Happy Birthday Sara - 6/11/10

So several months ago we attended a Birthday Party for SaraIt has taken me so much time to go through them for postingBut there were so many cute ones to see, and such good memories to think of.The Birthday girl was so beautiful on her special dayThere were lots of fun activities for the kids to doDrawing with chalkPlaying with BalloonsAn entire two bins full of toysAnd all of our friends were thereThere was this neat stretchy dough stuffLike Modeling clay that Holly really enjoyedBikes to ride onChairs to climb on.Stickers and craftsand even musicHere is Cole, a friend we don't get to see enough of.We were also excited to have Tanta Kat and Daddy with us.Not only is this fun for HollyIts nice for Mommy as it gives me a chance to enjoy the partyI get to talk with the other parent's which is so nice.After a while Holly discovered the water.Oh boy were we in for it thenShe got a little fixated and wanted to play with nothing else.Here is our Friend Josette, we miss her so. She has moved away.Look at this beautiful Birthday Cake, it is so vibrantWe were all ready to get a big bite.There were lots of other snacks tooThis amazing fruit saladand different kinds of breadsHolly just wanted to playI tried to get her to eat some of the good stuff firstBut she was soo busyStickersCraftsflowersand with all of that,my little one was soaked.Who would have thought a water fountain could do so much damage.I didn't have a change of cloths either,But it was a warm day, so it was ok for her to be wet.Here the girls are playing with the dough.It was this weird stuff, I don't remember what it was calledIt was a little sticky, but like rubber not like play dough.It was a lot of fun.Soon it was time for the Birthday cake.Sara loves Curious George and the cake was covered with dancing monkeysSara really liked the candles tooShe blew them out several times, it was so cute, she kept asking for more and saying again.I can't beleive this was so long agoThe girls are all almost two and a half.They grow up so fast.The cake was delisiousEven Holly had a few bitesSara was a princess, so sweet on center stageLook at all her characters, what fun!Then it was time to open her big presentA two wheeler bike, with a helmetIt also had a Baby seat on the back so she could give her bear a rideand a helmet for the bear too, so she would be just like Daddy.It was such a cute gift. She loved it.The party was a great sucess and everyone had a blast.

Music to my ears

A Month in the Life - 2

I’m in school today. Some of the other kids are playing with “Dough” but I am doing a puzzle with Mommy. It has a banana and an apple and grapes. The grapes are behind the orange, so it is tricky but Mommy helped me fit the pieces in. Normally I might have run right to the dough table, but today I played dough with Daddy before we left for school. I had a good morning. I like to wake up really slow. First I open my eyes just a bit to peak out and see who is in bed with me, and then I stretch really big making my legs very long and I look to be sure I have gee and this. (Blanket and pacifier)

Usually just Mommy is in bed with me, but sometimes Daddy is there too. After a few minutes I climb up onto Mommies pillow and look at her. Her eyes are closed and I can hear her breathing. Her cheek is soft and squishy and I usually reach out and hold it. I love Mommy so much that I want to get as close to her as I can. Sometimes I lay on her cheek, it is just so cozy. It makes me giggle when I can feel my eyelashes on her cheek. Sometimes I put my cheek on her cheek that is fun too. And sometimes I like to push my fore head into her forehead. This can go on for quite a while depending on how sleepy Mommy is. Once I wake her up she usually doesn’t let me do it is much as when her eyes are closed. Sometimes she is slower to wake up then me and I tell her “Mommy Up” I have to push her check sometimes so she will listen.

That doesn’t mean she will wake up though. She usually gives me a big hug and tells me to go and find Daddy. So I do. But that is on the mornings when it took her a long time to wake up. If she wakes up right away I am not ready to get out of bed yet. I am so excited to see her and I missed her from when I went Night Night. So some mornings we cuddle more than others. This morning I got up and went to find Daddy. We played a lot I like dough, it is so colorful I want to open every one and see all the colors, but Mommy and Daddy don’t like that that only want me to open one at a time. Mommy will usually let me have three but that is only because I am very persistent and I keep trying. I have heard her tell Daddy I get that from her.

