Busy Social Calendar

As if Christmas wasn't enough, Petra has had a super busy week! In addition to daily runs to the park, on Thursday she visited the "dinosaur museum" (and became a member, including a free gift of the "Owl Puke" learning kit) where she saw lots of dinosaurs that she knew ("A Triceratops!" she says, while an older boy seconds later points and says "A Dinosaur!"), and a few she didn't. She loved seeing them all, and asked lots of questions. She also liked the old-school animal dioramas. She went barreling through the "Africa" animal hall to the Elephant/Giraffe diorama, stood up on the rail and said "We're in Africa!" (much to the amazement of some adults taking in the scene). She loved excavating "fossils" in the discovery center, and learning about bugs stuck in amber (she herself became "stuck" every time we passed the amber exhibit, and a few times at home since then). The only disturbing part of the trip (for me at least) was how many times I heard comments like "Well, if a day was really millions of years long, then...." coming out of people who clearly didn't understand or believe in evolution.

Friday we met Katie at Travel town for some big train action, then went to Katie's for a long nap, playtime, dinner, a bath, and bed (well, she and Katie tucked into bed, but didn't go to sleep).

Saturday was Jenna's 2nd birthday party (Jenna is at the same daycare as Petra). All Jenna's relatives were searching the crowd to identify Petra, whom they had heard so much about from Jenna. Lots of kids were there, and they all got along very well. We were the last to start heading for the door, and were instead invited to stay for dinner. Petra and Jenna had a great time playing and having dinner together. You could tell both hit the wall at the same moment though. Petra yanked a toy away from Jenna and said "No! Mine!", and Jenna started crying and put her head down on my knee. Clearly, they had had all the fun they could handle. We'll have to arrange a play date though, they get along so well!

There are lots of new pictures in the Photo Album, don't miss them!

Christmas Past

Another Christmas has come and gone. This is certainly the first "real" Christmas for Petra. She loved the whole run-up to the big day, opening the advent calendar, singing Jingle-Bells, turning on the Xmas tree, talking about Santa. She was up at 5:30 asking to go turn on the tree, and was quite stunned by the loot piled up there (especially the tricycle). Alison slept another hour while Petra rolled around on her bike, then had breakfast. Opening presents took most of the morning, mainly because she would get involved in doing something and forget other presents were waiting for her. She had a great time though!

Today, instead of being Santa, she was talking with Santa. She has a sticker book with Santa on the cover, and for at least an hour she was having conversations with him (and us, doing ho ho ho Santa voices). It was incredibly cute! She put on her jammies because Santa asked her to, and climbed into bed with Santa, asking me to read a Santa story, and a snowman story. She is such a darling!

We went to the library today, and she found lots of books to read ("I love this library" she said). Then went across the street to get her an ice cream cone (she was singing "I scream you scream" all the way there). Her eyes lit up and she had such a happy look on her face as we handed her a cone (and then she snarfed it down rapidly).

Winter fun

Petra had her red hooded coat on while walking home from daycare. We're chatting, and she pauses, then says "I..I...I'm.....I'm Santa!" For the rest of the night she was Santa, and we were reindeer!

She's really into Christmas this year. We've had an advent calendar with little toys every day, and she'll wake up in the morning and want to "open a little door." She also says the magic words "Pocus Christmas!" to turn on the Xmas tree every morning. She's quite excited about Santa and presents.

We bought a present for ourselves already- a Red Mazda3. Petra climbed right in, buckled up and said "I love this teeny tiny new car." She stubbornly refuses to get in the old car now!

During a walk over the weekend, Petra and I stopped at a yard sale which had some kid toys and a six-or-so-year old boy. Petra walked right up to him, said "Hi, my name is Petra!" and proceeded to play with him for at least an hour. When we finally left, she was saying "Bye Cooper!" and was later asking about going to play with him again. So gregarious!

Walking home from daycare in the sprinkles yesterday she said "It's a beautiful rainy day."

We are going to Lake Arrowhead in mid-January, so we got Petra a snowsuit, hat and mittens at Hanna Anderssen. Super cute. She was immediately making "angels" on the living-room floor, and bouncing a "snowball" around the room.

Mimic

While helping tidy up the wreckage of the living room, Petra found an old pair of my glasses. She put them on, and in a lower-than-normal voice said "I'm Dada!" then "Hello, I'm Muno" (when we are Yo Gabba Gabba characters, I'm always Muno). Such a silly girl! And so clever!

And yes, she does help tidy up. Yesterday we found her scooping the cat box out for us (and actually into the proper bag). Such a good helper!

All I want for Xmas

Petra went to the LA Zoo for their holiday party last night. She didn't get to see Santa, but she did see reindeer (and goats?), get a candy cane, and was transfixed by a big screen showing the Backyardigans.

And when I say transfixed, I do mean it. She ran to the front of the crowd watching the screen, and stopped cold and did not FLINCH for a good 10 minutes. Even when the snow machine started running right behind her, and all the other kids would scramble and squeal, Petra didn't so much as turn her head. Very cute, but also very scary!


After the zoo party, we walked through the "Festival of Lights," which is certainly the way to see it. About 1 mile of lights are pretty enough, but people sit in bumper to bumper traffic for 2 hours or more to see it. Yikes! We walked through far faster than cars made it through, and we didn't have to wait. We weren't done until 8:30, and Petra was ready to conk (though she fussed about "my cheeks hurt" as feeling came back to them once we were in the car- it was COLD outside!).

On the way to the party, we were chatting with Petra in the car, and asked what she wanted Santa to bring her. "A Christmas tree! ... and a Banana" was her response. I'm pretty sure she'll get everything she asked for!