Grandma Jane

It funny how I never called Grandma "Grandma Jane" growing up, but ever since she started writing that in cards to Tristan and the boys that was how she was known in this house.

Tonight I made an apple pie to honor the good memories of Grandma Kurgan who passed away early this morning. I made an apple pie because it was one of the favorite things that everyone loved about my grandma, but I made my mom's recipe because she's my favorite thing my grandma ever made.

In the days before Grandmas were all Mema, Nana, Grammy, and Ya Ya there was Grandma Kurgan. She didn't get down on the floor and play with us or run outside with the hose and jump in the Bush's pool for the biggest cannonball, but there were always treats ready for us when we arrived and a bag of goodies to take home with us when we left. In those days we could afford to eat those snacks because her house was always 1008 degrees and we sweat off any calories we took in. Maybe that's the lesson she was trying to teach me... I better go turn up my heat now while I eat this cookie.

She always made sure we had a new shirt for back to school or the sweater for my Brownies outfit. She would sneak me some cash as a teenager and save her quarters for my laundry in college. I always knew that on Halloween a card would arrive with money for a McDonalds dinner... thought of her when I went to pick up Tristan's this year.

I always thought it was neat to have grandparents that were 100% Polish. I don't know why, I guess it's because now a days I don't really meet anyone who is 100% anything. I admired how hard my grandparents worked for all they had and all they gave to their children.

As a family who celebrates everything with food, I will always remember the galumpkis she made for my birthdays, the perogies, bapka, and strangely her coleslaw. What will endear me to my grandparents though are Apples. No matter where I go, when I see apples, apple pie, apple trees, cider, or anything claiming to be an apple fritter (but never will be) I think of them. I am instantly brought back to that hot little kitchen with the instant coffee and silverware draw in the strangest place. Looking out the big window at Grandpa's flowers, the little bird bath, and the bushes of bleeding hearts that I thought were the most amazing flowers. I remember Uncle Greg falling asleep on the living room floor while Grandpa teased Alex and we all pretended to watch whatever was on the three channels they had on tv. We were all too sleepy from the heat to complain and getting Grandpa a cold beer from the fridge was our only relief from the sauna.

Grandma always had a soft spot for Neil ever since their first meeting. He hung out with Alex and did the dishes and in her book that made for a good man. She was right.

I can't say that I am sad that she is gone, I have not seen her in some time and phone conversations became too difficult a while ago. She was not comfortable and slept most of the time. In the end I believe she is in a better place now, as are all the family members who continued to care for and worry about her. However, it is strange to lose my final grandparent. It's like the end of an era. It's like the world just got a little smaller for me. Strange, I know, because it was just one person, but it's like she was a final placeholder for a whole generation in my eyes. Good-bye Grandma Kurgan, our fond memories of you will be remembered through us, your grandchildren.

Away in a manger, no crib for Ian

Well, cutting the tree and putting it up looked a lot different this year but it was still a lot of fun. If it had been a real tree Tristan would not have been able to help as much. Since our apartment does not feel much bigger than a manger this year, we decided to go with a less traditional tree. It comes with 25 ornaments to hang one each day as an advent calendar. As we were hanging the tree, Tristan noticed the numbers which was not surprising. What was surprising was when he counted to 11! Thank you Sesame Street because I didn't teach him that!

The lady sent me one of the wrong colors and since the right color is coming, I let Tristan hang the orange ornaments anywhere he wanted to in his room. Each wall has a few and he was SO proud of himself. We were thankful to have the tree that dad made as well, so we could put a few of our favorite ornaments up. Our decorating will be more of an "ode to Christmas" than full out decorating this year.

Zoo Lights 2010

We went to zoo lights the other night and had a blast! No, that doesn't even sum it up... it was the perfect night. We stayed a long time, kept the kids up late, and NOBODY cried ONCE!

We bundled the kids up and went to find some animals made of lights. They had a Santa there so we got that over with. I'm not a big Santa person and leave the decision of a "Santa picture" up to the size of the line in front of any Santa we just happen to pass during the Christmas season. Just so happens that this year he was at zoo lights and he was awesome. What a great picture of all the kids with Santa... I didn't even know that was possible. Now every night when it gets dark and Tristan sees ANY Christmas lights he asks to go to zoo lights. If I knew it would be as perfect as that first night, I would be there every night!! We are hoping to go back when Neil's parents come out to visit if it's not too cold.

