This is my niece, Caleb's cousin: Natalia Kylie.
She is my sister Kornelia and her husband Eric's firstborn, who arrived on December 16th, an early Christmas present. She is a beautiful little girl and we were so happy we got to see her this Christmas. We look forward to watching her grow and I know Caleb will be thrilled to have a little friend.
We took a ton of pictures during our visit, here are a few.
I'll be home for Christmas - with a bow
Mr. Grinch - conducted by Caleb
Trumpet and recorder duet
St. Nicholas spotted on the neighbor's front porch!
St. Nicholas came to our house on the morning of the 6th once again, bringing lots of goodies (and for some, coal) in each of our boots. He also brought the first snow later that day, surprising us, since we don't normally get snow until late January or February in these parts.
Caleb was most surprised though at the sight that awaited him in the morning. We normally wake up at 6 am, come downstairs in the dark, run to the potty, then start our day with hot tea (which he calls Coca - go figure). I gave away nothing and let him discover the goodies on his own. The first thing he saw were the "Coca!" (little glass bottles of Coke), which he proceeded to take out of the box one by one and line up on the floor. St. Nick was sneaky again, coming back a second time and filling additional shoes with more goodies in the early morning hours. Here are some pictures of the morning of St. Nicholas Day.
This morning, we woke up to the first day of December and proceeded to enjoy our morning with the coffee and the Nutella-smeared cinnamon raisin bread and the wonderful togetherness of family. Also, with a hail shower that came down for a few minutes, but what the heck, we're inside, the hail is outside - LOOK AT THE BEAUTIFUL LITTLE BALLS OF ICE!
A few hours later, I made my way down to the basement to take care of some laundry, and I noticed a smell. A smell of some type of noxious gas, to be exact.
The gas company came, but not before Caleb and I hurriedly escaped from our home, just in case... leaving Daddy behind. It turned out, the smell was not natural gas after all, but CARBON MONOXIDE (which, I don't understand how I could smell, since it's supposed to be odorless, but maybe EXTRA SENSITIVE PREGNANCY NOSE?)
Our water heater needs a new motor. A motor that is going to take until Wednesday or Thursday to arrive and be installed. Until then, the water heater is turned off, as to not allow any more carbon monoxide to vent into our basement. Until then, there is no hot water, no heat in the house.
It is now about 64 degrees Fahrenheit in the house and falling. A little on the chilly side, I'd say.
Tomorrow, we're going to check into a local hotel. Luckily we have a Gift Certificate for one night's stay that we are supposed to use until the end of this month (and which we've had for a year now, not knowing what to do with it). As a matter of fact, just this morning, before we knew our predicament, I was asking when we should have our stay in our free hotel. It turns out, very soon.
I am glad that I was able to finish my big projects tonight and can spare a day of no work, but really, no more than a day.
Tomorrow is also our first ultrasound appointment, so there will be much boiling of water in the morning for the preparation of some kind of a bath. So we're some kind of decent when we go out into the world. It should be interesting.
You turned 23-months-old a few days ago. And with that, this is the last month you will be a one-year-old. I hope you enjoy and take advantage of this last vestige of babyhood.
This month, you have begun to show signs of being a little storyteller. One day, I was opening the door to let my friend out, when (unknown to me), a big gray cat waltzed right into our house. My friend says, you know what just came in? (I'm thinking: a fly, a moth...) A CAT! I looked and sure enough, there was a cat in my house! Amidst much yelling of "Oh, my gosh!" the cat made it halfway down the hallway, glanced into the bathroom to the right, and realizing THIS WAS NOT HIS HOUSE, turned around and with a little cajoling, sped back out the front door. This was a good story in itself, but what made it very memorable for everyone was that you started acting out this scenario. Over and over, you re-enacted what happened with the cat.
You would be the cat: you would walk flippantly into the house, making your way from the front door to the bathroom, then you'd stop with a start, look into the bathroom, pointing and loudly exclaiming: UH-OH!! Then, with a sudden twist of your heel, you'd turn around and scurry back to the front door.
First story told. Many more to come.
We've been spending a lot of time out in the backyard lately, where you have found new entertainment in some rocks. You like to collect these and drop them one by one into an old flower pot. Sometimes you bring these rocks inside, and so one day you had one in your hand as you were starting to make your way upstairs. You handed it to me, and I, thinking you were done with it, tossed it away. You flipped out and yelled "kő!!!" (rock!) and took off after it. This attachment to the rock reminded me of Tom Hanks' attachment to his volleyball in Cast Away. You acted just like him from that scene where he threw away his anthropomorphized volleyball, then desperately screamed "Wilson!!!" and ran to retrieve his best friend.
