3rd birthday!

We woke up to (well, actually, were woken up by) a very excited three-year-old! He was up at 5:30 am as usual and raring to go. We finished most of the last items on our party to-do list and then went out to breakfast, where, as Sacha said, he ate about his weight in bacon. Mmmm, bacon.

Then we got home and had his party, and was it ever a party! Lots of friends and fun and only a few meltdowns were had by the birthday boy. Above is a photo of everyone's shoes, which I had to photograph. And, the cake stayed standing and it looked pretty cool, if I do say so myself. Here are some photos:





Happy 3rd birthday, Mateo!

Cake

So, this cake is going to be more like a Cake with a capital C. I just finished frosting it, and I believe it must weigh 10 pounds. I actually considered putting it on the scale, but I would have ended up waking the kids in the process of getting to the bathroom, so I guesstimated. I believe the appropriate phrase to describe this thing is "bastion of frosting." Will anyone be able to eat an entire slice? Will the whole thing slide apart as the layers unfreeze? Only time will tell.

Here it is, midway through the frosting process....


And, the final version. It's chilling in the fridge right now and I'll write on it and such tomorrow morning. That is, if it's still standing.


Finally, I have to post this picture of Sacha and Natalia. I love my girls!

Let the festivities begin

So. A few things. Mateo is turning 3 on Saturday. This is so oversaid that I can barely stand to say it, but we just cannot believe he is almost three. For his preschool, we were supposed to make a poster with photos of him at each year since birth. I dutifully did this (see below) and now I REALLY can't believe he's almost three. He was just so little before, and now he's so big! He can see over the windowsill in our front room, for goodness sake.


And, I have started making the cake for his party. I'm making this cake. It is everything I would never normally bake - a cake from a mix! With food coloring! But, it is too much fun and even though I have guilt about making a cake from a box, I am still making it. My mom has always made us birthday cakes from scratch and I actually don't think I have ever made a mix cake before...but there's a first time for everything! I did the first three layers last night and then the second three this morning with the kids. They both thoroughly enjoyed watching the food coloring get added to the batter.




I froze all the layers and am planning to frost them all into a cake (which hopefully will stand up straight and not topple under its own weight!) on Friday night.

Finally, Apa came over tonight to take Mateo out for an early birthday dinner. Mateo wanted to get all dressed up for it and we all made a big deal out of it. I took this photo of them as they were leaving. It was just so cute, I can't even describe it. When they got back, they had made up a song about the dessert they had had (a lemon pudding cake with strawberries and cream - yum). Apa has taken Mateo out for every birthday and it's becoming a great tradition! Look at those handsome boys...

Le weekend

Here are some photos from our weekend. Sacha's parents came down to visit and we had fun going to the park and carving pumpkins, among other things. And, of course, after I wrote that last post, Mateo had a weekend of pretty good behavior, which was a nice reprieve.

I took a bunch of the later photos without the flash because it was washing everything out...but then, of course, the photos were less clear. Win some, lose some, eh?

Opening early birthday presents from Bubby and Poppa!


Boys carving pumpkins...



Drawing on newspaper, and on himself.


I love this one. She's leaning against the door like, hey, what's up?


Brother and sister, laughing.


This kid loves being upside down. Seriously.


The one-armed strongman move that Mateo is now almost too big for. You can't see it from this angle, but he has his arm straight out. Wish I could do that!

Awww....


Cracking up over a shopping bag:


Hot mama (well, mommy) grading papers:

A serious case of the almost-threes

Well. We have been having an interesting time with our older child lately. Despite being sure that we, unlike anyone else we know, would be immune to the child-starts-preschool/daycare-and-becomes-more-aggressive syndrome, Mateo, indeed, has started preschool and become more aggressive. Or something. It's probably a combination of starting preschool, picking up the tension relating to the unbloggable thing, plus picking up on the stress Sacha's been dealing with at school, plus being almost three, plus the cat suddenly dying over the weekend...but wow, he is a handful lately.

He's been throwing things, hitting us, shoving his friends, running away from us outside and inside, and generally testing limits all over the place. Unfortunately, social events like playdates seem to unleash the worst behavior - he doesn't want to see his friends, doesn't want them to come over to our house or us to go to theirs, doesn't want to share with them when he does see them, and will reliably hit/kick/knock them down the minute I turn my back.

I know this is a phase, but it's not much fun for anyone. We've been trying to give him more positive attention, reassurance, and cuddles, as well as being consistent with consequences for negative behavior. We also spend a nice long time at naptime and bedtime snuggling him and helping him wind down. I'm going to try just having him stay with me (ie, attached to my body) at the beginning of playdates, until he gets comfortable, which did help a little today.

Sacha and I were talking last night about how these periodic difficult episodes (with behavior and sleep, mostly) usually last a month or two and then taper off into something better, so let's keep our fingers crossed that that is the case this time! This has been going on since early September, so we should start seeing improvement soon, right?

