Omaha Zoo

We had all sorts of neat adventures on our trip to Omaha. The first day we got to meet a new pediatrician (ear infection, got sick on the plane) and then Christmas was the next day.

Then we decided it was time to get out of the house and have some fun. We had a great time at the Omaha Children's Museum with Grandpa. (Bob was shooting video, I'll try and post some.)

Then the last day of our trip we went with Donna and Jessica to the Omaha zoo. There were a ton of indoor exhibits, so it was okay in the winter. Anthony had a great time walking around and exploring. His absolute favorite part was trying to splash in the water in the jungle exhibit. Unfortunately for him, we put a quick end to that. He enjoyed the new butterfly exhibit and loved watching the bees in the beehive. He also seemed to like watching this bird, maybe because it was right on his level!

"and an Uncle, known as Bob of course"

Anthony had an easy time picking our his Christmas presents for his cousin Joshua. He gave Joshua his favorite toys. (Brand new versions, of course.) We gave Joshua Sophie La Girafe, his favorite crab toy and a copy of our new favorite book Fifteen Animals. Uncle Dave did us the great favor of reading it to Anthony.

Fifteen Animals is sure to be a best seller, we've bought 3 copies of it so far!

Visiting Family

It was great getting together with the Moragues clan for Christmas. Unfortunately, Bob's Aunt Kathy was not up for hosting this year, so we all did our own Christmas dinners and then gathered at Vince's house for dessert.

Anthony was a little worn out from a long day so he was pretty snoozy when Margie and Billie arrived. It took him a little while to decide to perk up. What finally did it was the arrival of Matt and Corie. Well, specifically it was Corie and her pretty necklace. Anthony was all into the necklace. (He liked her, too.) Then he was up and running and decided that all that family really was okay!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Donna wanted to start a new tradition this year of everyone getting new jammies on Christmas Eve. (Somehow she and Vince didn't, though!) Anthony and Joshua looked particularly cute in theirs--their monograms were on the trap-door.

Santa Claus Came!

Santa Claus came on Christmas Eve while we were in Omaha. Santa was very good to Anthony this year. He got lots of neat presents. I think his favorite presents were the ride-on ATV (that makes great noises) and the wooden percussion set from Grandpa Vince.

Some other nice presents included the Fisher-Price fire truck (from his cousin Joshua, shown in the Santa suit) and books from my mom and Aunt Erika. (Santa Claus has actually been making regular visits for the past month, as we didn't ship any of our presents to Omaha.)

One tradition we plan to institute in the future: Santa brings four presents to every kid.
1. Something you want
2. Something you need
3. Something to wear
4. Something to read

I think we pretty much did that this year, although Anthony neither "wants" or "needs" anything.

Edited to add: Unfortunately, we got home to discover that Santa had not brought Anthony what he wants most in the ENTIRE world--the house to be rewired with all light switches at his height.

Daycare Christmas Party

Last Saturday was the Christmas party at Anthony's daycare. I was really impressed, Kathleen went all-out. It was a huge crowd, including some of her former kids and a former assistant and her family. The top picture is Anthony with Maria, his favorite teacher.

Kathleen's son played guitar and the kids gathered to sing Christmas songs. After they all sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", who showed up but Santa Claus (the father of her former assistant) with gifts for everyone! Anthony toddled through the crowd right up to Santa to check him out. He even sat willingly on Santa's lap. (Several of the 1-3 year olds were not so willing.)

They also had a gift exchange amongst the kids. Anthony got a Elmo/Cookie monster giggle ball from his girlfriend Courtney. Santa Claus gave him a pop-up toy.

He doesn't really seem to understand presents, but is starting to enjoy unwrapping them!

Fun with Keys

Like any good baby, Anthony has always been fascinated with my keychain. I don't let him play with it in public**, but its fair game at home. Anthony has been fast at work trying to figure out how to get the key in the lock. (Is he trying to escape again?) There's no real danger in it working as there isn't actually a keyhole on the inside.

**I wasn't much older than Anthony when my mom let me play with her keys while shopping. I wandered around the store with them and sure enough, they got LOST. My mom and the salesclerk spent over an hour looking for them. Dad finally closed up the shop to come rescue us. It wasn't until he arrived that the lost keys finally turned up.

Janet, on the other hand, IS Martha Stewart

Janet came over today to do a practice run of the cake that she wants to make Dick for their anniversary next month. I am truly impressed with how it came out. The decorations are all marzipan, which is ridiculously easy to work with. The "roots" are also marzipan which we then iced over.

