Brianna has been busy lately – checking out a new playground area we found, finishing up her Kindermusik Milk & Cookies class, going to birthday parties, etc. She is just go, go, go! She absolutely loved her Kindermusik class, and is very sad she won’t see Ms. Susan anymore.
Last day of Kindermusik
B taking Ms. Susan’s picture.
B and Ms. Susan
This past week, one of B’s three main buddies (Hawke) became the first of the bunch to turn 3! To celebrate, he had a party at The Little Gym, and B LOVED it! At first she just ran all over the place, but we finally convinced her to try a few things.
On the low beam:
Jumping off the high beam:
Swinging from the bars:
Of course, what is a birthday party without bubbles and balls?
Since I am only home with Brianna two days a week, there are not a lot of opportunities for play dates. Today we had the pleasure of hosting a play date with William (who graciously allowed his Mom, Marty, and his sister, Julia, to come). Brianna and William don’t see each other as often as I would like, so while they are both great kids, I just was not sure how the play date would go, especially since they are both at that age where sharing is, shall we say, not a priority for them. They did GREAT!! They played together really well, and when they weren’t playing together, they just zoomed around playing on their own. The only tears shed today were those due to small bumps and bruises (with three kids in the house zooming around, these things happen), and most of the tears were Julia’s – she is a very adventurous little girl! Towards the end of the play date, William and Brianna even worked together on a puzzle – impressive for a 2 and 3 year old! Even more amazing, I got a picture of them sitting together, next to the completed puzzle, AND both were smiling.
Loved having them and can’t wait to do it again!
Brianna got a Kidizoom digital camera for Christmas and she loves it! The first day she tried using it, she needed lots of help. But today, she was zipping all over the place taking pictures of everything. Here are a few examples of her work.
Mr. Grinch (my personal favorite)
The Artsy Stethoscope
Eyes
I think I mentioned that Brianna really likes her puzzles lately. Here she is with her latest – a world puzzle of animals from Tatie Kat.
After she finished that, she decided she had to use every Lego she owned to make a giant tower. Daddy had to help at the end because it was so tall, but she did most of it.
Brianna is really into letters these days. She therefore spends a lot of time by the fridge playing with her magnetic letters, playing with her alphabet puzzle, playing with the letters on her giant floor mat, and playing with her new laptop.
Today she made a letter train on the carpet (she is also really into making trains of things). In order to add the letter to her train, she had to either name and find the letter in her floor mat, or find the letter and tell me what it stood for. She named most of the letters in her letter trains in this picture. The ones she did not name, she still knew what the letters stood for (e.g., she couldn’t name the F or S, but know the F was for football and footprints and the S was for snake). She is getting very, very good at it! I estimate she consistently knows all but 5 letters on sight (J, Q, T, X, Y still give her trouble).
After the roads cleared a bit and the Sande-Stewarts headed back to FL, we piled into the car and headed to my Aunt’s to have our second Christmas with Mimi, Tatie Kat, Uncle Mike, and Great-Grandma.
Uncle Mike and Great Grandma
B with Great Grandma
B trying to escape Tatie Kat and Mimi so she can run, run, run!
The first morning/day we leisurely examined what Santa had left and then opened our presents. I think Brianna has really developed a sweet tooth since Halloween, which is not at all surprising and provides us with a great motivator! Snowman marshmallowy candy in her pjs…
Gigantic sucker in her Christmas dress (yes she nearly did get the whole thing in her mouth)…
Gotta love her new sneakers, even if they do clash with her dress!
She got some new clothes, and at one point she had on multiple layers because she refused to take any off to put new on! Here she is modeling her new lady bug umbrella (though you can’t see them, she is wearing matching boots), with her new poncho-style sweater.
Later in the week, we went to a living museum. Though she was pretty much afraid to touch anything except the starfish, she loved the “touch” tank.
Wet hand Mommy!
Demonstrating what turtles do…
Beautiful Bald Eagles
We had a wonderful, if too short visit!