After a while I miss Mommy and I go and visit her. I make sure to grab Gee and This and then I run into Mommies Room and climb up to the bed and give her a big hug. Today I was hungry and yelled for Daddy, “Joel, Jooooel.. Gogourt Juice” I said. Mommy calls Daddy Joel, I think that is his name, like my name is Holly. When I call him Joel like Mommy does he hears me better. When he comes in to check on us Mommy tells him I want a yogurt juice. Usually by this time she is actually thinking about getting up and she will turn towards me so I can lay next to her on her arm. Sometimes though on days when we don’t have school she sleeps a lot and I go in and see her lots of times before she will get up. On those days when I say, “Mommy Up” she turns the other way. That’s when I get to climb on her. Sometimes I climb onto the bed from the bottom, I use the cloths hamper like a step. Then I have to wiggle my way in next to Mommy between her and the wall. This is extra fun because it is like the Holly pancake game and I like to be smooshed.

Today Daddy brought me my Yogurt Juice and I asked him for my phone so I could play a game while Mommy wakes up, Mommy recently taught me the Monster match game, it is a lot of fun. I like making matches. In the game there is a little monster and he is very hungry. He is thinking about what he wants to eat. Sometimes her eats letter, like a Big R and other times he is thinking he wants to eat colors. Then there are three things I can pick to feed him. If he is thinking about the Big R then I have to find him little r mixed with more letters. If I give him the Big B he won’t eat. But sometimes it is fun to do that too. He gets grumpy when I give him the wrong food and that’s funny. Sometimes when he is thinking about yellow there is a Red Apple and a Black Cat and a Yellow Bus and so I give him the bus because it is yellow and he munches it right up, till it is all gone.

I love busses. When I am driving in Holly’s Car with Mommy I look for busses. I am really good at finding them. Mommy is silly and she needs my help to find them, she is always getting them wrong. But I like to help Mommy so she can find the busses too. She will point at the car’s and ask me, “is that a Bus” and I tell her “no” when it is a car. Sometimes she points at trucks and one time she even pointed at a Bicycle. Then if I see a Bus I tell her “Bus, Bus!!” I get very excited about them. Apparently there are lots of different kinds of Busses and Mommy is teaching me all there names. I think I like the Yellow School Bus the most. They have Big ones and Little ones too. When we drive to Coco’s house we see lots of those.

Yesterday we saw a lot of the City busses. Some are green and some are white. They have different kids of those too, I like the Two Busses Bus, it is a city bus too, but it is really really long and has two bus parts connected together. Once I saw it when it was driving around the corner and one part was on one street and the other part was on another street, it was so funny. Mommy likes to practice her numbers too. Sometimes we see lots of busses at one time, and I know if we saw two busses or even three busses. Mommy likes to count all the busses but that is too many for me to remember. Maybe that’s why she needs so much help finding them, because she is counting all the ones we already saw. I learned about a new bus yesterday too. Mommy was always letting me just call it a bus, but then yesterday she said “This one is called a shuttle bus” I knew it was different, but I didn’t know it had a special name.

We saw that bus when we went to the toy store. The toy store was lots of fun, when we go there Mommy doesn’t make me sit in the cart, so I like shopping. Today we had a cart when we first got there and she let me push it. It is very heavy but I like to push it. Mommy says I am really strong. Mommy was looking at the bottles and talking to a lady and I was getting bored waiting to go and play with more stuff, so I decided to run down the isle. Mommy lets me do this sometimes, I am never sure when it is ok to go and run and when it is not, but usually when we are shopping if Mommy lets me down from the cart then it is ok.

When I got around the corner I saw Chairs! It was so exciting. There was a table with two chairs up on the ledge so I took one chair down for me and sat on it. Just then mommy came around the corner and so I told her to sit too. But she said she was too big.I like pushing the chairs, they had soft ones and long ones and ones like I have at home. Mommy showed me one with a space man on it but I told her “no” I like the one with the cars and I like the one with the “Choo Choo” they also had a giant Choo Choo, it was so big that a bed fit inside of it. It had a box on front where you could put stuff. Mommy picked me up and put me on the bed, but I got mad. Doesn’t she know it is not Night Night time. Besides I was playing with the chairs and I did not want to go night night. She told me she wanted to take a picture for Daddy but I told her “no” and climbed right down.

