Christmas 2009

Claire got an early Christmas gift from Hallie (my old boss). She got an Elf on the Shelf. It is an elf that Santa sends every year. This elf will find a place to hide for the day and his job is to watch Claire and make sure she is good. When Claire goes to sleep, the elf then flies back to Santa and reports how she was. When Claire wakes up the next day, the elf is hiding in a different spot. Claire named her elf, Fritz. She actually came up with it herself. Every day she would wake up and be so excited to find Fritz. Thank you Stewarts!!

I can't believe that it is the holidays already. Time flys like crazy. We celebrated Christmas a few days late this year. Sab worked on Christmas day plus his parents were flying in that night so we celebrated on Sunday. It was so nice. On Saturday night, Claire put out cookies and milk for Santa. She didn't want to put out carrots for the reindeer. Poor reindeer. Sab and his dad stayed up late and put together Claires new kitchen set. When Claire woke up on Sunday morning, she walked into the living room to see what Santa had left for her.

Surprisingly, she did not open her kitchen set first even though it was the biggest thing there. When she finally pulled the sheet off, she was so excited. Notice her tongue sticking out. I love this picture.

She took her time opening all her gifts, playing with each one before opening the next. We then sat down for a fantastic turkey dinner compliments of my father in law. So Yummy.

It was so nice having them here. They flew in on Christmas day and left today, New Years Eve. We went to downtown Dallas, went to 2 great restaurants, spend whole days together just relaxing and going to the park. We also went to the Dallas Aquarium. It was great. It was more of a rainforest than an aquarium. We had a great time. The rainforest was wonderful. Claire had so much fun seeing all the animals. She keep saying that she wanted to touch them. Probably not a good idea to touch alligators and monkeys, etc. We are all very sad to see Buni and Bunu (grandma and grandpa in Romanian) leave but all good things must come to an end eventually. That now leaves Sab and I sitting in the living room on New Years Eve, tired, lazy and no where to go. This is when it gets hard to be away from family and friends. We just want everyone to know that we miss you all and hope you have a fun and peaceful New Year.

FRIDAY!!

When we bought this hat it had a huge blue bow on it. She loves to take the bow off and wear the hat. She wears it all the time. It is so funny.

This is Claires first experience with a ducky in the egg. My grandma would always make them for us for breakfast when we slept over. Somehow they were always perfect when she made them. Not so much for me. I cooked them too long. They were still ok to eat but you couldn't dip it. You had to use a spoon to get the egg out. Ooops. Oh well, next time.

Claire figured out how to open the bathroom door. For some reason she can't open any other ones but that is ok with me. There are locks on all the doors so I get paranoid when I see her close it.

We went to this place yesterday called Antz in your Pantz. It is like the Children's Museum in Cleveland but on a much smaller scale. It was fun. They had a room with a kitchen set. I mean a real kitchen set. It had wood cabinets along 2 walls, sink, fridge, stove. It did NOT have microwave though. What kind of kitchen doesnt have a microwave. How are people supposed to cook without one? Hee Hee. I took a video and I am trying to post it but haven't quite figured it out yet. I will post it when I figure it out. Well, time to go shower and start my day. We have story time soon.

Halloween

Little Tinkerbell

RUN

At the Zoo

Fort Worth Zoo

Zoo

Claire was so excited to go trick or treating. There is no set time here to go out. Everyone waits till it gets dark then goes. There wasn't too many kids it seemed like. I don't get it. FREE CANDY. Claire never actually said Trick or Treat to anyone. Not even a thank you but the smile on her face said it all. We made it down one small street and back. There were police man in there cars passing out candy and glow stick necklaces. So fun. The weather was great. We had to wear a sweater but I can't complain. It is supposed to be in the mid 70's all week. I love it. But looking at everyone else's pictures from Ohio, I miss the leaves that are all over the ground. Fall is my favorite time of year. Leaves are falling here but not so much. I wonder if they fall more later in the season.

On Friday night we went to Grapevine. It is a cute city. They closed down Main St. and have bounce houses and games to play. All Free. The stores all pass out candy. Really neat. They even make kettle corn and give it away Free too. I LOVE TEXAS! I miss everyone and hope you had a great Halloween.

