Making candy!!!

Over the Christmas holidays, Cindy asked if AK could come over and spend some time with Molly and Molly's friend Thandie making chocolate lollipops! Looks like the girls had a GREAT time together and I can confirm that the lollipops were very tasty!






Aren't they just the cutest little girls you've ever seen? What a lovely friendship xoxoxo

Quick update!

Time is getting away from me again! I blame work... too much overtime!!!

AK and I have had a fun weekend together so far. Some highlights:

• She was putting away some of the plates in her play kitchen. There is a shelf above the sink that has places for 10 plates. She put 4 plates away, stopped to count and informed me "Mommy, I need 6 more plates!". It was pretty cool to see her go beyond some simple counting into some slightly advanced math thoughts!!!
• AK showed off some of her schoolwork to me and was practising some of her letters. She told me that a little "a" looks kind of like a fish.
• She put together several puzzles by herself the other day - she is improving VERY much in this area. She's also making leaps and bounds in her coloring.
• AK is getting a lot better at identifying her letters too. There are still a handful that trip her up, but she is much more comfortable with her letters than ever before. She can also "spell" her name if she can see it... although she says "m" for "n".
• AK pulled out her chopsticks the other night partway through supper to eat her edamame beans! She did quite a good job with them too!
• AK is getting much better at playing Chutes and Ladders, although one must keep a close eye on her to ensure she doesn't sneak in extra spaces during her turns!!!

We had a really chilled out Friday night, I think we were both tired after a long week. We put together puzzles, played games, made popcorn and watched movies. We were having so much fun playing that it was 630pm before I knew it and we hadn't had supper!

Saturday morning started off with ballet lessons, then we met up with a friend and her adorable 3yo niece to play and have fun. We finished that off with some ice cream for the girls, and then AK and I came home to "nap"... I could hear her playing (or so I thought) quietly in her room so I ignored her as she was quiet and staying in her room. When I put AK to bed last night, I realized what she had been up to... the cover of one of her books was hidden under her bed, with every.single.page torn out. It was a big book - probably a good 50 pages - and she had also shredded many of the pages as well. Unfortunately for me, AK was so tired and was half-asleep by the time I discplined her so I'm not sure how much got through to her... she knew it was naughty, otherwise she would not have hidden the whole mess under the bed! I took her LeapPad away as punishment, which has somewhat backfired as she's not asked for it all day today! She did pout when I threatened to take all of the books out of her room so she does know it was wrong!

That was really quite an eye-opener... that's the first time she's really been deliberately naughty!

We had a really lovely dinner with the Babbs last night. Ben was kind enough to catch some lionfish and do them up for supper for me, as I'd been asking for it for a while. There is NOTHING better than fresh fish... Ben did a great job of taking all the poisonous parts off the fish (at least I assume so as I've lived to type this post!) and he did it up on the bbq in foil, on top of thinly sliced zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, onions and peppers... delicious!

I sent AK off to church with the Babbs today in hopes of doing a yoga class with a newly-trained yogi friend of mine, but little did I know she had cancelled today's class in favor of going to brunch with her family who is visiting right now. Oh well :) I met up with the Babbs for breakfast instead and we went to the beach for a while after. AK spent the entire time playing on the playground and was upset when it was time to leave as she hadn't even gotten wet! Jess assured her that the water was chilly and that she wasn't missing anything by not getting into the water.

We had quiet time again this afternoon - methinks naps are something of the past... but bedtime should be getting easier if we cut out the afternoon sleep! AK watched a movie while I dozed on the couch... it is getting to the point where I need the naps more than AK does! We played outside for a while (we did that yesterday too - AK has a rash from the grass, boo!) and when we were walking down the path on our way back into the apartment, a snake slithered past AK... she screamed, the snake scarpered off, I managed to not scream while I rescued AK, and we ran away too! I made some enquiries to make sure there were no poisonous snakes in Cayman, and calmed AK. She has convinced herself now that it was a shadow... if that makes her happy, I'll let her believe it!

We headed over to the Brosnihans' for a pool and pizza party. The pool was chilly but the hot tub was divine. AK refused to eat pizza and kept fighting with the other kids - guess that's the fallout of no nap! I think it will be early to bed for both of us tonight! Tomorrow is a public holiday here so I am excited to have one more day off of work! xo

Thoughts of today

My yoga teacher posted something on Facebook along the lines of "Walk outside and look up at the sky, life is beautiful!". I slept in this morning, completely missed the yoga class I had planned to attend, and was feeling a bit tired still and out of sorts... so I decided to take Danielle's advice and went for a walk.

It's a very short walk to the ocean here for me, just a couple of minutes and I was on the sand, feeling the solidity of the earth beneath my feet. It was a beautiful sunny day, but very windy so I took in the sound and the feel of the wind as well. I looked around at the blue sky, with white clouds moving along, and also the beautiful beautiful blue Cayman water, which was rippling and sparkling due to the wind and the sun.

I meandered along, taking in all the sensations I just described above. I listened to the crunching of the coral and rocks under my feet. I looked at the rocks and coral under my feet. Beautiful stuff.

