Growing up...

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Favorite Songs

Favorite Song: Bicycle
Singer: Fwedy Macuwy
Band: McQueen

Jason and Iare pretty proud that Vanie knows how to sing this song (will try to post a video of him singing it) and who the singer and band is and he has finally realized that the band is not McQueen but Queen.


This actually is news from a few months... His new favorite song is Paradise by Coldplay.

More Spiderman mania

Our Little Spiderman!

Yes, we even has a spiderman watch and spiderman shoes





this is not Zorro but a Zorro look-alike doggie dressed up..




Vanie had more fun giving out candy than collecting it. The funniest part was that he would yell "trick or treat!" holding the bowl of candy when i open the door for the other kids.

Little Dancing

Coca Cola

Not sure how but the kid knows about “coca cola” and yes we dring soda at home but it’s usually pepsi so it leads me to believe that some at the day care is talking about coke. Anyway, the other day he sees his dad getting the pepsi bottle out of the fridge and of course the following comes out: “Daddy, I want coca cola!”…”No, Vanie, cola is for grown ups only”… “Ok, daddy….maybe Tuesday?”… “No, Vanie, you are not a grown up yet”…”Ok, daddy!...what about Saturday?”. Eventually, he gave up.

The Silly Things We Say

No Touching
1) One of the times we were at Pier1 Imports we warned Vanie not to touch anything. Of course , that still didn’t stop him from touching pretty much everything he past and at the end breaking one glass ball (not sure why I was naïve enough to believe he will listen to me). After that incident, we keep telling him “NO TOUCHING” when is the any stores.
So… the following weekend we go to the same store and Jason and I start with “Vanie, remember, no touching anything in the store!” good 20 minutes before we get there. We get there and just before we go in Vanie says to us: “Remember, no touching! Only seeing!”
2) No the plot line for every store is “no touching”, the problem is that Valso starts screaming it at me when I touch something. I am pretty sure everyone in the Homegoods store heard him the other day. I guess we are not there yet – no touching means not touching … for everyone, not just him!

What’chya doing?
1) A few weeks ago I caught Vanie almost glued to the TV (too close up) and while he was watching he was resting one of his thumbs on his pants pocket. I startled him asking “Vanie, what are you doing?” (meaning why are you so close to the TV) and Vanie’s response was “Nothing, I am putting my hand in my pocket!” – I guess it’s my fault for not clarifying the question…
2) The newest thing now when asked what he is doing, Vanie responds “I not doin anything!”
That’s not so bad!
1) Last night, we had grilled salmon with mashed potatoes and Vanie pretty much refused to even try it until his dad made him understand he doesn’t have a choice. So, Vanie tries a mix of both on his fork and we get the following reaction with Vanie’s arms up in the air: “Ooh, that’s not so bad, mommy!!! I’ll eat it!”

Flip flops
It’s amazing what kids get excited about. We recently got Vanie flip flops and although I don’t think he finds them comfortable he still likes to wear them because mommy and daddy have and wear them, too. For the first few days after he got them, he would randomly go to his day, pat him on the back and say “Daddy, I have flop flops… they are MY flip flops, MINE!”

Favorite Words

About 4 months ago and just before going on vacation, vanie’s favorite words were:
• Sure … “Vanie, do you want milk?”… “Um, sure, mommy”
• Almost … “Are we almost done?”
• Thanks instead of thank you
No we are way beyond these and his favorite word is…”Same”. He loves to say “mommy your’s is same same as mine”
Some of the words he is using lately but are not coming out right:
- Mirror – sounds more like “Muriol”
- Beautiful – sounds more like “boootiful”
- Ambulance – sounds more like “ambooliance”
- Bowling – he calls it “bowling ball”

Back From Vacation

It's been a while ... but it's also been two busy months between going to Bulgaria and Greece on vacation, my parents visiting, us moving into a new house and the never ending never being able to catch up with work.
Just a few pictures ... i know, the hair is getting out of control... it's already cut short and i will post updates soon.

Best Friends

Silly Things

***
Me: "Vanie, what is this (pointing to a picture of a cow)?
Vanie: "A cow!"
Me: "What does the cow give us, Vanie?"
Vanie: "Miiiilk!"
Me: "Yes, and where exactly does the milk come from?"
Vanie (very proud of himself): "The dupe" pointing at his own little hiney
- in English: the=the; dupe= buttocks in Bulgarian

...stunned and at the same time amused by the answer of my almost 2 1/2 yr old one, i decided that i am not ready to expain ...

***
With Easter coming up, Vanie now knows about the Easter bunny... except he calls it Bunny Easter.

***
We are flying to Bulgaria next month to see the grandparents so we have been trying to get Vanue used to the idea of getting on an airplane. So we usually say "in just a few weeks, mommy, daddy and Vanie will get on an airplane and will go see grandma and grandpa".
Vanie's version of that phrase "Grandma, Grandpa get on airplane". Well, he is really fascinated with airplanes and helicopter so as of a weeks or so ago the phrase has been changed to "Grandma, grandpa get on helicopter!"

All the "fine" things we learn at daycare

Don't get me wrong, Vanie has learned tons of new words, songs and what not at daycare... you can even understand the words in some of the songs he sings. And yes, the ABC's song actually has more than 3 letters now, even if most of them are still k's and s's and x's. :-) - we are getting there. I can only imagine what his teacher go through every day. I know i would not be able to do it with so many kids, day in and day out.

In addition of all the nice things, Vanie has also picked up a few funny and bad ones as well as some bad behavior.
His favorite phrases right now are:
"Oh, my gosh" - clearly something from daycare as we don't say it at home
"Get away" - with attitude when he is not happy and doesn't want me to touch him or show him how to do things.
"C'mooooon, mommy" or "C'mooon, daddy" is something you hear quite often in our house as Vanie is in this new phase where he wants us to play with him. Trust me there is no "c'mon" when it comes to doing things such as brushing teeth, or washing hands or eating - everything has to be done by HIM ALONE.
Some other favorite phrases:
"Look at that!"
"Look, mommy, i did it"
" I want" and "I no want"
"No, mommy, Vanie's turn" or "No, daddy, mommy's turn" - he is big on "turns" right now expecially when it's about his turn. :-)

On the bad behavior, just a few months ago he was being pushed around by other kids and apparently now he has started doing that to other kids himself. Some other not so nice but favorite activities - throwing his shoes. We are not sure what to do as he doesn't act up when at home or with friends' kids. From what i hear, this is just a stage that he will pass but knowing that we don't know much about his genes or the 9 months before he was born makes us think about anything he does twice and 3 times. I am sure this is just a phase - afterall, he is well behaved at home -to the extent a 2 yr old one can behave well :-).

Vanie's new girlfriend

Our dear friends, Eva and Daniel, visted today with their kids from Boston (we've been friends with Eva since the late 90's when we move to the US). Their girl, Elena, is 4 1/2 yrs old and what can i say, Vanie just fell in love. He didn't even take a nap today (needless to say he was really cranky by 5pm) and spent the entire day playing and running around after her and with her. On top of that we saw at least 2 or 3 helicopers flying really low over Laguna Beach which made Vanie's day even more perfect (this kid is obsessed with all flying objects and firetrucks).

Fun at another birthday party

Alissa, the birthday girl



Vanie - horrified from the fact that the kids are beating up and braking the horsie (the pinata)

The bottom curls are gone

Vanie is starting to look much more like a boy than a baby with the new hair style. Here is my sweetheart!

More Holiday Pictures

Christmas Eve Pictures