Greatest Mornings Ever

Today Claire woke up exceptionally early because of the time change. Thank god we got a tv for our room. She climbed into our bed and watched tv for a while (probably too long) while we slept. She then decided that she was hungry so she got down and came back a minute later with the whole box of Cheerios. She climbed back into our bed and resumed her tv show. It was so cute. As I type this, we are still sitting in our bed, waiting for Sab who went to go pick up some breakfast which we will then eat in our bed. I think we might just sit here ALL day;) Except for an interview that I have at 4:00. I will try to put up last nights trick or treating pictures later today. Have a GREAT day y'all. (hee hee)

Nothing is working for me right now. It is taking too long to upload the pictures so I will try again tomorrow. I am too impatient to wait. Sorry

New Pics

Poor Meika. Claire now thinks she can ride her like a horse. I am trying to figure out how to comment below each picture but I am not that talented. Sorry. I will just post all the pictures for you to see. I know I have them on facebook too so you might have seen them already. I have more to post later but the program is not letting me turn them.

Peggy and Ady came to visit this weekend. They came late on Thursday night and stayed until Sunday evening. It was nice. We went to dinner a few times and to the air show on Saturday. It was perfect weather. They left just in time for a big storm.

It was our 5 year anniversary on Friday. Since Peggy and Ady were here, we got to go out to dinner alone. First time in 3 months. It was nice. We went to this nice restaurant and spent too much money. Oh well, you only get to 5 years once.

I am still trying to find a job. No luck yet but hopefully soon. I feel like there is more to write but I am getting tired and can't think right now. So enjoy the pictures.

More interviews

Claire finally slept thru the night again the day after I wrote my last blog. Thank god. It felt SO good to sleep a full night. She was in such a happy mood the following day. We went to the park with our MOPS group today and she decorated a little pumpkin and played on the play ground. She had a good time. We are going to the pumkin patch on Friday with some of the moms and their kids. Should be fun.

I have another interview tomorrow (Thursday) at 6:30 pm. for a nanny position. I am not sure if I put it in the last blog but it is for a family with 3 kids. 13, 5, and 21 months. It starts at 6 am and goes to 3 or 4 pm. I don't know if I want to wake Claire up at 515 to get there. We'll see. I am going to the dentist tonight and then to a interview at a day care for an assistant teacher for 2 year olds. it is from 8 to 315. that sounds perfect. the only problem is that I would have to stop doing MOPS and Kindermusik but I gotta do what I gotta do.

Job Hunt

I have finally started to look for a job here. Since we still don't have our house in Maple Hts rented out, I need to start bringing in money to make the house payments while Sab paychecks go to our apartment. This sucks. I went on an interview today for a day care. NO THANKS. It was literally in a run down trailer. They are in the process of building a new building but it is not in a great neighborhood plus it is about a half hour drive one way. I was SOSOSOSOSO nervous going to the interview. I haven't had to interview in over 9 years. They actually only asked me one question, "Would I feel comfortable driving a bus?" A bus? Not so much. Now it is one of those short busses(laugh laugh) but no. They want me to come back tomorrow or Wednesday to observe the classes but I am going to call and let them know that it is too far for me to drive. I am in the process of lining up another interview, this time for a nanny job. It is Mon-Fri from 6:00 a.m. to 3 or 4 pm. I don't mind getting there that early I am just worried about waking up Claire. I don't want her to get used to it then wake up that early on the weekends. THey have 3 kids 13, 5, and 21 months. The older 2 are in school all day so it would be Claire and their 21 month old. It would be good for Claire to have someone to play with. Maybe I will still be able to go to Kindermusik and my MOPS meetings. I really don't want to give them up. Oh, another thing about the daycare, I can bring Claire and pay only half price for leaving her there but it is still $73 a week. A WEEK. Are you kidding me. It would be better to just stay home then dish out that much. I would be working so she could play there. No Thanks. I would really love to find a job that I could work part time but not so far. I will keep looking.

