Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Here are a few pics of Makeba on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. My brother dressed up as Santa for the kids (Makeba and my nephew, Evan) we did traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve supper at my brother Mark's house as they have a new baby and arrived home from the hospital that day. My mom and dad and Annand and I got the food all ready and Andrew (younger brother) and Catherine (his wife) prepared the great Santa surprise for the kids. They were so excited! It was really cute! She still tells me randomly about the monster book Santa gave her!

So, Catherine and Andrew also got her a guitar, and she LOVES it! On Christmas morning she opened the tea set we got her and the djembe drum we got her. As soon as she saw the drum, she yelled, "let's jam!" and grabbed her guitar. Then she looked around and put her tea pot on the drum and used it as a microphone! She was a one-toddler show! It was awesome!

Later we went to Annand's parent's house for dinner and she was ready for the presents! She kept looking around for more presents to open! She woke up from the nap she was having when we got there and her first thought was "presents!"

She had a truly generous Christmas and really enjoyed it. I think she loved the family all getting together, especially the attention she's getting!

Well, we hope you all had a lovely Christmas and that the new year treats you well.

Peace,
Hania

Poor little gaffer...

This momentous occasion must be documented...poor little Makeba has a broken arm! She is just over 2 years old and has a half cast on her little elbow. It broke my heart to see her so injured! I guess we had it coming since she made it to 2 without any major falls. I'm grateful that it wasn't her head!

Oh boy, all you parents out there know what it feels like to see your child fall from a height and all you can think is, HEAD INJURY!! INTERNAL BLEEDING!! WE'RE IN PUBLIC, HOW EMBARRASSING! It's silly, I know, but it definitely crossed my mind that people must be looking at me and thinking horrible things about the mother who let her child fall out of a shopping cart and is allowing the child to scream so much. I checked her over and felt the sore elbow, everything seemed in order, just really painful. We had been on our way to the bathroom to change her diaper, so we just had to keep going. I don't even know how we got to the bathroom, but sure enough, I changed her diaper and took her shirt off to see her arm and it swelled up really fast. A nice lady who worked there gave Makeba a little orange teddy bear and I asked her for a bag of ice and that ice seemed to save Makeba, because she fell asleep almost instantly in my arms with that ice on.

We called our family doctor and went in as an emergency appointment. She seemed to cheer up as we waited for him to see us, and even went to play with the toys. I'd given her some arnica (homeopathic medicine for injuries, helps with pain, anxiety, shock, etc) and that seemed to help. The ice really helped. I was running on adrenaline, for sure. All sorts of things went through my head about how I could have prevented it even though I couldn't have. I even berated myself for not force feeding her milk products, which she hates, for the calcium. Good old Annand looked up elbow injuries in toddlers and found that it is one of the most common injuries in young children. I felt better after that.

Anyway, she has to have a half cast on for a month and wear a sling to keep the pressure off her elbow. It took until the end of the next day before we knew she needed the cast because we got the x-ray the first day and then had to wait all night and the next day for the results and for our doctor to consult with the specialist. We have to go to the University hospital cast clinic for a check up in 10 days.

She's already doing so well. She spent the first two days propped up with pillows on the couch watching movies and reading stories and sleeping. Now she plays like usual and actually uses the hand on her injured arm. She's adapting and in good spirits! She thinks it's so cool to be "just like uncle Santosh" (he had a cast this past summer and she made sure to check in with him about his "sore arm" every time she saw him). I know that by Christmas she'll be just fine, cast and all! What an experience!

More of our funny little lass...

Here are some more recent pictures of our Makeba. She loves stickers... her favourite thing to do with them is put them on her face and our faces. Go figure! Eating chicken noodle soup that she requested I make for her, from scratch, for supper that night! She definitely knows what she wants! Oy. Oh, that's another thing. She's picking up all sorts of interesting things that I say, like Ay, yay, yay, and Oy!

She also has gotten into playing "mama and baby" and turns anything from her toy flashlight, to a doll into a "baby" and likes to wear her babies in a sling like we did with her when she was way too small to remember! We still sometimes put her in the "Ergo" backpack, so sometimes she calls it an ergo (which sounds more like igor when she says it).

Also, her imagination is in no danger, as she believes herself to be a baby tiger and everyone around her is also a tiger, for example, I am the mama tiger, Annand is the dada tiger and aside from grandparents and their titles, everyone else is their name and then tiger, like Santosh is Santosh tiger. We have also been skunks, monsters, and cats. It all depends on Makeba's mood and she decides what we are. Rarely are we ever just Makeba, mama and dada anymore. BUT, if you try to tell her she is something other than baby _______ (insert animal of choice) then she says, "no! I'm MaKEba!" very emphatically!

Lastly, of course I had to include her first picture with St. Nicholas/Santa Claus.

Now we anxiously await the arrival of my parents for Christmas!

Peace,
Hania

P.S. Natalie, this one's for you! Actually, the last one was, and I knew you'd be the first to see it! Thanks for your unfailing loyalty!

Goofy little lass...

Here are some pictures of our goofy little lass from this fall. She has been growing like crazy! I bought her a whole set of new pants because one day all of hers ceased to be full length pants! She loves to sing, dance, listen to stories, play "guitar" and her harmonica. Movies like "Shrek" and "Winnie the Pooh and Piglet" are current favourites. She likes the humour and the cuteness. Her latest thing is to do a knock, knock joke:
Makeba: knock, knock
Mama: who's there?
Makeba: eeyore
Mama: eeyore who?
Makeba: eehaww, eehaww (donkey sounds)
Mama: (laughs)
Makeba: don't laugh, it's not a joke, only smile.
Mama: (laughs even more)
Makeba: NO! Don't laugh!!

She's our wonderful little character!