The toddler years

November has been a busy month. A week after Halloween Sarah turned 2 years old. Her birthday party was a small get-together, instead of last year's big party, however, I think she enjoyed it more than the last one. She had a great time practicing how to blow out candles and unlike last year, she didn't require any help opening gifts. Christine just kind of sat in the background and watched. Watched and learned! She's getting so smart! She's fully able to crawl now, and she's constantly on the go. Just like Sarah at that age, she has to touch and taste everything in her sight.
For the first time, we attended the yearly Santa Clause Parade. It conveniently took place about 2 minutes from where we live. The girls had such a blast watching the beautifully decorated trucks, the marching bands, dance groups, cartoon characters, etc. At first, I was worried about the baby not being patient enough to watch the 1 hour parade, but it was so exciting, it captured her full attention for the whole hour. She not only enjoyed it, she stole the show! We were sitting on the curb waving at the paraders when she decided to wave at them too. Everyone thought she was adorable! Who would expect an 8-month-old to wave at people? But everyone was doing it, so she joined in.
We've also been busy preparing for Christmas. Peter put up the lights on the house last week. They look awesome! Thanks babe! The girls and I go shopping almost daily for presents. Sarah is getting so much easier to out with. She listens, and understands everything. I can explain and negotiate! That's a huge step. She even helps with Christine. I honestly believe at the age of 2, she has the intelligence of a 4-year-old.She can dress herself, feed herself, use the bathroom by herself, she can count to 10, she knows 90% of the alphabet and countless nursery rhymes. She also has a huge vocabulary in both English and Hungarian.She has a great sense of humour and she's becoming more and more independent. She often spends the night at either grandma's house or uncle Jeff and Jenny's place. We still regularly take swimming lessons and attend school where she now has no issues staying in the classroom for the entire 2 hour class. I'm so proud of her!

Halloween 2009

The girls had their first Halloween together this year. Sarah was dressed up as a bee and Christine was a Dalmatian. Peter decorated the house with pumpkins, lights, ghosts and a spooky flashing strobe light. It was a very cold and windy evening, but both of the girls' costumes were thick and fuzzy to keep them nice and toasty. Grandma Schriver, Jenny and myself left for trick or treating around 6pm. Peter and Jeff stayed home to hand out sweets. Sarah quickly realized what the night was about and had a great time running from house to house while our little Dalmatian watched her from the stroller. Everywhere we went, people loved them! They looked so cute! Our neighbours were also very very generous with handing out treats. The candy, chocolate bars, lollipops, chips, twizzlers, and who knows what else quickly filled up their bags. Due to the bitter weather we decided to head home after getting to the end of Pine Street. Maybe next year we'll make it further, but regardless, the girls collected enough goodies to keep them happy for months to come.