I walked out to the end of the dock at Red Bay and found a little spot to settle into for a bit of meditation. I set the timer on my phone and just sat. I opened my eyes once in a while to take in the view of the dancing water, but I mostly just sat and felt the wind. I felt it not only on my skin and in my hair, but I felt it in the way it moved the water against the dock, which in turn, made the dock shake a bit. I almost thought someone was walking down the dock, the movement was so strong. Amazing how a wisp of wind can create such movement in the water.

I was reluctant to return home but was amazed at how quickly 40 mins passed, and I had to rush to get ready for a babysitting job! I spent a few hours today with Molly and Jake - my word - they are such sweet, interesting, smart kids! They both had so much to show me and tell me, I loved hearing everything they had to say!

Unfortunately I ended off the day by spending 6 hours at work... but that should definitely lessen my load this coming week. I will see AK tomorrow, run club is planned for Tuesday and I am getting highlights on Wednesday so I have some fun stuff to look forward to over the next few days! xo

Christmas dinner!

Oh goodness, time has been absolutely flying lately, how has it been over a week since I last posted???

Time to get into the Christmas spirit again... never mind that I finally took my tree down yesterday! Here are some pictures from our Christmas dinner gathering. Jon and Erin were kind enough to open their home to 18 adults and 8 kiddies!!!

Getting a picture in front of the tree

Kids in front of the tree - we're missing Abby and Jake for some reason...

Kids' gift exchange - someone said it was "over in, like, 3.2 seconds". Couldn't have said it any better myself.

Once we go the kids fed, we settled them down to watch some videos...

...so that the grownups could eat supper in peace!

It was a great evening, everyone contributed to the supper so it wasn't too much work for any one person, except for Jon, Erin and her parents - they did the lion's share of the preparations. Everyone enjoyed themselves, including the kids, I thought it was something of a minor miracle that the kids were happy with the videos and we all ate supper with very little interruptions.

AK and I headed home about 10pm, she crashed in the car and went straight to bed... I think I did pretty much at that point too!

Christmas Beach!

After breakfast, we headed to hang out at the beach with our bestest friends!!!

Dig, dig, digging with Ethan's truck!

Look, we're at the beach on Christmas Day!

And it's even Christmas on the beach!

Check out Jake, the little poser!

Brrr, the water was a little chilly!

We headed home from the beach after a couple of hours, I was hoping AK would nap after her long day on Christmas Eve but there was definitely no napping! We made our phone calls and took our time washing all the sand and salt off. Tough life! I prepared my dish for the Christmas dinner and then we headed out. The next post will be pictures from dinner! xoxo

Christmas morning

Backing WAY up here!!! Lots to get caught up on. I'm feeling a little out of sorts tonight, thinking I am just tired and feeling overwhelmed but here is one post to get you filled in on a bit of Christmas fun! I was wide awake and ready to roll around 6am... forced myself to stay in bed til 63oam... then I got up and started drinking coffee... had to switch to tea so I wouldn't get too jittery... and a little princess I know got out of bed at 845am!!! Man, I was thisclose to going into her room and jumping on her bed to wake her up, but she had been up til 11pm the night before... didn't want a grumpy princes on my hands!

AK's eyes lit up when she saw the gifts in front of the tree, and she was very full of awe as she whispered "Mommy, Santa came!". I pointed out that he had drank his milk and eaten most of his cookies, and she gobbled up the last little bit of cookie that he had left on his plate! That's my girl - not wasting a thing!

Oohing over her new ballet slipper Christmas tree ornament

"Washing her hands" in the dollhouse bathroom

Little Pony (Princess Celestia) was a huge hit!

Gifts from Santa and Grandma / Grandpa - the princess costume storage unit and a dollhouse!

Big squishy Tinkerbell pillow from Charmain

AK seems to love all her gifts. I was careful this year to purchase three bigger, quality gifts, and then just a few smaller gifts. I went overboard last year and bought her a lot of little gifts that she just wasn't interested in. I think she got just the right amount of gifts this year - still spoiled nothing gone to waste!

Gift opening was a s l o w process... AK would open something, play with it for a while and then I'd have to remind her that there were more gifts to open! For someone who really wanted to open gifts leading up to Christmas, she seemed quite content to just open one thing and play with it for a while.

We got dressed quickly and headed over for breakfast at Mike and Julie's. It was a perfect Christmas morning meal, and I'm grateful they had us over. We weren't here for long as we headed to the beach right after, which is another post in itself :) I've gotten lots of pictures from others from the beach, so want to go through those and pick the best ones for a great post!

All is well here otherwise... back to work and daycare yesterday seemed to be pretty painless... but now I'm feeling stressed and not looking forward to the next few months. Boo!!!

Happy New Year!

AK and I had a wonderful NYE and a much quieter New Year's Day!!! I will be back with more stories later but need to spend some time cleaning up my computer and making it faster... it's driving me nuts right now!!! Much love and peace to everyone for 2012... we think it's going to be a fantastic year!!!