Christmas Eve!

Once I got myself motivated, Moon and I really got to business prepping for Santa.
Cut out cookies

Did some decorating

Set up cookies for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer

Guess how long the cookie lasted? Yeah, about a minute! Moon finally agreed to stop eating the cookie so that Santa could share some when he came. I wish that I had got a picture of it.

AFTER SANTA CAME, before Moon got up :)

The tree looks so much nicer with the flash off

The buffet is our fireplace. Moon knows that Santa comes in our front door.

P and I had so much fun playing with the dollhouse. We moved the furniture around a few times and agreed that if Moon doesn't like it, we can play with it.

Hopefully we will get a post up tomorrow too!
xoxo

Painting.

So I decided that the only crafting I am going to be able to do is one that she can participate in. Painting it is.
The Mooner is so into painting lately that every morning we do some painting together.
Messy and fun.

So I decided that I would paint these little clothes pin people. Moon wanted to paint one. She told me it was all done after she painted the head red with some streaks down the side. Very gory...

Here they are! Fun natural toys, lead free and inexpensive!

An Artist!

I have been terrible about taking pics lately, aside from some top-secret Moon crafting photos, so I took the opportunity to photo some of Moon's new talent. Drawing faces! She just sat down and said "mouth" "eye" "eye". I was so shocked. I wonder if it was the new babysitter Katherine that taught her??? Anyhow, very cool.

Tram Day!

I had to run an errand at OHSU for a client today, so I decided that Moon and I could have a fun morning together by taking the Tram from the waterfront to the hospital.
Here it is, pulling in!

We got in and are "taking off"

Awesome views

Moon pointing out the "Troll Bridge"

One of the "Troll Bridges"

Just some cute :)

Weird Little Moon

I have no comment...

Moon's favorite spot in the kitchen

What do we have here?
Oh, it's a Moon!

She really loves this cupboard. It sits directly above the furnace, so it's always warm. She loves sorting the canned food on the shelves above her head and really really loves to "hide " from me in there. So cute, I am glad that I captured it in picture.

Another funny Moon activity...

Here she has a teaspoon and a brush that is used to clean the garlic press.
She's dipping the brush into the spoon, like it was paint, then "cleaning" all of the cupboards with it. She did this for a good 20 minutes. Creative, she is!

I really wanted to post this though because she isn't wearing her glasses and you can see how much it looks like her eye has improved. It seems to be being used a bit more (the left eye is the one we are concerned about) and not rolled completely in. Good stuff.

Catching up on some stuff from earlier in the month...

Moon's first cookie dough beater...Do you see her eyes rolling with bliss??!!

Now she's really getting the hang of it!

That was delicious and messy.

*Not to worry my friends, this was whole wheat flour and honey sweetened cookie dough LOL

Thanksgiving at Papa Mike's House

Moon and Cousin Bridgey

Napping with cousin Jake and the dog, Sammy

Moon and Great-Papa

Moon and "Grammy"

What a nice Thanksgiving we had, even though we missed Patrick who was at work. We brought him home a full dinner, so we were forgiven for celebrating without him.

I should have known that I live in a Fan House. Pre-game party over here...
Mama will be in hiding.

Erin's Bye Bye Dinner


Our dear friend (and tenant!) Erin is moving back to Hawaii. She is such a wonderful friend, Moon's first regular babysitter, and so very loved. We will all miss her while she is gone and promise to check in on Dan, who is sure to be very lonely!
Dan and Erin

Tasty Thai Food and Cheesy smiles!

Moon created some art with this pile of rice. Dan and Erin are always so attentive to her LOL

Moon's Groovy Christmas Cowgirl Costume. She picked it out herself!

Yum Yum Nu-Nu's!

Bummer that Reduce Red Eye makes her glasses black too!

An assortment of pictures!

Black bean soup-stache!

And a big old 24 week belly

Sweet I love you's from my favorite people

Mama's prom shoes, found in the garage in a box of old papers...

So Fancy!

A moment for baby brother...

It isn't very often during this pregnancy that I really get to enjoy how amazing it is to grow this baby. With Mooner, even though I was so sick and felt so anxious, I would still marvel at least once a day at the wonder that it all was. So it was such a special experience last night when, Moon in bed asleep, Patrick out with a buddy, I alone in the tub, got to WATCH my big belly dance around for a good 10 minutes while the baby did some wild kicking and swimming. It was just really wonderful and I felt so connected and in love with this little baby. Just wanted to share that with all of you, who probably wonder what is going on with this baby and not just the Moon.

A Pre-Birthday Surprise!

Even though my birthday isn't until Thursday, Patrick totally surprised me by inviting some of my girlfriends to visit (2 of whom I haven't seen in almost a year!). It was such a great present and involved eating Lebanese food, sleepover movie watching and happy toddler times! Of course I didn't get any pictures, but the next morning we took Moon and Amelia to the park for some running around. It is so amazing to see our little girls play together. It won't be long until they are the age we were when we met!

Strange things that Moon's do...

Please send me strength to get through the rainy season with creativity and PATIENCE!

So we have been doing some crafting. The glue stick has proven popular, to the tune of 1 stick per day.

We have also taken to sorting buttons

WooHoo. So much fun to be had. No really. Moon finds it all too fun, at least!

Dan's Birthday "Party"

Our very special friends, Dan and Erin

Need I say more?

When I told Moon that we were going to get a cake for Dan, she was like "party?". I said, "well, I guess so". And Then Moon was like "party hat?" and I was like, "ok". There we have it, cupcakes and party hats!

Eye Update!

So today Moon went to OHSU Casey Eye Center to get another opinion on the condition of her eyes. The appointment went really well and many people looked at her eyes (because it is also a med school). They basically did the same tests, etc that her usual eye doc does, which was reassuring. By the end of the (3 hour) appointment, Moon was sitting up in the exam chair by herself. She also was falling asleep, but at least that was cute!
The basic conclusion was that the original diagnosis of farsightedness, leading to strabismus and amblyopia was correct. Her vision in the left eye is considerably worse than the right eye (which we also already knew) and we need to get the vision in the left eye to equal the vision in the right eye before we can expect to see improvement in the crossed eye look. So, good news is that surgery is not in our near future. Not so good news, but still not bad, is that we are going to have to put a vision blurring drop in Moon's good eye (the right one) every other day to strengthen the left eye. The concept is the same as patching, only the vision will stay obscured for a longer amount of time and she cannot "remove" the drops. I am not too excited about putting a chemical in her eye every other day, but the eye doc did tell me about some studies that were done on the safety of the drops that OHSU was a part of and I felt a bit better. In the end, I think it will be worth it for a short period of time. We are going to give the drops 3-6 months. And we have a checkback appt next month with our regular eye doc. So that's it!