On the next isle they had cars. I like cars, and trucks. Mommy kept shopping me the red one that she said is not a bus, but I don’t like that one. I like the Big Yellow ones. Mommy tells me the names of them, but I don’t think she really knows because every time she tells me it is something different so I just point and say “truck” that must be right to since mommy doesn’t tell me no. I think that are all trucks, just like there are different kids on busses but some of them have special names. Mommy and me just haven’t learned all of the special names yet, but I know when she learns them she will tell them to me too.

On the next isle they had babies. I wanted to open the stroller so I could push the baby, but mommy said I could not open it. They had one baby that was just like me and loiked to jump up and down on its bed. She is just like the Tigger I have at home, I just push her head down and then she bounces up and down on the bed. She giggles too, it is so funny, I like it a lot. They keep them up high so I have to jump to reach them, but when Mommy sees me jumping and reaching she will hand it to me, so I got three of them and we all jumped together.

Mommy showed me the Doll houses too, I didn’t really want to play with them today but she was carrying me and I could give her lots of hugs and kisses and play with her smooshy check so I didn’t mind. She showed me so many and asked me which one I liked. But I didn’t want to play with them, so every time she asked I told her “no” Mommy sometimes is really slow and it takes her a while to listen to me, so I just have to be patient with her and tell her no lots of times. If I just wait, she will tell me she is tired and then put me down, that’s my chance to play with something else. As soon as she does I have to run really fast to the end of the isle, But I want to make sure she sees me, she has to try and get me, so I wait at the end of the isle for her to catch up. She isn’t as fast of a runner as I am.

That’s when I saw them, all of the cars. Not the little cars that I can hold and I can push, but these were big cars that I could climb into. There was one that was black and it had big doors and I climbed right over the platform and opened the door and got inside. There was even a key so I could drive just like mommy does, but it didn’t go anywhere. Maybe the key was broken. The key wouldn’t come out either. So I thought maybe mommies keys will make it go. I asked her for her keys and she actually gave them to me. I didn’t think that she would, didn’t she know I could drive away now that I had them? But she didn’t look worried. I guess that is because she must have known that her keys wouldn’t fit either.

I don’t think Mommy liked playing by the cars. She kept asking me if I was ready to go. She also kept trying to get me to sit in the other cars, but I wanted this car, it was the best car. It was big and it was higher up then the rest. I think she would have had more fun if she got into the car with me. I told her too, “mommy sit” I said and pointed to the seat next to me, but she said she was too big. So then I pointed to the pink car next to me and told her again, “mommy sit” but she said she was too big to sit there too, so she just stood and watched me. She was silly because then she leaned on the car’s hood and closed her eyes. She was blocking my view and I did not like this very much so I told her “Mommy Up!” So we came up with a compromise, I told her she could have the pink Car, “Mommies car” I said and so she moved off of MY can and she leaned on the pink car. She was silly and that made me laugh, if I climbed up on the seats I could almost reach her and give her kisses.