Claire has been driving me absolutely crazy the past few days. She has had a runny nose since Wed and all she does is whine. She has been waking up at least twice every night and not wanting to go back to bed. Finally this morning at 5 am, I stood by her door and every time she would step out of bed(crying the whole time. Sorry lady upstairs:() I would go in, put her in bed without making eye contact then walk out. Finally after about 15 min of doing that over and over again, she stopped crying. It still took her another 20 minutes to fall asleep but it worked. Hopefully she will not do it again but I doubt it. It might take a few more days of this. It is making us(claire and I) so cranky during the day. I get mad over stupid stuff then I feel bad for getting mad but I can't help it. I NEED SLEEP. Uninterrupted sleep. Don't get me wrong, I love every minute of being here with her, its just been a long few days. Well, time for bed. Till next time.

By the way

Oh yeah. Sab is officially from Texas. I, on the other had, am not. Yet. I tried to get my new drivers license 2 days before Claire and I came to Cleveland. We filled out all the paper work, she entered it into the computer then handed me a piece of paper and said I will get my real license in 30-60 days. Whoa, Whoa, that will not work. I was getting on an airplane in 2 days and needed a photo idea. I do not have a passport yet. So the lady cancelled it all. Thank god she was able to do it other wise I wouldn't have been able to go to OHIO. That's all. Night Night

So I went to Cleveland at the end of September. I had a great time. Next time I am going to have to stay longer than a week. One week was just too short. I got to see alot of people but not everyone. Sorry to those I didn't get to see. I will post some picture next time. Sorry.

The time has come for me to get a job. Boo Hoo. I love staying home with Claire. We have activities that we do during the day and classes that we go to. But I also to like to work. I have applied to some nanny jobs and also to a few daycares. Either way I can take Claire with me and she can play while I work. We found a renter for our house AGAIN and they fell through AGAIN so that is why I have to get a job. We are stuck making the house payment ontop of the apartment payment and don't want to keep taking it out of our savings. I am nervous to start a new job. I hate interviewing. I get way too nervous. I know I am good at what I do I just don't know how to tell other people that. Wow, that sounded conceided. One person did finally reply to tell me that they already found someone. Boo Hoo AGAIN.

I am going to another MOPS meeting tomorrow. I can NOT wait. It is my day to spend time with other grown-ups during the day. This is one thing that I do NOT want to give up when I get a job. Oh well, we'll see.

Claire is awesome on the potty. She regressed a little bit the passed 2 days but I half blame myself. She has been doing so good that I was forgetting to remind her to go. She had 3 accidents in one day. So today I reminded her alot and she was great.

Enough for now. I will try to post those pics from Cleveland soon.

This ones for you dad!

Well, my dad told me today that I need to write. My reply was that I just don't have anything going on. We pretty much do nothing. Claire is doing totally awesome on the potty. I know I keep saying that but she shocks me all the time. She has woken up dry 3 night in a row and has not has an accident in a few days. We are getting on an airplane on Thursday and I was planning on putting a diaper on her just incase but now I am rethinking that. I am just going to bring a few changes of clothes and see how it goes.

We went to dinner tonight at the Rainforest Cafe. It was pretty neat but very expensive. Claire had a good time but was a little afraid of the noise. Food was pretty good too.

We will officially be from Texas starting tomorrow. We are getting our drivers license. UGH. It is crazy the things you need when you get your license here. You need proof of insurance, car registration, birth certificate, social security card, and old license. Crazy Crazy. Cant wait to get to Ohio. I am so excited to be back in fall weather. See ya'll soon.

Almost time for Cleveland!!

As I write this Claire is in her room trying to get out. She is supposed to be taking a nap but that is obviously NOT going to happen today. Boo Hoo for me. So instead I shut her door and I am making her stay in there till I am ready. I know, I am so mean. I starting going to MOP meetings. It is a place for Mothers of Preschoolers to go and drop their kids off in the nursery and then the moms get together in another room and have breakfast, maybe do a craft and have a guest speaker. It is actually a lot of fun. It is nice to have that 2.5 hours away to talk to other adults. Claire had so much fun in the nursery. She had a hard time at first but then they moved her to the 2 year old room and she stopped crying and started playing. I am telling you this now, She is going to be trouble when she gets older. But then again, aren't all girls?!

We also started Kindermusik today. She was a ltiile nervous at first but quickly warmed up when she realized where she was. She loved it in Cleveland. Her teacher is really nice but it is held in a dance studio which is great, all except the room. The room echos like crazy whick makes it very difficult to relax and have fun. I will see how this semester goes but I might end up changing locations just because of that. We will see.

