easter and then some

As usual, my pictures are backwards....thanks for putting up with me.







April is a big month in the Pearlman family, in a 2 week span we celebrated three birthdays, Passover and Easter. Needless to say we ate a lot of BR ice cream cakes, or at least I did. Odesa is off dairy now and Mike is on a crazy gluten, dairy & soy free diet so they had some coconut ice cream instead. We celebrated Passover at our place and had a lovely Easter brunch at Kieve's country club. All the girls had matching dresses and looked adorable. They had face painters, balloon artists and a petting zoo. Needless to say Easter was a big hit!

Favorites- It's almost spring edition.

Odesa's current favs-

Red Grapes

Climbing

Cooking, especially pancakes!

Red Licorice (the all natural kind of course!)

My Gym

Facing forward in the carseat.

Talking about the babies heart beat.

Lifting mommy's shirt to see the baby in mommy's belly.

Asking to go to the doctor.

Reading books.

Going to the library.

Getting letters in the mail.

Singing the ABC's.

Sharing her food with our French Bulldog, Lou.

Going to the bathroom in the potty.

Playing in her kitchen.

Favorites

Odesa:

Peter Pan the movie, but mostly for Captain Hook, Smee & the Croc!!

Playing outside with her bubble gun.

Putting the 3 little bears to bed with Grannie.

Disneyland

Weekends with daddy home.

Margaret Slayton, her second cousin whom she met on their California vacation.

Bike rides with the cousins.

Hula dancing.

DHA vitamins.

Sitting in Grandads Corvette with him & pushing all the buttons.

Walking her dog which is actually one of Lou's stuffed chew toys that is a dog. We tied a string around it and she has been dragging it to the park almost everyday.

Winnie the Pooh Opposites book, or the "yellow one."

Beauty and the Beast

Pomegranates

holidays

We've been keeping busy! We kicked off the holiday season with a surprise brunch for Mike's 30th b-day & then rolled straight into Thanksgiving. We hosted a dinner for some of our friends a few days before & then had the big dinner at Mike's mom's house. Odesa sampled some turkey and jello salad but her fav was the mac and cheese! The best part of Thanksgiving was Odesa got to sit at the kids table in a big girl chair!
We got our Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving so needless to say we've been in the holiday spirit all month! We took a trip to Tanaka Farms to pick out our Hannukah bush and tried out our "new" hand me down wagon. I decided to decorate the tree & ornaments started going missing. The tree ended up only half decorated, the top half! We've been baking cookies and singing holiday tunes all month! Odesa is obsessed with Frosty the Snowman! We got to meet Santa at Disneyland & she had only one thing to tell him, er ask him: where is Frosty the Snowman!! Once she realized that conversation was going nowhere she was through with the big guy! We took her to build a bear and they had the original Frosty! He is her right hand man! She has memorized the entire movie, hand gestures & all, she knows the song by heart & we talk about frosty constantly! While Frosty reigns #1, Jingle Bells comes in a close second! We decorated the wagon with lights and tinsel and have been going out after dinner a few times a week to look at all the awesome lights. Odesa loves Christmas but she loves Hanukkah too! We celebrated with the family over dinner and songs. The older kids were most concerned about their gilt but Odesa only wanted to stomp around chanting Hannukah, Hannukah, Hannukah all through the house!
We are very fortunate to get Mike home for 2 full weeks every year for the holidays (thank you LCAD!) His last day of work till January was December 17th and we have been greatly enjoying having him home. Odesa's favorite thing to do is wake up and run into our room to play with him! Unfortunalty for Mike it has rained everyday of his vacation & will probably rain most of the rest! We have been getting out & using our rain gear though. We bundled Odesa up & took her to Fashion Island for a rain adventure!

