Holy Happy Merry silly Holiday Daily Working Weekend Fun Time

So, let's expense with the pleasantries.  "Hi. How are you?"

Good, now on with what you are all here for.  These pictures represent the craziness that has been the last three weeks. From just before mom and dad left, until now.  Basically they are in order . . . I think. 

this first grouping of pictures comes from when our friend Xaroula and Marcos came to visit with their new baby boy Vassilis. he came about 2 weeks before he was due; otherwise he and Artemis would share even more of a connection.

they are however, best friends already.

this was just a fun gift artemis got, a cake/tower of babel made of diapers and sundry other items. it was put together by hand, every diaper was individually rolled and tied, wow.  

believe it or not, artemis turned 40 days a couple of weeks ago, currently, as of today, she is celebrating 54 days of not dieing, perfect.  so, as is custom we took her to the local holy spot, and had her first blessing to keep her safe from all the sins that she'll surly be committing in her bible-bending life until we can get her cleansed of all those ones that she inherited from the first two sinners.  as i did with carnival, i am not trying to make fun, it is just really strange stuff we believe in when you really think of it.

anyways, it was fun. there was another little boy their getting his wishes as well, he could go in the priestly room because he was a boy, Artemis could not because she was not a boy, but, that's ok, she was bigger than he was and could have taken him if necessary. 

Xaroula then brought over our best wishes 40 days good life package (i am not really sure what it is called). It contains, cotton for long life (hair as whit as cotton), a coin (wealth), an egg (ever multiplying success), and sugar (a sweet life). it was so wonderfully packaged and thoughtful. really touching.

so, the 40 day blessing was done out in silata, and while there i took to cleaning my climbing gear which had been plagued by an on-slot of mold and mildew that occurred in the closet of our guest bedroom soon to be nursery.  it was an epic mess, but dad in all his glory took it on with all of his home ownering know-how.  THANK YOU.  my gear looks good though i did pitch a few things. 

the positive is that my gear had a much needed overhaul and the baby had her first climbing lesson, cams no less. 

i always did love gear. i will go climbing for the first time since june tomorrow. 

she has so many awesome (i no longer accept cute) outfits.  thank you everyone.

ready for her walk. 

 an especially impressive olympus on our day out.

3 generations.  crazy.

i have no pictures of myself this period; however, needless to say i was up for 36 hours straight working.  my girls did a valiant job of trying to stay up with me, and eleftheria even worked for me for a bit.  thank you ladies. 

the past weekend was my first weekend under my new self imposed family laws, no work on saturdays, only master's on sunday. so, on saturday we went for car shopping (becoming a serious process and pain in my butt). we then went out to eat at habenera, a great cuban restaurant and capped it off with a wonderful walk back to the center.  artemis was an angel the whole day, just awesome, and really impressed by all the colors of the latin artwork. 

it is really weird to see this kind of thing in pictures.  i still have a hard time understanding/comprehending what is going on, but it is wonderful.  eleftheria and i are still struggling with what is normal, but we are getting there. artemis is just awesome, no other words, well . . .
nicknames thus far:
terrataki- little monster
skouliki- little catipillar

so, no story here, just pure sweetness. this is an outfit that one of the teachers from school got for us (with the help of her daughter who is in the 7th grade class). it is sully from monster's inc.  it is super fleecy and she spent the whole day in it.  mind you, it is for a 6th month old and while it does not 'fit' it is pretty good for our 2 month old.  she is up to 58 cm. and about 6 kg.  Terrataki