Festival Of Lights

This evening we joined my bff Val and her family on a festive outing to The Grotto. There were a ton of people there but it was still enjoyable. It's always a little scary when there are a bunch of people in one place and you have a toddler that wants to run away from you to explore. Esperanza loves kids who are a little older than her, mostly little girls. She'll follow them as if they are her big sister or something. If my eye is taken off of her for a second she'd be lost and more than happy to be part of someone else's family. I try to give her a little bit of slack so she feels some freedom, yet I also try to let her know it really isn't okay to wonder away from me. Val's youngest kid Carter is 3 1/2 and is just as happy to wonder away from his family too. Needless to say, we spent most of our evening chasing our little ones around. It was fun.

We did manage to catch a few minutes of a puppet show, take a few pictures, visit the small petting zoo, walk in then right back out of the sanctuary where the chior was singing, get some hot spiced apple cider and of course stroll (I mean chase the kids) through the paths lit with Christmas lights.

Here are a few pictures I took of Esperanza earlier today. She's growing up so fast and I'm super excited to see how she handles Christmas morning this year. Hopefully she'll enjoy it as much as I'm hoping for.

She loves these snow globes!

I love this picture

I re-introduced 'the potty' today. She just thinks it's a toy right now...thats good I guess

Longest Night, Shortest Day

Happy Winter Solstice!

Today is the perfect day for welcoming back the sun. Esperanza and I did the sun dance this morning as our way of welcoming back the sun (though it was dark, cloudy and really wet outside). Yes, we still have months of winter ahead, but our days will get longer and Spring is just around the corner. Time to start planning my Spring garden and think about what seeds will be sprouting in my window sill in the coming months. I like to try growing at least one new veggie each year...any suggestions?

Doggy!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this in the past, but Esperanza loves doggies. She loves kitties too. But she loves doggies so much that she calls kitties doggies. I correct her each and every time she calls our cat Lucy doggy. I never let it go. She doesn't care. She used to say kitty, but maybe doggy is easier to say, or maybe she really does like dogs more than cats. On more than one occassion I've even heard her say doggy in her sleep. We don't even have a dog! And no, we aren't getting one either. My mom has dogs, my sister has a dog, there are dogs in the neighborhood, dogs at the parks, dogs at friends' houses, dogs in stores, etc...sheesh, they are everywhere!

The picture above is Esperanza laying on my moms dog Daisy. They adore each other! The picture below is my moms dog Maddy on my moms lap (probably trying to get away from Esperanza). He's not as fond of Esperanza, but he's warming up and even let Esperanza play chase with him the other day.

Nutcracker & A School Winter Celebration

Earlier this month we went to a couple of kid events. My best friend Val's daughter Annabelle was one of the lucky ones chosen to be in the Vancouver Dance Theater's production of The Nutcracker. After a couple months of some serious practices, the little kids put on an amazing performance! We sat in the second to the front row and had a wonderful view of all the little kids on the stage. I debated on bringing Esperanza to the event but eventually decided to. She absoultely LOVED it! She was in awe of the lights, music, dancers and the entire show. The majority of the time she just sat on my lap or Mando's and watched closely. She did try a few times to climb up on the stage with the dancers (maybe we have a future ballerina on our hands). Towards the end she did get a little stir crazy and I had to leave the auditorium to let her run around with all the other toddlers who had the same urge. We kind of left in a hurry and missed seeing Annabelle and taking some pictures of her. The pictures below I borrowed from Val's Facebook (thanks!).

Annabelle in her mouse costume

In her Arabian costume with her mama ValCongrats Annabelle! You're a great dancer and helped make this perfomance of The Nutcracker one of the best!

A few days later our niece Gizelle and our nephew Brandon had their winter school program for Sarah J. Anderson. We've gone to a few events at this school in the past and I have to say that this is a really neat school from what I've seen! Especially considering it is a public school. For the Winter Program, each class was dressed up differently for one of the many holidays that occurs during the winter season. The classes danced and sang songs for each holiday: Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Los Posadas, Thanksgiving, Winter Solstice and New Years Eve. It was a beautiful performance! My camera isn't great for taking long distance shots of kids dancing, but I did my best...

