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!