We were very lucky to have gorgeous NYE weather today in Vancouver, so Gracen and I spent most of our day outside. We went for a couple of good long walks and G enjoyed pointing out each bird, dog, and “vroom” (car) she saw. We also played at one of our favourite parks for over 2 hours, but our fun there came to an abrupt end when we had a little incident of sorts (photos to come soon, I’m sure).
Once Bradley was off work, G and I met him at the Canada Line station, picked up our pre-ordered sushi, and headed home for dinner. We had some Christmas crackers we’d forgotten to use on Christmas Day, so we busted them out for NYE… It’s festive, right? Gracen didn’t mind that they were a week late. In fact, she was pretty stoked on her paper crown and wooden birdie ornament.
Grae absolutely gobbled up her veggie rolls, miso soup, and edamame beans and then it was time for a bath, some stories, and her last night of sleep in 2011. Sweet dreams, baby girl.
For Gracen, life doesn’t get much better than this… She’s got all of her very favourite things at once – a pillow, blanket, book, and a bowl of seeds and nuts (or as she calls them, “rarahs”). Life is good.
Is it just me, or is there something so wrong about a baby in a bikini that it is ridiculously cute? When I saw this little ruffled number on the sale rack at the end of last summer, I just couldn’t help myself. And when given the choice this afternoon, Miss G picked this from her bathing suit collection… We’re pool bound!
Gracen is very certain about what she wants and between talking and signing, she usually knows exactly how to get it. This morning, she was just laying on her pillow reading some books when she asked me to help her take off her pajama top. Once I did, she politely insisted that the top be put on her Cabbage Patch doll. She was very persistent and when it was fully on and buttoned up, she sunk into her pillow, dolly cuddled closely, like all was right with the world once again. Weird little munchkin… Where does she get this stuff?
This little trooper doesn’t seem to get much of a break in between bouts of teething. It seems like we just finished with her 4 molars a few days ago, and we’re already moving onto her canines. To date, Grae has 12 teeth fully in and numbers 13 and 14 (her upper canines) are well on their way.
Today’s activities included quietly emptying an entire row of books from her bookshelf…
And happily drawing on her new chalkboard for a really long time. :)
My little bookworm was thrilled with the discovery of my Mr. Men and Little Miss book collection today. Frustration came about shortly after she’d neatly stacked the 50+ books and realized that she wasn’t able to carry them all at once. I offered to help her, but that absolutely wasn’t a viable option. She wanted to do it by herself. End of story. As a compromise, I offered her this little bag to make carrying them easier.
She accepted the bag, but absolutely did not want help putting the books inside the bag. Instead, she sat there, completely insulted, and put them in one by one all by herself. It took a painfully long time, but she got it all done. That’s my independent little lady.
Brad and I were extremely spoiled this Christmas. And I mean EXTREMELY. One of our many gifts included a new bed frame with built in storage drawers, new sheets, new pillows, and a new duvet set. Our new set up is ah-mazing and Grae thinks so too. As soon as she enters our room, she wants to be lifted up onto the bed (it’s too tall for her to get up on her own now) so that she can roll around and smush her face into the pillows and blankets. It’s a lot like watching a dog roll around and rub themselves on the grass, only cuter. :)
This morning Gracen awoke at her usual time of 6:30 a.m. and was thrilled when we gave her her stocking filled with little treasures to root through…
She’s been patiently eyeing up the pretty packages scattered along the living room floor for days now while we’ve been reminding her that they are “for looking, but not for touching”. Today was finally her lucky day and she took unwrapping her packages very seriously.
She carefully opened each little stocking gift, ripping off tiny bits of paper until each present was fully revealed.
After all of that hard work, she finally got to enjoy her gifts. True to our tradition, this year she got Christmas jammies (which she opened on Christmas Eve and wore to bed), a special Christmas book, a new ornament for the tree, a few stocking stuffers, and one bigger item – her vintage table and chair set. She’ll also be getting a few handmade gifts at our ‘Christmas in January’ in the Okanagan, but shhhh… She doesn’t know that yet.
Grandpa Dave, Grandma Charlotte, and Uncle Brett arrived to our place shortly afterwards and once everyone had a cup of coffee in hand, Gracen opened her packages from her grandparents and uncle.
Talk about being spoiled. She got some new clothes, shoes, winter gear, hair pretties, books, and blocks.
Of course she loved Papa’s Steve Jobs biography just as much as her own gifts. :)
After present opening, it was time for stories with Uncle Brett while Mama, Papa, and GC prepared brunch.
Christmas breakfast, complete with a tree-shaped egg and a brand new Christmas dish set from Great Grandma Shirley.
With a messy breakfast out of the way, Grae got dressed in her pretty little Christmas clothes and shoes.
The rest of our day pretty much looked like this. There was a lot of lounging, reading, snacking, and relaxing involved.
Of course there was also lots of playing with her new things for Miss G. She absolutely adores these photo blocks from GC and GD.
Back to eating! Last year, Grae wasn’t yet eating solids, so this was her first ever Christmas dinner. She even tried a few of the Ukranian foods Mama’s family always had at holiday meals while growing up and liked them all.
Our hope was to take a decent family photo dinner was cleaned up and put away, but unfortunately, that mission proved to be impossible. Five grown adults and a baby in one shot led to silly faces, hysterical laughing, crossed eyes, and a random Cabbage Patch doll joining the family. But you know what wasn’t impossible? Getting 15 great shots of a too-busy-to-sit-still-for-one-minute toddler. Haha! Weird how that works. Ogasawara crew, you’re a tough bunch!
Gracen loves:
She now:
Funny / Cute things she’s been up to lately:
Snuggles and Christmas stories with Grandma Charlotte.
Building inspection with Grandpa Dave and Papa.
A visit to Van Dusen Botanical Gardens for the Festival of Lights.
Mistletoe kisses for Mama.
Christmas Eve pajama opening.
Trying out the new potty seat Grandpa Dave bought.
Stockings hung from the chimney with care and a little vintage table refinished and ready for Miss G’s Christmas morn.
This morning Gracen proudly took her Grandma Charlotte and Grandpa Dave to the last Play Gym session of the year to show them what’s it’s all about…
She had to show them how she and her Papa drive the little pink Plasma Car, of course!
As soon as we got home, she slipped into her favourite purple sneakers and donned her Mardi Gras-esque beads. She’s fashion forward like that. She doesn’t look too happy in this photo, but rest assured that she quite enjoys sitting in bins while being slid across our tile floors. It’s almost always her idea.
Later in the day, still wearing her purple sneaks and beads, but with sunglasses now added to the mix, she tried pistachios for the first time. It was love at first bite.
Doesn’t get much cooler than this, now does it?
Our evening included skirt-less love for a diaper-less Bubba…
And relaxing by our very dead Christmas tree. Not quite sure what we did wrong, but it’s been that way for almost a week now. It gets more and more droopy / sad looking each day, so let’s just hope it holds out until Christmas.
Tonight Grandma Charlotte and Grandpa Dave arrived for the holidays. Gracen very anxiously awaited their arrival in front of the window and luckily they made it just in time to have a good visit before she had to go to sleep. I have a feeling that this is going to be a Christmas full of spoiling. :)
Gracen adores these new tights from Grandma Charlotte. The only problem is that she has a very hard time seeing and kissing the little bear when they’re actually on her body.