"Cooks" and Christmastime

Helping make sugar cookies...and of course Pooh is nearby :-)

We had some great minty sugar cookies at a tea store in the neighborhood recently, so Matthew decided to try out the idea at home. After he got the dough ready, she and I cut out and decorated them. They were yummy!
She did some taste testing, of course. Mostly she liked playing with the flour.
This is the face Greta makes when a taste surprises her...it never comes after having bitten into a "cook" though.
Pleased with herself after having gotten a little bit of brownie one night after dinner (you'd think all we feed her is sweets, from this post!)

Matthew sneezes every time he eats dark chocolate, and the few times Greta has had chocolate she sneezes as well! The sneeze is not the reason the chocolate is all over her front, though--she's just a messy eater :-)
Getting ready to watch the classic 60's Rudolph clay-mation Christmas special. This was the first time we all sat down to enjoy a show together. It was so fun!
Out for a stroll.
Getting our Christmas tree last weekend. We went to a great place in Richmond (a bit south of Vancouver) where you could cut your own or pick one out. We went the easier route, with our little 20 month old running around everywhere. It was very festive there, with cider, Christmas music, lights, a touch of snow still hanging around and other Christmasy decorations.
She calls snowmen "man".
Just the right tree! I wanted it taller than me--it's by far the biggest tree we've had in awhile, but I was determined we should have it for our small home. I got my way :-)
Having a sit down right outside our building...I think she was supposed to be getting in the car. She's trouble!
So cute.
Crazy picture! Helping Papa put up the Christmas lights on our tree. When Matthew got these out she set the record for the number of enthusiastic "Oh"'s that can be said within about 5 minutes.
Ready to decorate!

Greta was really into helping us hang decorations on the tree, and especially liked it when we pointed out who certain decorations were from (she learned how to say Grandpa Paul: "Hampa Paul" because he has given us many ornaments!)
A job well done. And two nights in a row of staying up later than usual! Every night Greta gets ready for bed right after dinner...but with the Christmas season here we've been busier than usual, and she had a couple nights in a row of activity AFTER dinner--how special!
So fun!
Ta-Da!
On Friday I had the day off from work. It's been nice having a 3 day weekend!

Friday afternoon we all visited the aquarium. Greta was interested in the fish for a bit, but she mostly likes the playroom there. Here she is looking through the cool glass in the playroom.
Sweet girl.
Playing with the pretend phones in the "veterinarian" section of the playroom, and studying the other children nearby.
After the aquarium we went to see the Christmas lights at Stanley Park. Greta was overjoyed to see a display involving Pooh and Tigger! She kept saying "Pooh Caca" and "Tiga Ha Ha!" (Matthew has learned how to imitate Tigger's laugh and Greta requests it regularly, and often says to herself happily "Tiga Ha Ha!")
Happy girl! Sometimes she just says to us with a smile, "Happy!" :-)
Last night we went to our old church for their preschool interactive Christmas show (the one where we played the Holy Family last year...) Greta was excited to go to "chuch"...but here she does look somewhat sleepy...we have been running her (and ourselves) a bit ragged I think!
Getting ready to play her part as an angel in the pageant. Greta went up on the stage with the other bigger kids for different parts of the show. She did really well with this and often exclaimed "chuch!" as she paraded around with the children.
And here she is getting ready to be a tired sheep.
After the show we had treats downstairs. She's very good about accepting when it's time to be "all done" with treats--even if they are low on a buffet table and right within her reach!
Having some down time today in her room. She really likes to be at home.
Helping Papa decorate more cookies for a cookie party down the street!

What a busy time...but oh so fun :-)

And, for those of you who didn't know...we found out last weekend that we're having another girl! This time next year will be even busier!

SNOW, Paint and Pooh-Kaka

On Friday night it snowed about 6 inches in Vancouver. When Greta woke up around 7am we deviated from our usual routine of play-breakfast-play-outing and instead went straight for the outing. I didn't want her to miss any of this snow! She and I were out before 7:30 and the streets were quiet and beautifully covered with snow. Not long after we were out she decided to get a little closer to this strange, cold stuff (I don't think we got much snow at all last year...)
Brrrr!!! And yes, she says this :-)
And how will it feel on my face? Brrrr!!
It looks like she's getting ready for a snowball fight!
This picture is adorable!
There were a couple dog-walkers out and about, as well as a woman taking photos at our park down the street--she was kind enough to snap this shot of us.
Trekking up the hill in the snow.
And running down the hill under the tree! Greta did this many times, happily squealing "Run!!!" each time!
We went out a couple more times that day. She helped me build a tower of snowballs, prompting me with "Tow!" (for tower) and "Mo!" (for more). By our third outing, though, the sun had started to go down and she was a bit too cold. She did get a special ride through the park on a little boy's sled before the evening was through, though--and we got to see a beautiful full moon in a clear, cold sky. What a fun snowy day we had!
Painting with watercolors. Quite the artiste.
These are new to her, and she loves them.
This is Greta's "smile for the camera" face, nice and up close :-)
She loves Pooh-Kaka. Here she has her little plastic pooh kissing her fuzzy, snuggly pooh. She has one other pooh toy and often carries around all three at once saying sweetly "Pooh-Kaka"!