Brandon Gizelle
Esperanza laying on her cousin Addy's legs enjoying the performance

Arctic Blast '08 Baby Turns 1

My nephew Roman turned one earlier this week. He was born at the beginning of our big snow storm last year. Because the media around here makes such a big deal about any elemental extremeties, this time last year was considered the 'Arctic Blast' in the northwest. So, I can't help but call little Roman the Arctic Blast '08 Baby.

My sister Cyndi had a birthday celebration for him on Saturday. Due to Esperanza's nap, we got there a little bit late, just as everyone was leaving and after all the fun of cake and gifts. We still had a great time though. Esperanza and Roman played with Roman's new birthday toys. Cyndi and Tony got Roman this music learning toy table thing that they played with and had the best time. Roman was 'popping' his knee while Esperanza busted a move to the music. They were quite the dancing team. As much as I can't stand these type of toys, it's a pretty entertaining piece of plastic for little ones. I'm actually convinced we need one for Esperanza.

Don't let this little girl fool you. She may be cute, but she's plotting something...

Below is a cute video of cousins Roman & Esperanza. Roman is about 5 months younger than Esperanza but is already bigger and stronger than her. He's gonna be a big boy! Note: If you're viewing this on my actual blog, be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page and pause the music before you play the video...if you got this as an email, I don't think you need to do anything (and I appologize for sending it a few times too many).

Happy 1st Birthday Roman. I think this was the last birthday of the year for our family!

Eight

Last weekend was my niece Anycia's eighth birthday. Esperanza and I drove to her house and spent the weekend with her, Geneva and the other kids. For her birthday, we loaded up Geneva's mini van and headed East in search of snow. It was a really, really cold day and the sky was clear and blue. After driving for some time, we did begin to see snow on the peaks of the mountains, but it was at an altitude much too high for us to get to. I think we were a little too early in the season to find snow in the area, and even though it had definately been cold enough for snow, we really haven't had much precipitation. Instead of frolicking in the snow, we took a stroll through the forest and enjoyed the amazing beauty of the Oregon forest.

On the way back home, we stopped by a cute little pizza place. We ate some yummy pizza, the kids played some video arcade games, then we broke out the layered german chocolate birthday cake I made for Anycia. We sang happy birthday, Anycia blew out her candles (after making a wish) and we ate the best german chocolate cake ever made!

Happy Birthday Anycia! Hope you enjoy and love every day that you are eight.

Until Next Year

My little sis Mary and her boyfriend Yoshi took the train out of Portland today and are back to their travelin' ways.

Not sure where they are in the picture above, but I figure I have all rights to the pictures Mary uploaded onto my computer from her camera - he, he.

Though they will probably say they were here over the past couple of months just for the purpose of helping our parents move, truth is, Mary can't stay away from us for very long. Good thing. It was great having them around. They'd stop by for breakfast and coffee in the mornings, dinner and beer in the evenings, we'd go to the park to play with Esperanza, we hung out at Powells book store one morning, Mary did my dishes more times than I can count and they both are so good with Esperanza. They are funny and silly kids themselves, which goes over very well with Esperanza who needs constant entertainment. For me it was nice to have other adults around on a regular basis. The world around me tends to warp just a bit when it's just me and a toddler day after day after day. Mary and Yoshi are still very 'kid' at heart, but somehow they are also adult enough to bring me back and remind me that the world isn't completely controlled by my toddler.

And since I have them on my computer, here's a few cute pictures of Mary to share...

Have fun in Conneticut this Christmas (or was it New Hampshire? One of those states on the east coast I sometimes forget even exist) and wherever else your travels take you.
Thank you Mary for being you. Love you! And Yoshi...you better bring my sister back soon!

