Sunday, December 25, 2011

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2011!!!

Just a quick note to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! (If you're not one who celebrates Christmas, then Happy Sunday to you, and I hope you are enjoying YOUR holiday!!)

I am in Connecticut enjoying the holiday with family...Dad is back home in Washington because he had to work, but he is here in spirit, and we celebrated the traditional "FakeChristmas" this past Thursday with Dad's side of the family...we will be seeing him in a few days when Mom, Gramma Mindy and I return home.

Below is the picture of my yearly visit with Santa Claus...I hopped right up on his lap, and was SO excited I could barely talk or sit still...he asked what I wanted for Christmas, and I told him simply "presents"

Like I said...I was pretty excited. Santa was very nice to me, and and we chatted for a minute or two...I said goodbye and Merry Christmas, and he sent me off with one of my favorite things: A candy cane!!

We went back to the Mall a couple days ago, and Dad brought me by so I could wave to Santa and say "hi" again....he was excited to see me and wished me a Merry Christmas again...and I was yet again BEYOND excited to see him.

Wherever you are, and whoever you're with...I'm hoping you have a very Happy Holiday...


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Friday, December 23, 2011

A Birthday Party for my friend Max!

As we get ready for last-minute Christmas stuff (and also, my OWN birthday) I thought I would quickly recap a recent birthday party that I went to for my friend Max
The party was held at a place that had a whole bunch of bounce houses, and though we got there bit late due to an unfortunate convergence of events...I still managed to run around a lot and enjoy myself! At some point I hope to trust bounce houses a little more...I'm still not quite at the point where I can throw myself into one of these things with reckless abandon. It just seems so...reckless to me. 
We got to eat cake and pizza (always my favorite part of the parties we get to go to) and our party hats featured the little alien guys from Toy Story....QUITE cool, I must say...Max had an entire Toy Story-themed party, which is great because I am HUGE into Toy Story right now!
In addition to hanging out with people and having fun, I also got some little goodie bag stuff...though brief, a good time was had by all!
I saw Max recently, and he told me that he has been playing with the play-doh playset that I got him nearly every day since the party...I guess I would consider that gift a "hit" :-)

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Christmas Tree With Gramma Mindy and Richy!

Continuing the celebration of the week leading up to Christmas, I get to tell you about getting a Christmas tree for Gramma Mindy!!

Over the Thanksgiving weekend a few weeks ago, I got to go along with Gramma Mindy, Mom and JustRichy to the farm to get the tree....while they had lovely trees out front, I insisted on getting one cut from the ground out in the field.

I'm a purist....sue me!

I ran around the rows of trees, trying to help them find the most perfect one...there were all different sizes and styles of tree....but I finally found the one that I thought best suited Gramma Mindy's living room, both in size and needle-style!
Once we found it, I kept an eye on Richy as he cut down the tree, offering nuggets from my extensive knowledge of tree cutting....luckily, he listened to me, and not only did he emerge with all ten fingers and toes, but it was a marvelous cut which should promote the tree's water absorption pretty well, keeping it alive and kicking all during  the Christmas season!
They tied the tree to the top of our car, and while they did, Gramma Mindy kept an eye on me. We walked around and enjoyed the tree farm...there was even a little river with a peaceful trickle of water to enjoy...it was a clear, lovely day, and we really enjoyed being out there....
After getting the tree taken care of, we went out to Friendly's to get some dinner and dessert. I had a lot of fun playing with JustRichy...
We were quite the goofy pair. He, Buzz Lightyear, and I couldn't help but be excited and giddy about all the fun we were having...we played a modified version of peek-a-boo that included copy-catting...
I even got to share an ice cream sundae...while it was messy, I must say that Friendly's makes a heckuva tasty sundae!!!
I, of course, helped supervise the moving of the tree from the car outside to Gramma Mindy's house. We brought it in, and my supervision helped ensure that it was done safely, effectively, and in a way that honored and celebrated Christmas....
We had so much fun!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Christmas 2011 : Our Advent Calendar

Gramma Mindy was nice enough to get me something very cool for this holiday season....an advent calendar!

Wikipedia's delicate, flowing prose informs me that An Advent calendar is a special calendar which is used to count or celebrate the days of Advent in anticipation of Christmas. 

Sometimes candy or other gifts are involved, where you would get a candy or gift each day, and sometimes you are just opening the little doors on the calendar to see a picture or something...in this case, Gramma Mindy got something very cool and very unique...she got me a pop-up Eric Carle advent calendar...he is the guy has done books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and one of my old favorites Brown Bear, Brown Bear....What do you See? The calendar is gorgeous, and very well-designed...when you open it, it has a pop-up tree, pop-up Santa, and pop-up boxes for putting the presents in...

Basically, you open the little doors, one per day leading to Christmas, and you either get an ornament (which you hang on the pop-up tree) or a gift (which you put in one of the gift boxes)
Mom and Dad let me open the doors myself, and pull out the little gifts myself, too. I have pretty much decided that all of them are going in the gift boxes, regardless of whether or not they are technically gifts or ornaments, but I am still having a lot of fun opening the little doors and counting down to Christmas with Mom and Dad!
On a side note....I got a little over-zealous and already opened the 25th....Mom heard me say "Ooooh, a star!!" and she turned to find me getting a little ahead of myself....

We drive up to Connecticut tonight to spend Christmas with our family, and I look very forward to bringing the calendar with me to finish up the last few days. Thanks for the fun gift, Gramma Mindy!!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011!

Getting back to happier things, I have to obviously catch you up a bit (as is typical this time of year)

As usual, we were generally busy, with Dad working on a novel in November, and working on the holiday stuff, but that was all compounded by our situation with Norma....we did our best to keep doing stuff, and think we succeeded on most fronts.