Claire is doing so fantastic on the potty. She has had a few accidents but not at all bad. She told me she had to go potty in the middle of Kindermusik today. I was so proud of her. The only problem is that she now knows that if she says she has to go potty, then I will let her go. So when she was in time out yesterday, she kept saying potty, potty, hoping I would let her get out. Well I did NOT fall for that one. I AM NOT MEAN. She is only in time out for 1.5 minutes so she can hold it. When she got up, she didn't even try to go. She was fine. She is such a little booger.

We are going back to Cleveland on Thursday the 24th. I cannot wait. Unfortunely Sab has to stay behind in Texas due to work. I feel bad that he cannot come. So does he. I am excited to be in 68 degree weather. I am so sick of this rain. Rain Rain go away. It has been raining for 7 days straight. NOt so fun. The first 2 days were great but now I am ready for it to stop. Even if that means 89 degrees. Bring it on!! Anyways, Cleveland. I am already so busy when I get there but I am ready for it. Can't wait. Well, I better go let Claire out of her room. It has been about 1.5 hours. I am afraid to see what her room looks like. Wish me luck!!

Ok, so my girlfriend Amanda came to Texas for a visit. We had such a great time. She left today:( We didn't really do all that much. We hung around a lot. She brought the first season of Felicity. Do you remember that show? We used to be addicted to it. We actually watched all 21 episodes. I know, we are pretty lame but we did it mostly at night. When it first came out we loved it because we wanted to be older like the characters. They seemed so cool. Now we love it because we still want to be like the characters because they are younger. Hee Hee. When she got here on Friday, we went to Lake Grapevine and watched fireworks. It was really neat. We hadn't been there yet. There were tons of boats. Saturday and Sunday we just bummed around. Went shopping, that kind of stuff. On Monday we went to downtown Dallas. It was exciting. We all went to 2 museums, The Holocaust Museum and The Sixth Floor Museum. The Holocaust Museum was unbelievable. When we first walked in, an older guy stopped us and led us to the books that were for sale. He handed us a book that he wrote. He survived the Holocaust and was there in person. It was almost surreal. We of course bought the book and he signed it for us. His name was Mike. He supplied a good portion of artifacts to the museum. It is very emotional walking through it. It is and audio tour. You just punch in the number on the picture and it tells you a story. At the end, you sit in a theatre and see people telling stories of what they remember. It was bit hard with Claire. She was not terrible but it was hard for her to sit still. I would like to go back sometime with out her. We then walked over to the Sixth Floor Museum which is where Oswald shot JFK from the 6 floor of a book factory. It was so neat. They had it all recreated. Again it was an audio tour which would have been easier without Claire but I managed to see most of it. We then walked around downtown, had lunch and people watched. I love to people watch. Amanda downloaded her pictures to my computer before she left I will post them below. Hope you everyone else had a great Labor Day weekend.

So, apparently I am not the best at keeping up with the blog. I try my hardest. Amanda got here yesterday and we had a great time. We all went to Lake Grapevine which is about 20 minutes away and watched fireworks. It was great. There were a lot of boats and airplanes to watch too. Claire had a ball. I think today we are going to go to this place called Billy Bobs. It is a bar/restaurant/rodeo/dancing/and live music place. We will see how that goes. Hopefully we won't get lost going there. I have pictures but I have to figure out how to get them off the camera and onto the computer. I know, I live in the 21st century but that is what my husband is for. Only now he won't help me cause he says I need to learn and he already showed me hundreds of times. Whatever!! Claire is talking so much lately. She is saying some sentences. If she is looking at a picture of herself and I ask her who that is, she will say "you". I guess I need to start saying her name more. I always point to her and say "you", now she thinks that is her name.

