Winter Blahg

 

Exhale.  A napping 2 1/2-year-old and an errand-running 32 1/2-year-old equals some peaceful alone time with my laptop.  Here I sit, almost two months later with finally a few minutes to rub together to write an update.  What a whirlwind couple of months!  To be perfectly honest, it's probably best that I haven't written until now.  As illustrated by the -12 degree photo included in my last half-assed post, our winter hasn't exactly been kind.  Today is the first day in a month that the mercury has made it past the 10 degree mark on the thermometer and I have to be honest...I was starting to get pretty jaded.  Thank God for today then, when the temperature made it randomly up to FIFTY degrees!  You must understand that this is summertime to we Minnesotans.  I'll probably head out swimming later today.  :)  Needless to say, my pessimism may have just made it into my writings and I hate to record those kinds of things to read years later.  So then, allow me to proceed optimistically in accordance with today's balmy temperatures finally.  Yay!

Do I really need to tell you who the boss is in our family?

Alessandra remains simultaneously the most unorthodox and yet orthodox child I've ever met.  I have a habit historically of sharing the more unorthodox milestones (read: indirectly bragging on her milestone accomplishments, or what I view as such).  Speaking in orthodoxies, however, in so many ways ever since birth, Ali has complied with whatever those typical segmented-by-months-of-development books say that she should be complying with.  Take my "What To Expect: The Toddler Years" book, for instance.   It predicted that clothing would become a huge point of contention in order for her to assert her independence.  Umm, yeah.  If my book were capable of saying "I told ya so!", it totally would.  We are currently alternating between no clothes at all and ladybug or princess, and there is no in between.  Most evenings as soon as we get home, the clothes are immediately stripped off down to skivvies (thankfully the diaper has been staying put contrary to a few weeks back when even they didn't make the cut).  Somehow, she seems to stay warm and comfortable in this cold weather, and I have no idea how.  On non-nudist days, we have a choice between leaving the house with a ladybug, or a princess.  The "ladybug" being the same as the Halloween costume that you got to see a couple of months back, and "princess" consisting of any kind of frilly skirt that she can twirl and satisfactorily pick up the wind in.  I happen to be fond of the "pick your battles" method of child-rearing, and so until she insists on leaving the house in her skins, a ladybug or princess are both a fine daily uniform in my humble opinion.

Naked as a jaybird is how we find her most evenings

Ladybug is one of her three alter egos.

You may wonder with all that nekkidness going on how we're doing with potty training.  Better in the sense that we aren't wearing the potty seat as a necklace any longer, but as far as systematically utilizing it, we're still just not that interested.  Usually once an evening I ask her if she wants to use the big girl potty to which she replies yes, mostly because she knows there's a sticker involved.  She'll squeeze a few drops out right away to expedite the receipt of her reward, but as only a proud mother can say, I'm happy to report that there have been a couple of occasions where Mr. Hanky has paid our potty a visit.  The below [albeit uncensored] picture was one that I picture-messaged to Ricardo while he was at a poker party.  Being the proud papa that he is, he showed to several of the guys.  As you can imagine, only a select few were in appreciation.

Stir-craziness inevitably has a way of making an appearance this time of year when there's barely any daylight and below-zero temperatures relegate us all indoors.  Our pint-sized house doesn't allow for much imagination, but modern technology has often helped us through our square footage limitations.  Oh, don't give me that look.  Yes, it's a television, and yes, it's a video game.  But holy smokes do we get our fitness on!  Alessandra has rediscovered her love of dancing at daycare, where they break it down to Michael Jackson: The Experience on the Wii on a daily basis.  As luck would have it, a good friend at Ubisoft blessed us with a copy of Just Dance which is the same genre, just different people dancing to different good music.  And so we dance.

For some God-awful reason, Ali really likes the song "Cotton Eye Joe".  Speaking of eyes, I'll probably stab mine out with a dull butter knife if I have to hear that song one more time.

At least there's a pretend lasso involved.