First Snow 2010

I Can Still Hear the Monkeys

It was one of the last really beautiful fall days while the leaves were still on the trees, so we decided to use our new zoo pass from Neannie. Tristan was so excited he talked about it ALL the way there, and then he talked about it the whole evening even after we discovered the zoo had changed to their winter hours and we could not get in. Oh no, we though, what do we do know?! We stopped at a bakery by the zoo and took some cupcakes to City Park to play on their amazing playground. We spent so much time getting Tristan's mind off of the zoo and almost did a great job at it. However, when we got to the park we realized it was a little closer to the zoo than we thought. You could totally hear the train whistle AND the monkeys!!! Good thing Tristan was pretty impressed with the play ground and we all had a great time in a beautiful park! Just when we thought we were out of the woods, we get in the Jeep to go home and Tristan says, "We go to the zoo now?"

A Rock Creek Halloween

We went took Tristan trick-or-treating for the first time this year in Rock Creek. I never knew if I would do this with my kids or not because I am not a fan of Halloween, mostly because my mom didn't like Halloween and would bribe us not to go out. This year I got Tristan a costume because they were on sale and I knew if nothing else he likes to dress up. Little did I know we would have SO much fun this season. We went trick-or-treating at a local high school, the train museum, and with his good friend Ari around our neighborhood. This was not the neighborhood I grew up in! If they had given out this kind of candy in my neighborhood growing up, my mom would have had a hard time bribing us!! He got loads of candy, but I think he had more fun just meeting all the people along the way.

Pumpkin Carving 2010

I decided to let Tristan make his first movie while we carved our pumpkin and he did a pretty good job! I always laugh when we carve our one pumpkin and it ends up just us watching Neil carve a good pumpkin. What a strange tradition this is!

Tristan and Hannah sitting in a tree...

I'm pretty sure I chaperoned Tristan's first date tonight! It started with an innocent "hi" at the jumping kangaroo lights after Hannah and Tristan laughed at the same part. I have to admit, when the kangaroo made of lights turns to look right at you it is quite funny. They both laughed, turned to look at each other, and were holding hands within seconds. Love at first sight! Hannah being an older girl of about seven, was not ready to move along as quickly as Tristan and so we parted ways and had a good chuckle about it.

We made our way to the Merry-go-round, which is a must for Tristan, and waited patiently in line with our ticket. We were deep in discussion about what animal he wanted to ride and how it MUST go up and down, when we heard, "There is your little friend." Right behind us in line was none other than Hannah! Tristan walked right up to her and held out his hand. The line started to move and hand in hand Tristan lead her to the Peacock bench seat so they could sit together... this was not prompted. I had nowhere else to be, so I sat with them. They made small talk about the ride and held hands along the way on a cool winters night. Perfect. We ran into Hannah a few more times on this zoo trip and all parents involved got a big kick out of it!

Time to Get Creative

With things being tight this year, I am trying to be creative about Christmas so that it can still be special. There was a big toy consignment sale coming up so I took advantage. I started with the idea that if I had all the money in the world, what would I want to get Tristan for Christmas. Well, I would want to build him a really great train table, so I set out to make that happen anyway. I watched Craigslist for two months looking at the lots of Thomas sets people were selling. A few days before the sale I pulled the trigger and put an offer on an awesome lot and since it had been listed for so long I offered a much lower price than was being asked and I got it!

Neil and I spent the next three days pulling out the pieces we wanted for Tristan's table and together we designed a table perfect for our little boy. I then sold the rest of the lot at the toy sale and made ALL my money back resulting in a FREE Thomas table... unheard of!!

Well, the last part of the deal was that Neil volunteered to work the breakdown of the toy sale in order to get me a higher consignor percentage. He was leaving around 6:30 this evening to head to the sale and Tristan asked me where he was going.

Me: "Daddy is going to do some work to make sure your Christmas is special. Say thank you to Daddy for a great Christmas"

Tristan got so excited and said with the most genuine voice:
"Thank you, Daddy, for the Big Kiss!"

iToddler Strikes Again

Lately Tristan has been watching Youtube videos on my iPhone. Some of the stuff is bizarre but all is harmless. A few days ago he started watching Thomas and Cars videos, but not real ones. They are videos of other kids playing with their cars. They line them up, go through all their names, drive them around and do dramatic play. At any other time in in my life I would have thought it strange that people would make these videos let alone post them on Youtube, but now I think it's brilliant! Tristan takes out the same toys he sees in the video, sets the phone down on the train table, and "plays" with the kid in the video. It's like he is setting up his own virtual play dates. What a kid!