In One Year…

…and out (goes) the other.

Happy New Year, everyone!

How Swede It Is

We were visiting Aunt Liz up in the big city when we decided to take a stroll through her neighborhood. Our ultimate destination was an independent bookstore, and on our way there, we passed through a Swedish neighborhood. (No, not IKEA, although we were at one earlier in the day.) Olivia recognized the flag flying above one of the bars and gleefully shouted “Look, Mommy and Daddy! It’s Laga’s present!”

Place Adhere

Olivia’s been getting herself in a bunch of sticky situations as of late. Let me explain. Of all the nice gifts the child received for Christmas, the one she plays with the most is a $1.29 bottle of Elmer’s glue. Our dining room table is now literally plastered with example upon example of her glue art. (On the brighter side, she's not yet taken to eating the glue.)

Axe to Grind

G got her granddaughter her own guitar for Christmas. Olivia shows that she’s not one to fret about frets: our chilled-out musician spent a significant part of the day improvising and coming up with silly songs.

Fine Whine

No sooner had Beni said goodbye to her twenties than she complained about her first laugh line. Her milestone birthday was also marked by a more joyous moment, one in which found Olivia perched in a familiar position.

Christmas Miracle

Olivia’s protracted fight against sleeping through the night continues on to this day, but on the night you’d almost give a free pass to those eagerly expecting a visit from Santa, she flipped the script and stayed aslumber for nearly eleven straight hours. Most parents call this normal; we proclaim it this entry’s title.

Our daughter must have been pretty good this year because it took nearly an hour to get through all the wonderful presents and cards she received from Santa, family, and friends. For being the offspring of parents who surely suffer from ADD – we lay blame for our condition on whoever invented multitasking – Olivia surprised us with the attention to which she gave each and every item she unwrapped and opened. She gave extra attention to the gifts she received from Santa: a saxophone and an ironing board set.

Fah-leese Navidad

Olivia’s latest obsession is to find out what the police – she calls them the fah-leese – are up to. (Don’t ask why.) We live fairly close to the police station and so we see officers in their cars on a near daily basis. We also had an old neighbor who just graduated from the academy and who gave us a friendly honk and a wave when passing through his old stomping grounds recently, which prompted our daughter to ask me not if, but when I’d be joining the folice force.

Sit Happens

A.J. and Olivia took turns as Santa and on each other’s laps to go over the details of their respective wish lists.

Do You See What Icy?

We joined Aiden and his family for a family skating session at our local ice arena. It was the first time either of our three-year-olds had been ice skating and probably should be the last time I ever strap on skates. (Show me a graceful bowlegged skater and I’ll reconsider.)

The kids were good for a couple of laps before cookies, hot chocolate, and the zamboni directed their attention and bodies off ice.

Preschool Musical 2

The angelic singing voices of Olivia and her classmates were featured tonight for the second time in a month’s span. On this occasion, we were treated to a medley of Christmas carols, and then later corralled around a medley of Christmas treats.

Toe Jam

For whatever reason, Olivia has morphed “Let It Snow” into “Let It Toe.” (Maybe she thinks she’s digitally enhancing the original version.) Fittingly, we got about a foot of snow, and fortunately, the weather outside wasn’t all that frightful for creating snow angels.

Baby Got Vac

A reminder of how fast time flies: In three short years, our daughter’s gone from being the baby who’s held while vacuuming to holding her own while cleaning up the living room.

Depths of This Pair

It’s been twelve years since David Letterman gave us the “Oprah, Uma; Uma, Oprah” line while hosting the Academy Awards, and so on this twelfth day of the twelfth month of the year, it’s perhaps numerologically fitting that we can go with the caption below to describe two friends meeting up for lunch.

Livy, Lily; Lily, Livy

Pointed Remarks

Santa – with his pointer finger extended à la victorious football players mugging for the camera – demonstrates the self-confidence you’d expect from someone who never fails to deliver seasonal joy to so many of the world’s children.

On the other hand, our little one made a little one on her one hand and on the other hand for a little fun.

Mane Attraction

On a recent trip to Target, nothing caught Olivia’s fancy quite like the giant toy horse. She spent many a minutes brushing its luxurious mane and feeding it an equally lifelike carrot.

Holding Him Close to the Vets

Olivia and I took Max to the doggy doctor this morning for his annual checkup. With each passing year, he gets more grey than hound – his salt-and-paper coat has become increasingly saline while his instinct to chase rabbits and squirrels has fallen by the wayside. A couple of shots, a blood test, and a nail trim later, Max left with a clean bill of health and the okay to ride in the backseat with his sister.

Presents of Mind

Aiden and Olivia glowed with excitement and from the lights on the tree as they discussed what they’d like to find under their respective trees on Christmas morn.

