Christmas Morning

The big day finally arrived and although Anna doesn’t yet understand what Christmas is all about, I think she liked it (duh!). Prior to Christmas morning, we had placed nothing under the Christmas tree because if Anna is good at one thing, it’s opening presents. When Anna came down the stairs, the expression on her face was priceless – I wish the garland wasn’t in the way so we could get the full effect. (You’ll notice the cute Santa PJ bottoms didn’t make it to Christmas morning…Dad had to make a switch after a diaper leak….)

Once she made it down the stairs she was a bit overwhelmed and kept looking at us to figure out if she could actually approach the toys awaiting her. After getting several affirmative responses from us, she made a beeline for the kitchen Santa brought her and spent a good chunk of time “cooking” for us. It took awhile for us to entice her away to check out her other loot (which worked well because Aunt Maddie was sleeping in!).

Anna also received a dollhouse with extra special meaning – my Grandma and Grandpa Turner made it for me when I was little and it was passed down to Anna this year. My mom performed a “renovation” to bring the house up to today’s style (long gone are the green and mustard paint and shag carpet which was en vogue when I was little!). Anna’s house has tile floors, wood laminate, plush carpet and even a new roof! It
has quickly become one of Anna’s favorite toys. Grandma Dodie – do you recognize this house??

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Cookies & Radishes

After donning her Santa jammies, Anna eagerly went about the task of preparing milk and cookies for Santa. And, radishes for Rudolph (hopefully he shares with the other reindeer).

We had decorated the cookies the day before with our pals Lisa and Ryan and it took a lot of willpower for Anna to not eat every single one before Christmas Eve. She was probably thinking, “Why does this Santa fellow get to eat MY cookies??”

If he saw how the cookies fared on the trip from the kitchen to the fireplace, he might think twice about eating them…

Making Mischief

Last week our house was invaded by not one but two elves…Tinta and Elfy Shelfy. Elfy is Hayla’s elf and due to a last minute business trip for me, Hayla (and Misty :) ) spent the night with Anna, much to Anna’s excitement.

In the morning the girls found the elves in the middle of a tough game of Memory – it looks like Elfy had a slight edge with two pairs to Tinta’s one. Bunny apparently was in on the game too, and Santa preceded over the match…it appears to have been a raucous soiree, I’m surprised the girls didn’t wake up in the middle of the night from the noise.

I didn’t get to witness Hayla’s and Anna’s reactions in person, but judging from the photos, the elves achieved their mission of promoting the magic and mystique of Christmas.

Later in the week the girls exchanged Christmas presents and the anticipation was almost as good as the actual gifts. All morning they both asked over and over if it was time for presents yet (I was the reason for the delay…behind in my wrapping, you see…). When the big time finally rolled around, the girls reveled in their loot of fancy shoes, princess press on nails, a stamp kit and Mr. Potato Head.Ahh to be young!

The Most Wonderful Time...

We've been headlong into the Christmas spirit for weeks now at Chateau Bergstrom, I just feel like I can't blog about Christmas until Anna's b-day has passed.  Now that we have birthday #2 under our belts, let's deck the halls!

As you can see, our visit with Santa was interesting this year.  Anna enjoyed talking to and watching the the big guy from afar...but, sitting on his lap, not so much.  It does make for an entertaining picture and definitely captures the stranger anxiety Anna has experienced on and off (mostly on) since being born.

I was afraid the experience scarred her against Santa for good, because for the 1-2 weeks after the photo, if you mentioned Santa she would say , "No Santa!".

But, it seems to have been a momentary fear because now she will tell you that Santa is coming soon!  A new visitor to our house, Tinta the Elf, has helped turn Santa's arrival into an exciting vs. scary event.

Tinta is Anna's Elf on the Shelf - the premise is that Santa sent Tinta to help him know if Anna has been naughty or nice.  Each evening Tinta visits Santa to report on Anna's deeds for the day and each morning he appears in a new spot in the house and Anna eagerly searches for him.  Tinta came with a book and Anna very solemnly follows the one rule Tinta requests in the book - no touching or his magic will go away.  Each time Anna sees Tinta she says, "No touch Tinta!  Fly to Santa."  Yet, you can see that she REALLY wants to touch and pick him up - a huge tempatation for a 2-year-old.  Tinta is smart enough to hide in high places to help remove the temptation.  We have let Anna sneak a quick kiss or two on Tinta's cheek - I mean, that can only help strengthen his magic, right?!

Many of Anna's friends in the neighborhood also have Elves who visit their homes.  I'm not sure if that means East Gate kids are prone to naughtiness so Santa sends more Elves here than normal, or if us moms are just suckers for cute traditions...The elves are a key topic of conversation among the kiddos.  At Anna's birthday party a lengthy conversation took place dissecting the hiding spots of Tinta, Chewy, Elfy Shelfy and Jason (an elf, not Jason B....) - the adults in the room were definitely smiling during the exchange.  I should note that the kids get to name the elves...hence the diversity in the names.