Alessandra did get to meet two of her favorite celebrities at Nickelodeon Universe this month.  She doled out hugs, but pretty much froze up after that.  Of course, when the photo op was done, she literally hopped out of the ropes with joy.  I couldn't tell what Dora and Boots were thinking, but I like to think that they waved at her extra long after she left.

This year has already started with a little bit of travel for me and as a Christmas gift to ourselves, my coworkers and I decided to head out to Laguna Beach a couple of days before our annual sales meeting to get some surf and sand in.  The weather was unseasonably warm, even for Southern California, and the hotel was my favorite since I've been there.  Our rooms were all ocean view and we were so close that you could actually hear the waves lapping at the building during the morning's high tide.  The sunsets were amazing and the wine by fireside at night was the very definition of relaxation.  We all decided we'd do something kind of touristy while we were there, so we headed south to the world-famous San Diego Zoo.  It was amazing!  Of course, after all that action we headed into a week's worth of all-day meetings, but after the fun we had that weekend, it was absolutely tolerable.

Jen (my office buddy), me, Karen (our New Hampshire friend that we wish we could see more often!)

Jen, Me, Tom (Ben's friend), Ben (our other office buddy)

SMP Minneapolis...Perhaps after a drink (or six?!?!??!)

As we speak, my little peanut snuffles through a snorgely nose and horrific coughing fits which have just been diagnosed this afternoon as a nasty case of bronchitis and an ear infection, all on her right side.  Bless her heart for not complaining once which is so typical of her amazing temperament that we were all blessed with since day one of her existence.  Alessandra's poor little eardrum was on the verge of bursting and here she is laughing and telling jokes all the while.  The only reason we took her in was for a hopeful solution to suppress this cough of hers so she could get some sleep at night.  Little did we know we'd end up leaving with a prescription for an antibiotic for the other stuff and an old-wife's suggestion of honey for the cough.

So, just before I sign off to take care of my sick girl, I'll leave you with some pictures from our jaunt home for Christmas.  We sure do miss all of our friends and loved ones.  And for those we couldn't see, we miss you even more.

Aunt Kate and cousin Vicki

Me and my brother Mac

Aunt Kate, Megan, Charger and Lauren

Cousins Alessandra and Marley...Stuck together like glue all Christmas

Cousin Megan and I

Sisters Aunt Judy and Grandma

Aunt Sheila and Uncle Spencer

Marley in a Christmas food coma

I FINALLY got to go to Bronner's before Christmas!

More Bronner's gaudiness

BFF Megan and I

Aunt Judy and Ali play the piano and sign together...So sweet!

We also learned how methodical Alessandra can be when it comes to unwrapping gifts.  She tears each piece of wrapping paper off one by one, hands to me and finally, when the gift is unwrapped, she studies the package in it's entirety front to back and side to side.

Here mama, take this piece of wrapping paper

Unwrapped, and studying very carefully...

...More studying...

...Studying...

...Studying...

...And more studying

Stealing cousin Gabriel's trucks and hoping he won't notice

Torres kids enjoying the rare occasion when the are all together!  Ricardo, Valentin and Yolanda

Uncle Jeff's typical after-dinner activity

Grandma Torres singing Christmas carols with her chulita

Christmas carols with all of her grandbabies

Gabriel looking dapper as usual, even in monster PJs!

Happy to be home!

Gianna and those beautiful brown eyes

Lexie applying makeup from her brand new kit.  OH BOY!!

Gianna getting a makeover

Lexie and Uncle Jeff

Gianna with her daddy

Lexie, Gianna and Isabella

Ali LOVES her Grandpa Torres

Aunt Yole with all of her nieces and Gianna

Beautiful cousin Mollie with her dad

Grandma and Grandpa Torres so content with their family home

Cardo's favorite ornament that he made when he was wee...

Dambro cousins Kristi, Chelsey, Nick A. and Nick B.

One very happy auntie to see her nephew who just happens to be a cuddler.  (Yay.)

(More yay.)

I'm almost positive that there is a photo that exists of me also wearing Mr. Potato Head glasses...Like mother, like daughter

Cootie heads on the fingers

Until next time, my friends.

Big hugs from Team Torres!