tizimatt.info

After a long wait, we finally made it to Christmas, and the much desired holiday that comes with it.

We kicked off the celebration with Keegan’s school party on December 21.The kids had prepared songs and they all got to their places and sang their heart out.

Julia, Eric, Elliott, Van, Keegan, Ivan Mackenzie and Espi from his class

belching out some tunes

They were adorable, but I have to admit that the songs were unrecognizable…After their show, Santa and Mrs. Claus showed up.

They were the same pair than last year, and again they put up a nice show: they played and sang a few songs, danced with the kids and posed for pictures. It was very cute when they asked the kids to pick a good friend and hug him/her while singing We Wish You A Merry Christmas. Keegan and Kenzie, of course, picked each other.

After the show was over, it was time for pictures. One more Santa picture to add to this year’s collection.

It was a fun party, and the parents enjoyed the show, as well as the cookie exchange (of course I bought my contribution). Keegan made us a nice card and he also gave us homemade candy cane he prepared at school in a homemade box. I was especially excited they convinced him to try to write his name, since he always refuses to when he is home.

After the party, Keegan and Kenzie played some more outside. It is funny how they get along and how much they fight. And now, since they noticed how much we enjoy them telling us they will get married, they repeat it all the time. Keegan goes overboard, talking about the babies that he will have with MacKenzie, the music that will play at their wedding, etc. So cute.

group photo

This year they decided to close the school early, so we had a little juggling to do for Thursday: Matt stayed home for the beginning of the morning, and I left work early to meet them at 10.30. We went to the library for a Christmas themed story-time, then we met Sharon and Jada for lunch. Keegan was a little out of control, but we had a good time.

Fortunately, the following day we were all off, so we had time to play together. It was a beautiful sunny day, so we went to the Skate park to play, and kick the ball around. On the way home, we saw our neighbors and we did some socializing, so Keegan had a very late start to his nap. The afternoon was mellow, and at night we started the epic job of wrapping presents. ‘

Christmas Eve was quiet. We spent the morning at Balboa Park, vising the aerospace museum and the automotive museum. At the aerospace museum we looked at a lot of very cool planes, many from WWI and Keegan was having fun identifying the good guys and the bad guys, based on the symbols painted on the bodies.We also played in the kid area, where Keegan tried to pilot a plane, jumped on the moon, and experimented with the Bernoulli effect. We even took the obligatory, cheesy, touristy picture on the moon.

The automotive museum had a cool exhibit on VW, and a lot of other fun vehicles. Check out the Rocky Horror Hippy Bus!

Ferrari Testarossa will never go out of style

Italian motorcycles area

Keegan is posing in front of a DeLorean, just like the one from Back to The Future…maybe one day he’ll watch the movie and he will probably think it is totally lame.

In the afternoon,we played and baked cookies. Keegan had fun “impersonating” Santa.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner, and enjoyed some relaxing family time…

Keegan shot this picture (I know, I look scary)

…relaxing family time till it was time to go to bed. Keegan, who has been difficult for most of the month, really was out of control on Christmas eve. I have never seen him like this. He risked not getting anything for Christmas (as well as missing the whole Christmas eve traditions). It was so frustrating that he got a note from “Santa” the  following day, saying that even if he did not deserved toys for the way he behaved he still got some, at the conditions that he would behave. Otherwise, Santa himself would take the toys back…

We did got everything ready for Santa, though. One girl from his school got him (and everyone in his class) this awesome kit to prepare for Christmas, including a plate for cookies and a mug for milk. We set up 1 cookie (just like Mrs. Claus asked us to do) , some carrots for the reindeer and and some milk.

After he was finally asleep, our job started. We had lots of wrapping to do, and a new bike to assemble. Of course, the bike, with its impossibly hard nuts and bolts, took forever to assemble, but we had fun drinking wine and watching the Christmas Story marathon on TV.

I finally crashed around 1.30, just in time to hear the inner tube of the bike explode. Ooops.

The next morning came way too quickly, but Keegan’s happiness compensated for the tiredness. He was so excited (even as we read “Santa’s note”).

cheeeeeseeeee. There. Can we start opening the presents now?

grandparents’ musical card from Italy (Santa singing in English…)

And in a flash it was all over. The tornado hit again.