A few weeks back, we went back to Connecticut for Thanksgiving...since Dad missed last year, we did it at Gramma Debbie's and Grandpa's (Though JustRichy and Gramma Mindy were kind enough to join us.)

There were a lot of people there this year....Auntie Steph, Uncle Brian, Uncle Steve and Aunt Amy, Braelynn and Nicholas...it was a very well-attended event!

As usual, it was a lovely spread, and everyone seemed to enjoy the meal very much.

I, of course, was being a bit finicky, and didn't really eat much of my actual Thanksgiving meal...I'm sure that someday I will be a bit better about eating. It looked and smelled good, but I don't know...I simply wasn't in the mood to eat...
Gramma Debbie helped out by making me a special bowl of Mac n Cheese, and promising me that I could have a bowl of pudding if I ate it all...suffice to say, I ate it all pretty quickly, and was happier for it....wouldn't you be?

Monday, December 12, 2011

norma



Today, our cat Norma died. I don't know every detail, but Mom and Dad told me that she had gotten very old, and was going to die. They were very nice, and sat me down to explain to me that after this morning I wouldn't get to see her anymore. They were very gentle and honest with me, and I appreciated that. I said my goodbyes, gave her a big hug and a kiss, and told her that I loved her. She and I were very good friends. I have known her since I was born, and even though I'm sure that at first she didn't appreciate my invasion of the lower two feet of the apartment which she had ruled for years, we soon became fast friends.

I would always say goodnight to her before bed, even when she was hiding in the closet and sleeping ("Goodnight Norma, wherever you are!") and when she was around, she was always very patient, letting me pet her, and snuggle up to her so I could feel her purring against my cheek. I really loved whenever she would hide under the covers and sleep, leaving a little Norma-Shaped ball in the bed (See picture below) I would gently poke her sometimes, and watch the little ball squirm, but then she went back to sleep.

Sometimes during bedtime, she would pop into my bedroom to say 'hi' (Which she actually did last night) and I got to pet her before I lay down to go to sleep...

She even let me chase her around sometimes, which was nice. I got to feed her snacks, and her and I played together a lot, especially when she would hide in her favorite boxes (basically any box that was new to the apartment) and I would scratch at the outside while listening to her jump around in there.

By far, my favorite thing was when I would be sitting in my high chair eating dinner, and she would sneak up without me knowing, brushing her tail against my feet. It would tickle like crazy, and just when I thought I couldn't take anymore, she would lick my toes and I realized that I couldn't be happier. That was my favorite.

I will miss having her around, and will always remember her as my first kitty. Enjoy the pictures below, as they are some of my favorites.











Look at me chasing that kitty kat....we were really good friends....

Thursday, December 8, 2011

A few weeks ago, we made a brief visit to Connecticut to see everyone while Mom was in New York City for work....it was kind of an easy going weekend filled with visits, snacking, and just chilling out with Gramma Debbie along with everyone else....certainly a nice way to decompress a bit before the crazy holiday season!


Tuesday, December 6, 2011

A Trip to the Baltimore Aquarium!

As the holidays start to ramp up, things are getting super busy down here....I'm glad that we've found time to do some fun stuff in the last few weeks!!

Mom took a day off recently so that we could all go to The National Aquarium in Baltimore....originally we were planning on going when Mom was in Baltimore for business, but the timing didn't work out quite right, so we made a pact to go while I was still free (they start charging at age 3....so we had very little time!)

We were very excited to all have a day off together! We had a nice breakfast, and then headed up to Baltimore in our new (to us) car! We were so excited, that we ran through the leaves to get to the museum really fast!

We entered the first section which wasn't all that exciting (And elicited a disappointed "THIS is the aquarium?" from me....) but then we moved into the first area that housed the Rays, sharks, and a big sea turtle...


It was so fun to get to stand on the catwalks and alongside the large pool to watch them swim....they were really neat. 


Dad was nice enough (since Mom was a little under the weather) to pick me up and help me see over the railings to the pools down below. I really loved watching all of them swimming around down there.

The sea turtle was missing one of his flippers, but was still doing a great job swimming around!



The Aquarium was doing a huge exhibit on jellyfish, and I got to watch a lot of different types of jellyfish floating around their tanks...there were so many different kinds of jellyfish, with so many different shapes, colors and styles...they were beautiful yet creepy.



As you can tell, I was a bit weirded out, yet fascinated by the jellyfish...wouldn't YOU be?




There was also a very cool rainforest exhibit that you could walk around in, and see even more animals. There were lots of birds, and turtles, and even some little monkey-like critters in the trees (Although I had to take the aquarium worker's word for it, since I never actually saw the monkey-type-thing hiding up in a tree...)


Later we moved on to a kid's section that had a lot of fun stuff for kids to do...they had a puppet stage, stuff that you could attach to the wall with velcro, a fallen tree where we could explore and look for animals and insects, along with my personal favorite, a sandbox with lots of shells hidden within... 




Though we didn't go in for the dolphin show, we got to go downstairs underneath the big pool that was the spot for the show...The downstairs had a really nice area where you could watch everything that the dolphins did underwater. Mom got some nice shots of me checking out the beautiful dolphins gliding through the water. It was so nice, and so very peaceful....



A great time was had by all at The Aquarium....I can't wait to go back someday! Here is a very rare picture of all of us together at the same time during the daytime...Mom is awesome for taking a day off so we could have this great day together! And yeah....Dad's eyes are closed in the picture below, but it's such an awesome picture in general that we let it slide...we decided to go with "He is closing his eyes to drink in the joy of the moment..."

Or something. :-) Either way...great pic, great day!