as a family for a year.
We've come a long way together:

2006

2007

We can still wear the same sweater (It's a 12 month and fits better this year at 25 months of age than it did at 13 months), but boy can a lot change in a year. 2007 definitely has had it's ups and downs, but it really has been a great year for our little family.

I hope you all have a great New Year!

Another Christmas

We celebrated another Christmas today. For those of us keeping track we have had 4 so far. My big family, my immediate family, just the three of us, and my husbands immediate family. We are scheduled to be traveling to Chicago for another Christmas tomorrow.

What have been the highlights...

1.) Watching C figure out what presents are and then asking for "Moar" (more).

2.) Seeing that the simplest gift can really excite a two year old

3.) Knowing that we have many, many more Christmas' together.

4.) Being together with our families


What are the highlights according to C?

This:

Yes. It's FLOAM. A a micro-beaded modeling clay. (Ours is the offbrand, but you know, save where you can.) Let me tell you this is like Baby Tactile Crack. Our 2 year old who just two days prior was asking for "moar" presents, stopped dead, demanded the package be opened, and played with on small section of Floam for the remainder of our time together. (About 30 minutes) No persuading, no tricking, could stop this kid from playing with the Floam. I'm not joking. We rolled it into balls, shaped it into bricks, broke it apart, smooshed it together, you name it, we did it to the Floam. And, the plus side: It isn't messy. Not sticky, doesn't stick to your carpet, or get under your fingernails.

It's amazing. If you have a little kid, go get some. If you are short on cash, go here:

http://www.beyondsatire.us/?q=node/82

Then you can make your own. It doesn't look too hard, and older kids might actually like to make it as a fun project for a too cold, too wet day.

Have fun, and good luck keeping the beads from getting everywhere.

Change of Venue

Well, Surviving just hasn't done what I thought. Things really didn't pan out the way that we all thought with Dad's cancer. He got good news right before Christmas that his tumor isn't growing and that he can be on the chemo drugs for a really long time. So it's good news and I guess I don't feel the need to vent and go on about it now.

So I thought that Surviving needs to change from "Surviving" cancer, to "Surviving" motherhood and life with a toddler.

Some of you know that we have a 2 year old son. He was adopted from Guatemala (More some other time, because that was an experience!) and having an instant toddler in the house definately makes for interesting times.

Of course the big thing right now is Christmas and presents! In a day or two I'll post some pictures, but they aren't here at work... ahem, where I'm blogging, heh.

Our son really had a great time with Christmas this year, from making cookies, to opening gifts, to eating cookies, to trying to opening other people's gifts.

I'm really hoping that things will pick up now with the blog that it isn't a depressing topic. I'll still update about Dad, just don't want it to be the whole focus.

Stay tuned for more photos!