12.29.2007

Getting potty ready

It's hard to believe I'm almost three years old. . . One of the things we're working on, slowly but surely, is potty training. I'm getting ready, I'm still not really thrilled with the idea of actually using a potty, but we're working on it. Today, our task was to personalize and pimp out my potty. (No, unfortunately, I'm not the first one to come up with this idea, but it's a good one anyway.)
Mami wrote my name on it, and then I got to decorate it with whatever stickers I wanted.


Doesn't it look great? Now, on to the next step: using it.

12.25.2007

Merry Christmas!

I woke up this morning and, as soon as Mami and Daddy reminded me it was Christmas morning, I was very curious to see if Santa had been to our house. I took off running down the hallway as soon as I got out of bed.

When I walked in to the living room, I was amazed to see what had happened. Apparently, Santa had been there!

He filled our stockings with presents and left presents under the tree. When I saw this, my reaction was to point at the stockings and shout, "Good job, Santa!"

He and the reindeer ate the snacks we left for them, and Santa even left me and Lela a note thanking us!

I promptly set to work opening my presents.

Everyone gave me such wonderful gifts and I'm so grateful (and somewhat overwhelmed). Two of my favorite presents really stand out. The first is this beautiful princess dress, which I immediately put on and wore all day.

And the other is a book from Aunt Meliss and Uncle Mathias. Check this out:


You get the idea - me and Dora together in a book! It's amazing and I already know it by heart - thank you, Meliss and Mathias!
I had a wonderful day of giving and getting, good food, and not nearly enough sleep. Merry Christmas everyone, I hope your day has been as great as mine!

Christmas Eve

I can't believe Christmas Eve finally came! We all went to church and then had a nice dinner at home. I was so excited!

Daddy and Lela were there too, don't worry!

And then before bed I hung my stocking up by the fireplace. I helped everyone else hang theirs too (since as far as I know, everyone goes to bed when I go to bed...).


And since Lela is just a little baby and this is her first Christmas, I explained the whole stocking-Santa-presents thing to her.

And then I went to bed to wait for Christmas Day...

12.22.2007

Caga tiò

Last night we went to my friend David's house, where he and his parents -Bonnie and Joaquim- were celebrating the caga tiò, a Catalan Christmas tradition that involves a log pooping presents. (Click here for more information on this fascinating event!)
Lots of my friends were there, including Max and Chloe (along with some grown up friends of Mami and Daddy's too.)
This is the tiò:

The first part is to feed the tiò. It likes to eat fruit so it can poop a lot! Then you cover it up so it stays warm.

After that we made lots of noise and jumped around,

and sang the caga tiò song:


(While we were back in David's room singing and dancing, I corrupted the poor boy and convinced him to jump on his bed. Sorry about that...)

And somehow, amazingly, while we were off dancing and singing, the tiò pooped!
We came back and uncovered it -

and it had pooped all kinds of fun toys and presents!

What a great tradition, and we had so much fun.
Now I know about Christmas, Chanukah, and the caga tiò. I'm very worldly wise when it comes to our winter holidays!

Twirling candy canes

I wore my pretty red and white 'candy cane' dress to the last day of school before vacation. This is the dress that my Mami wore for Christmas when she was 2 years old. It's, as I say, "such a beautiful dress" that I can't help but dance and twirl all around in it.





Woa, I made myself dizzy that time!

12.21.2007

A little leisurely reading

There's nothing better than unwinding after a long day at preschool with a little relaxing reading.

And of course I take off my clothes (but not my princess slippers) to relax, don't you?

Happy Gator

I got a great girly gator shirt the other day, and Mami cut my hair so it's not in my eyes anymore.

I'm a happy gal!

12.12.2007

"Frosty the snowman..."

I just love Christmas carols! I know all the words to Rudolph, and Frosty and Jingle Bells. I'm working on Deck The Halls, but there are a lot of hard words in there. (Mami taught me that "jolly" means happy, and that "don we now our gay apparel" means we put on pretty dresses - I like that part!)
Here's a video of me singing (albeit a little half-heartedly) Frosty the snowman. The videographer was a little slow getting the camera going and caught me after I'd already sung the first few lines. We come in here at the corn-cob pipe part...

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


(You just know they love hearing me sing these songs at the top of my lungs at the conservative Jewish daycare center I go to!)

This year's school picture

Can you believe a whole year has passed since I had my school picture taken last year?
Here's this year's picture, I look quite different, don't I?

(My teachers apparently did my hair like this for the photo... not what Mami and Daddy would have done I'm sure...)

The finishing touches

Our Christmas tree is very pretty but sometimes I just can't resist a little redecorating.

There are one or two ornaments that never seem to be quite right, and believe me, I will take every opportunity to move them!

12.09.2007

Trimming the tree

Yesterday we finally decided to put the ornaments on the tree (after a week of looking at it just sitting there in our living room, totally bare...). I was very excited to help out!

Please don't ask why I'm wearing my bikini and Mami's shoes to trim the tree. I'm almost 3 years old, so this is pretty much par for the course in our house these days.

We had all our favorite Christmas carols playing on the radio, and Daddy and I couldn't help but dance around a little. When I hear Frosty, there's just no sitting down!

And then just to mix things up a little, I stood on my head for a while.

But through it all, we ended up with the prettiest Christmas tree ever.
Now will someone please just tell me when Santa will finally come??!?

12.07.2007

Lights, camera, action... That's CHRISTMAS lights!

Tonight we went to a big outdoor party at the hospital where Lela and I were born and where Mami's and my (and Lela's) doctors work. Each year they put up lots of Christmas decorations around the duckpond outside the hospital and they have a big celebration the first night they turn on the lights.
I saw all my favorite Christmas-time characters there, like Rudolph...

(OK, minus the red nose)
...and Frosty and Santa!

Daddy and I hung out and waited for the lights to go on.

But dont' worry, Mami was there too. And Lela of course, inside Mami's sling.

Yea, it's hard to see Lela, but she really is in there, see?

And then the highlight of the night (except perhaps for the cookie I was allowed to have after dinner) was when the lights went on:

It was very exciting because everyone there counted down from 10, which I'm learning how to do. (Although I usually get stuck at 6 or 7 and start going back up...) I just can't wait until Christmas, how much longer is it?

12.01.2007

Searching for the perfect tree

Today we went on a quest for the perfect Christmas tree. (Yes, it's early, but here in Florida it never gets to be winter anyway, so the whole holiday feeling is a little arbitrary...)
We went to a great store where they had tons of trees to choose from. Daddy and Mami and Lela and I spent a long time looking at all the options.

And then I found it... the best Christmas tree ever!

We're going to decorate it tomorrow. I'm so proud of myself for picking out the perfect tree!

Me and my little sister

It's been a month now that I've been a big sister, and I still love it!
My favorite thing is getting to hold Lela, and I give her great big (and not so gentle!) hugs.

And kisses!