Buddies

We continue to swap older kids weekly with our friends down the street. By this point, Mateo and his friend, D, have been hanging out at one house or the other for going on two years! They are such buddies and it is a ton of fun to hang out with them. And, it's even more fun now that Talia is on the scene. She just trots along after them, like all little sisters throughout history, and they do a good job of playing with her, at least at this point.

This morning, we played at our house. The kids played upstairs while I got dinner going in the crockpot, and then we went downstairs and tore the basement to shreds. Good thing we have company coming this weekend - guess I'll have to clean it up!

Then, we went upstairs and got our rain clothes on and went on a puddle stomping adventure. We found a huuuuge puddle around the corner. It was right at the bottom of someone's sloped driveway and D, being nearly four years old and quite a big boy, taught our two how to jump off the driveway into the puddle and make a gigantic splash. This opened up a whole new world for Mateo and Natalia. Mateo could jump on his own and Talia seemed to enjoy having me lift her up and then splash her down into the water. We didn't stay for too long, as the little one gets cold pretty quickly (especially when she is soaking wet), but we had a blast.

We capped off the morning by opening up the care package my mom had just sent - full of cookies and brownies! Thanks, Mom! Yum.

Above is a photo of the two boys in their rain gear. They looked like this afterward, too, just drenched in water and mud from head to toe.

Photo shoot

Natalia woke up from her nap before her brother did today, so we had a little photo shoot in the sunshine. Seriously, could she be any cuter? We love our little Tali bear soooo much!

Lucy

Our kitty, Lucy, passed away last night. She was only two years old, but she had apparently reached the end of her time with us. We had just finished our Sunday dinner with Apa and said our goodbyes when he walked down our front steps and heard odd-sounding meowing in our garden.

It turned out to be Lucy, who had collapsed near the strawberry plants and was in bad shape. Thanks to Apa and our wonderful neighbor, who just happened to be outside, we got her onto a cookie sheet (our best approximation of a kitty stretcher) and rushed her to the emergency animal hospital across the river. It was one of those dramatic and scary moments where you wish you could call 911 for animals.

Unfortunately, she passed away in the car on the way to the hospital. The vet said that, because she didn't have a scratch on her, that there didn't seem to have been any trauma and that she probably had a heart condition that no one knew about. She had started off in life small and never grew very big, so maybe that had something to do with it.

Apa brought her home with him last night and today we buried her in our garden. It seemed appropriate, since she loved to be out there so much. We already miss her a lot. She was wonderful with the kids and had started sleeping on our bed every night, which we all liked. We started letting her go outside this summer and she really loved that. She had a very loud and unique meow that could be heard for miles (or at least it felt like that!). And she was a good kitty. We miss you, Lucy Kitty Cat.

And up again

Well, things are starting to look up again, as they usually do! The unbloggable thing has taken a turn for the better and we are breathing a guarded sigh of relief. Whew! And, we had a lovely weekend with Sacha's mom and on a trip to the pumpkin patch after she left. Somehow, we managed not to get any photos of her with the kids this time, but we did get some good shots of the kids themselves and some fun ones from the pumpkin patch. Here they are!

Here are the kids last week, getting ready to go out to the park. It was a little cold and I convinced Mateo to wear these baby leggings underneath his pants, but then couldn't get the pants on him for the longest time!


Here's our boy in his fancy new outfit for a wedding we're going to. He's very proud. Natalia has a fun new dress, too, and I need to get a photo of her in it!


Check out those fancy socks!



Here we are the pumpkin patch. Thanks to Katie for the picture! It could be our Christmas card picture, I think:


This is as good as it got for this one...:


Riding Patty the aluminum cow:


Obligatory pumpkin patch picture #1:


Obligatory pumpkin patch picture #2:


Mateo took this one! I did crop it by some, but he did an amazing job of aiming the camera:

Crazy

We have had a crazy week. After a smoothish start, Sacha had a rough week at school. And, our unbloggable situation continues to rear its ugly head, although things are starting to look up. Sorry to be so secretive - if anyone wants to know what I'm talking about, feel free to email me. Anyway, Sacha's mom came down to stay for a few days, to give Sacha some school and emotional support, and that has been wonderful. And, my parents have been invaluable in dealing with the unbloggable thing. We're looking forward to a nice weekend of family time and time with Bubby. Bubby and I are about to go out for a later-night bookstore trip, which should be fun! Wait, leaving the house after bedtime? At night? Driving in the dark? What is this thing you speak of?

Anyway, here are two quick videos of the munchkins, which I get a big kick out of. Hope you enjoy!

This one is from the day I took the kids to see the ducks. You can hear Natalia saying "quack" in the beginning and then Mateo running, running, running after the ducks.




And then this one is the precursor to the new photo I put up on the sidebar. The kids were playing with Auntie E and they were all just cracking up.

Ahhhh....