La Comida

No, I still don't know Spanish. Well, un poco. But I'm not feeling very creative at the moment and Food just didn't seem like a 'cool' blog title...
The only thing Esperanza will eat lately are cooked wheat berries and oranges. Oh, and kefir. Sometimes I worry. It's seriously been a couple of weeks since she ate a good solid meal. Okay, I worry so much that I'm worried that she's not eating because I'm worried about it. I don't know anything about what I'm doing with her. I've eliminated a lot of things as far as 'what I shouldn't do again', but there's still a ton of options left to try. Will I ever get it right? Back to the food - I do know she should eat. I might not know exactly when, or how much, or what - but she should eat...right? I'm constantly trying to feed the kid, and she constantly refuses it or thows it. And then, as I sat on the toilet lid last night, with her lying down squirming on my lap facing the ceiling as I tried relentlessly to pry her mouth open in order to brush her 4 1/2 front teeth before bed, I caught a glimpse of a molar peeking through her gums. Ah, ha! Maybe that explains the food thing.

Can't see the molar here, but she's got a kefir mustach

Still, that doesn't mean she shouldn't eat - right? Any advice about what your toddler/baby would eat when they wouldn't eat anything else, whether they were teething or just being picky? I'm only guessing that it's the molar, but this girl fools me all the time.

More Amazing PolkaDot Photography

Just got the CD this morning with the pictures we got taken awhile back from Jenifer of Polkadot Photography. I posted a few not too long ago but wanted to share some more because I love them so much and hope everyone else does too.

Halloween Fun

On Halloween we took Esperanza trick-or-treating for the first time. We left our own little neighborhood to do it since the kids here are pretty scary even when it isn't Halloween - I really didn't want to cross paths with them on this night. And I had no desire to be around for them to come up to my door trick-or-treating. So we kept our lights out, hoping that would discourage kids from coming to our door and took off about 5-ish. We were thinking it would be safer to be out trick-or-treating with a little one before it actually got dark. Apparently we were the only ones that had that thought though. No one was out and we didn't want to be the only ones on the streets. So we popped in at my moms, had dinner with them and then went back out once it was dark. We found a nice neighborhood close to moms where there were tons of children and their parents trick-or-treating. It was funny to watch all the little kids run around dressed in their cute costumes overly excited about getting a bunch of candy. Even though Esperanza is pretty good on her feet these days, she still prefers to be in a stroller, held in arms or in a carrier when we go for walks. So Mando and I took turns holding her and walking up to door steps to get treats. She seemed to have fun and was also entertained by all the kids and people wandering the streets after dark. She had a tiny woven basket she could hold with the candy in it and had fun tossing pieces out for us to pick back up. She also kept trying to give candy to the people who were handing out candy. It was funny. We've managed fairly well so far with keeping her from discovering the taste of candy...but who knows how much longer that will last and I'm sure by next year she won't be trying to get rid of it. After about an hour and a half of door to door fun, we took our little Ladybug home and put her to bed. It was a perfect first trick-or-treating evening!

Convict stealing a kiss from the Scarecrow

After Esperanza was asleep, my mom came over so Mando and I could sneak out to a Halloween party for a couple of hours. My BFF Val's mom has a membership at the Dolphin Yacht Club on the Columbia River in Camas where they host the best parties several times a year. Unfortunately, Val and her husband Jameson went to an 80's themed Halloween party at a friends house instead of going to her moms party...so we weren't able to see them. But we knew most of the other people there and had a great time.

Bacon & Eggs (AKA - the hosts Shelly and Greg)Convict and Corrections Officer - looks like they are secretly making a dealLove these two!!! Imagene and John Watts - Val's GrandparentsEarlier in the week we carved pumpkins - Mando carved out a scary scarecrow in his pumpkin and I carved a wicked witch in my pumpkin. Then we made a cute one for Esperanza with 4 1/2 teeth just like her.