After it was all over, around 8am, Matt went to take a nap, while Keegan and I skyped with my parents and opened one last present. My mom was dressed as Santa, and while Keegan did not fall for it, he thought it was very funny. It was nice to “see” them on Christmas. We do miss them.

My friend Daniele, whose daughter Gaia was in Taiwan with her mom, came by for lunch, and cooked a delicious Salmon pasta for us. We had a very good time, and Keegan was happy to have company. Well, the fact that Daniele brought him a HotWheel track, had nothing to do with it…I am sure.

Christmas Portrait

We all took a nice rest after he left, and relaxed the rest of the day. There were so many new things to play with that Keegan was a little mellower and calmer. Sometimes, looking at kids’ toys (see HotWheel track below) I wonder who design them? Obviously not someone that have to build the darn things or attach 500 little, tiny stickers on them…

The night was not as restful as I wished for because we had to pack for our short getaway. Since Keegan enjoyed so much playing around in the snow at Seaworld and Legoland, we thought it would be fun to take him to see real snow. We had a coupon for Inner Tubing Sliding at Mt. Baldy, so we booked two nights in an Embassy Suites in Ontario, which is only 30 minutes away.

Monday morning was a little hectic, between packing and getting everything ready, but we were finally on the road by 2. Fortunately keen fell asleep in the car, so we had a nice, easy ride to Ontario. He woke up just as we pulled in.

The hotel was surprisingly beautiful: we have been in Embassy suites before, and they all look the same. Somewhat cheesy, and family friendly. We like go there because of the suites, so we have our own private room, and the free breakfast and cocktails. This one, however, was a surprise. It looked like one of the trendy, modern boutique hotels we used to go to BK (before Keegan). Calder looking mobiles, a two sided fireplace, and a modern firebox greeted us in the lobby.

The room also was quite sleek, with dark wood furniture, and a modern sleeper couch.

Keegan really liked the hotel and was excited about his very own bed. We went downstairs for the famous complimentary cocktails, and set in front of fire. I guess one of the drawbacks of being in a nicer, more upscale hotel, was that they did have very sophisticated ou d’oeuvre instead of family friendly pop corn, chips or fish crackers. Keegan was a little (well, very) antsy, so we did not dare going to any restaurants. We instead ordered room service and had dinner in the room.

It took a while for Keegan to settle down for the night, and many getting up from the bed, so by the time he finally fell asleep, we crashed too.

The next morning we all got up early, had some nice breakfast at the hotel (also included) and headed out for Mt. Baldy. It was supposed to be 58 degrees, so we brought all sort of jackets, hats, etc. We got there in about half an hour, and no trace of snow. We still got all dressed up, and headed up to the chair lift. Keegan was excited about his new snow gear.

ready to go

The chair lift was fun, even with Keegan squiggling in my lap, and again, no snow. When we made it to the top, we finally saw some of the white stuff, but mainly corralled in a couple of areas.

We also saw a lot of cannons. So, I am not really sure how much more “real” than Legoland this snow was. Anyway, we went to the inner tube area, and we had a blast. It was so much fun!

Now, 58 degrees or not, it was really warm, so we started shedding layers. The guy working there, was only wearing shorts and a sleeveless vest with a t-shirt. I would not go that far, but it was very comfortable.

We took a small break, because Keegan was quickly getting bored and hungry, for snacks and miniature snowman.

After our time was up, we headed back down. There was no open snow area in which to play or sled, so we went back to the hotel. The view was a magnificent from the chair, even if, without snow, it is a little nerve racking.

On the way back home, Keegan kept up his difficult behavior with a full blown tantrum. It was nap time, so we promised him he could watch TV after his nap, but he would not want to hear it and screamed most of the ride back home. How fun.

We all went down for a nap, and watched his long awaited Toy Story 2 video together. His restlessness did not improve much, so after our hotel cocktail reception, we went to grab some food to bring back to the room. Good thing I saved some of the wine from before.

