3 for 1

Valentines Day. Birthday - the big 3. Easter. Three events, one post. Since it was January when I last posted, it seems as though I have some catching up to do.

Valentines Day was very fun this year. She got the idea of making valentines to show people we care and we had lots of fun with glue, glitter, "jewels", stickers, and sequins. I had her choose which  kids from her class should get which stickers, and it was interesting to see how she knew their personalities and likes already at this age. Then of course there was the candy. I can hear her brain thinking "Another reason to get candy? Awesome!" 

The Big 3. I'm starting to be fearful of her birthdays. Last year she got pneumonia on her birthday (at least we had the little "party") and this year, the Saturday before her party she started an epic sickness with a fever for 5 days. This followed an ear infection from the week before which she was still on antibiotics for. It wasn't the flu-we checked. Just some crazy virus. So the planned party at the Aquarium had to be cancelled. Luckily by her official birthday she was at least ready to eat her sprinkle cake. 

The Easter bunny came early to our house this year. I get to visit Ben and Alan in San Diego on official Easter so we went to Hayward last weekend and dyed eggs at both Mèmè and Poppas houses and that clever bunny hid those eggs at both places. There was lots less snow in Hayward so that was better for hunting. Although at the time of hunt number one, it was only 25 degrees and she was in snow pants and winter coat. She loves the hunt and the basket full of candy (MORE candy and ANOTHER stuffy) was of course the highlight. She's in for a rude awakening when she realizes there are no more candy holidays for a long time. Feast or famine.

Happy Holidays

Two weeks off for Christmas this year was phenomenal. We were able to do so much fun stuff this year- making Christmas cookies, making (and enjoying) a homemade advent calendar, playing in the snow, Bentleyville, and of course being with family and friends. This year Frannie "got" Santa so we did lots of talking about him. She was determined to "peek" at Santa when he got here. She was very generous and left Santa a cookie she didn't finish eating, an Oreo truffle that she didn't want, and a carrot for the reindeer. Apparently she was a good girl this year because Santa left her a guitar and skiis.

And a side note on that advent calendar...I was so proud of the mix of treats, toys, etc that I put in the little packets. After the first two days of packets she chose had candy, when she got the third one and it had a little toy she shook the packet a few times to see if something was still in there and when it became apparent that there was no candy in it, she (with a perplexed and slightly disgusted look) said "can I pick another one?" Then the next day she said, "I have one with candy in it?" 

We were able to spend time with Grandma Joy and Uncle Ken, Mème, Poppa, Bikkee, Uncle Bret/Aunt Anne/cousins Harry and Char, Meg, Val and other friends. Frannie had a great time opening presents and was a wonderful traveler. 

It's so fun watching her interests change and we are amazed by her pretend play. She is constantly telling me who to "be" or wanting me to talk for her stuffed animals or puppets. I love listening to her conversations she has with her toys.Her new favorite pretending is to pretend we are all at school and she's the teacher. She's put Daddy on several "breaks" for not being a good listener. That's hilarious.

Snow Fun

What a difference a year makes! The girl who cried and whined when her hands got wet from snow last year now can purposely do face plants and come up laughing. She loves the snow. We've been sledding, shoveling, making snow angels, and building snowmen whenever we can. And more than anything, she loves eating snow. I can't count how many times I've gone over the eating snow rules- namely you have to ask before you eat and it has to be clean. Shhh don't tell, but she's getting skis from Santa so we'll see how that snow adventure goes.

We went to Bentleyville again this year and took a train shuttle there. What fun! She loved the train ride and even though it was obscenely crowded, we managed to have a good time and see lots of familiar characters in lights. 

Happy Thanksgiving

We love the holidays. Well, I do and therefore anyone who lives with me also does by proxy. This year Booboo and Al flew in for thanksgiving which was great. Frannie was a little (well a lot) shy for the first day or so but slowly warmed up - to the point where she cried when we took them to the airport. They got her a marble run game and they bonded putting that together. We all went to Mèmè's and Poppas for thanksgiving dinner and just to hang out a couple days. 

We tried to get into the holiday spirit by watching Frosty last night but alas, we will never watch a scary/mean/sad/worrisome movie because even the mean magician in Frosty upset her and we had to turn it off. I have resigned myself to watching Daniel Tiger, Caliou, and Clifford for the rest of my life.

So instead we made cut out sugar cookies with sprinkles. That was a huge success. She did a great job rolling the dough, cutting it out, and sprinkling. She even did the dishes and cleaned the counter after we finished. I'm assuming that will never happen again so I'm documenting it now.

Halloween

This is supposed to be about Halloween but first I must record the most amazing event from tonight. Frannie has been loving theme books right now- example we read Click Clack Boo approximately 6 times a day for the last two weeks, along with some other Halloween/pumpkin books. So I grabbed her Snow, a Dr Suess early reader book in hopes to 1-get away from Click Clack Boo, and 2-to get her on the winter/holiday mood. I got it Saturday and since then we've read it about 2-3 times a day each day. 

Tonight, as we were getting ready for bed, she told me she'd read Snow to me. IT WAS AMAZING! She turned every page and "read" from memory what she saw/remembered. Probably one of the cutest, heartwarming moments of our life together so far. This tiny little person with a cartoon voice "reading".

Ok....on to Halloween. We are lucky to even been able to go trick or treating because the Thursday before Frannie got strep. She was pretty miserable so I wasn't sure we'd make it. But by Saturday night, she was excited to put on her costume and head out. I suggested we go to the three houses next to us, but she told us "I go far" and headed down the street. We made it to three houses and she said she was done. We pointed out that she said she wanted to go far. Her reply "I did go far."

It's probably good it wasn't an epic adventure because she scored quite a bit of candy from three houses and she's quite in love with the fact she gets to eat it all. Cutest Care Bear Ever.

Also included are pics from Boo at the Zoo...a pre-Halloween  trick or treating event at the zoo. She opted for the monkey. You know to keep with a zoo theme.