Tuesday was one of possibly two or three occasions we may have this season for the kids to pose with Santa.  I’ve never pushed Santa or the Easter Bunny with Yago.  He’s not a big fan of either.  He’s never had a problem with the giant rat named Chuck, though…go figure.

We were at the mall and had some time to kill so we stood in the very short line for Santa.  The entire time, Yago was declaring that he was not going to see Santa, only Daryoosh.  Only Daryoosh.  Like a broken record.

When it was our turn, I handed Daryoosh over to Santa and here’s the result:

Thanks to this low-res scanned copy, you can’t tell that this Santa sitting was a ’since we’re already here,’ walk-by decision by the food stains on Daryoosh’s shirt.

Oh, and yes, I was slightly disappointed that I won’t be able to share any photos of my hysterically crying afraid-of-Santa baby on this website.

Ok.  Following Brigid’s lead, I’m jumping in.

The first challenge:  An embarrassing moment.

At my wedding, I literally found myself in QUITE the sticky situation.

My husband and I took part in the usual wedding reception tradition of feeding each other cake.  Naturally, our fingers were covered in icing.  Some folks from the wait staff brought us a bowl.  We gave each other a quick glance and then did what came naturally…we washed our sticky hands in the bowl.

Some would have called it a bowl. Others may have called it a love cup.  Most would have realized that it was filled with Champagne before immersing their hands up to their wrists. Someone had gifted us a knife and server set with the intention that it would be used to cut and serve the cake.  Little did we know the set included a “love cup” (and little did we know that such a thing even existed!).

The beauty of it all was that the wedding was multicultural.  As an American-born daughter of Iranian parents, marrying a Spaniard, I didn’t skip a beat.  I grabbed the cup and took a sip, and my new husband followed my lead.  I told him not to worry and said,  “The Americans will think it was an Iranian tradition, the Iranians will think it was a Spanish tradition, and the Spaniards will think it was an American tradition!”

(And yes, I did lick my fingers.)

On Daryoosh’s first birthday, he had his first experience with the giant rat, Chuck E.  I, the one with a camera that seems to be surgically attached to my hand, ended up there without one. (Well, I had a camera, but lacked an SD card) boo.  The iPhone pictures and the silly fading photos from the chuck e. photo ride will have to do.

Yago loved singing happy birthday to Daryoosh! We all did!

Here’s a movie I edited of the boys having some fun together!

Birthday movie!

For a little guy who doesn’t really eat cake, he sure had a lot of it…

Birthday cupcakes:

Birthday brownies for school (thanks Publix!):

Birthday brownies (extras for school-I decorated these)

Ghost cake from Grandma

Pumpkin cake from Grandma

Of all of these, Yago may have had one cupcake, one two-bite brownie, and one bite of cake.  I hope that he continues to have this indifference to most things sweet.  (but I am afraid that we’ll never be rid of the M&M obsession…)

In fact, on a side note, 2 of Yago’s favorite people in the world dressed up as Yago’s favorite thing in the world:

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My mom bought these two cakes for Yago’s birthday.  They were too cute.  We had a great time on his actual birthday.  My cousin was visiting from California with her two daughters (Emma, 8 months older than Yago and  Ava, 4 months older than Daryoosh!)  Yago and Emma both got to blow out candles. Yago is still asking when he can play with Emma and Ava again!

Here are some more photos from their visit!

Time to finally clear the decorations!

Here are some pictures from  Yago’s first trick-or-treat adventure!  Daryoosh was just along for the ride this year, in his old-school Star Trek outfit.  Yago sported his devilish costume from last year (that finally fit him perfectly this year!) My costume was a bit stretched out considering Daryoosh was also under there last year, but it worked!

a devilish pair (the candied apple must not have fallen far from the tree...)

Be thankful that I spared all of you the picture of the grown man dressed as the tooth fairy (pliers and all) giving out candy.  There are trick-or-treaters all over town still having nightmares about him, I’m sure (or maybe just the parents of the trick-or-treaters? ACK!)

Yago had a GREAT Halloween!  I truly love this age.  On Sunday morning after Halloween, Yago asked for candy for breakfast.  I insisted he have a real breakfast first.  He finished his breakfast and I let him have a roll of smarties-looking sweet tarts candy.  In my mind I was trying to find a reasonable (to a three-year-old!) way of avoiding candy with every meal after giving in to the post hallween post breakfast request.  To my surprise, never asked for another piece of candy!  In fact, it is all sitting on a shelf in our pantry (all=everything left that I haven’t eaten yet). I can’t wait until next year!!

Better late than never!

11 month pics and Halloween preview!

Something tells me that this probably will not last through the teen years:

I opened my inbox to this from my famous photoshopping sis-in-law-La Retia Paloma!!  :)

Live long and prosper folks!

Mom, look at the leaves!  (we read a book last night about how and why leaves change colors in the fall)

Yes!  Yago–look over there!  How many colors do you see?

Red, Orange, Purple, Yellow, Green… Mom!  Look at that mountain!  But there is no volcano.

(Let me just tell you that it took almost 5 minutes of him repeating that there is no volcano for me figure out what in the world he was saying…)