The next morning, again, we had a whiny little guy at our hands, who did not want to do anything,: he did not even want to go and play in the heated pool! So we checked out pretty early and stopped by Bass Pro Shop, an unbelievable outdoor store. It really does not fit as much in California as it would in some other State, but after tubing, I think it was the highlight of Keegan’s trip. It is a huge wood cabin, chock full of outdoor gear, including ATV, boats and all sort of weird vehicles. The walls are plastered with trophy animals’ heads, and real, embalmed animals are posed throughout the store. There are even aquariums and small ponds with live fish in it. Insane. We must have spent an hour or so there.

Keegan’s favorite part was pretending to ride the ATVs.

After leaving the store we had lunch and hoped Keegan would fall asleep. No such luck. He was awake the whole time, even if he did read his Tag’s books for most of the time. I tried to sleep a little. He finally crashed as we got in San Diego, which was a great thing. We really needed a break from him at this point. So, it was a fun trip, but made a little difficult by his behavior.

While Keegan was sleeping, Matt put a new wheel on his new bike, after the inner tube fiasco, and got it ready for him…of course he refused to ride it, despite the fact he really wanted to get a bike for Christmas. This was a little frustrating for all involved.

Matt was off to work the following day, and I was a little worried about the long two days ahead. Fortunately, we spent most of the following day with Jada and Sharon, which got some of his energy out.

I think this holiday break proved us even more that he really NEEDS school, and being with his friends. He was obviously going crazy with us (and so were we). However, we did have many nice moments and fun memories for this Christmas Holiday 2011.

Comments are off for this post

It is the most wonderful time of the year…or so they say. As you are well aware, if you know me, I can’t stand the holidays: by December, I am already sick of the holiday music, displays and fake “happiness”. I don’t like the stress, the pretense, the feel good commercials, the lack of time. However, having a young child does bring back some of the holiday magic, as there are so many activities and events to go to and just looking at Keegan’s eyes light up at the light makes my cynical heart a little softer.

It has been a busy season: three weeks packed full of fun stuff. We kicked off the season with Christmas tree shopping the day after Keegan’s birthday. We stuck to our little tree format (5-6 feet). It is so much easier to decorate and deal with, especially since it is MY job to prepare it. Of course it sat naked for a few days, but we got it under control. We used the same color scheme than last year: blue, white and silver.

Since Keegan made a few foam ornaments, we got him his own little tree to decorate. It was on his room, and it looked really cute.

This year I even did some small decorating in the house, and outside. We bought some lights to complement the modern tree (that Matt does not really care for) and I hung some tinsel, wreaths and snowflakes…Not much, but a big step for me.

Of course we brought back our Elf On The Shelf. You may remember him from last year: it is a creepy little doll that supposedly spies on your kids for Santa, and then report back every day to the big man. Every day he needs to be moved in a different location, since he flew back in from the North Pole. A major pain. I know I am not alone in feeling this, as you can read in this really funny post on overachiever Elf on The Shelf moms, from the blog People I Want To Punch In The Throat. ( a really funny blog, by the way).

the night before Christmas. Bye bye Fifi.

I have to say that this year it has a little less effect, as Keegan was not convinced he could really see everything he was doing. However, he is attached to the little guy, so we will probably bring him back again next year.

To avoid the huge crowds, I decided to bring Keegan to see Santa early on, on December 8. I am not really sure what Keegan makes out of Santa. He knows about him, but I am not really sure he believes in him 100%. He asked me one day, why a Santa we saw looked different from the Santa we took picture with, and at Christmas he thanked us for the presents. In any case, we went for the obligatory picture. Santa was bored out of his skull, being Wednesday afternoon, and was very friendly and ready to talk. Keegan was a little shy, but loved the candy cane.

We made an afternoon out of it, since Santa’s cottage is next to the kids’ area, complete with little trains and bouncies. This was one of the many Santa’s we posed with this year.

The following weekend, we went to Legoland. It was a beautiful, warm sunny San Diego day, but they set us a snow zone, so Keegan got to play in the real snow (well, probably blown in, but so it is the snow at most California ski locations anyway). He had so much fun throwing snowballs, building a snowman and sliding down a small slope.

There was also a Lego Santa Claus, and we just had to take a picture with him.

We stopped by the Star Wars area to check out the amazing reproductions. Amazing…

like father like son…

Keegan even got the chance to drive his own Lego car, and received a “driver license”.