It was actually really easy.
It was fun having a playdate with Janet. When we lived together she was always drawing me into her creative projects.

While we were having our playdate, Bob took Anthony to the Hiller Aviation Museum for some daddy-bonding time. Bob had never been there, despite it being the premiere airplane museum in California. They had a nice time and Bob said they would go back on another day when they could go see the outside airplane. (The high here was 49 and it was pouring rain.)

Fun with Water

Bob had to work today, so Anthony and I decided that we would go to the Discovery Museum without him. Last time we admired the Water Works area, but did not stop and play. Today we pretty much made a bee-line to the water fun.

Anthony had a great time. Despite his smock he also ended up soaking wet. I did know to bring a complete change of clothes for him.

We stuck to the little-kid side of the exhibit. There's an enormous "big kid" side with lots of really neat water-ball play.

Come and visit and we can go play!

Mama's Inner-Martha Stewart is a Raving Lunatic!

Baking and decorating Christmas cookies was one of my family's favorite Christmas traditions and is one that I am eager to share with Anthony.

Cut-out (sugar) cookies were a very important part of Christmas baking. They are always tasty and traditionally looked *very* homemade. Something about being decorating by a bunch of kids. This year I decided to put my new-found pastry bag skills to the test. Anthony's daycare Christmas party is Saturday and I volunteered to bring cookies.

Yes, this project nearly did put me over the edge. Especially since we already had a busy week. Sunday after the train I mixed up the dough, formed it into disks and froze them. After a day in the refrigerator, Thursday was baking day. I spent about 2 more hours that night icing the green on the trees. First I had to pipe the tree outline with "stiff" royal icing. Then I filled the inside with "loose". Unfortunately my first batch of fill was a little thick which made it a lot more work. Then tonight I did the yellow stars (I only had about 2 dozen) and decorated everything with red icing.

It was a great deal of work for a child who isn't even allowed to eat a cookie. He cetainly won't notice or appreciate it. But, it was fun. And I'll probably do it again next year. The year after that, though, Anthony will have to do his share!

Train of Lights

Anthony enjoyed this weekend's Christmas festivities.

On Saturday we enjoyed Redwood City's "Hometown Holidays" Parade. Anthony's friend Jack marched in it with his preschool class. Anthony really enjoyed the parade; there was a band, various dance acts, etc. Well, he enjoyed the first half, then his attention wandered and he moved on to pushing his stroller around.

Then Sunday we enjoyed a ride on the Niles Canyon Railway Train of Lights. The train was decorated inside and out with Christmas lights and decorations. It was Anthony's first train ride and he seemed to enjoy it. The brakeman even let Anthony play with his lantern. Shelley from work and her husband volunteer at the railroad on the weekends, so they invited us and Amy and her family to enjoy the train with them. (They got complimentary tickets.) Shelley was pretty impressed with Anthony's train duds.

Yummy glass of water

Anthony still gets a real kick out of a glass of water.

Now that he's getting bigger, we let him hold the glass himself. He still needs supervision as he's just as likely to put the cup down on its side as anything else. But, he's getting pretty good at controlling it himself!

New Legos

About two years ago, my sister Erika gave our nephew his first set of Legos. At the time, Lego had a line called "Quatro" that was twice as big as the Duplo and aimed at younger kids. My mom was quite disappointed to learn that they have discontinued that line. Then I taught her the wonders of EBay.

Mom bought two lots of Quatro (about 35 blocks total) for Anthony to play with. The first batch of them arrived today. Anthony can easily take them apart and can put the two bump size back together.

The Quatros fit together with the Duplos so he'll be able to continue using them when he gets bigger. (Anthony already has his first set of Duplo blocks, they were a gift from Celisa's kids for his birthday.)

We're walking, we're walking

Anthony has been on the verge of walking for months now. He's been cruising like a pro and can walk sizeable distances only holding on to one of my hands. For about a month now he's been taking a few steps--a bridging one between furniture or three steps and then a tumble into my arms. When I picked him up at daycare last Monday a big surprise was waiting for me. Our Anthony is officially a toddler. He spent the day walking back and forth between Celeste and Kathleen. A week later he still views walking as a party trick, rather than an official mode of transit. I predict he'll be a "sturdy walker" soon enough, though.

Bob shot this video last Monday, his first day of walking.