I decided it was time to drive to Chloe’s house, I remembered what the big highway looks like and the hills we drive by and the buildings, “coco’s house?” I asked, but Mommy told me know, “Chloe is in San Francisco having lunch with her Mommy” she told me. Hmm.. Well we could go to her house after she eats lunch, so I asked, “Coco’s House?” but Mommy just told me the same thing again. She must not realize that we could go to Coco’s house and by the time we drive there she will be done eating lunch, so I asked her again, “Coco’s house?” this time she told me, “Chloe can’t play today, she is in the City with her Mommy all day, maybe tomorrow. Do you want to go hom?” Now why would I want to go home? I just told her I wanted to go to Coco’s house, sometimes I really wonder how she comes up with these things. So I told her “no” I think Mommy was ready to go home though, but I wanted to play some more. She then asked me, “Do you want to go and find a ball?” ooooooh “Ball!” I like balls, they are fun to play with. So Mommy reached out her hand for me to come down. But wait. I like my car, why would I want to leave my car, I wanted my car, and a ball. So I told Mommy, “Ball, Ball!” So then she tried to make me climb down again. I mean really.. I think sometimes she just isn’t paying attention, “No, no, I said, Ball! Ball” now I was getting a little irritated with her. Where was this ball she was talking about? I didn’t see a ball, and I was quite happy in my car, but since she said there was a ball, I wanted it too! “Ball, Ball” SO then she walked away! “MOOOOOMMMMYYYYYY” Why would she just leave me there? She turned and smiled and said she would be right back. So I watched her very carefully and waited, and it was very fast and she was holding a green Ball!!

“Sigh” Well that was close. I almost got very mad. I don’t like having to wait, and I don’t like when Mommy goes away, and I don’t like leaving my car. But mommy fixed everything and she threw the ball to me! “Catch” I laughed and laughed. “Throw the ball back to Mommy,” she told me. So I did. She bounced it back to me and it hit the car and then the shelf and then went back to Mommy, it was so funny! She tried two more times to throw it to me and it bounced everywhere and she had to run and go get it, it was so funny. I think she needs more practice, so when she finally got it to me, I threw it back and we played catch. But it was funny to watch her run after the ball so I threw it to one side and then the other as far as I could. It was a good game.

Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)

Habitot

A Month in the Life - 1

It was a dark and scary night, the stars were twinkling in the sky but I could not see the moon anywhere, it was hiding behind the hills, or perhaps behind a cloud. It was a night my mommy told me was called Halloween. I was dressed in a long blue dress, It was pretty I was a princess, but I kept stepping on my skirt which pulled the dress and made it very hard to walk and play, but especially hard to walk down the stairs as we left my friends house. We were on our way to go Trick or treating. The house next door had so many weird noises and there was thin smoke in the air, just then a monster popped out and cackled in my direction, that was it. I ran to my Mommy in tears and demanded she pick me up. My best friend was also very scared and she told her daddy to take her to the car! That was a good idea, in hind sight I perhaps should have asked to do the same thing, but instead I just said, “Bye Bye, Scary House” and my mommy took me to the next one.

This one was not nearly as scary though, but I was still pretty upset. I already had a really long evening; you see I never wanted to put this blue dress on in the first place. I kept telling Mommy no, and I showed her the green Kai-Lan dress I wanted to wear instead. I know she understood me, I mean how much clearer can you get then jumping up and down while pointing at the dress and shaking your head no at the one she was holding. But she did not listen, and before I knew it I had one arm in and then a second and I was wearing the dress. It actually was not as bad as I expected it to be, but by the time I was dressed I was just plain mad that Mommy didn’t listen to me so even though I didn’t mind the dress like I thought I would, I was not going to let her off easily. So I waited until she got me a yogurt juice and put on the Trick or Treating Kai-lan episode on the TV. Then I cheered right up! I liked the dress after all and was only afraid it would be scratching like the one she tried to put me in on the night before.

So here we are, on a dark warm night with four of my friends, in a blue princess dress holding onto a blue Pumpkin and bawling my eyes out. This time I did not want to be upset any more, but it was just so hard to calm myself down. I tried really hard. One time I was so excited that all my friends were going to get to knock on the door of the next house without me that I said Mommy Down and we were walking to the house so I could get some candy too, but I tripped on the edge of the driveway and lawn. It was not a bad trip, I did not really hurt myself, but it completely surprised me and that was it. I was all upset over again. This time it was worse, it’s like the three strikes rule. My body just remembered all the things that upset me throughout the evening and I lost it. It is a lot of work to keep it together when there is so much going on around me that I have to pay attention too. So I just held on super tight and Mommy gave me the biggest hug ever. After that I did NOT want her to put me down at all. She sent Daddy away, which I didn’t like either, and we kept on walking to the next house. What was she thinking, did she not hear me crying in her ear. I didn’t want to go, she asked me if I wanted to go home, and I didn’t want that either. It is so tough to be me. I was not sure at this point what I wanted; I simply lost control of myself.