We had the chance to watch some amazing light displays as well. Even if we missed the Del Mar display, we stopped by our Clairemont ones, and enjoyed the show. This is the third year we are going, and it still amazes us. We also went back to watch the Parade Of Lights, the boat light show. We set up on the Shelter Island beach and watched the amazing boats floating by.Unfortunately, due to the recent litigation, there were no fireworks, but we still enjoyed the show.

We attended all the holiday office parties this year: we were lucky our sitter was available for both, back to back. First, we went to Matt’s office party on Saturday night. It was in a posh downtown hotel. A good excuse to get dressed up. Amazingly enough we won a prize in the raffle. Granted, it was a digital camera (and not the blue ray player our table mates got or the Ipad2), and we already have more than two, but still it was amazing to win anything at all. We NEVER win at raffles.

getting ready for a night on the town

The following morning, we headed up to my company party, an elegant brunch in another posh downtown hotel. It was, as always, great. Amazing food, good company and free flowing champagne. It was so good, I crashed as soon I made it home. (-:

We could not leave Seaworld out: they had special decorations and shows for Christmas. They also had a snow area, but it was not quite as fun as Legoland. Mainly, they did not let kids younger than 5 slide down, so Keegan got bored pretty quickly.

how should I play with this white stuff?

oh, I get it. I will just throw a huge snow ball

We watched the sharks, and the cool decorations, including the over-sized sleigh and Christmas tree, we hugged mascots, and checked out real reindeer.

Christmas Otter

Santa’s sleight

real reindeer

We also watched the Christmas Shamu show, at the light of the huge luminaries. As always, I was taken aback by the highly religious tone of the show.

This year, we also went to another Christmas celebration, a new event in Liberty Station, right where we had Keegan’s birthday party. I had a discount coupon, so we headed there one afternoon. They had many booths, food, a Christmas tree forest, a couple of stages, a small snow area and a kid zone. Once again, Keegan had a blast sliding down the small slope and he did it over and over and over again…till he got a little hurt, and then refused to do it again.

flying down the slope

We watched some girls sing and dance, and even a little piece of the Nutcracker. In the kid zone, there was a really awesome ride: huge, inflatable balls, floating on a pool of water. Keegan got inside, they blew it up, and he rolled and played, and rolled on the water. It looked like a lot of fun. I wished I could be in there.

We also watched a live nativity scene, which really impressed him. He really liked it, maybe because by now he is pretty familiar with the story of baby Jesus, also thanks to a story my mom recorded for him. It was definitely an interesting event, but it felt a little overpriced for what it was.

We also dedicated ourselves to “Christmas activities”, like decorating an over-sized gingerbread cookie, a present from his friend Van, and baking sugar cookies. While our baking was not too sophisticated, it was still fun.

I can surely say that this year we lived the holiday season much more intensely. Keegan was a lot more excited about it…in fact, he was in an over-excited state since his birthday, which also meant a lot more acting out and misbehaving. However,  it was a lot of fun to share so many interesting activities together.

Comments are off for this post

We have finally uploaded the pictures from the Thanksgiving Hike. Sorry it took us a while, but they are now there in all their glory. Thank you Sharon for taking such great shots.

Comments are off for this post

It is hard to believe, but our little guy has turned 4 years old. Wow. He has been looking forward to turning 4, and he was really anticipating the day and the party. It is also the first time he asked for a specific gift, more than one time at least.

We are excited for all the milestones he reached as well. We had all his basic check ups, eye doctor, dentists and regular doctor and everything is good. He is now 40 and 3/4″  high: passed the 1 meter mark (103 cm). He weights 34.4 lb (15.7 kg). His hearing, muscle tone, reflexes, and everything else is good. We all know his language is very good. How couldn’t it be? He is CONSTANTLY practicing: while he plays, while he is in the bathroom, any minute he is with us, at school. He even talks in his sleep. And yes, once again I get blamed for it. (-:

One thing he really refuses to do is drawing or coloring (and puzzles are really not his cup of tea either). We would be worried about his fine motor skills, since most of his friends, especially his female friends, are great at drawing, but he is doing fine with Lego building, even the smaller blocks, and he can button and unbutton his own PJ, so, he must be doing fine. Plus, if you find the right way to ask, he would draw faces or recognizable forms: he just chooses not to.

