October 2010 pictures

There were lots of fun times this month! Our picture count is a bit high, but we hope you enjoy perusing them as much as we enjoyed our fall adventures with friends and family!

October 2010

Halloween

We briefly toyed with the idea of dressing up Malea as a punk rocker for Halloween...



But in the end, we took the easy way out and pulled out the Care Bear costume again. We started getting into the Halloween spirit on Friday with a Halloween party at New Horizons. Malea spent most of the day in a very cute Mickey Mouse Halloween shirt (thank you Aunt Jenni!). After snack time (pumpkin-shaped cookies with bright orange frosting), she changed into her costume to enjoy story time with other costumed kids and games and prizes back in the classroom.













On Saturday, the costumed fun continued at Mia's 2 year birthday party in Dodge Center. Mia's mom, dad and family all dressed up as Yo Yo Gabba characters - so creative!



Malea was super excited to eat birthday cupcakes again. I lost count of how many times she told me "Need cupcake!" throughout the evening. Luckily there were plenty of other snacks and a pasta dinner to distract her until it was time to sing Happy Birthday. After cake, it was time for a pumpkin pinata. It was pretty hilarious to watch a bunch of little kids try going at the swinging paper mache pumpkin. It took a little help from Mia's grandpa and a pair of scissors, but when the pumpkin pinata finally broke open, it was a free-for-all treat gathering for all the happy and excited toddlers!


On Halloween night, as soon as the sun went down, Malea was on a mission for treats!


She was a little unsure at first, but once she realized people were giving away treats, it was happy anticipation at each house!


At Anna's house


At Matt and Meredith's house


Luckily, even though she collected quite a bit of trick or treating "loot," Malea ate lots of vegetables, roast pork and fruit at dinnertime before going through her candy.


She was pretty excited about the Halloween treats, can you tell? And what did she ask to eat first? Teddy Grahams. A pretty healthy treat, I'm happy to report. Thanks Shannon!




Now if Felix and I can be sneaky enough to take care of the Snickers, M&Ms, Skittles and such (potential choking hazards, right?), Malea might not realize how yummy those candies are until next year.

Fall fun!

We had a mini-reunion with our friends the Aadlands and the Buddenhagen/Weismanns earlier this month at one of our favorite coffee shops (I'm a little behind with blog posts...). Was so fun to see everyone again - just like the good old residency days! The three Aadland kids (Ian, Grace and Will) are so grown up and we had the opportunity to meet the adorable and mellow baby Alika, a total sweetheart! Thanks so much for making the trip - we loved seeing you all and catching up!

After breakfast, we went apple picking at the Apple Ridge Orchard in Mazeppa. It was a blazingly hot fall day, but we had lots of fun riding the wagon, seaching high and low for apples (the trees were pretty picked over), and just enjoying the beatiful fall day.

Everyone enjoyed a freshly picked Honeycrisp apple on the ride back down.






Here are a couple photos of a quintessential fall activity - playing in newly fallen leaves. A perfect way to enjoy these beautiful fall days!

2 year stats

Just a couple tidbits about Malea at 2 years...

