Gingerbread houses!!

On Saturday afternoon, after a LONG nap, we headed over to Cindy and Brent's for a gingerbread house decorating party!!! Jenni, Cindy and I picked up these decorating kits at Cost U Less. We figured we could finish up after the kids got bored... they were SO into it that they were all there until the bitter (sweet?) end!

Holding the candy on until it sticks

Molly hard at work

Discussing the decorating scheme

Showing off the hard work!!!

Look at these great ballerina outfits Jess found for the girls!!!

Friday quickie

This photo of AK enjoying Reading Day at daycare a couple of weeks ago was included in the newsletter this month. xo

Happy Friday!

AK and I ended up going to Jenni and Kevin's for supper and a play last night instead of Camana Bay. I think it was what we all needed :) it was fun and more relaxing than it would have been to go see Santa.

Something AK does a lot now is thump her chest when she tells you she "likes" something. One of the stickers in her book is an ice cream sundae, every time she sees it, she thumps her chest and says "I LIKE ice cream!". Very cute. She'll "like" the most random thing, like Matthew, or lip gloss, or whatever catches her fancy.

We stopped by the hair salon to pick up some birthday gifts (Alex and Anna, my boss' twins, are turning 4!!! Can you believe it?). The lady at the salon really likes AK and gave her a lip gloss as a treat. She was too shy to put it on in front of the lady but she was all over it when she got into the truck. She smeared it all over her lips and smacked her lips. I asked AK if she had lots of kisses for Matthew and she said yes, but not for "Kebin and Jenni".

Matthew was playing a game on the computer when we got there. AK tried to join in and did a half-decent job. It was hard to tell if she was really understanding what to do or if she was just copying what Matthew was doing.

I guess we had a minor earthquake here during the night. I guess we both slept through it, although AK was up at 530am... It's just after 8am and I'm already on my second cup of coffee. It's going to be a long day!

We are having an Open House event at work for our service providers to come see our new office. Should be a good way to kick off the weekend. I've got lots of plans to keep busy. It was tough to drop AK off this morning as I'm so busy with the captive conference next week that I won't get a chance to see her. I guess I'll try to sneak away early from work next Friday. Speaking of the conference, I doubt you'll hear much from me after Sunday on the blog too. xo

One month until Christmas!

• AK kept lifting her toes over the edge of the tub last night, asking me to "tickle me, mommy!"
• AK kept telling me she had to poop when she actually had to fart. Her farts were just as stinky though.
• AK has a book about Snowflake the puppy. When we read the book the first time, I didn't realize that Snowflake was "hidden" on every page. AK figured it out and started looking for him on every page!
• AK sure stands her ground when she's playing and another kid tries to steal her toy. I'm glad she's standing up for herself!
• We were at Linda's house for supper last night. Linda keeps the shoes tucked into the slats of the stairs to keep Cameron from playing with them. When Cameron started to play with AK's shoes, she took them from him and tucked them up in the slats :) what a smart girl!

We may go to Camana Bay tonight to see Santa Claus, I will see what kind of mood AK is in when I pick her up from daycare! xo

Bah humbug!

Is it a full moon or what???

AK was pretty happy to see me when I picked her up from daycare today. It went downhill from there though!!!

She whined and cried and whined and cried. Why? Because I told her we were going to the Camana Bay Christmas Tree Lighting! I *think* AK is afraid of Santa Claus. But anyway... she got two time outs tonight, which stretched into three when she got up partway through one of them. Yikes! I think she may have been kind of gassy as she sure tooted a lot, so maybe her stomach was a bit upset? Who knows... I wasn't sure if we were going to make it or not.

Anyway... once we got there, it was nice. We caught the tail end of the choir performance and saw the tree light up. The crowd counted down and waited about half a minute for the lights to actually go on... ha ha... true Cayman style! Santa Claus also came down but we couldn't see him because of the crowd and that may have been just fine... I may take AK down there on Thursday as there are pictures with Santa that night but I have a feeling we'll be checking out the jolly guy from afar.