As soon as the Thanksgiving holiday weekend was over, we dove in, head first, in the big birthday celebrations. The week between the two events has been particularly stressful for a combination of factors, including a freelance deadline, regular work stuff, work open house, and of course birthday planning.

the evite for the party

We planned the party at the same park we had it last year. And learning from last year’s experience, we did come up with a plan B: in case of rain, we reserved at Chuck E Cheese , the place I swore to myself I would never go to, but also the only indoor place that required a very cheap deposit. However, plan B notwithstanding, the week was incredibly stressful. The weather forecasts changed daily, or hourly, with various verdicts: clear, cloudy, windy, rainy (on Wednesday!), and I checked them all religiously. I wonder what do they even publish forecast for… We had an even larger number of kids this year, since we invited Keegan’s whole class, and the park was really the ideal solution.

It was an endless week, checking the weather, waiting for RSVP that did not arrive, preparing goodie bags and buying supplies… On Thursday night, we filled bags and baked chocolate chip muffins to bring to school.

Getting ready for the goodie bags.

We chose a monster theme.

Finally we made it to Friday. Most forecast agreed on party cloudy, so the park was a go. Keegan got to celebrate with his classmates one day early, with muffins and grapes. He was excited, and he had his picture posted in the classroom birthday board.

Friday was a busy day: besides the big day preparations, I also had a work event that evening, so I was rushing the whole day.

On Saturday, we all got up early (well, our normal 6.15 am wake up time). We had all the presents lined up in our bedroom, and Keegan had fun opening them.

Presents from Italy

My parents sent a massive package with lots of presents for both Christmas and birthday. Keegan’s cousins drew some beautiful cards for him, and Naraiana even crocheted a card for him.

He loved them all: the books, the clothes, the vibrating bug…but he was especially excited about getting his roaring dinosaur. It is the first time he actually asked for something: he saw a working model at Target and it was mesmerized…well they actually recreated a whole scene, with many different beasts, fighter guys and an “erupting” volcano…who would resist?

oh goodie, the roaring T-rex is here!

the morning loot…or part of it

There was no time for an early morning nap, so we watched some TV, Cars 2, another birthday present, and got ready for the party. We stopped by to pick up the cake…and they spelled the name wrong, despite my very clear printing. Fortunately they quickly fixed it and off we went. Keegan was very impressed by the cake. After excruciating deliberations, he chose a surfing Mickey Mouse cake. Don’t ask me why. He had been wanting a Nemo cake forever, and then, he just changed his mind. It did looked nice, though.

When we arrived at the park, the bouncie was already set up, and Keegan did not waste any time.

It was the same one from last year, and again it was a big hit. His friends started trickling in, and at the end I think we had between 20 and 25 kids, including siblings…wow. Good thing that, despite menacing dark clouds, the sky stayed clear, and we had the whole park to play in.

We also brought a soccer goal, bouncing balls, crafts and we were very close to the playgrounds, so it worked out great.

Hannah plays the goalie

Leave it to the boys to use the bouncing balls as weapons…

In fact, it went better than last year: there were very few tears, no fights and no throwing up. Keegan, being bigger, also was able to hold up for much longer, with minimal whining.

I guess the only big “drama” of the day was when all the kids gathered for cake, and just as Keegan was getting ready to blow off his candle, Torin “helped” him and blew it off. We did have to do a repeat. (-:

stealing a hug from the birthday boy

Most kids left between 1 and 2 pm. Since we had the bouncie till 3 pm, we waited at the park till they came to pick it up. With only a couple of kids around, the adults took turns jumping and sliding: what a work-out. I am always amazed at how the kids don’t get tired. Keegan was still going strong even in the afternoon…with occasional breaks.

We even had some “party crasher” who asked us to join in.

As we were waiting for the guys to pick up the bouncie, Keegan opened the presents. This year he was a lot more excited about them, so it was not easy to “hide” some away, but some clever organizing helped.

Admiring Alyce’s hand made wrapping…pretty impressive

Despite being exhausted, Keegan did not fall asleep in the car and it took some convincing to get him to sleep. He finally went down for an almost three hours nap. Matt followed suit, and I enjoyed the much needed peace and quiet.