Halloween

I have always been a huge Halloween fan, I was raised that way :-) But I have to say none have been as fun as this one was. We have had our indoor & outdoor decorations up all month and have been talking about it for weeks so by the time the 31st came along Odesa was ready for this Halloween business to begin. She had 2 costumes, a Minnie Mouse one to wear with her buddy Jake who was Mickey and a witch one for the big day. We always do Halloween with Mike's brother & his family and boy did Odesa enjoy herself! There were about 15 kids over there & it was crazy. She tried to keep up with the big kids once the trick or treating began but once she realized what trick or treating was it became a mission of hers and she could not be rushed! Needless to say we all had a ball and Odesa even scored a few full sized treats. While she didn't get to eat any candy this year she did get to eat cake so don't feel too bad for her :-)

And we got to enjoy the night with baby Ryder. Even though he slept most of evening, I think he enjoyed his first Halloween.

Disneyland!

We finally made it to Disneyland on Saturday, October 16th. It was super crowded but Odesastill had an amazing time! Right when we entered the park Mickey came out with all his buddies & a marching band to perform, Odesa looked very serious but asked for more when it ended. She was taking everything so seriously that Mike & I didn't really know if she was enjoying it until she got to meet Minnie Mouse. She ran up and hugged her, gave her a kiss on the nose and then cried her eyes out when we had to leave her! So far we have been twice and are planning on going again this afternoon- obsessed, just a little. Good thing we got annual passes! Her favorite so far has been the Winnie the Pooh ride. She like to scream "TIGGER" at the top of her lungs every time she sees him! She also rode Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, the Carousel (she had to ride it twice in a row and still left crying!) and It's a Small World. Grannie came with us Tuesday and we all stayed for the parade which was awesome! She still hasn't gone inside California Adventure but we plan on heading there today to see Playhouse Disney Live! This is a live show of 3 of her favorite cartoons, Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh & Little Einsteins so it's sure to be a big hit!

Haunted Mansion with Grannie.

Love!

But churros are her true love!

Fall

The seasons are changing here in Ladera Ranch and fall is in the air. As hard as it will be to say good bye to one of the best summers of our lifes we are excited for this new season and all the fun it will bring. We just finished putting up the Halloween decorations & Odesa loves them. She talks about Halloween all the time. She is going to be a witch though I think if she could pick she would have been a pirate! She is really into pirates & says "arr" all the time.

Some new things:

Jumping- she loves to jump on the couch, bed, floor- anywhere!

Teeth- we are now at 11 with more on their way. She also is much better about letting us brush her teeth, as long as she gets to floss at the end- loves floss!

Sleeping- we are now sleeping through the night at a more regular schedule.

Bed Time- Odesa now not only lets Mike put her to sleep she requests him!

Odesa- she now knows her name. She has been responding to it for over a year now but when you ask her what her name is she has always replied "baby." Now she says Odesa & talks about herself in the third person.

Impersonations- Odesa now can impersonate some of her favorite characters, Goofy is a personal favorite, " oh garsh!"

Jake- The biggest change is she now has a new best buddy who she sees 4 days a week. Jakey. He is the cutest, sweetest little dude and we all have a blast together.

Guitar- Mike finally got his guitar fixed and has been playing for Odesa. She is obsessed & asks for daddy & the guitar all day long. I finally had to hide it because she was getting so worked up over it.

Colors- She is learning her colors, so far we have yellow, orange, green & blue down pat.

Counting- Odesa can now count to 13.

Shapes- We are also working on shapes & know heart, circle, square & star.

Ring around the rosies- Loves it, plays it with everyone even the stuffed animals.

Swimming- by the end of this summer Odesa was holding her breath under water really well. She can now jump in the pool on her own, go under & then we help her back up.

We have still yet to get a night away from her but though I always blame it on the breast feeding neither of us are really ready to spend a night without her.

We went to Oak Glen last weekend to get apples & pumpkins.

But Odesa wanted CORN! Luckily they had some :-)

Picking raspberries. When I say pick I mean we picked them & she ate them!

Jake & Odesa's favorite game. They think this is hilarious!

He endures her!

Relaxing with Sophia. These girls are two peas in a pod!

We took her to a pirate festival in Dana Point- big hit!