The picture below sums up the evening :) should I use it for the Christmas card?

Monday is over!

We both had a great sleep last night. AK definitely in a better appetite mood today - she asked for juice and yogurt right away. Back to normal! She nibbled at her supper but it was still a huge improvement over the past few days.

I did shake-and-bake chicken for supper tonight. AK was watching me put it together and I was telling her abou the ingredients and what I was doing. As I was checking the box for baking time, I said "well it's bone-in so it has to go in for 45 mins" and she said "I like bone-in!". I laughed and asked her if SHE was bone-in and she said "Noooooo mommy".

I get a lot of that these days, "mommy, I LIKE" this or "I LIKE" that. She does not hesitate to let you know if she likes or dislikes something!

She does not like the monsters in her books. She closes her eyes or puts her hands over her eyes when she sees one. She opened up a book, just to show me she was scared of the monster.

She is really enjoying "playing stickers" with me. She takes stickers off of a sheet, and I put them in a book. We talk about the stickers, colors, etc. AK is also talking along in spanish with her Dora videos.

I'm going through all my Christmas baking recipes tonight and getting a list together for shopping. Any ideas of what to make? xo

Winding down

Boy, the weekend flew by!!!

We slept until 7am on Saturday, both days this weekend, AK has popped right out of bed and she's been ready to face the day. No cuddles in bed with Mommy, to Mommy's chagrin!

AK likes the Christmas tree :) it took her a few minutes to gather up to the courage to go near it and check out the ornaments. Her favorite ornaments are an orange fish that looks like Nemo and an ice cream ornament that she picked out at the store. She also likes the lights and the Swarovski crystal snowflakes.

AK did very well at gymnastics. She is starting to anticipate things, and prepare herself to do the forward rolls and backward rolls with less instructions each time. She also tried some of the bar work this week! She usually goes right past it every time, but she did one particular exercise three times. High fives all around!

AK loves having a bath with me, she thinks it's pretty funny how the soap slips out of her hands and then she chases it around the tub until she finds it again. She helped me wash my hair, she did a great job sudsing up!

After gymnastics, we met up with Charmain to do a bit of shopping. Christmas is everwhere... seems like everyone is ready to get into the spirit already!

Sue invited us over for a BBQ, which was great. As you can see, AK and Kylie had some good fun in the swimming pool. There is a ledge they can stand on, that goes the length of the pool, so we were able to put them there to play to their hearts' content. They also played with bubbles and with chalk.


AK and I left the BBQ early to pick up the Babbs and go downtown to see the fireworks! We went to my work building, which is along the waterfront and has a balcony! It was a GREAT place to wait for fireworks, we had a great parking spot and didn't have to go anywhere near the crowds! Unfortunately the fireworks started very late and then lasted only a few minutes (probably because of the winds). They were still pretty fantastic though... as soon as they started up, AK said "mommy, GO HOME!". She didn't really seem to care for the fireworks and told me they were loud. Ah well, it was good fun and a great reason to stay up past bedtime!

We were up bright and early today, no sleeping in after a late night. We headed over to the Doghouse for breakfast with a friend before we headed off to church. Today, AK learned that "God always keeps his promises". I think she had a great time in childcare today. After church, I dropped AK at Hunter's for a nap-over (get it, nap-over, not sleep-over? Am I good or what? Ha) because Jess and I were going to Jenni for my birthday spa-to-go! Five of us got together for pedicures, champagne and good eats. What a great birthday treat :) my toes are very happy now!

AK and I headed home after that and just played and watched TV for the rest of the day. If there was one prevailing theme for the weekend, it was that AK didn't eat. She just didn't seem to have an appetite. She is fine otherwise, but even cheese didn't appeal to her today... she's had some milk but very little juice, and no interest in food. I know I shouldn't worry but of course I don't have someone to tell me not to worry...

The last picture is one of AK showing off her "binoculars". She is very proud of them and even hung them on the Christmas tree!!! xo