Jessie is walking

Just a few days ago I talked with our grandma about Jessie. We agreed that he's cautious. He loves walking while somebody holds his hands, but he didn't want to let go. Not even standing alone. Just a few seconds next to a bed or chair, but no longer than 5 seconds in a row.

So on Saturday as my sister in law arrived for a visit we spent nearly whole day outside. It was finally lovely weather and when the sun was out it was really hot. Except there were some clouds, so from time to time the cold wind with the clouds created unpleasant temperature change.

My hubby took care of the growing grass in the morning, so we could sit down on a picnic blanket later that day and enjoy the family time. Alex was running up and down the garden, watering flowers and trees and Jessie was crawling around.

I took him on the blanket and asked him to stand in front of me. I just wanted him to let go and stand there for a while. He usually grasps anything around or sits down. 

He didn't do either. He was just standing there, looking around. Jessie was on a walk with granddad, so they didn't see it. I asked Jessie to walk to me and he did two steps by himself. Nobody was holding his hands. So I just tried again. Placed him in front of me and asked him to walk. He repeated two steps again and again until he managed 4 steps in a row before falling at me, I always catched him. 

So here we go....Jessie is walking. I know it's not such a big deal, because he does only a few steps and then sits down or fell, but for him it is definitely big thing. We are now practising every day and he managed even 6 steps once, but two or tree are standard now. In a few weeks he'll be maybe running :D

Alex will be in a trouble then....he will follow her everywhere. Crazy and exciting time begins!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

So it's here. Christmas Eve is tomorrow.

We have nearly everything ready. Our Christmas tree is hanging from the ceiling :D That's a lovely and very practical tradition if you have little children. Of course, your tree can't be too big ;)

Christmas cookies are done, two full large shoe boxes. 

We just need to prepare the Christmas dinner. It's going to be fish and potato salad and for those who don't like the fish we'll have pork ;)

All presents are wrapped and ready to be moved from one room to another at the right time. I can't wait for tomorrow evening. 

Why tomorrow? Because the Christmas Eve is the big day for us. We have family dinner and we get the presents. We don't wait until next day. This year it will be first Christmas for Jessie. Alex will actually enjoy this one as she will understand what is happening. Last year it was just another day for her, except she got some boxes to play with :) She didn't mind what was in them. Paper and cardboard were the best toys.

She likes the Christmas tree and she's happy that there is so many people in the house. There will be 9 of us at the dinner table.

I feel happy and satisfied with everything so far. So Santa or little Jesus come on, we are waiting for you :)

I would like to wish you all Merry Christmas and the happiest new year. May all your plans and wishes for next year come true. Thank you for reading my lines here and I hope you enjoy some of them.

I know I don't have a lot of posts. Hope you understand. 

Two little angles are keeping me busy and with Jessie who just started to crawl properly on all fours and was able to lift himself on a foot stool yesterday and move from living room to kitchen over 15 cm high threshold this morning, it will be even busier. 

So wish me good luck and strong nerves :p The funny time is coming!

Christmas traditions

As you all know every country has different Christmas traditions. 

In some presents are delivered by Santa, somewhere else the Three Kings (Wise men) and in our part of the world it's little Jesus. As I already wrote about it last year, I'm not going to white a long story about it. I actually love the ideas that you can get personalised letter or video from Santa and I love to do the Elf on the Shelf too, so we are combining Santa and little Jesus together. For our kids it will be one person or two best friends.

Alex and Jessie already got a video from Santa and Alex absolutely loved it, she watched it three times.

For me the Elf on the Shelf tradition will be something like Hide and Seek game with kids. The Elf won't go away to tell Santa who's good or bad. There is no need for this. I just like to make this little surprise for them every morning.

In our home countries we have one more person who gives presents to kids. It's St. Nicholas.
He comes at the beginning of December with Devil and Angel to check on kids. If they were nice, they will get sweets etc, if naughty they get potatoes, stones etc. 

Some families play this good/naughty game with their kids. They tell them if they are naughty the Devil will take them, a lot of kids get scared of them. I didn't want to traumatised my daughter, but I wanted to show her who they are. Jessie doesn't understand it yet, so there was no need for explanation for him, but Alex had to be told. We took them to the city where there was gathering of people to see this St. Nicholas and his helpers. (Kids here don't visit Santa's house).

I showed Alex a few pictures of people in the costumes, so she could be ready a little bit and I told her not to worry. We won't give her even if the Devil wants her and if she doesn't like him, she should scare him away. I told her to say "bu bu bu". While we were driving to the city she was constantly saying Devil bu bu bu, it was so funny. When we arrived there was a lot of people there. Christmas lights already on and a Christmas tree was standing in the middle of the public square. 

There was a tent were the St. Nicholas was sitting with Devil on his left and Angel on right and a few more kids behind singing songs. The Devil was actually a lovely girl and was smiling at our kids. Both of them got a little bag with sweets etc. It was nice. Alex was constantly saying Devil bu bu bu even if she said she liked him (her). I'm glad we took them there.

Some people continue to get their kids to behave the way they want, because Santa or whoever brings the presents will see them and so if they don't do what the parents ask them to do, they won't get anything under the Christmas tree. I just don't feel it's right and when I hear that someone is saying something like this to Alex because she does this or that I tell her that she's nice enough and she'll definitely get something.

What I feel is just exploring the world around, could look to somebody else like bad behaviour. It's just a different point of view. I don't want to change my daughter or son, I want to support them and help them enjoy the life. I want them to feel loved and understood and I don't want them to feel under pressure just to make me happy. They make me happy every minute of every day even if I get irritated or stressed. It's just a feeling and that will pass, but the love I have for them won't change with it. It grows even more as they do, because they can show me that they love me the way I am and I don't need to be someone else. This is called unconditional love and I have a lot of it for my babies. 

Christmas is coming

Just a few more days and the Christmas is here. 

I'm already in the happy mood as I'm off from Wednesday till next week.
Alex's grandma and aunt are coming over so it will be fun.

We were trying to decide what type of Christmas celebration should we follow.
As I and my hubby are from different countries but with similar traditions and living in a country with completely different Christmas celebration we had to choose which way to go.

Alex is still very small and doesn't understand it much so we'll go with our traditions. We don't have a TV so no commercials with Santa are to be seen in our house. 

For us the main day is December 24th. We have a family dinner usually with some soup, either sauerkraut or chicken, and the main course is breaded fish, carp if possible, with traditional potato salad. As my hubby doesn't like fish that much we are having breaded pork chops instead and granny has a salmon. I usually get the carp for myself but this year I'm not the one who's cooking. It's my hubby's mum. 

We also get presents that evening after the dinner. They are brought by little Jesus to us not the Santa.

I'm so used to this way of Xmas that it's very difficult to imagine change it, but if Alex was bigger and all her friends would get presents from Santa we might change at least this part. 

She will have a sock with a little gift there and so will have her brother, even though he's still in my bump. But they both will have these socks for next years...

I'm glad that all the presents are ready to be put under the Christmas tree. It's true that the main ones for my hubby are only envelops as they are either online based or will be delivered later, but Alex's are all to be brought in on Christmas eve.

So here we go!

Merry Christmas Everyone!