I love weekends! We haven't had a weekend at home with just the four of us in about a month. We're enjoying this one. Today we have no plans at all until this afternoon, when Apa comes over for our weekly Sunday dinner, so we've been having a nice family day.

Anyway, everyone's sleeping except for me and so I wanted to write quick post about our basement - a thrilling topic if ever there was one! Our basement is sort of partially finished - it's unfinished but we made an attempt to make it livable when Sacha's cousin lived with us a few years ago. It's fairly large and mostly heated, so we have space for an extra bed, lots of storage, and then some other space that is perfect for filling up with junk! We've been storing toys down there for quite awhile, and attempting to rotate them with the toys on our main level periodically. The kids both love the basement and Mateo especially likes to play down there, so that's where we headed this morning while Sacha worked on planning out her teaching week.

When we got down there, the kids were roaming around and I suddenly had this lightbulb moment - literally! I realized that the huge pile of toys was in the darkest, coldest, most uncarpeted part of the basement and that we had a more comfortable lighted area that could become a play place with just a little rearranging.

So, engaging our older child's help to ferry toys around, I moved a few things and voila! A well-lighted and carpeted play space emerged. It's not much to look at, but it is WAY better than before and the kids seem to love it. I basically just put all the toys in big bins around the edges of the carpet, so we can dump them back in when we're done each time. We all played down there for almost two hours this morning, so the kids must have liked it.

I'm hoping to mostly stay away from indoor playgrounds and such this winter, just because of all the viruses that will be going around, so having another option for inside play around the house will be great. Here are a couple of photos:

Funny

I took the kids to the dentist the other day. Natalia was mostly better and, in fact, is better still today. She's still stuffed up somewhat, but feeling almost all the way back to herself.

Anyway, we went to the dentist and it was a highly anticipated event. Since M's first visit 6 months ago, we have talked about the dentist and his hygienist nearly every day at brushing time. Marshall (dentist) and Katie (hygienist) are practically members of our family at this point, although unwitting ones. Thank goodness I thought to prepare Mateo that Katie might not be our hygienist this time, because, alas, there was a different woman there this time. Other than that brief road bump, the visit went very well. Mateo was goggle-eyed at the gear - sunglasses for his eyes, a bib for his chest, and an awesome chair that was like a movable bed. His teeth got a clean bill of health and he held still for the cleaning like a champ. Rock star!

On the spur of the moment after the appointment, they had space and so Talia also got her first cleaning. She had some staining on her teeth from her iron-rich vitamins and I wanted it off if possible. Let's just say that she's not as big a fan of the dentist as her brother is...yet! I'm sure our pro-dentist propaganda will rub off before too long, but it hasn't sunk in yet. She screamed bloody murder but did emerge with clean teeth. Let's hope next time goes better!

These next two things go in the kids-say-funny-things category:

1. I took Mateo to my grandma's house for dinner tonight. My sister is visiting and we all had a lovely time eating together (as well as spending time with Auntie E earlier in the day and yesterday). The way there takes us right past the hospital where Mateo was born. I pointed it out to him and we had the following little chat. It's not quite verbatim but pretty close:

Mama: Look Mateo, right over there is the hospital where you were born!
Mateo: Why did you have to go to the hospital when I was a baby?
Mama: Well, it's good to have a doctor nearby when you're delivering a baby.
Mateo: Oh! I didn't know babies got delivered like on a delivery truck!
Mama: (Trying not to laugh) Well, they don't! You know that babies come out of their mommy or their mama's belly, right?
Mateo: Hmmm... That's kind of like a delivery truck!

Then, on the way home, the kid was tired but did not fall asleep. We chatted most of the way about the other cars on the freeway and tunnels and such. We went over a big bridge and Mateo noted that everything below us was part of Oregon. We've been talking a lot about how we live in the city of Portland, in the state of Oregon, and in the country of the United States of America. I remember being really confused about all that as a kid, so I've been trying to explain it when it comes up. He actually did identify our city, state and country correctly by the end of this little chat. That got me into explaining how our country is called the United States of America because it is a group of states that all decided to join together. Digging myself into a deeper hole, I attempted to define what a country is and that got me onto the subject of the President.

Mama: ...so, there are a bunch of states, like the state of Washington and the state of Oregon and the state of California (the ones he's been to) and they all got together and formed our country, which is the United States of America. Blah blah blah blah.... and so one thing about our country is that we have a president. You know how Barack Obama is our president?

Mateo: What does he do?

Mama: Well, we elected him to be our leader. His job is to decide things about our country and - (he then totally cut me off)

Mateo: He brings us presents!

Mama: ....

Mateo: That's why he's our present-dent!

Mama: Oh, really?

Mateo: Yes, and he will come to my birthday party and bring me presents!

And that was the end of that. Much more exciting than deciding about health care and arms negotiations and such! I told him I was sure that if Obama knew him at all, that he would love to bring presents to his party.