Beyond the Call of Duty

Around this area, Santa’s got a real good rep – a customer service representative, that is. Olivia pretended to field calls from nice children around the world, writing down in list form the things they desire from the potbellied purveyor of presents. Her actions essentially eliminated steps 1 and 3 – making a list and finding out who’s naughty and nice – from the jolly one’s checklist for coming to town.

Sweetie Pie

In this holiday season, we wish for pizza on earth and goodwill to all.

Going, Going, Gong!

Olivia’s The Gong Show tribute is apropos as I close out a month straight of blog entries.

Fight or Flight Response

Rather than fight with my uncooperative child at a crowded library tonight, I let Olivia run wild on the condition that her naturally booming voice not go above the level of a loud whisper. She kept herself quiet and busy in the DVD section and holiday books before turning her attention to the computers in the children’s section, where she pretended to be an aircraft marshaller.

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb

What’s Hot?

Lions in dreams: Recently, Olivia’s had two dreams involving lions, including one in which her feline friend splashed her with water while they were swimming together.

What’s Not?

Lions on the field: After a 6-2 start, the hapless NFL franchise out of Detroit (Olivia sports their pink jersey above) has returned to form with their current losing streak that has no end in sight.

In Golly Trust

Olivia has introduced into our household the practice of pre-meal prayers, a routine she picked up in preschool. She usually leads us in a rousing rendition of “Oh, the Lord is Good to Me,” which is punctuated at the end with a fist-pumping ah-MEN, although she’s been more partial recently to “God We Thank You,” a prayer-song she swears is “Golly Thank You.”

Creative Juices

Olivia told us recently that she’s going to have a daughter when she’s all “growed up” and that she’s going to name her Sobe – pronounced [so-bee] – as in the beverage company.

Carte Branch

Olivia granted herself the absolute power and authority to bogart decorations off the family tree for her little one, making hers as highly decorated as a war hero. We are constantly having to pick up items off the floor because her tree is struggling with the disproportionate ratio of total ornament weight to load-bearing capacity of its branches.

Bright Child

Many hands make light work: A proverb that teaches us that large tasks become small when divided among several people.

Many hands make lights work: A statement that explains our family’s attempt to bring holiday cheer to our neighborhood.

Pooch Smooch

Olivia demonstrates a level of affection for her dog that rivals those that her mother, aunt, and grandmother have for Black Friday doorbusters.

Turkey-ish Delight

This was the only “turkey” coming out of our oven this Thanksgiving: Olivia and Aunt Liz got our vegetarian Thanksgiving off to a great start with this coupon-inspired collaborative effort.

Her Heart's in the Right Placemat

On the eve of Thanksgiving, our preschooler presented to us a placemat detailing the things for which she’s thankful. I couldn’t get the entire collage scanned, but here’s most of it.

We just love the things that made it onto her placemat. Here they are, both the labeled and unlabeled items, as told to us by Olivia:

• Art (where art thou without thou's art?)
  
• Cookies (not a tough one)
  
• Pets (little woman's best friend)
  
• Our house (is a very, very, very fine house)
  
• Swimming (a favorite family pastime)
  
• Cheese pizza (no pepperoni for our vegetarian chicken!)
  
• Trees (hugging them since 2006!)
  
• Macaroni (dietary staple)
  
• Rain (just like her parents – Pacific Northwest, here we come!)
  
• Friends (are presents you give yourself)
  
• Family (like friends but more permanent)
  

Bringing Down the (Open) House

Olivia wore her fancy green dress for the Thanksgiving concert she and her classmates put on during tonight’s open house. They performed a medley of timely songs including “Little Pilgrim” and “Six Little Turkeys.”

The superlative form of cute fails to capture the preciousness of the moment, but the super-superlative cutest-est comes close.

Sight for Poor Eyes

Beni and I come by nearsightedness naturally – each of our parents wears corrective lenses. So when Olivia tried on a pair of glasses at the drugstore, she was actually peering into the future. Let’s just hope that she doesn’t look quite as dorky as her mom and dad did as kids.

Yo-Yo, Ma

We’ve spent recent Sunday mornings at our community’s Unitarian Universalist (UU) church. According to the Unitarian Universalist Association’s web site, Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religion with no creed. Furthermore, it affirms the worth of human beings, advocates freedom of belief and the search for advancing truth, and tries to provide a warm, open, supportive community for people who believe that ethical living is the supreme witness of religion.

All we know is that it’s possible for an earth-centered agnostic and a non-practicing Catholic to both feel welcome and comfortable within a church’s walls. The most pleasant surprise, however, has been how much Olivia enjoys her religious education classes. Every week she begs us to go back to the yo-yo church. (Attempts to correct her malaprop are always rebutted.)