Christmas Part I

I didn't think we were going to do much for Christmas this year with a possible upcoming move, but last week, Jake decided he wanted a tree, we needed stockings and many many more presents for Enzo.  So, we've been hard at work like the good parents we are trying to make a nice holiday for Enzo.

This first picture was midway through decorating the tree.  I made Enzo hot chocolate to create a mood and Jake put on a Leonard Cohen record to create some other kind of (depressing) mood.  Here he is enjoying the work his parents put into the tree while sipping the hot chocolate.

This looks like a sweet father son moment, but Jake was trying to fix an ornament he just dropped and broke.  Enzo attempted to decorate but kept cramming ornaments on the same branch of the tree.  Didn't quite get the whole ornament concept this year.  Still stinkin' cute though!  

Apparently, Enzo has been hard at work too making us a little something!  We haven't opened it yet but this picture from school that is attached to the gift is hysterical.

I know it's totally cheesy but it melted my heart when I saw it.  I pictured him placing the cut outs of holly and berries on the wreath frame and his sweet teachers who helped him.  I pictured him getting the antlers being placed on his head and then giving the photographer a "What the heck?" look.  When I picked him up from school last Friday they had been decorating sugar cookies (he only ate one) and his teacher said he spent a lot of time on them.  It was so sweet I just had to take a picture!  

Goings On

Such a busy month!  With Thanksgiving, Hanukah and Enzo's birthday finally behind us, we have been having fun at other's people's birthday parties lately.  Enzo has around 4 friends all born within a month of each other in the same year.  Crazy 2 year old parties are fun, but so so exhausting for the parents.

Now for some cuteness.  I caught Enzo reading at his table the other day and he gave me this look when I approached him.  It was hysterical and evil but totally fake.  Look how mad he looks! 

See, all is forgiven!  Just a cutie trying to read.

For his friend Sage's birthday we had a great time at a kid's science museum in San Jose where they can touch everything and there's something for every age group.  We had so much fun and can't wait to go back.  Enzo was won over right from the start because the fire truck was next to the entrance.  Got to pretend to be a little fire man for a few minutes.  That boy was in heaven.  But he was also super polite to the other kids who wanted a turn at the wheel.  Thank you Montessori education!

Playing with the mastodons in their native landscape.  Love his little face in these.

There was also a huge water room where they got to shoot balls using streams of water and watch the balls float through the mazes.  Enzo was into it and got soaked.  Luckily our host advised to bring extra clothes.

After the water room he spent a ton of time in the enormous play kitchen.  There was a pizza food truck, a home kitchen, a market and a restaurant.  He really loved working in the pizza truck - putting toppings on the pizzas and then putting them in the ovens.  It was so adorable I could hardly stand it.  He actually loves making real pizza at home.  He will point to his apron that is hanging in the doorway which means he wants to start kneading dough.  Jake first did pizza making with him at about one year old and I guess it's really stuck.  I love living with 2 pizza making men.

I had to tear him away from this enormous play kitchen.  Makes me want to turn his whole play area into a teeny toddler kitchen!

The next day was Esme's 2nd birthday party and that was at her house with snacks, 5 kids and cake.  They just ran around like nuts for 3 hours and are pretty good at entertaining each other now.  They would stop every once in a while to shove truffle popcorn in their mouths.  The only party game was Who Made That Smell?  Always a good time.

Esme's party was on Sunday and by Tuesday 3 adults and 2 children who were there got sick from a terrible stomach flu that's been going around.  I spent a portion of Tuesday taking care of a few friends that were basically paralyzed in bed.  I forged ahead into germy battle zones to make sure my friends weren't dying.  My good deed is done for a while!

One last photo from the weekend which chronologically happened first on Friday (then the two parties were Saturday and Sunday).  Enzo and I travelled to Modesto for Grandma Graziano's funeral.  Jake was really sick with the stomach flu (and I had it just a few days earlier) but he was missed by the whole family.  The only photo I have is this sweet one of us carrying flowers after the funeral to the car.  He appears to be such a good helper.

It was wonderful to see the whole family (though only one cousin couldn't make it).  We don't get together very often but it was great to reconnect and hear everyone's memories of grandma.  As the matriarch of the family for so many years she was the one that connected our not so close family together.  

Enzo's 2nd Birthday

The day after Thanksgiving, Enzo got his new birthday bike from his grandparents and I got a new bike for Hanukah.  We rode our bikes everyday that weekend, which was great since it got very cold and life got very busy right after that.  

For Enzo's birthday weekend, Jen and Sarah came to visit.  Here are the little scamps drinking milk together.  They had so much fun together and Enzo just adored Sarah.  Whenever she was out of sight he would say, "Where's Sarah?"  (Though it sounded more like "Ware Rah-Rah?")

Grandpa Gary came for a surprise visit as well though I'm a really bad daughter-in-law and I didn't get any pictures of Baba and Enzo together.  Enzo's birthday party was a bike party where all the kids were invited to bring their bikes to the rec room at the park and decorate them.  Here's is the invitation that Jake made:

We had a big craft table with different materials to decorate bikes.  This was Jake's idea and it was a hit.

My attempt at making a bicycle wheel cake!

Here's a very short video of Enzo at his party riding his decorated bike and helmet: http://youtu.be/hkPOcMqh2vQ.

Enzo got so many presents this year, mostly because his birthday was right after Hanukah.  We didn't let him open them all at once so we still have many unopened presents that were sent to us through the mail.  We are letting him open them slowly so we aren't too overwhelmed with all the new gifts.  So, if you sent us something and you haven't heard from us it's probably because we haven't gotten to it yet.

We've also had a run of bad luck lately where we all had the stomach flu, my grandma Helen died and we went to the funeral in Modesto and we've been having stress and complications over buying a house in Bonny Doon.  We are looking forward to saying good bye to 2013 and to start anew in 2014.  This has been a very difficult year for us and it's not ending a good note.  We don't even know what we're doing for Christmas yet - if we get the house we'll be moving in by the 1st and if we don't get the house we'll be going to Los Angeles for a few days with Jake's dad and brothers.  Stay tuned!