Keegan woke up around 6 pm and he immediately proceeded to play with the new toys, even if it was hard to pick with so many good choices.

Is this a toy store display or our living room?

With the party and the celebrations behind us, now it was time to throw ourselves head first on the next big thing: Christmas. Yeah! (and yes, this is sarcastic).

Comments are off for this post

I love this holiday: 4 days we all have off. This year the weather has been  absolutely gorgeous, which allowed us to take full advantage of our beautiful city. We began with a Thanksgiving Feast at Keegan’s school. Fortunately we were charge with bringing vegetables, which made it easy. We all ate, even Keegan, and the kid played outside.

Keegan and MacKenzie: self professed future husband and wife

And to complete the kick off the for the holiday season, my parent’s package arrived that day as well, stuff to the edge with Christmas and birthdays presents for all of us.  — thank you for all the goods (-:

The following day, after the regular early morning nap, Keegan and I met our neighbors for a fun hike in the Canyon nearby. The sky was cloudy, which made it perfect for walking. We had fun collecting acorns and leaves and throwing rocks in the puddles and streams. I was impressed Keegan hiked without complaining almost a full mile.

The kids playing and hiking together

Afterwards, we played at their house, and then we had lunch together. When Keegan went to take his nap, I started my holidays shopping…from home. Lots of great deals out there and with both a birthday and Christmas coming up, I needed it. We found a good bike for Keegan and a few other goodies. In the afternoon, Matt started cooking our feast, and our friend Daniele and his daughter Gaia came over to share it with us. The kids, despite the three year’s difference, played well together, and got to jump around and run. They had fun building a fort out of our bean bags.

Did Keegan have the holidays mixed up…or was he just trying to impress the older woman with his supernatural powers?

Dinner was excellent as always, and we savored all the food and the wonderful pies Daniele brought.

This is exactly how we felt afterwards.

Keegan was exhausted and crashed as soon as they left, and we finished our evening quietly.

The next morning, Keegan fell back asleep till 7am. Wow: sleeping in! It was a beautiful sunny day. Around lunch time we went to the Clairemont Square shopping center to see the arrival of Santa: this must have been the shortest parade in history, but it was still fun to watch, with the vintage cars, marching band and the ancient firetruck carrying Santa. Keegan and Matt missed most of it, but I took pictures.

Definitively much different from the Mother Goose Parade we watched the previous week, that lasted a good three hours.

The line for Santa was too long, so we just strolled around, and got some pizza and ice cream. And this made Keegan’s day. As Keegan slept, I did my own black Friday, by surfing the internet for gifts. I am sorry, but I really can’t fathom waking up at 3amor staying up till midnight and brave huge crowds for deals…

Saturday was an exceptionally warm day: I think we broke a record, with highs in the upper 70s. We took advantage of the weather to go visit the Chula Vista Nature Center, that sits on the 316-acre Sweetwater Marsh National Wildlife Refuge. It was beautiful, with plenty of animals to see. We even got to see the rays and the sharks being fed.

In the afternoon, the tides were exceptionally low, so we headed to Tourmaline Beach Park, in Pacific Beach, to check out the tide pools. I have to say that as far as sea life is concerned it was a little disappointing: we only saw a few anemones/ like plants, and  little crabs, but the beach itself, with the huge stretch of sand exposed was magical at sunset.

How can you avoid falling in love with San Diego in moments like these?

Sunday was also a very warm day: we pumped up the water heater a little so Matt and Keegan went splashing in the pool, and I got my swimming exercise done too. It felt good, and the water was a nice 80 degrees. We took it easy the rest of the day: eating and reading in the sun, while Keegan napped, then playing together and preparing some snowflake shaped banana nut muffins. We had dinner together, and played some more.

everyone knows how to relax in style in our house

All and all it was a great Thanksgiving. We are grateful for everything we have and for all the people that surround us with their love and support. In the craziness of the routine it is easy to forget how blessed we are, and we are trying to instill a sense of thankfulness in Keegan as well.  So, a wonderful, relaxing, 4 days weekend. We really needed it, to recharge and store energies to face the following week, which was a crazy, busy, stressful one.

Comments are off for this post