I didn't forget

I feel like it has been so long since I wrote. I have been reading this really good book I got from the library. It is called Change of Heart from Jodi Picoult. I am really into so every free minute goes to that. Has anyone read any good books lately? I could use some suggestions. The library by me is pretty old and doesn't have much to choose from. Meika has been acting out a little more lately. Poor dog is cooped up all the time. I just looked up some dog parks so I am going to try that. Hopefully she will get along with the other dogs. Claire finished swimming lessons. She did great. All except the swimming part. Just kidding. She loves to kick in the water but she does not like to use her arms. She loves being in the water though. That is good. Sab is working hard for our family. He has been going in on his days off to learn the Verizon side of things and to show them the Alltel side. He is doing good though. The apartment is having hot dogs out by the pool today which is right behind us so I think we might go to that. Maybe meet a few people. I hope everyone had a great weekend. Till next time. . .

Crazy Day

Today was a crazy day of doctors and waiting. Yesterday I was playing with Meika, my dog, and her tooth fell out. Now she is 3 years old. Her tooth should not be coming out. So I had to take her to the vet today just to make sure everything is ok. I went to the first vet that I could get into. I will not be going back there. It was nothing like her old vet. Her old vet was the absolute best. Even she didn't mind going. The doctor said that she will be fine but the same tooth on the other side is slightly loose too. Poor girl. I have to start brushing her teeth daily and get her teeth cleaned. It is so expensive. Oh well, I need to save her teeth. Then I had to take Claire to the doctors. She has red spots on her body. About 6 or so. The only thing we could think of was bug bites. Maybe even bed bugs because we just bought her new mattresses but the doctor said it is NOT bed bugs. Thank god. Could be another bug bite or even a slight staff infection. She gave me a cream to put on her. I hope it works. That has been my day. Really long. Claire did great at swimming though.

Yesterday we went to McDonalds for story time and ate lunch there too. While she was playing in the kids area, she came over to me and said "potty". I scooped her up (she still would not bend her legs. was really funny) and took her to the bathroom. She sat down and pooped right away. I was so PROUD of my little girl. She got a big ice cream cone after that. Today Sab had her while I was at the vet and she told him she had to go and she did. She went poop and pee again. I just cannot believe she is actually telling us. It is so awesome.

Family

This is the wacky Hicks family. We had a picnic at the park the weekend before we left. It was so fun. Sab is not in the picture because he was late getting there but hey, at least he showed up. LOL. Today I took Claire and Meika (dog) for a walk to the park at 10:15. It was hot but I thought it would be ok. It takes about 12 minutes to walk there. I thought we would be able to spend a long time there but I just couldn't take the heat. Neither could Meika. Poor dog. We ended up getting home by 11:00. Oh well, next time I will have to go at 8 a.m.

So, my cousin Crystal set this blog up for me and she told me that eventually things will happen to me and I will say, "I should put that in my blog". Well, it finally happened. Sab has been working from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Now if you know Sab, he is NOT a morning person. So for two days straight, he comes home from work and says he is going to go play with Claire in her room. I go in there a few minutes later and this is what I see. It is just too funny. He is dead asleep in her bed. Thank god she is not in a crib anymore (Jay Kassouf:))

Life

Things are finally starting to settle down here just a little bit. We are getting more used to the area. Which roads go where and that kind of thing. Thank god for TOM TOM. We found this restaurant that everyone talks about called BABES. It is so good. The only thing on the menu is fried chicken or chicken fried steak. Each order comes with mashed potatoes, gravy, corn and biscuits. It is fabulous. A heart attach waiting to happen. Claire is doing so good at swimming lessons. She does everything the teacher says as long as the teacher is not watching her. Once the teacher looks then Claire freezes. It is kind of funny. We found the library and are going to story time on Fridays. They also have it on Mondays at McDonalds. How cool is that. Yum Yum. Puke. No, I think it will be cute. We are having our first official visitor in September. Amanda is coming here for a few days. I cannot wait. She will be the first of our Ohioans to experience the Texas heat. Bring your swimsuit.

Potty Time

Today is a day to celebrate. Well, kind of. I was changing Claires diaper and I always let her run around naked for a few minutes before I put a new one on. After a few minutes I noticed she was just standing still, looking at me with this expression on her face. One I know all to well. She was getting ready to poop. So I ran her to the toilet and put her on. She wanted to get off but I told her that I was going to get her a book and by the time I came back she had already pooped. Yes you heard me right. She pooped on the potty. Now the question is, does she know what she did? Well, probably not but that is ok. It is a start. I am so proud of my little pumpkin.