• Stands ~87.5 cm / 34.4 inches tall (66%) Weighs 12.37 kg / 27.27 lbs (58%)
• Shoe size: 7
• Number of teeth: 12 (4 canines are just about to break through)
• How Malea says her name: "Ma-MEE-ah"
• Nicknames: Mee-Mee, Mei-Mei, and Stinkbomb (the last one, usually only when giving off a certain aroma from the bum bum area...)
• Longest complete sentence (where we understood each word): "Daddy has a dolphin on his shirt."
• Loves to say: "I'm laughing!" and "I'm funny!"
• When she wants something: "I want some, some of these...!"
• Favorite cake and frosting flavor: chocolate
• Favorite food: Phad Thai noodles
• Enjoys eating: just about everything, including spinach and mushroom risotto. :)
• Favorite dessert: Raspberries... and ice cream
• Typical morning conversation: "How'd you sleep?" "Good." "What did you dream about?" "Crackers." "What kind of crackers?" "Bunny crackers" or "Graham crackers." On the weekdays, the next question is usually "Where daddy go?"
• Favorite songs to sing along with in the car: "Wheels on the bus," "ABCs" and "The Bear Went Over the Mountain."
• Favorite friends at dance class: "Gabby" (a.k.a Abby) and "You-yes" (a.k.a Louis)
• Favorite dance class activities: Being thrown in the air for "Pop Goes the Weasel," walking/running/tip-toeing/sliding in a group circle, randomly dancing and hopping around during/in between activities
• Recognizes all her friends at daycare (her teachers posted pictures of all the toddlers and their names online and Malea recited everyone's name as I pointed at their picture!)
• Biggest fear: Malea is deathly afraid of Asian beetles. They look similar to lady bugs, but are more orangish and have a nasty bite. When she sees one on our ceiling, she immediately closes her eyes and starts crying, "Wah... ladybug... I don't yike them... up...wah... Daddy get it..." If she isn't strapped into her high chair, she'll run out of the room, and if one happens to be in the entryway and we're on our way out, she'll bury her head in our shoulder with her eyes squeezed shut until we're safely in the garage. I don't remember her being bitten by one, so not sure what this fear stems from. Hopefully it's not an inherited trait (neither Felix and I are the bravest when it comes to bugs and were hoping that between Guinness and Malea we would have bugs covered!).
• Bedtime routine: Bath, brushing her teeth, reading books, playing 'hiding' and then "blanket on you!" (which translates to, please put the blanket on me and goodnight!)
• Knows that Yai and Na Chira live in Seattle (also home to "big mama mountain - Mount Reindeer," Oma lives in Boca, Grandpa is in Thailand, Uncle JuJu is in Chicago, - - Uncle Max, Aunt Jenni, Piper and Baby April are in California and Auntie Anna lives in New York.
• Top 3 most requested youtube videos: Elmo playing the piano, Princess and the Elephant (Natalie Portman and Elmo) and Elmo's Ducks... do I sense an Elmo theme?
• Princess vs. tomboy? I'm definitely getting a princess vibe from little Miss Malea. Her favorite accessory is a purple flower purse, complete with toy lipstick, keys and cell phone (a gift from the Zaphiris family - thanks, Malea loves it!)

Celebrating the big 2.0!

Malea enjoyed multiple birthday celebrations this year - lucky girl! On Thursday, the day before her actual birthday, she got a very colorful card created by her toddler friends at New Horizons.




Snacktime was extra special with a mini chocolate cupcake. Yum!






On Friday, after spending the day at Tweite's Pumpkin Patch (earlier post), we had a quiet dinner at home followed by a sparkly birthday cake with a special star-topped candle.




On Saturday, we invited a few of Malea's friends (and their moms and dads) over for a house party. The theme - Thai food! We made all of Malea's favorite Thai dishes - steamed pork buns, phad Thai, chicken satay, broccoli stir-fry, rice - and a few slightly spicier dishes (panang curry, spicy basil eggplant stir-fry) for the Moms and Dads that came over to help us celebrate Malea's big 2.0.


The birthday princess with a mouth full of fruit.


I was a little nervous having so many toddlers over (would our house survive so many balls of energy cooped up in a somewhat small space?), but the kids were awesome. There were only a few outbursts of "Mine, mine!" usually followed by a quick "You should share... Very good! Thank you for sharing!" Maybe the terrible twos aren't so bad after all?










In part because the weather had turned summer-like (80+ degrees all weekend) we decided to go with a garden theme for Malea's birthday cupcakes. Gotta enjoy the warm weather as much as possible- the autumn chill has already made its appearance in recent evenings!






Malea knows just what to do with a lit candle!


Thanks everyone for joining Malea's 2nd birthday party. We had a great time and hope you did too!