Christmas Day

Petra had a wonderful time! Just some pictures today.

Christmas Present

The ghost of Christmas present, that is. Petra is loving the run up to Christmas, and even decided to decorate herself in ribbon chains. I can't wait to see her tomorrow morning when she wakes up to presents filling the livingroom (OK, maybe not filling, but there are some under the tree, and a Dala rocking horse and a rocket-rider for her!). Paint fumes are still wafting from the rocking horse a little. I might have cut it a bit close. Daddy's been putting on coats of paint and lacquer all week, but it looks great if I do say so myself. No pictures though until Petra sees it first!

We have molars! And Petra has one too! Lower right deciduous molar suddenly appeared this afternoon (at least one edge of it). That baby, keeping secrets from us! She hasn't been fussy or feverish or anything, though she did bite me good when I stuck my finger in to inspect the new tooth. I love this sweet baby!

The list of Petra's signs and words keeps growing, and now includes a sign for glasses. Daddy got new glasses the other day ($29.95 over the internet! I love these tubes!), and Petra wanted to try them on, so she made a sign for glasses (index fingers pointing at her eyebrows on either side). Too cute to resist! And besides, with parents that have eyes as bad as ours, she might as well get used to the idea of wearing them.

Holiday fun

The stocking is hung by the chimney with care (after being chewed a bit), the Christmas cards are sent, the tree is up (and Petra knows it's called a Christmas tree), the lights are twinkling. I guess it really is time for the holidays! Petra's already gone to 4 holiday parties, and been a big hit at each (and has, for the most part, been a wonderful little girl through all of them. Though you can see from the picture that she is a bit "spirited" sometimes!). Next we'll have to make some Xmas cookies! Having a baby around really does make you appreciate the holidays more (or again?). Everything is new and exciting!

Daddy finally managed to finish assembling Petra's rocking horse. Long delayed since all my tools were stolen, we finally saved up enough to replace the critical ones and get it built. Bought paint yesterday, and will start sanding and painting tonight. With the primer, base, details, and clear lacquer coat each taking a day to dry, it should just BARELY be done in time for Xmas morning. If the blog get's a little confusing from here on, blame the paint fumes!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

As you can see, the presents have begun arriving, so it must be Christmas. Daddy loaded Petra into the wagon today and hauled her to the local nursery to buy a tree. With the tree in the wagon, Petra had to walk all the way home, holding Daddy's hand as we went. We nearly caused a few accidents as cars slammed on their brakes or swerved to the curb staring at the incredible cuteness. We might have to make this a tradition, if no one gets hurt!

The tree is up and decorated, and Petra was entranced by the lights (yet, mysteriously did not start grabbing ornaments). She also had quite a bit of fun carrying around her Xmas stocking before it was hung by the chimney with care (care that it was out of reach).

What else is new?
Daddy is now officially "Dada" (no longer "Mama")

Petra let's out a loud honking roar (similar to an elephant's trumpet) when she sees the cow printed in the bottom of her cereal bowl. And she says "Maaaa" when we play with the toy sheep.

Tonight she ran through her whole repertoire of clever tricks to get us to sing her praises: put her hand to her ear and said "hello" like she was on the phone, picked up the remote and said "'mote," played hide and seek (both behind her hands, and behind the green slug rocking toy, which she just realized she could pick up), did all the signs/words for her counting book (hat, baby, flower, car, ball). Such a little showoff!

You had to ask

Guillermo! How could you?! You had to ask, and thus invoke the curse. As we all know, the second you mention how great something is, everything goes terribly wrong. Well, for the last several nights (nearly a week) Petra has been sleeping the night through with nary a squawk. Daddy hasn't had to get out of his warm bed to freeze his butt off shushing her back to bed, and freezing Mommy's butt off when climbing back into bed. Everything was right with the world. And then Guillermo had to ask, and voila! 2 crying episodes last night (not that bad though, 11:15 and 12:15, made me nervous though). Overall though, let's hear it for this wonderful baby!!! Good girl! Such a good sleeper!

In addition to being a wonderful sleeper, Petra has also been showing us all her clever monkey tricks. She's big on "peekaboo" now, pulling her shirt up to cover her face, or hiding and peeking out from behind the furniture.

When she uncovered the cow printed on the bottom of her bowl at breakfast, she said "moooo!" She also likes "Quack" and "Maaa" (duck and goat of course).

She also loves stickers. I had stuck to the door of my closet a few "I voted" and "I gave blood" stickers, and when I open the door, Petra points and taps a flat hand against her chest, showing she wants me to stick a sticker on her. VERY CUTE!!! We had to go buy a couple sheets of stickers because I ran out.

She's madly in love with cars at the moment, pointing at every one she sees (and this is LA, there are LOTS of cars!) and saying "car!" She also fondled the neighbors Mercedes. She found an add for a car sale, and has been carrying it around for 3 days now!

Were always amazed by how fast she is changing on us. She's always surprising us with new words or monkey tricks, and she seems to understand just about everything we say to her. She's growing so fast I wasn't at all surprised when yesterday she grabbed the car keys, opened my wallet and pulled out my credit card. Ahhh, if only they could stay young forever!

Be sure to check out all the new pictures on Flickr!

A Curse Upon You

I'm not going to tell you what Petra did last night, because I don't want to curse it (you saw what happened last time I mentioned that she was sleeping well!). But use your imagination.

Petra had a busy social calendar for the weekend, even if Daddy ruined it by being sick yet again. We did manage an early morning playdate at the park on Saturday before Daddy retreated to the couch, making Petra miss out on a birthday party. Sunday afternoon, after Daddy got examined at Kaiser, Katie came to visit (and chase Petra around. Petra always seems to move just as Katie finally catches up to her). We also checked out the Hipster's Gymboree, Cool Baby, which just opened around the corner from us. Petra had fun in the play area, but being rhythmically challenged, I didn't take her into the "Daddy & Me Drumming" jam session (maybe next time).

Petra is absolutely out of control. At least verbally. She is constantly babbling, she picks up words in an instant, and remembers them. She surprised me with "moon" the other day, and remembered "candle" after only seeing them lit once. We have REALLY got to start watching our language!