Her First Christmas Recital

Kelly's daycare/pre-school put on a little Christmas recital yesterday. They had a little reception for all the parents with cookies & punch and then Santa came to visit and deliver a present to each of the kids. My camera was on the blink for most of it, but I managed to get a couple cute ones. Their costumes were all handmade by the teachers and they sang two songs that they had practiced for weeks. (she is the last one on the far right) Kelly made it half-way thru the first song, but ran over to me as soon as she saw me in the audience and wouldn't go back to the "stage". She was having a ball though.

She did great w/Santa again this time, but YET AGAIN I did not get a good shot of her w/him due to camera malfunctioning!! I am hoping one of the other mothers might still send me one....6 days left! I am determined to get one this year!

Christmas Card Photo Day

I love the idea of sending a photo card for the holidays. My first thought was of course to try to get one of the whole family. With 5 of us all going in a million directions, I quickly realized this was not going to happen, at least not in time for Christmas! I scaled it down to just the kids, and that was just as difficult. So, we all agreed a cute photo of Kelly would be just great (and we could let the world know about this blog so we can someday get some photos of the rest of us up here too!). Well, that did not prove to be much easier either. I decided I wanted the photo to be of her with her first time meeting Santa. I was excited for her to see Santa, but was also trying not to expect much as everyone has told me that at her age, they tend to be frightened of the burly dude.

Here she is outside of Santa's cottage waiting our turn to see him....Once inside, she did so-so - she didn't cry or seem too scared, but she was still VERY wiggly and did not want to cooperate and sit on his lap for that perfect photo op, so I didn't get the picture this year :-( ......

(but there are still 7 days till Christmas, and Santas abound, so I still might try!!!)

Since I didn't get the Santa shot, I was still trying to get a photo that day for our holiday card. We walked the mall and I tried to get one in the little car ride thing. This is a pretty good shot, but once I put the coin in to make it shake around, so got really scared of it and freaked out! So we left the mall in tears.

I decided maybe she would cheer up if we went to the park by our house, where mommy snapped and snapped away, determined to get SOMETHING for our card...

I'm not sure why (especially since she is not even facing the camera!)... but I REALLY love this photo! Maybe it is her beautiful blondish curly hair, or the pidgeon toe stance, or the cute little catholic girl skirt.... I don't know, I just like it!

But I didn't think folks would like getting this one on the Christmas card! So, as you should all know by now (because I DID get our Christmas cards out last week - whew!), I ended up choosing one of her playing in a Thomas the Tank Engine tent (which she commandeered from some kids having a b'day party at the park that day) - here is another one of her enjoying their toy! Goes to show, you just never know when that great pose, natural smile, perfect photo will happen. You just keep snappin till it does!

Guess She REALLY Loves Daycare!

I know I will get chastized from somebody for posting this, but HEY raising a kid is not all smiles, butterflys, dance recitals and happy frolicking all the time, right! Now, most kids can just rip their parents hearts out crying and screaming when they are LEFT at daycare. My kid...noooooo. My kid cries when I TAKE her from daycare!!! I'm gonna go ahead and take that as a good sign... that she really LOVES her daycare (and NOT that she doesn't want to be at home with us!!!) I must be an evil mother because this video makes me laugh so hard!

Daddy's Shirt

Kelly's been into our closet a lot lately. I swear she can walk in my high heels better than me! But she's also been eyeing the clothes a lot. Daddy's clothes rung is lower than mommy's and when she pushes her step stool over there, she can reach and pull stuff right off the hangers. A few days ago, she came walking out to the living room in this...

Holiday Parade

Sometimes I get so excited about doing and showing Kelly all the fun stuff there is to do, especially at the holidays. One of those is the Encinitas Holiday Parade. Not that I went to it every year of my life or anything, but now that I have a child, I guess I am excited to not only share with her all my own family traditions, but maybe start some new ones with her too. Well, no one else wanted to brave the cold night w/me, so off I went, just me & Kelly, all wrapped up (w/a nice hot coffee with Bailey's for mommy :-) We had to park a ways out, Kelly was tired and cold, and there were tons of people. I also realized I had to go to the bathroom right after we got there, but had to hold it for fear of missing the parade. After pushing our way thru the streets, I managed to find a little spot right at the start of the parade - perfect! It took a while to get there, and I was excited! I came around the front of the stroller to get a look at the excitement on my daughter's face too.... and this is what I saw...
All that was missing was the head/shoulder bob up & down a couple times, "Oooh. This is grrreat. Awesome! Ok let's go!" (Chevy Chase... Lampoon's Family Vacation?) She must get that from her dad! Maybe next year I'll make her be IN the parade - HA!

Thanksgiving Trip

Kelly & I had quite an adventure for Thanksgiving this year. It was a week of "firsts" for Kelly. She took her first plane ride, and saw/drove 3 three new states - Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. The flight over was good and Kelly was a real trooper. Although, she did not sleep at all. She got a little squirmy toward the last leg of the flight, but no crying, no tantrums, etc! She didn't seem to have any trouble w/her ears either. She played with her new toys, watched her Thomas DVDs on the portable DVD player uncle Johnny lent us (a LIFESAVER!), and flirted with other passengers. I was VERY proud of her :-)

Cousins Patty & Nathan met us at the Norfolk airport. It was great to see them. The day after we arrived, we loaded into the car and drove 6 hours to PA. Again, Kelly was a good little traveller - of course having Nathan along to keep her company helped. We stopped at McDonald's about half way - it was her first time playing on their big playgym and also seeing the lifesized Ronald McDonald - she climbed right up and started chatting to him!

I couldn't get over how beautiful the trees looked - they were still going through their fall change and had all different colored leaves - yellow, orange, red, pink, purple. We had this beautiful scenery all the way to York, PA. There we stayed a few days at the home of my cousin Tim and his new wife Missy. They have a beautiful new house and a huge back yard with a playgym, which Kelly & Nathan made good use of.

We went on a couple walks around their neighborhood which was like a huge forest with a house nestled in the trees here and there. Kelly and Nathan had a blast jumping and falling in the piles of leaves everywhere.

Aunt Lois & Glenn, Steve & Niss, and Jerry & Maurine all joined us at Tim & Missy's for Thanksgiving dinner. It was great to see everyone! We did take a group picture, which was a bit chaotic and quite humerous - we could not get everyone to stop laughing or squirming or making funny faces... typical! I didn't get a group shot on my camera, so I am hoping I can get one from Patty or Tim that I can post here later!

Nathan was so good and so sweet with Kelly. They played together well and were very well behaved. Kelly just LOVES her cousin Nathan!

A couple days after T'giving, we drove back to Virginia Beach and vegged a couple more days at Patty's before Kelly & I left to come home... which was supposed to be Monday, but due to plane problems and delays, ended up being Tuesday. Even with the flight problems, Kelly did really well on the plane on the way home too. She is a great traveller and I had an awesome mommy-daughter adventure with her!

Thomas!

So, Kelly's latest crush is on Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. (But Elmo will always be her first!) It just so happened that Thomas was touring the country and was appearing at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, just about 15 minutes from where Nana & Papa live. We bought tickets and went on Veteran's Day, Nov 12th w/Nana & Papa. She was so excited to see the lifesize Thomas in person! We got a train ride (pulled by Thomas himself), and saw some other engines and exhibits. We all had a blast!