Easter Grammy

My mom is quite the armchair knitter. Last year she whipped up bunnies for all the kids. This year she casually knits a kid's sweater a week at nights while watching TV, the first incarnation being an oatmeal colored sweater with rainbow buttons (for catching rainbows at Grammy's house) for BabySevPrez. At first the little one proceeded cautiously, but once she found a matchbox car planted in the pocket (!!!) she was all in, and wore the sweater all weekend, including nights over her jammies. Her blue sweater with ladybug buttons was a similar success.

Pingu And Other Foreign "Films"

The Acquisition of Roku (a small device that streams Netflix and other internet channels) has led to a household embrace of foreign films. Top on the list is "Pingu," a Swiss claymation series about a penguin named Pingu and his family. It's the best. They speak in a soft Scandinavian gibberish and get into Antarctic related hijinx. I would recommend it for anyone who finds themselves with a few minutes to fill.

Here's a link to the first Pingu short I ever saw. It was love at first sight.

For adults, we also enjoy Danish police procedural "The Eagle" and the Norwegian thriller "Headhunters" (even though it takes a bit of a gross turn at the end). "Heaven" starring Cate Blanchett and Giovani Ribisi was beautiful and perplexing and had both English speaking stars speaking Italian.

Anyone have an American movies to recommend?

Exclamations

Baby SevPrez has started to talk a lot. She's been saying a few words for a long time now -- "Bop" & "woof" (in refernce to my parents' dog Bebop), "cat" & "meow," "mom" & "dad" etc. Nowadays she'll repeat almost anything you say, but she has taken especially to exclamations. She quickly learned to say "uh oh" when she drops something, which happens a lot apparently. Next was "oh boy," which she turned into "ohboy-ohboy-ohboy". Pretty much the cutest thing ever. Following was "whoa."

Are these exclamations or is there a better term? It seems just at the tip of my tongue but I can't get it out.

Also: she is a dancing fool. The "Gangnam Style" dance crazy has official reached our house by way of her big cousins. She even loves to watch the video on my iPhone, which, it turns out, is scarily intuitive to toddlers. She is infatuated with "jumping" (only one foot leaves the ground), and giving high fives and even pounds. Oh to be a year and a half old in 2013.

Reset Button

I sat the long New Year's weekend out with the flu. I did a lot of laying around, thinking of all of my to-do lists and how none of them would ever get done again and that would be OK. 

After three solid days my will to go on returned and in a burst of energy I took down all of the Christmas decorations and the tree. I grew up in a house where the Christmas tree once lingered all the way to Saint Patricks Day (with coordinating ornaments of course), so I never understood the people who took their trees down the day after New Year's until last year (my first with a child). Now I get it: let's get on with our lives already. It's a little sad but it's also so nice to feel ready to take on what's next.

The whole family experienced a rolling wave of the flu - first my dad on Christmas day, followed by my mother, my sister-in-law, my mother-in-law (on the other side of the family), myself, Baby SevPrez, and finally, the Mister. My parents were healthy enough to take the baby on the New Years Day overnight to give us a break. As much as it was such a relief to be able to lie around and sleep uninterrupted by the needs of a sick child, it was equally as amazing to just be in the house with my husband alone. As parents who both work full time, we are always trying to spend as much time with our kid as possible, which I realized while laying on the couch with a flu, is probably to the detriment of our relationship. You tend not to realize that it is difficult to completely and utterly relax and enjoy each other without being encumbered by the responsibilities of a youngin.  We need to make time, even if it's just once a month, to be alone (not after 8pm in our house on the couch while she sleeps upstairs).

I guess what I mean to say is that being sick is such a total drag on every level. But when you step back and look at it from a birds eye view, it's actually a chance to wake up and realign to what will really sustain you in having a healthier life. Like having smoothies for breakfast, or more time alone with your husband.

Xmas Morning

We were really impressed with how engaged in opening presents the little one seemed to be. She joyfully plucked tissue paper from gift bags and, most notably, was really excited for all her new clothes. She really took a liking to her sequin sweatshirt (she's a Maxxinista for sure) and insisted she wear it over her fleecey footy pajamas. Mr. SevPrez thinks its because I wore a sequin shirt on Christmas Eve, but I think she's just a magpie like me.

She received two Fishers Price toys from her Mema, and they are like gold. I forget that FP exists, and sometimes I feel bad that my kid has a mom without a clue about fun kids stuff. But let me tell you, the few loud, flashy, plastic toys that we do have make a real impact. They almost trump all our real electronic devices. Almost.