Thanksgiving vacation - the first

We flew to California and went straight to my sisters house, where we met up with her and my parents and the beach. The beach is my girl's favorite thing in the world, I think. I'm guessing she'd chose the beach over candy, toys, friends, food...
So, even though it was about 55 degrees outside, she charged into the water in complete happiness. I wasn't so daring as I value the feeling in my extremities, so her dad braved the freezing water. After she fell down, I declared her done because she was shaking too much. Once she stopped shaking, she was ready to go back. I gave her to her Grandpa instead, and grandpa hugs are a close second to the beach.

toy box bed

Last night, we laid our girl down for bed, gave her a book, kissed her goodnight and left the room...followed by the gate we now put outside her door. It was a long day and we thought she'd go to sleep fast. 15 minutes later, she was up playing with stuffed animals. We laid her down again, left, gated the room and hoped. 15 minutes later I heard her again. I went up to her room and she was no where to be seen. But I heard her and saw the toybox lid (the one full of stuffed animals) move.
When I looked in, it looked like that scene from ET where there is just ET's head and all the stuffed animals - ET being my daughter. It was hysterical, but I had to be serious because she was out of bed again. I laid her down, left the room and laughed with my husband. Someday, at 2 AM that girl is gonna freak out when she wakes up in the little tiny box and can't figure out how to get out.

this past week

This is my girl, enjoying the fact that the snow is gone, while sporting mom's sunglasses. she's preparing for the outdoors.
This week, we spent, and normally spend, a lot of time with the neighbors. They take care of their grandson, Steven, who is a great friend to my girl.


This may not be understood by the picture, but those pants she is wearing...I made them. wow. amazing. and she said, "oh. so cozy. like a pillow." good girl. she said all the right things to me.

and this is the new passion - coloring almost non-stop. anywhere. markers are the medium of choice. and she ALWAYS wants me to color with her.


did I mention I enjoy cooking. well, so does my girl. this scene is often repeated and makes any cleaning while cooking effort sort of silly. This was one day I was baking, I think. She moved flour from one bowl to another for about 45 minutes.
what a great little chef.

halloween

We started this years Halloween with a church trunk or treat. Yes, that is a lot of snow behind my girl. But it wasn't ...freezing. I think it was about 45 degrees out when we took this picture.
She is a 'fairy princess/tinkerbell/butterfly' depending on the moment you talk with her.

After a while, her big puffy purple coat when on and the wings went on that. Sorry. no pictures. It was cute. When we got home, therefore, the wings came off with the coat, and these following pictures are the result.

And actually, she likes to walk about the house wearing the tutu while doing crafts, watching movies, eating food...and she thought that "magich" wand was awesome.


Here is some documentation that I was there and wearing a Halloween shirt.


And this is documentation that she did, indeed, eat candy...and she was and still is very happy about that.

what do you do in the autumn time when all the world is white

Yesterday it started snowing and it is still going today. about 20 inches, give or take. Well, we were sorely unprepared in the 'what to do when stuck in the house' category, so before it got bad, I took my girl to the store for some sparkles. 2$ worth of pink glitter glue and she happily crafted for about an hour. an hour I tell you. this is verging on science fiction with this child to do any one thing for that long. The pictures show her learning all about scissors. She kept saying, "Mamma come see. I do this for you." and this would be followed by her own self affirmation of, "I'm so proud of you." She's pretty sweet sometimes.

news

Can you see anything in these pictures? Me neither. But here you go.


This here is a baby foot.And this here is a side view of the head - with a hand over half the face...so they tell me.
And the verdict...

it is a girl!

So it's a baby sister for my girl and a most definite 'you're outnumbered' for my husband.

In other news, my daughter has discovered singing. I love it. She'll sing primary songs she knows, as well as monkey songs, bee songs, or any other song she can make up.

pumpkins etc.

Week in review:
We went to the local nursery and they had 1000's of pumpkins and play things. It was a good reward for a girl who had just come from the doctor.
Instead of a sand box, they had a corn chicken feed box. My girl played in it for about 20 minutes in complete bliss. Yeah for tonka trucks and corn.

There have been a couple of times this week when my girl just wanted to 'sit' on the potty. She'd ask for books and toys and movies, but wouldn't do any 'business.' After about 10 minutes, she is ready to move on. Honestly, I don't care if she does anything with the potty right now or not. Good for her for trying something new. (note: there was a picture, but I felt guilt about posting it. lucky girl. sorry to all of you).


And this last face is her 'camera smile.' I see real smiles and they are pretty close, so I thought I'd share.

In other news, we have a new junior that will be joining our family in about 18-20 weeks. Tomorrow we find out if the junior is a boy or a girl. Any guesses? Any name suggestions?