We put up our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.  As I'm sure you cam imagine, Anna was a tremendous help decorating the tree.  She had endless energy for unwrapping ornaments and carefully placing them on the tree and never did she repeatedly remove any ornaments that I hung on the tree.  Ha. 

She did have fun decorating the tree...for about 10 minutes, then she was WAY over it (and to be honest, who isn't?).  She didn't understand why mom and dad were so focused so we ended up doing the lionshare of decking out the house while she was napping...much more efficient.

One thing Anna really likes this year are the Christmas lights throughout the neighborhood.  We've taken her on a few pre-bedtime drives and her exclamations are so sweet and help you remember the innocence and joy that can be derived from looking at Griswold-esque exterior illumination.  At a recent birthday party, Anna was giddy when we arrived at our friend's house to be greeted by an inflatable Santa and two snowman.  She stood on the lawn despite the cold temperatures and slight drizzle pointing, laughing and talking to the figures.  When I was able to finally drag her away, she said, "Bye bye Santa!  Bye bye snowman!  Bye bye other!".  I cracked up it was so sweet.

Way TWO Fast

I can hardly believe it but Anna turns 2 today.  Where did the time go?

We celebrated with a small party on Saturday and Anna reveled in the crafts, time with friends, cake and presents.  She had so much fun that on Sunday the first thing she said to me upon waking was, "Party again mommy?"  Smart kid.

So, happy birthday to our sweet, sweet girl.  Watching her transform over the last year into a bright, curious, funny little creature has been amazing - I can't wait to see what next year brings.

Waiting patiently for cake

We went with a lollipop cake this year

Helping bake the lollipop cake

Finally - we get to eat the cake!

Chaos ensued!

Cruz wisely kept to himself during the party - no hanging with the gals for him!

Her favorite presents - a tent and bike.  And yes, she did try to put the bike in the tent...

Feeling Thankful

I’m glad to get this post in just under the November wire…it’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is already over and we’re heading full steam into the Christmas holidays. We enjoyed a great trip to Cape Cod to see the Bergstrom clan for Turkey Day. Although the weather didn’t cooperate, we managed to have a fun time nonetheless (and we somehow managed to avoid any travel delays, which is always a bonus!).

Beverly’s kitchen was blazing the entire trip – afire with cooking, baking, mashing and stewing. Anna and I got in on the action and helped Grammy with her stuffing, a job Anna took very seriously (I also pitched in on some other dishes, I didn’t rest on my laurels too much…).

We had all of the traditional Thanksgiving dishes with some New England flair mixed in thanks to a slew of littleneck clams Fa Fa dug up himself. They were excellent appetizers, especially when combined with the bottle of Pinot-Chardonnay which Fa Fa home-brewed over 10 years ago. Jason found the wine in the basement and bravely opened the bottle, tasted it, and didn’t keel over. We were all impressed by the wine and told Paul he missed his calling as a vintner.

Anna relished playing with her cousins and this time she could (pretty much) keep up with them. She and Lars bonded over Tom & Jerry and skateboarding.

And, she and Ty logged a good amount of time playing with Jason’s old Star Wars action figures. Anna went straight for Princess Leia and Han Solo and steered pretty clear of the more mutant-looking toys, proclaiming them “disgusting” (pronounced dizguting). She did like Yoda and R2D2. Aunt Kirsten’s old dolls and doll clothes also were a hit, both with Anna and the adults – we got some good laughs out of the 70s-styles outfits Anna’s baby donned. Like the leisure suit below – awesome.

On Thanksgiving we took advantage of a minor break in the rain and snuck out to an awesome playground for some fresh air. This was our second playground attempt of the week – a few days earlier Beverly and I took Anna to a seaside playground, an outing which lasted approximately 3 minutes due to the whipping wind, drizzle and 35 degree temperature. Anna looked at us like we were crazy when we urged her to run around and play…the Thanksgiving day outing was much more successful.

Freezing at the playground

During our Thanksgiving meal we did the standard go around the table and say what you are thankful for – our responses ranged from serious to silly and made for some good laughs. I won’t connect names, but you can probably discern who said what (note – the youngest two, Ty and Anna, could not be coaxed into giving an answer…). Here’s what the Bergstroms are thankful for this year:

* Being healthy and lucky enough to be with family for the holidays

* My family and the world

* Family being together

* A winning, albeit not great, Patriots season (so far…)

* Wine

* Horses & ponies

* Being with family. And TV.

I do consider us lucky that we get to be with both sides of our family several times a year even though we live in different states.  Each visit is always way too short, but I feel we maintain a close relationship and can pick up right where we left off each time we get together.  I am truly thankful for that. And TV…

The Good Playground Outing

Watching Tom & Jerry

Skateboarding with Lars

Anna & Bunny Switching Terminals at Logan

Good News!

