More Smiles

Last night or I should say, early this morning around 12:30 am or so, Sasha was smiling a lot.  She smiled at me several times, and at David and at the ceiling.  It is the cutest thing in the world and it melts our hearts every time.  I can't wait for her to smile on a regular basis.

Smile

Sasha smiled at her Dada for the first time today and I was there to witness it.  It was so cute.  I don't know if I can say that it was a social smile but she has been trying for awhile with half smiles.  Last night she smiled at the pillows on the couch and Christmas tree.  She is definitely on her way.

Reading, Reading, Reading

To help Des learn to read, we started him on the BOB books shortly after his 3rd birthday, just like we did with Stella.  He is doing a great job so far and is very enthusiastic and eager to learn how to read.  The main difference between him and Stella is that Des has a much shorter attention span.  He has "ants in the pants" syndrome and can only sit still for a short time before he loses interest and wants to move onto something else.  That's a boy for you!  We don't pressure or force him to read and we let him set the pace.  It's already sinking in though because I see him trying to sound out words he sees on the cereal box at breakfast time.

Merry Christmas 2010

This is the first year that we have not traveled for Christmas.  Usually, we go to my parents' house in NJ to spend the holidays, but this year, with a newborn in tow, air travel was out of the question.  Instead, we had a quite and lovely Christmas at our house...a first for us.  It was nice not having to travel during the holiday season.  Hmm, maybe we will have to start a new tradition of Christmas at our house! 

Last night, Stella and Des were tracking Santa on the computer as he made his way around the world using the NORAD Santa Tracker program.  Certain stops took longer than others which would then lead Stella to say, "Santa has been in Machu Pichu for so long!  What's taking him so a long?!?!"  Hilarious!! They left some cookies for Santa and baby carrots for the reindeers by the fireplace before they went off to bed.

Both David and I stayed up late wrapping gifts and assembling gifts that needed assembly.  This on top of the existing sleep deprivation of taking care of a newborn.  Tired does not even begin to describe how we feel, but it was worth every smile and squeal we got when the kids opened their presents Christmas morning.

A view of the Christmas tree from last night after most of the presents were placed under it.

Stella and Des opening their stockings Christmas morning.

We were originally only going to let the kids open their stockings first, then have breakfast, and then open the wrapped gifts.  Instead, breakfast got delayed as the kids proceeded to open every single one of their gifts.

The gift Stella wanted most this year was an Easy Bake Oven...

The kids got lots of Legos, new Zhu Zhu pets and additional parts to their Zhu Zhu pet city, DVDs, pillow pets, and lots and lots of Think Fun games like Flip Over, S'match, Rush Hour Jr, and Shape by Shape.  We love Think Fun games and we highly recommend them because they are so very fun and educational.

Their Auntie Avril and Uncle Pete sent the kids these very cute animal sleeping bags.  Stella got the cat and Des got the monkey.  The cat face and the monkey face serve as pillows for the sleeping bag.  The kids loved it.

Here they are trying out their new sleeping bags.

Desmond's big gift was this Radio Flyer rocking horse.  His buddy Hudson has this rocking horse and ever since we went to his house for his birthday party, Des has wanted the same rocking horse.  So Santa obliged!

I just thought that this was a sweet picture of Stella and Des hugging.

 

Sasha slept through most of the mayhem like so.  But just wait till next Christmas when she will be right there in the mix with her older sister and brother!

Checking Out the Sights

 Sasha stays more awake in between feedings these days.  The maximum she can handle staying awake is one hour from the time she wakes up, feeds, plays, and goes back to sleep.  Like her big brother, Sasha loves to sleep.  During one of her awake periods today, we put her on the play mat and she looked all around at all of the various animals hanging from the top of the play mat.  She was even kicking and moving her arms all around checking out all of the sights. 

We took a lot of photos, so I decided to put some of my favorite ones into a collage.  You can always click on it to make it bigger.  Hope you enjoy.

Christmas Pics

After Sasha's bath, we dressed her in this cute little Santa's outfit that her Aunty Avril sent her.  

We dressed Stella and Des up too so that we could take pictures of the three kiddos in front of the Christmas tree.  Sasha is always very sleepy after her bath so she was not in the best of mood for posing for pictures.  Stella and Des "held" Sasha in their laps with a little help from Dada.  Here are some of my favorite pics from the photo session.

Sasha without her pacifier.

These two pictures below crack me up because Des is smiling like a politician.

So Fresh & So Clean

Sash got her first real bath on Dec 16th during which she cried her head off.  She did not like at all.  I don't have any pictures from that as I was videotaping the whole thing.  Today, she got her second real bath and for the most part, she did a good job.  I wouldn't go as far as to say she enjoyed her bath the second time around, rather, she tolerated it!  She needs to have the water running the whole time, otherwise, she starts crying.  We are guessing the sound of the running water distracts somehow.

In these pics below, Sasha is checking out her big brother who was eager to watch her get a bath.

Getting her hair washed.

 

 

Gingerbread House

Our sweet neighbor, Ms. Emily, brought over a gingerbread house that she made from scratch, along with candy and icing for the kids to decorate.  And the kids absolutely loved this activity.

Stella's School Christmas Party

Today was Stella's Christmas party at school and also the last day of school before Christmas break.  David came home to watch Des and Sasha, while I went to Stella's Christmas party.  She was so happy to see me at school.  Again, I am amazed by how shy Stella is at school.

The first thing we did when I got there was give Stella's teacher, Mrs. Miller, her Christmas gift (a gift card to her favorite restaurant Outback).

Here is Mrs. Miller opening her gift with Stella.

She gave Stella a big thank you hug for her Christmas gift.  We love Mrs. Miller and we are hoping Des gets her as his Kindergarten teacher when he goes to school!

Then the kids sat down to eat some snacks.

After the snacks, the kids played all sorts of games like Christmas music dance freeze (the kids danced when the music played and froze in position when the music stopped).  There was more jumping than dancing going on.  You can see Stella on the left side of the picture with both her feet in the air.

The also played a few rounds of telephone.

Finally, it was time to go home, but before we left, I got a picture of Stella with Mrs. Miller.

Stella is off for two weeks and won't go back to school until Jan 4, 2011.

Sleep While You Can

Today, David found Sasha and me on the couch like so and he couldn't resist taking some pictures.

All of that clicking noise from the camera soon woke me up, but, luckily Sasha was not disturbed.