We kept walking and Mommy pointed to each house and pointed to my friends and I watched as they each knocked on the doors and got candy. I think that upset me even more, I wanted to go with them and do it too, but I was too upset so I was trapped between my emotions and my desires. At this point Daddy finally came back and Mommy handed me over to him. I didn’t want her to let go, but I think I was getting heavy for her. Daddy had another yogurt juice, which at the time was comforting, but I only drank a few sips because what I really wanted was Mommy and my pacifier and at the moment I had neither. So I just yelled Mommy, Mommy, Mommy until she took me again and I could hold her tight and I was finally able to calm down a little bit.

By this time my friends were far ahead and we had to skip several houses to catch up, but this gave me a chance to catch my breath and then we got to the next house. I said, “Knock Knock” and Mommy asked if I wanted to go down and got and get some treats, but I told her “No, Mommy up!” she listened! And she carried me over to my friends and I reached out and took a big piece of chocolate from the nice lady at the door. Mommy reminded me to thank her and Say Bye Bye, and I did. But it was so much work to go up to the house, and all I could think of was the scary house from earlier, I was afraid there might be a monster lurking around every corner that by the time I got my candy bar I lost it again. This time though it was much easier to recover and I was able to calm dawn as we walked to the next house. Daddy kept telling me to look at the stars and I would look at them and point and then search for the moon, which was what I really wanted to see. I would say “Stars” so he knew I saw them, but the moon was still nowhere to be found. He also kept asking me if I wanted to finish my yogurt juice which after a few times was irritating me. I had already said no several times and I felt like he was just not listening. I know that’s not the case he just did not want me to forget that he was still holding it and that I could have more if I wanted but I didn’t forget and did not need the reminder.

At this point I could tell mommy was getting tired of holding me, I guess I am not a little baby any more, at least I am not small and tiny like a little baby, but I am not that grown up either. I suppose Mommy could tell I was feeling a little better so she lifted me up higher onto just one shoulder. I liked this because I could still hold onto her face and hair and neck and still give her kisses, but it seemed to be easier for her to carry me like this. By this time my Blue Pumpkin was really starting to fill up and I did not want to hold it anymore so I made Daddy carry it for me. Mommy and I would go up to each house, I would reach out and take a piece of Candy and then we would go back to Daddy and I would put it into the blue pumpkin.

Now my friends were crossing the street going to the next house and this one had lots of stairs, now normally I am a huge fan of the stairs, but just the thought of walking up all of them in the big fluffy princess dress was too much. Luckily I don’t think Mommy wanted to walk up 4 flights of stairs holding me either, so we jumped ahead to the next house. Finally I was the first in line that meant I could actually knock on the door and so I made the leap and said, “Mommy Down” she was so excited and she put me down and held my hand and together we walked over to the door. There was a little porch and four steps to walk up. Mommy pulled my skirt up for me and held it in one hand while also holding my hand tight and I went right up to the door and knocked on it. It opened and a nice old lady came out and told me what a pretty princess I was and she had a big bowl of candy and she let me reach in and pick one. I got a lollipop and then she told me I could have one more if I wanted so I took a chocolate bar. Then I ran over to mommy and hugged her leg and said “up!” and we walked back over to Daddy. And then I put the two pieces of Candy into the bucket.

Just then the rest of my friends came over and it was their turn. Mommy put me all the way up onto her shoulders this time and then we went to a few more houses. But that’s when I saw my friend’s house and realized that we were back and trick or treating was over. I was really excited to go back inside and play some more. Trick or treating was ok. I was happy to get so many treats, but it took a lot out of me. When we went inside Mommy let me take off my dress and put on a tank top because we were both so hot from the walking around, and then I was really happy. She let me eat chocolate too. It was a fun night.