Mama's Birthday

Warning: this post will have no pictures of Greta!

Last weekend was my birthday. I didn't want any presents, I just wanted an overnight in Seattle with freedom...so Nana Kaka took Greta for the night. She had her first overnight away from Mama and Papa! She did fine...in fact on Sunday when we met up with her again she was reluctant to leave Nana Kaka!

Matthew and I stayed at the Marqueen Hotel in Queen Anne--our old neighborhood--the same place we stayed after we got married nearly 7 years ago. Here I am near Pike's Place Market about to go into my favorite antique store in Seattle!

Enjoying the quiet luxury of a spacious and elegant hotel room. This place was nearly bigger than our apartment!!
In the hotel lobby, ready to go out for dinner. Smile, Matthew! :-)
Now there's a smile! We ate dinner at Via Tribunali on Queen Anne--our favorite pizza place in Seattle.
After dinner we met up with friends at the Sitting Room, near our old apartment. My good friend Natalie brought me cupcakes, and here's Jenny handing me one while everyone at the Sitting Room sings me "Happy Birthday"! How embarrassing...

Jenny and Dalton
Sisters! We look quite alike here...
Brothers-in-law!
My good friends Natalie and Christine from college...we lived together for a couple of years. Christine is due with her first baby any day, but she and her husband came to the party anyway :-)

I wish I had gotten more pictures of all the other special people who came: Melissa and Kristen, Sara, Josh and Crystal, and Natalie and Christine's husbands Ben and Greg...but alas, I was having too much fun to care about that at the time...! What a great trip we had--the best birthday in years!

Paul!

A couple of weeks ago I was cuddling Greta and I told her that I love her, and she said, "Nana Kaka!" I said, yes Nanny Kathy loves you too, and so does Nana Judy, and Grandpa Dan, and Grandpa Paul, and Greta interjected "Paul!" So we went on with our morning, and Greta kept saying "Paul! Paul! Paul!" at regular intervals. So I decided I had better test her to see if she really knew what she was talking about (granted no one can really know about Paul, who after 29 years remains an enigma wrapped in a paradox, but I digress...) so I showed her a picture of Grandpa Paul and asked her who it was, to which she responded "Paul!" And that settled it. Here is a little video of us rehearsing that episode, and also reviewing her first "phrase" of two words (we don't really consider Nana Kaka two words, but more like a single title), and also her own special way of saying "pajamas." Enjoy!

Jack-o-Lantern

This is how Greta reacted to our jack-o-lantern EVERY time she saw it! And on Halloween night, and with every jack-o-lantern she's seen, she says "No!" One day her caregiver Linda brought over a jack-o-lantern cookie. Greta looked at it suspiciously and then looked at the jack-o-lantern on the floor---VERY hesitant to eat the cookie once she realized the two matched! She did end up eating it in the end, though. But then another day she got another cookie like it, walked up to the jack-o-lantern while holding the cookie in her hand, pointed at the jack-o-lantern and assertively said "No!!!", walked away quickly, and gobbled up the cookie.

Halloween

Our little smiley kitty cat!
Meow! Greta has been saying that a lot recently.
Out trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.
Do you see that kitty cat tale?
We had a great Halloween night! We went out in our neighborhood to trick-or-treat. We had intended on also going to a Haunted House at a nearby grocery store, but when we got there we saw tons of "big" kids and figured it would be too scary (plus the line was super long) and not exactly "all ages" as the ad had said. We have discovered that Greta is rather sensitive and gets scared easily. Jack-o-lanterns were quite enough for her!
It was so fun going up and knocking on people's doors. Greta got into it. Instead of saying "trick-or-treat" she would say "Meow!" and people often gave her extra candy :-)
On the way home we had a bit of a walk, it was dark, and it was past Greta's bedtime. She nearly fell asleep in the stroller, and was very quiet and serious and seemed kind of out of it. But once we got into our building and she realized we were home she said, "More!"--she didn't want the fun to end yet I guess!