I found my camera! Hip hip, hooray!! Yesterday while I was running errands, it magically appeared from under the driver seat of the car. I say magically because I checked the car from top to bottom no less than 5 times so I am convinced that some little elves spiritied my camera away and then secretly planted it in the car when they were finished with their adventures...alas, they left no pictoral evidence on the camera.

Ironically for this post I am going to include a picture I did not take (you've seen my pics - they are not this good...). This picture came from Anna's 2 year photo shoot with our friend and fantastic photographer Crystal. She captured a super sweet shot of Anna sharing a lollipop with her best bud, Bunny. Grammy Bergstrom made the sweater she's wearing - so cute! Jason couldn't make it for the pictures, but Gramma Turner and Aunt Maddie joined in and we had a lot of fun. I know choosing pictures is going to be really hard. To see a preview, click here.

Bummer.

Bergstrom Babble is suffering of late because I lost my camera.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I dug into the Anna archives to find a picture that communicates how I'm feeling about being camera-less...

No Tricks, All Treats

Even though the weather did it's best to thwart a festive evening, Halloween went off without a hitch. Little Red Riding Hood was seen yesterday frolicking around East Gate...luckily no wolves were spotted. Gramma Turner gets MAJOR kudos on Anna's costume - everybody loved the ensemble, especially the frilly bloomers.

Each year there is a quasi-parade in our neighborhood that is always humorous to watch. I don't know if the kids or parents are harder to wrangle...but, inevitably it is cute seeing all the kiddos march (or wander aimlessly) in their costumes. Anna definitely fell into the category of wanderer - at the start of the parade she dutifully followed the Tinkerbells in front of her, but soon broke off on her own route. Eventually she just stopped and looked up at me with a very questioning expression.

Waiting with Tinkerbell for the parade to start

Following the parade we tried to get a group shot of all of the kids - tried being the key word. I think at this point all of the kids were thinking, "Um, we were told that if we put on these costumes we would be given candy. What gives?" So, at this point us parents dropped the "organized" activities of the evening and Trick-Or-Treating officially commenced.


Even though we had practiced saying, "Trick or treat" for weeks, Anna was a bit apprenhensive at the first house. But, after snagging a box of DOTS, she was hooked. Honestly, we could have stopped after the first house and with one piece of candy and I think Anna wouldn't have known the difference, but we continued on. She became a little braver with each house we approached and she ended up getting quite the haul for a 2-year-old. Of course that means Jason and I have had our fair share of Runts, Laffy Taffy and Snickers, but Anna was over the moon. Surprisingly she didn't ask for her candy today - I'm sure that won't be the case next year.

Dreams & Aspirations

With each passing day, Anna's vocabulary grows - so much so that you can almost have "real" conversations with her. One endearing feature of this is that Anna will try really hard to tell you stories. The stories always start with, "Mama - remember this?", and then she babbles for a minute or so and you can usually pluck a few recognizeable words out of the stream - like Tope, Jake, eat, ice cream, Hayla, car, doggie, the fair, book and dancers (all of her favorite things). And then she ends the story with "Remember this?" It's really cute but each time I try to capture it on video she clams up.

Her talking usually takes a turn towards the silly but I am grateful for the new levels of communication we are experiencing these days. Which brings me to the "Dreams" part of this post...

A couple of weeks ago I had just gotten Anna up in the morning and while I was changing her diaper, she started laughing and said, "Mama. Tope outside. Swinging. Tope outside. Silly Tope. Swinging. Silly." She giggled the entire time she talked. Tope was nowhere to be seen at the time (and clearly doesn't swing outside), so, I asked her, "When did you see Tope outside swinging?" She answered, "At night." Then she laughed and told the story all over again. It struck me then, that she might be telling me about a dream she had. So I asked if she had seen Tope in her head while she was sleeping and she said yes! Now, whether or not it is the case, I choose to believe that it was a dream and it thrills me that she can use her growing chatterbox skills to tell us about them!

Now, as for asipirations, I asked her for the first time this weekend what she wanted to be when she grew up. Without a moment's hesitation and in as serious a tone as an almost-two-year-old can muster, she answered, "Princess." (I agree with Liz, there is a Disney marketing fairy!) Thinking that was too cute to not be captured on video, I whipped out the camera and asked again. This time, she pondered the question a little longer and decided being a princess wasn't for her. Her silly side prevailed and she chose a much more attainable goal...which, if I'm honest, she meets on a daily basis.

All's Fair

We recently took advantage of one of the few beautiful, non-rainy weekend days (which have been few and far between) and spent the morning at a local school fair. We gave Anna the option of going to the zoo or the fair, and she enthusiastically chose the fair. Not that she had any idea what a fair was, but apparently it sounded more fun than the zoo.

To Anna's delight, she got to play in several bouncehouses and had her first pony ride. She was a bit unsure of the horse at first, but warmed up by the third lap (so, pretty much when the ride was over).

As if that wasn't enough excitement, she also got to decorate a cookie, ate Nerds for the first time, and had her first shaved ice, which pretty much cemented the fair as one of her favorite activities ever. Ah, the little pleasures...