Happy Halloween!

I guess holiday season started for this year. We (traditionally) do not celebrate Halloween in Romania. Ready to party and be in a good mood, we adopted Halloween as a family holiday also. A month back we started searching for a costume for out little girl. We wanted a ladybug costume, as she was obsessed for a while with a book with a "buburuza". Our search ended soon, as all ladybug costumes were either very "summery" or just plain ugly (and expensive!). So we kept our minds and eyes open to find a cute, affordable outfit. We ended up with 2.

Daycare Halloween was not as glamorous as I expected. In previous years I went with my lab mates to see their little ones parading in cute little costumes, hoping that one day I will have my own little one there. Well, now I have Catalina, but the day care changed the rules. Parents are not invited anymore to participate in the parade, and only the big kids are part of the parade. The little ones just watch a bunch of older kids walking around in funny furry dresses.  Oh well...so I dropped of Catalina this morning as all the infants and toddlers were getting ready to see the big kids show off their costumes. Catalina's costume for day care was a little cow, as they requested (understandably...) for costumes that are easy to put on/take off.

This is the most that I saw from the Day care parade. Yes, I am a little upset, I only hope she had fun.

Evening came with some tiredness and crankiness. Surprisingly though, Catalina let us put on her the big bulky duck costume. She carried the little pumpkin basket by herself all night long. She also wanted to be carried all night long, which resulted in severe back pain for mommy.

First few "treat or trick" attempts were confusing and Catalina didn't really understand what is happening. She enjoyed seeing people drop candy in her pumpkin, but she did not participate in any way.

As night progressed she was brave enough to go pick the candy by herself (with mommy or daddy holding her hand, obviously)

The night ended beautifully. We stopped by my friend Sayanti, where Catalina got the biggest chocolate of the night. A full chocolate tablet! She was happy indeed and wanted to eat it right there. Mommy and daddy had different plans (they wanted to eat it too :)!

Like I said, beautiful night, sweet memories

Mommy vs daddy

    I believe there are some questions that should never be asked, even if they seem benign.
    It starts when you get pregnant, with all the curious people asking you: "So, are you pregnant?" How shall I put it...If I am pregnant and I haven't told you, it means I don't want you to know, so you just put both of us in an embarrassing position. If I am not and you ask, well, you just called me fat. So, there is no good occasion for this question.
    Then, the baby is born and it ALWAYS comes: "Whom does she/he look like?" And worst of all, people ask this while looking at the baby and the parents. Well, are you blind? You can decide. If you can't, probably we can't either, so why don't we let the baby grow a little so the nose  becomes straight, the eyes lose the puffiness and the mouth gets some teeth. It might be easier to guess for everybody at that time...
   Third  pretty stupid question comes when the baby can talk, and this question goes straight to the kid: "Whom do you love more, mommy or daddy". Really, what do people think?? What if the kid really loves them both? You just gave him/her a worry a kid should not have. What if the kid actually picks one of the parents? You just have one parent with very hurt feelings and badly humiliated in front of you. This one question does so much damage, I wonder if people who even consider asking it are complete idiots. But, I guess afraid that at some point they might lose the contest, mommies and daddies around the world fight for the first place in their kid's heart (assuming normal, loving families).
  And this brings me to my little cutie pie. Somehow, Catalina knows all these stories. If I ask a kiss from her, she gives me one and then runs to daddy to give him one also. Same happens if daddy asks her. This happens most of the times, even if one of us is in a different room. When she goes to sleep she needs to touch both of us, so she sleeps with her head on daddy's shoulder and her feet on mommy's face :). She feeds us both when we sit at the table. She knows she has a mommy and a daddy that are madly in love with her and she's not ready to lose either.
  What is the final result? Well, a wonderfully spoiled, loved beyond limits little girl :)

Here we took some snapshots in her pretty duck Halloween costume. Just in case she decides to go trick or treat in jeans and a jacket...:)

Happy family at Fox Chase farm apple festival. Catalina was suffering from allergies to hay (we believe that was the culprit) and was not the happiest kid.

One year later

Time flies, everybody knows it. A year back I could not believe I have Catalina. A year later, I still can't. I guess, when dreams come true, you still think you are dreaming.
Today we went to a pumpkin patch. Last year, the pumpkins were bigger than her, she was only sitting on her bum and looking around wondering what's happening.

 This year, she was running around the patch, trying to lift them off the ground. Even the bigger ones! She kept telling us Thomas is coming (Amtrak rails were crossing the farm land), that there are flowers everywhere and once in a while she was giving us hugs.

There were similar things compared to last year too. The weather was beautiful, the pumpkins were orange, and well...lots of people stopped by to tell us how cute Catalina is.

All in all, a perfect day in nature. You top that with a BIG cone of peach and strawberry ice cream and one can see what I keep saying life is perfect!