You have been learning your numbers (you can count to 5) and your letters, too (one of your favorite activities with your father is writing words with magnets on the refrigerator). You already recognize several of the words.
This month was marked by an election that I'm sorry to say, turned out disappointingly for us - disappointingly for the sanctity of life; disappointingly for the free market and capitalism; disappointingly for the Constitution; and disappointingly for freedom in general. The mantra of this man was "Change" and "Hope" and we've learned that you can dupe a whole heck of a lot of people just by chanting these two words.
These are nice words, but I want you, Caleb, to always look for substance behind words. "Yes we can!" means nothing when it promotes an ideology that has failed throughout history. (A more fitting slogan would be: "But why would we want to?") Before believing in a clever slogan, I want you to examine the facts and promises behind it, to dig a little deeper, and even search out information that goes unreported, because more often than not in this world, you need to do independent research to have all of the relevant information at hand. This is crucial for being able to make a truly informed decision - in all matters of life.
Your father and I pledge to do our best to provide you with the skills and knowledge necessary to put learned information into the context of world history, philosophy, economy, and especially the Word of God, so you are able to analyze information and to think critically. (For this, you will have unlimited access to one of the best debaters and critical thinkers - your father.) We want more for you, Caleb, and we promise you: we will not allow you to become the victim of a dumbed-down, socialist-controlled public education.
A week ago, I observed you tenderly playing with your Gloworm, an infant toy that hasn't been much noticed by you before. When I peeked in to check on you, you had the Gloworm laying on the armchair and you were standing in front of it, softly talking to it, saying "baby, baby, baby, baby" over and over. You were also kissing it over and over and smiling at it really sweetly. I thought that this was so precious. Later, you shared your cheese and water with your baby. You continued to kiss it repeatedly and carried it around with you for about 45 minutes.
We also visited my friend this month, and you got to play with her 15-month-old baby, Joshua. I have noticed this before, but had no occasion to share it until now, that you are THE MOST GENTLE LITTLE BOY WITH BABIES I've ever seen. You are in awe of them, and when they come near you, your face takes on an expression of wonder, as you reach out in the gentlest way, barely touching them with your hand, patting them on their face, their tummy, their back, their hand, anywhere you can. You love babies! I have seen this sweet approach from you ever since you were 7 months old, when you first put your arm around a baby your age. Since then, every time kids come to play next to you at Barnes & Noble, or if little ones come in your vicinity anywhere, you reach out ever so gently, with the tentative whisper of a touch, sometimes not even noticed by the kids themselves, but noticed by your ever-watchful Mama. I have seen you react like this even with children much older than you, who don't really know what to make of your hand gently coming to rest on their shoulder. (My heart melts every time.)
It is wonderful, this precious way of yours. The affection you show towards little ones without reservation, through the reach of your gentlest little hands - all this and more, tells me that you are going to be a wonderful big brother.
Love,
Mama
Welcome everyone, to our new homepage!
This has been in the works for some time, for various reasons, one of which is that I ran out of space at the old site: Our Baby Story. Another one: our baby will be turning 2 next month and won't be a baby anymore, exactly.
If you are family or if you've been following us for a while, I hope you like the new place. Please make yourself at home here. I've tried to make this place very similar to the page you had gotten used to over the past couple of years. One of the differences, as you will notice, is the banner at the top, which will have a different photo featured every month or season. Also, in the sidebar, I have a booklist that links to Amazon. These are some of the books I have read and highly recommend.
Oh, and I almost forgot: Twitter. Every once in a blue moon, I chatter on there. They're mostly short little notes/updates on Caleb. Sometimes they are random thoughts, not worthy of a blog post. You now get to see my random thoughts. Don't you feel lucky?
I am still transfering some of my old content. Eventually, all that I have ever written will be accessible to you, right here.
Please mark this new homepage in your favorites. We hope that this will be our last move - at least for a very long time.
Last weekend, Caleb and I spent two days in Raleigh, NC with my friend and her family. We had a wonderful visit. The boys loved playing with each other. I think they remembered each other from last time. Caleb was fascinated with the family cats and would follow them around every time they came downstairs, saying "ma" or "ka" (his version of "macska"). It was so cute. We also had the opportunity to attend our very first professional hockey game (Hurricanes/Oilers), which was fun, but perhaps a little too loud for Caleb. We'll try again in a few years. Here are a few pictures of our weekend. Both the adults and the kids had such a great time, we are already thinking about when/where we should meet next.
I look at you
You look at me
Is that a CAT I see?
Hey, kitty kitty!
Where did it go?
I grab you...
Then you grab me
Hey, will you walk with me?
Kitty, kitty! MA! KA!
Wait a minute, ka. I'll get the ball.
Game. Loud!
I have fun, after all.
Here Josh, have a leaf.
